Meet Adrian Gonzalez,imelda Ayon | Business Owners -CPG Tents & Events

We had the good fortune of connecting with Adrian Gonzalez,imelda Ayon and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Adrian Gonzalez,Imelda Ayon, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
Adrian : I stared working in the nightlife industry in Hollywood 2007 and really enjoyed it. I was hands on creating events from scratch, from the theme of the night to hiring talent, I did a little of everything. After 6 years it started to take a toll on my body and personal life. So I got to thinking of ways to get out of the industry but keep the contacts I made along with the knowledge of producing events and I started a part time Photo Booth company, RSVP Photobooths.

A year after starting the Photo Booth company clients started to ask if I carried tables or chairs, I didn’t but said YES and so it began.I began with buying a Dancefloor and a few chairs. I continued to work out of my home garage and little by little started buying more equipment and the business started to grow.

Fast forward to 2018 I made the decision, to sell off my Photo Booths and get into the Rentals business full time. This is where CPG Rentals was born. Initially “Creative Planner Group” because I wanted to offer Event planning services with rentals. I soon found out Event planning wasn’t for me. I really enjoyed the rentals side of the business so much more. Thats where I shortened the name to CPG Event Rentals. Very quickly the business started to take shape and I never looked back.

My initial Kick start/Boost were the contacts I had made with Hollywood venue owners, Nightlife clients I had made through out the years. This base of clients allowed me to stat buying more equipment, allowed me to market myself with the general public and give me credibility as a business. From there the business really started to move fast! By 2019 I did my biggest event to date. I handled everything from rentals, event planning, managing the talent of a legendary band John Fogerty. The event was a huge success and I was ready to tackle the world. Then fast froward two moths later and the pandemic hit February 2020. Crucial blow to business. Thankfully I wasn’t that big of a business and I was able to weather the storm and survive. In 2021, I hit the ground running and little by little the calls started to pour in. I got to a point that I couldn’t handle it all so I stared to hire more guys. That helped for a little bit and then I started to get a lot more calls and sometimes could not get to everyone fast enough. When I did they reach them they had found another company, then I had to find another solution. Find someone who would care as much as I do and handle some of the work I could not get to, that is when my partner in life, Imelda joined the team.

Imelda : I can definitely say I had no experience what so ever in events or the event industry, I had worked retail for a long period of time and then landed in the recruiting industry for another 6 + years. I had experience in sales and administrative roles but again knew nothing about rentals. Adrian and I meet in 2015 and since then have been together, we now have 2 kids, a daughter who is 4 years old and a 1 year old son.

I could tell Adrian was getting overwhelmed and stressed out when he would get home back from he’s events. I enjoyed recruiting and loved helping people find a new opportunity that suited them and just pushing my hire ups to take a chance because this person had grit and hunger for the job. But I got to a point in my corporate career where I realized I was expendable. Covid hit 2020 and I was laid off and soon after had my daughter in June 2020 (which worked out perfectly since I was already laid off). I Felt like I was just a number and could be let go at any time. I also started to take on responsibilities out of my job description like building out an entire ATS (application tracking system) and promised a raised which never came and with all that decided to take a leap of faith and join Adrian! I felt if I was going to work so hard I might as well wreak all the benefits and it has not been easy but I know in the long run it is all worth it!

So we decided, I would give it a shoot and see if I can help relief some of that stress as well as help grow the business. I felt very comfortable speaking with clients over the phone and I would say the hardest thing was learning all the lingo and specifics like highest peak each tent, the increments each tent can increase by, stage size and height, but I am still learning to this day. If I am not sure about something am honest with our clients and let them know I will look into it and get back to them. It’s now been close to 3 years and here we are growing each day, one day at a time and I would not have it any other way. We sometimes have the kids at the warehouse and they are getting to know what we do and see all the hardworking we’ve put into this company that I hope one day they have.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
CPG Event Rentals is a full service event rental company, a one stop shop, we have anything from tables, chairs, staging furniture and we specialize in tenting and Pool Covers. We are a family owned business based in El Monte CA and service the areas of Los Angeles, Orange County, Ventura County, Riverside County, & San Bernardino County.

What sets us apart is or customer service. Our goal is to provide a great service at a fair price. We are constantly communicating with our clients and asking the right questions to avoid any mishaps and try to be as flexible as possible because in this industry things can change last minute and you have to roll with it. We also take pride in being part of a small handful of companies that can do pool covers in the Los Angeles area. Especially our flush pool covers. In some cases we end up building out a custom frame over a pool to give our clients that extra Square footage they need all while making it look like that don’t even have a pool in there yard. We are very proud we can offer this to our clients.

I’m really proud of where the business has grown to, from working out of my home garage to now having two warehouse spaces and having a full team. We still have a lot more to go but now are managing larger events and I love seeing the end results and thinking, we did that!

People hear this a lot but never giving up has gotten us to where we are today. We have had situations where quitting would be the quickest an easiest solution. Time and time again we keep moving forward whatever adversity we have encountered. I also think our success has been our ability to problem solve. Like we mentioned in events something always come up. being able to create a solution when your back is up against the wall has been our superpower. I think running a business in general has its daily challenges, each day brings something new. It can be something difficult each time that you have to overcome and get through each day. We have to learn from our mistakes and get better because if we don’t someone else will and we we’ll get left behind. It has been a lot of work as well as putting ourselves in front of new people and existing contacts that has gotten us here. We’ve learned from our mistakes and now have become proactive about it and try to catch them or fix before it happens (our contract has come a long ways and we keep expanding on it).

I want the world to know CPG Event Rentals is here to make your event memorable, seamless, and relief you of the stress that can come with it. We want to provide a good service with quality products and make you feel good about choosing us. We care about you and the service we provide because it is a representation of who we are and we want to make it a good one.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
There are sooo many good eat out places here in LA and we keep finding more and tons of new pops/places to visit:

Since LA is one of the most diverse communities on the planet I would try and mix it up and take them to an array of different cultural foods and Awesome landscapes, historical locations. So here goes a quick guide of Monday – Friday and what we would do:

1) Monday we’ll kept it local and do a LA proper and go for a Hike at Ascot park in North East Los Angeles. It’s not as crowded as other hike locations and it has awesome scenic views of DTLA. From there we’ll go to Nicks Cafe near the Chinatown area. We love Nicks, one for its great breakfast but two for its historical connection opening up in the early 1940’s for people around the train station what is now LA historic state park. After our breakfast we’ll go home,get freshened up and head to another historic location, Natural history museum and check out the beautiful art decor building along with seeing Dino artifacts and see the history of Los Angeles. From there we’ll go hit up the Coles Restaurant bar where the famed Nikki Cohan would eat and drink. Once there we can have their famous French dip sandwich and after would would hit up the speak easy In the back of the restaurant. After a drink to two we would uber over to a Dodgers fan favorite the Far Bar in little Tokyo. maybe get some appetizers and of course some drinks. Once feelin saucy we get an uber to Chavez Ravine to see a Dodgers game, the highlight of the day see the Dodgers win whom they’ve they play.
1) Tuesday: sleep, wake up at 10am get ready, skip Breakfast but go grab a coffee at Tierra Mia and try all the wonderful coffee flavors of Mexico. Horchata, dulce de leche, and of course cafe de olla. From here we would most likely do the common touristy thing and head west. We would head to Venice beach, catch some lunch at The Butchers Daughter and from there walk the Blvd and catch some sun rays. Once we were done from there we would probably want to see the unfortunate deviation of the fires and we would stroll PCH. Only to show them that we are LA strong and Resilient. After that a quick drive around Rodeo Dr, drive through the Neighborhoods and after head to Hollywood to grab a quick drink at the historic Yamashiro. Probably have 1 or two Irish coffee and end the night watching a movie at the Chinese Theater. IF we still had energy we would go check out some turtle racing at Brennans bar for something different.

Wednesday. another early day and head over to Long Beach for a quick run on the coast and run over to schooner or later for awesome views and ofcoures bottles of champagne. After breakfast, take a tour of the queen marry, and check out her history. Head home after. Relax for a bit and then head into the arts district for some tapas and drinks at Cha Cha Cha from Mexico City. After we eat take a short walk over to Angel city brew meet some cool people hang for a bit and then walk over to Arts district brew for some fun games and dinks.
3) Thursday: Go to the citadel outlets for some new gear and outdoor vibes. Head to K town and have Lunch at Hae Hang Chon for some amazing Korean bbq.
4) Friday. Take it very calm and go Griffith park late morning, they have short hikes we can do or just enjoy the views. We’ll finish off the week and do a nice dinner and drinks in downtown LA’s Perch. There’s a great ambience, food and views to enjoy.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Adrian: It has definitely been a journey that is still ongoing but I want to acknowledge the many people who have helped and guided to who I have become and have helped me build what I have today. There are few that helped from the beginning and can genuinely say they helped me start, expand, grow and understand the industry. At 19 I stared working for one of the largest Dance Competitions in the country called Kar Productions. My good friends father Noah Lands owned the business. I became very curious about running a business throughout the time I worked there. There were many times we would be sitting at the airport terminal waiting for our flight and I would sit next to him and ask him questions. How he started, what challenges he faced and how he got to where he was at. Noah was always gracious enough to tell me his story and lessons he learned. I want to give him the biggest shout out for planting the idea of starting my own business. Second Person I want to acknowledge Sarkis from a party rentals company no longer business. When I stared I knew absolutely nothing about rentals business as well as owning little no equipment of my own. I had many rental companies who didn’t want to sub rent to me and If I asked where I could source and buy equipment would net tell me or help in any way. Sarkis on the other hand took me under his wing, rented me whatever I needed showed me how to install equipment, where to buy certain items and the do’s and don’t to event rentals. I don’t think the business would have grown so fast without his help. Huge shout Sarkis who was always there for me and gave me guidance whenever I needed it. I also want to thank my parents who initially didn’t like the idea of starting my own business. They immigrated from Mexico and didn’t come from a business background but either way supported me even though they didn’t agree with what I was doing. My first Box truck came from their help along with helping me get items I really needed and couldn’t afford at the time. Final and most important is my wife Imelda. She has been my rock, my inspiration and has kept me grounded. Back in 2021 she worked in the corporate world while I ran my business. There came a breaking point for me where I was getting into a dark place. I was emotionally, physically, and mentally unhealthy. I couldn’t keep up with the demand any long. I would be coming home at 2-3 in the morning and then go back on the field at 6am for months on end and I was at a breaking point. She saw this and joined the business at the time was a huge risk for her. She offered to leave her cooperate job and start helping me with the calls and admin. I know it was a big risk on her part, but she took on the challenge. I want to give her the most credit because she came in loosing job security, pay, and benefits. Because she loves me took on the challenge and we have grown the business 5 fold. I’m forever thankful she put her faith in me. I love you Imelda!

Website: https://cpgtentsandevents.com/

Instagram: @Cpgeventrentals

Facebook: @cpgeventrentals

Image Credits
fvphotography.pic-time.com ( For the picture of both Adrian and I in the hearts background and the one where is giving me flowers)