“I never take for granted that my career is my passion and my passion is my career. It is an honor to be an example of someone living their dream and funding a life through your passions!” 

Crystal Alysia, Founder & Owner of LA Roller Girls Entertainment

Credit: LA Roller Girls Entertainment


I started roller skating when I was six years old and competed in artistic roller figure skating, the jumps and spins, just like ice skaters, but on four wheels! I competed throughout my entire childhood and into my early adulthood. It was my dream to be on Team USA since I had started competing, and at 14 years old, my dream came true! I was fortunate enough to travel the world, representing and competing on Team USA five times throughout my figure skating career.

After I retired from my competitive years, I had stopped skating and was working in Corporate America as an executive assistant, sales, marketing, and staffing. While working my office job, I began performing on the rooftop of Good Times at Davey Waynes, a Speakeasy Club in Los Angeles. I was performing every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night with my two best friends at the time and we had the time of our lives!

It quickly resonated with me that I was making almost 2.5x more money doing what I love with people I love, than what I was making working 40-60 hours in an office. After another amazing weekend of shows, we decided that we were going to make this thing real, and in the car that night, LA Roller Girls Entertainment was born!

LA Roller Girls Entertainment was officially paperwork-born in October 2015 and for the first year I was still working full-time. We were performing live shows officially as LA Roller Girls Entertainment and in early 2016 began teaching learn to skate and roller dance workshops to the community. These two forms of sharing my passion and love of roller skating to the world, connecting one-on-one with the skating community and performing live shows, are the two things that light up everything inside of me and make my heart burst with joy!!!

For me, skating is a true sport but for the majority, it’s a favorite pastime and nostalgia of pure happiness. Most of the time, when people think of roller skating, they think of disco. Now, we´re phenomenal at 70’s disco, 50’s car hop, 60’s groovy, and 80’s retro, but we also love pushing the boundaries and stepping outside that box to show the versatility that roller skating brings to entertainment. Some of our highlights are:

LA Roller Girls roll on every stage performing live shows for the NBA and WNBA half-times, with the stars Katy Perry, Gwen Stefani, Dua Lipa, and Lizzo. On television shows such as The Voice, LipSynBattle, Snoop & Martha, and America’s Got Talent. Rolling on the big screen in GHOSTBUSTERS: Afterlife, Stranger Things, Bel-Air, Disney Saturdays. The designated roller squad for Tommy Hilfiger, SHEIN, Adidas, and Victoria’s Secret while starring and supporting countless music videos like the famous “Skate” by Silk Sonic, P!NK, Alicia Keys, Jonas Brothers, Tyga, Bia, Cage the Elephant, Elle King, Tuxedo with Zapp, Manuel Medrano, just to name a few! LA Roller Girls are also seen rolling through private celebrity events, and corporate events for companies Don Julio, Ciroc, LiquidIV, Benefit Cosmetics, Tarte, Toyota and more!

We made history with Pink at the 2022 American Music Awards. She is the first artist to sing live while roller skating and all the talent on stage were in skates! Roller skating is truly everywhere. It’s amazing to showcase the artistry of roller skating and see the support it is receiving. I feel like we have an advantage, rather than a disadvantage. To me, it’s like magic and really exciting to have people starting to see roller skating in more places. We are breaking the mold and transforming skating! Honestly, the innovation process is exciting to me. I’m constantly looking for opportunities to get better. How can we make this different? It makes me and the team feel aligned and it reaffirms that what we are doing is changing the game.

Credit: LA Roller Girls Entertainment

I have believed in LA Roller Girls so wholeheartedly that not a single obstacle would stop this amazing vision! Cue in the obstacles… We knew everything about skating, but none of us actually knew how to run a business, and that part is crucial! I am somebody that goes into overdrive when it gets challenging. I was never going to let fear stop me and I wasn’t scared of anything. I felt like, “let’s fucking go!” After being out of school for almost 10 years, I made the decision to go back to school to get my Bachelors degree in Business, and completed it in just over three years. It was really demanding being a full-time student, running and managing the business, building the backend and foundation of the business, and performing. However, it was absolutely worth it! I enjoyed having my business while being in school because it allowed me to apply everything I was learning directly to LA Roller Girls which allowed the company to grow immensely!

Once I learned everything about business operations, I started implementing my knowledge. As our business grew, our clients had more options and more people were working for us, which also meant that we were generating more revenue. It was exciting, but it also made me realize that not having any documentation or tracking set up, we also lost a lot of opportunities, and money was left untouched — just from lack of discipline or awareness. Within one year of me implementing basic business practices, our revenue increased by 668%.

Understanding the backend of my business has been essential for establishing a foundation that allows LA Roller Girls to grow without limits. There is a lot of non-money-generating activity that is required in order to be able to manage the business. This is why it is so important to remain educated and aware of all of the moving parts from financial reports, truly understanding profit and loss, marketing, building a website, taxes, the difference between an independent contractor and an employee, insurance and licenses, all the legalities, operations, and list goes on for everything that no one sees you work on. I keep it my goal to always be aware of what is going on in the business, and ensure that we are operating ethically and lawfully. This way, all the boxes are checked, and I can really enjoy being a business owner and take that visionary direction to a new level.

 

LA Roller Girls Entertainment has a main team, our family, that is a total of 24 skaters. LA Roller Girls talent can do stunts and acrobatics, jumps and spins, rhythm skating footwork, and break dancing on skates which is called jam skating. I am truly so honored to share that our talent is the best of the best in every single discipline and genre of skating. Our team is full of diversity and we have representation across the entire spectrum, which is something we’re really proud of!

When it comes to the team, we learned a big lesson a couple years ago. There is talent, and there’s character. We are full of so much talent and can teach anybody how to do anything on skates, but what we can’t teach is character. One bad apple will ruin an entire community. Especially in the entertainment industry, it is so important to have a safe place where you feel loved, can be vulnerable, feel supported, and break out of your comfort zone – and that is exactly what LA Roller Girls provides!

I am a sole owner and operator but LA Roller Girls thrives because of our amazing team of true creatives and artists! I get to do a lot of exciting projects, but when I work as an individual, I always work on behalf of my company. I got to be in Stranger Things, Ghostbusters, along with various tv shows and when I show up, I show up and I represent the company, the team, the vision, and the dream. I’m always in LA Roller Girls gear, and I’m always letting them know that I have an amazing company with talent that will blow their minds.

 

LA Roller Girls vision is doing what you love with people you love. I actually never wanted to run the business by myself, because I knew the amount of work it takes, and it’s truly a lot. But I have embraced the rewards of professional growth and it has also poured into my personal growth. Of course, I had moments where I was paddling on both sides and was exhausted. I truly had to show up in hard conversations and feedback, and it was scary at times. But I always knew the difference between those who make it and those who don’t. I believe those who persevere view obstacles as opportunities.

It is empowering to know that I hold myself accountable and that I stand up for what’s right; I know that there is power in my voice and that I am capable of doing so much more than even I think I can at times. It’s a lot of self-love and such a beautiful opportunity of getting to show up as the person and leader I want to be: a compassionate, inspirational, worthy leader. I never take for granted that my career is my passion and my passion is my career. It is an honor to be an example of someone living their dream and funding a life through your passions!

 

 

https://www.larollergirls.com/

@larollergirls


Credit: LA Roller Girls Entertainment

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