Why Did I Start Native Creative Concierge?

Native Creative Concierge LLC - curated private excursions in New York City,
Abigail Ekue, CEO & Operator

I answered a media request from CEO Blog Nation where they were seeking stories from entrepreneurs on why they started their business. My submission wasn't published, so I'm sharing it here!


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"Where should we eat tomorrow night?" "Do you know which way is Madison Avenue?" These are questions I field on a regular basis from friends and strangers alike. It was a natural progression to start Native Creative Concierge, my service where I could provide firsthand experiences as answers to those questions.




I knew I didn't want to go back to a 9-to-5 office job and I needed an income. As a New York native, I know there's more to the city than Manhattan and the publicized tourist attractions that can also be tourist traps. There's so much more to NY than Times Square! -- I've adopted that catchphrase to combat the line of thinking that if someone visits those attractions, they've visited NY.

Lower Manhattan Tuesdays

Native Creative Concierge™ approved.

(Source)

Lower Manhattan -- that area south of Chambers Street that many only equate with courthouses, "Ground Zero", Century 21, Wall Street and being a ghost town after 5 PM or on the weekends -- is now home to the promotion Lower Manhattan Tuesdays presented by the Downtown Alliance for New York. It will run every Tuesday from May 27 to September 30.


Sign up to get your Redemption code for special deals and promotions to use at participating businesses. You can also get a promo code with 9/11 Memorial Museum tickets.

A few of my recommendations:

Stone Street Tavern -- A friend chose this restaurant as the site of my birthday dinner a few years ago. Surf and turf was enjoyed by all. The location is a draw too as I'm a sucker for cobblestone, windy streets that bring me back to Old New York.


The Iron Horse -- skip Hogs and Heifers and go here. That is all. Oh, get on the giant swing too. And I know this is about Tuesdays but if you go on Sundays and buy a drink you get a free burger. Ok now, that is all.


City Sports -- their promo is for the Run Club but while you're there buy yourself a pair of supportive and ergonomically-correct sneakers for the miles that you'll cover and track on your pedometer that you'll also buy at City Sports.

There's So Much More To New York Than That

Native Creative Concierge client snapping photos at Fort Washington
during our half day excursion
(Source) 

A friend recently shared a commercial by an Israeli company in which he appears. Two things jumped out at me when I watched the ad - the role he was cast in and the product the commercial was for.

Super Bowl XLVIII Week in NYC

January 27 to February 2 will be affectionately known as Super Bowl Week in New York City. Well, affectionately known to me but to others it'll be known as a traffic-jam, clogged-sidewalk causing nightmare. Either way, it will be a high-energy time in NYC no matter how cold the temperatures may be.


I'll be working with the NY/NJ Super Bowl XLVIII Host Committee at various tourist welcome sites and along Super Bowl Boulevard perimeter. This gig is right up my alley. Need directions? Need help purchasing a metrocard? Need help hailing a taxi? Need help getting to your terminal to catch your flight? Need to know where to go to avoid all the Super Bowl Madness? Need to make sense of the madness that will be Penn Station, Times Square, Grand Central, or the PATH trains (the game will be played in New Jersey)? It's just a small part of what I do as {The} Native Creative Concierge and it's what I'll be doing during Super Bowl with for the Host Committee.

This Is How New Yorkers Feel About Each Other?

So there was a survey conducted to find out how New Yorkers feel about each other. In a city of 8+ million people... 414 people participated. 414 people. At least if the study had a 4-figure pool of survey respondents, I'd be less bothered by it. But perhaps when asked to participate in the survey, New Yorkers brushed it off with a "ain't nobody got time for that" since, you know, we're all so rude. 

These 414 people are those who live and/or work in New York. How long have they lived in New York? Do they work in NY but live in [New] Jersey or... Connecticut?

Note From A Nice Native New Yorker

Americans still think New Yorkers are mean, rude and arrogant. Yet they flock to this city in the MILLIONS. Henry Stewart of Brooklyn Magazine expressed his annoyance in the article "Why Do Americans Think New Yorkers Are So Mean?":

The last two times I went to Manhattan, no fewer than four pedestrians and straphangers asked me for directions. I guess I've just got one of those faces, the one that gets me elected foreman when I'm on jury duty, but I can't stand on a street corner without fielding queries as to which direction whatever avenue is or sit on the subway without explaining how to get to Canal Street if the R train's not going to the city from Brooklyn. And what do I get for my patience and trouble? A bunch of survey takers telling me I'm a jerk.

Ditto.