Today we’d like to introduce you to Christian Villa Huerta.
Hi Christian, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
What’s Going On 805 started from a pretty simple idea: I wanted to make it easier for people to know what was actually happening in their own communities.
Living on the Central Coast, I noticed there were always events, live music, markets, festivals, community programs, local businesses and other things happening, but the information was scattered everywhere. You might find something on a city website, a Facebook page, an Instagram account, a flyer, or hear about it from someone after it already happened. I felt like there was room for one place that could bring more of that information together in a way that was easy to follow and useful to locals.
I started What’s Going On 805 by researching local events and putting together guides for the communities around Santa Barbara County. As the page grew, I began organizing the coverage into different regions: Lompoc, Orcutt and Santa Maria; the Santa Ynez Valley; and Santa Barbara and the surrounding South Coast communities.
The weekly guides became the foundation of the page. Every week I spend a lot of time finding events, checking dates and times, organizing everything, creating the graphics and trying to make the information easy for people to save and share. I’m still a one-person operation, so everything from the research and design to posting, outreach, corrections and communication with businesses and organizations is something I handle myself.
Over time, I realized the page could be useful for much more than just events. That led to the creation of the 805 Community Boards, where I share things like local announcements, road and service updates, community resources, deadlines, meetings and other information people may not otherwise see. I’ve also started expanding into Local Spotlights, where I can feature businesses, places, people and experiences that help make the 805 unique.
That evolution has been important to me because I don’t want What’s Going On 805 to simply be an “events page.” I want it to become a trusted local discovery and community resource — somewhere people can go when they want to know what’s happening, what’s changing, what local places they should know about, or what there is to experience around Santa Barbara County.
The response has been really encouraging. The audience has continued to grow, the guides are being shared and saved, businesses and organizations are beginning to reach out, and the page has recently been generating more than 100,000 views in a 30-day period on Instagram alone.
I’m still very much in the building stage, and there is a lot I want to improve and expand. Long term, I would love for What’s Going On 805 to become one of those local resources where someone hears about an event, business, community update or something interesting happening and their first thought is, “Let me check What’s Going On 805.”
For me, the most rewarding part has been seeing something I started independently begin to turn into a real community resource. I’m learning as I go, listening to the audience, building relationships throughout the county, and trying to make each version of What’s Going On 805 more useful than the one before it.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It definitely hasn’t been a completely smooth road. One of the biggest challenges is that What’s Going On 805 is still a one-person operation. I handle the research, event submissions, fact-checking, design, posting, corrections, outreach, messages, partnerships and the business side myself. As the audience and coverage area have grown, figuring out how to keep the quality high without simply adding more and more hours has been one of the biggest learning experiences.
Another challenge is that local information is extremely fragmented. There isn’t one place where every event, announcement or community update appears. I’m constantly looking through city websites, venue pages, social media accounts, flyers, community organizations and other sources. Even after something is published, dates, times and details can change or events can be canceled, so accuracy and keeping up with changes are ongoing responsibilities.
Building trust has also taken time. When you start a page like this, nobody automatically knows what it is or why they should follow it, submit information to it or work with it. I’ve had to build that credibility little by little by consistently showing up, publishing the guides, correcting things when necessary, and trying to make the page genuinely useful rather than just chasing views.
I’ve also had to learn how to balance the community side with the business side. I want people to continue seeing What’s Going On 805 as a useful local resource, while also creating opportunities for businesses, organizations and event organizers to advertise, sponsor content or be featured. Finding that balance — growing into a sustainable business without losing the reason people followed in the first place — is something I think about a lot.
There have also been the normal challenges that come with building on social media: changes in reach, algorithms, account issues, seasonal changes in engagement and learning what types of content people actually respond to. Some weeks perform much better than others, so I’ve had to become comfortable testing ideas, looking at the results and adjusting instead of assuming everything will work immediately.
At the same time, those challenges have helped shape what the page is becoming. They pushed me to become more organized, improve the guides, create the 805 Community Boards, start developing Local Spotlights, and think about What’s Going On 805 as a long-term local resource rather than simply a social media account.
I’m still learning constantly, but I think that is part of what has made the process rewarding. Every challenge has forced me to figure out how to make the page a little more useful, sustainable and connected to the communities it serves.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
What’s Going On 805 is a Santa Barbara County-based local media and discovery platform focused on helping people find events, community information, local businesses, places and experiences throughout the region.
The weekly event guides are at the core of what we do. We currently organize coverage into three main regions: Lompoc, Orcutt and Santa Maria; the Santa Ynez Valley; and Santa Barbara and the surrounding South Coast communities. Each week, we bring together local events and happenings in a format designed to be easy to browse, save and share.
As the platform has grown, we’ve expanded beyond traditional event listings. The 805 Community Boards provide useful local information such as community announcements, road and service updates, resources, deadlines, public programs and other information that may be helpful to residents. We’ve also begun developing Local Spotlights, which highlight businesses, venues, organizations, places and experiences that help make the Central Coast unique.
What I think sets What’s Going On 805 apart is the combination of local focus, organization and community usefulness. There is a tremendous amount happening throughout Santa Barbara County, but the information is often spread across many different websites, social media pages, organizations and individual businesses. WGO805 helps bring more of that information together in one recognizable place.
I’m especially proud that the brand has grown organically into something people are beginning to use as a local resource. The guides are regularly saved and shared, the audience continues to grow, and businesses, organizations and event organizers are increasingly reaching out directly.
For local businesses and organizations, WGO805 also offers promotional opportunities ranging from Story and event promotion to dedicated posts, Local Spotlights, Reels and other custom partnerships. My goal is to create promotion that still feels useful and natural to the audience rather than turning the page into a stream of advertisements.
Ultimately, I want What’s Going On 805 to be known as a trusted place to discover what’s happening, what’s worth knowing about, and what’s worth exploring across Santa Barbara County and the broader 805.
Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
One of the biggest things I’ve learned is that you don’t have to have everything figured out before you start. I think a lot of people wait until the branding is perfect, the website is finished, the business model is completely mapped out, or they feel like they know exactly what they’re doing. In reality, a lot of that gets figured out by actually doing the work.
I also wish I had understood earlier how important consistency is. One good post, one good week or one successful idea usually isn’t what builds something. It’s showing up over and over, paying attention to what people respond to, making improvements and continuing even when the results are slower than you hoped.
Another big lesson has been to listen to the audience without losing sight of your own direction. Some of the best ideas for What’s Going On 805 have come from noticing what people save, share, ask about or seem to have trouble finding. The goal isn’t to chase every trend, but to understand what is genuinely useful to the people you’re trying to serve.
I would also tell anyone starting out to build systems as early as possible. When something is small, it’s easy to keep everything in your head and do things differently every time. Once it begins growing, that can become overwhelming very quickly. Organization, routines and repeatable processes make it much easier to grow without sacrificing quality.
And finally, I think it’s important not to measure your progress only against people or businesses that are already years ahead of you. It’s easy to look at someone else’s audience, team, resources or success and forget that they had a beginning too. I’ve learned to focus more on whether what I’m building is better and more useful than it was a month or six months ago.
If I had to summarize it, I’d say: start before you feel completely ready, stay consistent, listen carefully, keep improving, and try to build something that is genuinely useful. The business side and opportunities tend to become much clearer once people trust the value you’re creating.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/whatsgoingon805
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whatsgoingon_805
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/whatsgoingon805
- Other: events.whatsgoingon805@gmail.com
