Miami boasts an unrivaled nightlife and DJ scene - and it turns out that Irish expat Sarah Lucey is one of the women to thank for that reputation.
The Mallow native arrived in the city eight years ago and set her sights on making her mark in the party town.
The daughter of a butcher, Lucey now works as Director of Talent for exclusive hot spots LIV and STORY.
Call it luck of the Irish, or just sheer hard graft, but Lucey now has the the likes of Justin Bieber, Kim Kardashian and Rihanna, not to mention every top DJ you can imagine, on speed dial.
The 32-year-old has a Masters degree in Marketing from the Smurfit School, and a background in Commerce obtained from University College Cork.
She got her first taste of the nightlife industry when she worked as a marketing manager in Galway's Karma.
With a taste for the international scene, she packed her bags and hotfooted it to the city immortalized so famously by Will Smith.
Speaking to IrishCentral.com, Lucey said she knew she wanted to work "with the big dogs" so she set about making it happen.
"I researched the top locations for night life, the multi-million dollar companies. I wanted to be with the big dogs. Ibiza is seasonal, so that left Miami and Vegas. Vegas being on the West Coast seemed a little far so I chose Miami. No contacts, no job , I applied for a visa and headed off."
When in Miami on a 12 month student visa, she met a French man named Maxime. When her visa ran out, she left Miami with the man who would eventually become her husband for a stint working at legendary Ibiza club Ushuaïa.
"We both headed to Ibiza in April 2012, where he became Lighting Director of USHUAIA and I became Stage Manager," she said. "That summer we worked 109 nights in a row with no days off, welcoming 8,000-10,000 people nightly."
The hard work didn't deter the couple - and bigger things were yet to come.
"Miami-based hospitality guru David Grutman flew Maxime and I back to Florida to open his club STORY in South Beach."
Eight years later, Lucey and Maxime still work for Grutman, as Director of Talent and Technical Director respectively.
Speaking about her impressive and determined career path - Lucey says it was more than the storied "luck of the Irish" that got her to where she is now.
To put it lightly, she is still working seven days a week, 24/7. Not that she would have it any other way, by the sounds of things.
"I don’t believe in luck. People ask me all the time how to get to my position and I tell them its simple. Persistence, persistence, persistence. There's no magic behind my story it's just drive and hunger."
Follow Lucey on Instagram for a peak behind the scenes here.
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