We recently connected with Mario Cruz and have shared our conversation below.

Mario, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Do you feel you or your work has ever been misunderstood or mischaracterized? If so, tell us the story and how/why it happened and if there are any interesting learnings or insights you took from the experience?

I’ve been misunderstood a lot throughout my life. Just due to the fact of me always working. People tell me a lot of things saying I’m an outcast and laugh at my dreams. I even had a past coach of mine laugh at me for thinking I was going to be the best. It hurt because it felt like I wasn’t normal, while everyone else is going to party have fun or hangouts I’m always just on the track running. Even on days I don’t want to run I still do. But after a while when people started to see me perform well and become number 1 for my school and they would ask me. “ how did you get so good” I would just tell them “ All those times I spent even when I felt like I didn’t want to run I still did, even when it was raining or hot I still did, even on days that I was hurting I still did”. A lot of people feel that working to their goals everyday seems weird or you don’t want to seem like an outsider. But in reality it’s you against you every day and on days you don’t feel like working there is going to be someone there going to take your spot. If that is being a outcast then be a outcast and dream big because you never know what one day will do and have faith in yourself and believe and grind and those hard times will just be memories.

Mario, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a track athlete in the South Bay Area of San Diego in a small city called imperial beach. I started my track journey in the 7th grade and i didn’t do very good my first year. I was almost last almost every meet I ran in the 800,400, and 1600. In 8th grade i began to try and win and take running seriously but I had a very bad ankle injury that got me out for the whole season. But In 9th grade everything changed I didn’t expect much from myself and next thing I know I become the number 1 runner in imperial beach. I was able to win MVP and go to CIF 9th and 10th grade year helping my team become league champs. I try to spread my name and story to others to know that even if you’re not good at first you just have to train and try again and you will be better than you ever expected. Because I was never seen as a standout kid I was always seen to be a “ loser “ but I changed and became better and took it personal and started to grind every day I could and win.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

How I started to build an audience on social media was by posting constantly. Keep going consistently and even when it has low views keep going because one video can change your business and life forever that is the beauty of social media.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

A resource I wish I knew about earlier is that you are going to be alone at times with this. Even when people seem they want the best for you but deep down they want to see you fall. It hurts but be carful who you are around because in this journey to success you will only have you because no one else will keep you in check then you.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_mar10_cruz?igsh=N2F5c2hiam5tcDRj&utm_source=qr
• Other: https://www.athletic.net/profile/MarioHernandez11/feed

Image Credits

Hélio Lozano