We recently connected with Mikey Lujan and have shared our conversation below.

Mikey , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Do you wish you had started sooner?

Sometimes I get frustrated knowing that I started performing at age 16 as opposed to many of my peers who started when they were four or five, because it makes me wonder if I would be better at my craft had I started sooner. Growing up, my parents never really had money to enroll me in acting, dancing, or singing classes, so it wasn’t until I was old enough to work that I was able to go for my dreams. However, if I could go back and start performing at a younger age, I wouldn’t. Starting later in life has forced me to be more creative and have a stronger work ethic since I constantly had to play catch-up with those around me. It has ultimately helped me get to where I am today.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

My name is Mikey Lujan and I am a performer in the parades at Walt Disney World. What motivated me to get into the entertainment industry was watching movies on the Disney Channel when I was young. Between the acting, singing, and dancing, they really inspired me to want to be able to do it all. I think what sets me apart from others is my work ethic and fearlessness. I know I am not the most talented person in the world, but I’ve never been afraid to get on a stage and dance my heart out. I think fear is something that holds a lot of people back, and that’s something I’ve never had. I would say the thing I’m most proud of is being able to get a professional job in the entertainment industry despite having started so late in life. When I first started dancing, some of my peers would make fun of how I moved because it wasn’t what they were used to seeing. I lacked a lot of technique that you’re able to master when you’ve been doing ballet for years and years. But now I’m in a position where those people who made fun of me are nowhere to be seen and I’m living my dream. It just goes to show that slow and steady wins the race. I feel so incredibly blessed.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

A time in my life when I had to pivot came in March of 2020. I had just auditioned to be a performer for Walt Disney World, and I got hired the week before we went into shutdown for covid. Once the world was forced to be put on pause, my contact with Disney was unfortunately cancelled like so many others. I had a clear cut five year plan that was all of a sudden slipping through my fingertips. However, I wasn’t going to sit around and wait to dance on the castle stage. I decided that I was going to share my love of performing with the world and start sharing my craft on Tik Tok. Today, I have nearly 40,000 followers on the platform AND I’m performing at Disney like I was supposed to two years ago. I’m glad that I didn’t give up on dancing and was able to crop out a new plan for my life. Now I have a passion for performing and video creating, which has opened up so many doors for me and altered my life plan in an amazing way that I never saw coming.

How did you build your audience on social media?

As I said before, I started building an audience on social media during covid when I couldn’t perform at Disney World and still wanted an outlet to share my talents. That being said, the biggest advice I have for those wanting to build a social media presence is to have a love for something other than social media. Even though it excites me to see Tik Toks of mine go viral or Disney posting me on their Instagram pages, the root of what I love is performing and it is present in all of my content. If you are just on social media for the notoriety or the sponsorships, it will take you so long to reach people because it will feel inauthentic. I feel like people relate to me and want to see me succeed because they see the happiness in my eyes not just through a screen, but also in real life when I’m dancing at a club or in the parades at Disney. I genuinely love what I do, social media just happens to be a bonus.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.tiktok.com/@mikeyluan
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mikeyluan/?hl=en
• Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/mikeyluan
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/channel/UCdrkZs_SG2LxyFMqXzUBGTw

Image Credits
Nicholas St John, Eddie La Luz