Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to AMI MANNING. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

AMI, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What sort of legacy are you hoping to build. What do you think people will say about you after you are gone, what do you hope to be remembered for?

I feel our legacy is always evolving. I hope mine is a good one. I believe that we really have no idea how we may have touched someone’s life or altered their career, life journey, view, or just added some emotion or joy to their personal story in some way. I don’t live in the past and I don’t live in tomorrow, but in the right now. So right now, I have no idea what that legacy will be, but again I’m hopeful that I’ve touched some lives along my journey in a positive way.

And I believe it’s for that reason that I am always trying to be deliberate in my thoughts, actions and projects so that the decisions that I make and movements I embark upon are based in hope and love and not out of fear. Every day is a chance to do one small thing to bring joy to someone, so over time, these things could create a tangible effect or energy shift of love. I would like to be remembered as someone who wanted everyone in the room and felt like their voice matters, no matter who you are, where you live, what you do, who you know, how much money you have, where you went to school or event if you went to school, or who your parents are. I truly believe that everyone’s voice matters and I’d like to do more to bring these stories to a bigger stage and crank up the volume.

AMI, 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 started Volition Entertainment in 2010, initially as a talent agency, and then I changed the structure to talent management a few years later. Volition, the word, inherently means “the power of your will,” and that’s what I truly believe clients need to succeed and thrive in this business. If they don’t have the will to succeed and really fight for it, nobody else can do it for them. We are a talent management and production firm with our main office in Los Angeles, and we also have managers and producers based in Chicago, Atlanta and New York. We represent a wide array of clients including actors, writers, directors, producers, musicians, comedians, and many other types of performers across the entertainment industry. We’re also actively working on a slate of about 15 production projects including both scripted and unscripted series and features.

Our approach to management is a partnership with our talent where we are really a part of a family and want to fight for our clients to win at every angle. We use a multi-pronged approach to try and look at clients not only as a brand but as a vehicle to create meaningful work and projects that can collectively move our needle forward for great storytelling that’s inclusive, creates emotion and is thought-provoking–putting something into society that’s positive as opposed to destructive. We feel the responsibility as media creators and talent representatives to fight for good in the entertainment industry and to focus on positive energy talent, projects and media.

Do you have any stories of times when you almost missed payroll or any other near death experiences for your business?

During the pandemic, I thought we would have to close our doors like many other companies our size. It was a rough time for me personally as well. I had a pretty bad case of the initial strain of the Covid virus, had just lost my best friend to cancer, my grandmother from natural causes, and then lost a brother-in-law to Covid, and then my mother died shortly after from other causes. My world was virtually upside down. And now, about to lose the business, I was finding it tough to work or to even breathe. I moved to Savannah for a bit, where I’m originally from, mostly to grieve my mother’s passing, but also to get back in touch with myself and to find the ground once again. All the while, working remotely and I had accepted a second job to pay to keep all the managers on board and paying for all of our overhead, etc. Every day, getting up and breathing just seemed like a chore. I just didn’t want to go out like that so I kept fighting. Every day, another business would close. An actor would email me that their manager just quit the business and they were looking for a new place to land. These types of occurrences were daily it seemed. I was always behind on our bills, not sleeping, working from wake to sleep and then more. Exhausted, I still recall the day that all those managers I had protected during the pandemic left the agency all in one day. A few started their own agency and a few went to a competitor and took clients; it was awful. I was heartbroken and hurt and just felt defeated. So I really thought this was the end, but somehow, I just kept the faith and kept putting one foot forward, one day at a time. That was the toughest thing I believe I’ve been through in business so far to date. We have kept going and rebuilt a great team, and although still all working remotely, we have a family again of managers of clients and the business continues to thrive and grow. I’m so proud of what we’ve all built together and just not giving up. If this were easy, I think everyone would do it. So, don’t give up! My mantra to myself when things are tough is always “just when the butterfly thought the world was over, it became a butterfly.” So, sometimes, just before your dawn, it may be super dark–but keep going.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

This is going to sound super unconventional, but it’s true. I carry a copy of “The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success” with me wherever I go. I just find if I have a few minutes in a waiting room, waiting on a meeting or on a break, before I start my day, coffee run, etc. — I can take a peek and something will speak to me. I don’t read it linearly, but rather I jump around to various pages and make notes and just breathe in a different message when I feel I need some spiritual guidance in whatever it is I’m doing — both business and personal. I have become a lot more spiritual in the second half of my life, although I can say that I was always spiritual, but more so now than ever before. Time in meditation in the morning and at the end of the day is so vital to my mental health and in making the right decisions for myself and my projects, whom I choose to work with — just that spiritual gut voice that we all have but sometimes cannot hear for all the chaos in our minds from our hectic day to day lives. This book really taught me about the value of meditation and of doing the right thing deliberately and living on purpose, every day. And there is another book I love that I always have somewhere near me which is quite old, but it’s called The Invitation by Oriah Dreamer. I have a great story about this old book but I’ll leave that for another day! But if you get a chance to pick up either of these books, I definitely recommend it!

Contact Info:

• Website: volitionusa.com / thelabiscool.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/volitionusa / instagram.com/amimanning / instagram.com/jointhelab
• Facebook: facebook.com/amimanning
• Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/amimanning
• Youtube: youtube.com/volitionentertainment