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

Franklin , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’ve love to hear an interesting investment story – what was one of the best or worst investments you’ve made? (Note, these responses are only intended as entertainment and shouldn’t be construed as investment advice)

Hiring a coach for different aspects of my life really changed my path. I think going to class is great to getting a good base for your art, business, lifestyle or whatever you are developing. It does change the tempo of things when you hire someone to work one-on-one with you to specifically identify your strengths and areas of growth. A good coach with develop a thoughtful plan to accomplish your goals and will help accelerate your growth a lot. I’ve taken private one-on-one lessons for dance, business and many friends of mine professionally consult in many areas; being close to my friends I often soundboard ideas and troubleshoot with their insight. We built a relationship that does this reciprocally. In areas I don’t have friends with expertise to lean on that’s where I look to those in my community who I can source out too.

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

I am a nerd, an artist and love bringing nature into all my work. Lately I’ve been integrating the idea of biomimicry into my poetry, business, personal life and more which is proving interesting. I am helping folks who are learning more about justice, equity, diversity and inclusion process broad concepts into actionable steps through facilitations. I share my storytelling skills with folks in conservation protecting headwaters and fighting for clean air in our most impacted communities. Additionally I offer creative expression workshops with somatics integrated to create conversations within our bodies that allows up to decipher joy, anger, tired, overstimulated, lonely, empowered and triumphant feelings. In all I am hoping to create a shift in folks to find a mutualistic relationship with their environment in every scale they operate in and effect.

I was born in Idaho and left at three years old according to the stories. Raised Texan until second grade when we moved to Denver and that was my first city experience. I’ve lived off Colfax, Sheridan, Yosemite in Aurora, the Northside, Glendale and now Montbello. I enjoy Magic the Gathering, Yu Gi Oh, Catan, Clank. I dance House, Waacking and am still building my Popping and Hip Hop. Latin Club dances like Cumbia, Merengue, Salsa, Bachata are also great and fun to dance. I have a background in Biology and love chatting micro, paleo, anatomy, physiology. I geek out on any science really and am always looking to attend a conference, lecture or just share findings.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

Just financing projects and how creative you can be in your approach. I think ticket sales is fine and what about sponsors with a sponsorship deck offering different levels of engagement for different levels of representation at your event. What about business partnerships who can give in-kind donations like drinks, sound equipment, space or food. If you wanna push people asking large organizations to lend you staff with specific skills as a organizational donation of volunteer hours. There’s a lot of ways that folks can support each other and reciprocally give.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The level of humanity that you can tap into is great. Arts is one of the few aspects of our society that ask you to feel, have an opinion, face a reality or often just release and express. The diversity of art is a reflection of the diversity of our society, having voices be heard and given space to express themselves is a sign of a healthy social-ecosystem. When you perform for a while you begin to understand that performance is just living at 100. It is about giving so much of yourself to the stage in a way most folks do during intense moments. This process of living at 100 whether it’s for dance, theater, spoken word, music or singing you really begin to have empathy for others’ emotions because you remember having to access those emotions and give them life.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @fcruz_unido

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