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

Juan Sebastian, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?

I was raised by my mother. She was both a mother and a father to me and my sister. And lately I have found myself truly internalizing so many of the lessons I reluctantly absorbed while growing up but that now play an absolutely pivotal role in my life. This is going to sound so simple but what my mom did right was to always prioritize my health and well-being over anything else. In turn, she taught me to do the same. Being an artist or a creative often lends itself to an irregular life. Rarely is there a routine, social life can be erratic, the ups and downs of rejections and acceptances are difficult to manage, and it’s easy to find yourself suddenly overworked or overwhelmed. Even the stereotype of “starving artist” implies a tradeoff of health for artistic pursuit. But even though I have faced all the same challenges, I always make time for my health. I almost never skip meals. I get sleep. I see friends and family. And maybe most importantly, I learned to say no to opportunities that would have caused me more stress than success. When I eat I try to sit down and enjoy it. When I’m with a friend I try to put away my phone and focus. When I’m tired, I lay down and rest even if it’s just for a few minutes. These small actions of self-care and self-love make a huge difference in my life and in turn allow me to be better prepared for my work especially since work can come and go at any moment. So while this doesn’t directly have anything to do with art or acting or whatever, I think realizing that your health is the foundation for everything else you do can really make appreciate the little things and improve your overall quality of life. And I have my mom to thank for reminding me about that every day.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I have three main disciplines in my career – theater, circus, and music. My first love was music. I have been playing in every way possible from when I was little kid in community church gatherings to big talent shows in college. Music has always been a big part of my life and really opened the door for my other creative pursuits. I got into the theater industry the old fashioned way. I studied theatre at Rice University in Houston, TX and graduated in 2016. Then by auditioning I landed my first role in a professional theater production in the spring of 2017. Shortly after that I joined a small circus troupe after having taken classes with the studio for about a year and began incorporating freelance work into the schedule. And that’s more or less how all three of them came to be in my life. Even though they are all deep passions, I have made the very conscious choice to make all of those things work. That distinction is very important to me and part of the reason I’ve been able to persevere and build a career. Even though I have put in a lot of effort and a lot of hours in building up my craft, I also acknowledge that there is a certain natural ability I seem to have for performing and creating. There is a way of thinking and seeing the world that simultaneously gifts and plagues an artist. It’s something you cannot escape whether you choose to make it your work or not. Embracing that romantic mentality along with a professional attitude is one of the things that I think sets me apart. I have such a deep love for all that I do and am not afraid to express it. However I make sure that I am very professional and do all the boring things that come with “work” – show up on time, return emails, fill out paperwork, be cordial, be a team player, etc. It’s the mentality that talent gets you booked the first time, but hard work and professionalism gets you booked a second time. Obviously the other thing that I think sets me apart is the variety of skills that I possess and the extremely diverse resume that I have. I was always told in the beginning that I needed to pick just one path to focus on. And… I just couldn’t pick. Now I’m grateful to say I have a wonderful varied career that pushes me creatively and allows me to earn enough without the need for a “day job”. At the end of the day I do what I do to make money to live. It is still work. Thankfully, it happens to be work that I enjoy and strive to be better at every day.

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

My senior year in college I got offered to be the evening supervisor post-graduation of the Digital Media Center where I had worked all four years as a student. I loved working there and had a really good relationship with my bosses. I remember being so grateful to have a nice job with good pay and benefits lined up ready to go. I took it and worked there the summer immediately after graduating. I also knew that one of my bosses was going to be leaving soon and that her position as the day time supervisor position would be offered to me. A guaranteed promotion and pay raise within a few months? Awesome! But deep down inside, despite how grateful I was, I knew that I wouldn’t be able to keep that job if I was serious about pursuing a career in the arts. It would have been ok for a while if I was only to do small gigs or community theater productions. But in the long run the time commitment and inability to find a consistent substitute for my salaried supervisor position would not be sustainable. So I decided to quit before I got in too deep and pursue theatrical work. Giving up that stability was really hard but in some ways made me work twice as hard because I didn’t want that initial sacrifice to be in vain. And sure, I knew that someday I could return to something like that. But it was a really pivotal moment that started my career and I’m happy to say that nearly 6 years later that I’m still cool with both of my old bosses and they are proud of what I’ve built for myself.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

It is really difficult to deal with the emotional rollercoaster ride as an artist in any field. To go from the hope and excitement at an opportunity, to full elation and satisfaction of booking something, to exhaustion and burnout throughout the process, all throughout having to handle constant rejection and the feeling of personal inadequacy, is tough to say the least. Everyone deals with it in their own way and it’s a mix of feelings that is difficult to describe to anyone who has not had the same experience in the entertainment world. There are certain common practices that I think non-creatives think they have to do or say every time, such as buying flowers for after the show, asking questions like “so what’s next for you?”, or being overly optimistic and cheery after a rejection. But these tropes are not always true for everyone and can in fact be detrimental For example, I don’t like talking about my auditions because I know so many of them realistically will result in rejections. Even though I know my friends meant well in the past when they would excitedly ask me about them or want to follow up, they have come to understand that it is just an additional stress for me to be reminded of despite how cool and interesting it may be to them to hear every detail about every audition. They know now that if I do book something I will very willingly share it with them and that if I don’t say anything it’s because I don’t have anything I want to share. So I would say that, if you have a friend who is a creative, have a genuine conversation and talk to them about how best to support them during their ups and downs because it might not always be what you expect.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/number.juan.spot/?hl=en
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/numberjuanspot

Image Credits
Gilded Sun Photography Mcauley Teters Photography Lynn Lane