We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Manny Peralta a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Manny thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

Making a full-time living from my creative work has been an amalgamation of consistency, and a whole lot of messing up, over and over again, rinsing and repeating, 1% improvement every..single…day.

I think it’s been about 10 years in the making. It’s only been within the last couple months have I finally sat back and looked over my 10 years of creating videos, art, podcasts, failed t-shirt brands and solo music ventures and realized that my younger self would be so proud of the semi-old and content man I’ve become (insert laugh track here).

It was definitely not like that from day one. Like I mentioned before I’ve danced with ‘ Lady-fail-a-lot’ many many times (metaphorically of course, or maybe…not). There were, and still are; many times in my line of work where I don’t want to show up. Sometimes there’s videos I don’t want to edit, or a podcast I don’t want to create ad copy for and upload.

But even when I wanted to just not show up, I did anyway. That in itself has been the key to my version of ‘success’: showing up when you don’t want to. Motivation is very fleeting. For a long time, I’ve waited for motivation to carry me on its wings and fly me to this arbitrary financial goal or status that I thought was so important.

Ive realized that by staying consistent, having a plan by writing things down, even when it’s hard, even when it’s messy, you start to pave new automations and programs in your mind and heart. Statistically, mathematically, when you stay down on your passion, when you push through for long enough, it’s inevitable, you WILL see results, but you also have to be honest with yourself along the way and figure out what’s working and what’s not.

If anyone reading this takes anything away, achieving goals/milestones comes down to doing the obvious thing in your career, for an unknown/long period of time without convincing yourself you’re smarter than you actually are. Thats a hard truth I realized about myself.

The other mindset that helped me reach my goals was getting rid of noise in my life. That meant cutting ties with certain people, even with certain passions that were essentially holding me back and keeping me from prioritizing work/opportunities that would bring me closer to my ideal life.

So often we bounce around because we want instant gratification, or we move on to another idea or passion because the first one seemingly is ‘not working out.’ For me that was realizing that cinematography wasn’t my passion, and that shooting weddings with my wife and working with amazing couples has given me the life I wanted: running the We Are Creative podcast, exploring my first passion once again of drawing, creating music for the love of it, filming projects that are my own and searching for the next business venture.

I wish I would’ve stayed more consistent with one idea when I was younger, but I also wouldn’t change the way I did things. Success is different for each person, and really more than staying consistent and prioritizing the most important parts of my work, a positive and grateful outlook is what ties all of this together.

Sometimes we don’t realize how far we’ve come. Maybe you might feel like that at times. But a 1% improvement is still improvement, thats something to celebrate. My version of success has been made up of small, incremental 1% footsteps, every…single…day.

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

My name is Manny Peralta, I’m a Creative Director based in Orlando, FL.

I like to make videos, create artwork, and share knowledge about filmmaking and all things that are creative.

Music and Art were always a constant in my life, and it’s something I’ve always wanted to make a living with…it didn’t work out, yet.

But with some trial and error, I’ve landed in a spot in my life where I feel like I’m doing what my younger self always wanted to do: Creating for a living

Learning about what goes into building a brand, talking to creative people and making videos while doing it is something that gets me STOKED!

My life is definitely not boring

From running a wedding photo and video business, taking on production work that’s meaningful to me, all while running a podcast and managing the backend, is definitely a challenge, sometimes it’s scary, but overall very fulfilling. Add a wife and kid on top of that, and I think that makes me a full fledged adult now LOL

Filmmaking has been an integral part of my life. I mainly shoot weddings with my wife Ashley, and together we run Iz & Liv Films, a high-end outdoor wedding photo and video team capturing Candid, Intimate and Authentic moments. We know what it’s like being in front of the camera, so our goal is to help couples feel powerful and confident in front of our lens. We didn’t invest in our wedding photo and video and we regret it. Being on the other side now, and helping people feel comfortable and present on their biggest day is the foundation upon why we love what we do.

Being able to scale this business and work with literally the best human beings has invigorated my love for documenting peoples big day.

When the opportunity arises, I love taking on commercial style work. Making videos for brands I believe in or helping a business owner share their journey through powerful visuals and compelling story telling really fills my soul. It gives me a chance to keep my editing/cinematography skills sharp. Both weddings and commercial work fuel my lifestyle and allow me to focus on art, music and podcasting.

The We Are Creative Podcast is something I started at the height of the pandemic. I wanted a way to fill my time without sulking over the fact that we were and still are living in some strange times. The drive to connect has opened up many business opportunities. Along with co-host Delaney Debinski, a talented producer based in Baltimore, Maryland, we aim to uncover what it really takes to run your own business or start that ‘new thing’. So often we hear of just the success of someones career. The We Are Creative podcast focuses less on the success and more on the progress. We show how no matter where we are in our creative journey, we are still trying to figure it out.

Staying balanced has been a challenge, but I think what I’m most proud of is prioritizing the right things in my life. Being open to learning what I don’t know, expanding my craft and connecting with other creatives is the foundation upon why this is my career.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I used to think the reward was a dollar amount, or working with that ‘big’ brand. As I’ve continued working in the creative field, I find more and more the most rewarding aspect of being a creative is the ability to use the creative thing you do, as a tool to see life for what it actually is.

That sounds vague right? In an effort to explain, perhaps the simplest way I can put it is this: Life is more than money, your career, your next YouTube video, on and on.

The freedom that comes from having my own creative job, came in the form of time. With the space that has been created from my work in weddings, in film and in podcasts, it’s allowed me to discover deep and ingrained habits/mindsets that I needed to root out.

I essentially had the opportunity and time to fix myself from the inside out, this took about 2 years. My lifestyle did not reflect what I told myself I wanted to be. I wanted to be a dad that spent time quality time with his family, a person that made art and enjoyed the outdoors. I wanted to be more in tune with my emotions, to be calm and steady, and without this job Ive created, none of that would’ve happened, for that I’m grateful.

Many use their career to further some material pursuit, thats something that never appealed to me. The reward for all this work has been giving myself the love and attention I never gave myself when I was younger. Learning to be kind to myself, so that I can show up 100% in my many roles in life, has been the most rewarding aspect I could ask for.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Around November of 2021 I had to make a decision.

I LOVE cinematography, and wanted to create videos that had meaning, support my family financially, and help other brands and companies grow using film.
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But I ended up closing Manny Peralta as a video production business. Why? My first business needed attention, and through some hard soul searching, I needed to let go of something in order for that first venture to thrive and potentially take us to the next level. Im grateful that it worked out.

But it was scary, I had this expectation to define myself as one particular thing, that I wouldn’t be the ‘cinematographer’ I thought I should be or that everyone else thinks I should be.
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There’s something to be said for hard work, especially working hard to build something to give you that measure of freedom. And though I feel I’ve attained that, my mindset has shifted from leveraging my “talents” as a metaphorical ID badge I need to CONSTANTLY be wearing, to viewing the business knowledge I have now, wedding experience, video experience simply as TOOLS to see life beyond money, or subscribers, etc. Your Career doesn’t define you.

And thats the lessons right there. Sometimes you have to give something up in order to make room for the next version of yourself.

I call myself a creative director, but in reality, im just me. Letting go of a business that wasnt working too well, to jump back into another industry with all its stigmas was scary, but without that, I wouldn’t have discovered who I actually am.

Pivot, go with your gut, and don’t look back.

Contact Info:

• Website: mannyperalta.co
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mannyperalta_/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/MannyPeralta121
• Other: https://www.instagram.com/wearecreativepodcast/ https://www.wearecreativepodcast.com

Image Credits
Iz & Liv Films Morgan Summers Photos