We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Manny Streetz Guevara. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Manny below.

Manny, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

I’m from a city that really has small town thinking…hang with your friends through high school and college, leave for college, come back and raise your family near the friends you grew up with and everyone knows everyone. And I’m sure there’s cities around the world like Jacksonville, Florida that give you those surroundings even in LA.

As a kid in high school, I’ve always known that I would leave far away not because I didn’t like my friends and family, but because the only real way to make it in the entertainment industry was to go to cities that had resources to “make it”. And so I moved to Orlando to go to college and work at Universal and Disney World. There, some A&R music exec discovered me at a hotel while working for Disney, and offered me a pseudo recording contract with an independent record label. Honestly thought it was a scam, but I took that as a sign to try something new because I didn’t want to go to school at the time. I still wanted to give my all for my dream of becoming an entertainer. Well, I moved to Atlanta without knowing a soul there. Exciting and scary at the same time. In Atlanta, I performed, I recorded, and I got replaced!!! I woke up one morning, turned on Good Day Atlanta and saw my band, with a new member who was singing my parts!! oooohhh I was pissed!! Well, that fueled my fire to try to “make it” even more. So I moved back to Jacksonville to live with my parents.

Down on my luck, depressed, heart broken and determined, my parents gave me encouragement and support by saying it’s not the end of the world…you’re still young, you can still do it, but go to school first!! haha well, that was my primary decision BUT, I felt I had to go to LA. LA kept tugging on my heart. So to help me make my decision, I decided to go to Barnes and Noble, grab a talent agent list from a little book called the Ross Reports that a list of Talent Agencies in LA at the time and write down at least 10 Agencies I’ve heard of on a yellow pad of paper and put my headshot in a manila envelope with a cover letter and sent them out!! SNAIL MAIL! As the internet and emails were just getting off the ground!! yes, I lived through the stone ages! Well, out of the 10 Agencies, I got 7 replies from Talent Agents that wanted to meet if I were ever in town. This was after 2 weeks of waiting. OMG is right! 7 out of 10 replies, I took that as a 70% chance that my dream will be fulfilled.

So off I went taking that risk, with $300-400 left in my bank, a leap of faith, and a weekend surprise telling my parents I was leaving in two days to Hollywood.

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

I’ve always known I wanted to make a living entertaining people or as cliche as it sounds, do what I love. I definitely got into this industry by just taking leaps of faith at every opportunity and seeing those opportunities lead to another and another.

I honestly didn’t land my first real acting gig after 10 years of being in LA, and I didn’t start hosting world premieres without building a trust with major companies and showing people what I can do by being in my element and being myself. I didn’t land my first music placement til after 15 years in LA.

I’ve got a great team of agents and management that’ll help me get to the next level of my career.

For music, I’ve collaborated with my longtime friend, David “DK” Kater, where we’ve written and produced stuff for Netflix, Hallmark, and Lifetime. As well as produced with my brothers Marvin and Mike where we’ve done stuff for Raven Symone, Silkk the Shocker and VH1’s Hit the Floor to name a few. Shoutout to other songwriters I’ve written with like PK, Tricia Battani, Melanie Fontana, Gg Ramirez, Andre Merritt, Alex Niceforo and more.

I think if anyone wants to be in this business, you have to really focus, study, take notes, and surround yourself with like-minded driven people who also have values and a decent upbringing as you’ll find out real quick, it’s still like high school out there without the obvious status quo. But remember, it doesn’t really happen overnight.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

I have a wonderful amazing support system in my wife and kids and also my parents and siblings, but it wasn’t always an easy journey into being a “creative”.

Being a creative person isn’t just us not wanting to have a 9-5 job or not wanting to go to school, it’s us tapping into the side of us that makes sense to us to live and make a living out of it. Without it, it honestly destroys our souls.

Non-creatives are creative in their own way also, by like planning for a vacation, planning for a birthday party, blurting random thoughts or ideas to someone that’ll listen or even fixing something in your home.., but being “creative” always seems like a “hobby” not a passion by some non-creatives. And it’s okay because there are some that just do not want to work…but for those that want to work and find a way to be creative, will.

You can definitely make a living being a “creative”, if you want. “Creative” people are fine as long as they always have an opportunity to create. Even if they do work 9-5’s, just give creatives space to be creative. But I think the most important is support and encouragement to keep going.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Keep posting content. Keep working. Never give up. Have faith in your craft and in yourself.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @mannystreetz
• Facebook: @mannystreetzguevara
• Twitter: @mannystreetz