We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Matt Guzman. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Matt below.
Matt, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What was one of the most important lessons you learned in school? Why did that lesson stick with you?
When I was a senior in High School, one of my favorite teachers and I got into an argument. Mr. Peters. All the kids called him ‘Pete.’ He wanted me to write a term paper on a polarizing topic that I disagreed with. I had a particular stance and I felt it would be a betrayal to write the opposite view. After a long period of time, he told me that I could write both point of views but he needed me to write the view I disagreed with first. When I finally did and gave in and wrote the paper, Pete was quite pleased. Then he told me not to worry about writing my original point of view. I was furious!
“Pete! You tricked me!”
“Yup.”
It wasn’t until many years later that the lesson sunk home. Of course, it never changed my original opinion, but his deceptive behavior for my good taught me a valuable lesson. It’s not a betrayal to put yourself in opposite shoes and really empathize with the opposite perspective. When I was 16, I saw the world in black and white, good and bad. Unfortunately, this perspective has only gotten more pervasive. Yet it is a barrier to true communication and compromise. Today, I’m no longer afraid to truly understand and empathize with a person who believes opposite me. Because now I know that moral compass comes from the same place in all humans.
Pete taught me many lessons. But, that one stuck home and stayed with me. That’s why I love teaching. I love sharing the lessons I’ve learned to help others expand their thinking. Staying with what you know can feel safe, and exploring can feel scary. But, exploring opposite perspectives with curiosity and empathy has added richness and meaning to my life that I truly cherish.
Matt, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Hey there! Matt Guzman, here. I write middle-grade sci-fi. My tagline is: Teaching children emotional health through the art of storytelling. Currently, I’m writing and releasing a seven book series. Rieden Reece. Rieden Reece and the Broken Moon: Book 1 and Rieden Reece and the Final Flower:Book 2 are published. The next five books will be published every six months. The third book, Rieden Reece and the Scroll of Life will be published in Jan 2024.
The main protagonist, Ri, is a snarky thirteen-year-old boy from a broken home. He has anxiety and anger issues and an overactive imagination. I wanted to tell a story where the main character is flawed, yet has good intentions and tries hard. He is successful despite making many mistakes when overcoming obstacles. Too often, I feel, young people are sent the message in literature that children are intuitively good, have inherit good intentions, etc. But, when I was thirteen I made tons of mistakes and was full of conflicting, irrational and destructive emotions. I wanted to tell a story where a young person could relate, see themselves in the challenges, and learn how to navigate their emotions. And raise questions to encourage them to ask adults around them. There’s a prejudice in society that when children move into their teenage years that they stop talking to their parents and rely on their friends. This is a modern construct. Yes, children become more independent and rebellious, but this is not an automatic ticket to retreat from the wisdom and experience of adults.
Middle grade sci-fi that is filled with emotional health themes is my current project. Soon, I will be launching my Morning Mindfast series on Youtube. Instructional videos designed to simplify complicated psychological tools that I’ve learned through books and listening to experts. Busy parents want their children to be emotionally healthy. But, today’s world is not set up for them to be able to take the time to become therapists. I used the knowledge I learned from books to significantly improve my life. Through storytelling, I want to focus on the most important points, and give parents actionable tools to improve their emotional health. Therefore, my ultimate goal is to create a dialogue between parents and their troubled seventh-graders to move them in a healthier direction.
Now, this lofty goal didn’t happen overnight. It took many years, twists and turns, until I finally arrived at my purpose. I’ve been writing stories as a hobby since I was ten years old. Then I spent twenty years managing restaurants. In those years, I discovered my strengths and what gets me excited. It boils down to teaching, leading and motivating. Also, over the years I realized that my friends loved asking me for advice. I was constantly telling stories about the lasting thing I had learned from science, psychology, and people in the industry who loved studying the brain. I also realized that I tended to repeat myself. I thought, “If I could record a video on this topic, and organize it. Then I can teach a bunch of people all at once.
Monday Morning Mindfast was born.
The tide of teaching is changing. As technology continues to advance, traditional schooling will change. Personally, I think the next generation will realize that giving all their time and attention and money to apps to make a few people rich isn’t wise. Soon, kids will lift up their eyes and realize that if they want to help the Earth and the people who struggle everyday, they will have to DO something in the physical world. Simply things like nutrition, sanitation, clean drinking water, education, and so on are what billions of people don’t have access to. Instead of buying more stuff, we can change the economy so young kids are motivated to get out and help others.
But. If we continue to neglect the emotional health of ourselves and our children, no one will be motivated to do anything. They’ll stay stuck in depression, anxiety, fear, and anger. Until we as a society address this underlying pervasive problem, people won’t want to get out of bed. They’ll mindlessly scroll on social media for three hours a day. The human body isn’t designed to be sedentary. It’s designed to move, and socialize with people in the real world.
Currently, I’m 47. I have spent half of my adult life rewriting and relearning the coping mechanisms I developed as a child. I know I can’t change the world, but one by one, I’m motivated to help busy parents learn tools that will improve the emotional health of themselves and their children. Give the current children access to tools and emotional health that I didn’t have as a child.
If you’re interested in supporting me on my journey, please check out my books. In 2024, I will start building my Youtube channel. Thanks for taking the time to read this, I appreciate it!
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
Like many people, the pandemic gave many of us an opportunity to reflect on what we’ve been doing with our lives. The first year of the pandemic I continued to manage restaurants. But, I reached my breaking point. I looked up and realized that I spent 50 hours a week surrounded by people who were bringing me down. And the impact of good I had on them was minimal. There’s the expression, you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. I didn’t like my average. So, I made a drastic decision. I quit. And started doing what some people might consider a menial job to support my new author career.
Everyone is different. Some people save money. Some people can work 18 hour days until they build their side hustle. For me, stress is killer. And the stress of managing a restaurant everyday sucked the joy out of my life and left me no emotional energy for building my author career. So, it was the right move for me. I’m single with no children, so I know not every person could make such a drastic move.
But, I’ll tell you what is universal. Fear. Fear of change. Fear of success. And the comfort of the known. Uncertainty can be devastating. But, for me, the fear of doing nothing outweighed the fear of what might happen if I take the leap. I realized that I would rather try and fail then never try and always wonder what my life could have been like if I had faced my fear head on.
Sometimes we think too big. We think, “I need Hollywood to call me and tell me they want me to write a screenplay for Marvel.” Anything less, seems unimportant. But, listening to hundreds of entrepreneurs telling their stories, I’ve learned one thing. Everyone starts small. EVERYONE. They start where they’re at and do one thing. Then the next day, they do one thing. Again. And again. And. Again. It’s the small things that add up over time. But, if you never start and keep waiting for that imaginary “Big thing,” then life will stay the same. And if you love your life then that’s great! But, if there’s been something gnawing at you that you want to do, then start small. Start with one thing. Do that. If will feel great, and you’ll want to do more…
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
I used to be a people-pleaser.
As a child, it was a survival mechanism. Default to people around me. Keep everyone happy. Do what they ask. Be liked. Being liked meant I wasn’t anyone’s enemy. Enemies were scary. They could hurt me. As a child, being liked was life and death.
Four therapists later, I had an ah-ha moment. I finally saw all the scripts playing out inside my mind. EVERYTHING I did was revolving around this concept of ‘what will other people think.’ Then it dawned on me. Everyone is insecure. People are faking. Before, when I walked into the room, I assumed I was the most insecure person there. But, I had learned too much about how people are wired. I realized, yes I was insecure, but when I walked into the room, I was one of the LEAST insecure people in the room.
Mind blown.
Here I was, bending over backwards, trying to please people. People who had no idea what they were doing, what they wanted, or what it took to be successful or happy. I had the wisdom inside me, but wasn’t acting on it, out of some childish fear that I might hurt people’s feelings are not be liked.
So. Unlearning people-pleasing and stop believing I was the most insecure person was life changing.
Now, I act on what I believe to be right and I don’t ask permission. I simply do it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://authormattguzman.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authormattguzman/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MattDahGooz
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/authormattguzman/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/AuthorMattGuz
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@authormattguzman
- Other: https://books.authormattguzman.com/timebandit https://authormattguzman.com/riedenreece/
Image Credits
Chrissy Marie Photography Kim Dingwall