We had the good fortune of connecting with Johnny Mata Mata and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Johnny Mata, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I wanted to help people, especially children. To see children accomplish their goals is amazing, same with adults.

What should our readers know about your business?
We run a art academy. We started out as a music Academy but started branching out into other areas such as video and audio production. Business are built on trial and error, ours was no exception. We failed at times but we learned from it and we turned those failures into success. It’s not easy building any business let alone a music business. We overcame challenges by having a great team of teachers and staff that were willing to do anything to make this company successful. We understand that working together we can accomplish anything. Lessons we learned were to never give up even when you fail. Failures are lessons to be learned not reasons to give up. I want the world to know that we love music and we love teaching music. We want to make learning music accessible to anyone through our non profit program. We want to help our community by giving children and adults purpose in life through music.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I would definitely take them to Encinitas! My hometown. I would take them to moonlight beach. We would definitely have to eat at either pipes or the taco stand. We would get something to drink at seaside market by the beach and go biking along the 101 coast!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My beautiful wife has been my greatest supporter. Her ideas and willingness to help are gold! My brother Abraham he is my go to guy for advice and such a great business partner. A great part of the success of this company has been because of him. He does so many things under the radar, he’s a behind the scenes guy but he’s amazing at what he does.

Website: https://www.citylightofficial.com/

Instagram: https://instagram.com/citylightmusicacademy?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/CityLightMusicAcademy

Nominate Someone: ShoutoutSocal is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.