Joanna Tress With Mattanna5DX

Intro: [00:00:02] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Coach the Coach radio brought to you by the Business RadioX Ambassador Program, the no cost business development strategy for coaches who want to spend more time serving local business clients and less time selling them. Go to brxambassador.com To learn more. Now here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:33] Lee Kantor here, another episode of Coach the Coach Radio, and this is going to be a fun one today on the show, we have Joanna Trece with Mattanna5DX. Welcome, Joanna.

Joanna Tress: [00:00:44] Hello, I’m so happy to be here, Lee.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:46] Well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us about Mantegna. How are you certain folks?

Joanna Tress: [00:00:52] Well, Matina, five, is actually short for the Matina five dimensional performing arts experience. So we are a collective of people age thirty five and older here in Orlando, Florida, or wherever. All over the world, they would like to sing, dance, act, play an instrument or express themselves creatively in a supportive judgment free zone. Or we’re having fun and helping one another overcome whatever obstacles we might have when it comes to getting on stage or in front of the camera as a performing artist.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:30] Well, it’s interesting that you’re targeting this kind of a little bit older group that may be a lot of performing arts folks go after I was recently interviewing someone and they told me this interesting fact, and you’re probably can resonate with this when they talk to children that are like preschool, kindergarten, they ask, Who’s an artist? Everybody raises their hand. But by the time they’re in fourth and fifth grade, only a handful of people raise their hand anymore when they’re asked if they’re an artist. And at some point, people are starting to self-select out of the arts. And, you know, only the the one person that can draw well considers themselves an artist, and everybody else says they’re not an artist anymore. And I thought that was really sad, and I’m excited to learn how you’re kind of rekindling that artistic spirit in, folks.

Joanna Tress: [00:02:21] Thank you so much. It’s definitely needed because in particular, the performing arts with the dance lessons, the band and the chorus at school and community theater often target the children, and we’re busy investing time and energy and resources into helping our youth develop those skills and then see where that takes them further on in life. But for many of us, when we’re grown up, we’re at the height of our careers. We’re taking care of families, even older parents, et cetera. We found that our experiences in the performing arts have gone to the back burner or nonexistence or whatever. Hopes, dreams and aspirations we had as a young person have sort of died. So we want to rekindle that and let people just have that missing piece of their life or build and be able to delve into their art and just really feel alive again, happy and satisfied with where they are because they’re being their authentic self.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:23] Now, how did this idea kind of come about? Is this something have you been involved in the arts your whole career or is this kind of a second act for you and your team?

Joanna Tress: [00:03:34] Right? Well, this is where I started off with what high school and college performances make my first professional demo back in nineteen ninety three. And I’ve been in multiple bands and a community, theater, productions and things over the years. And then I taught kids as well. So I’ve seen both sides of the experience where I taught young people as far as singing stage presence and beginning piano. And that is where I realized that, well, wait a minute, I want to do things now. I want to have fun and I could continue to do community theater. But there are a variety of options. Now I’m creating a new option that is going to to help someone who maybe doesn’t have the confidence or the skill level doesn’t know how to plug into the arts. My I have a gateway to that and we’ll do our own thing, and folks can add that to their resume and their workshops and things that help them get to where they want to be. So really, we make dreams come true. People have all kinds of creative concepts and ideas, and we can collaborate on them and make sure we find a way to make it happen.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:51] So why do you think so many people kind of self-select out of this performing arts? Is it because they feel like, Oh, you know, my window is closed, I’m not going to become famous? So then why bother? Or there’s too much rejection? They’re never going to pick me. Like, what are some of the reasons you found that people kind of opt out of the arts at, you know, at a certain age?

Joanna Tress: [00:05:13] Yeah. And it’s all of the above. People respond to a survey that’s on our website, and some of the responses include that when they were young, their parents want them to focus on academics even though they had an interest in the art. So sometimes it’s that family pressure or the family business and for them, for a particular career path and they don’t see where it can fit in. For others, there was an accomplished young woman who studied opera for years could sing and play the piano, et cetera, have even put out a record. But then she had an accident, and that that drastically dramatically affected her ability to sing. It was an injury to her face and put her in intense pain, so she put that on the back burner for years. So a lot of times it could be health related. It can be just the responsibilities that we think are we don’t have time. It’s those who feel that they’re not good enough, that they don’t have anything to offer, that they won’t make it. You get rejected so many times for certain auditions and and then you just sort of want to give up. So it’s a combination and everyone has a story. And we actually delve into that so that we can frame our experience. That’s keeping us away from what we love to do and really create a bridge that we can cross over. All right, that was then. This is the next chapter, and here’s what we can do now.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:44] So now what are the five dimensions for Montana five d x?

Joanna Tress: [00:06:50] Well, the five for performing arts that I mentioned as far as creative expression, playing an instrument, acting, dancing and singing, while also we want to make sure every time we get together that we’re immersing ourselves with our five main senses. So we’re going to have something that excites the eyes. Something you can touch and feel physically, tactically. Of course, what you can hear with your ears, which you can smell and what you can taste, especially when we have our live experiences. You know, even if you were giving a goodie bag, it’s going to have something to indulge your senses so that you’re completely immersed in that experience. That’s why we call it five dimensional. And of course, the fifth dimension is also magic, so we’ve got a little sprinkle of that, too.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:39] Now what is the experience like for someone who wants to kind of join forces with you or participate in some of your activities?

Joanna Tress: [00:07:49] Ok, well, the first stop is W W W Dot Matan Lee Kantor, that’s M82 A and a dot org Mactan, a double t double edged sword because that’s where they’ll see what we’re about, and they’re invited to take our initial survey to see where they are. We follow up. We have a secondary survey to get more specific and then we have a free 30 minute consultation to let them know what we can do for them, how we see them. And then of course, we invite them to one of our events online, virtually by Zoom, of course, first. And of course, what that leads to after know, sometimes there’s an open mic element. Sometimes there’s a creative writing and even meditation element. Sometimes it’s an assessment. We have an actual process step by step, but ultimately we want to get together and put a live show on for the community to buy. Tickets have sponsors just all of us delve in and and present a customized show based on each person’s interest. So every show we’re going to do is different.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:08] And then so it’s primarily for people in the Orlando area.

Joanna Tress: [00:09:12] Well, the live events, yes, you’ll come to Orlando for the live events, but of course, the virtual events and we’re getting together on Zoom. I’ve attended many successful events online. That’s, of course, because of COVID. That’s we’ve transitioned to so we can all still share and participate in the workshop activities and even have the spotlight in that group setting. We’re all pretty comfortable with that now, and you’ve got to start somewhere so virtually we can serve the world and then go for that special thing. Got to come to Orlando, and it’s the big time comes over when we get COVID under control, like next year. We look forward to that.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:54] So now are you partnering with other organizations that are involved in the performing arts or would like to be?

Joanna Tress: [00:10:01] Absolutely. I I have organizations that I love and support, like the Tim Aqua Arts Organization here in Orlando. I went to a live performance before the shutdown and blew my mind. There is a collective with recording studios and stages small stages called Jacob JIC. I’ve attended their events and support them, but we are really open to all of the places that have been used that have an audience that we can help and nurture. And we’re opening that up. So we participated with where we attended Orlando Fringe. We’d like to volunteer next as Theater Festival. So really, we’re just getting involved we can and getting the word out. That’s really what I’m doing. The podcast circuit for the radio is to spread the word, to get more people to join us, so we have more to work with.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:04] Now do you find that there’s some kind of maybe businesses that would like to have you maybe do a luncheon, learn or do some education to kind of instill that creativity and that artistic kind of culture into their organization?

Joanna Tress: [00:11:20] Absolutely. I am open to that and I am working on reaching out to businesses for that. Next week actually is my first lunch and learn, so to speak. It is at a a place for the healing arts, so they focus on on total health and wellness with natural things, maybe alternative or homeopathic, whatever you want to call it. And I was invited to attend their staff meeting because we can talk about the therapeutic qualities so they have plenty of clients who would love to have this creative outlet and to really show how it incorporates into your overall mental, emotional and physical health too. So we’re just starting with that next week.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:09] Now you talked about the events you do virtually and in person. If someone goes to your website, is there some samples of that? Can they kind of get a feel for what an event looks like or sounds like?

Joanna Tress: [00:12:23] We don’t have the samples yet. I will. When I connect with someone, I can share testimonials with them that I have on other websites. So experience that I have had and gotten positive feedback, things like singalongs and music nights that are posted. And so it’s not trying to be secretive, but we try to streamline things and we’re really inviting people to connect with us and then we have so much to share from that point. But we want them to get in touch with us and share a little about themselves as well, because the more feedback that we get from those who visit Montana, the more customized we can have to really make this experience what people want and need. You sell them what they want and then you give them what you need. That was the advice I’ve got recently.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:16] Good stuff. Well, congratulations on all the success if somebody wants to learn more one more time with the website.

Joanna Tress: [00:13:22] Yes, WW w dot Mattina dot org. That’s M a t a and a dot org, m a t a and a dot org.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:36] Well, Joanna, thank you so much for sharing your story today.

Joanna Tress: [00:13:40] Oh, I loved it. I appreciate the opportunity. Thank you so much.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:45] Once again, that’s Montana Dawg. Joanna Trece. Thank you for sharing. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you. Thank you. All right, this ad Lee Kantor, we will sail next time on Coach the Coach radio.