Meet Matheus Gonzaga of MGLA

Today we’d like to introduce you to Matheus Gonzaga

Hi Matheus, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Hi everyone! First of all, thank you very much VoyageLA for this amazing opportunity and for giving me the chance to share my story with the world. I feel very grateful. My name is Matheus and I’m originally from Brasilia, Brazil, but Los Angeles has been the place I call home since 2022. I’m going to start my story back when I was a kid, trying to understand the world around me and still learning so many things about myself and others. I didn’t know what a purpose was, I didn’t know what life was like, but one thing I knew with all of my heart, I knew how to dream. I remember being a small kid watching movies that took place in big cities in the world like New York, Paris, Rome, etc.. and I remember seeing myself in places like that which were so far from my reality and immediate surroundings. I fell in love with the idea of this outside world, these different people, the languages they were speaking and deep in my heart, I knew I wanted to travel the world. Highly influenced by my father who loves Elvis Presley and my beautiful and incredibly supportive mom, I started learning English when I was 10 in a language school nearby my house back at that time. Something inside of me, some call it intuition, some call it gut feeling, told me I was doing the right thing by doing that even though I had no idea where I’d be or what I’d be doing with it. Being a Brazilian guy and being part of a country where only 5% of the population can actually speak a second language was something that felt big for me at that time. I was discovering about myself and I was dreaming to connect with people that were far from my surroundings. I was starting also to understand that my role within my family and friends was to show them a different perspective of the world itself since I was the only one in my entire family that went on a trip abroad for the first time. I knew I had to travel in order to see how life is like in other places and all the arousing curiosity within me was too bubbly to keep it in. Today, at the age of 28, I can proudly say that I have already visited more than 18 countries and I have lived in 5 of them so far! Not only that, I’ve learnt how to speak not only English, but working hard on my own and self teaching myself, I’ve also learnt Spanish, Italian, Turkish, Swedish, German, French and still very eager to learn so many others and keep inspiring my brain, myself and the people around me. When my friends introduce me to someone new, they usually say “Oh, that’s Matheus. He speaks 8 languages!” and I used to get very shy at that but with time, I learnt to recognize my own value and give myself some credit for what I do. It all started with a dream and my first oversea trip ever was to Florida when I was only 14 and still living with my parents in Brazil . It was me and a lovely group and that trip ignited the fire in me to keep exploring new places. I fell in love with the sense of being a human being somewhere else rather than my own habitat, I felt a calling to do that and share my experiences with the people I loved the most. I wanted to inspire them to chase their dreams and believe that we can manifest anything we desire. I kept studying languages and traveling, but after graduating from High School, I knew that I could take my purpose somewhere higher and the skills that I had would led me to a career where I could find passion within and keep my personal legend alive. The Bachelor in International Relations gave me a realistic view of the world, by studying many of the complexities and going deep to understand the relationship between countries that was not on a surface level and it opened so many professional doors for me, such as working with embassies, at the honorable Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Brazil, in cross-cultural companies and foremost it is today, the stable foundation of the career path I chose for myself. Genuinely connecting with people from abroad was crucial for my own personal and professional development since I knew I could use my skills to make a big change within society. I fell in love with International Trade during college and during my internships and I can proudly say I achieved my MBA in International Trade and Global Business right after being done with college, knowing that this would give me real experience to manage business and relations all over the globe, working for companies where I could be myself and express my talents and attending to a higher purpose and basically taking me to another level. These were probably the happiest times of my life because I felt I was fulfilling my purpose and that’s also when I started practicing yoga, in order to keep me balanced and finding the strength in myself to go after what I wanted. Yoga has always been the cure to many of the questions I had within and it really connected me to my purpose on such a deeper level. I needed a form of physical and mental activity to keep my flame alive. When I take a look at my life right now, I can see how the universe gave me a hand to manifest my dreams and somehow yoga was also a channel to potentialize this spark. By trusting myself and the own time of things, every dream that popped up in my mind was a chance to do something new and different. Everything that I didn’t know as a kid, falls into place of the stage of my life where I am right now. My name is Matheus Gonzaga, I’m a polyglot, a world citizen, a soul in endless development, I’m proudly opening my international trade consultancy company next year, I teach and coach private and free yoga classes in a studio where I meet people from all over the globe every week and I want to keep inspiring people to work for a better world, acknowledging how small we are compared to Earth and the universe we’re in. My biggest dream, I swear this is the last one I talk about even though I have so many others in my treasure chest, I dream for a better world for all of us everyday. I send my highest vibrations to people and places I’ve never met and seen and I know this is possible because love is reaction-key that keeps not only myself alive, but every breathing thing in the world which I have so much love for.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It hasn’t been a smooth road at all. All the struggles that I had on my way were definitely necessary for my growth though. Some of them really took me some time to understand, whether they had something to teach me or if it was only a life event that basically happens to everyone.. But in the end I think we attribute meaning to everything. Or at least I did. I have always had to deal with obstacles and challenges because I was a gay kid in a very conservative environment. There were moments of my life where I really wanted to kill myself for not being accepted and I didn’t understand the purpose of life events themselves. This was the first challenge. How to be different and accept that I’m “different” from what others expected me to be. There were some pretty sadder ones as well. In 2017, I went on a family trip to Mexico and when I got back home, I started to physically feel very sick. I didn’t know what was going on but that was the start of what I call my awakening process. After several months with pain, headaches, confused feelings and lots of anxiety crisis, I found out I was really sick. I had to stay in a hospital room for over 10 days because of a bacteria I caught on that trip and I could see my death right there. I swear to God there were days I thought of my funeral and songs it’d be playing, but that moment of my life taught me how to get in touch with my spiritual side and “God”. I found strength within to face what was happening to me and also why was that happening to me. I had so many questions within and I just wanted that to be gone, even though I knew and had in mind that if I was leaving to the outer world, I’d be happy because I had done so many cool things that no one was ever able to do and had so many experiences traveling and seeing the world. But that was not the end for me. And I had other dreams to pursue and I was learning how to get in touch with my spiritual side more than ever. Right after I got better, my parents got divorced and me and my today 22-year old brother had to deal with that while I was also mentally recovering from my sickness. I was reading so many holistic books and feeling eager to connect, not with people this time, but with my spiritual side in order to cleanse off all of my traumas, fears, bad thoughts… I did so many wrong things when I was a teenager too. I had to wash myself in new waters so I could have a new life. Especially for being a gay kid, I had to hear many things that I wish I didn’t have to. I remember my father saying I’d never get a job for being gay, that I’d always feel rejected and many other things. It took me so much care not to make his words a reality for my life. And I wanted to prove so bad they were all wrong. Life felt very empty back at that time and I needed something to give me the strength to keep following my path. I still had a lot to learn and I was willing to do anything not to get depressed. In the end of 2018, I did a volunteer trip to Turkey, where I’d have the chance to teach English, Spanish and Italian to teenagers and that’s when I left my mother and brother at home, knowing they would support each other and knowing that they would support me finding my light in the world, but also fearing they wouldn’t understand me and I felt bad many times for leaving them in such a delicate moment. I was at college at that time, practicing yoga constantly and reading about healing, meditation and specially Kabbalah books that helped me a lot to understand my own universe but I really needed a break from everything. After spending 9 months in Turkey, I went back to Brazil to finish college and give my professional life a big start. I was feeling better than never and things were running smoothly. 2019 ended up being one of the best years of my life and that’s also when I think I fell in real love for the first time. I met ex-fiance Bruno in December of that year. In 2020, I was working in my career, doing business overseas working for international trade companies and connecting with incredible people. I was in touch with God on a great sense more than ever and I found that through the practice of yoga, which as well helped me to keep myself focused and guided to not commit the same mistakes and visit my old ways. I had too much garbage to get rid of and life was flowing when I realized the power of karma. I was living in a nice house with my mom and brother. I had everything I needed at that time, but something was missing. When I was a kid, I had also dreamed of a fairytale kinda love and Bruno was right there to show me that was possible. Or at least for some time. This ended up being one of the most loving-catastrophic thing that could happen to me. After 1 year of being in a relationship, I knew something was wrong. I knew I was in a toxic relationship. I couldn’t tell why but I knew it. Everything seemed perfect and I was in love, I had lots of attention and this was the first time I was in a serious relationship! We talked about dreams, about being parents together… We ended up moving in together after dating for almost 2 years.We had so many dreams in common but we didn’t fit each other. At that time, I was learning that love could be hurtful too. We broke up almost 6 times during our relationship and we were both in a vicious cycle which was tearing us apart but we were still connected to each other. Maybe fear of leaving and facing the new. Maybe we were dependent. Or maybe love was like that. But how come? That felt so good and all of these feelings. I started to realize not only to ones faults but also mines and I didn’t want to let go of that relationship because it was the first time I had one and that was one of the things I’ve always wanted to have. He was everything. A very sweet guy, he proved his love in so many ways but deep within, I have always knew that wasn’t right. My intuition was telling me since the very first year and it actually took us to three to end things up for good and I still remember the day I left home on a Sunday afternoon in September 2022 heading to a festival with friends. After 20 minutes that I left, he texted me saying that we were done. My world was falling apart. I wanted to come back home but there was nothing I could do. I was finally free too. However, I didn’t know what to do with my life. Once again, everything was falling apart. My relationship ended, I had a toxic boss at work and the energy was always heavy over there and I was wondering what could I do to change my life once again. I really wanted to escape and start everything again somewhere else. And I did it again. My best friend Larissa was spending some time in California and she invited me to come over and heal myself far away from the place that always gave me pain. Even though I visited the US many times, I never thought about living here one day. I knew Brazil was never the place for me and I knew that at a very young age but I didn’t know America would be. In less than a month, I sold my furniture, my car, ended up contracts and ran errands to leave the country, ready to face whatever life had for me. I had to trust a lot in the universe once again because what I was doing was something completely new for me. I had to surrender and trust the destiny. My heart was shattered in pieces and I needed to be with myself. That’s when my story with America really starts. Decided to leave everything behind, I had a one-way ticket to LAX and that was going to be my seventh time in the country, my lucky number by the way. I landed at LAX on November 1st 2022 and all I remember was the immigration officer saying “Welcome to America. Good luck.” What was going on? I was too confused and hurt and with all of these feelings inside. But he didn’t say “Have a nice trip!” or “Enjoy your time here!” or whatever. He told me good luck because he knew I would need it. After leaving the airport, my best friend Larissa was out there for me, ready to give me a big hug and making sure I wasn’t alone. At least for a month because she would have to go back to Brazil later on that year. It was too much to understand. I had to much to do once again and I knew I needed to somehow just start. Being in LA for over 2 years now has taught me so many things. I feel like I’m a new human being and I’m finally free to be myself and put my skills in practice in a place where feels like home. The streets saw me crying many times but many were the times where I was smiling as well. It took me so much time to heal from my relationship and also insert myself in a new environment, finding a job and doing stuff I thought I’d never had to in my life and everything was so scary but this time was different. My past experiences led to me to this new life and I knew I had to get rid of many things in order to manifest my highest dreams. Oh, dreams… They were the ones to always keep me motivated. Even though I had to do many different kinds of jobs, I became a certified yoga teacher this year, I got my work employment authorization almost 1 year after I landed in LA, I had a place to live and besides all the challenges, I was getting better and things were finally unfolding. Los Angeles showed me and keeps on showing me a new sense of myself where I learn something new everyday and I couldn’t feel more grateful to be here.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Besides being a yoga and meditation instructor, inspiring people to keep themselves active and in touch with their spiritual side, I have a project of my own start-up named MGLA, which is an import/export management and consultancy business, focused on providing full and top-notch services to small business around the world that are looking to enhance their profits by importing or exporting abroad and internationalizing their services. The aim of the company is to act as an international “matchmaker” for sellers and buyers of goods and services, with potential to obtain more gains by exploring the vast worldly possibilities, finding the perfect scenario for your product or service, sustained by top-level consultancy and management, with strong foundations on market research, win-win negotiations and satisfaction from clients. We offer private consultancy in six different languages and we have cultural connections with more than 17 countries, making sure that we are the right agent to assist you on the path of international trade. We get over the necessary and mandatory regulations that apply for each case and we provide full service and assistance. My mission is to deliver my clients and people I connect with, an outstanding service, based on the needs of each customer, assisting them on international negotiations by providing necessary strategies and advices, besides the good vibrations from my team. I also have the purpose to donate part of our revenue to poor nations, where small producers do not have the necessary tools and skills to import or export, making sure I’m always helping people, not matter on what level. And part of my purpose is to keep this happening.

Any big plans?
After all the experiences I had so far, I feel this is the time where I’m more connected to my future than ever. I’m planning to launch my business next year and finally have something which I can call mine and invest my full energy on it and this is probably one of my biggest personal plans for the future. The second one would be one day opening a retreat stay by the ocean for yogis and all kinds of folks what want to develop their skills in yoga, creative arts and everything they can do to get in touch with their mystical side and relax from the daily world demands. I also dream of becoming a father and possibly having 2 kids! If that’s not too much to ask for (laughs). I’m looking forward to being the best version of myself day by day and bring the best in others on a personal level and keep inspiring people no matter where I go and no matter what I do. I wish and want to see a happy world, with healthy relationships between humans and countries, I want to see planet Earth thriving even though I know these are hard times for everyone and everything. We can’t make the circumstances a challenge and I can prove that little by little, we can all make the difference and cause a positive impact in this world. I’m looking forward to seeing a better world for every breathing cell. That’s my highest wish for the future. Namaste and thank you very much for reading out my story!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @matfgonzaga

Image Credits
Giovanna Dell’Vecchio