LOL Lifecoach

MANNY GARAVITO decided to become a comedian the moment HR told him to stop telling jokes at the office.

“I was working in corporate banking, wearing a tie, making my coworkers laugh, and occasionally getting pulled into awkward conversations about ‘professionalism,’” Garavito says. “Tough crowd!”

Garavito did his first open mic in 2009 at the old Miami Improv in Coconut Grove—and bombed. “It was an out of body experience on stage,” he recalls. “But I looked into the crowd and saw my dad smiling and nodding. Not because I was killing, but because he didn’t speak English. Later, I told that exact story on stage and people laughed. That’s when I realized being real was funny.”

LIVING FOR LAUGHS

Garavito quit the corporate gig, finished his marketing degree at Florida International University, then, using his savings, bought www.miamicomedy.com from a digital squatter for $2,700.

“That was probably the first big joke I invested in,” he says. “But I started using all the traditional marketing stuff I learned to build a real comedy audience. The kind of people who wanted to laugh regularly. And as my writing got sharper, the scene started to grow. We weren’t just doing bar shows anymore—we were making people feel like they belonged to something.”

Around 2017, Garavito had an epiphany: The skills he had meticulously honed on stage might translate to other areas of life. So, he founded Miami Networking to host less transactional, more casual meetups all around the city.

“I noticed most networking events felt like LinkedIn in real life,” Garavito says. “People were pitching themselves, not really being present. So, I started hosting events the same way I’d warm up a crowd. I’d break the ice, get people laughing, and next thing you know, strangers are becoming friends without any business cards involved…No sales pitches. No agenda. Just meet people and vibe.”

Simultaneously, Garavito launched a comedy/life coaching platform to help people improve their lives and relationships through humor.

“Whether people want to be funnier in conversations, on dates, or in content— comedy is a skill that brings people closer,” he says. “Helping someone discover that in themselves is just as fun as making a group of people laugh as a whole.”

What makes it all work is that the funniest, most gregarious man in Miami might very well also be the hardest working: So, forget what HR told you: Manny Garavito is a Magic City treasure.

For more information on Garavito’s work, visit www.mannygaravito.com and www.miaminetworking.com.

BY SHAWN MACOMBER