We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jim Francis Meza a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Jim , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

It dawned on me that I wanted to professionally pursue my craft when I felt entrapped into a 9-5 job that felt like your typical dead end job. You see, I had bigger dreams and aspirations. I wanted to be an actor, be famous, and travel the world. As a child, I always felt I would be somebody that would leave a mark in this world.

Jim , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I shot out of the Lincoln Heights area. A very impoverish lower middle class ghetto in Northeast L.A. also known as NELA adjacent to Chavez Ravine or better known as Dodger stadium. I got the Acting bug rather early learning the nuts and bolts of the acting craft and performing at the local Cultural Center, Plaza de La Raza. I had dreams and aspirations most of my life. Being that I was around so much gang warfare, it was a great outlet to participate in activities that would let your creativity flow. In addition, I took up guitar and folk-lorico that helped shape my taste buds in music and dance. Living in a gang-ridden neighborhood was in no small part an easy life, since we would stay indoors most of the time. My sister Liz and I put on plays for the family and we sang songs around the house. Music and God were a constant in the Meza residence and I credit church and my parents tough upbringing for helping us not turn to the streets. Books were also ingrained in us. On any given day, you could find us consumed in a book totally observed. I must have voraciously read over 1k books in a span of a couple of years at least. We vicariously, lived through the characters in stories. I had an iota, a seed planted in my subconscious embedded by my parents, that someday I would be someone who would leave their indelible mark in this world.

However, we are taught by design that a dream is only a dream which can therefore easily dissipate because it is not tangible. So I live by faith day in and day out. If you listen to life, it will teach you that with Faith and a large helping dosage of patience you can plant a seed and watch it grow and blossom into something astronomical. So out of the thin air essentially, something is born. That is how I live my life with intent and purpose. I have undying faith that one day everything we set out to do in life with ironclad determination and hard effort will eventually come to fruition. I also am a strong believer in God and my purpose here on earth. If Gods plan is aligned with what I am dreaming about it will be worth the wait and hard toil. Its imperative that you have a purposeful meaning in what you do and that it comes from a good place the heart. if you find yourself in a successful place by earthly standards, but not feel like you have arrived or been satisfied completely. Its time to stop in your tracks and check yourself, chances are you are not being true to yourself. Let me elaborate, each of us is born with a gift, until we find within us whatever that said gift or talent is, we cannot fully devote ourselves. We can be successful if you stick by anything long enough, no question. However to feel immensely fulfilled and complete, we must know beyond a shadow of a doubt that what you are doing makes you feel alive and that you have a rudder or road map to a destination. Otherwise, you go about life aimlessly and you squander your time and yet you feel insatiably unsatisfied. Personally, I believe a major part of our journey on earth is to help one another. When we fly together, we reach loftier heights together.

Fast-forward to present day, I have two podcasts: “Juicy Divas, confessions of a Limo Driver” & “Madhouse Unleashed” with Mad Mike from Pimp my Ride. Our producers Seth Goldstein and Sanjini Bhakta & our camera crew, Joen Pupo have all been instrumental in helping us throughout the process. As they say, it takes a village.

In addition, I am working with Producers and creators of Emergence2028, Ian Kane and Matt Taff. Its a Sci-Fi, Action packed Tv Series which is in development now and will be shot later this year with an amazing cast and crew.

Lastly, I have a side musical project as well with the one man act, “White Horse”.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

The fuel that drives me or catalyst is the will to give back. Every step of the way, I like to think I am helping someone and it enriches their lives as well as mine. I find that its my duty to be God like as we are made in his likeness. So, when it comes to the arts, I enjoy randomly supporting folks on my Instagram whether that is sharing their work or tagging people on their pages. I find that there is really no “I” in team. That said, if you work in a team fashion, you can extend your tentacles far wider and reach a wider audience. My mission will be accomplished when my son James Matthew Meza has reached his pinnacle of success, and has even gone the extra mile, to ensure he can leave a legacy and be a trail-brazer in in his own right.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

I cannot stress enough the importance of working with one another and impacting somebody life. I love to collaborate on projects and during our podcast sessions, learn from others struggles and challenges, is so rewarding. People overcome their own giants, their peaks and valleys, just like everyone. That said, everybody struggles with something in life and we are all books whos stories need to be told. I get to do just that, expose or bring under hopefully a positive light others accomplishments and trials and tribulations.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://juicydivasconfessionsofalimodriver.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jimfrancismeza/
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/jfmeza
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jim-francis-meza-8b2b10244/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/Jimfrancism3za
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCasQm-iwou4YipQxoVohcNg
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/show/16jBxxj4breWRN2wbd4FM0?si=XN9HHCXeTbOknns2X0qFPg&nd=1 https://youtu.be/Cly-evwVXII https://www.instagram.com/madhouseunleashedpodcast/ https://www.imdb.com/name/nm9131371/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk