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

Hi Julio, what do you attribute your success to?
Always knowing what I wanted and where I wanted to go.

Sometimes you don’t know which way to go or where to start when trying to pursue a goal, but that doesn’t necessarily means you’re not making progress. Keeping your dreams and your goals in mind and taking small steps towards it every day is crucial in my opinion. The world might present you thousands of other opinions or ways to do something but you need to stick to your gut feeling.

Every time you’re feeling confused or lost, stop and remember what’s the purpose of your journey. Everything you’re doing is rehearsal for what’s coming next.

Also having a positive attitude will help you to deal with difficulties along the way, look to problems with the perspective that you’re facing a challenge.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
To be honest I never imagined that I would be producing content for musicians in a professional level in Los Angeles one day.

I come from humble beginnings in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Nobody in my family was part or even close to be in the entertainment or music industry and I knew I wanted to make music, or to be around music in my life as much as possible, so I always embraced every possibility I could, no matter what.

Since a very young age I started to learn about how things worked in this industry as much as possible. Started by learning an instrument, then finding friends and starting a band, to booking my own shows in local bars, to recording my own music, producing, creating visuals, pictures, videos and how to sell it.

I never worried about how much money I was making, or how many hours I was working, or how much I needed to drive to get somewhere, for me it was always about having fun and being around creative people. I think having that mentality since day one was a game changer for me even though I wasn’t much aware of it in my early days.

I realized that if you smile to life, life smiles back at you, even in difficult circumstances, so that mentality carries me along this journey.

It was when I started to produce content to local artists and musicians that I saw a lot of doors open for me, from taking pictures of friends, I started to work with successful bands in my country, which motivated me to move to Los Angeles to expand my knowledge about my craft.

Today, after 6 years in LA, I work as a video production manager at Pickup Music, one of the biggest music and guitar oriented platforms on the internet, all of our platforms combined reach around one million followers.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Los Angeles is a huge city full of diversity and interesting places and people. Personally, I love the ocean so anywhere around the beach in malibu, santa monica or venice makes me few like home.

When it comes to food, I dig Mexican. Never lose the opportunity to try a Burrito. A must go place in my opinion would be Angel’s Tijuana Tacos. I go to the one in North Hollywood but they do have multiple locations around town. Also another go-to place for me is Chipotle, take it or leave it!

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?
I’ve always been blessed in life with the people I’ve met along my journey, many beautiful friends and amazing artists I’ve worked with that helped me and taught me so much about their craft and about life in general, it feels a little unfair to mention one person or a selective group. I do want to give a shout-out to my family for the unconditional support.

Instagram: www.instagram.com/juliomendozamusic

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/JulioMendoza

Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1u2eKVfXuOmb413caIgL4l?si=6cLHUwBNQY6VC2ItviXDgg

Image Credits
For the additional picture credits to Alexandre Magno.

Nominate Someone: ShoutoutLA 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.