We caught up with the brilliant and insightful MJ Garcia a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
MJ, so great to have you with us and we want to jump right into a really important question. In recent years, it’s become so clear that we’re living through a time where so many folks are lacking self-confidence and self-esteem. So, we’d love to hear about your journey and how you developed your self-confidence and self-esteem.
Three very important things come to mind when answering this question.
The first one being the incredibly unconditional love and support that I received from my parents when growing up. They were the first voice in my head that encouraged me to dream big. My entire life with them they taught me to go after any dream that I have no matter the size or the distance, and I could see it in their eyes and hear it in their words that they believed that me and any of my siblings were capable of anything. They gave me the strongest foundation to stand on and phase the world. My parents believed in me and they taught me to do the same.
Later on, at the end of my teenage years, I moved to Los Angeles. This magical city brought so many enlightening opportunities and people. For the first time in my life I met and got close to women that looked and sounded like me who showed me how to get a seat at the table. Their empowerment came from being a woman, and more specifically a latinx woman.
As a kid, everybody that I looked up to was either an american girl or a boy. All the things that I wanted to do were being done by men. Literally all the roles that I wanted to play were being played by men. I never realized it until I met women who had similar dreams to mine and helped me pin point this problem. They also encouraged me to find more women and especially hispanic women to look up to. They also showed me how to create my own table when a seat wasn’t open at others. I owe a lot to these beautifully empowered and opinionated women that I met in my late teenage years.
Third, and I would dare say more importantly, myself. At the beginning of my twenties there was a specific time in my life where I found it extremely difficult to believe in myself. I had people telling me constantly that they believed in me and that they looked up to me, but those words meant nothing to me when I was doubting myself so much. I appreciated, and still do, all the people that supported me during that time, but I learned (the tough way) that nothing was going to change for me if I didn’t take control of my own thoughts and took responsibility for my actions. I wouldn’t say I had to force myself to believe in me again, but there came a moment where I had to take a look at my life and learn from all the things I had achieved thus far and take inspiration to keep moving forward. Even though it was har at first, I quickly realized that even if I have all the love and support in the world, it means nothing if it doesn’t first come from me.
This is how I developed my confidence and self-esteem and these are the three landmarks I refer to when I ever doubt myself or when my self-esteem gets a little funky.
A healthy support system and a strong relationship with myself is, what I believe, all I need to keep going.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I am an actor. I have a degree in acting for film and that’s where my heart has always been. I have been lucky enough to have worked in great projects throughout the years like web-series, short films, independent features and very fun commercials for big brands including Nissan, McDonalds, Universal Studios and more. Some of the projects that I’ve been in have put me in great places too like extremely fun premieres and even a couple of award nominations and wins for the projects and myself like Best Actress in independent film festivals.
When I dove into this industry, I very quickly realized that being able to wear more than one hat would be extremely beneficial for me and that is why I decided to also put to work my self-taught makeup artist skills. Being *that* friend that always did my friends’ makeup, turned into a “hey can you do makeup on my film?” and later into fortunate hustle for me. I love it because it allows me to stay on set, stay creative and have fun.
More recently I decided to start my own production company alongside my brother Andrés. We called it Golden Watch Films and we already have two finished projects and a couple in post-production and many in pre.
The idea of starting our own production company came from our profound need to create and our tremendous luck of having a wide roster of the most talented people in all the fields.
Discovering my new hat as a film producer has been so empowering to me and it has added more to my list of dreams and goals. So here we go!
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
1. Find the technique that works best for you. I can not emphasize enough how much my acting changed and improved when I found the technique that worked for me and when I started applying it correctly. Go to classes, try new things, read books, take workshops and find what works for you and always, aaaaalways stay training. Just like any other skill, you need to keep polishing it to keep getting better. I mean this about acting but I’m sure it can be applied to any of the other fields that I’m a part of, if not to all the fields in the world!
2. Surround yourself with the right people. Talented, hard working and positive out look on life- that’s the team! People that inspire you and that get inspired by you.
3. Stay creative! In any way, shape or form. Stay in contact with your creative side, always. I got this advice from someone who I admire a lot and it’s true. The world changes around you when you stay creative. And it’s wrong to think that the only way to stay creative is that of doing the one thing that you love most. Look inside of you, there are a million of creative expressions ready to burst if you let them.
What is the number one obstacle or challenge you are currently facing and what are you doing to try to resolve or overcome this challenge?
Social Media.
For many years I’ve been happy to consume social media but, for some odd reason, scared to participate in it. I’ve allowed myself to feel a weird pressure of having to create the “BEST content or else not do it at all”.
It’s so easy to compare ourselves to the good and the bad: “I’m not good enough because these people do it better”, “I’m better than that, that’s why I don’t do it”, “if they did it then why is it not working for me?”, blah blah blah.
With my industry being so close to social media, sometimes the need to participate in it is overwhelming and feels more of an obligation than a playground. But I do acknowledge that there are opportunities for me there and that, if I want, it can be just another outlet for my creativity.
There are a lot of opinions and voices in my head about social media, but slowly I’m making piece with it and I’m starting to have more fun with it.
While we’re at it- you can find me on instagram @mjgrrcia and TikTok as @mjgrr lol!
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @mjgrrcia @goldenwatchfilms
- Other: Tiktok: @mjgrr
Image Credits
First picture with white blouse: Stephanie Girard. Picture with scarf on head and red gloves: Carlos Asse.
