Meet Jonathan Limon | Music Composer

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

Hi Jonathan, have there been any changes in how you think about work-life balance?
Throughout the last 5 years, my work life balance changed dramatically. In the beginning when becoming aware of the need to maintain a balance between the two, I didn’t realize how important it was for myself as an individual. Most people find their identity through their employment, or with their careers. Full time managers who spend 80% of their week at work usually identify with that role or position when asked who they are. The same goes for full time students whose entire personal time is dedicated to class, homework, and extracurricular activities. I identified with my roles as a manager and student when becoming aware of the needed balance for both my career and personal life. Over the course of the last couple years, being able to identify the neglect on my personal life with most of my time leaning towards work, I began to make changes to my work roles, changing jobs while keeping my mindset on creating my start up business. This move alone has been able to free up my most important key factor, time. By taking back time from what was invested in work, it’s allowed me to move more time over to my personal life, giving me some type of balance between work and life. I think the balance has allowed me to invest in different creative outlets as an artist. There are always changes being made to maintain the best work life balance for myself, these must be done as new events arise and others closed, or even worked projects.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
My art has several outlets it’s taken on. recently beginning my photography and heading into videography, my art is comprised by a photo portfolio, music portfolio, and brand as an artist. An artist by the name of JLimon (jlimonmusic), what sets me apart from other artists in my field is my self taught and operated business model. As a music composer, I write my own music from beginning to end. Writing out the song from its keynote to end note. Aside from writing, I produce my own musical instrumentals along with the engineering behind it. After which I send these instrumentals to my music studio for songwriting where vocals for the music are created. The mastering and creative cover art is also portrayed by myself, giving me full control of the creative and visual content to tie in with my music. My new skills of photography only add the professional touch to my work, which only gives more reason to take me seriously. I do create a longer timeframe for my workflow, but after consistent practice I shall create my model that will stick and speed the work up. I’ve been able to get where I’m at today mostly by being patient. Rome wasn’t built in a day, so I couldn’t expect to be fully operative within the first year. Reminding myself that this will be a long-term path to my creative success was a key element in helping me keep my motivation up and continuously working towards my goals. Not an easy path to accept, but mistakes have been made along the road which have set me back. Overscheduling myself with separate roles is time consuming, so finding that balance between everything was important. Many important lessons were learned along my path, such as investing in my craft and needing to believe in myself for others to believe in me. You can’t convince people to support you if you don’t even believe in what you are working for, it’s not genuine.
Challenges I faced in my personal life affected the amount of productivity I can handle. For some time, I briefly paused all my creation and tried to focus on my health. Overcoming these challenges and more included a lot of persistence, determination, and focus as to what I was working for. The daily reminders and always putting the outcome first became daily habits to help me reach my goals. These challenges provided lessons in learning how to adapt to changing situations and unforeseen circumstances.
What I want the world to know about my brand, jlimonmusic, and story is that my situations are reality, and situations which others can connect to. I want people to know and understand the meaning behind each project. as I release each creation of mine, whether it be the results of a photo shoot, video shoot, or music I am releasing. My projects, especially music, are either stories told from my point of view and personal experience, or something strictly based off my personal emotions. I want others to find a connection with my work and be able to relate as a human. Jlimonmusic is focused on the reality of everything and finding meaning behind my work. My music is my form of expression in which I hear the world and feel, while my visuals show how I see the world.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
For any of my friends visiting the city of Phoenix, some of the hot places I’d recommend going to check out include our hiking trails, lakes, nightlife, and downtown areas. Places I like to hang out at when it comes to nightlife is checking out our local bars in the downtown area who all have a distinct atmosphere. Cobra Arcade Bar, Valley Bar, Hanny’s, and Melinda’s Alley are all great and unique spots to check out. The Old Town District is great in Scottsdale, full of nightlife all within walking distant. For eating, I highly recommend checking our tacos around the city, one of my favorite meals to eat. Taco Boys, Mr. Mesquite, Speedy’s Tacos, and Charlie’s Taco Truck are all great spots. Although I’m open to other eateries around town, I can’t name them all. As someone who is into fitness and exercising, I always have a great time going out for hiking trails. North Mountain trails and Piestewa Peaks are favorites for hiking, but there are many great trails through these mountains and others throughout the valley. Camelback trail is a highly popular one, which I haven’t tried yet but am more than willing to make the trip soon. Our shopping centers and outlets are always out of town favorites and great places to shop. Westgate with the Tangler Outlets are great places to view.
Now for a friend that was coming over for a week-long trip, checking out the state of Arizona should be high in your to do list. Depending on the time of year, summer needs to include trips to Lake Pleasant, Saguaro Lake, or the Salt River for swimming and tubing. Driving just an hour to two north, you will find more than just the desert, but forest and amazing red colored mountains of Sedona. Viewing areas other than just our hot summer heat is also awesome because of the climate change. There is so many things to see such as snow in Flagstaff which my kids love, and the Grand Canyon. There’s so much nature to see here in the forest and mountains, you can catch all four seasons while up here. What’s great about the state is the distance to the Mexico border, which I always love to go for to visit family and eat out there. A favorite for me personally is my hometown of Somerton, AZ, just south of Yuma. Home is where the heart is, and my family.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My immediate family has been supportive of my decisions in career and educational choices. Although most of what I am creating is not so clear to others, they remain open to the choices made along the way. A lot of my success and mental strength comes from my mentorship through readings. I’ve read several leadership books to grow my personal mental strength. First starting with Steven Covey’s “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”. This literature changed my mind set and helped me in creating goals for myself and focusing on the end goal throughout the process. A Big shout out to Gary Vee’s “Crushing It!” as well, one of my favorite influencers. I’ve learned so much through his book, podcasts, and videos posted through his social media pages. Teaching myself to be open about who I am, accepting failure and turning them into learning lessons, and the many things he talks about helps me humble myself to a more reasonable position, setting realistic goals.

Website: https://linktr.ee/jlimonmusic

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jlimonmusic/?ltclid=

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-limon-0ba67b184/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jlimonmusic/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/?authuser=2

Other: https://jlimonstudios.weebly.com @jlimonmusic for all social media platforms. If you are interested in my real estate work, follow @jlimonrealty

Image Credits
JLimon jlimonvisualz jlimonmusic