Ivan Meshcheriakov

I'm Ivan Meshcheriakov — also known as IvanFromRnD — a music producer, creator, and founder of Meshplugins.com. This is the part most people don't see.

More than five years ago, I moved to Los Angeles with my pregnant wife, a few loans, and one dream: to become a music producer.

We arrived during the COVID era — probably one of the hardest possible times to start a new life in a new country. The music industry had almost completely stopped. Studios were closing, opportunities were disappearing, and we had no safety net. We had no powerful connections, no investors, and no guarantee that any of this would work.

We only had each other.

Building from zero

I worked up to 14 hours a day, almost every day, sometimes juggling three different jobs. In the mornings and afternoons, I delivered packages, pizza, and food. I also filmed videos for artists and recording studios. In the evenings, I worked as an intern at a studio — helping wherever I could, meeting people, learning how the industry worked, and trying to turn every small opportunity into something bigger.

My wife was pregnant, but she was working just as hard. She would spend up to two hours riding the bus just to help us earn a little more money, cleaning the homes of wealthy families.

We were both exhausted. We were building a new life from nothing while preparing to become parents, trying to survive financially, and still holding on to the belief that one day all of this work would mean something.

Slowly, one day at a time, I started building what I used to call my little empire.

The tests no one sees

But life kept testing us.

Our first immigration attorney deceived us, and we lost more than $15,000 with almost nothing to show for it. It was not only the money. We lost time, energy, trust, and the feeling that our future was secure.

By then, my wife was pregnant with our second child. We had no choice but to take out another loan, hire another attorney, spend even more money, and work even harder. In total, I spent more than $30,000 just to obtain legal status — the opportunity to live, work, raise my children, and become a legal and contributing member of this society.

Then I was involved in a car accident. The car that helped us make money and support our family was declared a total loss. I had to recover physically, emotionally, and financially, while still carrying the responsibility of providing for my family.

There were moments when everything felt too heavy. There were moments when I did not know how we were going to keep moving forward. But one phrase was always in my head:

“No pressure, no diamonds.”

That phrase became more than motivation. It became the way I looked at my life. Pressure can break you, but it can also shape you. So I kept going. I continued making music, filming content, building relationships, creating products, learning from every person I met, and sharing everything I discovered with other producers, engineers, and artists.

Where I am today

Today, my content has generated more than 100 million views across social media, and I have built an audience of more than a quarter of a million followers across different platforms.

I have collaborated with brands such as JBL, AKG, Cadillac, Sony, Native Instruments, and many others.

I have interviewed more than 100 Grammy-winning and Grammy-nominated producers, engineers, songwriters, and music professionals. They have shared their creative processes, vocal chains, favorite plugins, studio techniques, career lessons, and the kind of knowledge that is rarely available in traditional courses or textbooks.

My music has also been used in sync placements and projects connected with companies and organizations such as Zara and the NFL.

I have been involved in music for many years, but I am still learning every day. I am still creating, experimenting, meeting new people, and trying to turn my experience into something valuable for the music community.

The mission behind Meshplugins.com

Everything I build now comes from that journey. The videos, the interviews, the educational content, the products, and Meshplugins.com are all parts of the same mission: to create a community where producers, engineers, and artists can learn from real professionals and gain access to tools and information that can help them move forward.

When people see the views, the followers, the brands, the Grammy winners, and the opportunities, they often see only the result.

They do not see the deliveries. They do not see the long bus rides. They do not see my pregnant wife cleaning homes while we were trying to survive. They do not see the loans, the immigration problems, the accident, the financial pressure, the rejection, or the nights when I barely slept before starting another 14-hour day.

But when I look back now, I do not remember those years only with pain. I remember them with warmth. It was extremely difficult, but it was also a time when my wife and I proved that we could go through almost anything together. We worked, sacrificed, supported one another, raised our children, and built something from absolutely nothing.

Those years shaped our family. They shaped my work ethic. They shaped the way I see opportunities, people, success, and failure.

If you're starting from zero too

I am not sharing this story because I want sympathy. I am sharing it because I know there are people who are currently in the same position I once was.

Maybe you are working a job you do not love while trying to build your dream at night. Maybe you have debt. Maybe you moved to another country and feel like you have to start your entire life again. Maybe you trusted the wrong people, lost money, or experienced something that made you question whether your dream was still possible.

I understand that feeling. I know what it is like to start from zero. I know what it is like to work all day and then spend the evening building something that nobody else can see yet. I know what it is like to fail, lose money, feel exhausted, and still wake up the next morning and continue.

And I have learned that sometimes success is not about having the perfect plan. Sometimes it is simply about refusing to stop.

This is not a finished success story. I am still on my journey. I am still building my community, growing my platforms, creating new products, interviewing incredible people, working with artists and brands, and trying to become better than I was yesterday.

I am still building my little empire — one video, one relationship, one product, and one opportunity at a time.

“No pressure, no diamonds. And I am only getting started.”

Follow me: Instagram · TikTok · YouTube · Threads · Spotify · all my links — and explore the tools at Meshplugins.com. Every purchase helps me keep creating.