How Community Leads to Confidence w/ Tobias Tankard, Jr., Musician

Allen C. Paul: 00:00
Hello and welcome to the God and Gigs Show. Thank you so much for making this podcast a part of your creative day. My name is Alan C. Paul. I'm your host, and this podcast is here to help you build a better creative life from the inside out by applying timeless spiritual principles to the temporary creative problems that you might be facing. I am so blessed to have a community of artists, musicians, creatives, freelancers, all kinds of people who have a Christian, faith-focused background, who want to excel in their gifts, connecting the dots between their spiritual life and their creative life. And one of those creatives is the person you're going to hear from today in this episode. His name is Tobias Tinker Jr. He's a Jacksonville-based musician, creative, producer, songwriter, and he really is a great example of the people that we help and the people that have grown with us. I've had several coaching calls with Tobias. He has always been so open to learning and growing with our community, always encouraging other people and sending us connections and helping us to meet other creators in this group. It is really a pleasure to share his story with you. You're going to hear how he overcame obstacles, how he was mentored, how he grew in confidence to grow into new areas of his life, how he's really balanced out his faith and his calling. It's really a great example of what you can learn and what you can do when you join a community like ours. So, right after our intro, you're going to hear from Tobias Tankard Jr.

Voiceover: 01:38
Artists, musicians, and creatives of all kinds. Looking for help balancing your passion to create with your everyday life? Not sure if your faith can coexist with your profession? Welcome to a place where real artists discuss real life. You're listening to the God and Gig Show. Visit Godandgigs.com for show notes, links, and more information.

Allen C. Paul: 02:07
Tobias Tanker Jr., welcome to the God and Gigs program. How are you, bro?

Tobias Tankard, Jr. : 02:11
Good. How are you doing, man?

Allen C. Paul: 02:12
I'm doing awesome. And like I said, I just we were just talking before we started recording. Um, you've been in this game a while. You have actually been so gracious to like call me for creative checkups and stuff and coaching, things like that. But more importantly, I just want people to hear from someone like you who's out here doing it, man. You're out here doing the very things we talk about, God of Giggs being for musicians to help them build a better life from the inside out. You are all the things that we talk about. So just tell little people who are listening, you know, who you are, what you do, you know, your your creative gift, and a little bit about your business.

Tobias Tankard, Jr. : 02:49
Oh, yes, sir. Uh my name is Tobias Tanger Jr. I'm from Tallahassee, Florida, but I've been living in Jacksonville, Florida since about 97, 98. So I primarily grew up here my whole life in Jacksonville, Florida. As far as what I do, I'm mainly a musician, uh, primarily playing in church. Uh a couple gigs here and there. Uh I produce music, mostly for independent artists, um as of now. Um I also do songwriting. I do that along with a couple um people. I arrange live shows and do performance tracks for TV, commercial music jingles as well.

Allen C. Paul: 03:36
Nice, man. And so much of that, you know, when I started hearing you talk about it was, you know, I know that you started in the church. You started as a musician, you got a musical family. Uh, talk a little bit about that, like how you got started. You know, did you get started from your family teaching you? Because, you know, some people might see your last name and they may say, oh, well, I've heard that name before. So tell tell us tell us a little bit about how you got started and you know, whether whether whether it was, you know, what your inspiration was from the yeah, my uh whole family is musical, ranging from my mom, my dad, my sister, and even my three younger brothers who all are musically talented in some kind of way, in which my sister is an artist, songwriter, and one of my younger brothers, he's an artist as well, and he's only 15, about to be 16.

Tobias Tankard, Jr. : 04:27
He own he already knows how to record himself his own self. He it's one of the skills he learned during the pandemic, he learned how to record himself. And uh we didn't even know that he really wanted to be an artist in songwriting to the pandemic. The pandemic birthed a new skill in him. So he wrote over 20 songs during last summer uh in spring break. And uh one of my other brothers played saxophone in school, and my youngest brother um plays piano. So primarily everybody knew I was gonna do music, being with my parents, being in the music industry, my dad being a sound engineer, which he actually started being a drummer, and the sound man wasn't in church, so they'll ask him to you know turn the volume up and stuff, and that's how he started. And my mom, she knew I was gonna be a drummer because before I was born, you know, she um when she would be in rehearsals, I used to kick to the beat of the drum in her stomach. So she already knew I was gonna play drums. So honestly, before even when I was born, I was already playing drums, hypothetically, if you speaking, if you want to say it. So then so yeah, yeah, I love it.

Allen C. Paul: 05:36
Yeah, kick drum, play the kick drum inside it's it from the very beginning.

Tobias Tankard, Jr. : 05:39
Yeah, I was actually uh as she will tell that if you let her tell that up, my uh foot was kicking to the same beat of the drummer, which the drummer was actually uh James Davis, who is actually from Miami, and they call him the Godfather. So he's primarily responsible for my uh upbringing drums, uh, between him and another guy I grew up in church with, uh, Corey Johnson, which Corey Johnson's responsible like of uh transitioning me into like not only drums, but the producer and ranger, he's the one that kind of like birthed me into that because before there was computers and stuff, he would have his ASR. I know you know about that, and uh he'll run loop. So I wish I could find this clip, but it's like I was about 10 years old or something, and then they used to have View Sunday, and uh I played drums along with the click track and um View Sunday. So as uh pretty much paying drums all my life has been my main instrument and um just doing it professionally.

Allen C. Paul: 06:44
Yeah, I just I wanted to stop right when you mentioned the mentors because you talked about your family kind of being being surrounded by music. I wanted to ask you also in terms of those mentors, the James Davis's, the Corey Johnsons, um, what did it feel like when you were trying to either approach or get, you know, when you had that question, like maybe there was something where it's like, okay, how do I do this? How do I do that? Did you have to approach these mentors? Did these mentors come to you? Like, because a lot of people get scared and intimidated, you know what I mean? Especially in church and stuff like that. They get nervous.

Tobias Tankard, Jr. : 07:19
Nah, not not with not with them being, because you gotta another thing too, you gotta, I know people say you get wearing feet in, but it's people you're comfortable around being yourself. So they know, you know, they know how I am. So it's really everybody will tell you, even at my younger age, somebody's as inquisitive. I ask a lot of questions. Not even me knows it, I ask a lot of questions, even um younger and to my age now, I don't forget nothing. I remember everything. So yeah, so it's not approachable. I just ask questions uh like what's this? Even mess around and like don't touch that mess up. I ask questions. You know, if you don't know, ask. That's that's pretty much they'll show me. So I mean, I mean, primarily most part for what I have known comes from them, and even those are like my primary two mentors, but I have a whole few other mentors as well throughout the years and stuff.

Allen C. Paul: 08:12
Got it, got it. That's awesome, man. And yeah, it's so important to have people in your life that kind of drive you. Um, tell me a little bit about your goals as a musician, as a producer, because we talked about this in some of the creative, uh, some of our coach little coaching calls we've done before, where you know, you might have had some goals back when you were first starting, and then you got a little bit, you know, if I remember correctly, correct me if I'm wrong. You weren't, I don't even want to say the word frustrated because that's kind of negative, but I feel like you you felt like there was something more. And at one point when you called, you asked me about, okay, how do I stop calling myself just a musician? Like you, I think you were nervous about either putting the name producer on you because you hadn't necessarily done a lot of producing yet.

Tobias Tankard, Jr. : 08:54
Well, I I have I have, but uh according to Prussian, but I haven't done it at the level I want to. But it's like honestly, looking looking back over, I like honestly at the other day, I was like, really? I've done a lot of stuff. It's like I told somebody the other day, I like, I don't even have to produce make another song or something. All I had to do is just go on my computer and just pull something up from my hard drive or like in one of my cloud drives. Like I was told to always like, even in your down season, treat it like it's show now, you know, because you never know. So I always create and it's like even not even primarily feeling down, but you know, you get them times you be like, Am I good enough? You see everybody else succeeding. But it honestly it may not just be your time yet. So you have to just like in basketball, you have you got sometimes you gotta learn to sit on the bench and watch other people and learn. Some people don't want to learn, they just want to be in the game.

Allen C. Paul: 09:45
That's deep, that's really serious. Like, especially when you're on the bench and you feel like you've got enough talent to be in the game, right? Especially in music.

Tobias Tankard, Jr. : 09:52
When you feel like Yeah, and that's and that's another thing as us young people we struggle. We don't want to, we don't want to learn. We just want to like, I want they get that like pick me spirit, that show me spirit. You can't do that because even people you look up to, they had to say learn, but you know, that's a whole nother conversation for no that's great.

Allen C. Paul: 10:10
No, that's a great conversation. I want to kind of stick there a little bit because that kind of is what I was getting at, which is you've been willing. Every and the reason why I wanted to have you on the, you know, to share your story is one, you're clearly a learner. You just mentioned it before, you're inquisitive. You don't just sit back and wait for people to like show you stuff. You actually go ask. You go, you you you you're on the, you know, you talked about uh you and I both being uh uh at the convention with Trent Phillips, who I always bring up Trent. He's another mentor of both of us. Um and always being willing to put yourself in the seat of a learner. Can you talk about like why that's important to you? Why to because some guys, again, I'm want to be serious, some people are not willing to be to be at conventions and to be at conferences and to go to YouTube. Like they just want to like do it, but they don't want to learn. So, how how did that come to you? Is that something for your parents? Is that just the way you're built? You know what I mean?

Tobias Tankard, Jr. : 11:07
Um, all the above, honestly, just being around people that don't, before you ask me, go research it first. I want that kind of thing. I want you to find out for yourself and then come to me if you have the same kind of question. It's like, okay, yeah. So everybody thinks I might have it, might have it easy because because of me, I'm like, honestly, I have to work more because I have something to prove to people, not just gonna hand it to you. I'm saying honestly, I started to learn that I'm not going it through it for me. I'm going through it because other people I'm connected to and I might be going through it for the next person, next creative, musician or whatever. I'm going through it for them.

Allen C. Paul: 11:43
I love that. Man, that's so well said, honestly. Like you really, really broke that down well. That it's it's not just about you, it's about showing the people that you respect and the people that are coming behind you, you know, they both need to see that work ethic and they both need to see that, you know, you're committed to it. And then when you see the six success later, because like you said, now I'm pretty sure, like back in the day when you were first starting, you couldn't imagine a day where you just have like songs on top of songs left in the in the cloud in the storage, uh, or or several different credits, right? Like it's easy to say, it's easier to say to other people, oh, just stick with it. And they don't believe you, but you're proof, like you stuck with it. And now you do have a level of confidence that you probably didn't have back then. Did you imagine back in the day before you had all of your tracks and you were pr producing, starting? Did you ever imagine there come a time like this? Did you have trouble imagining when you'd be able to look back and say, I've got credits, I've got this, I've had songs, I've had jingles. Was that something that was hard to imagine back then because of when you were starting?

Tobias Tankard, Jr. : 12:50
Uh it's not hard to imagine because as you say, goals when you say goals for yourself. So when you said some people said unrealistic goals, or some people say realistic goals. So when you like you said, talking about the goals, it's it comes to that. It doesn't surprise you because you um you set that for yourself. You know what I'm saying? So you just gotta know your limits. It don't surprise me. Actually showing me sometimes that I'm actually better than I think I am, because that's sometimes I put myself down and I'm actually better than what I what I really seem to be at times. So honestly, confidence came with honestly, confidence came with prayer.

Allen C. Paul: 13:31
Wow, important. So important right there. So you just you just transitioned right there perfectly to that where faith comes in, right? Because being in church is not just about playing in church. Being in church should be hopefully about growing as a person, as a as a Christian. So how how how important has that been in your in your development as a musician, actually being connected to a church that you feel is feeding you spiritually, not just a place to play?

Tobias Tankard, Jr. : 13:58
That's that's like you're reading my mind because I enjoy not playing in church and just being able to worship. Like it's been even the past week, I forgot I had to play drones. I done got caught up crying playing. I'm like, oh snap, I had to snap out of it. That's what I'm supposed to be playing. Yeah, it's like that. And it's like, you know, prime example. My sister, I'm telling her right now, she don't understand. She likes, you don't want to play no more. I'm like, not that I don't want to play no more. It's just a term of I'm not playing because I have to. I want to play because I want to. I'm playing because survival. It's like it's time to go into the next phase. You want to wear a tear in your body, you've been doing this for so long. Like I said, it's more than one thing you can do. I really need to tap into the other gifts and other things we talked about the other day. So I can't do that, trying to having to learn music and programs up for Sunday church and all that. I ain't gonna be able to focus because I can't multitask. I'm starting, it's one thing I'm working on, but I have to focus on primarily one thing, you know. And just like one of my um uncles, he said he has his term. He says focus, uh, follow one course until successful.

Allen C. Paul: 15:08
Oh wow. Okay, I gotta stop you right there because you haven't heard this episode yet, but there is a a huge artist that I just interviewed that said that exact same thing. The one I don't know when this comes out, but yes. I'm teasing it because you just teased it.

Tobias Tankard, Jr. : 15:27
I might need to come out after that episode.

Allen C. Paul: 15:29
But no, say it again because when they hear it again, they're gonna see that this is not just one person, this is something that we all need to follow. So say it again, follow one course.

Tobias Tankard, Jr. : 15:38
Uh it's the acronym, but the word is focused, but the acronym is uh follow one course until successful.

Allen C. Paul: 15:46
That's it. And so what you just mentioned about this is tough. This is a tough thing, man. I knew this was gonna be a great conversation, so I said, Okay, I don't know if you even planned it, but let's not plan it, let's just talk.

Tobias Tankard, Jr. : 15:57
I'm just it's just it's just free will, just it's just god and gigs.

Allen C. Paul: 16:02
Amen. So let me ask you this how how would you describe that feeling to somebody else of saying someone else is saying, no, there's no way I could not be a musician. That's all I do, I play, that's what I do, I sing.

Tobias Tankard, Jr. : 16:15
Well, not really, because that person is me. They they that's what they're telling me.

Allen C. Paul: 16:20
Right. But I've but that's what I think. I think a lot of people get caught up and they think if the their identity is all that they have in terms of music.

Tobias Tankard, Jr. : 16:29
You gotta you gotta learn how to speak other people's language because some people people don't you gotta learn how to talk communicate. That's what I learned because some people they only know church and they they might think you're trying to think you better than them because you're saying it's more, but you had to explain to them. So that's what I had to do, especially with um a guy that I a guy that I work with. We pretty much do everything together. I was explaining to him, but like he's starting to understand, he he understands now first and when we first met, start working. Like he he started to see what I be uh trying to tell him.

Allen C. Paul: 17:01
And you know, this I just realized there's somebody else that uh a mutual friend of ours, Jay Mills, says this too. You know, he says that he uh he coined that more than a musician phrase. I think that that applies too.

Tobias Tankard, Jr. : 17:12
Yeah, and not just him. Uh not just him, uh Jayla Toya. Yeah, the female drummer, the female musician. She's definitely, but she's been that way since like I've known like that's another person I've known. Like she's been that way too. She she even does renovation and homes and all type of stuff.

Allen C. Paul: 17:27
And the key is that any of this stuff that we're talking about, those of you who are listening to us right now, we're not saying that music is not important. We're not saying that you should like throw away your talent or your gifts, but there's there's so much more that you have to offer.

Tobias Tankard, Jr. : 17:39
It's crap, it's crazy how you say that because you know you're supposed to have, they say you're supposed to have six or seven streams of income, right? Right. So along with that, is I wrote down my different streams. So along with just music by itself, seven seven different streams, musician, producer, songwriter, arranger, and music publisher. And so goes on.

Allen C. Paul: 18:00
Exactly. But developing those things takes different skills, and you're willing. That's why I want to go back to the learning research and learning, like you said, being willing to sit down. Let me ask you, really, in terms of God and gigs, because I am I am selfishly kind of putting you on because you are one of the people who have been there from the very beginning. Um, and I'm being being honest, like this is weird, it's a weird question to ask, but I gotta ask you, what did you see in God and gigs that made you feel this would be something that would help you do all these things? Because when I first started this, I didn't know if this would be helpful to people like you.

Tobias Tankard, Jr. : 18:33
I was I didn't know it developed over time. Okay, and I said it come with you, your personality is it's you because I don't even think you had no, you did do God and gigs, but um honestly it was you. But what's crazy is I connected with you more than I did with John Mike, and I both met John, and he was there, but oh that's right. John Mike was there. Oh my gosh, that's crazy because I I spoke to him first, and your table's next to him. His table was next to him.

Allen C. Paul: 18:58
Oh my gosh, okay, I gotta explain to people because I remember you gotta tell them what's going on. Yeah, because we we did have I I totally forgot this. So basically, Trent Phillips had his his conference, the um the collective was it collective, the collective, I think uh collective uh the collective music conference. So I forgot that I didn't only remember that John Mike was there.

Tobias Tankard, Jr. : 19:18
I told I told y'all I don't forget.

Allen C. Paul: 19:20
Wow, so that's crazy. So yeah, my table was set up, and I just probably written the book. I probably it uh I probably just released the book, and yeah, you were at that conference, it was up in Atlanta. And the reason why I'm bringing this up, Tobias, and why I appreciate you those kind words, I was official for compliments. It's basically what I was telling you before we started recording, and so everybody can hear it. There was a process to all this. When I started Got Engaged, I didn't know exactly what it was gonna be. I didn't know much about writing, I didn't know much about producing, I didn't know much about you know podcasting at all. I hadn't started the podcast, you know what I mean? So, so many things that we end up becoming have to come from our willingness to say, hey, let me try something new. Let me try something new. I'm a pianist, man. I'm always gonna be a pianist, but I had to try something new. And just like you're saying with drums, I'm not saying I'm not gonna play piano anymore, but I don't have to go out and search for gigs the way I used to. And it doesn't like fuel me. Like when I play, I want to play and have fun. I want to play the to worship. I'm always gonna be a worship member, you know, team member at my church. Like that's not gonna change, but I'm also trying to make room for other people. And that means if I want to make room for other people, I gotta slide over a little bit and try some new stuff. And I I I love our examples because I think you're a prime example of that too, where you're starting to just it's not changing you all at once, but you are changing.

Tobias Tankard, Jr. : 20:45
I've been doing it for doing it for I mean, I always do multiple things, but it's just it's just one of those things.

Allen C. Paul: 20:52
I hear you. I love this, man. Okay, so one other thing I want to jump into in case you're willing to, um, it's totally up to you. But we've also shared about how important mental health and how important uh for creatives that we need to be open and honest with each other. So if you want to share a little bit, even to the most general, general sense, you don't have to go deep at all. But if you want to talk to anybody about how you've also overcome some things in that that area and how some musicians who might be listening to you right now might say, Oh my gosh, I can't share this. But you can tell them, hey, it's okay, you can have these issues and you can overcome them. And uh, and and you're a prime example of that.

Tobias Tankard, Jr. : 21:31
Yeah, I mean, I won't expose my diagnosis, but I am uh a product of mental health. I've been Baker at D. I've been in almost every mental health in Jacksonville, Florida you could think of, even to the point where one of the mentors I mentioned, the last recent visit I had three years ago, I'm never going back. I've been good since then, and I'm gonna stay that way. He picked me up from the hospital. Wow. And the reason why I say I'm not going back is because the reason my trigger, one of my triggers is stress. And that's because you let people control you. You don't try to c control your emotions. So I had to learn that. And I'm still learning that. That's was my trigger. And that's why I kept going back and being stressed out, let people stress me out. It's not my triggers. Being around people and even family members, you just gotta not say move about your life, but you just gotta just figure figure out what's the problem and who's the problem. That's what any that's with anybody.

Allen C. Paul: 22:37
Yeah, but no, I appreciate you being open about that, man. Because I I I even at my the top of the the the the interview, I started to say, okay, should we even talk about this? But you know, I literally adjusted.

Tobias Tankard, Jr. : 22:47
No, I don't mind because you because you said you said tell your story. I'm like, I'm not gonna back away from it. I just gotta learn, I gotta learn how to like uh just the language I want to use. I mean, I'm gonna I'm gonna tell the story as long as long as I'm on this earth. I'm just I'm going to class statement today. What's today's day? Um as of today, May 20th. If anybody asked me all the questions, like I don't hide, I tell the truth. Like, I mean privately, but publicly as of today. I'll let people know. I'll let people know. People know privately, but like publicly I say it on the air. Like, because people don't even know. You can't, you can't, because people not gonna be people want to say something, but they're not gonna say something to that one person.

Allen C. Paul: 23:27
Right. But you know what's so powerful about that is there's there's something in the Bible that where by where Jesus says um to the man that has a withered right hand and he's about to heal him, but before he heals him, he's like, Stretch it out, stretch out your hand.

Tobias Tankard, Jr. : 23:40
If you think think about it, a lot of magicians, music creators and stuff, they suffer with depression and insecure, insecurity.

Allen C. Paul: 23:49
And they don't share it, they don't stretch it out, they don't show it. And then we wonder when people crash and burn, and they don't have people like you had somebody who was willing to come to you in your hour of need. I'm listening lately to Michelle Williams with Destiny's Child, and you know, she's got her own career, and she's doing a whole series on mental health and checking in, and she's talking about her whole story about how she had that breakdown, and she actually had actually it was Trent's uh wife, um, um, Dr. Yeah, that's her therapist. So so she talked, she talked to her on a podcast on how Britney went in and kind of you know was there to help rescue her. So if we don't share these stories, bro, I appreciate you so much because if we don't share these stories, people will think it's not real.

Tobias Tankard, Jr. : 24:33
And that's another thing. A lot of my musician friends, even with Trent and people, no, either their wife is a mental health therapist or they work in the hospital. And I find that very interesting. Like a lot of people.

Allen C. Paul: 24:46
That is. That's actually that's a really interesting point. I I'd never thought of that, but you're right. There's a lot of people associated with the mental health profession that are around musicians. Um, the person I just uh uh episode 115, Dr. April, she was a musician and a creative. And we talked to her in her episode about how she transitioned from music to mental health and from entertainment to mental health. So there's a connection there. I love the fact that you brought that up. Um, and maybe that's another sign to everybody that if you're listening and you think that, oh, I don't need help or there's nobody that will help me, that's not true. There's people probably right next door to you who are in your circle who are willing to help you. And Tobias and I both have come from places where we've dealt with mental health issues and we are overcoming because we're not afraid to tell the story. Um, I'm not afraid to talk about just uh depression and anxiety. Um, and uh Tobias has told you like he's not afraid to tell his story anymore because he's actually moving forward with his life. And I love it, man. Thank you. That that takes courage. I think that takes a lot of courage. People don't realize that. And I appreciate you telling that, even being open about that part.

Tobias Tankard, Jr. : 25:56
Yes, sir, no problem.

Allen C. Paul: 25:57
Awesome, man. Well, listen, I love this talk. This has been amazing, dude.

Tobias Tankard, Jr. : 26:01
I we could keep going all day, but before man, you give we got two three more questions before you say we good, 60 minutes.

Allen C. Paul: 26:08
Here's the well, here's the thing though. I want to make sure because one thing you didn't do, and I noticed this, and this is kind of getting to the career side. This is gonna be my coaching part, okay? I noticed when you shared what you did, you didn't mention any business names, you didn't say any websites. And I'm wondering, because we had this talk before, your social media, like, how's that going? Are you sharing what you're doing out here, man? Or are you just kind of doing it kind of incognito? Like, are you are you opening up a little bit more as far as like promoting yourself and marketing yourself?

Tobias Tankard, Jr. : 26:40
Uh when it comes to that, I don't really I keep I pretty much keep it confidential.

Allen C. Paul: 26:47
Um why is that? I'm wondering, because you know I've been pushing on you a little bit.

Tobias Tankard, Jr. : 26:51
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, none of that. I uh legal legal reasons. Okay, legal reasons in uh but um you can leave it there.

Allen C. Paul: 27:02
I don't want to make you in trouble. Yeah, no, you good, you good.

Tobias Tankard, Jr. : 27:05
Just confidential, but I mean, I'm a person. I read the show to say because when you know when you say something, you don't do it.

Allen C. Paul: 27:12
So it's like I mean wow, okay. Now that that's deep right there. You'd rather show it than just say it.

Tobias Tankard, Jr. : 27:18
Yeah, because I was saying, like, I was I'm gonna send you uh Twitter, like hold on, I'm gonna read it to you right now if I can get off on this thing. Somebody just somebody just say it. That's why that's why I was like, I'm not gonna reschedule because this on time, like I don't even like y'all. Uh I don't have corona, but like I'm he knows I'm sick, and I'm on this, and he won't even know, but it's okay. God is healing.

Allen C. Paul: 27:38
Yes, he is, he's a healer. But I feel like oh, go ahead. You had something right.

Tobias Tankard, Jr. : 27:43
King on D uh Yes, King on Denson, who's one of uh the background singers for um Justin Timberlake, he recorded on Twitter today social media has people to focus on the look, do the work, get a product, start worrying about the look because you embarrassed yourself for all the clout and no results. When you're great at what you do, I'm confident the last thing you should be worried about is showcasing, just get to it the workspeaker for the sus every time I promise. So that's what he said. And uh what I had to say is that is really the real people that's broken, they don't have time to post because if you're that busy, or they have somebody in their corner posting, just like Diddy. Y'all think Diddy be posting that stuff? He he he write that stuff down on his notes and stuff, but somebody do that. Like, don't ever don't ever mention Diddy around my mama because she knows I go crazy. Like Diddy is my role model. Like I'll pattern myself after him, I go crazy. Like making if you ever seen making his man, like my attitude and everything. I just primarily like him.

Allen C. Paul: 28:37
Right. I mean, it's not a bad role model when it comes to the to the work ethic, the work ethic.

Tobias Tankard, Jr. : 28:42
He lives he lives. Well, you know, he lives in Miami, he lives in Miami too.

Allen C. Paul: 28:45
Oh, right. Yeah, I can see no there's so many stars down here. But I want to ask you because you that's a great, that's an interesting point you brought up. I've seen that a lot with a lot of the guys, uh, especially the high-level quality guys. You're right, they don't spend all the time social media.

Tobias Tankard, Jr. : 29:00
No, but I'm uh I post, but yeah, I'll I'll be posting more. I just you gotta just be see social media is really not even real, it's stage, so you got it, so it's like it's advertisement. That's all that is. And plus you can't just post, you can't post anything. That's that's another thing too. As much as stuff I want to post, like you gotta be careful of that. So that's what that's why I got two Instagrams. That way I can kind of portray myself personally and portray myself business.

Allen C. Paul: 29:29
Okay, so you do business. So you do keep it separate then.

Tobias Tankard, Jr. : 29:33
Yeah, for the most part, yes, right.

Allen C. Paul: 29:35
Okay, now now let me be honest. I I was put I was picking at you mainly because I want to make sure that everybody knows that there's there are different attitudes and different ways of approaching it. I know you're not a big social media guy, and that's what that wasn't what I was getting at as much as well. I'm I I I am, but yeah, but the but the key is of that is I think you hit the you hit the nail on the head when you talked about that tweet.

Tobias Tankard, Jr. : 29:56
Key word is protect your bread.

Allen C. Paul: 29:59
Yeah, and the purpose and the purpose behind it. Are you trying to do it just to show off, or are you doing it because you have something already to share? Like, you know, if you're out here just trying to impress people, no one's they're gonna look behind the curtain and there's not gonna be anything to show for it because you haven't done the work. But when you've done the work and then you say, okay, here's the promotion, they go hand in hand because the work is already there. So I I agree with you 100%. I agree with that post and not it's not about trying to impress people. Um, I just like to see my friends and creatives in my community. I like to see them positioned so when someone clicks on it, they're like, oh, I can hire this dude like right on the spot. That's what I'm talking about. Like I want people to be able to find you when they're ready and when you know it's a client that you want. I want them to be able to find you without like a second, second thought. That's kind of like why I say it like that. All right. So we've covered, we covered a lot, man. We've covered um mental health, we've covered your upbringing, we've covered how you became a learner, how you've been have mentors. Um, so we've done a lot. So really, I want to ask you now for to really talk to somebody in the community. Like if you could share either one tip or one piece of advice that has helped you over the last, I don't know, maybe five, six years, however long you want to go. What's something that you would share with the audience that you you kind of wish someone had told you or that you was your best piece of advice?

Tobias Tankard, Jr. : 31:29
As far as my best piece of advice is don't be afraid to fail. We're all gonna make mistakes.

Allen C. Paul: 31:34
Amen. Amen to that. And I would take that to the bank every day. Because if you're not afraid to fail, you'll never know which thing is gonna be the thing that's gonna be successful, but there will be something that's gonna make you successful.

Tobias Tankard, Jr. : 31:48
I mean it's it's even it's even it's even in it's even in the in the song. We fall down, we get up.

Allen C. Paul: 31:56
Yeah, yeah, all the way. Yeah, that's right. Donnie told us all those years ago, he's still it's still true. And it and the Bible verse says it, you know, a righteous man falls seven times, six times, but he gets up, he gets back up every time. He falls seven times and he gets back up every time. So, Tobias, man, I appreciate man. This has been a great conversation. I really am glad you were willing to come on. Um, once again, I know I just told just teased you about the social media, but you have to tell them at least how to find you.

Tobias Tankard, Jr. : 32:24
Honestly, man, you're my new, you're my new therapist. This is therapy for me. Therapy session.

Allen C. Paul: 32:30
Ah no, don't say that. I gotta a now now I gotta say it out loud. I am not a therapist. This is not mental health care.

Tobias Tankard, Jr. : 32:37
If we start getting up checks in, you're gonna start saying therapy.

Allen C. Paul: 32:40
No, I am not. No, this is a whole different kind of thing. I know exactly what you mean, though. I'm just saying that for the legal part for community as in terms of the community, I do consider it a style of of not group therapy, but just the way when the group gets together, we all talk, like we find our answers and we find things that we probably wouldn't find otherwise. So you're a part of that. I appreciate you so much. Yeah, man. We're one more one more chance. I'm gonna give you one more chance. If people do want to find you, if you if if you want to be found, where do they find you online? Um Facebook, it'd be Twitter, it could be anything.

Tobias Tankard, Jr. : 33:11
Instagram or Twitter is Tobias underscore R2M, T-O-B-I-A-S underscore capital R, the number two, lowercase M. Facebook, YouTube is just my name, Tobias Tanker Jr. And then you could just even if you want to find everything, just go search me on Google, search my name, and everything. You can get everything like that.

Allen C. Paul: 33:32
Nice. I love it, man. That's it. That's all I wanted to make sure that people could find you because when they hear this, you know, people are gonna want to say, Hey man, I want to work with a guy like that who has a has such a great testimony.

Tobias Tankard, Jr. : 33:41
Oh, yeah, and please subscribe to my YouTube channel. Uh everyone.

Allen C. Paul: 33:45
Oh, there you go. Yeah, make sure to make sure we'll make sure to post that on the uh the links. We'll put the links up there. Awesome, man. This has been a great conversation. Thank you for coming on with me. Thank you for supporting God and gigs for so many years, man. You're one of the OGs when it comes to this platform at this point, and I appreciate you more than you know.

Tobias Tankard, Jr. : 34:03
I was just glad you got a platform. Some people we didn't have the platform back in the day, we just had church, basically.

Allen C. Paul: 34:10
True, we just had church. Now we thank God we have more than just church. Now we have church, and you know, God's blessed us with something we can share outside of that. Awesome. Love it, love it, bro. Appreciate you, dude.

Tobias Tankard, Jr. : 34:21
All right, yes, sir. I appreciate you.

Allen C. Paul: 34:33
Ladies and gentlemen, I hope you now see why I'm so blessed to have creatives like Tobias who have stuck with us, who have been there from the good and the bad, and followed us, and always been willing to grow along with this community. He's grown as a creative, he's grown, as you've heard, through issues and trials and obstacles, and his faith and his desire to grow really has solidified his calling as a creative. It's funny that the Bible talks about that to make your calling and election sure. I know that's referring to your spiritual life, but it really also refers to your creative life. When you step forward and you do the right things, you connect with people, you allow people to mentor you, you come to a group like ours and you submit to coaching, you allow people to speak into your life, you're really submitting and sub, I should say, you are cementing your status as a faith-focused creative who really is called to this, no matter where you perform or where you minister. So if you are interested in joining our communities, I always recommend that you join our free Facebook group that's God and Gigs on Facebook. And all you have to do is simply look for the group that's called the Creative Community, and you can just answer a few questions and you're into that. And of course, if you're ready for the next step in your development, I would highly recommend you check out God and Gigs360. It's our group for highly motivated creatives who want to get out of their own way and become completely confident in every area of their creative lives, financially, vocationally, spiritually, relationally, every area of your life can be grown and solidified where you can really step into the next level of your life with creative confidence. That's what you can get in Guidand Giggs 360, and I want you to check that out for free at guidinggigs.com slash free trial. There's always an opportunity for you to check it out at no risk. So go and find out whether this program will be the one key you'll need to push your career to the next level and be the creative that God has created you to be. But that's our show for today. I hope I'll see you next time for yet another show where we'll share insights, encouragement, and everything you need to continue to grow your career and to become the creative that you were created to be. Until next time, God bless, and we'll see you then.

Voiceover: 37:06
Thanks for joining us here at the God and Gig Show. Please leave us a review on iTunes, like our Facebook page, or visit godandgigs.com and tell us what you thought of this show. We'll be back soon. In the meantime, go create something amazing.