The Real Reason Creatives Procrastinate | Tips and Solutions

Do you struggle to do the ONE thing that would make the BIGGEST impact on your creative life? 

It seems faith-focused creatives can do everything well except the one thing that could change everything, and we procrastinate on the thing that should get our full attention. 

In this Creative Checkup, you'll learn a key principle that keeps you in the cycle of procrastination, and how to fix it so that it never keeps you from finishing your God-ordained creative project. 

Transcript

All the opportunities that I've got was because of my curiosity. I didn't have the skills to edit. I just went to the computer lab at Baruch College and just, like, fadaddled around GarageBand. iMovie, and then it made it look good. You know, it looked on YouTube. Maybe because of my neurodivergence, I just hyper-focused so quickly. And as a survivor trait, to learn something quickly, learning video editing, mixing, mastering, all this, I didn't go to school for that. I learned under the masters. Like, I mean... I learned with people who got Grammys. Why would I go to school for that? Ladies and gentlemen, this has been a long time coming for me to get this gentleman, this amazing producer, composer, arranger, educator, and so many other areas that he's going to tell you about. 

I know one of the most important to him is father and husband. So you guys, let's welcome Phineas Robert to the God and Geek Show. How are you doing, my friend? Doing really well. I'm glad to be here finally to be in your show. Finally. Now we say finally, even though we've only been aware of each other for the last three, maybe four months, based on our mutual friend who I will shout out till the cows come home. Yeah. She's the plug. The plug of all plugs. She's the plug. The plug of plugs. I think she needs to add that to her bio. I'm the plug of plugs. But yes, I think we are both members of her Bootstrap Biz Advice Club. Yeah, that's correct. 

So we absolutely got to thank her for putting us together because she saw something that either you posted or I posted on social. And she said, you have to connect with these people. Go talk amongst yourselves. And since then, brother, I've been loving everything you're sharing. But as I learned about you, some people are learning about you for the first time. You know this is coming. You've been in media forever. So you know you've got to do that 30-second introduction to everyone and tell them everything about your life in like two sentences, which is impossible. But just for the people who are meeting you... I can do it in 90 seconds. You can do it? Okay. I love this challenge. I end up setting this up as a challenge each week. 

So tell people what things they want to know about you if they don't get a chance to hear anything else the first time they meet you. This... I remember Pastor Bernard said something and Many years ago, there's people who are kings and queens, right? Yeah. And there's people who are king makers and queen makers. I'm a king and queen maker in the field of music, technology, education, and advocacy when it comes to, you know, with children who are underserved. I help with helping develop their skills in both networking, collaborating, communicating through the arts and music. And, um, I'm very happy that I've been able to use my giftings in the music industry to pivot more into the tech industry, which includes NFTs, which include hardware softwares and all that good stuff. 

And, um, and I was able to leverage those knowledge to help others, whether they're young, you know, younger or one young boy or, you know, adult, um, help them get to point A to point B to the point where they can have a sustainable career start, you know, and I'm thankful to be a King or Queen maker. So that's going to be my foundational intro. Can you, can you put that next to your bio from now on? Yo, that is the dopest line I've ever heard in my life. Thank God for that pastor. Cause that is incredible. And it does kind of immediately put, For those who may not know you, I've gotten to know you through our conversations, but already it puts all the onus on who you help. 
All your discussion just now about the education, I'm a teacher too, so this immediately speaks to me, right? So there's all these areas that it's all about the other person. So now we've got to go back to the beginnings. Where does that come from? Tell me a little bit about your heritage, your background. Was there something in the way you were brought up that made you think, hey, I'm all about helping other people. Now, we're celebrating Haitian Heritage Month. Yes, as we're recording, exactly. I only have one of the phrase, one of the phrase, and my Duolingo, I failed in Haitian Creole, okay? So my only other phrase, this is not about me, but you brought it up. So all this time down in Miami where I'm recording, all of my friends are invited me to the Haitian churches. All of my, some of my best friends are like the incredible Haitian musicians from, I got to play a chance to meet Mushi Widmeyer, Donnie Felix, everybody, like T-Vice, like one of the guys in T-Vice was in my band for a long time. So trust me, I've been, this is my culture. Like I'm adopted Haitian, right? Yeah, you are. It doesn't matter how you look, you can be Haitian. And my name, which sounds French. Haitian is not a culture, a bloodline. It's Haitian also, is a way of life it's an actual it's an actual lifestyle because to be Haitian, it doesn't mean white or black or brown or darker. It's an actual lifestyle of living in freedom and living with the confidence of understanding, helping a fellow man, a human human being you know, woman, child, and man. 

Because we were the first to help the nations of the world develop the system of We can be survivors of our own traumas by fighting the powers may be. We don't need technology to be technologically advanced in the human resources department. We were the first human resources of the world. Hey, Haitians, you know what I'm saying? Look at the flags. Look at the flags of all the Latin American flags. They all have a what? Red and blue, right? So we were the first. We were the first social workers. You know what I'm saying? And that goes right to what you were just saying, which is, you know, the fact that you are by nature a helper. So did that come also from your parents? 
Were you brought up in this kind of helping people? Did you get music out of that? Or was that something else that kind of brought that spirit to you as well? You know what's interesting? I learned from my mother. She told me that her dad, my grandfather, was a radio DJ who... traveled and helped set up the radio stations in Cuba, Jamaica, and all these places. And, and I, I, I've yet to find out more information about him, but it's definitely my blood because even my grandmother told me that my, I think my uncle or some, some relative plays in the palace played saxophone. So it played in the band and on my dad's side, of course, um, my dad played guitar. My brother, uh, 
my older brother, the eldest, you know, we came from a church. Actually, you probably familiar if you're familiar in Miami, but there's a big Haitian church. It's a Baptist church called French Beacon Baptist Church of Clermont, which is at the heart of Brooklyn Heights slash Fort Greene, right around where, you know, not far from where, you know, where they have B-Rogue footage for the Cosby show, right around the corner from Rose Perez and all those people like Spike Lee, that area. So that was the biggest Haitian megachurch there. So we came from that church and the trajectory of that church, I could tell in the future in the league of medical and law and music, entertainment, you know, business, you know, having to be around these great people who are, you know, servants of God. 

But then at the same time, you know, in the industry, they be deacon and then they'll own a car shop or you know or they'll play for a band or the maestro then you know their teacher you know it's like it's not like it was to be said my mother of course I maybe maybe made her a little disappointed by not being a pastor or not being a lawyer or not being a nurse but you know what though there were some hard times that fell upon us on 2007 and 8 remember those days oh yeah okay during that time Just to fast forward, after I went from college, I came home, I was gigging and I was making a substantial amount of money to help to contribute because I lived with my mom and my brother at the time. 

So it just made me realize the sense of pride that I knew outside of what was asked for me to do because my mother was a missionary. She went to Haiti to give back and she was a nurse. That was always part of our life to give back, do clothing drives and stuff. Um, it's just part of our lifestyle. It's not something was asked for me to do. It was just something that my mother did. My, my dad, even before there was an Airbnb, he owned some property and Haitians that came over, even some other people, you know, Trinidadians. I remember having Trinidadians that lived with us. He would be that connect. You know, if you moved into New York, he, he got an apartment available. 
So I saw those examples through my my family, through my mother and my dad. Unfortunately, they weren't together. My dad was not a believer. He had other lifestyles, but I saw the examples through my brothers, my sister, and all the brethren in my community. So I was left with no excuse. Now that's some powerful thoughts right there that you just gave in terms of, number one, going back to what you just said about people, seeing people who were doing both. who were a teacher and this, and that you didn't see like a line between it. And of course, you know, this is God in gigs, right? So you mentioned church without a second thought. I love the fact that these lines were not kind of creating any kind of silos for you. 

So I'm leading with this question, but I think I'm right. It makes sense that you said after you came back and you were gigging, you got into the music lifestyle. I'm guessing you never saw any line between I'm a musician, And I'm an entrepreneur. I've got to create a brand. I've got to create. I think I've got to be good at my instrument, but I also got to be in business. Like, it sounds like that was never an issue. No, you know, you know, you know, I have to actually bring this up. Pastor Thomas, he passed away. Rest in peace. A lot of people don't know from the church, from French-speaking Baptist church. He was in Wall Street. He was one of the few black men in Wall Street. 

OK, they bought that church from a Jewish synagogue. I remember speaking to him when I was young. He said, remember taking care of your business, you know. Serve God, but make sure you know business, be fair. And I remember him saying that. He was talking about us in terms of... I remember we had a basketball team in church. He was like, yo, take care of business, you know. Serve the Lord, but don't come back, you know. Don't come back without a trophy. Like, really work hard. And I remember, because I look at his lifestyle. I only spoke to him like maybe five times in my life. And I realized, wow, like... This dude was in Wall Street back in the late 60s. Haitian man in Wall Street. 
Helped bought a big synagogue. So I had success already. You know what I'm saying? You had examples. Examples. And then to my life, people don't realize in the word music business, what's the longer word? Business. It doesn't mean music talent. It doesn't mean music savantism. Music business. Business. Okay. So I learned that. I'm very thankful that my older brother, you know, he actually did middle brother, but he's older than me. He taught me the business because, you know, he built the shows. He was the talent. And this is, you know, he had the band. I was the MD of the band. So understanding that was what I can do by watching and being. It didn't take me too long to understand. Okay. having the skill of music was just a byproduct of curiosity in my household. 

I picked up the camera. I knew how to use the camera. I knew to edit. So either you book me as a live musician or you book me as a photographer or videographer. And sometimes I'll do all three at one time. You know, I hired my friend to do the B roll. And then I have the camera like on a big tripod above the stage. above the audience head to do the whole wide shot and I edit and boom, I double dip. A lot of people don't realize I did that in New York, you know, but you have to be entrepreneurial. You had to. What time period were you doing when you first started doing, you said, Hey, I could, I can be video. 

I could do the music. Like what was this before or after the big social media internet boom? Okay. Check this out. I think it really officially started for me when, It was a MySpace. So a little story. MySpace, I'm dating myself. No, I want the date. I want people to see that this is not new. This is not new. So back in 2005, 2006, I was on MySpace. And one of the few brothers I added on MySpace, believe it or not, and the reason why I even got into Brooklyn Tide, my brother, Elliot Gounier, I'd known him since I was very young because he was one of the cool guitar players. And he stood out because he had a... finish strap that looked like jimmy hendrix and he had dreads at the time i was like oh i remember him so i added him on myspace and we kept in contact and myspace before facebook at the time you had message boards you had chat rooms and all these things i use it as a way to network keep in contact with you know people that i remember when i was young when i saw growing up because my brother when i was older he actually at some point he had his own um gospel group and I remember now thinking about it when he was young, he snuck into Hezekiah Walker's, uh, sheds and he'll carry his cassette tape. He'll, he'll record it. I think he still have the recording today on cassette tape. And, and funny enough, you know, my, my brother, Jamer, his name is Jamer. Um, uh, um, what's his name? Ms. Walker. Uh, well, was, she was a Walker, but, um, she was, um, his choir director in school, went to Canarsie High School. So the connection was, you know, went to, you know, check out the sheds. And then later when he had his own band, you know, he had some of the musicians there. So I was exposed to all those musicians, you know what I'm saying? Before I even knew who they were. 

But I had them on Facebook and Instagram, like they're big time musicians. So I was like, wow, I was exposed to that. So anyway, I think when it came down to the business sense of really understanding the social media, was connecting the people that I was familiar with. And I was able to network by, you know, posting photos, commenting, you know, making sure the page looked good. And then eventually I left. At the time, I went to Liberty University. You know, it was an evangelical school, you know. And it's really cool in Virginia. I left after Jerry Sr. passed. And I was like, man, I got to find something to do. I moved with my family, my mom and my brother. And my brother started a band. 
And at that time, MySpace was really popping off around 2008. seven, eight. Okay. The crash happened to eight. Right. So now crazy thing around that time, my brother, um, was working at MTV Viacom. He was working in the mail room and then he did some work with them. So I met a lot of the people who used to work for BP Diddy and all these Nickelodeon folks. And actually because of my brother, and this is the first time he's sharing this, you know, Amanda, I know her as Amanda Daly. Diva, but she goes by, her real name is Amanda Sealy. Right. Yeah, Sealy. She actually, through my brother, because I think Amanda was working at XM, or I think Nick Canodian, I don't know, but my brother got me my first gig playing with her. 

Like, my first industry gig, yeah. And that gig opened a lot more doors for me, because I met DW, who's on bass, Basil on keys, Larry Peoples, you know, on drums, you know, Jamal peoples and Larry peoples, they, they toured with Herbie Hancock and younger when there was like in high school, like they, these are the people that I'm around, you know what I'm saying? So the business aspect was being able to identify the issue because I've noticed a lot of these shows and shout out to Amanda Silas, cause she's getting a lot of hate right now. But I have to say, if this goes up on, on podcast, she gave me an opportunity to, to play for her. You know what I'm saying? 
Like she just got off tour with flow tree. You know what I'm saying? And I'm some Joe Schmo guitar player up and coming, you know, that was my first like industry gig with her. And that opened a lot more doors for me because I saw how she was running a tight ship, doing these open mics at the SOBs, like live music, art, painting. And she, she did it all. And I noticed it. And then I networked with the musicians. So the business aspect, I realized when I was doing these shows, there was not too many videographers. And I kept the mental notes like, man, I wish I had this on camera. Because, you know, I play with so many artists and I just don't have no documentation unless someone posts it. 
But I found some circulation. So later to find out later, of course, you know, this financial crisis happened and I was short on gigs, on studio gigs. So I was like, you know what, let me do some promo gigs, which is you work as an independent contractor. And I got into marketing and happened to know a little bit about the camera. Out of curiosity, I just went with it around wherever I go just in case something happened because, you know, New York, you find celebrities. So, get this. I started working with Metro PCS, right? Within the first month, I was a brand ambassador. And then the second month, they realized I had a camera. I was like, oh, can you take some photos? 

I took photos, but then I also took videos. I have a video, an old video I could send you a link to. I did... It's very pixelated, but the fact that I did videos and I did editing... This was before short-form content. You know what I'm saying? It's on YouTube. So I did a little, like, not a lot of guerrilla marketing, but kind of like reaction video type, you know, people going and getting flyers, and you're like, first-time reaction videos. MetroPCS loved it so much. They was like, okay, we're promoting you to be an on-site manager. So they gave me paid a little more money. I did the photos, I did the videos, I did the recaps, and then all of a sudden... 

And this is, again, 2009, 10, 11, 12. Like, on that time, I was getting paid just to go to these events. And, of course, that opened doors for me to then, like, out of my ignorance... This is before I even knew who... This is how you know I was very much cultured in the church. I didn't know who Rick Wasser was. I didn't know who... Mr. International. Who's Mr. International? Pitbull? Pitbull? Yeah, okay, so... I get a big fat WD hard drive sent to my house second day. And Metro PCS called me and was like, hey, we need you to clean up this artist named Fuego. This is some Dominican artist, Bachata. So I do their editing because they want me to help him get on tour with Metro PCS. 

And this is when I'm at Baruch College because I'm going to matriculate my math classes and whatever. So I go to the computer lab and I bring my hard drive. And this is rick ross is in a video. I have all these raw footage of him. Like I didn't, yo, this is how ignorant i was bro i this i was so much into gospel. I was into jazz. I wasn't listening to hip-hop at the time if it wasn't jd if it wasn't if it wasn't eric badu if it wasn't um tribe if it wasn't um lauren hill or white cliff i was not listening to it. So I get a hard drive with like pitbull and you know, all these people. And I'm like,  I think nothing about it. They paid me, you know, good money. It's on my Vimeo. I'll send you that link. And that opened door for me to understand, wow, I just did a, I was a marketing specialist. I didn't go for school for it. So again, I'm still gigging at church at Brooklyn tab, but that didn't make enough money for me to live. Cause obviously it's the financial crisis. I had to gig more. So the trajectory of understanding, okay, I'm a musician or I could do media, you know, press kits and stuff. Metro PCS helped me get the opportunity to work with these guys. Major artists doing their electronic press kit to make extra money, not knowing at that time, but knowing now, of course, and then still doing music. 

So that made me understand, wow, there is money to be made as a musician, not to really play music, but to display and create short stories around other musicians. That's kind of opened my door to work with artists, you know, in the studio and like a whole bunch of other situations that... came from just of me having a camera and my guitar, you know? Unbelievable. I got to tell you right now, now you mentioned book and tab out of like, just like out of like a couple of times. And then you said that the fact that you were working outside, still making a living in these other ways while working in church. Now, again, that's something that hits a lot of us right home. 

Me personally, I didn't, I just talked about with this, with my worship leader, I didn't start doing that till around the same time you're talking about. We're talking about 2010 or so, right? So God and gigs really started around 2009, 2010. So tell me a little bit about that experience. You said you were so churchy, but there's a reason why you're able to survive outside the church is because you learned all the lessons inside the church. So was it, was that Brooklyn tab experience? Like that was a huge, that's a huge influence on like on gospel and on church in general. So get this. So, so, so how was that influencing you? So get this, this is all God. Again, shout out to Elliot Gordon. 

he's the one who got me the audition to uh was it jason webb he's now one of the big you know directors for broadway but he was he was the one who auditioned me i was i was so nervous like okay you know i got that and then that opened so much opportunities on that end because obviously a lot of artists come to visit broken time i didn't play for the choir a lot i played for tuesday nights Actually, I play for the choir quite often, but not for the recordings. Just for, like, you know, when he's on tour, I go play across the street. But I was mainly hired to go, you know, help the youth service. And I'm telling you, a lot of people don't really talk about Brooklyn-type kids, BT kids. 
Like, they're killing it. I remember BT kids. We did a couple of things for them back in my old youth choir. I remember them. Yo, this is before Young and Free, Young Life. Like, this is before Hillsong, you know, like... Yo, I remember it was at Brian Clark, David Hunter, Susan Petri, Amy. It was me. I was playing guitar. And it was Antonio, who was another guitar player. Man. So that opened a lot more doors for me because I saw how youth ministry was so important because not just the music, but the discipleship aspect. Because from 2009 to 2016, I seen these kids literally grow and get married. You know what I'm saying? Right. It makes me emotional because... It's a big church, but what people don't realize, it's conceptualized around groups and in terms of ministry groups. 
So I didn't really feel like it was a big church, but I felt so interconnected because I worked at Metro PCS. So I remember, oh, this person serving usher team. So I'd see everybody every day. It wasn't taboo to say hello or whatever in a train. And Oh, this is a kid, you know, accepting Christ, you know, stuff like that. So it was a daily thing to see that I was part of a big ecosystem. But then on top of that, even the members itself, the musicians itself, we were really tight outside of music. We'll, you know, play basketball or like we'll go, you know, bowling or whatever. You know what I'm saying? So the chemistry was there outside of playing at church. 
So the mindset of the business really, it opened my mind a whole lot more when I was more integrated. into not the children's ministry, but like when we used to play at the service and how they record the choir. And then shout out to, um, Ray James. I remember, you know, growing up with him, he did mixing a lot for beats kids. I mean, now he's doing a lot of, you know, booking tabs, recording, mixing, mastering or whatever. But like, I remember when he was in college, he used to, I used to meet with him and do his projects and understand the recording process and, um, all these things. So it's like, I saw all the behind the scenes while I was kind of like figuring out as like a session, session guitarist and working with these, you know, people. 
And then on top of that, you know, doing, you know, spot gigs here and there, whether I was playing guitar or I was like doing media press kits. And, you know, then I guess I'm going into tenure, but even during that time, while I was working in Metro PCS, John Jay, he was from my college. He went, went to college with me. He moved to New York. He worked at Guitar Center and then developed a music management company, which then I did also some video editing and shooting. So working with those labels like, you know, Def Jam and Tommy Boy and stuff like doing press kits and artist development and, you know, things like those little things that now people are not really kind of like outsourced. 
They're doing that more of themselves and like being a content creator, like I feel like I've been doing that, helping other artists since 2009 and 10. You know what I'm saying? So that's a really important factor, then applying that into my repertoire, which then we could talk more into that. Having the opportunity to document and share stories. Well, that's exactly where I was going to go. Because of all that incredible lesson that you've had, the history that you've had in the lessons, I was going to immediately go to number one, your transition now to where you are now, because you mentioned Liberty. Now you're in Lynchburg. And that's gotta be a big change. And then the second half of that is, where did you apply all these lessons? 
Like, how are you helping people now to take what you learned? Like, what's your message to creatives now? Because this is 2024 now, you know what I mean? Like, we're dealing with so many new issues, but yet I know a lot of them apply to the things you learned back at Metro PCS at Brooklyn Tab. Like, so what's your message and what's your overall, I would say, if I had to make you pick one thing, Like, what's the big thing feeding, like, what you're trying to help creatives and musicians, like, now in your new season? That's a great question. um you know, I realized all the opportunities that i've got was because of my curiosity. um I didn't have the skills to edit. 
I just went to the computer lab at baruch college and just like for dabbled around garage band and and and my movie and then it made it look good, you know, looked on YouTube. I feel like if you're like me and you know that maybe because it's my new divergence, I just hyper-focus so quickly. And it's a survivor trait to learn something quickly because it compensates the amount of knowledge that I have that I've been able to build a repertoire that... I don't have a degree in what I did, but obviously I went on to get my certificate in IT, but... Learning video editing, mixing, mastering. I didn't go to school for that. I learned under the masters. I learned with people who got Grammys. 
Why would I go to school for that? A little quick story. Before Puff Daddy closed Daddy House's studio, there's an engineer by the name of Steve Dickey. Shout out to him. He showed me for the first time how he hybrid connect the SSL board to his digital inbox to record high quality audio, you know, doing that hybrid analog digital thing. He was one of the few engineers I saw do that at the time. And little did he know that even though he was using Pro Tools, I was learning so much because I was a video guy. I was video cameraing, you know, I was kind of doing B-roll for an artist I was working with. And he booked out the studios for a while. 
So he was showing me some tricks that I still use today. I have a good photographic memory because, again, it's a survival trait. And it's relevant. And I feel like if you are curious and you are just remotely interested, you best believe that the areas of your interest, of your curiosity could be the skills that you can master. Because either you master it for yourself or you master it to kind of have it in the bag for someone else to use. Because those opportunities made me jobless. You know what I'm saying? Now, I want you to fix that real quick. Because you said, I feel like we said... I feel like you said jobless, but I feel like you never need to be without a job. 
Right. And more importantly, but here's the other part I just realized, even as you said it, it also means you work for people. And at the same time, you never have to work for people. It's like you're consistently in a position because of that curiosity that you're always creating your own market, your own new company, your own new lane, right? And so you're never like in competition for people because there's so much about this music and creative life that everyone's like trying to get to the top. Meanwhile, it seems like you kept making a lane where there wasn't a, you know, there wasn't a position, but they gave you a position at Metro because you made it. Like you made it possible for that to be a thing. 
Yeah. So what people don't realize, again, I can't speak for everybody else because my brain is totally different. I just know if someone asks me, hey, can you do something? Maybe it's the Haitian mentality. If someone asks me to do something, I'm not just going to do that. I'm going to make sure it's packaged well, that someone who does it after me, they can't compare it to how I do it. Outdoing and good, I guess. Outdoing and good. When you're striving for excellence, you're never... I think, see, this is where I have to be careful because I feel like I already know your heart in this, right? When you just start to say that, you almost apologize in a sense. What I think you're saying is, and correct me if I'm wrong, that you're not striving for excellence to beat anyone but your own standard. 
Yeah, I'm just replicating what I know. Yeah, so the fact that no one else can do it that way is not because you're trying to show it up. You're just saying, hey, this is the level that I will always aim for. And hopefully, More people start to aim for it. Hopefully, but it starts at home. It starts at home. Yeah. It starts with grandma. When this, when he sees a person homeless, she, she doesn't know that now that gives her a plate of food, but gives homeless socks and a Metro card, you know what I'm saying? To be on their way. Like you, people don't think that you just don't serve the need of the person for what they need. Now you've got to serve for the purpose of understanding that that person is a human being. 
You know, you could, you could, there's a difference between fulfilling a need. of what you, your hierarchy and needs, I guess, you know, you know, psychology, but then you also have to be identified within that need. You're also human that there's needs that can be met that can help you get along the way that could help you, you know, cause there's one thing you need to give people some sense of dignity is like when you give this, this is a crutch where you could give somebody something, but they don't have the dignity to kind of search and do it for themselves. So when you're giving something like, for example, if someone tells me, yo, can you do a video edit? and whatever, blah, blah, blah. 
But then I'm realizing, okay, I'm not just doing a video edit. I'm also helping them make sure that they're at their best light and whatever. And I look at other problems that I realize, oh, okay, do video. Oh, do they have music? Oh, I can make the music. So it's like, I'm making the original music. I'm doing this. I'm doing the edit. I'm doing a little thing, you know, whatever. And I send it to them. It's like, oh, this is nice music. Oh, yeah, I did that. Oh, that was a whole bunch of opportunity for myself. Not saying that I wanted to do it. I did it because there was... There's a lack of awareness, you know? So the whole goal of being curious is literally being hyper aware of that. 
Okay, what are they giving you? What are things that they're not saying that they probably need? And that's my, I guess that's kind of the trajectory of my career. You know what I'm saying? But it's a superpower in terms of that's what, number one, let's go right back to the spiritual part of it. Jesus says, go the extra mile. He said, always try to outdo each other in love. All of these things are not just entrepreneurial or creative. They're also the way you're supposed to treat people as a Christian. We're supposed to look beyond our own needs and look to the needs of others, right? So you're already exposing that. But then the second half, yeah, is it an absolutely effective marketing tool and effective way to build relationships? 
100% because those people are always going to call you back if you go the extra mile. If you're paying attention, and this is one thing I've said to several other amazing producers that have been on the uh the show that, like you, that's the job of an engineer and a producer is to hear things and see beyond where you're at right now and to kind of create this. So you even, I'm sure, do that musically. And I want to quickly get to this because i know we're going to run out of time we're gonna have so many things to talk about. Even in terms of what you do with movies and your syncing and all the other stuff, like that's a whole another level of paying attention to detail. 
Talk a little bit about that side of your career. Just this whole thing of making music and getting placements. That's a thing I have never jumped into. It is a huge... To me, it just speaks again to where your brain goes, where you were able to be an asset of something that a lot of people don't even pay attention to. A lot of people ask me, how did I get my first sync opportunity? It was by accident. Actually, the website... I'm going to just call straight ahead. There's some websites back in 2010, 11, 12. They're kind of fishy. they're kind of like scammy looking like, like modern beats and all these other places. Well, I lucked out because during the time a friend of mine, Ngozi, uh, he was an amazing R&B producer. 
He produced something for, I think Mack wild. And like, he was actual, um, he got the full scholarship to be at the NYU, the NYU program, the music program. So he was one of those recipients for it. So he's the dude that I went to, to collab and like learn more of that because it's a kind of backpedal. When I started making music, it was not gospel music. Like as a producer, I started as an EDM producer. So I did a lot of more dance music. That's a whole different conversation. But basically everybody in my church doing gospel, hip hop, R and B, whatever. But I was like, I'm going to go this way. So I did a lot more music. That's for like DJs. 
So while I was doing these video edits, um, You can see that I'm making my own music in the actual... When someone asks me to video edit and they don't give me music, you're giving me the permission to put my music in it. That's a great strategy. The clients love it and they save money. I could charge extra. What's cool is that every opportunity that's not been said, it's an opportunity itself. When it comes down to creating... something that no one else is doing, not literally not doing the music itself, but I knew that my brother's R and B hip hop. So my mother's gospel, my brother does some classical and jazz and stuff. I was like, you know what? I'm going to do EDM. 
And I love dance music. You know what I'm saying? So EDM in terms of like, at the time, David Gooda was on a, you know, up and up. Yeah. Pope like major laser. You got, um, TS go and that stuff. So, um, I think when it started for me was when I was doing these beat battles in New York, when you in hip hop, I actually was doing like EDM. It was like, you know, hip hop, but like really, it was interesting because the approach of how I made the music didn't reflect. And this is another thing. It didn't reflect on how I would look because I would be some guy. Okay. He probably does hip hop. Like, Whoa, the guy just did a dubstep beat. 
Oh, you know what I'm saying? So like, you can't really get judged wrong because they don't understand the genre, but they understand that them drums are smacking. It sounds great. You know what I'm saying? And that opened up a lot of opportunities for me to get placements. And my first placement was with the Kardashian show at the same time that I got this Adidas placement for Jeremy Scott, when he released the money wings shoes, whatever, which was amazing. And I still get paid for that Kardashian show because it happened to be Kylie Jenner's sweet 16 birthday. So that was a whole minute and 30, you know, and, uh, Wow. So that opened doors for me. And then again, that was not scoring music. 
Sync licensing is different than scoring composing because when you submit for music to get placed, you have to give the music to the publisher. And that's what happened to me. I won so many of these online beat battles. They was like, here, here's the publisher from Atlanta, you know, those intro me. And from there, it just went up, you know what I'm saying? And I was very thankful to do that. And then, Now, you said composing. That actually happened through being connected to a nonprofit. A lot of people don't know, obviously, you know, being in New York, there's difficulties getting connected with broadcast publications without representation. So I happened to go through the back door, pause through, you know, helping this organization who helped kids from the Bronx film. 
Teach them and develop scripts and all this. So I knew Louis Averroes from high school. He was in that program. So when Spider-Man 2 came out, Andrew Garfield, what he was involved with, he was actually involved with an organization in Haiti. He was doing a whole thing. Yeah, he was doing fundraising for Worldwide Orphans, which was an orphanage in Haiti. So guess what? My friend was like, oh, my friend is Haitian. He'll do it. I'm like, okay. I never did scoring before. Never did. Who was the composer of Spider-Man 2? Hans Zimmer, right? I think so. Yeah, he was supposed to be doing that prior to me. So my friend spoke to Andrew Garfield. Yeah. Andrew Garfield. I met Andrew. He's amazing. Beautiful soul. 
Spoke to him. Andrew went to Sony and, you know, and Marvel and And then a day later, they sent me an email. OK, we wanted to sound like this. So I had no prior experience of scoring and I stayed up 72 hours up three drafts later and they loved it. So it just made me realize that's how I knew it was God, because how how would I have known that this guy is doing work in my motherland? And they, oh, there's a Haitian composer. I'm like, OK, I never did any scoring before. They gave me the opportunity. And that's like my major. first major placement. You know what I'm saying? And it's on a DVD. If you get Spider-Man 2, the first PSA that's before the Sony emblem, that's what I scored. 
And that's impactful because people think that... I didn't get paid for that, by the way. It was through a non-profit. But my payment... Yeah, I was going to say, your payment is way beyond what any check would be when it comes to that kind of access. To bump Hans Zimmer from doing something he does to It's a no-name Haitian composer, producer from Brooklyn. I'll take that. I called Audio Atmos at the time, and it was crazy. When I called them, I didn't have no money. I was like, yo, and what's crazy about that, a month later, when they did a press release in the UK, the fact that they did that, they did Spider-Man, they did Fortnite, they did every big Hollywood trailer, because they do a lot of mastering and mixing in Adobe Atmos. 
Okay. I know these guys for 12, 13 years, like they blew up too. So it was not just me. I felt like going back to your point, when you're aligned with something so direct, like God could bless you by your obedience. If you just try it, because some people don't take gigs because it's free. They're like, oh, I ain't getting paid. If I had said no, if I had said no, would I be in the same position? No, I would not. I was like, okay, I'll give it a try. They said yes. And guess what? From my yes, another company is thriving and is doing well in the UK. And other people who I helped represent because, again, it was everyone's first time. 
As a composer, it was my first time. Your job is to make everyone sound good and look good. So I couldn't imagine all the opportunities to happen to everyone else. But I could just say that your obedience, even in the uncomfort of saying yes to a free gig, you never know who you would be blessed with. blessing. You know what I'm saying? So that's kind of like what I learned. Oh, okay. There's too many lessons for this. We got to start to wrap this up because we got to take time to absorb all that you just dropped in these last 30 to 40 minutes. But I do want to get to this real quick because you are a family man. All this that you talked about, all the accolades, all the working with amazing names, I know that they all come back to who you are as a man, as a father. 
And so just quickly talk about Just now that you're in, again, I got the chance to be in Lynchburg, did get a chance to connect with you at the time, but that town just feels like home. It just feels like a place. So you've now taken yourself out of the hustle and bustle of Brooklyn, and now you're in the beautiful mountains of Virginia. So talk a little bit about why all this lifestyle, everything you're doing, what you want to contribute to your family, because clearly there's a reason why you're doing all this, and it must be for them. My wife could contest that. There's method to my madness and I love her for that. And she has to get all the credit because what I, and I remind all my people when I go to these gigs and when I do events and, you know, she stay at home, she's with the kids. 
God allowed her in the season that we're in to do that. And I'm not rich. I'm not wealthy, but God's wealth is bigger than mine. That's to say that. Yeah. And he's able to provide, uh, So much beyond my bank account with the love, the church, the very person that we even got the house from, you know, who's now in Israel, you know, pray for them. Like everyone's obedience is accumulation of the success for someone else. And my obedience to come to Lynchburg happened was it was a year before I met my wife. And again, I'm at Brigham Time. It's like my ninth going 10th year. I felt like not burdened or depressed. I just felt like there's something more. And I kept in contact with my friends down in Virginia, Jowanza, and my best man, James, and connected with Keith, who's an amazing musician also. 
He's a producer for one of the Magnolia Networks. He's an amazing producer of film and musician. I reconnected with one of my friends and just spoke with them. And I was like, you know what? I don't feel like staying in New York. And this is right at the cusp of while gentrification is happening heavy. So I had an exit strategy. I was like, I have to find a way to leave New York. And it just so happened that my wife, we connected. So she was my sister dorm at school. I've had a little crush on her, but I never went on it because obviously I was too full of myself. playing guitar, being a little turtle. It just so happened that she came up New York. 
My wife, she's part Cuban. Her Cuban cousin lives in New York in the city, so we connected. She's lived in Lynchburg. I was like, man, this don't feel right. Pursued her every month, every single month, clockwork. I would go visit Virginia. I would go down there And because her birthday is in January and my birthday is in February, you know. So it goes to say that I felt that there was something more. And I knew Lynchburg was on a cusp of diversifying downtown and everything was in position. So even my position right now, my friends that were there, they're now at a bigger position because of what they were able to do. And now they're pulling me in. I'm an artist resident for the Academy downtown. 
The Academy is kind of like the Jefferson in D.C. or like... you know, Carnegie Hall, but it's in Lynchburg. So I'm able to represent this, you know, art institution and do what I do, what I love and help the schools and the community. So it's all based off of obedience. I felt like I needed to go, you know what I'm saying? I was 29, 30, and I was like, I just need to change. And all those things that I wrote, I'm writing online is because it's a combination of obedience and marriage is one of those obedience too. I didn't want to live a, I didn't want to live a ratchet life. I wasn't really horrible, but I'll just say in my past, I made some bad decisions. 
Yeah. Prior to my wife, I made some bad decisions in terms of my, my choices of, you know, mates. So, you know, we all been there, but I feel like God's, uh, obedience to, to like, what has his, his wanting us to be obey the word by understanding, like even like, for the things I was supposed to and I don't do and counting as sin, as far as like sin, meaning being out of the target, being outside of the focus. I felt like if I didn't come here, I don't really think that I'll be in the will of God. It sounds weird. It sounds weird saying that. I don't think I would be in the will of God. If I didn't say, if I stayed in New York, I don't think it was God's will for me to stay. 
Let's just say like that. I had to go. I had to grow. I had to take my debt. I had to take whatever I got, you know, I had to learn how to drive a car. I had to learn how to, you know, live with a woman, you know, take care of my wife, learn my trauma, my dad, you know what I'm saying? All these things to grow. All these lessons, man, talk about the lessons of marriage and fatherhood. Forget all the other music stuff, man. Just, Just that is a lifelong journey, as you know. And I want to quickly go to what you just mentioned about obedience, because that's really been like the theme, that obedience and curiosity. Excuse me. Make sure I clear this up before I clear my throat. 
Yeah. The obedience and the curiosity of it all. There's my favorite psalm, which is Psalm 25 and 10, which is, Yes. And I see in your life, man, the paths, the incredible paths, and all the different diverse things you're able to do have all been because you've kept this obedience, this ability to say yes, yes, yes, and just say yes to it and not question and not say why, why, why. And so for anybody that's watching right now, as we close this off, anyone that's listening who is where you were, put them back in that spot, back in... when you were first coming up, that first opportunity you had where you weren't sure, right? Put them back where you were. What would you tell that one person who's about to make a decision, right, to become a videographer, to try to do this music thing, to move out of, you know, take this big risk? 
Just help them out. What would you tell yourself at the position that you were at that same pivot point? I thought about it. God's timing is perfect. I thought about it. I was like, man, I wish I came down sooner. But you know what? And I feel like for those who's watching this, if you are a father, I'm speaking to the fathers now. I feel like I spoke to the fathers. You know, you may be an amazing musician in your church, but you have, you know, you have a quirk or a skill set that if others saw that you had, they would think of you differently. That's supposed to be something you should lean in more. You know, you might have a skill that you may say, oh, man, this is something I just like to do for fun. 
Maybe you have collectibles. I don't know. Something that it has some of a monetizable value that can serve a purpose for a culture or for a niche or for an idea. You need to lean in to know what that entails. But in everything that you're doing within the industry that you're going to be in, whether it's music, whether it's technology, which I'm in, learn how to share your story. Don't be afraid to share your story. It could be raw as going on live and posting it. You need to document your story, man. It's so important because if you don't know how to share your story, someone else is going to share it and they're going to leave out the details. So I would recommend you just share your story, but then at the same time, don't be afraid to invite people in that because you wouldn't realize how much grace other people could show you that you don't show yourself. 
So the biggest competition, to kind of go back to what you were saying, The biggest competition that you're going to have is the level of contentment that you have of yourself. What I mean is you are in competition of your contentment, of yourself. You know what I'm saying? How content you are or how... I see where you're going. You know what I'm saying? You're in competition of your intention. You're in competition of your curiosity. Are you going to go at what your crazy idea is? Are you just going to leave it to yourself and just... Throw it by the wayside. You're in competition of what you do not do. You know what I'm saying? Because your future self was going to be like, wow, I'm thankful I did it and I failed and I know what to do better. 
Or like, wow, I'm doing so well at this. So you're in competition of your ideas. You know what I'm saying? I'm going to add one more. You're in competition with your complacency. Complacency. There you go. You got the word. See? Bro, I'm telling you. Hey, yo. We're going to have to do this in a whole nother situation with the workshop. Yeah. Give some more of your wisdom to people in some more specific areas. You have so many things you can speak into. But right now, if they want to connect with you and learn more about you and from you, how do they do that? Tell them how to write it down, where the links to go. You can email me directly. Phineas Robert, P-H-I-N, two E's, one S, Robert at Gmail. 
Or you could connect with me on Instagram, Finastro, P-H-I-N-E-S-T-R-O. you know, financial, like, you know, that's the handle. And then, um, I'm easy to just hit me up. I'm, I'm really readily available, um, in terms of to have a conversation or email me. But, uh, just for those who also want to talk to those who are getting married or who are considering entrepreneurship, um, definitely get your financials in check. What I say that is understand that, uh, entrepreneurship is a trial and error. So, um, Of course, still having, I have no, I have a high respect for people who does a nine to five and still does this because it's really difficult and enraging kids and stuff like that because it's not a, it's not a dream. 
It's like you want to escape. The goal for entrepreneurship is to really re allocate the funds of time back to yourself. Even if you're working a lot, you're not working completely outside the home. So the goal, my lofty dream is obviously to, have that allocated budgeted time back in the home that I'm betting more myself making as much or more being in the home or working with my family than outside because that's how a lot of problems happen, you know, and that's a whole different conversation, but don't be afraid. Don't be afraid to have those conversations well babe you're making you're not making enough as me. Maybe stay home. I don't know. Whatever the conversation is kind of offset time. Time is a big commodity and I'm still learning that in my 
neurodivergence in my whole brain. But time is the biggest currency than money. If you can efficiently learn about time, do that. And that's going to be helpful to making those right decisions and conquering the battle against yourself. It's not about the person next door or the person who got the more gear or the more experience or the more degrees. It's the person that you're living in your skin is the person that you're in competition with. Beautiful, man. Cannot wait to do this again. But for now, brother, thank you so much for being a part of this show. You are an amazing brother. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Can't wait to do this again. God bless you. Thank you for having me. 
And be on the God and Geeks show, my friend. All right. Thank you, man. My friend, thank you for watching this episode. If that blessed you, you got to make sure that you stay connected with this community and this channel so that you can get more where that came from. We're sharing great interviews, tactics, strategies, mindsets, lifestyle choices, everything is going to help you become a totally confident creative. And don't miss an episode of the gotten gig Show. If you are staying connected to our channel, you'll be able to find us anytime we release new episodes. And you can check out some of our archives of almost 200 episodes now that we've shared over the last few years. Make sure you check out one of the suggestions right now because it's probably perfect for you to continue to develop as a creative. 
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