Full Transcript
Tony:
I happened to graduate the day before COVID struck the entire country, and that training center that I was at shut down that coming Monday. And I didn’t have as much faith in myself, I mean, I had drive, but I didn’t have a foundation. I’m just so blessed to have a certificate and be able to continue making a change for both folks old or young and give them their freedom back. The first week of August I started working. It was only five to 10 hours a week, now I’m looking at 30 hours a week.
[heavy metal music]
This next album is called Soldier, it’s heavier, I’m getting back to my more aggressive roots, which is nice. It’s encapsulating the whole perspective of resilience and what that means. It’s been one song after another since I started writing for it in March or April of last year, but it’s gonna be heavy. I’m excited for that.
[heavy metal music continues playing]
The best course of action at least with where I was for a while was to find mentors, get out of your shell because frankly arrogance gets us nowhere. I think everyone at 18 to 21 is going to struggle with that. I’m shedding skin right now, you know.
[heavy metal vocals]
I recently took a position as the Youth Transition Coordinator for our center. The concept is called TAPE, tape it on, that word TAPE is an acronym for tenacity, advocacy, perseverance and empathy, and those four key components, I believe from my life’s experiences have the full fuel ability to push someone to their maximum purpose.
Jeff:
Welcome to Blind Abilities. I’m Jeff Thompson. Today in the studio we have Tony Gebhard, but with me, back in the saddle, is Pete Lane, how you doing?
Pete:
Hey Jeffrey, I’m doing good. How you doing?
Jeff:
I’m doing good. Remember back at Orlando when we interviewed Tony Gebhard?
Pete:
I sure do. It’s been a while.
Jeff:
We had a live entertainment with his guitar and singing, and all good stuff.
Pete:
We did.
Jeff:
Yep, but back then it was balls to the wall. All music, heavy music, it was good stuff, and now here he is back, and he’s turned the page here a little bit, he’s still playing guitar, I think he has an album coming out pretty soon here, but he’s taken on another role. I’ll let him tell you all about it, Tony, welcome to the show.
Tony:
Hey, what’s going on, fellas, it’s good to hear your voices again and be here virtually in our little Zoom room here together. So, let’s rock and roll man, but thanks for that introduction, and yeah I definitely remember Orlando too, man, that was a busy, busy week for all of us and hundreds and thousands of blind folks running around with their dogs and their sticks and awesome seminars and stuff like that, so a little bit of a different playing field, I feel like for a lot of us but you know, acclamation, right?
Pete:
You got it!
Tony:
Getting used to it, yeah.
Jeff:
I never knew that you were a teacher for the visually impaired, but actually, you’re graduating this Wednesday from World Services for the Blind.
Tony:
Oh, my gosh. Yeah, man, it’s been a 9-month journey or so since last June, when it officially started and I’ll kind of unpack that a bit, a lot led up to that point. So, before I tell you about the program, I mean, I kind of want to break it down for like one second. Things definitely took a big change in 2019 since I was last up here, and I kind of hit rock bottom, with some pretty bad choices that I was making in my life, you know, with alcohol and a little bit of drugs even, you know, and I’ll be transparent, I’ll be honest, it wasn’t a really good environment, and I needed a new calling and a new change, and to discover my purpose and what that would be, and the counselor that I had at the time, he introduces his programs and says hey, how would you feel about teaching, because I know you have some technology upbringing in your life, and I said okay, well, let’s figure it out. And this was October 2019 or so. I take a trip, actually, around that time, ironically to Alaska, which I know we’ll talk a little bit about later today, you know, kind of doing some meditating while I was out there and really just finding some ground for who I was, because I felt like I was standing too tall, and not realizing that the platform I was on was no bigger than, you know, a footbridge. So, things were about to fall even further if I didn’t change that. I get involved in this 10-week prerequisite technology program in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and it’s all centered around intensive Microsoft Office training and knowing the ins and outs of JAWS and Windows 10 and magnification devices, so on and so forth, so I get into this program and finally I’m like, oh my god, I have structure, I have a routine, I’m up at six o’clock in the morning, I’m in bed by 10pm. This is the first time in quite a while, because really I didn’t have a schedule for a number of years, it was just trying to get by day to day, on Social Security. You know, I know there’s a lot of people who may be listening who may be in a situation like that or know how that feels, so you know, I’m with you on it, and I’m starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel, I’m like this is great, so I make it through the program, it’s called ATAC, Assistive Technology and Computers, okay, it’s 10 weeks, and the finishing date was in March of 2020. I happened to graduate the day before COVID struck the entire country, and that training center that I was at shut down that coming Monday, so I couldn’t have graduated fast enough, you know, so I felt like I got the lucky end of that, but I started at World Services for the Blind, and that was the program that my counselor back then had introduced me to, so I said, I’m all for it, you know, go to the bureaucracy of getting support for it, so and so forth, and I originally was supposed to go down to Arkansas to actually be there in person, but of course you know with everything that was happening at the time, it was creating a lot of barriers and problems. So, we had to find a compromise on the state level as far as what support was gonna look like, so, you know, I was pissed off about it, of course, my mind was still going a million miles an hour because I wanted to travel! I’m a traveler!
Jeff:
You and a million other people!
Tony:
Right? That drove me nuts. Anyways, we agreed, okay, we’ll do it online, so I said okay, this is different, but I’ll try this, I was forced to really look at what opening your mind to other options was like, which you know, nowadays I thank god for that, that was a really big eye opener for me, pun intended. So I started, and to put it in a nutshell, what this program is, it’s called ATI Online, Assistive Technology Instructor online certification program, and it’s to put an individual through this boot camp environment where they’re given X amount of clients from a certain organization that sponsors volunteer hours, okay, so in WSB’s case we work with the Computers for the Blind Agency down in Texas, and a lot of us are really familiar with them and maybe some of you guys at home have got machines by them, and they’re really awesome, love everyone there, great customer service, look them up, computersfortheblind.org.
Jeff:
And that’s where they provide computers for people by request.
Tony:
They do, yeah, and you can customize it to your liking, you know, if you’re a ZoomText user, if you’re a JAWS user, so on and so forth.
Pete:
And they have really good prices too.
Tony:
Oh absolutely.
Pete:
They’re all refurbs, I think.
Tony:
They are, yeah, they’ve got a refurbishing center down there, you can get like an I5 processor with 16 gigabytes of RAM with a 256 SSD drive for like $225, if you can prove that you’re on social security, and that’s out of this world, that’s awesome.
Pete:
Yeah, you can’t beat that.
Tony:
No, 100%. So, they really provide the accessibility and freedom for a lot of folks. I was blessed to be able to, along with my classmates at the time, work with various folks, every week to work on a lesson plan, there’s webinars every single week. You get to meet with your instructor, so on and so forth, and you’re expected to attain a series of certifications like Jaws, NVDA, and ZoomText. You know, and Microsoft Office is not required but they do offer a separate certification program there to get that. A student can essentially, you know, acquire the program as an addition to their platter, if you will. No man, time flew by like nothing, it felt like graduate on Wednesday and I’m just so blessed to have a certificate that qualifies me in this position to be able to continue making a change for folks old or young, and give them their freedom back, you know, and my whole philosophy has now been if a student can tell me like hey I don’t need your help, I can do this, my job’s done, you know, they can go on and change the world themselves and do the exact same thing that I did for them for someone else who’s super in need, you know, so it’s a pass-me-down kind of thing, I feel like.
Pete:
Tony, that sounds great, so congratulations on your upcoming completion of that school. You told us about how you got into teaching, and you’re going to Alaska, why don’t you talk a little bit about that?
Tony:
Oh man, I can talk for days about Alaska. We’ll go back to the beginning a little bit. I had made friends online back in middle school who had very similar musical endeavors for their futures that I did. Years had passed of building that friendship and, you know, musicianship between us as a group and by the time I was a senior in high school, I just fell in love with the thought of man, I want to take a vacation to Alaska, you know, because I’m like who in my life would probably go there. So, I did, I did, I went out there for 10 days, that led me to moving there for two months to try it out, you know, after high school which, that epically failed and of itself because I got homesick and I was like oh my god, this is so hard. But, you know, I feel like I’ve popped a huge, huge, huge zit of, you know, feeling resistance for exploring the world, so that opened my eyes to the idea that you know, okay, home is where I make it, I guess, at the end of the day, so I tried it again, late 2016, and I lived there for a year, and mind you I wasn’t working, any of this time, I didn’t have a full time job. I was just a, you know, drifter musician, just trying to make money off playing shows and selling records and, you know any musician knows that’s a pain in the you know what, so, after I got back in 2017, around October, I started over and this kind of led into moving around a bunch, led up to my, you know, kind of downfall, if you will, in 2019, and I was actually funny enough, offered a job back in 2017. My boss now, who is also just an amazing friend and mentor, we played on a beat baseball team in Anchorage, Alaska, okay, we had a small team that would regularly play against Seattle. One day, while we were out there, after a game, you know, I’m sweating my butt off, man, everyone had a good time, we were having some hot dogs, you know, the sun was out, it was the midnight sun if you will. At that point he says, you know, if you can put your life together, and find a purpose, I may have a job for you sometime in the next five years. Of course, in my mind at the time I’m thinking I have no idea what you’re talking about, I have no idea what you’re talking about, you know, and I didn’t have as much faith in myself, I mean I had drive but I didn’t have a foundation. You know what I mean? Like I had drive, but I didn’t feel like things were cemented in the way that God had eventually intended it to be with the path that I was on, so long story short, we’ll fast forward to today, I got hired last July. I wasn’t expecting to get a job until I even finished the program, because I remember doing my labor market research for this position, and I’m going to tell you man, that was a painful three weeks, because I was up day and night, I probably got three hours of sleep each time, sending emails and making phone calls to various state agencies and organizations and commissions from across the country to get, you know, qualification information, what would an interview look like, you know, all this fancy statistics data that I had to compile. ‘Lo and behold, I’ve been talking to my good friend this whole time up in Alaska, who had offered me the job. And the conversation just started tailoring more towards well we’ll see what happens in the next three to six months, maybe we’ll be able to fit you in. I’m like okay, well, I guess we’ll see and then I get the confirmation, like hey, send in a business letter and a resume, like, are you serious? Are you serious? I’m totally perplexed at this point, and he says yeah, really, so I’m like okay, you know, so I draft up a business letter, I have a glance over my resume and have another pair of eyes take a look at it, make sure it’s okay and you know, they put their stamp of approval on it, so I’m like okay, let’s throw this one in the pile. The first week of August I started working. It was only five to 10 hours a week, you know, but the pay is great, and now I’m looking at 30 hours a week come March, so you know I was just telling my therapist this about three weeks ago, I’m not used to being this successful, aren’t I supposed to be suffering? You know, like, this is so weird. So, let me humble myself for a minute, because I feel like I’m getting ahead of myself, but it’s a blessing in and of itself because it really taught me to realize that good things happen to those who are patient with themselves, especially during a moment of trauma and transition, and that’s something I’m learning to tell myself every single day when I get up and before I go to bed is you’re not done yet, you know, you’re still going forward and whatever part of your story that you’re in, because you know, I’m only 24, man, so who knows where things are going to be in 10 years or 20 years from now, right? Our story never ends until we’re sitting at six feet down.
Pete:
That’s right.
Jeff:
Well Tony, you know, when you first got that notice that you weren’t going to go to World Services and you’re going to do it from home, I know what that feels like to want to escape. You’ve wanted that change, you’ve wanted that different geographic location, because that would do it. You didn’t have to work as much, because that would initiate the change, but you had to work on that yourself. You were at home, you had to keep your same environment, so congratulations on muscling through that.
Tony:
Oh, man. Thank you, you know, I think we’re all in a position where we’re forced to now treat our home like our office. People who’ve done this for years, you know, it’s like whatever, it’s just another day at the office, but I know for sure that I definitely much rather prefer, you know, taking an Uber or a bus to work, but hey, I think we have a lot that we can learn from this, being that it is such a virtual environment, you know, that kind of brings up this idea that this is really huge right now, in our time of history, I feel like, especially for the education world, you know, for folks who are working in special education. I was talking to a friend of mine who is a special-ed teacher, at one of the local middle schools right around here, and she was actually one of my Para-Pros growing up too, so it was really awesome. We’ve been able to maintain a good friendship and rapport, and her and I were talking on the concept that is the struggle for some students who require a physical presence, because they do not learn or attain information very well from a virtual perspective, you know, some students need eye contact. Some students need that physical presence, things get intense, like sure it’s as easy as just hitting the mute button and walking away, but that can pose a problem of then not being able to pay attention to each student individually because, I mean, yeah I guess you could create a bunch of breakout rooms in Zoom but this is such a new foundation for a lot of us.
Jeff:
But you’re well equipped for it. You’ve been on Zoom; you’ve been on platforms that do stuff like this. So, when you start getting your instruction, and now teaching, it was kind of a natural fit for you in a way.
Tony:
Oh yeah, I mean, for anybody who’s, you know, technologically, I guess, inclined, some of this is pretty much just like yesterday, you know, it’s a walk in the park. So, I can definitely say for sure that since this all began, I mean 99.99% of all of the students that I’ve been working with, they’re all over Zoom, or sometimes Microsoft Teams but generally it’s usually Zoom. I don’t know, you know, personally, it’s opened this plethora of new ideas and in some cases, I mean, some people find it really comforting, you know, they have a newfound ease for privacy, right? There’s a new sense of privacy that’s implemented, and safety, especially, for those that are a little more vulnerable. So, that kind of opens up that demographic if you will, to potentially learn a bit better because everyone has a different style of learning, there’s, you know, behavioral learning, and then there’s constructivism, which are heavily focused on, you know, cognitive-based, you know, differences so that would be the behavioral side, and then you have constructivism, so strategies, how is it played out, you know, during the session. Are there more tactics being used, are there analogies being used to lay out what the topic is, so on and so forth. So, I don’t know, man, it’s definitely a new world for me too, because I never thought I’d be teaching. That was not my first fortune cookie, if you will. I see about seven clients a week right now, and it’s definitely a rewarding position to be in because every day is so different from the other, you know, my lesson plan half the time goes out the window because of something not going right on their laptop so we laugh about it, we have fun, we talk about music, if a student likes music, and it creates some camaraderie, if you will, which is I think really healthy for a position like this, because I’d rather be teaching one to five students at a time versus a whole classroom of 30. It’s all over Zoom, we’re not even taking people into our center right now, in exception of manual skills training for woodworking and O&M with our mobility instructor.
Jeff:
You know, Tony, teaching is really interesting. One day we had this person come around and said that they wanted to write a book about teaching. And I’m like, you’d have to write a book for every student, because each student has such different needs that you almost have to find that person, how they’re learning, what works best for them, and redesign everything you have available to help them.
Tony:
Oh, I couldn’t agree more, man, you know, at first, when I started working in this sector of the teaching world, I guess, it really changed my whole perspective on how people act, you know, it’s given me a new sense of empathy and awareness to perspective, because, you know, this client who happens to be in their mid-60s happens to have more energy, more drive, you know, they have more tenacity than this other student, who’s in their late 50s and has, you know, poor motor skills and has to work with neuropathy, so they have numbness in their fingers, so of course I have to adapt the way that I teach them and how we go about doing things so something that might take the other student who has the drive 10 minutes, might take this student with neuropathy, 45 to an hour, you know, and that’s just the way it is, so you have to be on your feet, I’m learning that we have to be on our feet all the time and be willing to be creative and innovative on the fly. And it’s not easy. Oh my gosh, I get so anxious, you know, mentally, a lot of the time, because I’m like oh my gosh, what do I do, what do I do, but instinctually you learn to have some perseverance, you really do, with how people act, and as long as you’re honest, because I’ve learned from the beginning, like yes, this is a professional environment but these are folks who are going through rehabilitation, okay, you know? This is a big deal, okay, this is their livelihood, this is who they are, they’re learning to be independent again because people around them don’t believe in them as much. I’ll retract part of that, that came out wrong. It’s not that they don’t believe in them but they don’t know what to do. And that’s hard, because that gives the student a sense of hopelessness, so they’re counting on us to be present. And in order to be present, we have to be honest as well. You know, I can’t sit there and avoid the situation if that student is upset and possibly crying, because that’s bound to happen, there’s going to be situations where sometimes emotions will get into play, so it’s 100% important for the instructor or professor or teacher to sit there, listen, you know, almost like a therapist, in a way, you know, I’m nowhere near qualified as a psychologist-
Jeff:
When I was teaching I always thought it was 50/50. You teach the woodworking, the other 50% is life skills, kind of like just living life, because they’re in a position where they can ask it. I got a question for you, what advice would you give to a transition-age student or someone who’s just coming along looking towards their goal, their future?
Tony:
Be a yes person, okay? Be a yes person, don’t be somebody who says no because it doesn’t necessarily fit your criteria. And the reason why I say that is because, you know, for a number of years when I got out of high school, if it wasn’t music oriented, I didn’t care. And basically, for a lack of better words, I didn’t really care as much, and that unfortunately, you know, hurt me, put me down a road that I didn’t really want to go on, and yes I had a good time, I don’t regret anything, you know, don’t have regrets in your life because it’s the only life you’ve got, so try to find the best of everything. And if an opportunity presents itself, like you know, you have a conversation with a counselor, or a mentor of yours tells you, or encourages you to go somewhere that you’ve never been to, yeah, you’d be scared to death, I’d probably sh** my pants too, okay? You know, we’ve been there, but be a yes person. Say yes. You go out there and do it because you don’t know what’s gonna happen if you just say no, I’m just gonna stay inside all day and eat Cheetos and watch Netflix or whatever. That’s fine and dandy on a Sunday, but on a Monday when you start that new week, start that morning with some vitamin D, some coffee, okay, you know? Get up and tell yourself okay, this is a new day. I’m gonna work harder than I’ve ever worked before, and chase after those ambitions, because quite frankly, they’re not going to chase you, they’re just going to lap you.
Pete:
Don’t let the world pass you by. Volunteer for things, step up, if you’re in a working situation go to your boss and say hey, give me more work, or I’ll volunteer for this.
Tony:
100%, and there’s so many different things out there, and you know the biggest problem that I’m seeing in a lot of students is they don’t know where their purpose is. Hey, you and everybody else in this position, you know, the best course of action at least with where I was for a while was to find mentors, get out of your shell, because frankly arrogance gets us nowhere. That was a big problem, I mean. I think everyone at 18 to 21 is, you know, going to struggle with it. I’m shedding skin right now, you know, so it’s nothing that I haven’t been responsible for, but it’s just a matter of stepping out and saying hey, what do you think? What do you think, you know?
Jeff:
Tony, I know if someone’s in voc-rehab they’ll intake them, give them a plan and they might call up someone like you to help out with that. What resources are there out there for someone who may not be getting services or is waiting on services that you think would be good for them?
Tony:
Oh, there’s a great website out there that I got a lot of my labor market research from, it’s called Enhance Visions, and it has a directory for every single state that lists a bunch of agencies, commissions, organizations that are blindness-related, I mean there’s just a plethora of groups out there, you know, I think this boils down to the advocacy portion of where this comes down to, because advocacy is huge. So, ask around to potential peers that may be in this position, you know, and, you know, Google’s a great friend. At the end of the day, we all know that. Google is a really good friend, so get on that search engine and search up blindness rehabilitation, you know, and I think it scares a lot of people to hear the word rehab, I think, you know, that’s a big part of some of the skepticism or worry that is implemented to stopping some folks from going forward, because they don’t want to be associated with something that has rehab, and it’s like well I’m not on drugs. Rehabilitation isn’t necessarily-
Jeff:
It’s got a stigma.
Tony:
Yeah, it has a very nasty stigma, it does. I’ll tell you this, rehabilitation just simply means to reform, to recover, to change. And that applies to so many different facets of one’s mental, physical, and cognitive, you know, structure. So, in this case it’s learning to exist in a world that’s driven by a sighted undercurrent so that we can live adaptively and be independent, be able to cook for ourselves, get around, use technology, and communicate with the rest of the world so we can be successful and maybe someday pass that on to somebody else, so. Yeah, use Google.
Jeff:
I gotta admit, it was fun running into you on Clubhouse over the last week or so, and I gotta admit, I was sitting in a room and I was just checking this room out, and all of a sudden this person comes in and goes hey Jeff, did you get my email, and I’m like turning around like, where’s this coming from? He bombed the room, he came in, had a conference, and then he leaves, and the person goes, glad we could facilitate your conversation. Clubhouse has exploded.
Tony:
Man, this is a whole other topic in and of itself, and I’m just ecstatic with how-
Jeff:
The possibility!
Tony:
Oh, it’s fantastic, this is no Dabble, or what was that other one called, Verale?. This is none of those, we’ve got maybe 15 plus million users now on this thing, you know, in a nutshell, it’s this voice platform where everyone has the option to speak, or stay silent as an audience member, and visually it’s great, as somebody described this to me, you know, there’s a stage section where a bunch of folks’ profile pictures are out there and they’re labeled as speakers, right, and then there’s a bottom section where people are as audience members, so it’s almost like its own little panel or webinar. Some people use it socially, some people have been using it for webinars, and wonderful, just speaking opportunities, and holy cow, it’s brought so many people together in a matter of minutes. It feels like I had no idea I’d run into Jeff, that was like, oh, it’s you! You know?
Pete:
I know, I’m seeing people I haven’t seen in years.
Jeff:
There’s no pod anymore, England’s right next to us!
Tony:
Sometimes I just go in there and listen, for like an hour sometimes in some of these groups, just to hear some of the banter or some of the innovative ideas, you know, so there’s voiceover coaching going on in one room, and then there’s an AI group-
Jeff:
Do you want to be a millionaire?
Tony:
Yeah.
Jeff:
So Tony, let’s go back to Alaska. You’re headed up there in about a week or so, what’s living like up there? I mean like, let’s talk about transportation, how do they receive blindness, will you be living near your work, obviously probably, give us a brief picture of that.
Tony:
Sure, well I mean, like, a lot of folks’ perspectives, you know people think Alaska is filled with penguins, Eskimos, and bears, right, it’s cold-
Jeff:
It’s not?
Tony:
So, Alaska has a few different major cities. Anchorage, Juneau, and Fairbanks being the three big ones. Anchorage being the biggest, population around 300,000, geographically maybe the size of Chicago, so it’s very spread out, for what it’s worth, but no, I go into transportation so I’ll cut right to the chase. It has a paratransit system called Anchor Rides, very similar to most modes of paratransit that you’ll see in different cities, so you’ve got to get passes, you can make a call 24 hours ahead of time, they’ll come pick you up and drop you off. And they do have people movers, so they’ve got their own busing system, I don’t know the full extent of it, I have not tried it yet but I’m very excited to do so in the springtime and see how that goes. They do we have Uber, Lyft I’m not sure of, they’ve got Shipt, they’ve got Instacart, a lot of major services that you’ll see, and it’s- honestly it’s like any other major city, it’s got your Walgreens, it’s got your Guitar Center, your Best Buy, they’ve got a few malls, they’ve got the Alaska Airlines Arena. So, for anybody who wants that industrial cities landscape, I mean Anchorage is probably the best bet that you’re looking for and my experiences with going up there, it’s great.
Jeff:
I heard a song my mom used to play, it goes something like [singing] “When it’s springtime in Alaska, it’s 40 below.”
Tony:
I don’t know about that in Anchorage, but if you go to Fairbanks, which is I want to say like 300 miles north of Anchorage, very spread out, wintertime I mean, you can get down to, I think the record is negative 75 in Fairbanks. So, I mean it does get cold, but Alaska is so big, so let me give you this perspective, most of the time geographically when people visually look at a map, they only see like a small portion, right next to Canada. You could fit Texas inside of the state of Alaska almost three times, three times.
Pete:
So Tony, are your friends in Anchorage?
Tony:
I know quite a few folks around the state of Alaska but most of them, yes, are generally in the Anchorage municipality, Girdwood, Eagle River to get like the main Anchorage area.
Pete:
Have you got housing lined up?
Tony:
I do, yeah actually work has offered to let me stay at the center for about six months before I get my house.
Jeff:
Oh, look at you.
Pete:
Nice.
Tony:
Yeah. I’m renting, no way I’m gonna put it out there to buy it, because I still need to build my credit-
Jeff:
Well, yeah, but a whole new opportunity. I want to ask you a question. You’re trained, you’re certified to teach all the different modes of accessibility. So, what is your daily drivers? What tools are you using?
Tony:
Well, my poison has definitely been the Freedom Scientific Focus 40 Braille display, I love it. Ever since I got it in January, I can’t put it down, it’s very versatile. You can control the computer directly from the device from across the room, I love that, it’s very centric in that sense. I’ve fallen back in love with JAWS, so I’m using JAWS as my primary screen, where I used to use NVDA, but I have both installed for the occasion anyways. You know, all the Microsoft Office programs, I used to be a big Mozilla fan for mail but Outlook has definitely taken hold of that, and the beauty of synching, okay, the beauty of being able to sync your calendars and your reminders. I love it. You know, I can tell my Alexa friends to schedule this, schedule that, send me a reminder for this and it comes up on both the computer and the phone. That to me is such a perfect way to be in sync with everything that’s going on in your life so you don’t miss out on it, because if I don’t put a reminder down I’m not gonna do it.
Pete:
No, for sure.
Tony:
Dude, I’m saying, my brain is not done developing, the portion that’s still black, I’m like- [laughing]
Jeff:
So Tony, big question, are you bringing your guitar?
Pete:
Oh, the key question.
Tony:
I am, I’m bringing all the boys and girls, up to Alaska-
Pete:
Good for you.
Tony:
-most of which are on their way now, and I still got one of my guitars sitting here because I had a gig this morning at one of the local churches, my friend Aaron and Angie and I were doing some praise at a church up the road, so that was kind of my last shebang with these fellas here, by fellas I mean my guitars before I mail those out tomorrow.
Pete:
Tony, I don’t want to dig too deep into this but it seems that you found religion, was that coincidental back when you actually found that you needed to make your turnaround, and get out of the parts of your life and get on with the direction? Did that coincide?
Tony:
It’s weird, I- to be honest I don’t have a firm answer to it, basically, like, I’ve always kind of tug-of-warred with my faith, you know, ‘cause I didn’t grow up in strong Christian household, I found my faith kind of independently with mentors and with youth groups growing up and stuff like that, but it’s funny because I even went rogue on my faith for a couple of years during the darker, more drifter type parts of my life, but yes, I’ll say yes, for sure, after my suicide attempt, two years ago. I needed to find solace somehow, and I think after that soul searching moment, where I realized what I wanted to do, I put that faith back in Him. And I know not everybody’s a follower and that’s okay, you know, you do you, be you, live amazing, you know, love yourself, love your neighbors, at least at the end of the day, but I know when I wake up in the morning, I thank Him for giving me that second chance for a second story that I can tell and share with other people because that, that in and of itself is, I think the testimony that helps motivate ourselves but, you know, can motivate someone else to get above their complacency.
Pete:
Sure, we all need help.
Tony:
Yeah, puts the word rehabilitation to a whole new meaning, you know?
Pete:
That’s such a personal thing and thank you for sharing. I didn’t mean to delve into a painful topic but-
Tony:
That’s okay.
Pete:
-I’ve been noticing on your Facebook posts, you are definitely a different person than you were, Tony Gebhard.
Tony:
Thank you. And it’s no problem, I think the best medicine is for us to talk and find a way to express our story, to other people who can share it right back. That’s empathy.
[heavy metal music]
I quickly want to share with you fellas too, this program that I’m actually putting together for our youth in Anchorage. I recently took up a position as the Youth Transition Coordinator for our center and the concept is called TAPE, tape it on, that word TAPE is an acronym for tenacity, advocacy, perseverance, and empathy, and those four key components, I believe, from my life’s experiences have the full fuel ability to push someone to their maximum purpose, and to be able to provide teamwork. Those first three, T-A-P, tenacity advocacy, and perseverance, are what we need for ourselves, and then finally once we’ve achieved that tap on wood, you know, we can then bring in that E to tape it on for somebody else, like a band-aid.
Pete:
Nice, I like that. Empathy is important.
Tony:
Yes it is, it’s a heavy thing, man. For those that do listen to the show and have been following you guys for a number of years, you know, I hope that you all can find it in yourselves to be that tape for somebody, and this isn’t like masking tape or duct tape. This is a whole new meaning of adhesive.
Pete:
Absolutely. Your very being.
Tony:
Yeah, give you, you know, and that’s how we motivate.
Pete:
Well, those four components work in almost any environment or application in a business world, obviously tenacity, advocacy, and perseverance will apply in a business environment but empathy also feeds in, you’ve got to have an understanding of the people that you deal with. It’s not going to work without it. I love it.
Tony:
I’m glad man, I appreciate that and I’m definitely nervous, because all the students that we’re bringing in, I’ve never met them before so I can definitely feel the nervousness on their behalf, but I’m hoping with my approach to kind of being laid back and, you know, a friend really, offering my hand, hey, you know, let’s do this together because, you know, three years ago I wasn’t in a really good position, so I know what it’s like and maybe if I don’t, maybe we can figure it out together. It’s having that open discussion through activities and maybe identifying some hard and soft skills for career choice, they’ll be able to find that tenacity, advocacy, and perseverance, and then finally they can put that on that empathy to deliver it for somebody else, it’s a pecking order, it’s the domino effect.
Jeff:
And then when you’re all done with that you can share your fourth album with them. That’ll break the ice.
Tony:
I can talk about that a little bit, sure man. Ever since COVID began, inspiration, inspiration. I released Drifter in 2020, that was my last album that went on all the streaming platforms in, I think it was June, and when it went on Bandcamp first in March, so you’ll be able to find the album on tonygebhard.bandcamp.com. So, onto this next album, I’ll talk a little bit about it. It’s heavier, I’m getting back to my more aggressive roots, which is nice. I experimented for a while with some different styles, and working with different people to open my mind up to some various cross-genre styles and you know, whether that’d be R&B, rap, solo piano, it was just fun. It was a great way of just finding out what else I can do, and expressing my feelings. So, this next album is called Soldier, and it’s encapsulating the whole perspective of resilience and what that means. It’s been one song after another since I started writing for it in March or April of last year, so I mean I never really stopped writing, I mean I’ll have my burnout moments like any artist will, where you’re just like I suck, I can’t do this, whatever, you know, this will never top my last, blah, blah, blah, I’ve got maybe like 17 songs or so right now, for like a drafted album so it’ll probably be brought down to 13, or 12,but it’s gonna be heavy, you know, and I’m excited for that and I’m bringing in a couple of new people, my friend Kevin Reese is going to be on it, I’m stoked for that, another guitar player, Fred Hain, he’s amazing, from Colorado, so he’s out of this world and I’m actually bringing in a rapper from Texas to come do some stuff on it, yeah, so it’s gonna be fun man, we’ll just see where it goes, but I definitely won’t be able to finish it as fast as I did with the last three because of work, so you know I’m just going to try and go at a subtle pace, and the product that comes out, it’s going to kick a lot of ass.
Pete:
You know, Tony, I see a double album coming.
Tony:
Dude, I mean, I haven’t avoided the thought, because Drifter ended up being a double album, but the promo of it I definitely need to work on, because my marketing for my last one sucked. I just didn’t put much time into it. I really didn’t, I need a promo person, like I have social media presence, you know, with followers and subscribers on YouTube but I’m just not, it’s hard, the entrepreneurial thing and some people are out there saying well, you gotta put the work into it, well, yeah, you’re right, but I also know like, there’s a lot of things going on now, so this next album might be a passive release, I don’t know yet.
Pete:
Yeah, that’s fine. We’ll give you a pass on that one.
Tony:
I appreciate it.
Jeff:
Tony, where can people find you on social media?
Tony:
Sure. I’m on Facebook, facebook.com/tonygebhardmusic, and then Twitter @TonyGeb23, Tony G-E-B 23, instagram.com/tonygeb23, Clubhouse as well, so there’s that, TonyGeb23, YouTube, and YouTube is where I’m really active, YouTube’s probably the best place to go right now, or you can add me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter, those would be the best places, and that would be youtube.com/mrjt1020, I do a lot of tutorials, I’m kind of in a series right now with LogicPro-
Pete:
I’ve seen them. They’re great.
Tony:
I appreciate that. Yeah, that’s been a lot of fun, and that was the beginning of a little bit of traction, so I’m hoping to actually finish a series and get some episodes done. I feel so bad because I told my subscribers, I’m like I’ll have another one up next week, nope! Bullshit, that was a lie. It’s hard. I need to take the approach that y’all do in the podcasting world and just record record record record record, and then put them up each week, you know what I mean? Like, I’m not that organized, you guys are kings at it, I can’t do it!
Jeff:
Logic, now that’s on a Mac, right?
Tony:
Yeah, so that is strictly native for Mac OS, unfortunately it does not offer compatibility with Windows, you know, if you’re a Windows person you know you might gravitate towards Reaper, which has been gaining a lot of traction too, man. I mean, so many are people using Reaper now, especially for being such a dirt cheap program-
Pete:
That’s cross-platform too, right? It’s on Mac OS as well.
Tony:
It is, yeah, I’ve only used it a handful of times on Macintosh, I do have it on my workstation in my studio, but gosh, I can only count how many times I’ve opened it on my fingertips.
Jeff:
Great. Well, Tony, I want to thank you so much for coming on here, you got a lot of packing- you need to pack up the whole household, you’re going to Alaska!
Pete:
North to Alaska, how about that?
Tony:
Yeah, maybe you guys can come up there sometime, huh? I’ll take you for a hike, we can do a podcast out in the woods.
Pete:
A follow-up.
Tony:
Yeah, yeah, come on out, I’ll introduce you to the whole family.
Jeff:
All right.
Pete:
Well, Tony, it’s been great talking to you again, catching up.
Tony:
It’s been a pleasure, fellas, I’m happy we did this again and I hope to do it again sometime in the next couple years.
Pete:
We wish you nothing but the best, man.
Tony:
I wish you guys the best, and thanks everybody for listening, and to reiterate, you know, just be a yes person, you know, be a yes person, we can all do this together and tape it on, okay? Tape it on.
Pete:
Put in the hard work.
Tony:
That’s it.
Jeff:
You got it.
[heavy metal music]
[Music] [Transition noise] -When we share
-What we see
-Through each other’s eyes…
[Multiple voices overlapping, in unison, to form a single sentence]
…We can then begin to bridge the gap between the limited expectations, and the realities of Blind Abilities.
Jeff:
For more podcasts with a blindness perspective, check us out on the web at www.blindabilities.com, on Twitter @BlindAbilities, download our app from the app store, Blind Abilities, that’s two words, or send us an email at info@blindabilities.com. Thanks for listening.
Contact Your State Services
If you reside in Minnesota, and you would like to know more about Transition Services from State Services contact Transition Coordinator Sheila Koenig by email or contact her via phone at 651-539-2361.
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