This episode is for anyone who followed the safe path instead of the one that actually lights them up. Musician Tony Saint Tone joins Soul Sparks to talk about what it really takes to reconnect with your spark when life has quietly pulled you away from it.

Tony shares how he left everything to become a full-time musician at 30 with no guarantee it would work, and why the biggest risk isn't chasing your passion, it's staying somewhere that slowly burns you out.

About the Guest:

Tony Saint Tone is an award-winning singer, songwriter, and touring musician based in Sarasota, Florida, with thousands of live performances across more than two decades. He left a stable path in graphic design to build a full-time career in music and now speaks about purpose, passion, and staying the course when doubt creeps in.

Key Takeaways:

• Most people chase money first and passion second; flipping that order is what actually leads to work you don't burn out on.
• Know your destination before you start walking; you can adjust course along the way, but you need somewhere to adjust toward.
• You likely have more time and capacity than you think; treat "I'm too busy" as a starting point to question, not a fact.
• Small, consistent effort compounds; showing up for your goal for even 15 to 20 minutes a day adds up over a year.
• Protect your belief by choosing who you share your goals with; not everyone discouraging you is against you, but you don't have to let their doubt become yours.

Connect With the Guest:

Website: sainttone.com

Facebook: facebook.com/SaintTone

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/tony-saint-tone-lavorgna-46496b92

YouTube: Saint Tone

Episode Chapters:

[00:00] Cold Open — the spark that never actually left (approx.)

[03:00] The Biggest Misconception About Finding Your Purpose (approx.)

[08:00] Money First vs. Passion First (approx.)

[13:00] Leaving Everything to Become a Full-Time Musician (approx.)

[19:00] Setting a Destination Before You Start Walking (approx.)

[25:00] The Rat Study and the 20-Minute Rule (approx.)

[31:00] Holding Onto Belief When Doubt and Setbacks Hit (approx.)

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#podmatch #healthymindbyavik #podhub.club #soulsparks #findyourspark #passionoverpaycheck #purposedrivenlife #careerreinvention #consistencyiskey #chaseyourdreams #innercalling #selfdiscovery #motivationmindset #overcomingdoubt #followyourpassion #personalgrowth

00:00:17 Niharika: Hey listeners, we all go through this like there's a moment when everything feels heavy, when the world dims just enough that you forget what made you light up in the first place. But what if that spark never left? What if it's been waiting, quite impatient for you to remember where to look. Where to search for. Welcome to Seoul Sparks. I'm. I'm so glad you're here with us today. This is, uh, this is a space where we pause, reflect, and reconnect with what makes us come alive. Today, I'm joined by Tony. Tony. Welcome, Tony. And we are exploring what it really means to find out that inner spark where life tries to deny. So yeah. Welcome, Tony. It's great to have you here.

00:01:15 Tony Saint Tone: Thank you.

00:01:16 Niharika: Uh, starting off when people talk about finding their spark on their purpose, what the biggest misconception usually they're carrying that actually keeps them from finding it, uh, which, which casually, you know, keeps away from it. What's that common misconception you observe?

00:01:40 Tony Saint Tone: I think a lot of people, start off going after money or going after value of, you know, as opposed to what their passion is. Uh, a lot of times they just go, well, you know, can I make a living doing that? Or, you know, is there, is there a job that, you know, will sustain a living for that? Um, if you put money first, which don't get me wrong, we all have to survive. But if you put money first, you're going to end up in a situation that you're not as happy as opposed to doing what your passion is. So if your passion is gardening, but you're like, well, I need to be an accountant because an accountant makes more money than a gardener. You're going to be stuck behind a desk and you're not going to be out in nature every day. Now, if that nature is what really drives you, then you could become, you know, open up a nursery, you could start a landscaping business, you could become there's, there's hundreds of things you can do. I think what most people do is they don't look at their true passion and it's just narrowing it down, asking yourself questions every day, like, what do I enjoy doing? And how do I make money doing that, you know? So I think that's I think that's what it comes down to. I think I think most people don't ask themselves that question of what do I love to do now? How do I make money doing what I love to do as opposed to what makes me money first, you know? So it's, it's reversing the questions.

00:03:03 Niharika: That makes sense. You know, we originally assume that we love that materialistic things like the outcomes, but we just have to, you know, that's just so powerful. Like we spend so much, uh, you know, chasing something we think is out there like those materialistic outcomes, whether it's money or whatever it may be. But, um, what's really it's about turning inward and paying attention to what already knows what is really valuable for us. That's true. What do you think causes people to lose touch with that spark In the first place. Like it is something that happens. It is not something that happens all at once, right? It starts gradually. They start, um, you know, gradually losing that spark. Um, so where does this start again?

00:04:00 Tony Saint Tone: Again, I think it starts off right off the bat with, uh, with income, with money. Uh, if you ask a lot of people what they do for a living, you say, how did you start that? You know, what made you work at a tire center at Costco? What made you work at, uh, you know, this accounting office? What made you start doing this? You know, most people go to school for one thing, and they end up doing a different job. So they might have went to school to be a marine biologist, but they end up becoming a teacher. You know, they might have went to school to be, you know, whatever, a psychologist and they're working at a grocery store. Um, and it's not that they're bad people, it's just that they're in a situation where they haven't had that passion strong enough to say, I need to do this. And the example I'm going to show you is I want the school to be a graphic designer. Now, I didn't necessarily want to be a graphic designer, but my parents were like, well, we really want you to go to college and get an education. And, and I enjoyed doing art. So I says, okay, I'll agree to that. But the entire time, I was always playing music. So at one point, I was thirty years old and I said, well, I can't make a living playing music here in the town that I live in. So I have to move to a different state if I want to play full time. At the time, I was playing three or four shows a week, and if that was, that was the most you could play in Florida. You could play seven days a week, twice a day. So I had to have the courage and strength to get up and move and move to a different part of the country where I didn't know anyone and I had to start from scratch. And a lot of people were trying to discourage me from doing it. And the reason why is they didn't have the courage to do what I was doing. a lot of friends of mine that were musicians were saying, well, you don't want to go there. How are you going to make a living? I says, well, I'm going to be a full time musician. And they're like, yeah, but how? I said, I don't know, need to know the how right now. I just know I'm going to do it. And they would always keep probing, but I kept saying, I'm just going to be a full time musician. And I kept that mindset the entire time that I was in the process. I got here in, in Florida, and it took me about three months to finally establish myself. So within two, three months, I had to take some turns going, okay, I'm going to work at a sign shop as a graphic designer, but I'm going to start building relationships. Within three months, I was able to do it, and that's been over twenty five years now, playing full time here.

00:06:23 Niharika: Inspiring me.

00:06:24 Tony Saint Tone: Yeah, yeah, it's it's been amazing.

00:06:28 Niharika: So yeah, you just like that awareness. What? It's um, you know, you have a calling like music is your calling, but Yes. Circumstances force you to do something. Uh, then we lose that, uh, you know, the journey towards that, uh, our inner calling, what we are, um, gonna do what our passion is. That's true. You know, it happened, um, in my life, too. I'm professionally a food technologist, and here am I doing podcast. And this is something I really love. And I, I started realizing very late and now I'm really enjoying it, you know? Yeah. It's yeah, turning inwards and really listening what you really need. Well, again, yeah.

00:07:16 Tony Saint Tone: I think it comes down to how bad do you want it? I had to leave the state, so I had to move fifteen hundred miles away to another state to pursue my, my passion. Uh, other people aren't willing to make that sacrifice. So it's, it's not that they're bad people. They're like, oh, I guess I don't want it that bad. Or the sacrifice was just too big for them. They're like, I can't leave my family. I can't leave my friends. I'm like, okay, well then that's okay. Then you can still find a way to do it. It's because people ask me that all the all the time. Like, you know, how do you how did you become a full time musician? How did you do this? And I said, well, you need to have a goal set before you can even achieve the goal, right? So when a ship leaves its port ninety percent of the time, it doesn't see the end result, right? It knows that it's going to go from America to Europe, right? But they know that that's the final destination. Now, the weather can change a lot of times. So it's not a direct route. They might have to go ten miles to the east, ten miles to the west to avoid storms. So you have to take that into consideration. But they still know that that's our destination. They still know where they want to go. So if you still keep that in the forefront of where you're going or what you're doing, then every day you make little adjustments, little adjustments the way a boat will to get to your final destination. Most people throw their hands up and go, oh, well, the wind brought me this way. So I thought I was going to America and I ended up in, you know, Australia. Like I didn't want to be in Australia. Well, now I'm in Australia. I'm like, well, how did you get here? I thought you wanted to go to America. You're like, yeah, I did, but I let go of the rudder and I just let the wind and, you know, life direct me on where to go. I'm like, okay, so I think that's, again, it's taking control of your own destiny, taking control of what you want. I think if you can get that goal set up first of knowing where you want to go, it's much easier to work backwards if you're just walking. What are you walking towards? Are you going down the street to the store or are you going up the street to the high school? Where are you going? You need to know where you're going before you start walking. Most people just wait to figure out where they're going. It's taking that time, I guess, is the biggest thing is taking the time to really ask yourself those questions, because I think a lot of people don't really know what they like. You know, they don't know what they want to do.

00:09:33 Niharika: Yeah, it makes sense. You know, you just have that strong belief, and that's what gives you a driving force until you reach the goal. It's what most people are missing in the starting itself. So even if I feel it's like a privilege to follow your dream, to have that courage initially, you have such an inspiring story. That's great. Yeah. But when it comes to a daily routine, or like for someone who is listening right now who feels like they've lost that spark already, what is it actually look like in everyday life when you start to reconnect with.

00:10:19 Tony Saint Tone: Ah. Okay, um, simple questions. Be an observer. You know, um, hey, I like playing with kids. I like, I like kids, I don't like kids. I like, uh, playing video games. I like watching football. I like whatever. What is it that you like? I like eating ice cream. I mean, it could be like the stupidest thing that you're like, what does that have to do with anything? Maybe write down everything that you like and that you enjoy doing. I enjoy going on hikes, I enjoy boating, I enjoy bowling, I enjoy whatever those things are and start looking at those. And now you have a list of all the things that you like to do, whatever it is, it could be something like a sport, it could be eating, it could be walking in nature, whatever it is. Now start looking at each one and go, what types of jobs are associated with hiking? And maybe ask ChatGPT or Google it. Give me a list of jobs that include outdoor hiking where you could be a guide, you could be a forest ranger. You could be, you know, there's several things that are in that direction. So it's, it's really just starting from the core. If there is no passion there yet, start asking yourself questions. What is it that I like to do? What is it that I would really love doing every day without being paid to do it? I think that's a key thing. Don't put the money first. We all know what we could do to make money. We could dig a hole and be a construction guy, if that's what you want to do, dig holes for a living. But if that's not your passion, you're going to go, wow, this is hard work to make money. What else can I do to make money that's more fun? So it's just re-analyzing. I think most people do not take the time to do that. They just allow life to sort of say, oh, I was, uh, at a calling center because my friend went for a job interview and he asked me. And so I got him a job there. So now I'm a telemarketer. I'm like, do you like telemarketing? No, I hate it. Well, then why are you doing it? Well, because my buddy had a my friend gave me a job. Okay, well, I could have gave you a job digging holes. You see what I mean? It's like they're just looking for like. Well, what do I need to do to make money? And, and don't get me wrong, we all need to make money. But you're not following your passion. You're just following the dollar. If you continue following the dollar, you're going to burn out. You're not going to keep doing it, or you're going to be so miserable that the time off you have is like, you know, they say most heart attacks happen at nine a m Monday morning because of the stress level of people going to work to a job they hate, right? It gets to that point where they're like, yeah, they don't want to be there, but yet they're doing it because they've always done it or that's what pays the most. So yeah, I think that's, that's I, that's my answer. I'm going to stick with that answer actually.

00:13:18 Niharika: Yeah. Excellent. It's like either you are, you're doing what you love or you start loving what you do. But that that is important, right?

00:13:30 Tony Saint Tone: Yeah. Yeah. It's again, it's, I think most people don't take the time to, to even ask that question. They just go, what are you doing? I don't know, I got a job at the shipyard. Oh. Why? Well, because my dad worked there. Or because my uncle works there. Because my friend works there. Oh, I thought you really like playing guitar. I thought you really like collecting matchbooks. Yeah, I do, but, you know, you see what I mean? They they they just allow things to just sort of fall into place and never take control of it. So it's that ship in the middle of the ocean going. One ship has a destination and it's going towards the other. One just lets the weather move it around to wherever it lands. And sometimes a lot of people are adrift at sea and never get to their destination because they never had one.

00:14:18 Niharika: True.

00:14:20 Tony Saint Tone: So yeah.

00:14:23 Niharika: Yeah, it's about those quiet moments of, again, reconnecting with yourself, getting aware of yourself, what you like. It's like the ones you that remind you that you're still here, still alive, still feel you want to find that right?

00:14:43 Tony Saint Tone: Yeah.

00:14:43 Niharika: What's one practice or shift in a perspective that you recommend when you know, when someone feels like the life feels full and demanding and you you'll be working around the clock, you are not having time and there's no room for one more thing. I'm already doing something. Um, either it's lies or whatever the circumstances they have in. But when they feel like there's no room for one more thing, but they still don't like what they're doing, they're being forced to do so. How do you suggest or can you tell me a way where they can make space and, you know, they can make it big and big upon time?

00:15:27 Tony Saint Tone: So we all have twenty four hours a day, right? We all have twenty four hours a day. Everyone does. And, um, doesn't matter if you're rich or poor. So when you say you're, you're at a max, you're maxed out, you know, you're like, hey, I'm extremely stretched. Um, maybe you're not. And the reason why I'm saying maybe you're not is I'm going to tell you a little story about the rats. So there were these rats, uh, that, um, back in the nineteen fifties, they did an experiment with rats and they put these. They want to see how long they could swim for. For some reason. So they put these rats in the water and the rats swam for about fifteen minutes and they all slowly started drowning. So the, the, the, they pulled them out of the water and they said, well, let's see if we put them back in again, would they swim longer or shorter? Well, they put them back in and they end up swimming for thirty to sixty hours.

00:16:23 Niharika: Cool.

00:16:23 Tony Saint Tone: So that's twenty four thousand percent more than they thought they had the ability to do. So the rat thought it only could swim for fifteen minutes where it actually could swim up to sixty hours. So when you say I'm maxed out, I'm stretched out. I don't have any more time to do what I want to do. Maybe if you really needed to, you could find extra time. Now, here's another thing that I want to add to that. There's this thing called the one hundred hour law. If you spend eighteen minutes a day on any specific goal that comes out to about one hundred and ten hours in a year. You will be better than ninety five percent of the people in the world in that field, because of your commitment of spending eighteen minutes every single day. So if you sat down today and said, I'm going to learn piano, but I'm going to spend fifteen minutes or eighteen minutes every single day playing piano, playing piano, playing piano. It's these small little things that add up. See that eighteen minutes isn't anything but you multiply that over a year. That's one hundred and ten hours. Now there's another law. They say when you spend ten thousand hours on any given task or any skill, you become a professional at it. It's a ten thousand hour rule. Yeah. Like if you're throwing free shots and free shots and you're just doing a free shot, if you, you know, basketball, those guys spend hours and hours and hours just doing that so that when that time comes, you get a free throw. You want to sink it. You're not just like throwing it off the backboard. So stepping back again, looking at, well, hey, I'm all stretched out. I don't have enough time really. If you do want something, you could find that extra time. Less time, uh, sleeping, less time on social media, less time talking with your friends, less time watching movie, less time going to a party, less time doing other things that you're like, well, I have to do that because I need a relief from my job. You know, when I started music, I was playing, working a forty hour week. We're rehearsing two to three times a week and then playing twice on the weekend. But, you know, we would get out of work at five o'clock, go to a drive thru and eat your dinner on the way to rehearsal. Just be there at six and from six to ten you rehearsed, wake up in the morning, go back to work, you know, so it takes that kind of commitment. So I wanted it that bad. Other people don't want it that bad. So when you ask, I don't have any time. Let's look at the rats again. The rats thought they could only swim for fifteen minutes, when in actuality, they could swim for sixty hours. I think you can do it.

00:19:10 Niharika: Yeah, it's. That's the key, isn't it? It's all about the perception. If you think like it's about it's not adding about one more. It's about creating that space, you know, even just a breath or just a minute, as you said, even if you just spend eighteen minutes, you're going to be a pro at something. So it's, it's to remember who you are underneath everything after everything. That's it. That's it. Yeah. But life has a way to test us. When the setbacks come. Or when the doubt creeps back in. Is it working? Will it work for me? Is it the right thing to do? How do you hold on to that? How do you hold on to the belief or. But some way the life comes way, you'll get that down. So how do you hold on to that? Without you.

00:20:07 Tony Saint Tone: You're always going to get doubt. You're always going to get doubt, but you have to surround yourself with people that encourage you or fuel your fire. So a quick example is my dad never really understood me playing music. He thought it was a waste of time. He didn't know how I could make money at it. He thought, you're traveling around every night like a gypsy. But that fueled my fire to prove him wrong. I'm like, because he was. He was saying it to me not to discourage me, but he didn't feel like it was right for me. He didn't understand how it could be a job. Right. But I knew that it was something that I wanted to do and that I was passionate about. So I allowed his negativity to fuel my fire. Meanwhile, I kept my eye on other people that were doing what I want to do that were playing full time, that were full time musicians. So it's sometimes changing your environment. You know, don't discuss things with people that are just going to constantly put you down unless it feels your failure. Don't tell them, you know, like if you want to be a microbiologist and you keep someone goes, you can't do that. You're not smart enough, you're dumb, you're not smart. You can't do that. Well, they maybe they're not smart enough, but you need to make that judgment. Don't let someone else judge what you should or shouldn't do. So yeah, you're going to have doubt out there. And again, it's like the ship that's going to its destination. You have to change course. Sometimes you have to go to the left. You have to go to the right. Maybe you have to learn a little bit more before I can do what I need to do. You know, it's not a straight shot. It's not put one video up on YouTube and now you're, you know, an influencer. It doesn't work that way. It's really putting up multiple videos ago. What does the audience want? What's my niche? Oh, here it is. Now. Some people might get it within one hundred or two hundred. Some people might take one thousand or two thousand to find their niche. I can tell you the quickest way to not succeed is quit. Period.

00:22:03 Niharika: That's very powerful. Yeah.

00:22:06 Tony Saint Tone: So as soon as you quit, it's guaranteed you won't get there. But anything else? It's possible. Even if it's one percent, it's still possible. But if you quit. Done. Game over.

00:22:23 Niharika: That's great. Yeah. It's about customizing according to you, but you just have to have that one. Uh, you know, the one big thing waiting for you and you just have to customize it your own. But either the one you should not quit or give up on that big dream.

00:22:43 Tony Saint Tone: You know, most most goals are with that of our are without our reach. And, um, if you think of it like climbing a ladder, you have to let go where you are, let go of one rails and reach for the next rail to climb higher, so you have to release where you're at currently. And a lot of times that's outside of your comfort zone. So you have to be outside of your comfort zone to grow and to reach your goal. Most people don't want to be outside of their comfort zone. They enjoy being comfortable, which is fine, but your goals up here and you're not going to reach it by holding on to the rails. You have to let go of something to move to the next level. Just another analogy of how to look at it.

00:23:24 Niharika: Which is great, by the way, because it became so common for people, even though they like it or they don't like it, they started living in their comfort zone, even if it is or not. It became like that as such that out of thinking, out of the box thinking and all, it became a skill and resume like it's a whole thing, but it's at least thing you have to do, um, to get succeeded.

00:23:53 Speaker 3: Yeah.

00:23:54 Niharika: Yeah, that's, um, let's see if our listeners want to connect with you after the show. How do they connect with you?

00:24:05 Tony Saint Tone: Uh, you can go to all my social medias. Uh, it's under saint tone. I have Saint tone dot com, which is my website. I have a YouTube channel, which is Saint Tone. Uh, I have a Facebook, Instagram. Uh, they're all and it's all spelled out S a I n t t o n e Saint tone.

00:24:22 Speaker 3: Yeah.

00:24:23 Niharika: Yeah. Hey listeners, I'm gonna put all his, uh, website links on the show notes. You can find it out there. So, uh, coming to the keynotes listeners, your spark doesn't need to be found. It needs to be remembered. Just remembered. So Tony, thank you so much for having this conversation. Thank you all. Yeah, we all carry something that wants to shine, but the question isn't where, whether it's there or not. The question is whether you're willing to slow down long enough to feel it again and just having the courage to make it happen. Thank you for being here, for listening, for choosing to remember. I'll see you next time on Soul Spark.