Will Toms is the co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of REC Philly, a dynamic creative hub in Philadelphia that empowers independent artists and entrepreneurs. Born and raised in Germantown, PA, Will's journey began with a passion for poetry and visual storytelling. He later honed his skills working with major names in entertainment, including Eminem and Ice Cube, before co-founding REC Philly with Dave Silver. Under Will's leadership, REC Philly has grown into a multimillion-dollar organization, providing resources and opportunities for creatives to thrive. Recognized as a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree in 2021, Will continues to champion the cause of democratizing access and opportunity for young, passionate people of color .
Your journey into entrepreneurship wasn’t by accident. You also gained experience working at “Fame House”, a creative agency located in Philly. How did that chapter influence the way you approached building REC Philly?
WT: I was one of those kids that knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur really early. I was the nerd in high school with my business partner back then, my homies who just had big visions and big ideas. We were building business plans back then and it started off really kind of simple, first T-shirt lines and then production companies where we wanted to make short films and videos. Then throwing parties, so I think I always had this desire to build something bigger than myself. I always had the perspective of I want to build a life on my own terms and I always saw entrepreneurship as a pathway to that. What I think was really beautiful though once I started to find my love specifically of creativity, media and marketing. I was recruited to work at a really awesome agency called “Famehouse” that allowed me to see what it actually looked like. Before I was playing at the highest level myself, being at Famehouse allowed me to walk in one. I was a young kid in my early 20s working for clients like Eminem, Ice cube and Shady Records and that was a real big gift because I always tell my mentees, the power of having a full-time job even if you want to go into entrepreneurship is way bigger than the money they pay you. It's about finding an opportunity to say, “Hey, how do I learn on someone else's dime? How do I get an opportunity potentially to build relationships while I'm also there?” But then also critically, if you know that you want to be a leader, you want to actually have staff one day and run your own ship. Learning what good leadership looks like and actually being in that environment. I'm really grateful that I had that experience because now as someone who runs a creative agency, I didn't come in completely in the blind. I've had mentors at Famehouse who kind of showed me what it looked like to manage accounts well, to give feedback well. I've also had folks that showed me what poor leadership looks like, so I could realize what I didn't want to adopt for my own leadership style. I would say as an entrepreneur now, getting into a building that could allow me to learn and build relationships was really critical.
Insiders look into REC Philly. (All rights reserved to owner)
REC Philly originally started in 2015 in a warehouse in North Philly but officially opened the new space in Center City in December of 2019, just three months before the world shut down and around the same time you left your job. What did that experience teach you about the importance of pivoting instead of quitting?
WT: I actually left my full-time job earlier than the pandemic, I left my full-time job shortly after deciding that REC was going to be the thing. The reason I did that was I got to that point where I was doing both for a long stretch of time. Like literally I was working 8-5 at Famehouse and then literally from 6 to sometimes 2 a.m building the REC thing. For context there was a season in my career early with building what we're doing and we were throwing five shows a week at one point. So imagine having that full-time job and then you find yourself in venues till 2 a.m., knowing you got to get right back up and be there at 8 a.m. I realized the vision was clear and I just felt my spirit was pulling me to build the thing. It was almost like God didn't give me a choice at this point, it's like I know where I'm supposed to be and at that point, I'm actually doing everyone a disservice now by staying at the full-time job.
So years and years in the warehouse, before we had the courage to then go raise the capital. We get to the dream space in Center City, 10,000 square feet state of the art facility, 14 private studios, the whole deal. But when I tell you opening that space was the biggest accomplishment of my career to that date. We literally raised millions of dollars, it took over a year to get it all put together and then architected, build construction all for three months later. The Rona came through and was like, “Oh that was cute” and all but like the city is now saying we got to shut down. There was just such an emotional roller coaster that I don't think anything could have prepared me for it. That's when you learn the power to pivot. At the time that we had to shut down, I will never forget March 12th of 2020. The last event that we ever had in that season was with Damon John for his book launch. No one knew what to expect at that time, but then we also had 22 other events on the calendar after that and all of that immediately had to go online. What I learned from that experience is, I had to reconfigure my own relationship to failure and I had to really understand what is failure and what is success? What I learned is sometimes we look at getting punched in the face by something like Corona where you got to shut down your beautiful space. But really failure is actually a part of the process for success, it's not the opposite of success. And understanding that just takes this weight off your shoulders.
“I realized the vision was clear and I just felt my spirit was pulling me to build the thing. It was almost like God didn't give me a choice at this point, it's like I know where I'm supposed to be and at that point, I'm actually doing everyone a disservice now by staying at the full-time job.”
- Will Toms
Every creative faces moments of doubt and fear, especially when it comes to sharing their work. What would you say to young artists and creators about trusting themselves, staying the course, and not letting those inner doubts win?
WT: This is a big one. I think self-doubt if we're honest, is something that almost every creative experiences at some point. I think the thing about creatives is we’re sensitive about our stuff and what that means typically is we are always toggling back and forth between like crippling self-doubt and Kanye level ego and sometimes it could be in the same day, it's just up and down. What has been helpful for a lot of the creators that I get to coach and work with closely. Is recognizing that when you really are passionate about what you're creating, you do it from a place of service ultimately. Like the thing that I'm creating, it's no longer just about me. It's about me knowing that there's someone out there who needs exactly what I have. If there's a message I'm trying to communicate, they may only be ready to receive it from me, there might be other people who talk about business, who talk about creativity, who talk about how to make money in your art but for some reason, maybe there's a person out there who only needs it from the Will Tom's package. Because of my life experiences, my identity, I think the helpful shift is to take off the hat of being kind of self-centered with it. Your actually just showing up to serve with your gift and if you do that, you start to realize in those moments when you're doubting yourself or when you feel like you have the creative block or you're just doubting yourself enough that you don't even want to post. Who loses if I let self-doubt stop me from putting this thing out? Because you're really robbing someone of the value that you know that you were meant to actually give value to. So I think if you can reframe it that way, it's always helpful to be like, “Yo I'm doing this to serve, so I got to get out of my own way and not rob the people of what they're here to get from me.”
Will sits down with Daymond John during 2020 Book Talk. (All rights reserved to owner)
A lot of young people have big ideas but get stuck on where to start. What advice would you give someone who’s sitting on a dream but doesn't know how to move it forward?
WT: I would encourage people to really sit in it and visualize it. Like really get as crystal clear on what that thing is, what does the world look like when that thing exists? How do people experience it? How do people feel? Because first you got to really see it. They say without vision, people perish, so you really got to see it. For me it's always been really helpful to write it down, I think there's something really powerful about putting things down on paper. Because we could be creative, we'd be in our head, we see it but then we can't communicate it to the people that can help us bring it to fruition until it's plain on paper. So fall in love with the writing of your ideas. That's been something that's been super helpful for me. I got a stack of notebooks behind me and everything, all of the things that became REC Philly, our programming, the space, like the member journey. They all started in my notebooks first and so I would just encourage people visualize it, dream it, but then put it down on paper.
The other thing I would say and I really want to encourage people to do this because it took me way too long to do it myself and I wish it didn't. Find a mentor who's achieved the types of things that you want to achieve and figure out how you can be as valuable as possible to them. Mentorship and having really strong relationships with people who are doing things that you want to do, I’ve learned in my journey that can help you open doors that 10 years of hard work cannot. Most of the things that we're after as entrepreneurs in life are on the other side of another person. So having someone who might be a bit older and some mentors can be younger than you, but having someone who's a bit more experienced in a certain domain and being able to help glean some wisdom from them can just clarify what you're doing and it can save you a lot of time and energy. But I also wanted to say in that same thing, mentorship is a two-way street. It's not about finding someone to just be like, “Yo help me, help me.” Figure out how first you can help them and don't go to them and be like, “Hey, how can I help?” No, actually take the time to do the research of what they got going on and what's happening and then you figure out how you can help, what value can you give to them? And I promise you, if you make their life easier, we're reciprocal people, as good humans they're going to want to figure out how they can help you. So that's what I would say, dream it really clearly, get it down on paper and then go find the people who have done similar things that you respect, try to help them and build a mentorship type relationship.
What role does representation play in helping the next generation believe that their dreams and aspirations are truly possible?
WT: Representation is everything. You know for me personally, it's in my knowing, it's in my spirit. It's just incredibly difficult to be what you can't see. If you don't see someone who looks like you achieving a thing, it's so easy to then as a young person discount yourself and be like, “Oh, that's not for me.” We got to get rid of that. Growing up in high school I started playing tennis. I remember when I first picked up a racket, I'm like, “Play tennis? We don’t play tennis”, but then I saw the Serena and Venus and I'm like, “Oh yeah, we could do this.” I can normalize this. Then later in my career when I started creative entrepreneurship and acted out in the music space that’s when I could see people like Master P or Russell Simmons and people like that. It was like, “Oh okay, cool. They get money, they fly, they're themselves. Okay, cool I could do that.” So for me, I think that's kind of the underneath I hope is coming through and how I build what I'm building. That there's some young folks who could look and be like,"Oh word, that’s Will Toms, he built a thing that he really cared about.” He's loving people in the process and it’s working and that's a path. The way I show up and what I do with that opportunity is going to dictate whether it makes it harder or easier for the next person who looks like me to exist in that space. I think representation is super important for all of those reasons. It's a long game, it's a marathon as Nipsey would say. We got to see the people ahead of us charting the path or even being willing to carve out new paths just to remind us that we can do the same.
Want to hear more amazing stories like this? Check out our “More of Us” series! If you want to connect with Will and support the work he is doing, follow him on social @thewilltoms @recphilly, support his business REC Philly.