Talent Gets Noticed, Consistency Gets Remembered

Consistency is the one advantage you can control, and it might be the difference between being noticed once and being remembered for years. We get real about why so many musicians stop right before the breakthrough moment, and how comparison on social media can quietly sabotage your practice routine, your confidence, and your joy.

We walk through the mindset shifts that keep you moving: trading impatience for patience, embracing delayed gratification, and trusting that your music career timeline does not have to match anyone else’s. I also talk about how confidence is built the same way strength is built in the gym, by doing the reps and proving to yourself that you follow through. That consistency becomes something your audience can feel, and over time it creates trust with listeners, fans, and collaborators.

You will hear practical ways to survive the “quiet results” season, including why growth often happens in spurts and how to track progress so you can see improvement even when it feels slow. We end with a simple challenge: pick one area where you have been inconsistent and recommit without overwhelming yourself, then keep showing up until the results get louder.

If this message hits home, subscribe, share it with a musician friend, and leave a review so more artists who need it can find it.

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Christ The King Release link: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/toniking/christ-the-king

Transcript

Welcome And Set The Tone

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello and welcome back, everyone. So excited you're here. We're going to get into a great subject for today, and we're going to continue to grow. But before we do that, man, y'all know what it is. Let's get into it. We're excited to get into this, man. We're excited to get into this great subject. And uh today we're talking about consistency is the currency. Why are musicians who show up when? All right. And um, you know, this is this is this is so important. This is uh amazing, and and it's important to understand this. And I really think that in the time that we're living in, that this is a key component that's really missing with a lot of people. Um, being consistent, uh period, and being consistent with the right things. And I think that people, um, some people, they're so eager to get on the stage. They're so eager to want to write for this person or want to play for this person, but they haven't been consistent enough with just honing their skills and growing um as a songwriter, as a musician, as a as a as a vocalist, uh, whatever it may be, you know, you have to take the time, you know, to to make sure that you you've given uh yourself time to grow in this area, all right. So the core message here talents, talent gets noticed, consistency goes, gets remembered. All right, and I think that is so true. Let's go to the very first point here that I want to make why most musicians quit right before progress shows up. You know what? I I think that we have to be careful with our social media uh platforms and and and all that, because it's where a lot of comparing happens. And I think that this lack of consistency or quitting before a person sees progress, it's because of what we're looking at. And we look at somebody. Um, I think we get tied up in what we see, and then we get tied up in how old they are. We love to see young kids, small kids playing piano sonatas, playing bass, playing drums, uh prodigy. We love those things. It's amazing. And so we look at that, and then sometimes we look at ourselves and go, what's wrong with me? Why am I not further along? Why am I not, you know, uh at a certain place? And you have done nothing wrong. You are on the path that you are on. And I think this is a part of the reason why some musicians quit before they see the progress because they are comparing themselves. And this is a battle, and I think that this battle has intensified with social media. Now, social media is a great tool, um, a tool that you can really learn and grow. But we also have to be careful about comparing ourselves when we're seeing other great musicians. There are there's always been great musicians out there, always. And for some reason, when we see others, it I don't know. We just start to think that what we have isn't enough. You know, I know that I have been there. I know that at times I have moments like that. And so I think this is a part of it. Another part of why musicians quit before they see progress is because they're just impatient. You know, they just they want it now, they want it yesterday, they wanted it last month, last year, and at the same time, you know, they haven't been consistent yet. You know what I mean? And they might have just started, or they just say, for instance, you know, you just started playing a new instrument and and and you already want to, let's say it's guitar, want to sound like Prince, you know, or or you know, some other great uh guitarist, and you want this thing overnight, you know, and it's no such thing. You will progress, but it takes time. You have to start from the top or from the bottom, if you will, and work your way up, but it's going to happen at the right time. And I think when you are progressing in anything, you have to learn how to be patient with yourself and to allow yourself time to grow and not think that because you haven't gotten there in three months that you've been playing this instrument that that something's wrong with you. No, it's just you need to give yourself time and allow yourself to grow and know that you are going to get there with you being consistent. You know, um, consistency outweighs uh talent any day. I don't care. Give me somebody who's consistent, and you'll you will find over time that that person will even outgrow the person who has natural talent who can just do the thing, you know, um, and and they didn't have to work that hard. And you'll see the person who's consistent outgrow them and be a better musician, be a better speaker, be a better basketball player than the person who just took their gift for granted. All right. So let's move on. Delay gratification in music careers. You know, this is a big one because there are a lot of people who have been waiting their turn for a long time. And, you know, we're living in different times now. We're living in different times where you don't have to wait for a label, wait for to get into a studio now. You know, we have these, we have all this stuff at our fingertips. We have our phones, computers, we have social media, we have our cameras, we have AI now. We have so much stuff that allows us to get a lot done. And so, you know, I know that it looks like, yes, I would love to, you know, be a part of this big label and be able to do songs with this artist and and all that, but you know, you have to understand that there is a path for you. There are people that are gonna that's going to get to that height. There are some people that should not get to that height of their career because you don't know what those people had to do to get there. And I'll leave it at that. I'll leave it at that. Um, just if you know, you know. But you know, some people they want to get so high and don't know how those people got there, how they're maintaining that, what they have to do, you know, whose thumb they're under. You don't know. So you have to think about what it is that's for you and what you are supposed to do and what God has for you and set aside for you, what audience you're gonna have, right? You know, who's gonna buy your books, who's going to come to your dance class, right? God already has that set aside for you. So don't look at it as delayed uh you being delayed, right? Even though that delayed gratification is a good thing in a sense because it works on you, it allows you to mature, allows you to grow as a person. So it not happening quickly is actually a good thing. Some people they got it so quick, you know, and they had to catch up as far as their as far as maturity is concerned, as far as other things, you know, it happens so fast, you know. So, and some people they got it fast and they were able to roll with it. But, you know, whatever's for you, that's what's gonna happen for you. So don't look at your career, look at where you are, and think that you are less than or whatever, or that it's not gonna happen because it have hasn't happened by some time that you've given for yourself. You've told yourself you want it to happen here, but it may not happen at the time that you have set, but if it is for you, it's going to happen. So continue to work. All right. How consistency builds confidence and audience trust. You know, it's important. Um, that this is even the thing when it comes to social media. How you know building your audience, uh, building confidence and your audience is so important. I started doing social media, uh, I would say even before the pandemic. Before the pandemic, I started doing social media, you know, started recording myself and did not have all the tools I have today. You know what I mean? And and um it took time, you know, to build, build my confidence, strategy, and I'm still and I still am. I'm still building confidence, still building strategy, still working on these things. But I started some time ago. And, you know, over the years that I have been doing this, you know, I have really grown so much. And um I have really built, you know, I I want I want my audience to grow, and that will happen, but I have built up to this point a certain level, certain audience and people who are looking at my stuff, and confidence in what I do and confidence in what I am sharing online. And so um consistency is the key to that. You have to do it when you don't want to do it, you have to do it when no one seems like no one's watching. You have to put out music even when you don't have many people listening to you at the time. You have to put that, you know, have to still mix and master, even when you're not mixing for a whole lot of people yet, right? Um you you have to put the seed in the ground, allow it to germinate, allow it to for the roots to first go down to the ground, and then eventually it will come through the soil. But continue to be consistent because it's building you. You just like you go to the gym, you know, and you and let's just say you go about three or four times a week or you work out at home, through that consistency, you will begin to be more confident, you'll begin to feel better, um, you'll begin to look better, you know, and you you you will believe yourself when you say that you're going to do something and you actually follow through. So many things happen when you are consistent. So many things. And so, as if you haven't noticed yet, ladies and gentlemen, if you haven't noticed yet, character, the person that you are, is the doorway to greatness. If you haven't noticed this yet, who you are as a human being, you being faithful, you being consistent, um, you doing following through, you being a person of your word, you know, getting back up when you're knocked down, because we we we are we have all been knocked down. All every last one of us, everybody listening to this, any anyone who will listen to this later on in the future, all of us have had been knocked down. But it's not that's not the that's not the the problem. The problem is that some people don't get back up after they have been knocked down. And that's and and like anything else, it takes time to build that muscle of of getting back up and saying I'm not gonna quit, even though I've wanted to quit so many times, and I want to be transparent and honest with you guys that I have wanted to quit so many times. It's truth, so many times, but I but something in me just won't let me walk away, right? So I want to tell you from my own experience that yes, I've had to be consistent, I've had to get back up, I've had to fight, you know, I had to trust the process, and I'm still trusting the process, you know, and so um it's very important that we really work on this consistency thing and continue to go forward. All right. Showing up when results are quiet. Now, this is a big one because you know, when you are working on your skills, you're working on your career, working on a podcast, working on your book, working on your social media, we don't always see how we are uh how we are growing. We don't always see the progress because the progress looks is so small at a certain point that you can't really see it. You can't sense it. You can't, you're like, it doesn't seem like you have gone anywhere. And trust me, I have struggled with this myself. Like, okay, like I've you know, I've been doing this for for some time now, you know. And what I'm gonna tell you this, what I have noticed in my own life, I can only speak for me. Number one, you are growing. Number two, growth happens in spurts, is what I've noticed. So let me give you an example. I um I've been playing guitar now. See, I started once again, um, I started playing guitar around the pandemic. I started doing social media before the pandemic, uh, and I started playing guitar around the pandemic. So 1920, 20 uh 19, 2020, 2021, somewhere around there, is when I started playing guitar. And, you know, I told myself, I said, I'm not gonna pressure myself too much. I'm just gonna get on, I'm gonna play. I mean, I'm I'm talking like I'm started with just playing the G string, or just playing the E string rather, and and playing G, right? Which is the third fret on the on the biggest string of the E string. And starting from that, I mean, just playing that and trying to find like what's the third from that, which which would be B, you know, and just I mean, I'm talking like I'm not doing anything. I'm just just plucking strings, trying to figure stuff out. And I did that for a while. And then one of the most wonderful things happened happened that after that I stuck my there was a growth spread I had because I didn't just let it go. Now, sometimes I would play, I would do that, and sometimes days would go by. I wouldn't touch the guitar, but then I would go back and then I would play for seven days, several days, go over what I played, and I also bought books too. I bought books so I can see you know how the how uh the guitar is arranged, the frets, all that kind of stuff. And so, you know, there will be moments where you know I I would do something for a while, step away from it a little bit, come back, and I would grow a lot. And so that's what I have noticed in my life, that the growth starts out slow, like a train. It starts out very slow, and then eventually what will happen is I'll have those moments where I will grow a lot. It would just be, oh shoot, like I'll discover something new, you know what I mean, and then I'll work on that, you know. Maybe I'll I'll learn a new chord. You know, that's what I would do. I would just uh add and it took me a while to get to the point where I can play songs. It took me, oh I mean, I started playing, what was it, 2026? I probably started playing songs, simple songs on the guitar last year, probably. Yeah, like last year, it took me a while to start actually like playing simple, like just one to four to five and back to one. Like nothing, don't get too crazy. Just, you know, simple songs. It took a while, and so I had to stick with this thing, even when it didn't seem like I was growing. I was just playing the E-string, playing G. You know, it at that moment it didn't look like I was growing much. I was I wasn't doing anything. I wasn't playing like Jimi Hendrix or Prince, you know what I mean? I wasn't doing none of that, you know. But I had to stick in there, and now today was this April in 2026, you know, I'm playing songs now. I'm playing actually acoustic and I'm playing electric. My wife got me an electric guitar last year. But all that took time, you know what I mean? And the results were quiet for a while. And there are moments where they're still quiet, and then I have another growth spurt on there where I'll start discovering things and I'll get comfortable with, you know, I had to get real comfortable with so many things, playing bar chords and then playing, um, switching, going from one chord to the next. That took a while. I couldn't get there. I mean, the funny part is I couldn't get there fast enough. You know what I mean? So, you know, and it took time. I and I just at times I even just laughed at myself. I said that I'm gonna get there. You know what I mean? I will enjoy myself and I'll and I'll walk away. And eventually I got there. And I'm and so, you know, and on and on and on. And so I want to to tell you that you cannot quit, you cannot walk away, you can take breaks, but the results are going to be quiet at first, and then you'll see the growth. All right, and that's just that's just how it is. And then you can uh you can also set up a system or have a system where you can also track your growth, however you do that in whatever you in whatever that you're doing, right? I'll give another example. So if you're if you're working out, and let's just say that, you know, if you do um uh uh chest presses with the uh dumbbells, let's just say you're using 10 pounds in each hand, you know, and you do that for a while. And then, right, and you can start, you can write down when you started that, and then also write down when you went up to 20 in each hand, all right? And so you that's the one way that you can track your growth. And so just what I just told you before with me playing guitar, I wasn't able to play uh songs at first, and so it took a while for me to get there, and you know what I mean, and then now I'm able to I I didn't write, I didn't write it down, so I don't know exactly when it happened, but I was just saying last year I started playing songs, you know what I mean? And so now I'm able to do that, and so on and on and on, all right? And so, last but not least, why being behind is a myth? You know what? And and it's crazy that I see this because I think this is true. I think this is true, family, because you only feel behind the moment you look at somebody else. The moment you look at somebody else for able to do that run that you've been trying to do and easily, and then you look at yourself, I can't, you know, why can't I do that run? But you don't know how long they've been doing that. You don't know how long they've been singing, you don't know how long they've been working on that run, how long, what exercises they're doing, how often they're working on exercises. You have no idea, right? So, no, you're not behind. You're not, and you know what? This is a biggie. This is a biggie in life uh with a lot of things, right? Even outside of music, uh, with buying a home, getting married, having children. Now I know that women have a clock, so I know that they can't take forever. Like you got you got a window. But even though they got there are women who are having babies in their 50s. I mean, it's crazy. I think it's just, you know, it's ideal, 20s and 30s, it's ideal. But there are people who are are having babies, you know, of course in their 40s, having babies in their 50s, you know what I mean? And then because obviously there's they're still healthy, they still have eggs, you know what I mean? So, or they they get an uh egg donor. How do they do it? Um, but you know, we there's this thing, especially in America, where it's like now, now, now you need to, you know, I did you need to have books come out, and I became a millionaire at 20 years old, and I and at 23, I had three kids, and at 25, I had a mansion. You know what I mean? You hear all this stuff and you go, and a part of you goes like, so I don't care. Like, that's your life, you know what I mean? And and there are a lot of people who are not going to hit that mark. And what you have to understand is if they were able to accomplish some of these things early, right? Let's just call it early, that somewhere there was somebody or some habit that they had that uh that compounded over time. And so by the time they got to 20 and 21 and 22, they were able to um, they were able to really capitalize on their previous work and what they did to get there to be able to become a millionaire at 20 years old. There was work involved, right? There was somebody there who maybe somebody had a business, they were able to show them the ropes, understand money, understand borrowing. A lot of people don't get this information early. So you can't look at yourself and go, oh man, like why, you know, and you you hear that and you're 27. You hear that and go, I didn't become a millionaire at 20. Maybe you became a millionaire at 30, right? And that's the same thing. If you became a millionaire at 30, great. But that's not gonna be everybody's story. And it's nothing wrong with you if you did not become a millionaire at 30, if you didn't have buy your first house at 25. It's nothing wrong with that. You're gonna get where you're gonna get at the time that's for you. Some people in entertainment, some actors didn't get their big break till they were in their 50s. Check that out. Until it was in their 50s, they didn't get their big break. And they've been acting that whole time. Right? So, no, it is a myth. You're not behind. You're exactly where you are supposed to be. You are getting what you're supposed to get, uh, assuming that you're being consistent, taking breaks, but being consistent, right? Continue to grow, learn, do all that you need to do. But you are right where you are supposed to be, and I want you to believe that today. You are not behind. Continue to work, continue to believe, continue to be kind to yourself, continue to love yourself, right? Because you you're going to arrive exactly where you are supposed to be. All right. So I have an exercise for you. Identify one area you've been inconsistent and recommit without overwhelming yourself. All right. Let's find one area, just one, just one. I didn't say five, I didn't say eight, I didn't say 20. One area, right? And let's take on this challenge together and let's work on being consistent and doing what we're supposed to do so that we can become stronger, more confident, right? So that, yes, you know, so you so eventually you'll see the the results that are quiet become louder, all right? And it's so, so, so important. All right, and and so uh I want to thank you so much for being here checking out this episode. Do me a favor, family. Continue to check out uh everything that I'm doing. Go to the blog Sonic Kingship Art Blog. There will be a link in the description for you to check it out. And when you check out um that particular blog, the sometimes the the link is to a specific blog post, but go out of it. There are other blog posts that I want you to check out. Check out my music on all streaming platforms. Look me up, Tony King, Tony with an I King. All right, and uh all my music music is there. There will be an album that I will be dropping this uh this year, Kingdom Radio 2. Um, that is that's underway. I'm working on it right now. And um uh please check out all my social media stuff. I'm on all not all, but most streaming most uh social media platforms from Facebook to Instagram to TikTok, all of them. Come and check me out, man. And I want to thank you so much for checking out this episode and other episodes because we're going to continue to lift each other up, man, and continue to educate and continue on this journey together so we can grow and do all that we need to do. If this episode encourages you, share it with another musician who needs to hear this. We grow together. I want to thank you so much for checking this out. I hope you're having a wonderful day. If you're not having a wonderful day, you can change that by your mindset. Thanks so much. Tonkey.