We are Torrence and Thurman Thomas. We are Louisiana-based creatives and cultural engineers. If asked informally, “Where are you from?” We’d probably respond with, “Buzzaroot” [buzz-a-roo] (the “t” is silent). Our hood is nestled in the small town of Geismar, a city in between Baton Rouge and New Orleans.
What’s you’re your story?
We’re blessed with the opportunity to do some really fun things. When listed it can be perceived as “a lot”, but to us, it’s as natural as breathing. In the never-ending process of discovering who we are as humans and what we can offer to humanity, we realized that we were at our best doing anything involving people. Our journey into the creative space began around 18 when we started playing music (sounds weird, but stick with us). Through the avenue of music, we’ve been able to meet and be in the rooms with some amazing people and artists. While doing (and still doing) music, we noticed that we were having challenges building content. It was always a hassle trying to schedule photo and video shoots. One day we just had the idea...let’s try to do this for ourselves. We picked up a camera and with the help of some awesome friends and youtube tutorials, we started building our own content. Our friends started asking us to shoot them, then small local businesses, then large companies. We’ve been blessed to work with brands like Lincoln Motor Co, Coca Cola, Citgo, Delta to name a few.
While creating music and content, in 2011 we wanted to do SOMETHING to give back to our community.
From this desire, Tankproof was born! Tankproof is an organization that specializes in giving underserved kids the life-saving gift of swimming. Through this organization, we’ve been able to help over 1,300 kids by giving them this life-saving gift.
In addition to music, creative work, and Tankproof, we find that extra opportunities come our way by the avenue of speaking engagements. We’ve been blessed to give talks at multiple creative conferences, businesses/corporations, and educational institutions. Be on the lookout for our first book dropping sometime this year!
“We’re at our best when we’re interacting with people. People are the currency of life.”
How did you get started?
We’ve had an amazing amount of people around us that have shaped us and imparted wisdom, knowledge, and direction for us. A lot of the endeavors that we pursue we usually “fall” into. We wouldn’t be where we are without leaning on our parents, pastor, and big brothers. Particularly, regarding music, it was our big brother/mentor, Donavan Thompson that pushed us to become artists. When I say that we had NO INTENTION to make original music would be an understatement. Despite our fears, we had a lot of encouragement to counterweight them, and we’re fortunate to have people that love us enough to make us uncomfortable for growth.
What challenges or hardships have you faced while pursuing your dreams?
Wow! What a question! Where do we start...One challenge we face is how we view “challenges”. Challenges become more palatable by viewing at them through the right lens. The greatest challenges and resistance that you face is during the climb.
Every endeavor that we have has some sort of “challenges”, better yet, “opportunities for growth” is what we like to call them. One specific challenge that we (we know we’re not alone with this) tackle regularly is dealing with the thoughts associated with the comparison game. Comparing your life to someone else’s. Another challenge would be learning how to keep all of our ducks in a row. Doing a few different things can be hectic as you can already understand we’re sure.
How do you stay disciplined and maintain the drive to keep going?
Practically, we do our best to understand simple truths.
Everyone’s path is different, that’s the beautiful thing about your story, its YOUR-story.
We also try to do our best to communicate with each other effectively. I mean, you think twins should just be able to read each other’s minds, right? On the contrary, we have to communicate A LOT, but getting aligned and on the same page is never a bad thing.
What drives you and inspires you?
What drives us is our concept of “no separation”. What that means is that when we view you (the reader), we view ourselves. With this mindset, it makes it very difficult for us to “hurt” you because, if we hurt you, we’re in essence hurting ourselves. We’re also humbled to have the opportunity to do the things that we do, we see it as an obligation to maximize them to their full potential. Is there a better way to show gratitude to the Universe? Whenever we expire from this physical plane we want our cup to be empty! Why? Because we poured it out into the lives of others.
How do you balance doing your business ventures and taking care of yourselves?
We’re big into chillin. If you’re always movin’ and groovin’ you begin to cherish “down time” even more. In our downtime, we try to make it “UP time”. We’re both avid readers and we love watching documentaries and great series. We also love to train our dogs in our spare time as well. There’s something that is just so therapeutic to it. We thankfully (we think) have built the habit of working out consistently, maintenance is VERY important. As far as “recharging” we make sure that we have at least a day in the week that NOTHING is scheduled. Each of us can go with the flow individually during these times.
How do you want to leave your mark on your inner circle, community, country or the world?
In our inner circle, we want those closest us to know that we LOVE them. The greatest love that exists is laying down your life for a friend. Does this mean physically dying?...99% of the time, NO! Laying down your life for a friend is choosing to put the needs of others before your own. We want to be known as THAT friend.
We want our community and the world to understand that number one, “we” don’t need the credit. The social issues that we’re combatting deserve the spotlight, the more we can talk about it as a society, the faster the route to a resolution and concrete, permanent change. How great would it be if EVERY child in this country was given the life saving gift of swimming? How amazing would it be to excel in the music and creative industries to open doors for the people behind and aside of us?
What’s a quote you live by?
“BE the voice, not the echo.”
What advice would you give anyone interested in pursuing your path?
Connect with people who do what they want to do but they’re further along on the path. Help them to accomplish their goals, it’s training you how to do the same thing for yourself.
Where do you see yourself a year from now? 3 years from now?
A year or three from now we see ourselves watching these “gentle brooks of income” turn into “ rushing RIVERS of income” (let’s skip the streams) haha. Why do we lead with that? Because with this we can open opportunities to others.
Thank you so much Torrance and Thurman for sharing YOUR STORY with me/ us!
What’s your story?
Shoot Jasmine a note in the “Contact “ section if you’d like to share it with us!