REAL TALK - with TOBY WATKINS
Toby Watkins is 6ft tall and wears UK shoe size 9 if you want to hire him as a model for your next campaign. He has a lot of experience! These days however, he's more preoccupied with running his own production company - Maybe Media. For the past few years Toby has been working tirelessly, at home and abroad, refining how brands showcase their identity and individuality online. His company excels at shooting brand campaigns and delivering personality through visual content. Although modelling has been good to him, the vagaries of being in demand left a lot of time for other pursuits and even when he was in demand - the interruption to routine, travelling and being away from family was tough. By his own word he is building something far more tangible than modelling and it is an improvement for his mental state of wellbeing.
MF: Tell me more about your day-to-day?
TW: There's a lot of stuff that doesn't fit a routine, but most days I'm up early and on set in time for breakfast by 8am, because that's the structure for these production days. Most jobs are in London, so getting to a set location is often not too far. We shoot until lunch - we lunch - then we shoot until it's a wrap. The timing on this can differ a lot, especially at this time of year when shots are dependent on sun set or the evening light being right, but generally I get home in time to train or go for a run, which is what I love doing. But if we need a twilight shot for example and the weather doesn't behave, I'm working all hours of the day, so my routine goes out the window and I am running on fumes and adrenaline for that week.
MF: What would you love to do more of?
TW: I'd love to do more, umm...it's a really good question. I'm lucky that I get to move around a lot and work with a variety of clients and brands. I think I'd like more time to chill to be honest.
I've become fascinated by the nervous system, precipitated by some past anxiety. I'm fascinated in how to nourish and heal the nervous system. Yoga and qi gong are both practices I'd like to expand my understanding of, where there's a pivotal mind-body connection underpinning the discipline. Our brains are so used to being "on" that I'd like to explore what happens when I am not constantly stimulated, without my phone for example and learn to live with some boredom, just to give my dopamine receptors a rest, haha.
REAL thought: It's not too hard to imagine how 'bored' we would all have felt a lot more of the time before Edison invented the lightbulb. These days it's quite normal for each of us to be shown somewhere close to 5000 adverts per day, even if we may consciously notice closer to 80 of these. Imagine how much less stimulated we were before electricity, the lightbulb and telecommunications, let alone the internet.
MF: How does movement and exercise help you mentally and physically?
TB: A lot. I love running. I will generally always find time for it. Weight training on the other hand, I'm less excited about, but I do it. These days I enjoy the longer duration runs where I slip into a rhythm, allowing me the mental space to destress and a feeling of peace. I used to blitz a 5km run, almost chasing an endorphin high to balance out my daily stresses or anxiety, but now I really enjoy the movement and taking my time to ease up. The high-intensity stuff raises your cortisol levels and as good as I might feel afterwards, I'm just mindful not to hammer it all the time.
Toby wearing his Flyweight 2:0 tee - Graphite
MF: How do you cope with hard things?
TW: Well I used to try to think my way out. But I've realised that only prolongs the problem, because you can't think your way out of something, if thinking is what got you there in the first place. Learning to sit with discomfort, realising that life can be awful and accepting that is a big part of letting problems wash over me. Afterall - what you resist will persist, as they say. I also rely on those around me and am good at airing my wants or needs - if I need to chat and go out for a beer with a mate, I will let them know. You have to trust yourself and know that everything will be ok.
MF: What's one thing you simply couldn't live without?
TW: Probably my phone. I know that's really boring! But I'd miss things like my meditation app...
MF: Oh which one do you use?
TW: Insight Timer... any certified person can upload their stuff, so there's a lot of insight that I love. But I couldn't live without the music on my phone either - that's the soundtrack to my life!
Orrr probably a good hat...If my hair's all over the place, or the sun's out, or if I'm going for a run - I want a cap!
MF: What's your favorite day of the year?
TW: I love Christmas eve...and I love spring. I love the anticipation and the sense that the best is yet to come, that's why I like the build up. I almost prefer Thursday before the weekend or the night before the wedding etc.
MF: Is there anything you'd like to get off your chest?
TW: I think I've got it all out in therapy, haha... actually I once stole a packet of waffle-biscuits from Starbucks when I was a lot younger.
MF: Oh yes, I know the ones - delicious.
TW: My Mum found out and obviously wasn't happy, so she said "you must never steal, because every time someone knocks on the door - you'll think it's the police". I realised I couldn't live with the guilt again. She terrified the life out of me, haha!
MF: That's a lesson right there. We've turned a negative into a positive.
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