We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Tania Tare a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Tania, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your creative career sooner or later?

In short, my answer would be no.

I do think looking at the way of the digital world now, i probably started later than usual. But my first priority/goal was always to be a player on tour. To compete. Being a professional athlete was always the dream i had since as long as i can remember. Initially it was tennis but when that dream was cut short (due to falling through a home window) it switched rather quickly to golf.

I knew since i was young i always wanted to be in charge of my own life. To have the ability to work the way i wanted and be in control of my success. But having started later in what i am primarily doing now (the trickshot career), gave me time to learn a lot of valuable skills. A main example would be hard work doesnt always translate to immediate success. I think you learn early trying to be a competitive professional athlete that results come sporadically and to be honest, sometimes not at all. And once youre comfortable and at peace with that, you become less entitled, often even harder working and it is a very humbling journey. I think to be anything great in life, you have to be honest with yourself that youre going to give it your all, and sacrifice where need be with the intention to achieve all your goals. But when life hits you, and it does, understanding whatever happens is meant to happen has really helped me allow things to come into my life that are meant for me. Dont get me wrong i dont believe in quitting lol, but for me, when i was on my third wrist surgery in 3 years, I was hurting internally at first, but being able to go with the flow after opened the door for me to this world that one could argue, has been more fulfilling than the original dream.

To be honest, if the creative part of my career started earlier, i wouldnt have been ready for it and probably would’ve pushed it aside thinking it was “in the way”. I needed to learn all i did before i could accept the blessing.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

– So my creative outlet is golf trick shots, which subsequently involves a fair bit of content creation. Both forms of unique creativity.

As i eluded to previously, I wanted to be a playing professional but during those years i had no one around me who played golf. One family member (my older siblings dad) and zero people outside of that. Everyone had that stereotypical perception of golf back then and to be fair, they were right.

Practicing involved long hours at the course and to focus that long is hard. So while i was practicing i would just come up with random trick shots and eventually when picture/video phones became a thing, i started filming some and putting them on social media in 2012. They were a total hit on my feed but i had my profile on private the whole time. Fast forward to 2016, so many people were requesting the videos, i took my profile off private and my page blew up within 24 hours. Two months later i was in America, filming a commercial for Honda. And thats basically how i began.

– I think something that really helped me become successful fast is that the trick shots were entertaining to people who didnt play golf. Many brands are always looking at ways to get audiences they didnt already have. I was a good outlet at the time because then, it was hard to sell golf to people with the rigid stereotype. I was and antithesis of the golf stereotype, once labeled as a “liability”. Only once though luckily lol. But it helped me grow a large piece of my audience didnt already ties/loyalties to brands and were basically a blank slate for brands to advertise to.

– I would say something i am proud of is i feel like i did a good job at over the years not falling for the easy way out so to speak. Of course there are many opportunities for all content creators to create against your branding for a quick high engagement video, But ive always made a point to stick to my brand and think long term. With this in mind, its helped me build trust with brands that what they are looking for, is what theyre gonna get, and it will be aligned with their values.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I would say the journey with my arms. When i was younger i went through a window and cut my left forearm down to the bone. I was 11 when it happened with a dream of being the best tennis player in the world. So much so that i used to wake up before school as an 8 year old and walk to the tennis club before school and practice serving by myself, followed by finishing school and going to the tennis club with my mum. Weekends were interclub and i was so obsessed i would spend my free time watching my mum play her matches too.

When i was rushed to surgery, the last thing the doctor told me is “were sorry but we have to cut your arm off from your shoulder”. Very luckily they were able to save it but unfortunately, i wasnt able to continue tennis because i couldnt feel my left arm or use my hand. I had too much nerve damage with has come back a little but only about 50% today.

Fast forward to that dream ending, i picked up golf. Went and played college golf and broke my wrist during a tournament. Potentially from over use! Played the next two days on it thinking it wasn’t that bad. Then proceeded to have 3 wrist surgeries and a fourth minor surgery on my wrists. Despite all of this, i managed to win a professional tournament in my short stint as a playing pro and have now crafted a career full time as a global trick shot artist doing live shows and signifcant amounts of original content creation.

If i had stopped at any of these points for example in life and discontinued activity because i can use my arm like normal, i wouldnt have even realised what i would have missed out on.

Can you share your view on NFTs? (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)

So i’m actually in support of blockchain technology. I feel like the more you know about it, the more you understand why we need it in society. I am an investor in cryptocurrencies and am in the process of creating another decentralised platform involving AI tech as well.

Unfortunately, the tech has been used ineffectively so far. NFTs specifically have a great opportunity for real world use. Think, never having to have your registration on paper and sifting through your car for it worried if its even there. Think eliminating the middle man (and fees) for reselling tickets. What about being able to earn a percentage perpetually on your original art which is a problem creators always have. How does a repost page have more success than the original creators or the content? The more “gimmicky” side of NFT’s has slowed the adoption in my opinion. But thats only because it is not being utilised yet in the way that will help us the most.

Furthermore, throughout my career, i have tried to be as authentic and transparent as possible. Thats the main reason why this technology appeals to me. Community driven and transparency. Currently people think this blockchain world exposes what we are afraid of, but in reality just shows us what the current world can hide.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.payyourgreenfees.com
• Instagram: taniatare63
• Linkedin: Tania Tare
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@GreenFees