Today we’d like to introduce you to Tyair Willis.
Hi Tyair, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I started dancing when I was little and I also would do flips off of anything that wasn’t too high for me. I use to watch Mario’s music video “Baby let me love you”. I would try to inmate the choreography. I would do small performances for my uncle when we lived in Swissvale inbetween grades 3rd & 5th. We moved from living with my mom to living with my stepdad. My Lil brother’s dad was the closest thing to a father to me than my own we all have different dads and mine wasn’t in the picture nor was my older sister’s dad “Lashay.” When we moved with him, I went to this school named Stevens, which is now shutdown and in that school I played the violin. I was really good so good that the music teacher invited me to take private lessons at CAPA I tried to push myself to play the music but honestly, it was to advance for me so I bailed.
I also took fancy dance classes for foxtrot, tango, etc., did that for a month cause that’s how long the person was gonna be there and I really enjoyed it and would do it again I believe this all took place in middle school. But anyway we started moving a lot more than usual I lost friends and my Lil brother’s dad passed away he was shot. So we went to move back with my mom. I couldn’t really make new friends cause we were always moving. I think I stop dancing up until the 11th grade and one day, I seen Shmateo hit the reverse; that’s when I was so amazed and wanted to try. I started posting to this app called Triller in 2016 and I’ve been uploading monthly a year in a half after the app was created in 2015, it took me about two years to get 1000 followers. I did venture off to other apps and start posting, but I always knew there was just something about Triller, plus no one really used Triller like I did where I’m from, so no one would really see my videos unless I uploaded elsewhere. Further down the road after graduating, I went to job corps to try and continue with my normal life but sadly, I was kicked out for the smoking on the premises. So I was living in my mom’s storage room about 7ft by 6ft with my girlfriend, who also got kicked out of job corps.
Long story short I had to send her home because my mom was feeling like it was to much and not enough space and that I had to do something with myself which, she was absolutely right so I started working jobs and while I was working I never stopped dancing, I just kept getting better and I was only dancing for fun. I decided to take my creativity more serious so I applied to get verified on the app “Triller,” and I actually got verified. A few months later, I blew up from 1k to 5k at that time I had another girlfriend and was still in my mom’s storage for about a year, I requested to become a creator and they gave me a creator badge man was I so happy. So in that time, my mind started to change. I started content creating and posting my other talents and my account blew up for the first time. I gain 5k followers in two months in 2018 into 2019 so I was at like 11k and I was no longer in my mom’s storage room but paying my uncle’s rent to live with him, his girl and their baby in this big house with my girl. Long story short we ended up in a fight all the time, we were on and off and it just wasn’t going well.
So I got even more serious started really teaching myself techniques in dance, marketing, social media management, etc. After like a year in a half of posting at least two videos a month, I started getting repost. My first big repost was from Jaquea from love and hip hop to his song “Darling,” I slowly started to fall in love with dance and still couldn’t believe all this was really picking up. My next big repost was from “Dubsmash” in a challenge I choreographed and that’s when I knew I gotta go hard in every video. I didn’t have a lot of motivation where I was so staying focused and being consistent became a challenge. I finally learn to be alone, I have just been single since and moved into my own apartment in late 2019, I didn’t really want to move into that apartment but my mom suggested I did anyway. My mom also decided I should throw my older sister on the lease, I always respected and did what my mom said or asked this time it felt different but I stuck with it. I was to busy working trying to get somewhere. At the time I was working at red lobster for a year until the pandemic happens. While I was working there I stop dancing for like two months. When I decided to start dancing again, I got reposted by “NBA Young Boy” it was so unbelievable when my brother ( Lev ) told me I was just in complete shock, I told myself and which I did. “I gotta start promoting myself and get more serious”. I started a website dancer profile on some entertainer site but that didn’t turn out to well, so I started going into a state where I thought I was wasting my time but this is where things really took off. I started getting thousands of views on Triller per video. I gain 100k followers in one day I couldn’t believe it I knew I had to do something with this. So I started trying to upload at least three times a week to every day and I was becoming really consistent with posting. A few months at it, I audition to Berklee college of music for contemporary dance. Thanks to the help of my sister “Keyada”. Long story short, I was not accepted. In that time, some guy named Austin dm’s me on Triller to set up a zoom meeting. To meet him & other creators to be a part of this group. So I accepted the offer and I met this lady name “Kendra” funny thing is I didn’t even realize I had gave her a shoutout a few months back. She told me they’ve been watching me. She explained to me about what the group was and that I got this universal energy that everyone would love.
So we set up a zoom meeting for the following week, This was my first zoom meeting/meeting ever with all these other creators and it was so cool to be a part of a group full of other creators like I was just blown away. So I was working with them for a few months and things were running really smooth. I met cool people, I got posted by “Blockboyjb, Cardi B” and I hit my first million views in one video then I felt things were started to be a bit off so I left the group for personal reasons. Nothing against them, I just didn’t like how I saw things were going. Now I recently got back into doing flips to add to my dancing so I can have power moves and not just intermediate moves. I know there is always another way, so I’m going to just continue this journey independently.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
The struggles were mentally and physically. Mentally because I had to constantly fight to keep going, not give up, & being judged. Physically cause I wasn’t working a lot at first, I kept being late to jobs, I was let go on two of them or jobs weren’t a good fit for me, so I would quit. I would be low on funds and I couldn’t save money and still can’t yet.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Right now I guess you can say I’m self employed you know. I’m just chilling posting dance & flipping videos sometimes, I’ll thrown in a funny video, satisfying content, or make a motivating/inspiring post. I’m currently trying to get sponsors and partnerships. I’m not a specialist I prefer to do as I please for example, if I like it, I’m trying it & nine times out of 10 I’m good at it. I don’t know, I’m just naturally good at literally anything I try. I’m most proud of myself for teaching myself all of the creative things I know and my willpower to continue after all the ups and downs in life and I still show myself anything is possible, I just need to be patient and wait my turn.
Can you talk about how you think about risk?
Risk! Ha, I honestly think there is no such thing. Why? It is what it is; if you feel you need to do something to progress, then do it just make sure it’s not a death risk.
Contact Info:
- Email: Otthathim@icloud.com
- Website: https://www.entertainersworldwide.com/user/selection.php
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/ot_thatshim?igshid=18ezjy6dsijfc
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ot.thatshim/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/tyairwillis_?s=21
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/channel/UCBqtH3iiLnszAWZ9oteom-Q
- Other: https://instabio.cc/30212123QaRIr
