How Making A Documentary Taught Will Tober to Let God Define What Success Looks Like

DescriptionWill Tober is a Jesus follower, husband, and father whose faith shapes the way he works. His experience spans things like producing the documentary The Drop Box, board member at the Pregnancy Resource Center, and co-founder of 100 Companies That Care.In this conversation, we get into how a random LA Times article led a college kid to South Korea to film a story that ended up changing his life, how that film planted a seed for everything he’s built since in the nonprofit world, and what it actually looks like to be a driven man trying to hold family, faith, career, and calling all at once.Enjoy.Lessons From Will1. Draw Hard Lines Around What Matters Will is home by 5:30pm. Non-negotiable. He’s learned to maximize the hours he gives to work so he can be fully present for everything else. He acknowledges that in commercial real estate, more hours usually means more money — and he’s made peace with leaving something on the table. Faith makes that easier. The practical boundary is just the output of a deeper conviction about what actually matters. (10:08)2. Community Isn’t About Having Answers — It’s About Not Being Alone One of the most honest moments in the conversation is when Will talks about how community doesn’t usually hand you solutions. It just reminds you that you’re not the only one who doesn’t have this figured out. We know rationally that parenting and marriage and career and faith have challenged every generation before us — and yet it still feels uniquely impossible when it’s yours. The right people around you don’t fix that. They just make it bearable enough to keep going. (13:56)3. The Achiever’s Real Enemy Is Fear of Failure Will describes himself as someone who’s always had an achiever mentality — doing every sport, setting long-term goals earlier than most of his peers, carrying a sense of family legacy from grandparents who immigrated from Mexico and a dad who was the first in the family to go to college. But underneath all of it was a pretty intense fear of failure that prevented him from trying things where there was a real risk of not succeeding. He’s been working to break that his whole life. High ambition and deep fear of failure are not opposites — they often travel together. (19:18)4. Less About What You’re Doing, More About Who You’re Becoming Will talks about work not primarily as a vehicle for income or even impact, but as a classroom. He’s passionate about commercial real estate, believes there’s good in it, and sees opportunities to build relationships and invest in the kingdom through it. But more than any of that, he believes a big piece of why God puts us in the work we’re in is to teach us things we couldn’t learn any other way. That framing changes everything about how you show up when the work is hard. (25:24)5. Saying Yes Before You Know What It Costs Is the Whole Point When Brian pitched Will on flying to South Korea to make a documentary about a pastor who built a box to receive abandoned babies, Will had no film background and no idea what a producer even did. He said yes anyway. That yes eventually generated $10 million, led to a Netflix deal, and planted seeds for everything he’s built since in the nonprofit world. You don’t need to know what you’re doing. You just need to give your yes. (31:00)6. God Redefines the Success Metrics The Drop Box got rejected by Sundance, Cannes, and every major film festival they submitted to. The only ones that accepted it were the Christian ones — which was ironic, because they’d set out to make something that would reach beyond the church. They ended up winning $150,000 at a San Antonio Christian film festival that doesn’t even exist anymore, which funded the rest of the film. Will says in its success, God was still refining them by stripping away all the cool factors. Sometimes the door you wanted to walk through isn’t the one that opens. (35:55)7. The Real Impact Is Usually Hidden 100 Companies That Care has generated unexpected outcomes Will and his co-founder never planned for — nonprofits collaborating with each other, board members joining from the business community, volunteer events, and donations beyond what the format requires. One nonprofit donated their entire literacy curriculum to an orphanage they’d never heard of before meeting them at a quarterly meeting. Will says most of the results from saying yes to God are hidden — seeds you plant and never see sprout. You build anyway. (48:53)8. On the Other Side of Every No Is a Yes Will’s not naturally good at saying no. But the reframe that’s helped him most is this: every no is a yes to something else. He’s not declining because he doesn’t believe in what he’s being asked to do — he’s saying yes to something that ranks higher. And in this season, that something is almost always family. That turns no from a refusal into a redirection. (52:35)9. Fatherhood Is the Best Theology Class You’ll Ever Take Will says he lives his faith more than he could ever read it. Becoming a dad has given him a window into who God is that no amount of Bible study could fully open. When he’s frustrated with his son, he catches himself thinking about how God is equally patient with him. When he feels completely unequipped as a parent, he reminds himself that God is his son’s real Father. Fatherhood doesn’t just teach you about love — it teaches you what it feels like to be loved the way God loves you. (57:40)10. Parenting Is the Biggest Obstacle and the Clearest Calling When asked what’s occupying the most headspace and keeping him up at night, Will doesn’t say business development or nonprofit growth. He says parenting. The tension between feeling utterly unequipped and desperately wanting to get it right. The fear of messing his kids up. The daily work of being comfortable in the uncomfortable. He’s not performing like he has it together — he’s just trying to show up and trust that presence counts for something. (58:36) Get full access to Matt Heisler at mattheisler.substack.com/subscribe