Revealing Our Origin Story: The key to reaching 100k subscribers.

what is up welcome back big thank you to our community and followers like you we've hit a giant milestone for us we have got our 100,000 subscriber YouTube button and with this we're going to give you our origin story just like any superhero you need an origin story yeah we've been doing this for about 5 years so we thought we would give you a little back story on who we are how we got here and a little more about us you might not know some things and I haven't seen this thing yet Kim wouldn't let me open it of the camera go for it I really we haven't opened it not once I just cut the tape yeah boom Oh Oh It's anticlimactic oh there it is oh there it is look at that shiny guy look at there it's got a name on it presented to Kim and Garrett make it for passing 100,000 subscribers so how did we get here how did we end up with a YouTube channel why did we end up with a you YouTube channel we're going to take it back to 2010 before we ever even met yeah let rewind tell you a little bit about us that we haven't shared a whole lot I don't think we've shared a whole lot about our background so here's some interesting things you may not have known about us back in 2010 I was working for a government contractor as a systems engineer I was working from home I even been one employee of the year twice it's kind of a big deal even back then kind of a big deal my wife at the time had been struggling with lupus and in 2010 she had passed away so suddenly I was a single dad of a five n 10-year-old girls and one 14-year-old boy that's right you heard that right four kids four it was just me with those four kids and we decided we were done living the northern Virginia life we needed to head south we had some family in Richmond so we're going to go find a good house in Richmond where we can just kick it and we did we found the perfect house in Richmond right on the border of the city but it was kind of in the country I could walk to Wawa but I was still living on 3 acres so we built the skate park we had an inground pool and a giant like swing set thing just let that sink in a second he has a single dad four kids skate park pool it was there was a zipline over the pool so you could drop into the pool yeah yes you could just imagine what it was like just a Garrett and his four kids very little furn there was very little Furniture but my yard yeah was very fun yeah that's right the front family room when I first uh first went to his house the front family room was nothing but bikes everybody's bike was stored in the family room area or living room area Liv first room when you came in was the formal room yes we kept the bikes in the formal room okay and the den we had a giant like sectional couch that was all just pieced together at a giant TV and then everybody had beds what else do you need yeah that's it that's that's exactly what he said we ate we ate outside most nights so parallel to that in 2010 what was I doing I was walk working for a um large corporate institution and I it was I was a single mom it was just me and my daughter Courtney she's the oldest in our crew she was a teenager then I guess she would have been about 16 then so it's just me and Courtney my sister lived with me and my niece who was three at the time they had been living with me so Grace was born while she was living in my house so she had been there uh since birth and it was the four of us in my my house but we were kind of like um I was kind of like a halfway house in my family if you didn't have a place to live go stay with Kim she's got four bedrooms you could stay in one of her rooms that kind of how it was but Courtney was getting a little bit older at this point she is a teenager she was going to school during the day and she would be working at night and my sister's off kind of doing her thing and I found myself alone a lot so you know my other sister sister was like you know what you need to do you got to join one of those dating apps and I was like oh I don't know I don't know but I did and at about the same time I decided I was going to join a dating app because I work from home so the only adult interaction I had was over phone and you know some FaceTime stuff but otherwise it was all kids all the time every day so I decided I was going to jump on those apps and you know what we found on those apps there's a lot crazy people out there yeah I think after a while I got to the point where um it was more of an entertainment thing so my sister and I would do it or even Courtney and I would log in and we would see who I was matched with there was always a cast of characters and it was kind of like um I had gotten to the point where it's was kind of a joke thing for me let's go see who was on there I had given up and I just posted a joke profile yes so that's that's how I first came across Garrett is he had posted the funniest profile story it was a whole story was it a little bit in poetry rap it was a song I don't know it was a whole thing yes the whole thing rhymed it was in if feel like a Charles Dickens kind of thing where I was sneaking my my family and my kids into the boat and it was getting harder to sneak them into the bar the mustache no longer works on the youngest uh and her her fake ID no longer looks like her yeah so whatever papadopolis I don't know it was the whole it was just the craziest story you wouldn't even I wish we had saved it both of us are like I wish we had saved it I don't know what it was but it made me laugh as I read the whole thing I thought it was funny and I could see that he hadn't been on in like 2 weeks so I assumed he wasn't on Match anymore but I thought I just need to write out there and I usually would never comment first but in this case I just needed to let him know how funny that was and how I appreciated the humor in his profile story because I could tell that he had made a joke of it at that point too and I just could relate so I was like that was so funny come to find out she's only like 3 miles away so we decided to meet at a bar in the middle get together and uh just have a drink I had given up I didn't want any more crazies yeah we're just going to have a drink same here I was like well I've got nothing else to do I'll just meet up for a drink it'll give me something to do it was it was a Sunday night it was so random and I was like fine I mean I figured that way we couldn't be out too late I have to be home yeah yeah to get the kids in bed yeah and then as we talked we found we had been orbiting each other for the last several years yeah we've been orbiting each other for years yeah we found out that we had been to the same concert series or at the same time several concerts at the same time we were even inas Cookoff at the same time we were in Vegas at the same time yeah and stay somewhat near we even rode the tram on the same day we had figured all of that out early on I can't remember all the details of that now and then just like the same we went to the same grocery store yeah same grocery stores same bars or whatever that in restaurants same Starbucks we just yeah never actually connected yeah but I wonder how many times I passed you or whatever you know we had to have been at the same place at the same time at some head down head down got to get my Frappuccino sorry talk later so yeah so we we we met that first night and we yeah and to get to know each other I was like what is your dream job I wanted to really get to know her yeah so I you know he knew I was an it he knew what job I was doing I was like but if I could pick any job I would like to own my own craft store my own scrapbook store really at the time I was scrapbooking and that's what I wanted to do was own my own scrapbooking store there was a locally owned store right down the road and I was like that's what I would love to do I would just love to have all of these craft supplies and fill the store with these craft supplies and Garrett what was your dream job my dream job was a stunt man growing up that was always what you wanted right until a senior in high school I thought I was going to be a stunt man I thought I was going to fall from tall buildings I thought I was going to roll a brand new car get lit on fire but solve some mysteries on the weekends so when you decided that that really wasn't a viable career what did you decide you were going to do oh well then I buckled down and I decided I was going to own a skate park my very own skate park that is what he told me was so at that time he said if well before that right what did you decide you were going to do what did I decide I was going to do I was going to become an art teacher yes when he was younger but when I asked him what is your dream job and he said to own my own skate park so we haven't made that dream come true yet yet well I mean technically I had one in my yard at the time you did I lived my dream yeah I had pros come ride my yard I mean it was a good yard but yeah out of uh High School my new dream job was to become an art teacher I wanted to catch people young ones before they are put in a box and teach them how to think outside the box that's that was my dream job teaching Youngs how to think outside the box it's also why I love BM we hit it off really well right and then that that first night we had a few drinks we had some laughs and then I had a call for my daughter she had a hair emergency and I had to go home but that's okay because I told my kids to call me around 10ish and tell me that the house was on fire so we were good he he said it's okay I know you you know you had that staged call us like it wasn't a stage call I promise you she really is she really does have a hair emergency she had dyed her hair hair and I forgot what had happened she ran out of color or something and I needed to go home to take her to the store to get some more hair color so she could fix it before school the next day because it was on the Sunday but we hit it off um we met up the next weekend and fast forward a year later and we were hitched we uh turned our family into the Brady Bunch yeah so a year later it was Garrett and his four kids me and my teen and don't worry rce was never far behind my sister was still close by and nearby and so it was still a halfway house yeah I was still yeah well well once we got married it wasn't so much of a half halfway house cuz we had to pack everybody in there right that was that was an adventure with five kids and a part-time sixth kid right Grace was her part-time sixth kid and there's a we had to fit everybody in there eight of us in your place and then eventually back to my place so that was an adventure and then in 2018 my sister passed so we had Grace with us fulltime so Grace made eight eight people in the household we had a large group we did that for a while and then I shared with Garrett something I had been dabbling in which was real estate I was kind of sharing hey I think this is something we could do I think let me teach you all about it we went to some conferences we went to Vegas and had a journey that was a fun conference uh she took me to the first little seminar where they explained how things work and I was all in I was like let's do this thing I got your back yeah yeah that exactly what it was and so we met with some mentors we learned a few things and then this is this is how our I guess this is the start of our YouTube Journey right yeah this is the this is our Call to Adventure this is it so he the Mentor was like you've got to get out in front of people you need to do better marketing start creating some videos get some ethos out there so that's where the video started that was he gave me like a 30-day challenge to post uh what was it one video a week on YouTube for Real Estate mhm and I was like I don't even have a camera and he's like you got a phone you have a phone get out there your phone that's right so that's kind of how the first time Garrett Garrett was brave enough to get in front of the camera and start doing those videos he wrote him a little script he talked about some real estate information to memorize it yep and then I would give some real estate information he did great I think he did great and then from there he kind of got he caught the YouTube bug and well from there I started researching about YouTube and I see that these people are doing pretty well on YouTube and I was like somebody needs to start a YouTube channel somebody in our family needs to be a YouTube Star yes and I'm not kidding that's basically what he said and I will be behind the scenes supporting you 100% yep I will do your video editing and everything you get in front of the camera yep kids how about you do a YouTube channel how about you do a YouTube channel came to me I have six kids somebody's got to want to do a YouTube channel you're all funny who's going to do it nobody nobody and he came to me Kim you do the YouTube channel you like crafting you like crafting we'll do a crafting YouTube booking you want to do a scrapbook store let's start by doing a scrapbook YouTube channel H you just get the camera I will film you look every month she was holding these scrapbook classes I was I was doing fil that she's like no no no nobody would do it nobody would do it and the kids would say you can't just start a YouTube channel and I was like yes you can so I tried my hand on my own YouTube channel it was going to be a BMX Channel but I got really bored real quick doing it by myself yeah I think that was his problem he's pretty codependent yeah I need a partner I need somebody to direct I don't know so he was like all right I don't cuz I wasn't BMXing with him so I even tried to get her on a bike to come with me on he did he did he did and I hit a treat and that was pretty much the last time I tried to get CH Tanner to join the channel and ride with me nobody wanted to do a BMX Channel with me so fast forward we decided we're going to do a little DIY so at this point we were married we had moved into a new house we built a house together we had a new bigger house that fit fit more kids in it everybody fit comfortably more space but with more space made it look like we had empty rooms yeah so that's where I was like okay let's we were always making things anyway for our old house and this time I was like making things or fixing things putting in some French doors something we are always doing something and I was like we need to make ourselves a coffee table we need to make like all these different things I wanted to make make so that's when he said okay well that's when you found a shanty toic YouTube channel yes I did so those guys uh they make they make furniture and I was like oh my gosh we need all this furniture yeah I need I need to make this coffee table I need to make this chair I need to make all these things and I want I wanted to make them and I wanted to put them in our house uh but our first big video so well that's when I said well if we're going to make all this stuff let's film us making all this stuff yes and we'll just use Shanty to Chic uh plans while we're making this stuff yeah that's how that's that's kind of how it started so we started with just our hands we did a few St projects with just our hands practicing getting to know some stuff yep figuring it out and then of course you know the the one thing I really really wanted was this bookcase that I had seen at World Market This World Market bookcase and so I didn't start with a coffee table or an end table I was like I need this 8ft tall bookcase 8 tall 4T wide yes bookcase and I need this and this is how we're really this is going to be our first big project on our YouTube channel so that's what we did and we did she just we just Dove right in again I think we were filming with one of our phones I think it was my phone we were filming with in the garage yeah and yeah and then that's where we so that video did okay so we started doing these videos and it it did all right I mean we we basically knew that first year year we were just throwing these videos Out World a lot of stuff with just our hands we did some acting because yeah I knew the only people that were going to watch this is my account your account and then I'll probably make all the kids watch it yeah that's kind of how everybody go out there and give that a thumbs up it's probably that way for at least the first year right and the kids would give us a little bit of feedback you guys are cringey like yeah that's cuz you're my kids y we were cringy you don't get it and then tell your funny story about how you had to you were like okay let's get let's get more people out there I read if you post your videos out on Reddit you can get some good interaction you know you're going to get more eyes tons of people it's like advertising your video you put it out there on Reddit woo were those people mean on Reddit they they were so mean they made me want to quit I I thought about quitting they were so mean but it was filled with a lot of good information just um you know tossed at me in a very mean way he learned a lot didn't you learn a lot I learned so much but it was so mean but it made me go back and reanalyze how we do the videos uh what information that we provide how the video is structured that we I got a camera I got a microphone I got a tripod stand we got some lights yeah and we moved out of the garage yep that was the one thing he was like all right we've got to get out of the garage it's too eoy we can't light it properly so there went my dining room no dining room we're going to move a table in there and we're going to film in the dining room that going to be our Studios fig if we could get 500 views on a video that was shot horribly and tore up on redit if we improve some things maybe we can get some more views and then that was our first year we spent our first year out of our dining room and did lots of lots and lots of different project out a bunch of different stuff we we learned a lot that year we learned how resin works we learned sublimation we learned cricket stuff we we did some rhinestone things rhinestone things we learned a lot that first year we did some wood I learned what pocket holes are I mean so much I can't even wrap my mind around how much we learned in the first year and then we ended that year learning about how to use cameras and lighting and we really did do it build it make it that year we did such a variety of things but the more we learned about YouTube the more they were like oh you should Niche down you should Niche down I was like I am nit down n down I'm doing crafts and things I'm making DIY yeah DIY that's Niche done B Niche then at the end of 2018 we took a break we took a break from YouTube for 2 weeks right we had our corporate job we had the week of Christmas and the week after Christmas both of us had it off um the week after Christmas we usually go on some sort of little family trip so we took the two weeks off of YouTube as well didn't even think about it but guess what YouTube forgot about us I me forgot about us we had to start all over again we took that two we break and that's it YouTube stops yeah they they thought we weren't a channel anymore they quit quit yeah they quit and so it stopped serving us up I mean just completely stopped serving us up 2019 was the year we were going to rebuild we were going to focus on the cricket and we were going to Niche down to home decor items we had pretty much built all the furniture that we needed and now that we were in our front dining room space we were going to do smaller home decor craft items which were fun we made lots of different projects with the Cricut we did pretty much everything that you could think with the cricket yeah she was always coming up with a new idea but I wanted to do stuff out of wood and I want to make thicker items so I ended up getting an xcarve it took a while to put together and then the machine almost did what I was looking for but it was a great introduction into CNC machines and that's where we started doing our first 3D uh door signs and we did our first 3D vertical porch leaner and that video did really well did really well that's another one that was kind of uh super inspirational for us so we had already had our online store where we were selling stencils and now people were asking do you sell these kits to make the vertical porch leaners and we were like yes we do do so we started selling the Welcome to our home kits and a couple of other kits right couple other stencils that was fun that was business was growing it was growing and then I think that fall we also started with some farmers markets selling at our our local farmers market right and we just started we just tried it out it was just something we wanted to try so we took our little tint that we were using for uh softball games yeah where we could all sit under there in some shade we took it to the farmers market uh with two camp chairs hung our little signs from the tent and they did well they were they were very well received well we we learned a lot and it inspired us to do better at our booth yeah yeah yes by Spring of the next year we had we were getting very creative and building projects just for a craft Booth another thing in happened in 2019 that was inspiring um that kind of came from the work we were doing with the cricket was we worked with our first influencer our first collab yes we worked with Auntie Tay and we did a Tay takeover where we kind of did a video for her Channel and she published the video but we actually did all of the work on it so she kind of did the intro and the outro and then we did the content in the middle yeah and we did several videos for her uh like that and we gained a lot of new subscribers and a lot more visibility into a a whole different well and into a different Community it wasn't so much different but new community let's put it that way 2020 was the year of growth and that was our year of the laser too we kicked off the year with me convincing Kim that I needed to get a glow Forge I needed something that could produce our signs faster quieter and more precise we had been using the xcarve and it was fun and we really liked some of the projects that we did with it but Garrett promised me promised me that we could use that glow Forge to do what we were doing with the xcarve and do more with what we were doing with the cricket with this laser and he also promised me that it would pay for itself so we took out a small loan and we purchased the glow Forge and it did it did we the our business was able to pay for that glow Forge um within 3 months right and yeah it was like 3 months we were super excited and again inspired by the way we were able to make some new projects we'll take our projects to another level take our finished product to another level yes which helped them sell at the farmers markets right that just encouraged us to do even more farmers markets uh different farmers markets in the area where we were able to kind of sell our wees to new people and introduce them to what we were doing and and I felt like we were almost ready for a craft show but then everything came to a screeching halt because of pandemic hit and then right behind the pandemic hitting I was downsized my job was was a trainer and since we weren't doing any in-person training they kind of no longer needed me so I got displaced but I had enough Runway to actually get this thing running which was great because at the same time I was trying to get it running DIY on the internet had really picked up because everybody was at home mhm those home craft kids were doing really well and our business again grew in 2020 we were probably one of the few businesses that actually were able to grow in 2020 but we were lucky enough that Garrett was able to go full-time in our business and that helped a lot but then the glow Forge was no longer able to keep up I couldn't run the xcarve and the glow Forge fast enough or long enough for us to keep up in the store so I ended up purchasing a large laser the size of something like a small Honda and that took over our garage so the glow Forge with was indoors we could vent it out of window no problem but when we got the large laser that's where we had to start clearing out the garage making room and that became the central Hub of our business and we started getting wood in uh sheets of 20 stacked and uh that was very comical trying to take them off piece by piece and cutting them and getting them all into the house as you grow new adventures new lessons learned about that time Tanner had lost his job due to the pandemic so I said you need a job we need help I think you should come work for us and and then we were like you don't want to go get another job out there who you're going to get sick you can just come and work for us stay here where it's safe yeah yeah and they did and he also helped our business grow he also helped us grow 2021 was the year of expansion we started with moving to a bigger Farmers Market where we had a bigger booth and we learned a lot from last year that we started to implement this year right with that that was again still during the pandemic so we were able to continue to go to the farmers markets because they were Outdoors so people felt a little more comfortable going out and shopping with the mask on but at least you were Outdoors now the funny part about that one is it started um in the fall so November December but the bulk of that market was in January February and March the cold months the cold months and and if you know anything about Garrett he hates the cold so while I would sit at the booth with blankets on and hat and gloves for the people just coming in to get their mushrooms at the mushroom lady beside us Garrett always had a reason why he had to go sit in the car and do something I was working there was work to be done there's no time for Lolly gagging but that uh that market did well for us uh but that inspired us to go right into the spring and do larger craft shows so that was one of our first big craft shows that we did arts in the park here in Richmond and that was pretty exciting well that one went super well we sold out and we were super inspired people loved the stuff that we had to sell yes and uh we actually worked with the first local business remember that's right uh she contacted us a couple of months later said hey I own a local gift shop in the area and I would love to stock your product in our store so that was fun that was exciting yep and then um like we said you know this all during uh 2020 and into 2021 the home craft business continued to grow so Garrett started with the I'm going to need help in this business I'm going to need help it's time to grow or die Kim that's what I need help so I ended up putting in my notice and I went full-time in our business in 2021 that was a huge leap of faith again we both had really good corporate jobs and it was really hard to give that up that security that little bit of safety net but we jumped in with both feet so the business was doing really well we had attended the RVA big Market we had attended our first real craft show uh we were still doing the the original Farmers Market uh on Saturdays we were taking and setting up our little booth on Saturdays and someone came up to us and asked us if we did paint nights and we said yes yes yes we do we had already been talking about it but when she asked us if we would be interested in coming to their Clubhouse and hosting a paint night I was so excited because I really didn't know how to break into that business uh and she really opened the doors for us yeah she forced us to learn and meet somebody who knew what they were doing gave us a ton of information we I reached out to someone locally who was doing paint nights I told her a little bit about what I wanted to do uh Courtney and I had lunch with her one day and she kind of shared her little checklist with us uh we were furiously taking notes and that really helped us prepare for this first workshop and the women at the first Workshop were so great they knew it was the first time um and they were just super supportive well they had a great time they let us know that we were doing a great job super supportive gave us feedback yeah and kept us kept inspiring us to keep going so we still keep in touch with them yeah we we've done a couple yeah we've done a couple workshops with them and they they are still super supportive and we continue to grow throughout that year to the point where we had outgrown the house uh painting and shipping and the lasers have taken over every nook and crany of the house at that point and it was time to grow or die Kim Garrett had started this journey with us in the July time frame with we need to start finding a space I I think we got we don't have enough space here we need to look for a new space and we started meeting with some Realtors um but that didn't seem like something that was ever it took so long well I just didn't think it was something we could do I just wasn't sure we could afford a space I wasn't sure I was ready to take that leap and sign a lease for our own commercial space uh we looked at different spaces they were way too much money um but then we found this space that we're in now it ended up being perfect it is way larger than what we had expected for the budget that we were expecting and it came with several different rooms to do different things we were able to have our own office space we're able to film and have a studio space um we even had space up front that we didn't know what to do with yeah we had no idea what we were going to do with that large room up front we moved in and we were able to get two more lasers so we grew our business and we really jumped in with both feet so we took on the commercial lease and then took on loans for two more lasers but we were able to produce more inventory for our craft shows we did larger craft shows and that kind well I guess that takes us into 2022 doesn't it it does take us into 2022 in 2022 we did not re-register for the farmers markets we decided we were going to focus on the craft shows I our ideal customer was going to be at the craft shows and that's what we found right so we found lots of different shows we started venturing out we moved um out of the Richmond area and we went to South Carolina we were up as far as Maryland we did um Fredericksburg we tried to hit the bigger shows Yes somewhere where Virginia Beach now that we were able to produce more inventory we need to hit bigger shows with that we still had that big room up front and not every weekend was a craft show weekend so we knew we needed to do something with that front room to help us generate some Revenue so we took those paint nights and we scaled them up to paint workshops and we created our Workshop space in the front room and that was exciting yeah that was exciting we had our first Workshop April 1st April Fool's Day 2022 it was all friends and family to give us a little beta so that we'd be able to learn and actually make some adjustments before we had real customers coming in and then that has continued to grow um that has slow slowly gained traction um we're working on our marketing so that is something that U we're continuing to learn uh there's always new things to learn with marketing how we Market our workshops websites like Eventbrite or trip advisor or or Yelp or yes yeah things to do in RVA you got to get on all of those local sites word of mouth isn't enough yeah so that's that's been exciting so that kind of takes us what else did we do in 2022 ooh ooh that's right we had our first new um partner our first brand partner yes yeah yeah so we partnered with M Tech and xtool those were our first Partnerships and they kind of helped us Niche down they're kind of letting us know where our Niche actually lies and apparently it's in lasers we continue to do more and more with that with the laser community and Laser projects because that's where our interest lied and lasers were growing uh glow Forge was so hot and has been so hot um and then into the scene came the Tech and the xtool lasers and I know I was bit by that laser bug and the CNC I love being able to create things that I wouldn't be able to do out of hand finally that takes us to 2023 the year of the niche down in the spring of 2023 we really realized okay again we should Niche down but we did finally find our Niche or our Niche found us our Niche found us yes we learned that lasers are where we want to be but it's not just lasercraft it's more uh lasercraft side hustle we started building our patreon community a couple of years ago um but as we grew in 2022 and really throughout this year of 2023 we have built a huge patreon community of folks like friends and family yes I'm not even joking it is a huge community of folks that really are doing the same type of things that we're doing with we have built that community of folks that are using lasers to do their own craft side hustle and that's kind of where we are right now that's where we are and with their help and their support we were able to launch our own paint brand this year we got some bigger Partnerships coming up this next year we really owe it all to our community they have supported us they've pushed us they've guided us you guys are our friends and family yeah and that's how we hit our 100,000 subscribers it's been quite a journey we're really looking forward to 2024 we already have some big announcements for 2024 we got some big plans some big announcement dreams Big Dreams got to dream big because what was Kim's dream job when I first met her it was going to be I wanted my own scrapbook store and what was my dream you wanted to be an art teacher that's right so we were able to get to kind of what our dream jobs were every week I get to help teach somebody a form of Art and Kim owns a craft store I have more craft stuff than I ever expected to own so if you have a dream and you have some determination go get it you can Live Your Dream everybody should live their best one time around and you can continue to join us on our journey as we share more crafts more projects more inspiration for building your own business and your own craft side Hustle