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E12: NOT Working For It!!
436 Plays1 year ago
Today we have a special guest for a very important announcement! Plus we are going to pick the winner of the Beginner Series knife! Tune in or we hunt you down and do bad stuff.
We'd love to hear from you so send in questions to the show Instagram: @the.tttpodcast
Your hosts:
Special Guest: Brian Housewert
IG: @housemade.us
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@HouseMadeUS
Website: https://www.housemade.us
Denis Tyrell of Tyrell Knifeworks:
IG: @tyrellknifeworks
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TyrellKnifeworks
Website: https://www.tyrellknifeworks.com
Jerid Sandoval of Echo Blades:
IG: @echo_blades
Our sponsors:
Two Basterds Tx Smithy & Supplies: @twobasterdshammers
Maritime Knife Supply: http://maritimeknifesupply.com
Podcasts we love:
- Work For It
- Fire and Steel
- Hustle and Grind
- KnifeTalk
- FullBlast
- ForgeSideChat
- Artisans of Steel
Recommended
Transcript
Podcast Introduction and Hosts
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey, what's happening everybody listen to triple T podcast with Jared and Dennis Terrell That's right where the emphasis is on whatever the hell we want to talk about
00:00:11
Speaker
for as little as $10 and 80 cents a year, you can support these guys. That's like two gallons of gas. You can't even buy two gallons of gasoline for that in California. You nailed it. I almost got it. You were really close. I was really close. I've only heard it a thousand times. I've heard it about a thousand and one.
Guest Introduction: Brian House
00:00:49
Speaker
What's up everybody. This is Dennis Terrell from Terrell knife works. And you and I are listening to the triple T podcast where emphasis is on whatever the hell we want to talk about. Uh, that's great. We have the one and only Mr. Brian house in the house. What's happening, everybody? Hey, our very first guest on the podcast.
Product Design and Sales Strategies
00:01:16
Speaker
Brian, any idea while you're here? I have a little bit of an idea. Okay, I might have told you and I'm gonna guess right now. This is what you're here to tell me. You want me on the show because you two are designing a two by 72 belt grinder and you are going to release a kit and plans like the rest of the world. You're right. I just wanted your permission. I know. I knew it.
00:01:42
Speaker
and and a forge and and forge and let's see stuff hangers and
00:01:50
Speaker
And we're going to talk about this damn spoon too. I might have been the very first, if I was quick enough, I might've been the very first order to get a spoon, get a spoon maker. Get a kit. I don't know who the first person was. It was so crazy how many we sold right away. It was nuts. It was nuts. It was an amazing, successful drop. And so thank you. I got the email and in about
00:02:15
Speaker
15 seconds I was there and I purchased it even though I already bought all the stuff to make one myself but yeah it's I appreciate the support thank you so much it was it was great to see your name and a bunch of other people too that I I knew their names as they were coming across on the orders it was nuts and we had pickle here too and it seems like whenever we have pickle here we do some sort of drop and he's
00:02:39
Speaker
You know of course we're wandering around and our phones are all just going to change to change to change like jeez guys What the heck you know and I'm like it's normally not like this. This is like a drop day So but yeah, it was it was awesome So we're we've ordered a bunch more material to just it's obviously gonna be a successful product release so we're just gonna make a few hundred more and keep them in stock now, so
Pricing and Market Concerns
00:03:03
Speaker
Yeah. And honestly, the reason I pulled the trigger so quickly, I thought they were going to be more and more expensive. When I saw like 99 bucks, I'm like, okay. Yeah. That's worth my time right there. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you get a swage, you get the kit to make one scoop and you get the top tool, you know, to push everything down. So it works.
00:03:22
Speaker
There's a margin in it. We made a little money on each one. There's a lot of time invested in the process, but when you do a bunch at once, it's not a big deal for us to press them out. Are you going to make the DXF files available for the
00:03:43
Speaker
I don't know I thought about that I've been asked that a few times and I'm not quite sure I want to do that just yet I just kind of want to see what everybody does with them first and then just because there are people who want to produce these and sell them and I want to be I want to make sure that.
00:04:03
Speaker
What's the, I think there's some folks who are a little confused as to like how, what they can do with my files and they, you know, they take them and then they just share them with the world and send them out there. And I'm kind of thinking like I might do that down the line, like maybe a few months from now where I've recouped my money and I, you know, whatever.
00:04:23
Speaker
Um, but the, the, the Brian house in me says, Oh yeah, I should do that. I really want to do that. Cause I just really want everybody to be able to sell these and make money, but I've got to recoup my money first, I think. So then eventually I'll probably get into that because we've got other designs coming down the line, uh, different shapes, scoops, and different handles. Like the way they, they kind of curve up and underneath different swage blocks. And we've already kind of just started developing that and also like looking at.
00:04:50
Speaker
Okay, what would it take for us to make a ladle or what would it take for us to make a slotted spoon or things like that? Now my mind is clicking in just a million ways because I think what's going on with Instagram and all the sharp pointy things, people are getting frustrated with that process.
Exploring New Products and Creative Satisfaction
00:05:07
Speaker
And I think the market might be a little bit saturated. There's a lot of knife makers doing the same things to give them an option like a spoon or a scoop or a fork or whatever we might come up with that they can kind of just pump out and put on their table. If you've listened to work for a podcast, you know, like I say, like, look, a guy walks up to your table at a farmer's market or a blade show or wherever, you got 300 to $500 knives on there, maybe even more expensive. But you've got a $60, $75 scoop.
00:05:37
Speaker
They walk away with a scoop. They've got a piece of your work. You've broken the ice now with that customer. They've done business with you one time. Chances of them returning to buy something else is much greater than it was before. So that was the whole point of this. And I wanted guys to get inspired to keep making things. There's a lot of mental health benefits of using your hands and doing that kind of work. Plus, it's really fun to make a freaking scoop. It's really fun. The way we have it laid out, there's not a lot of brain work.
00:06:05
Speaker
We took all that out so you get a chance to focus on the texturing, the finish, and the painting of the rivets. You can do it in like an hour. If you just don't rush through it, you don't need to rush through it. You don't need a lot of tools. It's a win. I feel very good about it. I was blown away by how many we sold. It was just unbelievable. Man, what a blessing. You mentioned farmers market and things like that.
Brian's Transition to Full-Time Crafting
00:06:35
Speaker
Now I want to get into the reason why we have you here. Okay. So, man, we're diving right in. We're diving right in because. Just pull them right off. Yeah. We're going to, we're going to rip the band-aid off here. So last Friday, two days ago, we recorded the son of Sunday. So last Friday, I put in my notice at work and have officially retired. So now I'm still on until the end of June, but
00:07:05
Speaker
I will be full time starting right after the July 4th weekend. Fantastic. Okay. So are you, are we going to sit down? Like, are we going to have the conversation now? Like how this is possible? Cause I know you, you and I kind of had a discussion and a private discussion between, uh, you know, you and me at the foundry about you wanting to do this. And you had mentioned like, I think I could swing it if I do X, Y, and Z. Is that what's happening or?
00:07:35
Speaker
Exactly. And I wanted to have you on here first to just thank you for all the inspiration. And I think without your guidance, inspiration, um, you know, just being a friend, I don't know that this would have happened because, yeah, I mean, I don't know that I would have had the idea that I could do it without hearing some stories and hearing what you do on work for it.
00:08:02
Speaker
And I'm not just blowing smoke up your ass. Like really, I honestly, it's been a big factor. So I really thank you. And that's one of the reasons why I wanted to have you on here is for that. But the way it's come down, you know, we're, we're staying in California and you know, I'm not going to get into all my financials and stuff like that, but you know, it's expensive in California, right? Like cost of living is expensive. Crazy. Like I don't.
00:08:31
Speaker
I think it would be very, very hard just to be a knife maker in California. So I'm technically retiring, right? I'm, you know, for everybody, if you don't know already, I'm, I work in high tech. I'm a director of engineering at a software company. I am retiring from it. Okay. Done. I'm similar to what you did. You were in high tech computers, you know, you had your own business, something like that. Um,
00:08:59
Speaker
But for me to to be able to do this, basically sold off a bunch of stock, paid off the house and just reduce that nut. Right. So now the bills are tiny. My wife still works and she loves her job. So for now, for me, it's a smaller, it's much less risk now because no mortgage. I got to pay property taxes. I got to pay.
00:09:26
Speaker
you know, some bills every month, but that's about it. So that's why I've pulled the trigger. Uh, I'm going to be amping up on the content creation. I'm going to be doing probably some high-end commissions that will be YouTube built. So I'll do a lot more for YouTube. And then of course I'll do the monthly, you know, you know, probably like what Brent does, like maybe, uh,
00:09:54
Speaker
you know, a batch of knives a month or something like that. And then the tooling, which, you know, you're, you know, very well with the sharpeners and now the sanding machine that's just about to come out. Yeah, yeah, which is very exciting. But yeah, I mean, the two people I need to thank like you, and of course, my wife, who has been the most supportive person ever. I
00:10:23
Speaker
You know, we've been together, it'll be five years in June. Um, so she's, I couldn't imagine doing this without her. So it's, it's crazy. So this weekend has just been a whirlwind of like emotion.
00:10:36
Speaker
little bit of fear, but a lot of mostly happiness and looking forward to it. You know, right now I'm cranking out knives for blade show, but you know, I'm expecting parts for the final parts for the sanding machine today. So all this stuff's kind of culminating quickly. So this is this is like such a big deal here, you
00:11:04
Speaker
announce this because it puts things into perspective for people when they start to think about like in terms of like, Hey, I want to do this too. This is my dream. I want to work for myself. A lot of people think that, you know, entrepreneurial endeavors are very, you know, flashy and full of like, it's like the first thing I say is like, what's your overhead look like? Like what's your mortgage look like? What's all this look like? Because when you have debt and monthly commitments that are up here,
00:11:34
Speaker
You need to drop them and reduce them so that when you do go full time, you don't need that treasure chest of cash. You can actually do it because the outlay is there. Humans need three basic things, food, water, and shelter. Those are damn expensive, pretty much everywhere. Really expensive in California. If you can reduce all the costs that go down, and Kim is open to you doing this and supporting you while you do this, which is huge,
00:12:02
Speaker
I think, I'm gonna make myself a note here that says, send a world's best sugar mama t-shirt to Kim sometime in July. I'll be making sure that gets sent over to her. But I'll tell you what, man, you got it. If anybody can do it, it's you. I know you can. And because you've set yourself up for success, you made a very conscious choice to not just dive right in and go for it. You know, it's calculated, so that's pretty great.
00:12:32
Speaker
Yeah. And I'm still working out things like in my head, I always work out like, what are my percentages of like content creation versus knives versus tools? And I'm always playing with these percentages in my head. Is it like 50% content creation? Is it, and I'm sure these are going to change. So it's just stuff that I think about. Cause I know what, you know, between Patreon and, and YouTube, and I know what I'm making now. And it's all about where do I put my time?
00:13:02
Speaker
Where do, you know, do I put more time into making knives? Do I put more time into doing commissions? So that's the kind of thing that I would say keeps me up at night, but it kind of drives me as to what's, what's next. What do I want to focus on? That path will become very clear to you in your first year of doing this work. It will become so clear. I didn't know where housemaid was going to take me. I had no idea that I would be making.
00:13:29
Speaker
copper and brass scoop kits. I mean, who would have ever thought that like who could come up with that concept? Like you don't know. And I think that's kind of the beauty of working for yourself. When you do this work, you find all these like outside income streams that kind of kind of diversify themselves a little bit. And then you go, I really enjoy that though. I would really like to kind of pursue that and you have the freedom to do so. And then when your mind isn't focused on something else, like your day job,
00:13:57
Speaker
you can actually do it. You can take some time and energy. Because most of the material and everything is affordable. It's not expensive. It's just the time. Where are you going to find the time to develop these things that you're making? I'm sure you figured that out when you did the hand sanding machine. This is eating up a ton of time. It's taking away from all these other things I'm doing. But you're banking that you're hoping to bank on the profit and the future when they start to sell.
00:14:24
Speaker
So you knew what you were doing and man, congratulations, dude. This is huge. Thank you. And you said freedom and I want to, um, I want to tell a story. This is when I was probably, it would have been early nineties. No, late nineties. Yeah. Late nineties. Sorry. And, uh, I remember in Canada.
00:14:49
Speaker
There's this insurance company called London Life, right? And London Life had this commercial and it used to, it was called Freedom 55. And they, it was all about, you know, like basically do your investments and at 55 you'll have freedom and you'd be able to, you know, and then back then, this is like late nineties, like you couldn't throw a dart at a stock chart of high tech companies and like not hit one that was going up, right? And I remember being on the golf course with,
00:15:19
Speaker
A colleague of guy that I worked with and we were seriously talking about it as if it was the freedom 35 plan we were like if the stocks just keep going up and You know, we we were like, oh, yeah, we're gonna we're gonna retire at 35 and I remember thinking like there was this goal of like this much money and it wasn't about having something to do how about having a hobby it was about growing that
00:15:49
Speaker
income, that, that big, whatever bank account until it was so many dollars that we would have the freedom. Of course, like, you know, the, you know, the.com bust happened and, you know, stuff happened. And I always remember that discussion about, you know, the freedom 30, we called it the freedom 35 plan. And I think we referred to that for at least a year because I don't even think I was 30 yet.
00:16:17
Speaker
And like in, if the stock truck just keeps doing what it's going to do for the next six years, we would have retired, which was like absurd at 35, but yeah. And you, and you're totally focused on freeing yourself up from all because when, by the, when you're in your thirties, you're so busy, you know, you're building a family, usually having kids or whatever. And you're just, your time is gone. Like you have no energy after your day because you've done all these things.
00:16:45
Speaker
And all you want to do is free yourself up so that you can go pursue your true passions, like whatever they might be back then.
Finding Purpose and Community in Crafting
00:16:52
Speaker
And that's, I get that. It makes sense. I, I never honestly thought that I would make any money to the point where I would be able to retire, you know, without social security. You know, I always thought like, I'm gonna need that social security money. And, you know, uh, when I started house made it, and it became,
00:17:11
Speaker
evident that this is going to be way more profitable than what I was doing before. I realized I'm on to something here. This has got to be it.
00:17:21
Speaker
And then I, and then it's kind of crazy cause now I don't want to retire. Like I love the work I do. So it doesn't feel like work. I've probably slowed down. It's just, you know, the work that I'm doing is my, my true purpose. So if I stop that and don't continue doing that, I would just lose, I would probably lose my mind because I'm just, I want to be, I basically have to talk myself out of going to the shop on the weekends. You know, I need downtime and you're going to find the same thing. Yeah.
00:17:51
Speaker
I was talking to my buddy Rick today and we were talking about, oh, he's like, haven't been in the shop in a week. I'm like, I don't think there is a time in the last three years, unless I was out of the country where I wasn't in the shop at least at least once every two days, usually every day. I mean, the shop is my garage, right? But still, you know, but I mean, to go in and actually do something. And if you would have asked me
00:18:20
Speaker
seven or eight years ago, would you like retiring and making knives or anything like that? That's crazy talk. Like I was going through a divorce. I was, you know, had just met Kim seven years ago. Uh, this week, as a matter of fact, um, uh, it, it's crazy to me, like it never would have happened. And then now seven years later to be sitting here talking to being on a podcast, talking to people about
00:18:51
Speaker
You know, retiring is just nutty, but it's exciting. Good things happen to good people and people that work hard, you know, they find these successes and success isn't always about money. You know, it's about time, finding your purpose and passions in life.
00:19:08
Speaker
pursuing creative endeavors, all these things. I think a lot of people confuse money and success and all of that because I used to work for a lot of very rich, miserable people that they had more money than God and they were just all on antidepressants and just anxiety medications because their lives were not what they... They have been kind of sold this
00:19:34
Speaker
Package, you know the American dream of work your ass off make a ton of money and then you can do You know do whatever you want, you know or whatever and find that freedom But the reality is is in America today now we are in the world really not just in America you have the ability to go out and pursue those passions share your journey and get noticed by a bunch of people and Hopefully they'll support your work like they do with us
00:19:59
Speaker
And so it's just like one of those things where I have to pinch myself on the daily, especially like with the scoop project and when I sold.
00:20:06
Speaker
some handmade scoops that I made. Like people came to me and said like, hey, I don't wanna buy the kit. Can you just make me that scoop and I'll buy it from you? And I was like, sure. I sent them an invoice and they paid it like within five minutes. I was like, wow. I mean, I sell a lot of things, right? I sell machines and I sell whatever, but it's different when you sell a piece of like your creative art. I felt like it was a piece of my art that I sold and somebody was willing to pay
00:20:35
Speaker
a pretty penny for it. And one guy even asked me to sign it. He says, will you take a scratch all and just sign your initials into the copper somewhere? And I said, well, I could laser etch it for you. I'll put my name on it somewhere. He goes, no, no, no, I need you to do it. And I was like, OK, that's no problem. He goes, because it's going to be worth a lot of money one day. That thing is going to be. And I went, whoa, man, that's so cool that somebody thought about this.
00:21:04
Speaker
It wasn't somebody in my immediate circle either. This was somebody that had gotten stuck in my messages, in the hidden messages in Instagram. Sarah showed me how to dig those messages out and I responded to this person. He wanted to buy a signed scoop for me and felt as if I'm going places or whatever. I was just like, wow, that blew my mind. It really made me feel like, okay, I can do some of this stuff and be more creative and create things and sell them and make a living.
00:21:34
Speaker
20 years ago sitting in my sculpture classes thinking I'll never make a single dime doing creative work. I just was sitting there thinking that like I wish I could but I don't think I have what it takes and somehow here we are. And that was your post the other day about selling artwork right? Yeah that was it. That's awesome.
00:21:54
Speaker
Yeah. A lot of people commenting on that. That was like, it was neat to see people like, what did you sell and what is it? And all of them like, it's my scoops, man. And it's like the coolest thing. So I remember when, uh, when we first met in person at a blade show and I met you outside the door of blade show and we walked in and I remember that guy grabbed you and like walking around with you at blade show. You can't go 20 feet without someone wanting to talk to Brian with. Yeah.
00:22:24
Speaker
And I was a nobody that like nobody who knew who I was then. So it was, uh, uh, it was entertaining to watch. Um, yeah. Yeah. Well, then now it's the same thing with you though. Now we walk around together or I see you and you, you're getting pulled in every which direction too. So it's pretty great to watch. It's crazy. Do I remember, I wanted, I wanted to tell this story the first time we ever talked.
00:22:50
Speaker
was when Aaron put that call together, when we were arranging the first challenge. And we said, oh, we better get everybody on a phone call. And we did, and I remember I had just got
00:23:08
Speaker
my Broadbeck grinder. And I remember I was so excited. I was so excited about getting my grinder. And then you said something like, you know, I make grinders, right? I felt like, oh my God, I stuck my foot in my mouth. Do you remember? I was just busting your balls. I didn't even know you, right? So I'm like, oh, maybe he's really busting off. I don't know. Oh, shit.
00:23:28
Speaker
That's right. You had flown in for blade show and when we met in person, but you were only there for like one day or something I don't remember exactly what it was but you know, yeah, I had taken a midnight flight That's right. I flight I just got there the Friday morning. So I was a little out of it I hadn't slept did the whole blade show so I hadn't slept and then And I was there for two days. So it was like Friday Saturday or sorry. No Saturday Sunday Saturday
00:23:57
Speaker
It was, it was pretty great. And to, because you had put together the challenges, we were, I was still just trying to make a go of that, creating content. I really didn't know where I was going, but doing the grinder thing and selling some kits. So it was just kind of be in my early stages of developing house made and what that would mean and what it would look like. But I really knew like in the beginning that I could watch your work, see your work.
00:24:21
Speaker
And think like, yeah, Dennis is going to go somewhere. Like he, it's obvious that he's committed to this and that it's a very, there's a few people, um, that have approached me over the years that say they're going to do that and then don't, or, and you can kind of smell it out, like almost immediately. Like this, these people really want to create content. They have the best intentions, but they don't actually follow through and they don't do it. Well, you have been a pillar of the community. You like really created something with the challenges.
00:24:49
Speaker
That brought so many people into the fold. I say this now too in some of my YouTube videos is that my primary goal with Housemate is to inspire people to make. That's it. If I can do that and I can keep people coming back to their workshops, that means they'll buy my tools or someone else's. They'll be making things that we make. They'll be talking about the things that we're doing. Whether or not that's directly or indirectly related to revenue or profit margin doesn't matter to me.
00:25:18
Speaker
but I have a feeling that it does actually matter because this economy, the maker economy is huge, it's enormous, but I feel like there's so much more to do. We're just at the tip of the iceberg here and there's certain people like yourself who have committed to that because you really do love it, Dennis. I can tell you are so committed to this. I mean, you get excited about all of the things that are happening around you.
00:25:45
Speaker
you travel, you go to all the blade shows, you go to maker camp, you do all because you don't want to miss out. It's it there's very few people like that, you know, it's giving me the finger because because of maker camp last year, and I made him go last minute and cost us some fortune. But wasn't it great, Jared? I mean, we're all hanging out in New York together at maker camp. It wasn't that just the greatest experience. I had such a blast. Fantastic. And I mean, what you guys are saying, like,
00:26:15
Speaker
It's kind of weird right now because I feel like I'm listening to a podcast with you guys talking right now because I want, I'm going to chime in, but I don't want to interrupt this, you know, conversation that you guys are having because, you know, we're always learning and trying to take all this stuff in. And, you know, just for me, my part right now is like talking about like all the planning that it takes for someone to actually reach this pinnacle of their life to where
00:26:44
Speaker
they can cash it all in and they have the option to make a decision to do what they love, right? Especially in our area, right? Like that's not, that's, that's a distant future for myself, right? So I was teasing Dennis the other day and telling him, I've never been so happy and wanted to kick someone in the dicks. So at the same time, because like, I am so inspired for, for my friend to, to, to be in this spot, right? To, to have this opportunity to, you know, pursue what
00:27:14
Speaker
I have witnessed and as much as, you know, all this, you know, goody, feely, good stuff, which I encourage and love. I'm watching Dennis squirm as he's, you know, talking about emotion. It's just hilarious, guys. I wish you guys could see it because, you know, but I mean, how awesome that is to, you know, be a part of and watch it transpire because, you know, when I met Dennis, he was like a,
00:27:39
Speaker
Not this, the guy that we're talking to right now, you know, he's, he just took off on this meteoric rise to, you know, to who he is now and, and, and inspires and influences, however the hell you want to say all of these people. And, um, you know, I think congrats dude. I mean, you really, you really deserve it. Um, I'm excited and, uh, for you, um, to, for what is to come, you know, cause, uh, it's just, it's, it's really cool, dude.
00:28:09
Speaker
I have a question for you, Jared. So you sit amongst all of us talking about this stuff. And I know you love your work. Because I've talked to Brent, and you're close with Brent. And I know you really enjoy your work. But in the back of your mind, are you formulating an exit strategy? It might be 10 years. It might be 20 years. I mean, who knows? But I know your passion for knife making
00:28:39
Speaker
but I don't know your passion on the business side. Like is it something that you have thought about like, Hey, I would really like to turn this into it. Or is knife making for you more of a, Hey, this is a mental health thing. I love being out there making knives. And if I sell them great, if I don't sell them or whatever, give me a, like the elevator pitch on what this is for you. So being,
00:29:06
Speaker
being newer to making in general. And I think the caveat to that is that I have never pursued this kind of creative outlet in my life. It's always been music, sports, some other kind of thing. So how I landed here and to have the opportunity to do something that could potentially be a business here. My personal work,
00:29:34
Speaker
translates into the opportunity to have my own business on the side, right? But it's fairly, it's organic the way that happens, right? So it starts for me to learn how to make, right? First off, I want to get the confidence behind what I'm making, how I'm doing it. Do I stand behind it and want to go there? But I get so much data from watching
00:30:04
Speaker
people grow like, you know, from just in the short time, I've known you, Dennis, Brent, you know, pickle on and on and on about the people that that this is their, their livelihood, right. And I realized that I have a lot to learn as far as, you know, putting this into a potential business, right. So currently, right now, Jared sits with, you know, I have a job, I have responsibility to my family to make sure that they eat and they take care, you know, they're taken care of, like you said, food, water, shelter,
00:30:33
Speaker
And in the background, I'm definitely, you know, watching and learning as I grow, and finding out that there's there's a lot more to on the horizon as far as because I've seen a lot of people even in my short time, start making full time and then have to back out, right. And I don't I don't want that to be my my experience. Because like you said, this is for me is a
00:30:58
Speaker
is a mental health, it's a hobby, it's an outlet, it's an expression of who I am and what I feel in a manner that I've never been able to, you know, project and share with the community that's been obviously overwhelmingly positive and inclusive, right? I mean, I'll kind of segue into another story here that I think is hilarious because I had some family over the other day, yesterday actually,
00:31:27
Speaker
and we were I've had a knife that I was I actually ground this knife on the true tilt at the foundry with Brent this exact knife I had saved it like so I had some stuff happen to it where I wasn't sure how I wanted to end up finishing it so I put it away right my cousin comes into town this yesterday and I wanted to finish it for him so I remembered about a week ago so I get it all together we're in the shop yesterday and
00:31:58
Speaker
We're looking at the knife and I'm kind of going through and I have to sand the handles, make a sheath and sharpen it and do a couple of things. In the meantime, I have a small collection of knives from people from folders down to this, but so this fucking guy picks up Brent from Baldman's Thicker Clipper. And all of a sudden, he just like, this is the holy grail of knives.
00:32:26
Speaker
right. And I'm sitting there and I'm like, we're working on the knife for him that I'm making right and he's just he's just going on and on and on about the thicker clipper and dah dah dah dah dah. And for a brief moment, I was like this motherfucker right. And then I started thinking to myself like, how
00:32:47
Speaker
I stand behind what Brent does, right? I purchased this knife because of everything this guy is saying about it, right? So in this weird moment, right, where I'm in my shop, gifting a knife to somebody, I turn into a salesman for Brent Smith, the bald man knife and tool. And I'm like, dude, you know what? I 100% stand behind this knife, dude. I said, in fact, here, take it with you.
00:33:12
Speaker
carry it with you, and then, you know, and give it back. And, and I talked to Brent today earlier, and I said, you know, you're, you know, I sold you a knife today. But, you know, that's the opportunity that we get into because although we are in competition, right, as, as makers, you know, selling the same product and stuff,
00:33:32
Speaker
But, um, stepping back and having that, you know, humility to be able to, to support my friend and, you know, somebody who makes a wonderful product and, and push that even in the circumstance where I'm in my own shop with all of my shit standing around and trying to, you know, get out of my own way to, to let this guy get what he wants. Right. So I thought that was a really humbling experience in a moment. Um, that kind of led me to.
00:34:02
Speaker
back to your original question is, you know, one day I do want to do this, right? I think I do, but I'm always hesitant to jump into the point to where this becomes a job and then I lose interest and the passion for it, right? So I'm going to sit here in my spot right now and enjoy the fruits of
00:34:24
Speaker
the opportunities to earn income doing something that I love while unfortunately, but you know, because responsibilities dictate that I have to have a job and I have to work and I have to, you know, provide for my family. So I sit here with my notepad, I take lessons, I learn, I listen to people like Brian and Dennis, you know, kind of share their journey and experience and wisdom for the opportunity that is, you know, five, 10 years out to where, you know, I can transition.
00:34:54
Speaker
into supplementing this incredibly expensive economy that I live in. And expensive hobby, too. And expensive hobby, yeah. And maybe not relocate. But I am super grateful that Dennis didn't leave California, though. That would have been great. Yeah, when he was saying that he was mentioning that he might move out of the state, I was like, I don't know, man. You've got a lot of roots there. And California is great in a lot of ways. The Bay Area, I spent some time there 20 years ago.
00:35:23
Speaker
really, I fell in love with it. Even back then, it was a lot of people. Now I live in Florida where there's like 23 million people all around me all the time now. I guess it really doesn't matter much. One of the things you said, Jared, was about the incredible community that is the metalworking knife making community.
Community vs. Competitive Environments
00:35:42
Speaker
I have an interesting
00:35:45
Speaker
anecdote about that. Housemate has been looking into getting our FFL, our federal firearms license, so that we can manufacture guns. It's kind of a side project and it may never happen. I'm just kind of in the first looking into it and stuff.
00:36:05
Speaker
Now that I've done this one thing, I don't know how much further I'm going to go into it. So we went to a gun show. So Pickle flies in from Canada to Florida on Saturday, Sunday morning. We all get up and we drive to this gun show in Florida. Now, if you've never been to a gun show in Florida, it's great. You pay the fee, you go. It's great. The people watching, there's people just with guns on their shoulders.
00:36:32
Speaker
Florida is no joke, the wild, wild West. It is like, that was like the true stamp on the letter where I was like, yeah, this is lawless. Like there's one police officer for this huge show. It's like blade show, but it's all just guns. Right. And when we walk into this big auditorium, there's, it's pro it's not as big as blade Atlanta. It's probably like maybe like the size of the small room at blade and we're walking through.
00:37:00
Speaker
And I've got Dexter and my daughter with me and Sarah's there, Pickle's there, we're just wandering around. And I turned to Pickle and I go, notice how quiet it is in here? Like it was like everybody was talking, there was people talking, but it wasn't like blade show, right? When we all get together at blade show, when you walk into the big room, right?
00:37:25
Speaker
It's like a high school pep rally. I mean, there's just, everybody's talking. There's so much conversing going on and sharing of information. At the gun show, there's none of that. It is, all men firms, they're all selling the same shit, by the way. Everybody's got ARs and everybody's got the same guns and it's all, they're all just different reps from different gun manufacturers or whatever. And I'm like,
00:37:51
Speaker
It's just so odd. It's such a different energy. It wasn't a bad energy. It was just a different energy. Nobody was sharing information, right? Now there were a few knife makers there and there were guys selling knives. They say they, they say they made, and I had a guy like right to my face as I'm holding a knife that was clearly not made by him. And he's telling me he made it.
00:38:14
Speaker
And he doesn't know who he's talking to, right? So he's just telling me about how he made the Damascus. This is a $20 knife, and it's a Damascus knife with a sheath. He's telling me he hand stitched the sheath himself.
00:38:27
Speaker
and that he made the knife. It's all very clear where it's made. I can see the knife right now. I have a picture of it on my head. You know the knife. It's got the segmented scales with red and white. Big bolster. Yeah, big bolster. And the guy is in my face telling me how he pressed the steel himself and that blah, blah, blah. And I'm just like, this should never happen at blade ship. It's just like, this is such a different thing.
00:38:56
Speaker
Um, but I started really thinking about how much I love this community of people, especially like when we come out with scoop kits and everybody supports that project and they push and tell everybody, I'm so excited to do this project. Brian came out with it and I, you know, it's that kind of thing that made me realize I'm standing in this room, a bunch of guys selling guns. You would think it's like kind of like cool and whatever it is. No one is talking to the vendors aren't talking to each other. No one's talking to each other. Everybody's all man for himself.
00:39:26
Speaker
And then you walk in a blade show and it's just everybody sharing knowledge and pushing their ideas and sharing ideas. And this goes on for three solid days. It never stops. And that's how I know I'm in the right community because I'm the same way. I was born that way. I love sharing the data. I love sharing it out there.
00:39:46
Speaker
And, uh, and, and by the way, Jared, when you do like get into position, when you're ready to move into like more serious talks about the business side, you'll have an enormous database of people to call at any time. And you'll be able to say, Hey, how do I do this?
Content Creation and Marketing Strategies
00:40:06
Speaker
Simple as that. And we'll all pitch in and help, you know, so I'll be like,
00:40:11
Speaker
All right, Jared. First step is go on my website, buy my guru package. It's only a thousand dollars and it's going to walk you through the LLC core creation process and everything else. And then you'd have direct access to me. I'll be like that guy watching his rolls of rice with the suds thing. What was that guy's name? Yeah. Hey, what selling guru classes, whatever happened to, um, I don't know the, the Brian house university or whatever. Um, Oh man. We, so we shot like a couple of them.
00:40:41
Speaker
And they just went in the can and never, never came out. It was, it, what it was is we did, we did not anticipate how much time it was going to take to do that project. And so I said, if we can't do this correctly, we definitely don't, we're not going to push this out. We don't have the time. We just didn't have the time or the resources to do it. And what I was realizing was as I was pushing house made you.
00:41:06
Speaker
And I'm creating it and spending all these days, me and Brent together, and all of our other work was falling to the wayside. And we realized this is not sustainable. We would have to pick and just do one or the other. And unfortunately, we have to make money. We had to choose to continue on.
00:41:26
Speaker
So I dove deeper into like the tsunami project and all of that, but it is still a thing. And we have like a bunch of content around it. It's just, I did not feel comfortable releasing it because I don't think we could support it, you know? Yeah. That kind of content, like any, any content is obviously a lot of work, but content like that. Like I look at, um, Kyle Royer's course, the knife making knife, knife maker, um,
00:41:54
Speaker
And I actually reached out to Morocco and I said, Morocco, you need to do this. Like you would have, and he's like, I don't know how to get started. And now I'm thinking back like, yeah, that's a shit ton of work. Shit ton of work. It's so much work. Yeah. And you're answering questions a lot and you're doing a lot of customer facing interactions that may not result in any margin. It, you know, you really got to prepare yourself for something like that and have, have a lot in place so that it can,
00:42:24
Speaker
either somehow figure out how to make money with it. And I think, you know, I'm assuming Kyle's doing well with it, Kyle Royer. And I'm assuming that he's doing great. And by the way, if you're not, if you don't know this, he's doing a 15 day free trial on his, on his deal. So you can go check that out for 15 days and just get a feel for what he's up to. Um, I would imagine that program is insanely detail oriented. Like it's probably amazing. And it's like,
00:42:53
Speaker
It is like the deep dive, like where I would do a video on building a knife in maybe 40 minutes. It's like eight hours of videos. Like it's like, you're kind of doing that, aren't you? With your beginner bladesmith program, your video series. Yeah, I am for the beginner series. And I did, I did want to talk about that because, um, some, some of the, the reasons for, for redoing that course.
00:43:23
Speaker
Um, you know, I'm again, I'm borrowing ideas out of your head of like, Oh, well I got to do some self-promotion. I got to integrate the surface grinder, which means magchucks. I got to talk about the, the, um, the sharpening system and like, that's why I wanted to redo that whole series. Yes. I mean, I've learned new stuff and I wanted to refresh it and it was just a way to get content out there, but it was also for.
00:43:51
Speaker
Hey, I want to sell more sharpeners. I want to sell. Yeah. Yeah. And you can remake this series 20 times and it would be different every time. And there are certain section of people. I don't know if you heard me talking about the swimming pool analogy about the marketing and how the, you know, you have a swimming pool and there's a say there's a hundred people in that swimming pool and you're selling to that hundred people and that's your marketplace. And remember that some of those people are getting out of the pool, but at the same time, more people are getting in the pool.
00:44:21
Speaker
So when you create content and you create anything at all that you, you know, you've got new folks, new faces that are inside of that, uh, of that swimming pool that are buying from you, or at least looking at yourself. So like I'll push content out there. That's kind of similar all the time. And it's just like, okay, people ask me this question all the time. I've answered it like 50 times.
00:44:44
Speaker
Or I've answered it with a video, but I made that video three years ago. Let's make it again. You know, let's, let's do it again. And it always gets views and it gets drives revenue and it does all those things. So it's like, what I've learned is don't overthink it. Just, you know, half of the job of you to do any marketing at all is actually just reminding customers that you exist. That is it. So if you look at, if you look at any of my content, some of the goofy stuff, like Steve Kalb came to the shop and we forged out, literally forged out of dick and balls.
00:45:15
Speaker
And we made a piece of content about this. And it's hilarious and fun. And it was just a quick black and white photography type deal that Sarah shot. And then we made it fun real about it. And some people were like, oh, this is very junior high or whatever. And I'm like, who the hell do you think I'm selling to? I'm selling to a bunch of 30 to 50-year-old dudes who all think like me. They're all middle schoolers. That's my customer. So if I forge out a dick and balls,
00:45:44
Speaker
and we have a great time and we hang it from my anvil. That's fun and people like it and they're like, I can't believe you're letting Pickle Light join on your business profile and your business page and stuff. And then Jay Nielsen right after that, he lights up and does a reel and then Nick Rossi does it and all these guys do it and you're like, see, it's not that hard. Everybody's okay with everybody having a beer, but the second somebody lights a joint, it's like, oh no. And by the way, this isn't how,
00:46:15
Speaker
you know, when people do business now, they do business with whom they know and whom they like, right? Exactly who they like. And so who they like. So am I going to be the stuff shirt, selling grinders and forages and scoops and bullshit? No, like I'm a real person. And I'm, I think that's the reason for our success is that people go, I know if I buy something from Brian, it's from him and his team. And I know they're, they're a bunch of goofballs, but
00:46:41
Speaker
I'm going to get what I paid for. If that, if anyone can take away something, it's that point right there is that they're not, yeah, they're buying what you're selling. Like they're buying the product, but they're buying a chance to interact with you. Like that, that is the, you know, I think that's the number one thing of your success at housemaid is people, people love you. Like people love working with you. They love what you make. They want to support you and, uh,
00:47:12
Speaker
that of anything, I've learned that the most from you from WFI and, you know, Chris, why am I blanking his last name? Yeah, Paul, Paul, Chris cash, Chris, Paul, about like, that and the old the old thing of like, no,
00:47:38
Speaker
There's no such thing as bad PR, right? That's right. Yeah. And he's the master of that. Like, just get people to look at, you know, to look at you and be likable. And, you know, that's, that's a battle. That's it. If you can get their attention, Gary Vee talks about this all the time, that attention is the number one commodity now, because there's so many platforms and so many ways to like pull your eyes away from what your, you know, your audience is looking at. They've got
00:48:07
Speaker
all those streaming platforms on their television, they have all these social media platforms. How do you get people to look at your stuff? And it's just like, okay, I don't know. I guess we're forging dick and balls now. I guess that's the answer. I don't know, we're just gonna try it. Let's see if it, but does it work? Yeah, it works. So if you think outside the box a little bit, you can be super successful, you can make something of yourself, and then you get a chance to pick what you wanna do with all that attention. That's what we're doing now.
00:48:36
Speaker
Really want to do this kitchen tools thing like we're we're making more of these kits for kitchen tools Or guys make their own like think about this. There's so many guys out there with a press There's so many guys out there with a forge and there's so many guys out there with a grinder
00:48:51
Speaker
And if you have those three tools, knives are not the only thing that you can make with those things. There's a lot you can do with those tools. So let's like roll out a whole series of these things and sell the tools along the way, create the tools along the way for that customer and build a bigger customer database of people who are making things. And a lot of these guys are just making it because they want to. It's so funny. I'll have guys that buy my grinder kit and go, I don't really know what I want to do with it, but I'm going to build it. I want to build it. I'm like, okay.
00:49:21
Speaker
Yeah, go for it. You know, the one thing that stands out to me right now is that Dennis, you had me make a leaf. We could have made a dick and balls. You made me make a fucking leap. It's to cover your dick and balls. OK, it's a fig leaf. It was appropriately sized. I did have my
00:49:49
Speaker
my daughter's boyfriend, uh, in the shop, uh, yesterday. Um, cause he was just over and I said, Hey, do you want to come forge something? And, uh, of course he was mesmerized by the induction forge and, uh, same thing, got him to make a leaf. And I was like, damn, that leaf's better than mine. He did really good. But yeah, I love those little projects. I got to find more. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. Yeah. The little projects like that are what, what spawn.
00:50:19
Speaker
bigger ideas in people when they have success making something small, like a leaf, it's like, then they go, Oh, what else can we make? And then bang, you just planted a seed, you know?
Product Diversification Ideas
00:50:30
Speaker
Yeah. But what you were saying, there's so many other things like little frying pans, uh, the little barbecue set, you know, where it's like the tripod that the pot hand hangs from, like over a fire. Like there's so many little things like that that you can make.
00:50:46
Speaker
Um, some are just simple forging projects. Some need a mold, but there's all kinds of cool things to make. Yeah. And you know, all these guys have the tools to do it because they got into knives. They wanted to make knives initially. And I, you know, there are a bunch of guys that go into knife making and go gung ho. They buy all the tools and then they realize, oh shit, it's not for me. Like I don't have the patience to do this, but I do like working with my hands. So what else can we do?
00:51:12
Speaker
And if we could just feed them these projects and tell them like, Hey, this is the next thing. Let's try this. I think it can be a success. And it also keeps people making things, keeps people out of trouble. Right. And hopefully you make a little money on the side with it because that's ultimately my goal was always to have a side hustle, you know, doing this, make it. That was how I got into all of this is I was making knives in my garage. And it was funny because Pickle was just here and he's looking at all my knives on my knife board and I have.
00:51:41
Speaker
Probably four or five of my own knives and he says man. This knife is really clean You did a great job on this knife. He's like, that's my first knife. That's the first thing I ever made He was like, wow, this is really great. And he was really complimenting me I took by the way when pickle gives you comment compliment like that. You've got to take it cuz you know, he he's never Doesn't he doesn't know shit? No, he's not and I was like damn. That's really cool
00:52:05
Speaker
So, uh, to hear somebody actually compliment my knife making was really great, you know, but I got sidetracked with other stuff. You know, I went off and did other things, but here's the question I have. How many tables at blade show are going to have copper spoons or spoons of some sort?
00:52:21
Speaker
from your thing on them. That's what I think a lot. I think a lot. I think a lot. It'll definitely be a bunch, but I think what's going to be interesting to hear is guys that say, Oh, I don't have your scoop because I sold it right away when I made it. You know, I made that scoop and then it just sold right away because gosh, every time I show those scoops, it goes crazy on, on Instagram and Facebook, you know, millions of views. People love that. And they, for whatever reason, that is the draw. And
00:52:50
Speaker
Yeah, they should sell for everybody. So hopefully, you know, it just keeps going. Well, not just for, I don't know if I'm going to get time to make some for Blade Show because maybe I will. I'm sure I'll make the one that comes in the kit. It's just whether I make 10 more, we'll see. It's not like you have a fucking job. I do have a job until the end of June, but I'm taking the week before Blade Show off. So I'll have that week, but I procrastinated making sheaths. So I think I'm going to be
00:53:21
Speaker
making a buttload of sheets that week. But in the summer here, there's a farmer's market and I'm going to see if I can get a table at the farmer's market. And that's when you mentioned that, I'm like, yeah, that's exactly why I wanted them for something like that because you're right. It's, you know, and I was, I was last episode, I was talking about this poker game, right? And I'm, you know, you talk to people, they just have no concept of like how much a custom knife costs, right?
00:53:50
Speaker
And they're not prepared to spend three, four or $500. And that's like a low end knife, right? Like they're not prepared to spend that kind of money, but you know, the 40, 50, whatever you're going to charge for the, the spoon, that's right there. Or even the little trinkets. Um, you know, who had an awesome idea last year that, uh, Neil's Vandenberg, did you see what he was doing last year? No. So he had auto micarta. So he had these.
00:54:20
Speaker
I, he must've had them pre-cut because he had tons of them. He had these, um, push daggers that were entirely made of micarta. And all he did was zip, zip on the grinder and put kind of an edge on them and sold them for, I think he, I think they were 15 or 20 bucks. And he was selling those like hotcakes. Sure. Like they were, people were loving those things. And I think it had.
00:54:47
Speaker
You know, Neil's Vandenberg master Smith or whatever on the side or something like that. And, um, my friend, Rick, he was at Neil's table for a while and Neil said to step away and he said he sold 15 of them while Neil's was away. Like that were just bam, bam. And to get some, like that's, that's the kind of thing.
00:55:09
Speaker
Because let's face it, blade show is probably the worst place to sell a knife. You have a thousand competitors in the same building, right? That's right. Like it's just not a, anyone, this is a public service announcement. If you think you're going to go to a blade show and sell out all your knives and like you're going there banking that I'm going to make this much profit, like you need to check yourself or have something that's marketable. That's different that, you know, or you're a big name and whatever, but
00:55:38
Speaker
Unless you're Brent, I mean, Brent's crushed it. You know, and here's the tip is, you know, be in that sub $300 range. If you're in the sub $300 range and you make a good clean knife, you're going to sell knives. Anything above 300, it's going to be, you know, it's tough. And again, that's exactly I took a page from Brent's book. Most of what I'm going to be bringing are those new little and Jared's laughing because he told me
00:56:06
Speaker
I'll be making the little ED, my new EDC knife. Um, exactly for the same reason. If you're not sub $300, like that's not what people are going to pick up. They want to buy something from you. You know, like you were saying, people want to buy stuff from me. They want to buy something from you, but you know, they're not, not everybody's going to walk away with the shark knife. You know, they, they can't do it. They can't afford it, but they'll walk away with that, that many EDC and, and like I have
00:56:34
Speaker
Jason Knight's hummingbird. I love that knife. It's like, but I can't I don't have one of his big pieces, of course, but I carry a little hummingbird from time to time because it was affordable. And it's a piece of Jason, you know, yeah. Yeah, if you want to sell knives at blade show, I don't recommend you putting yours next to somebody like Dennis Doreau.
00:56:56
Speaker
It's pretty stupid marketing. So yeah, Brian, uh, I'm going to put that 500 on that thousand dollar deposit for that guru package, because obviously I don't know what the fuck I'm doing here. But you know, like as simple as that, uh, the farmer's market, we have a, uh, one here, it's all year around and every two weeks they do a makers meet swap there. So there's a farmer's market every, every weekend on Saturday. And then every other week they do like a maker's Mark type thing.
00:57:24
Speaker
Oh, I might. I might want some info on that and get in. Well, you're not getting anywhere near that fucker. Okay. Fuck out. Yeah. Okay. You can handle your side of the mountain. I'll take care of this side. Okay. All right. So that's been a goal of mine is to you know, but it takes you know, building up inventory, right? And those little trinkets, so the bottle openers, the spoons, the you know,
00:57:45
Speaker
That's why I was, you know, when I was talking about those things last year, like that was like, that is exactly what you were saying, right? Because you're selling the product, but you're selling yourself and people want a PCU. And so I'm, that's, that's a goal of mine. I think it's gonna be a realistic one this this summer. Because, you know, I'm trying to motivate myself to, to
00:58:10
Speaker
get going, right? I mean, and I think yesterday was like a really good example of, you know, I was, you know, say 75% done with this knife, right? And then, you know, when we talked, you know, you're like, there's no way you're gonna finish that in two hours, right? And I didn't. It took later on in the day. I was about four hours away from finishing it. But they were trying to leave. And I had to do a couple of things, right? But I didn't have the time to allow my
00:58:39
Speaker
brain to overthink it, right? I know the processes. I know how to get the shit done. I just had to do it without overthinking and stepping on my own dick along the way. And I got the shit done and knocked out in record speed. And I was so shocked afterwards. I came back upstairs and I was talking to my wife and I was like, I really knocked. She goes, yeah. I said, do I look tired? She's, oh, yeah, yeah. You look tired. Because I was stressed out about finishing it.
00:59:09
Speaker
Cause you're stepping on your dick whole time. Apparently that's why you were tired. I just, it's a small leaf, dude. It's not, I really wasn't. I maybe hit it on something, which reminds me that I almost stabbed myself a couple of times this week too. So I put the knife in my knife vice too.
00:59:27
Speaker
So there's this guy, he has a YouTube channel, his name's Dennis Terrell. He just did a beginner series. And I just kind of happened to watch it. If you don't, you know, do that, you should check it out. It's normally really, really good content and pretty educational. But he was talking about, you know, that when you're sanding the spine on the knife side, not the handle side, that, you know, oftentimes we forget to take care of that spot when we sand the bevels and the flats.
00:59:51
Speaker
So I turned the bitch around, put it handle first into the knife ice and started hand sand in the front, uh, the top part of the spine. And, uh, I got up and I walked away.
01:00:05
Speaker
And I had no, I'm not. Yeah. That's just now I'm going to put like some big ass red sign or something on there or something to do. Cause it's a little as you know, a knife sitting out. It's in a different spot of my shop that it's ever went. And I came zipping right by it and it just caught.
01:00:22
Speaker
You mean that's why PPE aprons, you know, I think Brian you've said you were like a leather apron in there when you're Yeah, what if you what if you 3d printed a sleeve kind of a universal sleeve that would slide over the blade At least over half of it or something just to keep it from being stabby while it's in there. Yeah
01:00:45
Speaker
That's probably a good idea. Something, because it was so stupid and simple and fast. And thankfully, I just grazed myself. And it ripped my shirt. It ripped my tank top that I have underneath it. It didn't get me. But a couple inches this way, and I would have doubt it impaled myself. I was like, that's good content, but not something I really want to experience.
01:01:11
Speaker
Hey, we're, we're an hour in and we haven't done any ads. So, uh, we should probably get into one. Hey, uh, Brian, if you were going to, if you needed knife making supplies, where would you go? Oh, hands down. I would talk to Lawrence Lake over at marathon knife supply. He's got everything you need from abrasives to machines, to steel, to pins, to handle material. I'm pretty sure that you connected Lawrence with Oleg, which he has a pile of Oleg stuff over there.
01:01:40
Speaker
And he doesn't do promo codes, so we can't really say the promo code, because there isn't one. But I will say, he ships every single day to the United States, and sometimes it gets to you faster than it does his Canadian cousins. I've heard.
01:01:55
Speaker
Anyway, I've heard some of this. Yeah. Lawrence is the man and he's a pretty good looking Canadian. Like, you know, all the Canadian. Darn fine looking gentleman. Absolutely darn fine looking gentleman. Doppelganger almost for a few famous people. Heard he just announced his retirement. It's weird. He'd better not. That's funny. I've got to put an order in next week.
01:02:22
Speaker
And you know, I just bought some of his his hex stock, you know, yeah and 80 hex Brent bought a few sticks of it and then I bought some And we're doing some just some cool little trays out of it and stuff but and then Mike the knife Johnson came down from Long Island to see his mom and his mom lives like right near us
01:02:43
Speaker
So he's like, Hey, can I come by your shop? Yeah. The real tall dude. Yeah. Mike, the knife he's friends with how I met him was through James, uh, over at, uh, wasteland, uh, forge. And, uh, we became instant friends. And then of course he comes to blade show every year. Well, he let me know. He's like, Hey, I I'm down there all the time with my mom. You know, she lives down there in the winter.
01:03:07
Speaker
And I needed to come check on her. She just had surgery and he outed out it, but is it cool if I come and hang out in the shop? And then he came down and we took one of Lawrence's big hex stock and he made that really great like kitchen chopper integral, uh, out of that. And we had just had a blast. So, but, uh, but yeah, so go check out maritime knife supply.com. And also who, uh, I turned Lawrence on was our other sponsor who was a two bastards, a Texas Smithian supplies.
01:03:36
Speaker
If you need a hammer, go talk to Frank. He will set you up. He is the man making hammers. Uh, he makes hundreds of hammers a year. He also repairs them. Uh, it's my go-to hammer. So, uh, definitely go check out, um, two bastards. Um, that's bastards with an E and, uh, go check them out. He will also be a blade show this year. And I think he's going to be at, um,
01:04:04
Speaker
Thursday night at Neil's place. So if you haven't met Frank, you will. He's a good guy to get to know. Yeah. I'm looking forward to that. Actually. I love those hammers. His style is so interesting. I absolutely love his work. So I can't wait to meet him and see some of his stuff. Uh, is he going to have a table or is he just coming? He's definitely coming. I don't remember if he's going to have a table, honestly. Um, I think he's
01:04:28
Speaker
Cause I think this is his first time at blade show proper. He's done the Texas one a lot, but I don't know if he's done the Atlanta one. I think this is his first time. So I don't, I don't remember if he's got a table. I don't think he does. I could be wrong, but, um, but, uh, Lawrence also sells his hammers over at maritime. So you can get them there too. If you live in Canada. Fantastic. Hey, well we talked about the beginner series since we got Brian here. Um, we're going to be.
01:04:57
Speaker
giving away or I'm going to be giving away that beginner series knife to one of my patrons. I have all my patrons put up here in a spreadsheet and I've randomized the numbers and I'm going to get Brian to pick a number. So again, the silver members have one entry. Gold members get two entries and diamond members get five entries.
01:05:26
Speaker
So total, we got 201 entries. So Brian, I want you to pick a number between one and 201. And that's going to be who wins this knife. Now, before you pick a number, I will say that if this does, we pick someone where they got crazy knife laws that I can't send them to them.
01:05:50
Speaker
We may redraw this, but, uh, um, we'll see who, uh, who this comes up with and, uh, we'll work that out in the end, but, um, we'll see how that goes. All right. One in 201. Uh, I am going to pick number 57 after one of my favorite condiments ketchup 57 57 57 is Matthew Hamby.
01:06:17
Speaker
Matthew Hamby, who is a silver member. I will reach out to you Matthew over email. You've won the beginner series knife and matching sheath that we just did the sheath video last week. So yeah, I'll be in contact Matthew. So congrats. Cool. That was cool. Way to go Matt.
01:06:46
Speaker
Yeah. At some point, I'm also going to redo. I think I got a bunch of videos to do first, but I am going to restart that intermediate series and redo the intermediate series, which is a more complex knife, hidden Tang guard, which made me think today, Jared, when did you join the ABS? Shut up. Take talk. Let's go. Come on. When was it last year?
01:07:15
Speaker
It was the year before the year before. So you got another year and you can test for journeyman. So we got to get you moving on some hidden Tang knives. Yes. Yes. That is true. All factual statements there, sir. Thank you. We're doing it because honestly, that's something I'm really looking forward to is you starting to work on your journeyman knives. Yeah, that's because you're an ass, right?
01:07:42
Speaker
And I got to watch you do all that and stretch your balls off and that was a good time. So yeah. All right. We're going to get you there. I'm looking forward to it. I think the intermediate series is going to be fantastic. I think it's, you know, obviously the nice transition from the beginner series, but there's a lot of good information and things that I think is
01:08:09
Speaker
Valuable to us makers out there. I'm curious on the on the series videos Dennis. So do you notice a pattern of You know, you're creating Obviously series of videos that has a theme and you're you know These people get a chance to follow along with what you're doing. Are you noticing growth as a result of?
01:08:33
Speaker
of the series itself or are particular videos being plucked by the algorithm and fed out, um, and doing better? Um, that's a good question. There's certainly, I don't know that it's, how do I put that? I think there's certain videos that are more popular because of the content. Like everyone likes the grinding videos because they want the grinding tips and there's certain videos that, um, that I think are more popular because of that.
01:09:03
Speaker
Because even my experienced audience, meaning as in, sorry, my audience that have been there a while, they've seen the beginner series, but they're still gonna watch the grinding videos because they might learn a little tidbit or something like that. Whereas if it's maybe applying a handle, I think some of those, once you know how to do that, there's not as many little tips or things you're gonna glean out of that video
01:09:34
Speaker
So that's my belief, but also looking at the stats, like certainly the grinding videos and those are a few more popular. But for me, the Siri, it's also, I spend a lot of time on Facebook. I spend a lot of time in the Facebook groups, specifically so I can respond to questions in Facebook groups with links to the videos.
01:09:59
Speaker
Cause I want to hook that person into the channel. I'm like, Oh, here's this video in the beginner series. So here's a link to the list. Brilliant. Yeah. Cause I want them, I want to set that hook or maybe they don't know me cause it's just my name in the Facebook group. They don't know who I am and then get them into the channel, get them watching things like that. So yeah, I'm getting viewers one at a time.
01:10:22
Speaker
Yeah, but that's how it's done now. I was listening to making it with Jimmy Durasta, Bob Claggett, and Dave, and they were talking about this. The guy that runs Patreon, I can't think of his last name, he gave a TED Talk at South by Southwest, and whatever the presentation, whatever you want to call it. And he was talking about how the follower is dead. Subscriberships and followers, that whole concept is now
01:10:51
Speaker
Granted we're talking to the guy who runs patreon here. So that I mean he's trying to convince you that You know that you need a community of people to you know You need a thousand people is what he's saying in the video is that you need a thousand people that are die-hard you know, Dennis Terrell fans or Jared fans or whatever to to
01:11:14
Speaker
really grow and get big. And April Wilkerson used this terminology like 10 years ago. She was like, your core 100. She talked about you have a core 100 group of people that like support your work.
01:11:27
Speaker
And then that'll grow over time because they're the ones that are kind of like, you know, commenting constantly and sharing your videos and supporting you because you can't do the work of a hundred people. You just can't. I mean, it's just that
Building a Supportive Community
01:11:39
Speaker
simple. You need these, you need this community of people to do that work. And so I think it's brilliant what you're doing on Facebook by sharing those video links because you're helping someone for free. You're telling them like, Hey, this is how I do it. You can watch me do it in this video.
01:11:55
Speaker
And then they go, you know what? I want to subscribe to that guy's channel. And then when you come out with a hand sanding machine or you come out with a Sharpie kit or something like that, they're more likely to be a customer of yours because they've had great interactions with you online. And that's what we've been doing at Housemade for years and it's really worked, you know? It's like, I respond to all those guys that are trying to wire up their VFDs. Hey, I've done this before. Did you follow this diagram and watch this video? If you haven't,
01:12:19
Speaker
watch it. 99% of the time they come back with, hey, that solved my problem. Thank you so much. I might not sell that guy anything today, but chances are in a year or five years or whatever, they're going to be a housemate customer. That's how business should be done. I love it.
01:12:40
Speaker
Um, that PID controller forge video, that thing has got a lot of legs. Um, I got to get a lot of questions on that one. And I send people that one a lot. And, uh, a lot of that's been a great video as far as. You know, Amazon associates, um, cause they don't buy the PIDs and all that stuff and, uh, just interaction. So yeah, I mean, there's something to be said about just helping the community gives back. Right.
01:13:10
Speaker
Yep. That's it. Go into your videos and things like that. Almost all success comes from just simply being useful. Totally. That's it. It's the one thing you got to do. Just be useful. So. All right. Well, we're already an hour and 15 and what else did we want to cover Jared? I think I got the main things I wanted to cover today, which was the big announcement.
01:13:35
Speaker
Oh, we do have a comment. I wanted to, I wanted to go over the comment of the week cause I thought it was pretty funny, but what else is on your list? Jared. I want to hear this comment, dude. I laughed my love the comments off. Oh, you okay. Cause you read it in the notes. I laugh my ass off. So there's one that I got, this is just, okay. I'll admit I, when I usually post comment of the week, it's usually either a dumb ass comment or something funny. Um,
01:14:04
Speaker
But I did want to post something positive that I got, and I now, I always forget to put what video was, but if someone posted a comment that said, brother, you are awesome, exactly the information I was hoping for in forge welding, you made my day. And that made me happy. Like to read that comment, I think it was in my five tips to better forge welding or something. Like it's a really old video too. So he must've Googled it or something.
01:14:33
Speaker
Um, and I was really, you know, that lit me up that day. I was in a good way. Um, but the funny comment I grabbed from, uh, Mr. Oner Kaggler, cause he posted this one on Instagram. So I thought this was hilarious. So I I'm stealing it, uh, as our comment of the week. So owner gets this comment and the guy puts it in all caps and it says dislike for neck tattoos.
01:15:04
Speaker
It's what the guy says. I'm going to read word for word what owner says in his reply. Cause I didn't know where this was going, uh, until I got to the end of it. So this is what it says. It says the Amazon river runs for thousands of miles.
Unexpected Conversations and Challenges
01:15:22
Speaker
At some point it runs through areas of the rainforest that are untouched and have barely been explored because of the porous limestone in these areas, the river water.
01:15:30
Speaker
leaks through the snow and travels deep into the earth and forms underground pools almost a mile beneath the surface. Over thousands of years, small, blind, transparent fish have lived and evolved in these ponds. These fish have never seen the sun or surface. These fish care more about this than I do.
01:15:55
Speaker
Thought was hilarious cuz like he's basically making the guy read the whole response for a big fuck you at the end You Never know what you're gonna get It's like it's like most of my comments are positive and then some of them are just so bat shit off the wall You're like, wow Wow Wow the person that wrote this
01:16:25
Speaker
comment, like mental health issues or something, and you kind of feel sorry for them a little bit. My favorite was the one that I educated people on how to remove the weld seam on the inside of a piece of tube steel, and I use a pneumatic file to do it like a pneumatic belt grinder, like a small one. I lead up to it with all the different things, and yes, I'm wordy a little bit.
01:16:50
Speaker
But the reason why this video went viral is because so many people disliked how long it took me to get to that answer. Right. And my favorite thing now is this the fuck you for wasting five minutes of my time and you show me this fucking pneumatic vial and blah, blah, blah. And I just.
01:17:11
Speaker
I just like, I hit the thumbs up and the heart button. Cause I know it pops up on their phone. It's like the author comment, like like this comment. And then I'll just say, thank you so much for watching. Uh, who, I think it was, uh, John Norwood said in, um, was it him? Maybe it wasn't him, but because, and you know, we have this discussion, this discord chat in all the challenges. So all the makers talk.
01:17:39
Speaker
And I think someone wrote this, like some viewer wrote this like dissertation on why you're an idiot about how you made this sword or whatever. And whoever said, I think it was John said, like a TLDR, you know, too long, didn't read. Thanks for watching.
01:18:03
Speaker
Oh my God. It wasn't the samurai challenge that someone wrote that on? I think it was because we were talking about it at the beginning of this challenge. How could you ever criticize John Norwood on that sword? The painstaking to make the little guard and everything and the failures and the over note. And I'm just like, John, when I watch that video, I'm like, if he doesn't win,
01:18:30
Speaker
This is it. This is the one that has to win, and he did. So it was just great. It was great. I got a surprise for John at Blade Show, and I'm not going to give it away, but you'll see. Okay. Don't you just love John's hugs at Blade Show? Oh, yeah. You got to see him after he's had about five or six beers, but they're the best. I always run into him with the backpack of beer. Yes. After he's had a few, and then we stand there and have that together.
01:18:58
Speaker
And he's hugging you and he's like squeezing the life out of you and picking you up off the floor. Yeah, it's great. I really was looking forward to John and Spencer and we could like maybe convince him to have like an arm wrestling contest or something like that. Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh. That'd be great. I don't think Spencer's going to make it. Oh, shit. I was bummed to hear that. Yeah, he's got work and like he'll be on nights and it's just it's just I don't think it's going to happen, but
01:19:28
Speaker
I'm a I may have him come down to my shop in the winter when he's off and I think we're gonna do something fun in the winter so we'll see he can come to sunny California in the winter sure yeah he just sent a sent a message about I was doing Oh Lawrence posted that that old time-lapse video of us forging yeah and then he responded that with I told Jared he needs to get a haircut
01:19:56
Speaker
And so I started chatting with them about that and found out, but now it's like becoming a thing. Cause Lawrence is doing a countdown and how many haircuts till blade show. I think that was pretty damn cool. I think Brian might be on your side though. Cause he's always pretty clean cut. I get a feeling he gets haircut every couple of weeks.
01:20:13
Speaker
Every week, I have to, yeah, I cut my own. Thank you, Brian. Thank you. It is a, it is a thing going on right now that we are totally outnumbered and gang. If I knew that, I would carry it on this week. You brown noser. This is such good news. I just, I mean, it's looking really nice too, by the way, Brian. Thank you. Absolutely.
01:20:37
Speaker
I mean, just you, you want to go to Brian, chop and make some cock balls. Is that, is that what it is? I'm whatever it is, man. I know it will be a nice and well-kept there. This year, this year after blade show, there's a few folks coming down, but we're just doing a very light thing. We're not doing like a crazy foundry thing like we did last year. So it should be pretty fun, but we're doing just kind of a brief.
01:21:00
Speaker
get together and it's almost everybody that's coming is from overseas. So we've, uh, we're doing the Euro tour, the housemaid Euro tour. Yeah. Toby's going, going, right? Uh, Toby mural, we've got Matt Baker and Matt Baker's dad are coming down. Um, uh, Nordic edge, uh, Ben, uh, what's his name? Oh my God. He's going to kill me now. Um, the, the guy from Nordic edge is coming and, uh, and they're all basically just going to hang out and,
01:21:30
Speaker
because they are coming over from overseas and they're so close, they're like, hey, is there any way? And I'm like, yeah, you guys can come down and hang out. Like no joke, like I'm open to that. It's just, you know, we're going to do a little lighter theme this year and stuff and not do the actual foundry. Of course, it's probably going to get a little crazy a couple of nights, but it should be fun. And they've just never been to that part of the world before. So they want to come down and hang out. So yeah.
01:21:57
Speaker
Hey, is Dexter, is he going to bleach or is he going to be like off to the military? We don't know yet. So he, uh, we're waiting on some medical records, uh, to get the, I guess if you've ever had any surgery and he had like minor surgery when he was seven, um, you have to have all that paperwork into the air force and I guess any military branch, and then they got to review it and all this.
01:22:21
Speaker
We're still waiting on that. So we don't know when he's actually going to go to basic. So we're, we're just kind of waiting. So hopefully he does get a chance. We were hoping that he would be around for blade and it looks like he will be. So, uh, probably end up coming. Yeah. The reason is I'm bringing my son this year and they're the same age. So, uh, Oh, cool. Okay. Parker might have somebody to hang out with besides the dad and his crazy friends.
01:22:43
Speaker
Oh, yeah, that'd be great. Yeah, they I that is one thing we needed to work out. But yeah, and you never know, like when you sign that paper, they can pull you at any moment. So it just just depends. So he may not be there, but maybe he will. All right, well, should be good. Even if he's not, he's got his own adventure to go off to. So you can't not have a good time there. There's always somebody to hang around over there. So yeah, yeah, for sure. Definitely good times.
01:23:13
Speaker
Cool. Well, I think we should call it a show unless, uh, we got other, any other items. I can't think of anything. All right, Brian, thank you so much for joining us, uh, on this episode. Um, again, thank you for all your help and support and friendship over the years. You helped make this transition. I'm about to go into a little easier, a little more possible. So.
01:23:42
Speaker
Absolutely. I can't wait to see what you do with a dentist, dude. It's going to be great to watch. Here's what I'm really interested in is to see now that you're unencumbered with daily work, like your mind is not focused on your day job, to see how much more you're going to put into this because it's
01:24:04
Speaker
you're already doing so much. In fact, I always think, God, I don't know how he does it all, to be honest. Work a full-time job. You have a family of all these things, and you do all the work you do for the community of knife making and your tooling and your videos and all of that. It'll be interesting to see when you're not focused eight hours a day or whatever it is on your day job, where you take this. I'm excited, man.
01:24:29
Speaker
Yeah, I'm excited to start some new designs, some new Damascus patterns, and yeah, I'm super excited to get things going.
01:24:39
Speaker
We'll see. Yeah. And in, in all seriousness, man, I'm, I'm super excited for you, my friend. I mean, it's, it's huge news and just a hell of a leap to do it, you know, uh, during this time, you know, but this is a, like I, maybe I'm talking to myself, but this is a prime example of what happens when somebody makes consistent. Right. Choices educated and learns when they have to falls down, gets up, but you know, over
01:25:07
Speaker
a lifetime, right? You know, I mean, you didn't just get here in the short time that we've known you, right? You've been planning and doing this stuff. And as an adult for all these years to get you in a position where you can do this. And it's very, very cool when you watch somebody, especially somebody that you know, and care about, get to this part of their life and enjoy it, right, and have the opportunity to do so. So, you know, I'm proud of you, buddy. So wish us the luck.
01:25:34
Speaker
And, and thank you too. I mean, Jared's known about this for a while, but, uh, thank you. You've been there. You know, he's, he's my brother from, uh, another mother, so to speak. Um, he's always in the shop. Uh, I love having him around and, uh, you know, having him on this podcast and our friendship is super valuable. So thanks, Jared.
01:25:56
Speaker
So hurry up and get successful so I could retire early. That's what I'm trying to fucking say, okay? God damn. I'm just throwing this out there that, you know, their forge and fire is no longer a thing. There is a deep hole in the bladesmithing television market right now. And you already pretty much have like the challenge thing going on. Just saying, just throwing this out there.
01:26:21
Speaker
If somebody created a TV show around this, it could be pretty successful. I think it would get picked up, honestly. You know anybody? Send me some numbers. You were broadcasting at one point, right? I do know the Forage and Fire guys, but everybody knows that. We're all in that whole thing. I think you start fresh. I think in that case,
01:26:48
Speaker
You would bring them on as like guest judges. I think they would definitely do it for sure. We'll see food for thought. All right, folks. Thanks for joining us. And thanks for Brian for joining us. And we're going to call this a show.
01:27:45
Speaker
And that's a wrap.