Taking your Business to that Next Level Ft. The Wood Whisperer

March 28, 2022

Taking your Business to that Next Level Ft. The Wood Whisperer

“A lot of what I’m pondering recently is around the concept of growth. Something that’s happening these days is with people like me who have a pretty large historical library of content. I see these people as circling buzzards as though they see there’s still meat on the bone, and they could do something with it that I can’t. These companies come along and want to partner with you.

I would be curious to hear your perspectives on things like getting an offer from someone who wants to just take your content to the next level by investing. It’s part of the Superman mentality that I want to do everything. The thought of splitting however many percent of revenue with some other company is very difficult for me to wrap my head around as a bootstrap business.”

Marc Spagnuolo

No matter how long-lasting or how large it may be, every business needs to prepare for and consider the future. Marc has been working in this industry for a long time, and he wants to ensure that any partnerships he makes will not damage the personal control over his brand that he has spent so long developing.

“I was just in Dallas the other day talking to somebody about this exact thing. Often, it all depends on who the partner is, and because you put your 10,000 hours into your content, it is super valuable and is very emotional. It’s you; it’s your thing. My gut says no to those situations because it’ll take a certain kind of company and partner who will truly understand.

You can probably get an extra six figures a year, but to me, you’re in this for the long term. If I were you, I would dive more deeply into your community, dig into who your audience is, what they are, and then serve from there. You may not have the time from a timing perspective, but maybe it’s a quarterly thing or two times a year.

Maybe take that approach, like, ‘I have one or two major projects that year.’ It could be something where you maybe bring on some outside people, but it’s short-term; they don’t own your stuff. You hire them on a project basis, and perhaps you have a launch around it or maybe repackaging some of your older things. Taking your best-selling YouTube videos and maybe making a curated playlist or something similar.”

Steve Larosiliere

Knowing the Value of Equity

In Steve’s experience, the only reason to make a deal with a partner who wants to take a part of your company is if there is an enormous amount of money on the table. Even then, there are often ways to take the ideas presented by these partners and do it without selling equity in your company.

Ensure that if you find yourself in a position like this, do your research and investigate alternate ways to find those revenue streams without giving up a stake in your company. Ultimately, that is the most valuable thing you own, and it should only be offered as part of a deal with significant consideration and compensation.

“I’ve had somebody that wanted to buy my Instagram account. But I’m like, ‘No, there’s no way that I’m going to do that.’ This person was legit about their offer, so I threw out a ridiculous number. But honestly, there’s no way I would even sell it because it’s my connection to my community. I’m not here for money. I’m here to serve, and I want to do it in an authentic way.

Again, if it was Apple, Amazon, or Netflix, and they came to you, that’s different. The deal that Jimmy DiResta is doing is a good deal, and it showcases him differently. He gets bigger, broader reach, he’s on Roku, he’s on Netflix. Those are big deals. Now, I wouldn’t do those deals because you can end up doing it yourself and not have to give up any equity.

I think a lot of times, people are so thirsty to make it. I just got out of a business that I started 18 years ago to do Acres of Timber more. You’ve got to do something because you love it, and if you love it, you don’t care how long it takes to get there as long as you’re making money or you’re comfortable.”

Steve Larosiliere

Parting Words from the Wood Whisperer

“Work hard. You just touched on it. Really, it’s passion. Especially speaking from the content creation side of things, if your passion isn’t there, or if your passion is simply tied to numbers and money, it will dry up at some point. There’s a reason why 15, almost 16 years into this, I’m still really excited to see what I’m working on right now in the shop.

My favorite time is to be in the shop, and I refer to everything else I have to do for my business as work. But the woodworking, that’s not work. That’s the fun stuff, and I still love it. If I weren’t doing shows about this and making videos, I would still be trying to spend most of my spare time there because I’m passionate about it.

Today in the content world, you can get burnt out very easily just trying to keep up with what other people are doing. It’s ridiculous. So if you have that core passion there, and you don’t ever do too much to sacrifice that passion by becoming beholden to the content and the algorithms, the passion will always drive you. You’ll always have a reason to get up in the morning, get out there, make some great videos, and do some great woodworking while you’re at it.

I would say to just make sure you know what your passion is, that you follow it, not blindly, but with the knowledge that you may have to pivot, you may have to do things a little bit differently. But if you have that drive to make the thing you love to make at your core, you should be alright.”