This video is sponsored by Squarespace. I’m Jesper, and I’m just some guy living
with my family in Denmark. What I like the most about life here is the freedom. I never
set an alarm clock to wake me up. I don’t lock my car. My workshop is unlocked,
even though I probably should lock it, because I have been able to get a lot of
tools over the last 2 years. This is my story of how I got thrown into woodworking and
Youtube. It’s also how I got to be my own boss, how I got tools, friends all over the world, and
also more than 100.000 subscribers on Youtube. Back in 2019 I discovered an abandoned
horse barn on my property that I didn't use for anything. I think my wife was
pretty happy to get me out of the house, so she encouraged me to get the few tools I had
organized, so I, at the very least, could find them.
I was really a knucklehead, but I cleared
out the barn and started looking for my tools. I did spend some evenings out
there, but I wasn't too motivated. But then in late February 2020 something
happened. I can’t explain it better than I had an epiphany of inspiration that told me
to stop watching too much news and start going outside and doing something new. My day-job
also fell apart, and I really started to think about maybe I could use my hands to make a
living somehow.
I didn’t have any cash on hand because up till then I pretty much spent
all I had every month, which is really stupid. I had a stack of euro pallets, and I’d heard of
people using pallet wood, so I started to figure out how to take them apart. Some of my first
pallet wood projects were these boxed wine stands. After some experimentation with designs
I made four like this. I gave 2 away and sold 2 of them, and thought that was
it. Buy boy was I in for a surprise. I soon ran out of pallets, so I started
pulling over to stores that had pallets laying around, and asking them if I could
take it. That worked for a while, but I took my pallet hunting to new heights by contacting
local factories. Out of the five I contacted, two of them said I could come and grab as
many pallets as I wanted.
And one of them even had a lot of shipping boxes and other
wood, which basically built my workshop. One of the people that I gave a wine box holder,
had a party, and I started getting calls from those guests: They wanted one for themselves.
It turns out that a lot of people drink boxed wine in Denmark, and I started making a lot
of these. I still make batches of them today. I really just got crazy creative and spent most
days outside just making stuff from pallets. In the evenings I was watching other makers on
Youtube and trying to learn woodworking stuff. At some point I got the idea to try filming a
video myself, but I was also insecure about what I could bring to Youtube with all these great
makers already there.
Eventually I got the idea to make a garden table from one single pallet,
and I grabbed one of my kids Canon cameras and filmed the whole thing. That eventually became my
first, and not very good video on my new channel, but it was also the start of a new adventure,
and I felt a lot like Alice in Wonderland, before she got to Wonderland and was
just falling down the rabbit hole. All woodworkers need tools, and this upcoming
woodworker had no cash on hand, so he had to go and ask friends and family for their old tools.
I got an old miter saw and pillar drill. I found some hand tools at garage sales that I restored.
My dad even gifted me his old compressor and nail gun. I made work tables out of pallet wood and
plywood from shipping boxes, and even a weird vise in a workbench made from a cable reel. To be
honest I had no idea what I was doing at first, but I learned a lot every day just by doing
stuff and watching other makers on Youtube. In the beginning I saw pallets everywhere,
but then I also started to see logs and blown over trees everywhere, and I figured if I could
somehow mill those logs into slabs and lumber, there could be a business for me.
This
was heavily inspired by Matt Cremona, who literally mills up big logs in his backyard. I found a small sliding bandsaw for sale,
but didn’t have the cash to buy it. But I had a friend who really wanted to mill his own
lumber. So instead of paying a sawmill to do it, my friend and I chipped in and bought
our own sawmill.
I even paid my share with money I made from the future milling
of other people's logs. And let me tell you, with the high demand for slabs these days and
the über-high wood prices, I'm still making good money milling logs for clients. Plus, I
get to mill my own wood, so it's a win-win. Word must have spread locally that I'm some
sort of woodworking maniac, because I started to get calls from people wanting to give me wood.
Sometimes it's trees that fell in storms, other times it's old wood from demolitions.
And even a
whisky distillery offered me their old barrels. At this point I’m still just going crazy
with making stuff. I had this big poplar that needed to go down, so I figured, why now
do it the good, old fashion way: With an ax. It’s kind of also a picture
of my whole journey here, because my big win hasn't landed
yet, but I surely put in the work. Late in 2020 I had about 300 subscribers, but that
was about to change. I tried to learn woodworking and filming/editing for Youtube simultaneously
and also running a woodworking business. And social media like Instagram
and Youtube are great for showing your projects and getting clients,
but if you want to run a business, get your own website as early as possible. A
friend recommended Squarespace, and they were kind enough to sponsor this part of the video.
With Squarespace, I was able to quickly set up a professional-looking website using their
ready-to-go templates. I can sell my projects, I’m posting my blog there and I collect signups
for my email newsletter.
I also have pages that describe my different services, like log milling
and building custom furniture. And as a youtuber, it’s super easy to set up a merchandise shop
and start selling custom-designed gear right off my own website and YouTube channel using one
of the print-on-demand services they integrate with. If you want to give Squarespace a
try, head to squarespace.com/jespermakes to save 10% off your first purchase of a
website or domain using code jespermakes. So with my sawmill up and running I had more
types of wood than just pallet wood and cable reels. When people think of woodworking, they
think of an indoor shop with tools and dust collection. What if you don’t have space for
a shop or money to fill it up with expensive machinery? Some of my first woodworking tools
were these tenon cutters and some auger drill bits. I made a lot of woodworking projects
outside with these, my ax and a chainsaw.
It’s very easy to use a tenon cutter, and you can
easily attach legs to benches, stools and tables with it. I made these benches from a green
poplar log and treated it with wood burning. With all the pallet dismantling I had done
up till now, I had a considerable amount of pallet blocks just laying around, and I figured it
could be a good idea making something out of them. It turned out to be a really good idea later. And speaking about how far I am in my
woodworking journey. I really don’t know yet. I was just grinding away, making pallet
wood projects and milling up logs, and also starting to figure out what customers were
willing to pay good money for. I started going more into making tables, and one of those tables
happened to be the pallet blocks coffee table.
I recorded the making of it over the summer
of 2021, and I decided to put all I knew about editing at that point, into the video. I
uploaded it in October 2021. It didn’t get too much attention at first, but enough so I at
the end of the year could celebrate getting 1000 subscribers on my Youtube channel.
That also meant I got into the Youtube partner program, and started to earn
money from the views on my channel. I started to direct my making focus
to bigger and more unique pieces, for the simple reason that I thought they would
make more interesting videos, and also because they sell for a higher price than the small
pallet wood projects.
And I’m not gonna lie, hashing out a lot of small items is also a lot of
work. You need to sand and stain and sand in all the small cracks and corners. But there is also
more risk involved in making bigger projects. For bigger projects I needed a bigger
worktable, so I made one from recycled wood, and filmed it for a video. I was afraid
that no one wanted to watch yet another workbench youtube video build, so I really tried
to make a worktable that no one had seen before, and also on the video side I tried to include as
much story in the video as possible, and trying to include all the weird stuff going on in my
head in the video.
The video got an OK amount of attention when it was published in february
2022, probably my best performing video so far. But I still struggled with handling Youtube and
my woodworking business. Recording and editing videos takes time away from actual work
in the workshop. I enjoyed making videos, and I felt being on Youtube helped me get
approved by clients, but then I also needed cash to buy tools and pay expenses. So
I almost decided to stop making videos. But then in April 2022 the pallet blocks
video started taking off. I guess Youtube had figured out who to show the video to.
And those people apparently liked the video, because they also subscribed. And because
I linked the workbench video in the pallet blocks video, people started watching that one too I was expecting the views on Youtube to stop
any minute, any day, but I was suddenly at 10.000 subscribers, and Youtube
started paying monthly for those views. I continued with my strategy
of making bigger and more unique items and making videos of the ones where I
could see a good story in the video. Over the summer of 2022 I sold some big
projects to customers and together with Youtube money I was able to upgrade to
better tools.
I was also able to trade some work for tools in exchange, so my little
horse barn workshop and sawmill operation is looking better and better. And Youtube
just sent me this for passing 100.000 subscribers. I also got recognized by Rubio
Monocoat, who made me their ambassador in Denmark. What I really, really appreciate every
day, is that I wake up whenever I wake up, and then I make coffee, because coffee solves
everything, and then I decide if I should go straight to the workshop, or if I should start
the day doing some editing on a video. I pretty much decide what I want to build in the workshop
for clients, or around the house for my wife. I like to work a lot, but I’m rarely stressed
out. I really like chatting with other makers Jasper. What is that? Some species of tree? Jesper Makes? Naaa, doesn't ring a bell. I thought you were the danish pallet viking… Interesting guy. Danish… Apparently I’m not that famous yet. So the big tree here. It took me all day to
ax ⅔ through it, and then it got dark and I had to stop.
And that night a storm came and
took the tree down – in the wrong direction. May I suggest checking the
weather forecast before you start cutting down trees with axes
or drilling down trees with drills? Come on James, I would never try to take
down a tree with a drill, you know that. Can you drill down a tree with a drill? There’s only one way to figure it out.