How We Became Hobby Farm Guys
Ever since I started a YouTube channel with two of my friends, there have been many surprises. I am surprised that as I write this, we have just reached 3,000 subscribers. I am surprised that we continued making videos after the first several months, as the work was more than what we expected, and the viewers almost nonexistent. But what surprises me most are the number of great questions our viewers ask in the comments section. Oddly enough, many of them want to know how we became the Hobby Farm Guys.
The beginnings of the Hobby Farm Guys are a difficult story to tell, because I’m quite shocked it actually happened. That’s because Eric, Steve and I all have plenty of experience sitting around and coming up with great ideas, but we don’t often see these ideas come to fruition. Certainly not one involving three middle aged men with no experience making videos starting a YouTube channel.
Looking back, Steve and I probably began what would eventually become the Hobby Farm Guys about 10 years ago, when we worked as technical training instructors and shared an office. We would routinely spend much of our lunch break talking about hobby farming topics. Steve was already well established in the avocation, while I had some experience and many ideas. Several years later I bought some land, started keeping bees and starting a flock of chickens, and the conversations became even more frequent.
About four years ago Eric joined our little training department…and eventually the farming talk. His interest in some aspects of hobby farming, along with his curious questions, made our midday conversations even livelier. Before long, our coworkers started to joke that we should have our own farming-themed talk show.
Was it those jokes that pushed us to take the leap? Was it because our experience teaching meant we enjoyed sharing knowledge? Did our interest in social media, particularly YouTube play a role? Or was it just vanity coupled with winter boredom that inspired us to start? I suspect it was likely a combination of all these factors.
Whatever our motivation, the three of us decided to give YouTube a shot and started discussing what direction we wanted to take with our channel. One thing was certain: we wanted to be informative. Beyond that the ideas seemed endless. For a few months, talk of how our videos would be made replaced much of the actual hobby farm talk. Eventually, the limited amount of time and video making know how would drive the format we would take with the videos. After making a couple of test videos (which I hope no one ever sees), we decided to get started.
We took a couple of months to plan out our first five videos, and we decided to film them all in a couple of days, to have them ready to go before we uploaded anything. Finally, we picked our start date and our first video aired January 30th, 2020. I was in Florida on launch day getting ready to leave on a cruise, so my focus was on relaxation instead of the Hobby Farm Guys that day. It was just as well. A week later when I returned, there were only a handful of people who had seen our first effort. Mostly friends and family I assume.
Before the last of those five videos would air, we had learned just how much work it is to make a video. We started learning a little bit here and there and kept at it even when things seemed futile. But we really enjoy making our videos, and hopefully we will enjoy all the other things we have planned just as much. Of course, we hope you will all join us for those adventures too.