Episode 028: Life Management

We want to thank our top Patrons, Tracy Alexander, Stu Morrison, Scott McWilliams, Elliot Trent, Michael Schuler, and Matt Kummell!  You too can support the show by purchasing a T-Shirt, donating, or become a monthly patron as well.  If you choose to become a patron you can get the show’s pre-release, or monthly group or individual hangout with us.

Thanks to Marshall Toy, Scott Haun, Sebastian Ollari, Justin Capogna, and Matt Cremona for your support on Patreon as well.

Check out the new page for the Bench Build-Off kicking off August 28th – September 18th.

What’s Going On In The Shop

Kyle –  Finished the 96th Vase, got the DisneyLand Commission for the trains, sold another piece from the Del Mar fair.,.

Sean – Glued up the headboard and applied a finish, worked on AC installation, and turned a small lidded box for his Daughter.

Brian – Remodeled his house and painted the hall table.

Main Topic – How to manage your woodworking extracurriculars.

Listener Questions, Email, and Comments

Guest Questions:

Eric Burke – Asks Kyle how to clean glue squeeze out from the inside of small boxes.  Follow Eric on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Email/Comments:

Adam Beasley – Hey fellas!  I love the show!

I actually tapped into the Rubino Woodworker’s & Website Resource Clinic a few months ago not even realizing you all had this Dusty Life empire going.  I sort of lucked into having Sean as a resource because of a mutual friend we have from back home.  With a ton of great advice, I’ve been able to launch a website, become extremely active on social media, buy a Go-Pro to video my work (a la Toth) and now have a growing list of commissions I’m happily struggling to keep up with.
So here’s my question, with all of this business coming my way, I’m obviously getting the itch to drop everything with my full-time job and pursue full-time custom woodworking.  Don’t worry, I’m not going to jump just yet.  But did you all experience an early surge of business for commissions and then have it taper off?  If so, how did you get through that?  What’s a reasonable amount of time to get consistent commissions before you realize this is sustainable?  I got a big break with a reception desk at a fitness studio (https://www.instagram.com/p/BGkblWYmgxA/?taken-by=lazyguydiy) and now I’ve got enough referral work be it residential or retail furniture to last me throughout the year.  I’d hate to start making long term plans and then find out I’m a short term success. What’s funny though is my priority was always the DIY website and then all the commission requests started coming in because of it.  Consider the priority scales tipped in favor of woodworking.
Thanks fellas!
Adam in the RVA
Instagram & Twitter:  @LazyGuyDIY
 iTunes Ratings

None…

If you have comments, questions, or suggested topics for future shows you can email us at contact@thedustylife.com.  Follow the show on Twitter and Instagram @thedustylife. You can support the show by purchasing a t-shirt, clicking the donate button for a one-time donation, or become a patron to help us keep this bus rolling.

Check out our individual websites (mccauleysdesign.com, woodbytoth.com, and seanrubino.com), social media platforms, and YouTube channels, subscribe, and spread the word to friends, family, and coworkers.

Also, consider subscribing to The Dusty Life Podcast through iTunes, Soundcloud, Google Play, or the click the RSS on our homepage at thedustylife.com and please leave us a rating as it helps climb the ever growing podcast charts.

Author: Spunjin

I am a woodworker, maker, and DIY enthusiast.

One thought on “Episode 028: Life Management”

  1. Good show guys, good to know I’m not the only one struggling with the work-life-woodworking (or my phone) balance.

    Question on your bench build.
    Is this meant to be start-to-finished within that time-line, or just finishing? I have been on-again-off-again working on a bench for a while, and could probably finish it up in that time frame.
    Thanks,

    Like

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

%d bloggers like this: