How we made a SMALL FORTUNE on YouTube $$ // paul brodie's shop

hi I'm Paul bro we're in my shop Mitch behind the cameras welcome today we're going to do something a little different I'm going to talk about how I got here how the channels started how the channel operates and how we made a small fortune my life has not been a a straight line it's convoluted it weaves and I'm going to pick spots that I'm going to talk about 1967 I was 12 years old and the mini bike craze hit it hit hard lots of kids in my neighborhood anyway had a minibike I wanted one really bad a bonanza mini bike was $149 that I did not have I knew my father was not going to buy me one so I decided that I would make one and so over the course of the next I think it was almost a year I did make one I did have some help but I was 12 years old that's when it started I've been making things out of metal for 57 years in 1986 after working for Rocky Mountain for a couple years as the as their frame Builder I started Brody bikes it was in a house that I owned with my sister at the time it was off of Fraser Street East Vancouver I extended the house and the workshop was under the Sund deck and that's where Brody bikes had its Origins I was making making frames that had sloping top tubes and that was unusual at the time because most bikes had horizontal top tubes and there was some people out there like the Cove Bike Shop who was really known for being the hardcore Riders of that of that era and they would say things like how do you carry it it looks like a girls bike I had a customer back then who who bought a frame it was Brent Martin we became friends and he wanted to go racing so I sold him a frame and he started racing and he started winning that was 1986 in August of 1986 there was the Canadian championships at Mount Seymour close to the Deep Cove Bike Shop and so Brent as you see in the photo he had an injured wrist and he wasn't very confident about his chances in that race but he won all the people who talked about a girl's bike and that they all had to shut their mouths and that's how the bikes got launched so that was Brent Martin and he comes back into the story later in 2001 after being in the bicycle business for 15 years I sold the last half of my my name didn't sell the company really but I sold my name that was the only thing that seemed to have some value I sold the I sold the first half in 1997 so there was a gap of four years in in 2001 I was also road racing my air macki and and because the bicycle business had gone down for handbuilt frames I was working on antique motorcycles and I thought that my life was kind of going in a straight line in 2005 I started the excelsia project and I made these these these bikes and there's none in existence that we know of I made six I sold four I have one for sale now in 2009 I was working in my shop on these bikes and I thought about my frame jigs upstairs in the office I hadn't used these jigs for five years and so I thought you know if I sold them I could probably get $88,000 and I could buy myself a new a new tri's bike so sort of on a whim I took some photos put an ad on Craigslist and to my surprise within in in 12 hours I had an email from Sweden and from and from Switzerland so so Craigslist is not local if you think it is it's not anyway The Jig jigs didn't sell over there but a few weeks later they did sell locally and the person who bought the the jigs was Brent Martin the same young the same man not so young anymore but he he he won the 86 Championship on a Brody and helped to launch it so so Brent is not a frame Builder he's he was actually and was for quite a number of years in the eyeglass business but he said to me you should teach frame building and I thought frame frame building that was not on my radar at all I was working on on antique motorcycles but anyway I decided okay well maybe I should think about that so long story short I ended up teaching frame building at the University of the Fraser Valley in the Fraser Valley and the first class was in September of 200 10 so I taught and I I I like that a lot and so in 2019 I was teaching class and I had a student there and his name was Mitch it's the same Mitch that's behind the camera now and so he made a frame and at the time I was also making a frame and so I found out that we actually lived pretty close like 5 minutes away and so I suggested why don't we go for a ride and that's what happened he got his bike finished a friend of mine Eve he happened to phone I think the evening before we went on the ride and he basically invited himself and so the three of us would go every Friday rain or shine didn't matter hot cold we would go out there and we became known as The Three Amigos and on these rides Mitch was youngest he was the fastest he was always ahead and I'd come down the trail and there was Mitch he's got his phone out and he's making a video and then after the ride he would send us these us these these short uh clips and so that was pretty cool I knew that he liked to film and out at the school there was some changes happening my boss who had had since all those years nine years he was leaving he turned 65 his name was Ralph and him and I got along well and I got a new boss I got his boss and his name was David and I didn't like David and other people didn't like David and in the fall of 2019 we had a meeting it was me and David and an assistant and he had paper and he he didn't have a calculator but he was talking numbers and he was writing and doing math in his head and putting numbers down and he was telling me that we weren't making any money in the course and that we needed to raise the price I also told them that I would like to teach frame building for five more years and he says fine so he does these numbers and I'm thinking what the heck is going on here and then he tells me that okay we have to raise the price from 3,000 for twoe cost to 5,000 that's a 66% increase and I said I said really I said that's a lot of money because often if a student takes the course they have to fly in from another country that was quite common rent a hotel room maybe rent a car pay for meals it really adds up and so to put the cost from three to five that was a lot and I said really do you think that's going to work and so he says as if it solves everything well you're Paul Brody and I just thought holy crap anyway that was in the fall and so we were still riding and then uh um watching on the on the website for the University how many people have signed up and nobody signs up and now it's March and covid hit and of course so that was basically the end of of frame building one 101 at this time after after it ended someone said to me you should do YouTube and it was kind of in the back of my mind but I couldn't think of who who who had said that so I I was talking with Mitch and I said you know Mitch someone said that I should do YouTube and he says that was me that was me I was like H don't know how I didn't think of Mitch there anyway so that's how it started so April 4th in 2020 we did our first our first video I had no microphone there was no lights Mitch basically took out his iPhone and followed me around the shop while I did things and that's how it all started I knew that I never wanted to film myself I see those videos on YouTube and the heads half cut off or whatever so I knew I always wanted someone who would be a filmmaker that's Mitch and right from the start we did a 50/50 split I knew that maybe I could ask for a bit more at first but that was the best for long term and how it works here is that usually on a Tuesday morning doesn't have to be mitt shows up at 9:30 and it's basically what are we doing it's my responsibility to to create something whatever it is and sometimes that's easy and sometimes it's not so easy so that's that is my role so what I do i' I got to figure out a subject maybe I make a drawing I buy metal I buy Fasteners I organize my shop I get ready that that takes a a certain amount of energy and then uh basically we get paid from YouTube we get three different income we get income from the ads when you buy merchandise we get a small cut and when you buy us coffee we get income from that too I did my taxes last month it's that time of year so I know exactly how much we made for last year and basically I got 12 Grand and Mitch got 12 Grand that is what we made off those three sources of of Revenue and so that's $11,000 a month and four episodes that's $250 for each episode now if we lived in a third world country that would be a small fortune but we live up here in North America in in Canada and that money goes pretty quick because out of that 250 I have to pay shop expenses and buy metal fasteners whatever is needed for the video and so there's not a whole lot left over so if you buy us coffee that helps a lot maybe even more than you knew so that's how you can help Mitch and I like coffees thank you for watching have a great day

Channel: paul brodie

Views: 26,676

Keywords: headtube, jig, fixture, alignment, frame building, framebuilding, steel, tig welding, tig, welding, lathe, metal work, metalwork, mill, filing, bicycle, custom, sunnen hone, honing, oxyacetylne, oxy-acetylene, surface table, brazing, rod, nickle silver, band saw, intake, manifold, inlet, aluminum, turning, grinder, grinding, belt sander, shop, motorcycle, triumph, tiger cub, vintage

Id: kI27jCVJoLo

Length: 12min 20sec (740 seconds)

Published: Sat May 18 2024