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We cover topics on healing, health, happiness, growing wealth and living wise in a world that often sabotages you.
Hi, Everybody. We're at 2B Glass in Cameron Park, California.
California is number one rated glass blowing studio.
And they let us come and get some footage of all this fun stuff
they're doing. Making pumpkins. And it's fall. I'm wearing orange because
it's my favorite color. So I am uber excited to be here.
Erika and I even drove through rainstorms through the mountain to get
here today with some accidents. It actually was kind of rough. So
I can't wait to show you guys. Come on in and. And let's look and
see what they're doing. All right. So Zane's gonna gather up some
molten glass out of this furnace. This holds 1,000
pounds of molten clear glass when it's totally full. And so
that's at 2,100 degrees. And so he just took what's called
a gather. Now he's pipe cooling it. Cause the pipe does get a little bit
hot as the furnace gets low. And so that glass that he has on the
end is actually clear glass. Just looks
orange right now because it is 2,000 degrees.
He's gonna roll it in that color over there. And so the glass is so
hot that the color sticks to it. So we just got all those different colors
on there. This is a mix of colors. So there's like five different colors in
there. This is one of the ways that we can put color on the glass.
And that is called frit, which is crushed up chunks of
colored glass. So now Zane's gonna
come over here. He's gonna heat it all in in the glory hole.
And you guys will see that once it's all heated in
that it will all be one. Now it's kind of all melted in. It's no
longer sharp. He's gonna come over here to the table. He's gonna roll the
glass on the table. And then he's gonna. He's getting
ready to blow his bubble. This is glass blowing. Right?
So right now the piece of glass that he has is
totally solid. But he's about to change that. So he's waiting for the right
temperature. He's gonna blow really hard in the end. He's gonna catch the air in
there with his finger. The heat of the glass is air. If you guys watch
closely. And that happened pretty quickly. He just shot a bubble
all the way down to the very bottom. Now he's gonna hand it off to
Aaron. And Aaron is.
Aaron's gonna go ahead and sit down and he's going to
grab what's called the jacks. He's gonna create a little constriction. Right
off the edge of the pipe here. So eventually, we can get this pumpkin off
the end. Aaron also has his blow hose attached. So he's able to blow.
Zane's on the little mold here. We're making an organic pumpkin. And then
he's gonna set it down Inside of that mold. He's gonna blow
really hard, Kind of lift up. And then this will make the
shape of the organic pumpkin. Now Aaron's gonna sit down again.
And then he's gonna create a constriction. Right off the end of the pipe here.
And eventually, we have to get this pumpkin off the end. So he's
making a little constriction. Right off the end. And he's also
blowing a little bit. Now he's gonna light the hot torch. This is
3,000 degrees. He's gonna put a little hole in the bottom. And
he's gonna blow real nice and soft.
And then I'm gonna get ready for the stem.
And Aaron's gonna flare that open.
Same stem as last time, Aaron? Yep.
Okay. And then Aaron is gonna open that.
I'm going in my color here. For the stem, which is just one
color. And it's a little bit finer. I have to do
two rolls. Okay. I'm still gonna hit this off.
And then I'm coming over here. To get this hit off. So
Tate can put on the stem.
And Tate's kind of just kind of what I just
similarly did. But he's gonna go in a different type of mold. So all of
our stems have texture on them. And then he's gonna
run over here. And he's gonna try to basically do this as fast as he
can. Cause as soon as he comes out of the heat, he only has about
30 seconds. Before the stem will turn solid. So he's
gonna push down, pull up. Then
he's gonna do our coiled stem. So it's like, our stem that's kind of, like,
floating in the air. These ones are kind of harder. Cause
you have to kind of nail your temperature correctly. Is this.
Do a couple curls. And then it's
just going to kind of make it float in the air.
He's going to try to cut it off, hopefully with a couple curls left.
He's gonna torch this last little bit. You might not
believe us, but, like. That pumpkin's still at, like, thousand twelve hundred
degrees. Even though it doesn't look like it. Like, the torch that Tate's using right
now, that torch is burning at, like, around 3,000 degrees.
So he's just going to make sure. Everything's nice. And seated down nicely. And then
he's gonna run this in the annealer. And the annealer sits at
915 degrees. And that's pumpkin.
So now what's going on right now, Aaron, we have. Our timing
has to be perfect. That's why I'm looking at him. He's looking at me. We
know exactly where we are. Aaron's pumpkin can't be too
cold or too hot, right? If it's too hot,
this is gonna deform in our. Our shape will be ruined
if it's too cold. Just what I said before. The whole thing's gonna
explode. So it's like, right as he knocks that off, I gotta come over here.
Cause we're on a limited time clock. The heated plate that I'm on
Buys us a little bit more time. You guys can see how hot and gooey
the glass is. I get one chance to do this. So I'm going for
the stem. If I mess this up, it is totally messed up. Gonna grab my
stick. I'm waiting for the right temperature. I'm gonna wrap this around. You can see
I'm going pretty quickly. The glass is starting to set up. This is probably the
hardest color. And it's a mini pumpkin, which also makes
it harder because it's so small. These are actually harder to
make. Than the bigger pumpkin stems. So you can see that's rock hard.
That is no longer moving. No longer moving. Now this
glass is cold right here. When I go to break it, you'll see it's actually
going to break. Like, it's broken. I didn't cut through
it. I'm going to go ahead and blow that off a little bit.
Make sure there's no little shards or anything like that on there.
Just going to take my oxygen propane torch here. And
I'm going to torch in that sharp part.
Now, this is 3,000 degrees. And then I am
going to make sure. That my stem. Is really nice. And seated
to our pumpkin. And then this pumpkin will
get loaded. Away in the kiln. We won't see the true color until
tomorrow. And that's how glassbone works. This pumpkin is still
above 800 degrees. You can see we got a whole bunch of pumpkins
in the kiln here today. We're at the end of our workday. So Tate
was telling me about the mold here. That they had it designed from
scratch. We have different sizes. So, like, this is the small
one. And then we also have a Big one. And then we
even have one that's bigger than this. But what makes it so cool is that
this opens from the top, and then it opens. So it's, like, kind of
complex. And so the pumpkin, this has an undercut,
so you wouldn't be able to get out of it. So there's no one else
that has a mold like this. We had this custom built
and designed for us to our specs.
And so this was, like, three years in the making. And then this is
a bigger one. So we can make a giant pumpkin. This is all, like, machine
cut on a plasma table. A bunch of fancy
math. And then also why it's hard. It has to be able to open and
close. It has to be able to lift up so you can get out of
there. But the other hard part is these lines have to have
to line up perfectly, because if these are off at all,
you'll be able to see in the pumpkin, and they won't have the perfect
ridges. So the pumpkins that you get from us that are organic
lined pumpkins, no one else in the world has, we had these custom made
for us. So here you go. Aaron's gonna come on in here. He's gonna stick
the glass in there. I'm gonna close it around it. I'm gonna press down. Aaron's
blowing, and then he's gonna pull up. You can see the glass is expanding
inside of there. And then when he taps his foot, that means he wants open.
And then I have to lift up so he's able to get out that undercut
on the top. And so then you see the difference between
the pumpkins we were just making. This is the same color as before,
but it's a totally different look of the ridges. This is a more
organic shape of the pumpkin. Right.
Just people running around the whole time. So you kind of learn to have. A
be very careful with everything. Yeah.
So you guys make this so you can put a tea light in it. I
saw that from your website. That's so cool. All right. That's
kind of like, you know, we didn't invent the glass pumpkin. So it's like kind
of our take on it, and we like to kind of make things useful.
Right now you can get them that light up.
So all of ours have a hole in the bottom for tea light or rope
lights. You got your little tapper bat. Is that what you call that thing?
Yeah, it's the break off bat. The funny part is you can't tell anymore.
But this is actually Tate's old like
10 year old baseball trophy. Oh, that's so funny.
You used to be able to see like the names and stuff ingrained in it.
But it's been many, many years now. I'm sure you've used your
trophy bat more than anyone probably ever in the world.
Yeah, he's waiting for a bubble or. See
this is the same color but it looks a lot different in this style of
pumpkin. So why we like the organic mold is like
the same colors kind of do like they
just look different. They blow out different. So it's like some colors
look better in this style of pumpkin, some colors look better in the other style
of pumpkin. So it's just more variance.
But I personally like the look of these ones better.
So go ahead and torch that in.
There is a organic lucid caramel
pumpkin.
The caramel ones are awfully cute. Yeah, they're could
be a fun name too, right? Yes.
Like a pumpkin spice. That's right. Pumpkin spice.
Pumpkin. Yeah. Ash who owns part of the business
too, does a lot of the naming. But it's total skill
to name the pumpkins.
Which ones are harder to make, Aaron? These ones are the round ones.
Probably the round ones. I don't know.
Ask Zane. He'd be more. Which
pumpkin's harder to make, Zane? The round one or the organic?
Really? This one?
Round. He says round is harder to make. Is it just
harder to get it like completely round? And then this is like this one's
more forgiving. Is that or what do you think? Well, it's this one is.
Since we have that mold, it's like you're blowing the finished
shape. Oh, I see. So it's like the other one. It's like we have to
make the shape. That's what I was gonna say. Oh, gotcha.
But it's like, it's also
like we always like to say everything glass belongs extremely hard until it becomes easy.
So it's like, you know, I've made tens of thousands of
pumpkins now, so that's why I asked. Zane is like I'm biased. I don't.
Doesn't matter me now. Yeah, I've done so many. Put in your 10,000
hours. Yeah. So I did a speech this week and I'm like 10,000 hours of
mastery. You know, just 10,000 hours of mastery. Whatever you're doing.
And then he just said 10,000 hours. Just like as
if I asked him to say that. Yeah, we're way,
way over 10,000 hours. I bet you are. Yeah.
Yeah. We tried to do the math.
Well, we haven't done one today. When we worked in the
factory, there's. A move that you can do where. You smear the color over a
bubble. It's called an overlay. And it's like Aaron did that
job for like two or three years
and it's like he made 120 to 150 a day. I just
put color on full time, two years. So it's like just
like, just in that one move. It's like 10,000 reps or something.
It was like nuts. It's way more than that. You think it's more.
I think it was like 30 something thousand times or something. So what's
different from what you guys do here versus the factory?
Our quality is a lot higher. Is that a bad
question? No, you can ask that. It's
a different product. It's a different product. Okay.
So it's like in the scheme of things, everything is different because we're making something
different. Yeah. So it's like if we
started making cups, it's like some things would be similar, but
then like all of a sudden you're gonna be like, I've never seen this
before. This is way different because we're making something different. So are
pumpkins your guys' kind of the main thing all year long? That's what we're known
for the most. Well, what we're known for the most is pumpkins
and ornaments. We're known for the pumpkins the most because we do the
hand blown glass pumpkin patch. We have three this year. We had three big
events. We already had two. The one
coming up is next weekend. Not this weekend, but the week after. City of
Folsom, 12 artists, 6,000 pumpkins. And it's like a normal
pumpkin patch like you would go to when you were a kid. But they're all
just glass. So it's just like a glass pumpkin patch. So we're both. We're
known for that. So we've been doing that for seven years. We'll be the seventh
year. The one with the Folsom, the one we did this year
that's coming up at the city of Folsom will be the seventh year.
And that's just next weekend. Next weekend. Okay, so I saw your
ornaments. Are you guys. Have you guys started making ornaments too? Are you gonna wait
till after October? No, we already got thousands of
ornaments already. Thousands already done. Well, that's.
I did see some in there for sure. Yeah, we have some in there. But
we have. This year is our first year. We're trying to actually stay
organized and, like, have proper inventory of stuff.
So Tate will probably take you back there. We have boxes just full of, like,
this, like, you know, if we had pumpkins, we would have 30 of this pumpkin
sitting on the shelf. Right. But since it's pumpkin season, we don't really have much
inventory. Yeah, pumpkins
first. I get
so excited to decorate for fall, and it's all pumpkins and orange.
That's why I had to wear an orange shirt today. I had to wear orange
and black. You guys are also orange and black. So on
after accident, I was thematic. Little
bit. Totally on accident. Nice.
You have to start your. Your pumpkin collection. Look at the back of his
shirt here. It is like Mary's and same
colors. I did that. Right, so.
So we are going to sit down now with Tate and Ash and just ask
a few more questions. It was so fun to see you do all your work,
Tate in there in the studio. So I know you guys
have been building this together for a while now.
And Tate, I think you told us a little bit in there about how you
started out, you know, learning, started doing this when you're 17,
and then worked in a factory for a while and. And all
that, and then this came about. So how did
it start? I know you said you've only been here three years, right? In this
building? Two years. Two years in the building. Yeah. Okay, so it's
grown. How long is. How'd you come up with the name
2B Glass? It was like, our last name is Bezdek,
and it's like, oh, is it too. Is it two? Is it to be glass
or not to be glass? And like, we were young, and it was
just like all we were thinking about is glass and glass and
glass and that we should make, you know, something
like, we just want to make everything out of glass. Like, oh, let's make a
pot out of glass. Let's make all of our drinking out of glass. Let's make
all of our bowls out of glass. It's like. Like, everything should just made
out of glass. And it's like I'm not good at spelling
either. So it's like, you know, it's like, hopefully people remember
it. It's like, you know, making names is really hard. So it's like since the
number two, the letter B, glass. Like, to be glass. Like, you know,
you want to try to remember that to be or not. To be, but you're
going to be glass. That's right. Yeah, exactly. There's.
It's like, a lot of puns kind of in it as well. Right.
You guys have a great entrepreneur story. So, like,
in your words, like, how would you. How do you feel like you got here
from the start? I know it. I know kind of the basics of how it
started, but from the factory. Let's go from there. Like, from the
factory. And you decided to be like, I'm going to start it on my own.
How did that go? And you were. And you guys knew each other then, right?
That's where we met. So me and Ash met in the factory. Factory. She was
the buyer. I was the glass blower. And then
I swindled her with my charm. With
your charm and good looks and. That's right. It's a.
It's a beautiful, romantic story surrounded with glass.
That's right. Very much so, yeah. I think I
knew early on, very early on, that
I wanted to do my own business. And I like, even, like in high school,
I was like, I want to work for myself one day. I want to be
my own boss. I want to do what I want to do, how I want
to do it. And so we work in the factory, and we
learned a lot there, but we knew that once we got to
the highest level, which was called the trimmer, that
I wanted to learn everything that I could learn there because we only made one
product. And then once we were not allowed to leave until
we were at the top of the food chain, Got all the skills I needed
to learn there. And then from there, I was like. Okay,
well, now we did that. We kind of know how to blow glass. And then
it was more of like, we knew early on that we wanted to have a
business. And so I was like, okay, well, how do we do that?
Swindle me. That's how we do that.
Together. Get her on board. Crack the
whip. No, it was just like
I'm the Whip cracker, just to be clear. Yeah, she's
the boss and makes the boat float and go
forward in every thing. We're just the guys that blow glass in there. And I
have all the hair brain ideas.
It's not totally true, but we. You're a good
partnership is what I'm hearing. Yeah. Yeah. We all have different strengths,
and I think we really bring them out in each other. And
there's something about having a dynamic of three people. And maybe it would
be there if there was just two of us, too. Just somebody holding
you accountable and just saying, like, we're not giving up. Like, you're
tired today. I'm sorry. Too bad. Like, Get a coffee. So there's a
lot of, like, encouragement and. And just keeping it
going. And I think in the beginning that was really clear. I was looking
for my thing when we met. I knew
being a buyer wasn't my entire future. And
I had been looking for something art related my whole life. I tried
many, many mediums, and none of them just really
clicked. And. And then I met Tate and Aaron, and we
were working at the factory, and they would just say, when are you going to
quit your job and just Start working for 2B Glass? When are you going to
quit and just start doing our business? And then the conversation
just kind of, you know, they joke and say that, but then it would actually
be like, well, seriously, like, could you quit? We'll blow
glass and you can, like, get it going. And so
eventually we did initiate that. And I mean,
we were doing art shows before then. And, like, we worked
and we had. A did shows on the weekend. We were, like,
trying to figure it out. And so we slowly just, like,
you know, we just didn't go, like, from working in the factory. And then just
like, quitting it was like, we would mean Aaron would, like, spend all of
our breaks, all of our lunches, like, making. Figuring out and making our
own products. And then we would do shows. We had Etsy, we had a
website. And, like, so we were getting some sales and
some traction. And then that started to build and build and build. And then, like,
we were doing more shows. And then, like, I remember the first Christmas, like, we
put up, like, 15 ornaments or something. And it's like on
Etsy, and we sold, like, I don't know, 20 of them or something. Or 50,
maybe. Probably not 15 styles. Yeah, it
was like we were just. Like, oh, my God, like, how are we gonna
make these? Like, what's happening? And so we kind of like, saw. The end,
like, you know, that it was possible. And then in the
background, we were, like, built. We were building all the equipment, and we built our
first shop in my mom's backyard. And so
we kind of had all the pieces. We kind of knew all how it worked.
And we just would spend our time, like, building equipment, learning how it would
work. We became friends with the maintenance guy at the the factory. And
then it was just like a slow transition of like, okay, we're starting to sell
stuff. It's kind of happening. We have all the equipment. And then one day we
went home. We turned everything on, and it worked. And we were
like, all right, like, we officially have, like, a
studio. All the parts and pieces work like, it was nothing like the
scale that it was on now. It was very small.
Like, we, like, you know, we didn't have any money, so it was, like, very
rudimentary, like, very this stuff.
And then it was like, it all worked one day and we were like,
all right, like, we have a working studio. And then I was like, okay,
well. Like, let's sign up for some more. Shows and let's do a little bit
more. And then like, there was just like a turning point where, like, all right,
we're going all in. It was like, May was May
2018. April, like right into summer.
2018. 2018. Okay. And then we were like, all right, let's do it. I
quit in 2017. Like, September,
August, September. Got like, little things
ready to go as far as, like, the website, having a website,
having packaging, having a business card booth,
display type stuff. And then they still worked at the
factory, continued to make product on their breaks and on lunch and on
the weekends. You were allowed to make work at the factory
in your free time. And yeah, it really helped develop the
skills of the employees there to give them that free time to
really test out what they can and cannot do instead of having them do that
while they're trying to make product. So it was a win, win situation. And they.
They made work. And yeah, then they quit in April. And
we had a rainbow school bus, a mini rainbow school bus that we used
to do all of our art shows. So we would travel and
sleep in the school bus. And our
biggest year was 44 art shows. So we did
almost every weekend and
simultaneously put the shop together in Orangevale and did
the shows and. And then Covid hit and it was. Shows were
done and we weren't doing anything. So
that pivoted. We pivoted quickly, bought some camera
equipment, photographed a few lines of
work that we wanted to put on Etsy, learned how to take
pictures and how to be a photographer. Yeah, this
guy was there the whole time. Such a sweet dog and.
Yeah, such a sweet dog. So good. I'm like, just so
careful around all the glass and all the fire and.
Yeah, all the people coming in and out. Yeah, he used to love.
So, yeah, then we went online and stopped doing art shows and
Etsy really took off. So we were really successful
there and that really grounded us. And
even through Covid and everything, it was really successful. We just saw
more and more and more growth and yeah, it's kind of. The rest is history
from there. It's been a lot of the same.
But what has been different is we've
become more refined versions of ourselves
and more entrepreneurial, more efficient, more
resourceful. We know how to, you know,
work with overseas suppliers. We know how to.
We have a CPA now. We, we know what we want our future look like.
We have a year plan. It's not, you know, like, what are we going to
do next weekend? So yeah, it's a lot more
sophisticated now. And that's really, really
exciting and amazing because when you are just
in the swamp, the first couple of years of just trudging through
and every day you, you arrive at your email
with more notices of how you need to be doing it
differently from either the county or, or the city
or your CPA or a
customer. And you know, you really learn how to be a
business person by practicing it. And so that seems
like really good advice. Like you learn by doing it and yeah, you
can't see the five years down the road necessarily when you're just trying
to start. Yeah, you don't know what you don't know. Right, that expression.
And so it takes time. And I think, you know, some people might
grow up with a business background or business degrees or
family businesses that give them, you know, a little bit more of a
guide. But my degree is in international
studies and both Tate and Erin went right into glassblowing out of
high school. So none of us have business experience.
And so it was a lot of winging it and figuring it out as we
go. But I think all three of us are really
resourceful and you learn as you go. Yeah. And
Tate said he listens to the most of anyone on
Spotify. Self educated for sure. Business. Is that right?
Yeah, I'm in the top 1% of listeners for
business and tech, whatever that means.
I listened to a lot of stuff and I didn't think like when I was
younger that I'd like business. Like I always like didn't like it.
But then the more is that we did it and it like it just got
funner and funner and it's like always a problem to be solved and like I
really like problem solving and complex issues
and like long term like vision and
planning and so I like really excel at that stuff. So it's more
like it's just a big game. It's like game that if
you win you get to be more successful and like make more money
and like, you know, people love your stuff and you grow and your work becomes
better and it's like you become a better person. And I kind of think we
Think that, like, you know, to move forward in business too, you have to be
able to move forward, like, personally too, and you have to, like,
kind of work through your problems and issues. And so, like, to get to the
next level or move forward, it's like you also have to do a lot of
work on yourself. And so it's just like a great
full circle thing that it's like you have to, like, you know,
work on yourself, work on the business, and, like, everything has to, like, exist
together because you kind of are the business. Yeah. You're doing
negotiations, management, you know, people
skills, customer service skills, obviously, all of those things.
And when you start, when you're 17, you usually don't have
great. Any of that. No, no. Yeah,
it's been really. If you start, if you're 37 or older, you don't always.
Unless you don't know until you learn it. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah.
Yeah. So that's been fun. We both like to grow. We both like to learn,
so it's been really fun to just be challenged.
It's been stressful also, but it's been.
It's been really good too. It's understandable, for sure. Well, and you also get to
do something you really enjoy. Obviously, you started right. Right off the bat with
it, so. Yeah. Building a business from something you really enjoy, I imagine
is that's kind of like peak life stuff, you know? Yeah. That's what keeps you
going, you know, I know it's so cliche to say there's
an expression, right, that says you never work a day in your life if you're
doing something you love. Like, I think that's a little
stretched, but knowing that we love this,
I, you know, whenever I'm having hard days or really stress weeks,
we, you know, we recently had a hack hacking situation
into our banking account information. So that was very stressful.
And it, you know, it puts you in perspective. You stop and you
go, do I still want to keep doing this? Has this pushed me over my
limits? Or can I push through this challenge
and come out better in the end? And
so, yeah, there's a lot of stress, but that, that makes you try
harder and work harder. And then, you know, usually we're
proud of ourselves in the end. Sometimes we're like, could have
done that better. Just, we like to say,
you know, just 1% better every day.
It's like, you know, you have crappy days and you have good days, but it's
like, just work through it and then you just keep going and it's just like,
if you just keep doing it, like, you're gonna get better at it. So it's
just like, you know, we've made a lot of mistakes and a lot of mess
ups. And then it's like, okay, we're not gonna make that mistake again.
Like, add that one to the list moving forward. Like,
you just learn so much every time. So it's like you just don't know what
you don't know. And then you do it and you're like, ugh, let's not do
that one again. And then it's just, it's just like blowing glass. Blowing glass is
the same way. Yeah. Lots of practice. Lots of practice. So when you guys first
started, did you know you're gonna do pumpkin and ornaments? Is that the main
thing? Because those are the two main things you do, right? Yeah. Oh yeah.
We've been making pumpkins since like day one. Pumpkins for
sure. You. She really loves pumpkins.
Can I answer this question? Yeah, go for it. Yeah. I'm like, I want to
talk. I love pumpkins. It is October. Let's talk pumpkins.
Yeah. So originally we did everything.
We were wherever we could make money. If someone needed a vase fixed or
they had this crazy chandelier or that they one piece broke
and they needed something made, we would replace it. Custom jobs, all sorts
of stuff. We've done lighting, art installations, drink wear,
olive oil bottles, vases. We even did
memorial pieces as well.
And yeah, of course, ornaments and pumpkins and
seasonal stuff. I feel like I'm missing a lot. But we were all over the
gamut, the whole gamut. And, you
know, as the years passed, we realized you can't scale
that, you know, and so custom orders kind of got ticked off the list and
like, okay, that's just super time consuming. It's really hard to predict what
people want. Even when you're having thorough conversations, their
vision and your vision don't quite meet often.
It's very time consuming and
costly. So anyway, little by little, things came off the
table and we realized that this
kind of sounds cheesy, but we receive the
most amount of excitement and joy and enthusiasm
by selling pumpkins and ornaments. Like, people are just
over the moon for pumpkins. We do our pumpkin events.
We usually sell about 6,000 pumpkins a year at our hand
blown glass pumpkin patch. And I'm from the
Midwest, so the holiday, I'm from Michigan. The holidays are a big deal for
my family. My mom, her Instagram name is themarypumpkin.
You know, she's not involved with us at all, but that is her M.O.
and we used to have some really amazing Halloween parties and Christmas
parties in my family, so it's always been a big part for me. And so
when this business was kind of shifting that way, I was like, yes, yes. Like,
let's do this. Let's do this. Like, there's so much you can do with that.
And most people celebrate the holidays in some way,
and, you know, the pumpkins were super successful. So in the
end, it ended up being, how do we narrow our focus? We can't be all
over the map. That's not scalable. What do we love doing? What do the people
love? And it just kept pointing back to pumpkins and
ornaments. And so. And on top of that, pumpkins are, like,
not frowned upon in the glass community, but they're, like, the very uncool
thing to do. Yeah. So they're kind of, like, the underdog.
So everyone, like, kind of makes pumpkins, but no one ever puts any thought or,
like, takes them very seriously. And so, like, they'd rather make a
gossip. They would rather make, like, fancy glassblowing things like
rattachellos or in comos or some fancy whatever. I
don't even know what those are. Yeah. Technical point. That's the point.
Like, we're gonna serve the community, not the
glass community. So then that also Ashley liked him and had all
those things. And then, like, me and Aaron were like, like, let's do this.
Like, let's become the best at making pumpkins. And, like, we're gonna make work that
no one can do. We're gonna put in all the reps. We're gonna do different
stem styles that no one else has ever seen. We're gonna, like, be
melt beautiful glass, and we're just gonna, like, make custom
mold, custom shapes. Ash is, like, amazing at color, so we're just,
like, pushing the envelope now so it's like, you won't really see any
pumpkins out there that look like ours, because this is, like, what we've
spent the last, like, five years like, refining and
focus on of, like, this is what we do. Yeah. Oh, that's
amazing. So that's fun. Yeah. So it's the finer details that, you know, if you
really took the time to look at our work and do a comparison,
you can see how much precision
Tate and Aaron have with how the stem lays, how big
it is, proportions, the thickness of the
glass. We do the hole in the bottom so you can light each of
the pumpkins up. That's the signature thing we do, that's
very cool, too. Like, watching it being done is very, very
interesting. Yeah. Yeah. So they're very good
glassblowers now, very technically skilled, so
it's cool to see them be able to make whatever I say.
So you guys went viral with some videos and that affected your
business? This is from Tate and Xander have been friends
since a long time. Xander from a couple episodes ago. So just how I
found you. So that's really fun and cool to me because Xander's awesome and you
guys are awesome. So. What happened with that? Like,
how did that affect your business and what led up to it? Because you guys
are making videos, right? And you've been making videos for a while? No, not really.
Not really? No. I've been wanting to make videos for, like, the
last decade. Yes. I've been
like, I'm the guy that doesn't watch tv, that doesn't
do anything. The only thing that I watch is YouTube. And I just watch,
like, business stuff, woodworking,
whatever, people fixing cars. Like, just. That's all I watch is.
I don't know anything. Can't even tell you. I don't know any movies. I don't
know what's going on in the news. All I watch is, like, cool stuff on
YouTube. So I've always been like, man, we gotta make YouTube
channel. We gotta do YouTube. But, like, I don't know how to make videos. I
don't know how to edit. And also, like, I'm running a whole company and doing
a million other things. I don't really have time, right. To, like,
learn and figure this out and do everything as the
maker, you. Know, as a manufacturer. Yeah. And I
didn't have time. I'm wearing. Yeah. So we're all just stressed
trying to do it. Like, coming on the table, coming off the table,
coming on the table. Finally, he did it. Yeah. So then, like, enough.
Like, I'd done so much research, and I, like, this is like my
wheelhouse. Like, this is what I watch. I know everything that's going on.
And after seeing so many other people that
do more boring things that I do
and, like, be really successful, I'm like, man, I got, like, we gotta,
like, we gotta do it. And so then I just. Like,
we were in Costco, they had the little Pocket three camera in there. I'm like,
we're buying one. And I'm just like, for three months, I'm gonna post a video
every day. Don't care if it's sucks. Like, the first ones are
terrible. And so it's like, I just like, we're like. I told Aaron, he was
on board and was like. I was like, we're just gonna come out here. I'm
gonna grab the camera. We're gonna get mic'd up. Whatever we're doing for the day,
we try to make it cool. I'm just gonna take a couple shots. I'm gonna
come up right after work. I'm gonna stay late. I'm gonna, like, edit it up.
I don't know anything about anything. And I'm just gonna post a video every
day. I'm gonna try to do it for, like, three months
and then, like, relatively quickly. Well, I guess,
like, in the first. Two weeks, we had one that went viral,
but it was like. It was just music, and it was like 20 seconds, and
it was just me making a pumpkin stem. It got like, 20 million
views, but nothing happened. It was just, like. It was just cool. It was
just cool video that, like. No one buy anything. Like, nothing happened. I think we
got one order. Maybe it was two orders. And I was like, oh, my God.
Like, we got two orders. We got one order. Yeah, it was
cool. So I was just like, it was cool. And so. But then
from there, it was like, okay, like, we got two orders
for this one video, you know, got 22 million views.
Like, but it was like. It was just like a song of, like. It was
very rudimentary views and sales won't necessarily correlate.
Yeah. So then I was like, okay, well, we got like,
that's cool. And I was like, okay, we gotta keep it going. We gotta keep
it going. And then, like, we had some slow traction, and then we had, like,
a couple get some. We had a couple get some. And then
like, a month in, maybe a month and a half in, we had, like, three
videos all go viral within like a week or a week and a half. And
then from that point, it was just, like, nuts. Like,
wow. Just like. Was that just this year, too? Yeah, like, a couple
months ago. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. I think I said saw one. I'm sure
you did. Before I met Xander. I'm like, oh, my gosh, it's so cool.
It's just like, when I was in there, I'm like, oh, my gosh. It's so
cool. How much? I don't know what it is now, but a couple
days ago, there's one video that has over
111 million views. And it has, like,
hundreds of thousand comments on it. And some of those comments
individually have thousands and thousands comments on them.
It's absolutely nuts. And it also
exploded our Instagram and our Facebook page.
We had like 5,000 followers on Instagram and like a hundred
on Facebook and our. For, like years. For years. Seven years. I
mean. And I've been trying, like, you know, posting on Instagram, doing what they say,
like, you got to be posting consistently. Trying, trying so hard
to make time for that with everything else. And it was just such
a lost cause. And then our Instagram now has
218 or something thousand followers,
which, you know, isn't like millions, but to go from
5,000 followers in a couple months. So that was like. So we
have been getting orders and orders and orders, and it's been really amazing.
Normally, July and August are really dry for us as a business. There's
not, you know, we have our Mother's Day event. We have a second sale in
March, and the holidays and the pumpkin season
really support the rest of the year. So historically, July,
August have just been kind of. We catch up, we get sleep, we
prepare for. Yeah, we kind of get sleep. We, you
know, brainstorm and. But this year, it's just been absolutely nuts.
So it's. It's been really, really amazing. And I think we just.
Yeah, we struck a chord. I had watched enough YouTube video.
I've watched enough woodworking videos of like, people that
are makers and craftsmen like me. In every other category, there's
not a million, but a lot of people, like, for woodworking is like the best
example. It's like go on YouTube on woodworking. There's like a million people you could
watch that are all like, amazing woodworkers, and they make these amazing
videos. And you go on the glass bowl, and there's not a single person doing
it. And it's like, everyone loves Glassblowing. And it's
like, no, but no one explained explains what's going on. So that's the biggest thing.
So it's like, you know, just like you guys are gonna see in the video,
I kind of explain what's happening. And so that was kind of our focus. And
it's like, yeah, all those videos that got these millions and millions of view. It's
just me and Aaron in the studio. We don't have a camera guy. We don't
have a script. We don't have light. We have nothing. It's just me
holding a camera and a blowpipe. All right, Aaron, like, rig
this one up and like, I'm gonna one hand this one and I don't know,
say something cool and like, let's figure it out. And it's
me sitting down on the computer. I don't know anything about editing and. I'm just
like clipping them together, watching. YouTube videos, like trying to figure it out.
And I think we just struck a. Chord because it's like we're like. It's just,
it's real, it's authentic and it's just us in there working
and it's not this big operation and like. It's not
over produced. It's fun. And people like that, I think nowadays
like just seeing they do behind the scenes. Authenticity. Authenticity
is, is important to people. Yeah. And he's a goof. Like.
Well, he's a very good story. You guys both are very good storytellers if you
notice like this. I rarely ask a question because I don't have to. So
like just like you're telling this story. Such a good. No, it's just so
good. That's a. That's a compliment. Thank you.
That's good. Yeah. Relaying your story. Yeah,
it's been really fun and we got many more videos to come,
so stay tuned. Subscribe to @2BGlass. Check us out on
YouTube. We're gonna hit a million subscribers this year.
60 ornament videos coming up. You're not gonna want to miss
them. I love that. That seems like a good
place to end, doesn't it? I don't know how to get
better than that. So thank you guys so much. Appreciate your
time and I love your beautiful new space and thank you. Beautiful view
you have here. If it wasn't raining, I imagine it would be even more beautiful.
But we get some really great sunsets. I bet. I bet. But it's
nice and cool today and October. Thank you for your time
and I wish you guys all the best. I imagine you're going to get so
busy that when I ask to come up again, you're going to be like. I
don't know, just like. Don't expect us to talk, but you can come if you
want. We won't do that. No, no. I wish you
guys all the best. So that's amazing. Thank you. Thank you. It's been a
really fun and crazy wild journey. So
we're very passionate about it. Yeah. Can tell we're just
getting started. Just getting started. Yeah,
us too. At Healthy Happy Wise Wealthy. So also come see you at
the. Hand blown glass pumpkin patch, 48 Natoma street
in Folsom, California. 12 artists, 6,000 pumpkins,
live glass blend, free popcorn, free parking.
You definitely want to come check it out. It's like if you love pumpkins, you
love fall, you love glass. This is where you want to be.
October 11th and 12th. We'll be there Saturday
and Sunday 11th and 1210 to 5. 48
and Tome Street, Folsom, California.
Hand blown glass pumpkin patch. I think you got it.
You want to make one more Zane?
That's three of those. And then we're gonna
switch loose to caramel after that. Yeah, okay.
That one. I'm just not very happy with that one. Huh? That one's.
You're not happy with it? No, Aaron's not happy with that one. Stem
kind of. We're not stem. My shape kind of got funky.
All right, now we're just gonna like rip through like
whatever. We're gonna switch after this one. So after this one we'll. And then we'll
do a big curly stem. That'll be a little bit more fun. I'll try to
go get this orange tape.
One that I really like. Even though it's really hard, it's one. Of
the harder ones to make.
It's lucid caramel. That's what it's called,
lucid caramel. This is the 2021 Pumpkin of the Year Lucid
Caramel. And it's like four colors in one. The
same color. It's like iridescent. Yeah. It just
has a bunch of weird stuff. You'll see. Yeah,
you don't. You don't. Not until tomorrow.
Well, I mean we kind of do because like these are our products. But the
reason we're remaking this is this one struck too much in the kiln and them
want they weren't web quality so we got to redo them.
Right? Yeah. This one's unpredictable.
Like take and show you. They're still sitting over there.
What this looks like compared to what. It finishes out as sometimes is way
different. You start the next one, Zane.
No water break for you.
That looks good. Way better than yesterday.
Oh, come on.
Let's go.
So this will be our full curls curly stem.
One we were doing before was the coiled stem. This
one's.
Well yesterday. They all look clear and then they all turn brown.
It's just because that kiln dude glass. Is already setting
up. See it's starting to stiff up like. We did at the beginning.
Plate tubing on the hot top shelf on the left, right next to elements.
It's pretty good looking stem. And they ran smoke.
Yeah. So it's hard now. Right. It's not moving
anymore. Stick it in there. We
did those like blow off some. Of the shards
first thing. Now it's sharp right there where I cut it because it broke
off where the top selling from, you can see. And it kind of changes when
I hold it up.