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From Factory Floor to Viral Fame: The 2B Glass Pumpkin Revolution · Healthy Happy Wise Wealthy

• 0:00
  Hi, Everybody. We're at 2B Glass in Cameron Park, California.
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  California is number one rated glass blowing studio.
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  And they let us come and get some footage of all this fun stuff
• 0:11
  they're doing. Making pumpkins. And it's fall. I'm wearing orange because
• 0:14
  it's my favorite color. So I am uber excited to be here.
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  Erika and I even drove through rainstorms through the mountain to get
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  here today with some accidents. It actually was kind of rough. So
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  I can't wait to show you guys. Come on in and. And let's look and
• 0:29
  see what they're doing. All right. So Zane's gonna gather up some
• 0:33
  molten glass out of this furnace. This holds 1,000
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  pounds of molten clear glass when it's totally full. And so
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  that's at 2,100 degrees. And so he just took what's called
• 0:44
  a gather. Now he's pipe cooling it. Cause the pipe does get a little bit
• 0:48
  hot as the furnace gets low. And so that glass that he has on the
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  end is actually clear glass. Just looks
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  orange right now because it is 2,000 degrees.
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  He's gonna roll it in that color over there. And so the glass is so
• 1:02
  hot that the color sticks to it. So we just got all those different colors
• 1:06
  on there. This is a mix of colors. So there's like five different colors in
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  there. This is one of the ways that we can put color on the glass.
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  And that is called frit, which is crushed up chunks of
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  colored glass. So now Zane's gonna
• 1:20
  come over here. He's gonna heat it all in in the glory hole.
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  And you guys will see that once it's all heated in
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  that it will all be one. Now it's kind of all melted in. It's no
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  longer sharp. He's gonna come over here to the table. He's gonna roll the
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  glass on the table. And then he's gonna. He's getting
• 1:38
  ready to blow his bubble. This is glass blowing. Right?
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  So right now the piece of glass that he has is
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  totally solid. But he's about to change that. So he's waiting for the right
• 1:49
  temperature. He's gonna blow really hard in the end. He's gonna catch the air in
• 1:52
  there with his finger. The heat of the glass is air. If you guys watch
• 1:56
  closely. And that happened pretty quickly. He just shot a bubble
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  all the way down to the very bottom. Now he's gonna hand it off to
• 2:03
  Aaron. And Aaron is.
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  Aaron's gonna go ahead and sit down and he's going to
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  grab what's called the jacks. He's gonna create a little constriction. Right
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  off the edge of the pipe here. So eventually, we can get this pumpkin off
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  the end. Aaron also has his blow hose attached. So he's able to blow.
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  Zane's on the little mold here. We're making an organic pumpkin. And then
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  he's gonna set it down Inside of that mold. He's gonna blow
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  really hard, Kind of lift up. And then this will make the
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  shape of the organic pumpkin. Now Aaron's gonna sit down again.
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  And then he's gonna create a constriction. Right off the end of the pipe here.
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  And eventually, we have to get this pumpkin off the end. So he's
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  making a little constriction. Right off the end. And he's also
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  blowing a little bit. Now he's gonna light the hot torch. This is
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  3,000 degrees. He's gonna put a little hole in the bottom. And
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  he's gonna blow real nice and soft.
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  And then I'm gonna get ready for the stem.
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  And Aaron's gonna flare that open.
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  Same stem as last time, Aaron? Yep.
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  Okay. And then Aaron is gonna open that.
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  I'm going in my color here. For the stem, which is just one
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  color. And it's a little bit finer. I have to do
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  two rolls. Okay. I'm still gonna hit this off.
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  And then I'm coming over here. To get this hit off. So
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  Tate can put on the stem.
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  And Tate's kind of just kind of what I just
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  similarly did. But he's gonna go in a different type of mold. So all of
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  our stems have texture on them. And then he's gonna
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  run over here. And he's gonna try to basically do this as fast as he
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  can. Cause as soon as he comes out of the heat, he only has about
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  30 seconds. Before the stem will turn solid. So he's
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  gonna push down, pull up. Then
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  he's gonna do our coiled stem. So it's like, our stem that's kind of, like,
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  floating in the air. These ones are kind of harder. Cause
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  you have to kind of nail your temperature correctly. Is this.
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  Do a couple curls. And then it's
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  just going to kind of make it float in the air.
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  He's going to try to cut it off, hopefully with a couple curls left.
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  He's gonna torch this last little bit. You might not
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  believe us, but, like. That pumpkin's still at, like, thousand twelve hundred
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  degrees. Even though it doesn't look like it. Like, the torch that Tate's using right
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  now, that torch is burning at, like, around 3,000 degrees.
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  So he's just going to make sure. Everything's nice. And seated down nicely. And then
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  he's gonna run this in the annealer. And the annealer sits at
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  915 degrees. And that's pumpkin.
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  So now what's going on right now, Aaron, we have. Our timing
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  has to be perfect. That's why I'm looking at him. He's looking at me. We
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  know exactly where we are. Aaron's pumpkin can't be too
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  cold or too hot, right? If it's too hot,
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  this is gonna deform in our. Our shape will be ruined
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  if it's too cold. Just what I said before. The whole thing's gonna
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  explode. So it's like, right as he knocks that off, I gotta come over here.
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  Cause we're on a limited time clock. The heated plate that I'm on
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  Buys us a little bit more time. You guys can see how hot and gooey
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  the glass is. I get one chance to do this. So I'm going for
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  the stem. If I mess this up, it is totally messed up. Gonna grab my
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  stick. I'm waiting for the right temperature. I'm gonna wrap this around. You can see
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  I'm going pretty quickly. The glass is starting to set up. This is probably the
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  hardest color. And it's a mini pumpkin, which also makes
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  it harder because it's so small. These are actually harder to
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  make. Than the bigger pumpkin stems. So you can see that's rock hard.
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  That is no longer moving. No longer moving. Now this
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  glass is cold right here. When I go to break it, you'll see it's actually
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  going to break. Like, it's broken. I didn't cut through
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  it. I'm going to go ahead and blow that off a little bit.
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  Make sure there's no little shards or anything like that on there.
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  Just going to take my oxygen propane torch here. And
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  I'm going to torch in that sharp part.
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  Now, this is 3,000 degrees. And then I am
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  going to make sure. That my stem. Is really nice. And seated
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  to our pumpkin. And then this pumpkin will
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  get loaded. Away in the kiln. We won't see the true color until
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  tomorrow. And that's how glassbone works. This pumpkin is still
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  above 800 degrees. You can see we got a whole bunch of pumpkins
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  in the kiln here today. We're at the end of our workday. So Tate
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  was telling me about the mold here. That they had it designed from
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  scratch. We have different sizes. So, like, this is the small
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  one. And then we also have a Big one. And then we
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  even have one that's bigger than this. But what makes it so cool is that
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  this opens from the top, and then it opens. So it's, like, kind of
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  complex. And so the pumpkin, this has an undercut,
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  so you wouldn't be able to get out of it. So there's no one else
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  that has a mold like this. We had this custom built
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  and designed for us to our specs.
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  And so this was, like, three years in the making. And then this is
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  a bigger one. So we can make a giant pumpkin. This is all, like, machine
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  cut on a plasma table. A bunch of fancy
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  math. And then also why it's hard. It has to be able to open and
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  close. It has to be able to lift up so you can get out of
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  there. But the other hard part is these lines have to have
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  to line up perfectly, because if these are off at all,
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  you'll be able to see in the pumpkin, and they won't have the perfect
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  ridges. So the pumpkins that you get from us that are organic
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  lined pumpkins, no one else in the world has, we had these custom made
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  for us. So here you go. Aaron's gonna come on in here. He's gonna stick
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  the glass in there. I'm gonna close it around it. I'm gonna press down. Aaron's
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  blowing, and then he's gonna pull up. You can see the glass is expanding
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  inside of there. And then when he taps his foot, that means he wants open.
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  And then I have to lift up so he's able to get out that undercut
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  on the top. And so then you see the difference between
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  the pumpkins we were just making. This is the same color as before,
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  but it's a totally different look of the ridges. This is a more
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  organic shape of the pumpkin. Right.
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  Just people running around the whole time. So you kind of learn to have. A
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  be very careful with everything. Yeah.
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  So you guys make this so you can put a tea light in it. I
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  saw that from your website. That's so cool. All right. That's
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  kind of like, you know, we didn't invent the glass pumpkin. So it's like kind
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  of our take on it, and we like to kind of make things useful.
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  Right now you can get them that light up.
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  So all of ours have a hole in the bottom for tea light or rope
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  lights. You got your little tapper bat. Is that what you call that thing?
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  Yeah, it's the break off bat. The funny part is you can't tell anymore.
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  But this is actually Tate's old like
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  10 year old baseball trophy. Oh, that's so funny.
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  You used to be able to see like the names and stuff ingrained in it.
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  But it's been many, many years now. I'm sure you've used your
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  trophy bat more than anyone probably ever in the world.
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  Yeah, he's waiting for a bubble or. See
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  this is the same color but it looks a lot different in this style of
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  pumpkin. So why we like the organic mold is like
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  the same colors kind of do like they
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  just look different. They blow out different. So it's like some colors
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  look better in this style of pumpkin, some colors look better in the other style
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  of pumpkin. So it's just more variance.
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  But I personally like the look of these ones better.
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  So go ahead and torch that in.
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  There is a organic lucid caramel
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  pumpkin.
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  The caramel ones are awfully cute. Yeah, they're could
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  be a fun name too, right? Yes.
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  Like a pumpkin spice. That's right. Pumpkin spice.
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  Pumpkin. Yeah. Ash who owns part of the business
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  too, does a lot of the naming. But it's total skill
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  to name the pumpkins.
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  Which ones are harder to make, Aaron? These ones are the round ones.
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  Probably the round ones. I don't know.
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  Ask Zane. He'd be more. Which
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  pumpkin's harder to make, Zane? The round one or the organic?
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  Really? This one?
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  Round. He says round is harder to make. Is it just
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  harder to get it like completely round? And then this is like this one's
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  more forgiving. Is that or what do you think? Well, it's this one is.
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  Since we have that mold, it's like you're blowing the finished
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  shape. Oh, I see. So it's like the other one. It's like we have to
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  make the shape. That's what I was gonna say. Oh, gotcha.
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  But it's like, it's also
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  like we always like to say everything glass belongs extremely hard until it becomes easy.
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  So it's like, you know, I've made tens of thousands of
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  pumpkins now, so that's why I asked. Zane is like I'm biased. I don't.
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  Doesn't matter me now. Yeah, I've done so many. Put in your 10,000
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  hours. Yeah. So I did a speech this week and I'm like 10,000 hours of
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  mastery. You know, just 10,000 hours of mastery. Whatever you're doing.
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  And then he just said 10,000 hours. Just like as
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  if I asked him to say that. Yeah, we're way,
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  way over 10,000 hours. I bet you are. Yeah.
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  Yeah. We tried to do the math.
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  Well, we haven't done one today. When we worked in the
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  factory, there's. A move that you can do where. You smear the color over a
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  bubble. It's called an overlay. And it's like Aaron did that
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  job for like two or three years
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  and it's like he made 120 to 150 a day. I just
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  put color on full time, two years. So it's like just
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  like, just in that one move. It's like 10,000 reps or something.
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  It was like nuts. It's way more than that. You think it's more.
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  I think it was like 30 something thousand times or something. So what's
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  different from what you guys do here versus the factory?
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  Our quality is a lot higher. Is that a bad
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  question? No, you can ask that. It's
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  a different product. It's a different product. Okay.
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  So it's like in the scheme of things, everything is different because we're making something
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  different. Yeah. So it's like if we
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  started making cups, it's like some things would be similar, but
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  then like all of a sudden you're gonna be like, I've never seen this
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  before. This is way different because we're making something different. So are
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  pumpkins your guys' kind of the main thing all year long? That's what we're known
• 14:15
  for the most. Well, what we're known for the most is pumpkins
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  and ornaments. We're known for the pumpkins the most because we do the
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  hand blown glass pumpkin patch. We have three this year. We had three big
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  events. We already had two. The one
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  coming up is next weekend. Not this weekend, but the week after. City of
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  Folsom, 12 artists, 6,000 pumpkins. And it's like a normal
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  pumpkin patch like you would go to when you were a kid. But they're all
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  just glass. So it's just like a glass pumpkin patch. So we're both. We're
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  known for that. So we've been doing that for seven years. We'll be the seventh
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  year. The one with the Folsom, the one we did this year
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  that's coming up at the city of Folsom will be the seventh year.
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  And that's just next weekend. Next weekend. Okay, so I saw your
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  ornaments. Are you guys. Have you guys started making ornaments too? Are you gonna wait
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  till after October? No, we already got thousands of
• 15:05
  ornaments already. Thousands already done. Well, that's.
• 15:09
  I did see some in there for sure. Yeah, we have some in there. But
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  we have. This year is our first year. We're trying to actually stay
• 15:15
  organized and, like, have proper inventory of stuff.
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  So Tate will probably take you back there. We have boxes just full of, like,
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  this, like, you know, if we had pumpkins, we would have 30 of this pumpkin
• 15:27
  sitting on the shelf. Right. But since it's pumpkin season, we don't really have much
• 15:30
  inventory. Yeah, pumpkins
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  first. I get
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  so excited to decorate for fall, and it's all pumpkins and orange.
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  That's why I had to wear an orange shirt today. I had to wear orange
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  and black. You guys are also orange and black. So on
• 15:48
  after accident, I was thematic. Little
• 15:52
  bit. Totally on accident. Nice.
• 15:56
  You have to start your. Your pumpkin collection. Look at the back of his
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  shirt here. It is like Mary's and same
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  colors. I did that. Right, so.
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  So we are going to sit down now with Tate and Ash and just ask
• 16:10
  a few more questions. It was so fun to see you do all your work,
• 16:13
  Tate in there in the studio. So I know you guys
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  have been building this together for a while now.
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  And Tate, I think you told us a little bit in there about how you
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  started out, you know, learning, started doing this when you're 17,
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  and then worked in a factory for a while and. And all
• 16:32
  that, and then this came about. So how did
• 16:36
  it start? I know you said you've only been here three years, right? In this
• 16:39
  building? Two years. Two years in the building. Yeah. Okay, so it's
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  grown. How long is. How'd you come up with the name
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  2B Glass? It was like, our last name is Bezdek,
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  and it's like, oh, is it too. Is it two? Is it to be glass
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  or not to be glass? And like, we were young, and it was
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  just like all we were thinking about is glass and glass and
• 17:01
  glass and that we should make, you know, something
• 17:06
  like, we just want to make everything out of glass. Like, oh, let's make a
• 17:08
  pot out of glass. Let's make all of our drinking out of glass. Let's make
• 17:12
  all of our bowls out of glass. It's like. Like, everything should just made
• 17:16
  out of glass. And it's like I'm not good at spelling
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  either. So it's like, you know, it's like, hopefully people remember
• 17:23
  it. It's like, you know, making names is really hard. So it's like since the
• 17:26
  number two, the letter B, glass. Like, to be glass. Like, you know,
• 17:30
  you want to try to remember that to be or not. To be, but you're
• 17:33
  going to be glass. That's right. Yeah, exactly. There's.
• 17:37
  It's like, a lot of puns kind of in it as well. Right.
• 17:41
  You guys have a great entrepreneur story. So, like,
• 17:45
  in your words, like, how would you. How do you feel like you got here
• 17:48
  from the start? I know it. I know kind of the basics of how it
• 17:52
  started, but from the factory. Let's go from there. Like, from the
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  factory. And you decided to be like, I'm going to start it on my own.
• 17:59
  How did that go? And you were. And you guys knew each other then, right?
• 18:01
  That's where we met. So me and Ash met in the factory. Factory. She was
• 18:04
  the buyer. I was the glass blower. And then
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  I swindled her with my charm. With
• 18:13
  your charm and good looks and. That's right. It's a.
• 18:16
  It's a beautiful, romantic story surrounded with glass.
• 18:20
  That's right. Very much so, yeah. I think I
• 18:24
  knew early on, very early on, that
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  I wanted to do my own business. And I like, even, like in high school,
• 18:31
  I was like, I want to work for myself one day. I want to be
• 18:34
  my own boss. I want to do what I want to do, how I want
• 18:37
  to do it. And so we work in the factory, and we
• 18:40
  learned a lot there, but we knew that once we got to
• 18:44
  the highest level, which was called the trimmer, that
• 18:48
  I wanted to learn everything that I could learn there because we only made one
• 18:51
  product. And then once we were not allowed to leave until
• 18:55
  we were at the top of the food chain, Got all the skills I needed
• 18:59
  to learn there. And then from there, I was like. Okay,
• 19:03
  well, now we did that. We kind of know how to blow glass. And then
• 19:05
  it was more of like, we knew early on that we wanted to have a
• 19:08
  business. And so I was like, okay, well, how do we do that?
• 19:12
  Swindle me. That's how we do that.
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  Together. Get her on board. Crack the
• 19:21
  whip. No, it was just like
• 19:24
  I'm the Whip cracker, just to be clear. Yeah, she's
• 19:28
  the boss and makes the boat float and go
• 19:32
  forward in every thing. We're just the guys that blow glass in there. And I
• 19:36
  have all the hair brain ideas.
• 19:40
  It's not totally true, but we. You're a good
• 19:44
  partnership is what I'm hearing. Yeah. Yeah. We all have different strengths,
• 19:47
  and I think we really bring them out in each other. And
• 19:51
  there's something about having a dynamic of three people. And maybe it would
• 19:55
  be there if there was just two of us, too. Just somebody holding
• 19:59
  you accountable and just saying, like, we're not giving up. Like, you're
• 20:02
  tired today. I'm sorry. Too bad. Like, Get a coffee. So there's a
• 20:06
  lot of, like, encouragement and. And just keeping it
• 20:10
  going. And I think in the beginning that was really clear. I was looking
• 20:14
  for my thing when we met. I knew
• 20:17
  being a buyer wasn't my entire future. And
• 20:22
  I had been looking for something art related my whole life. I tried
• 20:25
  many, many mediums, and none of them just really
• 20:30
  clicked. And. And then I met Tate and Aaron, and we
• 20:33
  were working at the factory, and they would just say, when are you going to
• 20:37
  quit your job and just Start working for 2B Glass? When are you going to
• 20:40
  quit and just start doing our business? And then the conversation
• 20:44
  just kind of, you know, they joke and say that, but then it would actually
• 20:47
  be like, well, seriously, like, could you quit? We'll blow
• 20:50
  glass and you can, like, get it going. And so
• 20:54
  eventually we did initiate that. And I mean,
• 20:58
  we were doing art shows before then. And, like, we worked
• 21:01
  and we had. A did shows on the weekend. We were, like,
• 21:05
  trying to figure it out. And so we slowly just, like,
• 21:09
  you know, we just didn't go, like, from working in the factory. And then just
• 21:12
  like, quitting it was like, we would mean Aaron would, like, spend all of
• 21:16
  our breaks, all of our lunches, like, making. Figuring out and making our
• 21:20
  own products. And then we would do shows. We had Etsy, we had a
• 21:23
  website. And, like, so we were getting some sales and
• 21:27
  some traction. And then that started to build and build and build. And then, like,
• 21:30
  we were doing more shows. And then, like, I remember the first Christmas, like, we
• 21:34
  put up, like, 15 ornaments or something. And it's like on
• 21:38
  Etsy, and we sold, like, I don't know, 20 of them or something. Or 50,
• 21:41
  maybe. Probably not 15 styles. Yeah, it
• 21:45
  was like we were just. Like, oh, my God, like, how are we gonna
• 21:48
  make these? Like, what's happening? And so we kind of like, saw. The end,
• 21:52
  like, you know, that it was possible. And then in the
• 21:56
  background, we were, like, built. We were building all the equipment, and we built our
• 22:00
  first shop in my mom's backyard. And so
• 22:04
  we kind of had all the pieces. We kind of knew all how it worked.
• 22:07
  And we just would spend our time, like, building equipment, learning how it would
• 22:11
  work. We became friends with the maintenance guy at the the factory. And
• 22:14
  then it was just like a slow transition of like, okay, we're starting to sell
• 22:18
  stuff. It's kind of happening. We have all the equipment. And then one day we
• 22:21
  went home. We turned everything on, and it worked. And we were
• 22:25
  like, all right, like, we officially have, like, a
• 22:28
  studio. All the parts and pieces work like, it was nothing like the
• 22:32
  scale that it was on now. It was very small.
• 22:36
  Like, we, like, you know, we didn't have any money, so it was, like, very
• 22:39
  rudimentary, like, very this stuff.
• 22:43
  And then it was like, it all worked one day and we were like,
• 22:46
  all right, like, we have a working studio. And then I was like, okay,
• 22:50
  well. Like, let's sign up for some more. Shows and let's do a little bit
• 22:53
  more. And then like, there was just like a turning point where, like, all right,
• 22:57
  we're going all in. It was like, May was May
• 23:01
  2018. April, like right into summer.
• 23:05
  2018. 2018. Okay. And then we were like, all right, let's do it. I
• 23:08
  quit in 2017. Like, September,
• 23:12
  August, September. Got like, little things
• 23:16
  ready to go as far as, like, the website, having a website,
• 23:20
  having packaging, having a business card booth,
• 23:23
  display type stuff. And then they still worked at the
• 23:27
  factory, continued to make product on their breaks and on lunch and on
• 23:31
  the weekends. You were allowed to make work at the factory
• 23:36
  in your free time. And yeah, it really helped develop the
• 23:39
  skills of the employees there to give them that free time to
• 23:43
  really test out what they can and cannot do instead of having them do that
• 23:47
  while they're trying to make product. So it was a win, win situation. And they.
• 23:51
  They made work. And yeah, then they quit in April. And
• 23:55
  we had a rainbow school bus, a mini rainbow school bus that we used
• 23:59
  to do all of our art shows. So we would travel and
• 24:02
  sleep in the school bus. And our
• 24:06
  biggest year was 44 art shows. So we did
• 24:10
  almost every weekend and
• 24:13
  simultaneously put the shop together in Orangevale and did
• 24:17
  the shows and. And then Covid hit and it was. Shows were
• 24:21
  done and we weren't doing anything. So
• 24:25
  that pivoted. We pivoted quickly, bought some camera
• 24:28
  equipment, photographed a few lines of
• 24:32
  work that we wanted to put on Etsy, learned how to take
• 24:36
  pictures and how to be a photographer. Yeah, this
• 24:40
  guy was there the whole time. Such a sweet dog and.
• 24:43
  Yeah, such a sweet dog. So good. I'm like, just so
• 24:47
  careful around all the glass and all the fire and.
• 24:51
  Yeah, all the people coming in and out. Yeah, he used to love.
• 24:55
  So, yeah, then we went online and stopped doing art shows and
• 25:00
  Etsy really took off. So we were really successful
• 25:04
  there and that really grounded us. And
• 25:08
  even through Covid and everything, it was really successful. We just saw
• 25:11
  more and more and more growth and yeah, it's kind of. The rest is history
• 25:15
  from there. It's been a lot of the same.
• 25:19
  But what has been different is we've
• 25:22
  become more refined versions of ourselves
• 25:26
  and more entrepreneurial, more efficient, more
• 25:30
  resourceful. We know how to, you know,
• 25:34
  work with overseas suppliers. We know how to.
• 25:38
  We have a CPA now. We, we know what we want our future look like.
• 25:42
  We have a year plan. It's not, you know, like, what are we going to
• 25:45
  do next weekend? So yeah, it's a lot more
• 25:48
  sophisticated now. And that's really, really
• 25:52
  exciting and amazing because when you are just
• 25:55
  in the swamp, the first couple of years of just trudging through
• 25:59
  and every day you, you arrive at your email
• 26:03
  with more notices of how you need to be doing it
• 26:06
  differently from either the county or, or the city
• 26:10
  or your CPA or a
• 26:14
  customer. And you know, you really learn how to be a
• 26:17
  business person by practicing it. And so that seems
• 26:21
  like really good advice. Like you learn by doing it and yeah, you
• 26:25
  can't see the five years down the road necessarily when you're just trying
• 26:28
  to start. Yeah, you don't know what you don't know. Right, that expression.
• 26:32
  And so it takes time. And I think, you know, some people might
• 26:36
  grow up with a business background or business degrees or
• 26:40
  family businesses that give them, you know, a little bit more of a
• 26:44
  guide. But my degree is in international
• 26:48
  studies and both Tate and Erin went right into glassblowing out of
• 26:52
  high school. So none of us have business experience.
• 26:56
  And so it was a lot of winging it and figuring it out as we
• 26:58
  go. But I think all three of us are really
• 27:01
  resourceful and you learn as you go. Yeah. And
• 27:05
  Tate said he listens to the most of anyone on
• 27:09
  Spotify. Self educated for sure. Business. Is that right?
• 27:13
  Yeah, I'm in the top 1% of listeners for
• 27:16
  business and tech, whatever that means.
• 27:22
  I listened to a lot of stuff and I didn't think like when I was
• 27:25
  younger that I'd like business. Like I always like didn't like it.
• 27:29
  But then the more is that we did it and it like it just got
• 27:33
  funner and funner and it's like always a problem to be solved and like I
• 27:36
  really like problem solving and complex issues
• 27:40
  and like long term like vision and
• 27:44
  planning and so I like really excel at that stuff. So it's more
• 27:48
  like it's just a big game. It's like game that if
• 27:52
  you win you get to be more successful and like make more money
• 27:56
  and like, you know, people love your stuff and you grow and your work becomes
• 28:00
  better and it's like you become a better person. And I kind of think we
• 28:03
  Think that, like, you know, to move forward in business too, you have to be
• 28:07
  able to move forward, like, personally too, and you have to, like,
• 28:10
  kind of work through your problems and issues. And so, like, to get to the
• 28:14
  next level or move forward, it's like you also have to do a lot of
• 28:17
  work on yourself. And so it's just like a great
• 28:21
  full circle thing that it's like you have to, like, you know,
• 28:24
  work on yourself, work on the business, and, like, everything has to, like, exist
• 28:28
  together because you kind of are the business. Yeah. You're doing
• 28:31
  negotiations, management, you know, people
• 28:34
  skills, customer service skills, obviously, all of those things.
• 28:38
  And when you start, when you're 17, you usually don't have
• 28:42
  great. Any of that. No, no. Yeah,
• 28:46
  it's been really. If you start, if you're 37 or older, you don't always.
• 28:49
  Unless you don't know until you learn it. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah.
• 28:53
  Yeah. So that's been fun. We both like to grow. We both like to learn,
• 28:58
  so it's been really fun to just be challenged.
• 29:02
  It's been stressful also, but it's been.
• 29:08
  It's been really good too. It's understandable, for sure. Well, and you also get to
• 29:11
  do something you really enjoy. Obviously, you started right. Right off the bat with
• 29:15
  it, so. Yeah. Building a business from something you really enjoy, I imagine
• 29:19
  is that's kind of like peak life stuff, you know? Yeah. That's what keeps you
• 29:23
  going, you know, I know it's so cliche to say there's
• 29:26
  an expression, right, that says you never work a day in your life if you're
• 29:30
  doing something you love. Like, I think that's a little
• 29:34
  stretched, but knowing that we love this,
• 29:38
  I, you know, whenever I'm having hard days or really stress weeks,
• 29:42
  we, you know, we recently had a hack hacking situation
• 29:46
  into our banking account information. So that was very stressful.
• 29:51
  And it, you know, it puts you in perspective. You stop and you
• 29:55
  go, do I still want to keep doing this? Has this pushed me over my
• 29:58
  limits? Or can I push through this challenge
• 30:02
  and come out better in the end? And
• 30:06
  so, yeah, there's a lot of stress, but that, that makes you try
• 30:09
  harder and work harder. And then, you know, usually we're
• 30:13
  proud of ourselves in the end. Sometimes we're like, could have
• 30:17
  done that better. Just, we like to say,
• 30:21
  you know, just 1% better every day.
• 30:25
  It's like, you know, you have crappy days and you have good days, but it's
• 30:28
  like, just work through it and then you just keep going and it's just like,
• 30:31
  if you just keep doing it, like, you're gonna get better at it. So it's
• 30:34
  just like, you know, we've made a lot of mistakes and a lot of mess
• 30:38
  ups. And then it's like, okay, we're not gonna make that mistake again.
• 30:42
  Like, add that one to the list moving forward. Like,
• 30:45
  you just learn so much every time. So it's like you just don't know what
• 30:49
  you don't know. And then you do it and you're like, ugh, let's not do
• 30:52
  that one again. And then it's just, it's just like blowing glass. Blowing glass is
• 30:56
  the same way. Yeah. Lots of practice. Lots of practice. So when you guys first
• 31:00
  started, did you know you're gonna do pumpkin and ornaments? Is that the main
• 31:03
  thing? Because those are the two main things you do, right? Yeah. Oh yeah.
• 31:07
  We've been making pumpkins since like day one. Pumpkins for
• 31:11
  sure. You. She really loves pumpkins.
• 31:15
  Can I answer this question? Yeah, go for it. Yeah. I'm like, I want to
• 31:18
  talk. I love pumpkins. It is October. Let's talk pumpkins.
• 31:22
  Yeah. So originally we did everything.
• 31:26
  We were wherever we could make money. If someone needed a vase fixed or
• 31:30
  they had this crazy chandelier or that they one piece broke
• 31:34
  and they needed something made, we would replace it. Custom jobs, all sorts
• 31:38
  of stuff. We've done lighting, art installations, drink wear,
• 31:42
  olive oil bottles, vases. We even did
• 31:45
  memorial pieces as well.
• 31:50
  And yeah, of course, ornaments and pumpkins and
• 31:53
  seasonal stuff. I feel like I'm missing a lot. But we were all over the
• 31:56
  gamut, the whole gamut. And, you
• 32:00
  know, as the years passed, we realized you can't scale
• 32:04
  that, you know, and so custom orders kind of got ticked off the list and
• 32:07
  like, okay, that's just super time consuming. It's really hard to predict what
• 32:11
  people want. Even when you're having thorough conversations, their
• 32:15
  vision and your vision don't quite meet often.
• 32:19
  It's very time consuming and
• 32:23
  costly. So anyway, little by little, things came off the
• 32:26
  table and we realized that this
• 32:30
  kind of sounds cheesy, but we receive the
• 32:34
  most amount of excitement and joy and enthusiasm
• 32:38
  by selling pumpkins and ornaments. Like, people are just
• 32:41
  over the moon for pumpkins. We do our pumpkin events.
• 32:45
  We usually sell about 6,000 pumpkins a year at our hand
• 32:49
  blown glass pumpkin patch. And I'm from the
• 32:53
  Midwest, so the holiday, I'm from Michigan. The holidays are a big deal for
• 32:56
  my family. My mom, her Instagram name is themarypumpkin.
• 33:01
  You know, she's not involved with us at all, but that is her M.O.
• 33:05
  and we used to have some really amazing Halloween parties and Christmas
• 33:09
  parties in my family, so it's always been a big part for me. And so
• 33:12
  when this business was kind of shifting that way, I was like, yes, yes. Like,
• 33:15
  let's do this. Let's do this. Like, there's so much you can do with that.
• 33:19
  And most people celebrate the holidays in some way,
• 33:23
  and, you know, the pumpkins were super successful. So in the
• 33:27
  end, it ended up being, how do we narrow our focus? We can't be all
• 33:31
  over the map. That's not scalable. What do we love doing? What do the people
• 33:35
  love? And it just kept pointing back to pumpkins and
• 33:38
  ornaments. And so. And on top of that, pumpkins are, like,
• 33:42
  not frowned upon in the glass community, but they're, like, the very uncool
• 33:46
  thing to do. Yeah. So they're kind of, like, the underdog.
• 33:51
  So everyone, like, kind of makes pumpkins, but no one ever puts any thought or,
• 33:54
  like, takes them very seriously. And so, like, they'd rather make a
• 33:58
  gossip. They would rather make, like, fancy glassblowing things like
• 34:02
  rattachellos or in comos or some fancy whatever. I
• 34:06
  don't even know what those are. Yeah. Technical point. That's the point.
• 34:09
  Like, we're gonna serve the community, not the
• 34:13
  glass community. So then that also Ashley liked him and had all
• 34:16
  those things. And then, like, me and Aaron were like, like, let's do this.
• 34:20
  Like, let's become the best at making pumpkins. And, like, we're gonna make work that
• 34:24
  no one can do. We're gonna put in all the reps. We're gonna do different
• 34:27
  stem styles that no one else has ever seen. We're gonna, like, be
• 34:31
  melt beautiful glass, and we're just gonna, like, make custom
• 34:34
  mold, custom shapes. Ash is, like, amazing at color, so we're just,
• 34:38
  like, pushing the envelope now so it's like, you won't really see any
• 34:42
  pumpkins out there that look like ours, because this is, like, what we've
• 34:45
  spent the last, like, five years like, refining and
• 34:49
  focus on of, like, this is what we do. Yeah. Oh, that's
• 34:53
  amazing. So that's fun. Yeah. So it's the finer details that, you know, if you
• 34:57
  really took the time to look at our work and do a comparison,
• 35:00
  you can see how much precision
• 35:04
  Tate and Aaron have with how the stem lays, how big
• 35:08
  it is, proportions, the thickness of the
• 35:11
  glass. We do the hole in the bottom so you can light each of
• 35:15
  the pumpkins up. That's the signature thing we do, that's
• 35:19
  very cool, too. Like, watching it being done is very, very
• 35:22
  interesting. Yeah. Yeah. So they're very good
• 35:26
  glassblowers now, very technically skilled, so
• 35:29
  it's cool to see them be able to make whatever I say.
• 35:37
  So you guys went viral with some videos and that affected your
• 35:41
  business? This is from Tate and Xander have been friends
• 35:45
  since a long time. Xander from a couple episodes ago. So just how I
• 35:49
  found you. So that's really fun and cool to me because Xander's awesome and you
• 35:52
  guys are awesome. So. What happened with that? Like,
• 35:56
  how did that affect your business and what led up to it? Because you guys
• 35:58
  are making videos, right? And you've been making videos for a while? No, not really.
• 36:02
  Not really? No. I've been wanting to make videos for, like, the
• 36:06
  last decade. Yes. I've been
• 36:10
  like, I'm the guy that doesn't watch tv, that doesn't
• 36:13
  do anything. The only thing that I watch is YouTube. And I just watch,
• 36:17
  like, business stuff, woodworking,
• 36:21
  whatever, people fixing cars. Like, just. That's all I watch is.
• 36:25
  I don't know anything. Can't even tell you. I don't know any movies. I don't
• 36:28
  know what's going on in the news. All I watch is, like, cool stuff on
• 36:31
  YouTube. So I've always been like, man, we gotta make YouTube
• 36:35
  channel. We gotta do YouTube. But, like, I don't know how to make videos. I
• 36:39
  don't know how to edit. And also, like, I'm running a whole company and doing
• 36:42
  a million other things. I don't really have time, right. To, like,
• 36:46
  learn and figure this out and do everything as the
• 36:50
  maker, you. Know, as a manufacturer. Yeah. And I
• 36:53
  didn't have time. I'm wearing. Yeah. So we're all just stressed
• 36:57
  trying to do it. Like, coming on the table, coming off the table,
• 37:01
  coming on the table. Finally, he did it. Yeah. So then, like, enough.
• 37:05
  Like, I'd done so much research, and I, like, this is like my
• 37:09
  wheelhouse. Like, this is what I watch. I know everything that's going on.
• 37:12
  And after seeing so many other people that
• 37:17
  do more boring things that I do
• 37:20
  and, like, be really successful, I'm like, man, I got, like, we gotta,
• 37:24
  like, we gotta do it. And so then I just. Like,
• 37:28
  we were in Costco, they had the little Pocket three camera in there. I'm like,
• 37:32
  we're buying one. And I'm just like, for three months, I'm gonna post a video
• 37:34
  every day. Don't care if it's sucks. Like, the first ones are
• 37:38
  terrible. And so it's like, I just like, we're like. I told Aaron, he was
• 37:42
  on board and was like. I was like, we're just gonna come out here. I'm
• 37:45
  gonna grab the camera. We're gonna get mic'd up. Whatever we're doing for the day,
• 37:48
  we try to make it cool. I'm just gonna take a couple shots. I'm gonna
• 37:51
  come up right after work. I'm gonna stay late. I'm gonna, like, edit it up.
• 37:55
  I don't know anything about anything. And I'm just gonna post a video every
• 37:59
  day. I'm gonna try to do it for, like, three months
• 38:03
  and then, like, relatively quickly. Well, I guess,
• 38:06
  like, in the first. Two weeks, we had one that went viral,
• 38:10
  but it was like. It was just music, and it was like 20 seconds, and
• 38:14
  it was just me making a pumpkin stem. It got like, 20 million
• 38:17
  views, but nothing happened. It was just, like. It was just cool. It was
• 38:21
  just cool video that, like. No one buy anything. Like, nothing happened. I think we
• 38:24
  got one order. Maybe it was two orders. And I was like, oh, my God.
• 38:28
  Like, we got two orders. We got one order. Yeah, it was
• 38:32
  cool. So I was just like, it was cool. And so. But then
• 38:35
  from there, it was like, okay, like, we got two orders
• 38:39
  for this one video, you know, got 22 million views.
• 38:43
  Like, but it was like. It was just like a song of, like. It was
• 38:47
  very rudimentary views and sales won't necessarily correlate.
• 38:50
  Yeah. So then I was like, okay, well, we got like,
• 38:54
  that's cool. And I was like, okay, we gotta keep it going. We gotta keep
• 38:57
  it going. And then, like, we had some slow traction, and then we had, like,
• 39:00
  a couple get some. We had a couple get some. And then
• 39:04
  like, a month in, maybe a month and a half in, we had, like, three
• 39:07
  videos all go viral within like a week or a week and a half. And
• 39:11
  then from that point, it was just, like, nuts. Like,
• 39:14
  wow. Just like. Was that just this year, too? Yeah, like, a couple
• 39:18
  months ago. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. I think I said saw one. I'm sure
• 39:22
  you did. Before I met Xander. I'm like, oh, my gosh, it's so cool.
• 39:26
  It's just like, when I was in there, I'm like, oh, my gosh. It's so
• 39:28
  cool. How much? I don't know what it is now, but a couple
• 39:31
  days ago, there's one video that has over
• 39:34
  111 million views. And it has, like,
• 39:38
  hundreds of thousand comments on it. And some of those comments
• 39:42
  individually have thousands and thousands comments on them.
• 39:46
  It's absolutely nuts. And it also
• 39:50
  exploded our Instagram and our Facebook page.
• 39:54
  We had like 5,000 followers on Instagram and like a hundred
• 39:57
  on Facebook and our. For, like years. For years. Seven years. I
• 40:01
  mean. And I've been trying, like, you know, posting on Instagram, doing what they say,
• 40:05
  like, you got to be posting consistently. Trying, trying so hard
• 40:08
  to make time for that with everything else. And it was just such
• 40:12
  a lost cause. And then our Instagram now has
• 40:16
  218 or something thousand followers,
• 40:19
  which, you know, isn't like millions, but to go from
• 40:23
  5,000 followers in a couple months. So that was like. So we
• 40:27
  have been getting orders and orders and orders, and it's been really amazing.
• 40:31
  Normally, July and August are really dry for us as a business. There's
• 40:35
  not, you know, we have our Mother's Day event. We have a second sale in
• 40:38
  March, and the holidays and the pumpkin season
• 40:42
  really support the rest of the year. So historically, July,
• 40:46
  August have just been kind of. We catch up, we get sleep, we
• 40:49
  prepare for. Yeah, we kind of get sleep. We, you
• 40:53
  know, brainstorm and. But this year, it's just been absolutely nuts.
• 40:57
  So it's. It's been really, really amazing. And I think we just.
• 41:01
  Yeah, we struck a chord. I had watched enough YouTube video.
• 41:04
  I've watched enough woodworking videos of like, people that
• 41:08
  are makers and craftsmen like me. In every other category, there's
• 41:13
  not a million, but a lot of people, like, for woodworking is like the best
• 41:16
  example. It's like go on YouTube on woodworking. There's like a million people you could
• 41:20
  watch that are all like, amazing woodworkers, and they make these amazing
• 41:23
  videos. And you go on the glass bowl, and there's not a single person doing
• 41:27
  it. And it's like, everyone loves Glassblowing. And it's
• 41:30
  like, no, but no one explained explains what's going on. So that's the biggest thing.
• 41:34
  So it's like, you know, just like you guys are gonna see in the video,
• 41:37
  I kind of explain what's happening. And so that was kind of our focus. And
• 41:41
  it's like, yeah, all those videos that got these millions and millions of view. It's
• 41:45
  just me and Aaron in the studio. We don't have a camera guy. We don't
• 41:48
  have a script. We don't have light. We have nothing. It's just me
• 41:52
  holding a camera and a blowpipe. All right, Aaron, like, rig
• 41:56
  this one up and like, I'm gonna one hand this one and I don't know,
• 41:59
  say something cool and like, let's figure it out. And it's
• 42:03
  me sitting down on the computer. I don't know anything about editing and. I'm just
• 42:06
  like clipping them together, watching. YouTube videos, like trying to figure it out.
• 42:10
  And I think we just struck a. Chord because it's like we're like. It's just,
• 42:14
  it's real, it's authentic and it's just us in there working
• 42:17
  and it's not this big operation and like. It's not
• 42:21
  over produced. It's fun. And people like that, I think nowadays
• 42:25
  like just seeing they do behind the scenes. Authenticity. Authenticity
• 42:28
  is, is important to people. Yeah. And he's a goof. Like.
• 42:32
  Well, he's a very good story. You guys both are very good storytellers if you
• 42:35
  notice like this. I rarely ask a question because I don't have to. So
• 42:39
  like just like you're telling this story. Such a good. No, it's just so
• 42:43
  good. That's a. That's a compliment. Thank you.
• 42:47
  That's good. Yeah. Relaying your story. Yeah,
• 42:51
  it's been really fun and we got many more videos to come,
• 42:55
  so stay tuned. Subscribe to @2BGlass. Check us out on
• 42:58
  YouTube. We're gonna hit a million subscribers this year.
• 43:02
  60 ornament videos coming up. You're not gonna want to miss
• 43:06
  them. I love that. That seems like a good
• 43:09
  place to end, doesn't it? I don't know how to get
• 43:13
  better than that. So thank you guys so much. Appreciate your
• 43:17
  time and I love your beautiful new space and thank you. Beautiful view
• 43:21
  you have here. If it wasn't raining, I imagine it would be even more beautiful.
• 43:24
  But we get some really great sunsets. I bet. I bet. But it's
• 43:28
  nice and cool today and October. Thank you for your time
• 43:32
  and I wish you guys all the best. I imagine you're going to get so
• 43:35
  busy that when I ask to come up again, you're going to be like. I
• 43:39
  don't know, just like. Don't expect us to talk, but you can come if you
• 43:43
  want. We won't do that. No, no. I wish you
• 43:47
  guys all the best. So that's amazing. Thank you. Thank you. It's been a
• 43:50
  really fun and crazy wild journey. So
• 43:54
  we're very passionate about it. Yeah. Can tell we're just
• 43:57
  getting started. Just getting started. Yeah,
• 44:02
  us too. At Healthy Happy Wise Wealthy. So also come see you at
• 44:05
  the. Hand blown glass pumpkin patch, 48 Natoma street
• 44:09
  in Folsom, California. 12 artists, 6,000 pumpkins,
• 44:13
  live glass blend, free popcorn, free parking.
• 44:17
  You definitely want to come check it out. It's like if you love pumpkins, you
• 44:20
  love fall, you love glass. This is where you want to be.
• 44:24
  October 11th and 12th. We'll be there Saturday
• 44:28
  and Sunday 11th and 1210 to 5. 48
• 44:31
  and Tome Street, Folsom, California.
• 44:35
  Hand blown glass pumpkin patch. I think you got it.
• 44:39
  You want to make one more Zane?
• 44:43
  That's three of those. And then we're gonna
• 44:47
  switch loose to caramel after that. Yeah, okay.
• 44:52
  That one. I'm just not very happy with that one. Huh? That one's.
• 44:56
  You're not happy with it? No, Aaron's not happy with that one. Stem
• 45:00
  kind of. We're not stem. My shape kind of got funky.
• 45:05
  All right, now we're just gonna like rip through like
• 45:09
  whatever. We're gonna switch after this one. So after this one we'll. And then we'll
• 45:13
  do a big curly stem. That'll be a little bit more fun. I'll try to
• 45:16
  go get this orange tape.
• 45:23
  One that I really like. Even though it's really hard, it's one. Of
• 45:27
  the harder ones to make.
• 45:39
  It's lucid caramel. That's what it's called,
• 45:43
  lucid caramel. This is the 2021 Pumpkin of the Year Lucid
• 45:47
  Caramel. And it's like four colors in one. The
• 45:50
  same color. It's like iridescent. Yeah. It just
• 45:54
  has a bunch of weird stuff. You'll see. Yeah,
• 46:04
  you don't. You don't. Not until tomorrow.
• 46:08
  Well, I mean we kind of do because like these are our products. But the
• 46:12
  reason we're remaking this is this one struck too much in the kiln and them
• 46:15
  want they weren't web quality so we got to redo them.
• 46:21
  Right? Yeah. This one's unpredictable.
• 46:26
  Like take and show you. They're still sitting over there.
• 46:31
  What this looks like compared to what. It finishes out as sometimes is way
• 46:35
  different. You start the next one, Zane.
• 46:41
  No water break for you.
• 47:05
  That looks good. Way better than yesterday.
• 47:13
  Oh, come on.
• 47:19
  Let's go.
• 47:25
  So this will be our full curls curly stem.
• 47:29
  One we were doing before was the coiled stem. This
• 47:32
  one's.
• 47:37
  Well yesterday. They all look clear and then they all turn brown.
• 47:42
  It's just because that kiln dude glass. Is already setting
• 47:45
  up. See it's starting to stiff up like. We did at the beginning.
• 47:49
  Plate tubing on the hot top shelf on the left, right next to elements.
• 47:53
  It's pretty good looking stem. And they ran smoke.
• 47:57
  Yeah. So it's hard now. Right. It's not moving
• 48:01
  anymore. Stick it in there. We
• 48:05
  did those like blow off some. Of the shards
• 48:08
  first thing. Now it's sharp right there where I cut it because it broke
• 48:12
  off where the top selling from, you can see. And it kind of changes when
• 48:16
  I hold it up.