Kevin Espiritu is the founder and CEO of Epic Gardening. As a self-taught gardener, Espiritu has spent over a decade producing educational gardening content across YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, The Beet Podcast, and the Epic Gardening blog.
It was all in service of a simple mission: teach the world to grow. Epic Gardening has amassed over 10 million social media followers, 21 million podcast downloads, and 100 million blog visits.
In 2020, he purchased his first home in San Diego, CA, which was a small 1,000-square-foot home on a 13,000-square-foot lot. This became his home base for experimenting beyond the garden: into energy systems, composting, chicken keeping, canning, preserving, and water capture.
These experiences formed the basis for this book, “Epic Homesteading.” Additionally, Espiritu has authored two other books, Field Guide to Urban Gardening and Grow Bag Gardening. Listen in for some great takeaways about Kevin’s journey from hobby blogger to YouTuber to entrepreneur.
You will want to hear this episode if you are interested in…
- Learn more about Kevin Espiritu and Epic Gardening [2:58]
- How a self-taught gardener became the “Plant Daddy” [5:06]
- What inspired Kevin to launch Epic Gardening? [6:27]
- How the pandemic impacted the growth of Epic Gardening [8:45]
- Don’t listen to anyone who hasn’t done what they’re talking about [12:08]
- Kevin’s advice for content creators looking to grow their audience [16:18]
- Get your copy of “Financial Planning Made Personal” [18:08]
- How Kevin has changed how he approaches content creation [22:45]
- Kevin’s process for hiring and prioritizing who to hire first [26:20]
- How Kevin finds inspiration to expand and grow his business [30:24]
- What Kevin did today that put him in the right mindset for success [32:44]
What inspired Kevin to launch Epic Gardening?
Kevin knew that he didn’t want to work somewhere he didn’t enjoy. After randomly choosing gardening as a hobby, he decided he wanted to earn enough to continue to garden and share it with others. He saw the potential for his blog to grow.
When the pandemic hit and people were locked in their homes, they started seeking out hobbies (things like carpentry, baking, sewing, and gardening). His subscribers grew exponentially because more people were searching for gardening topics. He couldn’t keep products in stock.
Kevin’s advice for content creators looking to grow the right audience
If Kevin taught his audience how to make ceramic dishware, he wouldn’t be building millions of followers because it’s a smaller, more niche, industry. He emphasizes that the only true way to grow over time is to produce valuable content for the people you want to reach. Views aren’t dollars.
What they are is a marketing funnel. What matters is who’s coming out the other end of the funnel as a customer. If the content you’re creating isn’t helpful to the end user, It’s selfish content. Do things for your audience and you’ll be amazed at what comes back.
No one thing moves the needle. If you’re getting millions of views but they aren’t converting to customers, look at your content. Is it just optimized for shareability? Is it hitting your target market?
Someone may only get a thousand views from the people they want to serve and they’re crushing it on the back end of their business. You have to disconnect from vanity metrics being objectively “good.” 500 views or downloads can seem like a failure from an outside perspective, but you know those views convert to customers.
How Kevin has changed how he approaches content creation
Kevin jumped on TikTok early in 2019. He was one of the few content creators in the gardening space. He realized people wanted short-form video content (it’s easier to consume, addicting, etc.). But he still needed to fulfill the mission of his company—to teach the world to grow. So he created short-form content to entertain, educate, and inspire.
To succeed with short-form content, you had to learn how to hook someone in a second. It needed to be a curiosity-inducing hook. You have to get someone to watch the video until the end.
You can optimize short-form to get high retention and high views, but it still has to do something for you as a business owner. It has to serve the audience to get them to something that drives your business.
Resources & People Mentioned
- Get two chapters of “Financial Planning Made Personal” for free!
Connect with Kevin Espiritu
Bio
Kevin Espiritu is the founder of Epic Gardening. As a self-taught gardener, Espiritu has spent over a decade producing educational gardening content across YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, The Beet Podcast, and the Epic Gardening blog, all in service of a simple mission: teach the world to grow.
Epic Gardening has amassed over 10 million social media followers, 21 million podcast downloads, and 100 million blog visits. In 2022, Kevin acquired leading seed company Botanical Interests to add to Epic Gardening’s growing offering of high-quality gardening products and tools.
In 2020, he purchased his first home in San Diego, CA – a small 1,000 sqft home on a 13,000 sqft lot. This became his home base for experimenting beyond the garden: into energy systems, composting, chicken keeping, canning, preserving, and water capture. These experiences formed the basis for this book, Epic Homesteading.
Additionally, Espiritu has authored two other books, Field Guide to Urban Gardening and Grow Bag Gardening.
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