AI Summary
5 min readThe Product Beneath the Content
Kevin Espiritu started Epic Gardening as a hobby in 2013, gardening with his brother to get off the computer and outside. He wasn't good at it, but he was hooked. He registered a blog with no expectation it would become anything. The blog made $400 a month. Then he moved in with his mom's ex, then with a friend, and spent 12 hours a day writing gardening articles, posting in forums, dropping links, trying to get traffic. Within two or three months, the blog was making $2,000 to $3,000 a month. A few months after that, $4,000 to $5,000. That was the moment he decided Epic Gardening was a real thing.
The first full year, 2016, revenue was $78,400. He didn't make any money. 2017 was $75,000. Then $225,000 in 2018, $540,000 in 2019, $2.8 million in 2020, and $7.3 million in 2021. The business roughly tripled or more every year as it evolved.
The Product Beneath the Content
The key strategic insight came from a pattern Espiritu noticed in his own content. Brands would send him products to review, and he would make money through brand deals. But he started asking himself: why not be the brand that sponsors my own content? Nothing was preventing him from offering his own product line.
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:35) **From Hobby to Business: The Origin Story** - Kevin describes his aimless post-college period, trying random hobbies (night photography, drumming) before discovering gardening with his brother in 2013.
- 2 (03:46) **The Blogging Grind & First Revenue** - Kevin registered a gardening blog as a hobby, then went all-in, writing 12 hours a day and scraping by.
- 3 (05:57) **Revenue Trajectory: From $78k to $7.3M** - A clear year-by-year breakdown of Epic Gardening's explosive growth.
- 4 (07:25) **The Lightbulb Moment: From Media to Product** - Kevin realized he should sell his own products instead of doing brand deals, starting with a raised garden bed.
- 5 (08:57) **A Day in the Life: CEO & Gardener** - Kevin's varied schedule includes content creation, executive meetings, and blocked-off time for pure gardening without a camera.
- 6 (10:10) **The Beginner's Trap: Overpreparation** - Kevin's key advice: consume just enough knowledge, then immediately act.
- 7 Standout Quotes
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Guests on this episode
Show Notes
I Made $30M With My Side Project
This is the story of how Kevin Espiritu went from trying 5+ hobbies and failing multiple businesses, to building a gardening brand making over $30M/year. Kevin talks about his childhood, how he grew the business, and what his days look like now running one of the biggest gardening brands in the world.
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Follow Kevin 📸 Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/epicgardening 🎥 YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@epicgardening 📱 TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@epicgardening 🐦 Twitter - https://twitter.com/KevinEspiritu
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Disclaimer: This podcast is published by a viewer using content from Starter Story's YouTube channel with the goal of making his valuable insights more accessible to those who prefer audio formats, helping more people discover and learn from the insights shared in his videos. It is not an official production of Starter Story. For any requests from Starter Story, please don't hesitate to get in touch.
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