From losing my job to 35,000 items sold in a year

I lost my job, and suddenly my family had to figure out what came next.

At the time, it didn't feel like the beginning of some success story. It felt like a problem that needed to be solved.

With the cost of everything going up, I knew I had a decision to make. I could find another job, but where we lived, that could mean driving an hour or more every day. Or I could try to figure out a way to make money locally and create something of my own.

There was another reason that mattered even more to me: my family.

We wanted to homeschool our kids and give them access to online teachers we trusted. We wanted more time together as a family, and we wanted more control over the environment our children were growing up in.

So I started looking for another way.

And somehow, that led me to storage units.

The Treasure Hunt

I became fascinated with storage-unit auctions.

You never really knew what was behind that door until you bought the unit and started digging.

Sometimes you struck out.

Other times, it felt like finding buried treasure.

One time, I paid just $50 for a storage unit and found more than $1,000 worth of Nike shoes inside.

I remember thinking, maybe we're onto something here.

I actually recorded some of adventures. I changed my voice because I didn't want people to know I had lost my job. 

Another time, I bought a unit for around $200 and found a little four-wheeler inside.

In another unit, we found a pair of Prada boots that we ended up selling for around $600.

Then there was the time we found a brand-new modern arcade machine still in the box. We sold that for around $400.

We found tools. Shoes. Electronics. Collectibles. All kinds of things.

Those discoveries kept us going.

Every time we opened another unit, there was that feeling that you never knew what you were about to find.

But eventually, I started noticing something about myself.

Something Was Different When I Sold Knives

I had already started selling some of our storage-unit finds on Whatnot.

Back then, the shows weren't anything like the knife shows we do today. I might go live once or twice a month, maybe a little more sometimes, and sell whatever we had found.

One item might sell for $2.

Another might sell for $3.

Then one storage unit changed the way I looked at knives.

The unit had belonged to an older man and his wife. From what we understood, they had both passed away, and we had no way of contacting their family.

Among the belongings, we found some old Case knives.

When I put those knives up for auction, something happened.

Instead of $2 or $3, one might bring $40 or $50.

When you've been auctioning inexpensive items all night and suddenly people start bidding like that, you notice.

But looking back, the money wasn't the only thing I noticed.

My energy changed.

Whenever I started selling knives, I became more excited. I talked more. I had more energy. The show became more fun for me.

Then we'd go back to selling random merchandise, and that energy would start to disappear.

I didn't realize it at the time, but those moments were telling me something.

My First 2,000 Followers Took a Year

There's something important about this story that I don't want people to misunderstand.

I had a Whatnot account before I had the knife show.

And I didn't instantly become successful.

For roughly a year, I did Whatnot shows on and off, selling things we had found in storage units.

It took me about an entire year to reach my first 2,000 followers.

Nine Days Without Power. Thanks Helena

A hurricane hit our area.

We lost power.

Not for a couple of hours.

Not for a day.

Nine days.

And when your business depends on going live online, no electricity means you have a serious problem.

We had no power, and we had no normal way of making money.

It was a real test.

Here we were trying to build this new thing, and suddenly everything stopped.

For nine days, we waited.

Then the electricity finally came back.

And so did we.

Full force.

We didn't ease our way back into the knife shows.

We went after it.

We Found Our Niche

I wasn't trying to be everything anymore.

I was becoming the knife guy.

Instead of wondering what random merchandise I was going to sell next, I could focus on making the show exciting.

I could learn what people liked.

I could focus on entertaining the room.

Most importantly, I was selling something I genuinely enjoyed selling.

Then, just as we were getting started with the knife shows, we got tested.

From 2,000 to Nearly 50,000 Followers

Remember, it had taken roughly a year for me to build my first 2,000 followers while doing general Whatnot shows on and off.

Once we focused on the knife show, everything changed.

Over roughly the next year, that audience grew from around 2,000 followers to nearly 50,000.

We've now sold more than 35,000 items.

That's something I still think about.

It took about a year to get the first 2,000 followers.

Then, after finding something I was passionate about and putting my energy behind it, we climbed toward 50,000.

There wasn't some giant company behind us.

There wasn't some perfect business plan sitting on my desk when I lost my job.

It started with trying to figure out how I was going to take care of my family.

Sometimes the Hardest Moments Redirect You

When I lost my job, I didn't know where any of this was going.

I certainly wasn't sitting there thinking:

I'm going to buy storage units, find some old knives, start a knife show, and eventually build an audience of nearly 50,000 people.

It didn't happen like that.

It happened one step at a time.

Losing my job pushed me toward storage units.

Storage units introduced me to the treasure hunt.

The treasure hunt introduced me to knives.

Knives showed me what gave me energy.

And once I recognized that, I focused on it.

Looking back, that's probably one of the biggest lessons I've learned through all of this:

Pay attention to what gives you energy.

Sometimes the thing you're supposed to pursue is already sitting right in front of you. You just haven't recognized it yet.

We went through job loss.

We dug through storage units.

We celebrated the wins and dealt with the bad units.

We spent nine days without electricity wondering how we were going to make money.

But when that power came back on, we came back full force.

And we haven't stopped.

The Luke Guy Knife Show didn't begin with some big master plan.

It began with a family trying to find another way.

And sometimes, losing the thing you thought you needed is exactly what pushes you toward the thing you were meant to build.

Yeah Buddy,

Luke Guy