Inspiring Women in Skilled Trades: Jennifer Cline’s Journey of Advocacy, DIY, and Creativity

Jennifer Cline [: 00:00:00

You know what, A lot of my early videos are just now getting traction. It was weird because I looked at my analytics this morning and I'm like, that video is like 4 or 5 years old. Why is it getting views now? And sometimes it just takes that long for Google for the search, whatever magical thing happens to the algorithm. Sometimes it just takes that long to like rise to the top of the searches or other videos got viewed and then now the old ones are getting suggested. But it does take a long time. And if you are a creator, your videos in the beginning are going to be really crappy. You just have to accept that.

Andrew Brown [: 00:00:38

Hi, I'm Andrew Brown. You're listening to the Lost Star of the Skilled Trades podcast, a show that shines the spotlight on careers in the skilled trades that are high paying, honorable, rewarding and fulfilling. The trades are the backbone of the economy that keep us running. And without them, our world would cease to exist. Today we have a special guest, Jennifer Klein, AKA Jenny from the Shop. Welcome, Jennifer, to the show.

Jennifer Cline [: 00:01:13

Thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure to be here.

Andrew Brown [: 00:01:16

I had a life changing event years ago where I found myself on ground zero on 9 11, helping first responders, EMS, firefighters, and working back to back with tradespeople. And I was a high tech guy and I didn't realize that would change everything for me. Years later from that experience, I quit my job, a corporate job. In it, my brother and I built a portal for the trades to get them what they want, when they want and where they want so they don't have to spend the resources chasing it. Everybody's got a journey in life. Your journey changed years ago when your husband passed away and you went into a completely separate trajectory. Tell us a little bit about how that changed everything for you.

Jennifer Cline [: 00:02:06

First of all, I want to say my son is a firefighter. So I thank you for your service to your community and to our country. This path as a content creator and YouTuber wasn't anything that I ever could have seen myself doing. I was not handy whatsoever. When my husband passed away. He was a maintenance man at a local college, Kent State University, and he knew how to build everything. So I had no reason to pick up tools or try to do anything around the house because he had it covered. And it wasn't until his untimely passing he was killed on his way to work.

Jennifer Cline [: 00:02:43

I was left with a house. It's 1818, farmhouse. Things were falling apart around me and I had to step into his shoes and pick up his tools and teach myself so it was either one of those moments where you rely on other people the rest of your life, or you step up and figure it out. And that is what I chose to do.

Andrew Brown [: 00:03:02

I find that so inspirational because a lot of people sometimes, you know, they go into, obviously, depressions and obviously. I'm sure you went through mixed emotions, but you pulled it together and went into something that even for most women, Even as there's 3 or 4% women who were in the trades, and you had to teach yourself. How did you go about teaching yourself all about power tools and getting handy? Because in 1818 farmhouse, I'm sure there's a ton of work that has to.

Jennifer Cline [: 00:03:35

Be done on that house all the time. All the time. And actually, I launched into a complete renovation. I oversaw a complete renovation. So I joke that I have a new old house, but I figured I'm going to fix everything that bothers me. But one of the very first projects that I remember doing, I converted Gary had, like, an archery stand. And I decided I was going to turn that. Build doors for it and turn it into, like, a gardening shed, storage.

Jennifer Cline [: 00:04:02

And I got all of his tools out, you know, because it's not close to the house. You know, imagine air hoses and electric going out there. And I couldn't open his miter saw. His miter saw, the last time he used it was locked shut. And here I am, I'm ready to work, and I can't open the darn saw. And I had, like, a pity party moment. And I just kind of said, help me figure this out. And then, like, calmness came over me, and I thought, jennifer, figure it out.

Jennifer Cline [: 00:04:31

Look at it. And I thought, oh, I wonder what this thing does? And I twisted it. And sure enough, that was. It popped open. And from that day forward, I just kind of figured things out. If I didn't have the answer, I would look to YouTube. I would call my dad. I had a neighbor that was very helpful.

Jennifer Cline [: 00:04:46

But I really just. You have to immerse yourself. If you want to learn something, you just have to do it. That's the best teacher.

Andrew Brown [: 00:04:53

Now, did you have a background or anybody in your family? Were they in the trades at all? Were you exposed to this?

Jennifer Cline [: 00:05:00

Yeah, my dad was a welder, a very skilled welder. But when we were growing up, I'm one of three girls. My dad's garage was his man cave. And we really didn't. I wasn't really interested, you know, and he just passed away last year. But I got to an age and a skill level that he would come over and hang out with me in my shop, and he'd see what I was doing, and I would go over to his shop and we had, like, a welding project we did together for one of my YouTube videos. And it kind of grew into this really cool place where we had a common interest. But he was a welder.

Jennifer Cline [: 00:05:32

Yes, Very skilled. He would build roadsters and drive around in them and do all kind of great things.

Andrew Brown [: 00:05:39

Just did a post on this about fixing something in my house. I'm just thinking about this situation where I was fixing my toilet. My son happened to walk by and he took a picture of me. Now I do little projects around the house, and he's interested because I'm working with my hands. And I'm not a trained tradesperson by any means, but I like to tinker with things, but it's rubbed off on him. And I remember my own father doing projects around the house. I remember him in the garage and he was doing this wooden. He put all the wood and panel on the garage.

Andrew Brown [: 00:06:11

It looked really good. But I remember the last panel that he did, he was about to hammer the nail and he missed and he hammered his finger. What you're not supposed to do. Like, I don't know if he was, like, talking to me, and I was like, it's something we talk about to this day. If you were exposed early on, that's got to have had to have some sort of influence on you over the years.

Jennifer Cline [: 00:06:33

Yeah, I really think it did. You know, it's strange because I think back, I'm one of those people. I can remember a lot from my very early childhood. And one of the first toy I remember playing with, my mom had bought me this great big. It was a huge plastic bag, which now I look back and I'm like, I could have suffocated myself with that. It was a huge plastic bag full of these wooden shapes. And I used to love playing with that, stacking it and building things. Just weird that that was the first toy I can recall playing with.

Jennifer Cline [: 00:07:02

And I've always been artistic. And it wasn't really until Gary's passing that the tools kind of came into play and the artsy side of me met with the skill side. And then I can, you know, create all these things that I make. So, yeah, it's just. Life is kind of like dominoes. This happened and then that happened, and then that happened, and then, boom, there you are with your purpose.

Andrew Brown [: 00:07:28

Yeah, it's interesting that everybody's journey just, you know, even tragic events that you had or, you know, something that I witnessed on 9 11, that it puts you in a path that you were meant to do. You were supposed to do this. Unfortunately, we had to go through that pain and the suffering behind it. But you found your purpose and what you're supposed to do.

Jennifer Cline [: 00:07:48

And what better way to honor his memory than by carrying on? And hopefully I've done it with grace. And now I want to inspire others because I knew, you know, I belong to these Facebook women's groups. Right when I wanted to start my YouTube channel. It's funny, because I had a toilet. One of my first how to videos was fixing this flapper valve on my toilet. And I went to YouTube and none of the videos were women. And I belonged to these Facebook groups with women that was more of, like, an artsy, crafty thing. And I could hear them talking and saying, I would feel a lot more confident using tools if I went on YouTube and saw other women.

Jennifer Cline [: 00:08:28

And even now, like, I fixed abyssal carpet cleaner that plugged up and I took it apart and fixed it. And a lot of the comments are from women that said, I 100% wouldn't have tried to even do this had I not seen your video. And that is a really powerful. Those are, like, my favorite comments. And of course, I love doing things that the guys watch, too. But my initial purpose was to inspire other women that maybe have found themselves as a widow or single woman or divorcee or whatever their life story is. That was my intended target audience when I first started, and that was my.

Andrew Brown [: 00:09:03

Why there are so many powerful women on social media that have popped up over the years. Whether it's welding, whether it's electrical, whether it's carpentry, I'm always in awe by the detail of work that a lot of them do, because prior to this and social media, you didn't really know they existed out there. And now they're on TikTok, now they're on YouTube, now they're on Instagram and other channels and inspires other women. So the things that you put out is inspiring the younger generation. Have younger women come to you and asked you for advice? Look, I'm interested in working with my hands or their journey.

Jennifer Cline [: 00:09:43

I get that a lot. And also, I actually got a message just the other day, and it was really flattering because the woman that messaged me said that she watches me, her husband enjoys my videos, and their young daughter, who's about 7 or 8. And she included a picture because a couple years ago, I used my tools to carve pumpkins. And she included a picture of the dad supervising her like drilling out her pumpkin. And I thought that is really cool that my audience is that young. I've had them request stickers and cards and it's just, it's really wonderful to think that there might be somebody who's a young person out there that might have a path in the trades or just might be self sufficient. Maybe they don't choose it as a career, but maybe they're able to take care of their house without having to rely on somebody. And it's just really exciting and really very humbling.

Andrew Brown [: 00:10:39

Is it amazing to have that impact on someone's life? Like, you know, you put out this stuff on social media, whether, you know, you put out, obviously the stuff that you put out. I put the stuff I put out on advocating for the trades and you're like, is it really resonating with people? And then all of a sudden you get somebody who reaches out and say, look, you made an impact in my life. I wasn't even thinking about the trades. And now, wow, there's that opportunity out there. And it's like a really good feeling that it vindicates like everything that you've put your blood, sweat, tears into.

Jennifer Cline [: 00:11:08

Yes. Because this can be. I mean, I went from working my job prior to this. I was a paralegal and I had the honor of working with the grand jury and with many officers that would come in to testify. That's actually kind of a backstory to why I started making flags. But like, that was what I had chosen. This wasn't anything that I ever planned on doing. Yeah, it's just really, really a great, great thing to think that somebody might be watching this and might try something or have a career path because of something they saw me doing.

Andrew Brown [: 00:11:39

It is such a great feeling to do that. And I speak at schools and I speak at large events. And it's just when people come up to you and they just say, wow, you know, it resonates even if it's one person, like I don't care, like as long as it's one person who changed their thinking about the trades or just it's a maybe a parent that says, you know, my son or my daughter was interested in trade, but I've heard your talk and I get it now. And it's just, it's really powerful.

Jennifer Cline [: 00:12:08

Right. Because this can be, you know, like working by myself. I just said I was a paralegal and that was a very bustling. I was around people and now I'm by myself. A lot of times you don't get that feedback right away or I'll open up my messages and like, they're all, you know, some of them are trolls and they're negative, you know, so sometimes you start to think, why am I doing this? Why am I doing this? Why do I put myself through this? This is so hard. Maybe I should go back to work, you know, for somebody else. And then you'll get that message from somebody. Those are usually the days you get a message like that, that's powerful, that tells you, yes, keep going.

Jennifer Cline [: 00:12:42

This is what you're meant to do. Don't stop and don't quit.

Andrew Brown [: 00:12:45

And there's no real blueprint for it. You know, you can have mentors and people can help you along the way, but there's no real blueprint know, especially in your journey when that happened. And obviously you started working with different tools. And you. And I want to know a little bit more about the flag business side, what you actually started. Because an entrepreneur, entrepreneurship is one of the most difficult journeys. And I did this about 23 years ago. People thought I was crazy.

Andrew Brown [: 00:13:09

Started my own business with my brother. What did it feel like starting that business?

Jennifer Cline [: 00:13:13

Scary. Scary. Because I. When I started making flags, I had worked with a grand jury, and it was one of my best guy friends. He was our chief investigator, and he's the one that asked me, he saw that I was putting these crafty things on Facebook and he said, you know, you're handy. Will you make a thin blue line flag for me? And he mentioned it could turn into a side business. And I was thinking, ben, I'll make you the flag. But, like, how is this going to turn into a business? So I ended up making this flag, and then it ended up people, and it just grew.

Jennifer Cline [: 00:13:45

And then people started saw it and it was funny because I'd have one, like, waiting at work for someone to come pick up. And the officers would come in and they're like, oh, do you know some guy that makes these? They always thought it was a guy that made. And I'm like, yeah, she's right here. I started putting things online, and they'd asked for different designs, and so it's all these different. That I named them after each different officer that asked for new design. And it grew into this huge. For five years, I would work my day job and then come home and change and be in my shop every evening and every weekend. And I made probably, I've estimated over 500 wooden flags over the course of about five years.

Jennifer Cline [: 00:14:26

And it was really a labor of love, and I was very honored to do that. During COVID it got to be too much and other opportunities were coming. And I always knew that when it was time to stop, I would know. And I had one huge order of like 30 flags, and it burned me out. I'm like, that's it, I can't do this anymore. But during that time, it was really a wonderful way. I felt like I was giving back and honoring people that I deem as heroes.

Andrew Brown [: 00:14:51

Where does that drive come from? Because again, starting your own thing or your own business, it's interesting when people work for other people. Like, I wish I had my own business until you start your own business. Like, whoa, this is pretty hard. Like, you know, 90% of businesses fail in the first five years. What kept you going?

Jennifer Cline [: 00:15:08

I had to pay my bills in my journey. Part of the story is, and this is just kind of a caveat to people that want to aspire to do more. I was getting a lot of attention at work and one of my female boss, which you would think other women would support, and sometimes they don't. And even though I was doing this mainly outside of work and had gotten permission to bring them in and deliver them, but I had a female boss that didn't like the attention that I was getting. I was basically bullied out of the job that I loved. And I'm glad that I had my flags to fall back on because I had that income that was established by then. I had orders. But it was very scary to walk away from a job that I loved, where there was security and there was retirement and insurance and to go out on my own.

Jennifer Cline [: 00:15:59

But that's how it evolved.

Andrew Brown [: 00:16:01

Wow. I mean, that's not an easy leap. I don't want to say it's a leap of faith, but it's more of you have to believe in yourself. You have to have to drive the ambition. Because, look, there's going to be people that push you to try to succeed, but it comes from within. And I always feel it's a personality trait. Like an entrepreneur is totally different type of person. And it's not.

Andrew Brown [: 00:16:21

It's not easy for everybody. As an entrepreneur, I've been beaten up, left for dead on the side, like. And I've gotten back up because there's something inside of me. Maybe it was cause my father was an entrepreneur and he was in industrial distribution and sold to iron workers and welders. That's what I witnessed, what he did. So I don't know if that just kind of rubbed off on me.

Jennifer Cline [: 00:16:42

Yeah, well, it's scary, but I also have a very deep faith, so I knew even though that wasn't. It was actually very traumatic, that things that were done for me to have to leave like that. But I always knew that there was a reason for it, even if I didn't like it. I knew I was being pushed out to go on to bigger and better things. And I knew at the end that it would be okay.

Andrew Brown [: 00:17:05

And it worked out in the end.

Jennifer Cline [: 00:17:06

It did. And then Covid hit, and I thought, oh, my gosh, my job would have been a nightmare right now anyway in the courthouse with people, with COVID And I think I was spared from all of that. That would have been an awful situation. And I was home. I was able to work here by myself. And, like, the landscape of influencer marketing changed. People were reaching out to me because their marketing people couldn't come to work. So that's when, you know, I stopped making the flags.

Jennifer Cline [: 00:17:32

Other jobs were coming in, and I started making content for others then. So it worked out and it evolved. But I had to have the mindset that it's going to be okay, that I'll figure it out. I'll find. Just like with Gary's tools, I'm like, I'll figure it out. I'll figure it out. I've been through worse. I'll figure it out.

Jennifer Cline [: 00:17:49

And I did.

Andrew Brown [: 00:17:50

That is a great trait to have. Just perseverance and just, you gotta do what you gotta do. And you made it happen. I was thinking of you because we were having this podcast today. My neighbor is all into woodworking, and he's got a little house off his house in the backyard. He's got all these tools. He's got Festool and all these tools. And he's always making something.

Andrew Brown [: 00:18:09

He's always making a chair. He's making a medicine chest. And I always joke around, what's next? And he gets so excited. He gets lit up.

Jennifer Cline [: 00:18:16

Yeah.

Andrew Brown [: 00:18:17

How does that feel for your inspiration of, like, what's the next project? I mean, I'm sure you got a ton of things in your head, what you want to do. How do you even keep track of that?

Jennifer Cline [: 00:18:25

I have a notepad in my phone, and there's also Pinterest, which is the devil. You go on, and like, an hour later, you're like, it's a rabbit hole. And I have all these things saved. Right now. I'm in the middle. And I had to start this early. And I don't know if you've seen the last couple years. I do a Christmas countdown and it takes a lot of time.

Jennifer Cline [: 00:18:44

And last year I visited five different retailers and I did, like stocking stuffer ideas. So I had to think, am I going to do this every year? And I thought this year I would do a Christmas countdown of crafts. So I had to start that in order to have 24 different craft projects. I thought, what I'll do is start in January and I'll knock out two a month. And so a lot of what I'm working on and I've been kind of quiet on LinkedIn especially, but it's because of this countdown that I'm preparing for. So that is mainly my list of crafts. But I'll have people and friends come to me and say, hey, I want you to build this for me. And things I want to do around the house.

Jennifer Cline [: 00:19:23

So it's just never ending. But I enjoy that.

Andrew Brown [: 00:19:25

Well, it's a passion and it shows. There's only so much time in the day to do these projects and I wish I had that skill. I can build things, but I can't do the woodworking aspect of it. So to your point, I think it's a timing thing, you know, with the things that I do in the social media, running a company and things and all that stuff, I just don't have. I could only pick and choose things to do. But I would love to go that rabbit hole. I'm sure if I came to your shop, I'd be in heaven because you have all the power tools. I had the same thing here.

Andrew Brown [: 00:19:56

I'm surrounded by so many tools because we're in the tool business and we get freebies and that type of stuff. So I have everything at my disposal, just like you do. Can you have enough tools?

Jennifer Cline [: 00:20:07

No. I still see things that come out and I'm like, why didn't I get included on the list to get and try that? It's like any sickness you can never have. I probably have all the tools that I need, but not as many as I want. I think that's how the saying goes. And again, in my notepad, in my phone, I have a list of things that I want. I really want a scroll saw. There have been things that I've gotten in the last year. Like I wanted a band saw.

Jennifer Cline [: 00:20:33

I love it. It's right here. Yeah, out in my shop. And I love. It's like trying to pick a favorite child. I love them all. There are some that I use all the time. They're like daily drivers and Then there are other ones that are maybe fun to use, like my power washer.

Jennifer Cline [: 00:20:49

Like, that's a fun tool to use. And then there's some that, like, I don't use all the time, but when I need them, they save the day. So I have kind of almost different categories of, like, a hierarchy of my tools.

Andrew Brown [: 00:21:01

Yeah, you could never have too many tools. But I remember when we first started our business and we got this free rebar cutter. And my brother and I, we're like, let's try it, right? Let's snap some rebar. Let's be cool. So we take a piece of rebar and we snap it, and all of a sudden we hear bang. And we look around. It's now in the wall. Because the way we did it, one of us could have gotten killed.

Andrew Brown [: 00:21:23

We'll sell it, but we're not going to use it. We'll give it to the professionals who know what they're doing on that side of it. So I stopped trying out those type of products.

Jennifer Cline [: 00:21:33

Yeah, you have to have. And this is when I first started picking up Gary's things. I knew I had to have a healthy appreciation for what the tool could do, but also not be so freaked out and get in my own head that I was, like, afraid to touch anything. Because I think accidents can happen if you're afraid of something, too. So you have to be in the middle there. And obviously, like, I watch things all the time, and I don't want to be the troll on people, but I see people all the time not wearing safety glasses, ear protection. So I think you also have to also exercise some common sense. But I don't want to be so freaked out and afraid of something that I don't try.

Jennifer Cline [: 00:22:10

So you got to be really in the middle.

Andrew Brown [: 00:22:12

Yeah, safety is the number one priority, you know, especially for tradespeople. Sometimes they put themselves in harm. When I just did a post on this on LinkedIn, and we built a safety program for OSHA 10, training, OSHA 30, fall protection, a lot of other programs. Because you never know when you go to a job site, something happens or you use something incorrectly. I was even thinking last night, my family and I, we watched this old show called Little House on the Prairie. We rebooted that show. I don't really know why, but we love this show. And Charles Ingalls works at the sawmill, and he's using, like, a table saw from, like, the 1800s, and he's feeding the wood, and he doesn't have any protection on.

Andrew Brown [: 00:22:48

He has no glasses on. And he's, like, looking, talking to somebody. I'm like, God, how many accidents back then must have happened? You can get really hurt.

Jennifer Cline [: 00:22:57

You can. And I just had an incident, and things still even happen because I was using my Brad nailer and I just put a brand new, like, rack of. I don't even know what size, but they were smaller Brad nails in the magazine. And there was one really long nail still left in the tip that I was unaware of. And I shot it, and it went straight through my finger and came out the other side. And it took, like, about a month for that hole to grow out. But I used it, like, as a teaching moment, made a video of it, because I thought, well, why not? Things still happen, even when we're very careful. But I use it as a teaching moment.

Jennifer Cline [: 00:23:38

But I also don't try to tempt fate by doing dumb things either.

Andrew Brown [: 00:23:42

It only takes one wrong move, but that must have hurt. Oh, God.

Jennifer Cline [: 00:23:47

It went. Yeah, straight through. I don't know how it didn't shatter my bone. I don't know if it hit it and it, like, deflected. I don't know what happened. It happened so quick. But then I had to, like, pull it out. And I was in the middle of working on a branded video, what I was building, and I'm like, I can't stop.

Andrew Brown [: 00:24:04

I.

Jennifer Cline [: 00:24:04

This is due. So I had to just patch it up and go back to work and finish what I was working on. But my finger had a heartbeat. The rest of the day I can.

Andrew Brown [: 00:24:12

I wanted to pivot over to social media for a quick moment. I don't think people realize the amount of work that it takes to be an influencer, to do social media. And I do a lot of clips and podcasts and things, and so I know what it's like behind the scenes, you know, especially if you have a small team or it's just you even doing the filming. How important is it for men and women in the trades, construction companies to be on social media to share about their company and their projects in this day and age?

Jennifer Cline [: 00:24:42

I think it's critical. It really is. If you want to grow, if you want to be seen, this is the best way to advertise. And it's basically, except for your time, and maybe you want to buy some lights or a ring light or. Or like a little bit of equipment, but most people. All of my videos are shot on my phone. I would say it's absolutely crucial for your business to be on social media. Like, you have to choose the major platforms.

Jennifer Cline [: 00:25:08

It Makes sense. It baffles my mind why people aren't taking advantage of that. And if you're not good at it, find a relative or somebody that you can hire or chatgpt or whatever it is to put videos together for you. But yeah, it's really crucial. Like you said, it does take a lot of time.

Andrew Brown [: 00:25:26

I think a lot of people are afraid to be on camera. I remember doing this a few years ago and I used to do a lot of YouTube videos and how tos. And I remember and I didn't schedule at that point. I remember I just said, you know, I need to make a video today. So I went downstairs and I put my script together and I had my green screen behind me and I pushed the play button. I did it and I edited it myself and then I put it on YouTube. I did all the descriptions, the hashtags, and I did the thumbnail and then the whole thing bombed. I'm like, why am I wasting my time on this?

Jennifer Cline [: 00:25:54

You know what? A lot of my early videos are just now getting traction. It was weird because I looked at my analytics this morning and I'm like, that video is like 4 or 5 years old. Why is it getting views now? And sometimes it just takes that long for Google for the search. Whatever magical thing happens to the algorithm. Sometimes it just takes that long to like rise to the top of the searches or other videos got viewed and then now the old ones are getting suggested. But it does take a long time. And if you are a creator, your videos in the beginning are going to be really crappy. You just have to accept that.

Jennifer Cline [: 00:26:29

Luckily though, there are a lot of things that have come along to help creators before. If I would get a. I remember I did a paid partnership with sunforce that has like solar lighting that you can put. I remember writing down the attributes that I needed to call out, pasting it somewhere behind the camera and like trying to read from a script and ad lib and it was just not flowing and taking so long. Well, now you have like teleprompter apps. And so it's just things have evolved that makes it. If you're going to be a creator. I guess that's what I'm trying to say.

Jennifer Cline [: 00:27:06

If you're going to be a creator, now is a great time because there are so many things that can help you to be successful. Yeah, in the beginning it was much harder and then editing would take forever because most of my, most of my speaking parts were terrible and. And I'd be. Nope, tripped over myself. There for me, that's one of my hardest parts, even to this day. So you'll see a lot of my. It's just faster to just do the action shots and do a voiceover to it. I'm a sole person as far as content creation.

Jennifer Cline [: 00:27:38

I don't have anyone that works for me.

Andrew Brown [: 00:27:40

Yeah, I don't think people realize that you really just need your phone, a good recording device, and the editing portion is always difficult. I usually farm that out. I'm not an editor. It just takes too long. I used to do that. I'm like, I'm not an editor. But things have gotten so much easier. Even the tools, like, you know, I'll feed in a podcast into Opus Pro, which is an AI tool, and it cuts up all the clips instead of me sitting in for like an hour trying to figure out which clips I want.

Andrew Brown [: 00:28:05

I mean, those things over time have gotten so much easier. And I can build a whole podcast studio here. I couldn't do that years ago. There's no way I could have done that. Too expensive. Now. It's just there's so many tools out there.

Jennifer Cline [: 00:28:18

Yeah. And like you mentioned a minute ago, if people are uncomfortable being on camera, there are a lot of channels that probably are way more successful and make a ton of money and they don't ever show their face. You don't have to show your face. So that is also an option.

Andrew Brown [: 00:28:36

Yeah. A lot of people, I don't know, even like, fear of public speaking. People say that it's like, it's worse than death.

Jennifer Cline [: 00:28:42

Yeah. I am not a public speaker. I had to read at church. Like last Christmas, my son and I lit the Advent candle. I just don't like when everyone is staring at me at one time. That makes me really uncomfortable. But I can set up my. And people are like, oh, you're out going.

Jennifer Cline [: 00:28:58

No. Because it's me by myself in my basement and I can edit out. If I goof up, I can chop that out. But yeah, I'm one of those deer in the headlights people. When it comes to being in front of a large crowd.

Andrew Brown [: 00:29:09

Yeah, everybody's different like that. Some people don't like speaking to a camera. I'm like talking to a camera. I don't mind that. Like, I'll just talk to the camera. But I do feel the back and forth, especially like a podcast, you know, the back and forth works because it's impulse and depending up somebody answers something, you can respond. But not a lot of people can talk in front of camera and feel weird. Sometimes I Feel weird outside.

Andrew Brown [: 00:29:32

If I'm shooting and there's someone behind me, I feel a little awkward.

Jennifer Cline [: 00:29:35

I could never be one of those YouTubers that goes out in public and does a dance on the street or. Or does something crazy out of. If I know my kids even are in the house and can hear me, that wigs me out a little bit because they're hearing how much I'm goofing up and tripping over my words. That psychs me out. I don't like that either.

Andrew Brown [: 00:29:54

Have your kids been influenced by your woodworking and tools? Are they around it? Are they interested?

Jennifer Cline [: 00:30:01

It is for my son and my daughter. Maybe someday in the future, but she isn't so much interested. But my son went to our vocational school his junior and senior year and graduated from the carpentry program. And he works in construction now, so he definitely has followed in my footsteps.

Andrew Brown [: 00:30:19

So he graduated. Is he working?

Jennifer Cline [: 00:30:21

Yeah. Specifically, he's doing drywall right now, but he worked for a construction company where he learned many different skills. So I'm really proud of him. And he's a firefighter, too, a volunteer.

Andrew Brown [: 00:30:33

I think that a lot of it comes from influential, like seeing your family, your parents, somebody in your family who's working or building stuff with their hands. It's just. You don't realize kids are sponges. Your son went to carpentry school and came out as a carpenter doing drywall. Does he want to own his own business one day?

Jennifer Cline [: 00:30:51

Yeah, possibly. He has to learn the ropes right now, but I think that possibly he might go down that avenue. I would be here to support him or help him in whatever way I could. But, yeah, I'd be really thrilled. I'm really proud of both of my kids. My daughter also is wonderful, and she works. Actually, she's a plant accountant. Both of them are really good kids.

Andrew Brown [: 00:31:13

That's great, because all you want is your kids to be happy in whatever they choose. I do the same thing. I don't. My kids are young. My kids are really young. And obviously I talk to my son more. He just turned 11, and he's still young. But I always ask him, like, what do you want to do? Like, what do you want to do? He's like, maybe I want to own my own business one day like you do.

Andrew Brown [: 00:31:31

He's seeing, like, what I do day to day, just like your kids see what you do day to day. And it's just. It rubs off. And I always feel like, well, maybe my son isn't listening. And then I hear him talking and he's sort of regurgitating what I said. So it does rub off.

Jennifer Cline [: 00:31:47

It absolutely does. And I even think of my own parents, who are wonderful role models. And my mom was a nurse. She was an rn. But even the entrepreneurial side for me comes from my mother, definitely because she wasn't afraid to try anything new. She was doing that back years ago when that was just first a thing where she would consult with attorneys. So she would try many different things and, you know, try to have a side business doing one thing or another. She was not afraid to try.

Jennifer Cline [: 00:32:17

She was not afraid to fail either. But a lot of her things were very successful. So I think that she, looking back, that was definitely a traitor that I can attribute to her.

Andrew Brown [: 00:32:28

Not a lot of people will put themselves out there. That fear of failure holds people back.

Jennifer Cline [: 00:32:33

It does. My fear of not trying is bigger than my fear to fail. I don't want to have any regrets. What are you afraid of? You're afraid that what the people watching that you went to high school with might make fun of you. Like, who cares? I don't want to, at the end of my life, look back and say, why didn't I at least try? That is scary to me more than putting myself out there for people to make fun of or whatever they're gonna say. People are always gonna say something anyway, and why do we think it's gonna be negative? Maybe people. The things they're gonna say are gonna be really good.

Andrew Brown [: 00:33:05

The biggest critic, it's not other people. It's the person staring at you in the mirror. I mean, it's just you versus you not being fearful of failing. But there's no one who's really gonna push you. You have to do it within, and that drive and that passion keeps you moving forward. This has been a great conversation, and I can go on for another hour with you. But before you leave, what is one of your special tools of the trade that you can share with the audience? Somebody who wants to start promoting their company on social media? What would be a couple of steps that you can give them or advice.

Jennifer Cline [: 00:33:40

You can give them to maybe analyze what brands you really care about and what you really are passionate about on your own? And I know for me, I just saw where there was maybe a need for something, and I just created a character and a role and emulated that. And if you want to start maybe working with companies, don't be afraid to reach out to them or go on an app. There are a lot of middlemen that will. You can go on and you can apply, like maybe write a list of the brands that you would want to work with. And then there are a lot of places that you can go on a lot of these apps where that brand might be signed up to work with influencers and you can just go on and apply. But don't be afraid to reach out. Also, LinkedIn is a huge resource that I think is way overlooked because I know that when I first started posting on there, we're going seven years back when people really didn't share anything of their own on LinkedIn. It was mainly memes and inspirational business, really businessy things.

Jennifer Cline [: 00:34:42

And I went on there and I connected with a lot of the. I just searched a brand and then I would see who the employees were and I would connect with them. So I would also do that. I think that gets way overlooked because those are the people that are going to be making the decisions within the marketing for that brand. So I would try something like that. And then don't reach out to them in like a sharky type of way. Like you really have to build a relationship with people and you have to show them what you do. And then they.

Jennifer Cline [: 00:35:12

You can either reach out to them or a lot of times people have reached out to me and wanted to work with me. I would try that. But just don't be afraid to put yourself out on social media. And the offers will eventually come. It may take time, but they will come.

Andrew Brown [: 00:35:24

I like that advice. First you gotta start. You just gotta start like, it's never gonna be perfect. Whatever video or thing you put out, it's never gonna be a hundred percent. And I think also that holds people back. Not only about getting on camera, also being perfect. And I stopped being perfect a long time. I just like, screw it.

Andrew Brown [: 00:35:40

I'm like, if it's 75, 80% and I flub a few words, whatever. If it's perfect, someone might say, well, they probably did a bunch of takes. There's a bunch of editing there. I also feel like, don't stress over a post that bombs. All our posts bomb every now and then. I've had a bunch of ones that bombed where I thought they're going to do well. And the ones that I didn't think would do well, like, what did I say? What did I do?

Jennifer Cline [: 00:36:02

And can I just say that the mistakes a lot of times are what lead to it being successful. So I've stopped beating myself up over mistakes. I mean, even in my own projects, things that I thought were my first flag was a mistake. The proportions were all wrong and I thought, what am I going to do with this flag? So that's why I took it into work and had all of the officers sign it. That was a lesson to me that even a mistake can have a wonderful outcome. So don't beat yourself up over that because sometimes that leads to something that you would have never planned had it been perfect.

Andrew Brown [: 00:36:36

I like that because I've seen that too. Some opportunities have just opened up that I just didn't even realize. But I thought that I wasn't going to put out a certain piece of content because it wasn't 100% right. And then it just opened up a door. So I'm a big believer of that. Just start. You'll only get better if people want to find out more about you and about your work, what's the best place to go? Social Media website I don't have a.

Jennifer Cline [: 00:36:58

Website, but I'm all over social media and my handle is Jenny from the Shop. Or they could find me on LinkedIn Jennifer Klein so they could find me there as well. Or YouTube is also Jenny from the Shop. But if you just google that, you should probably have a lot of hopefully a lot of things come back for Jenny from the Shop.

Andrew Brown [: 00:37:17

Yeah, if you're listening, definitely look for Jenny from the Shop. Yeah, it's pretty cool what she does and the projects that she does and the products that she shows shows on TikTok and other social media platforms. So definitely check it out. Jennifer, it has been a blast.

Jennifer Cline [: 00:37:33

Likewise, I appreciate you having me on.

Andrew Brown [: 00:37:35

Thank you so much and thank you to our listeners. If you want more valuable insights and trades related information, head over to andrewbrown.net and join our Trades Movement newsletter where we advocate for the trades, we share inspirational stories like Jennifer clients, we provide resources and you join a passionate trades community. Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast so you never miss another episode. We'll see you next time.

[: 00:38:05

Thanks for listening to the Lost Art of the Skilled Trades. Visit us@AndrewBrown.net for more resources and tips. Join us next time for real stories and meaningful initiatives as we celebrate our men and women, women in the skilled trades and shape the future together.