We had the good fortune of connecting with Jason Hibbs and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jason, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
When you work for some one else you lack a certain motivation. Because you will always be working to better that person or company above yourself. When you work for yourself it’s different because every late night, every extra bit of effort directly benefits you. If you fail its on you if you succeed its on you. The stakes are higher but so are the rewards.

What should our readers know about your business?
About 7 years ago i was helping my wife run her art based business. She did hand drawn illustrations on home goods such as tea towels, napkins and tote bags. It was. great job and i loved working with my wife but i always felt like it wasn’t what i was meant to do in life. I had always been creative, artistic, ADD whatever word you want to use. So after starting to feel a little burnt out i began teaching myself how to woodwork. More as a hoby and creative outlet than anything else. Over the next few years as i learned more and more i began getting more and more confident in my skills and eventually started taking on client work and building things for other people. This ultimately lead to me quitting my job with my wife (sorry babe i still love you) and starting my own woodworking business. I absolutely loved my new path in life and had fully planned on building client commissioned pieces indefinitely. But then COVID hit and we were forced to lock down. For months i couldn’t go to clients homes or take on new jobs. Being inherently unable to sit still i kept building things but this time for my own state of mind and to keep my brain occupied. I also documented these builds and began putting them on YouTube. By the end of lock down i had grown my YouTube Channel to just over 500K subscribers and i just never went back to doing client work. Now all of my projects are built solely for the purpose of sharing my process and trying to teach others how to build.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I live in the Willamette valley in Oregon. If a friend was visiting for a week i would do my best to give them the true Pacific NorthWest experience. We would probably start out with a trip to the Oregon Coast. In my opinion one of the most visually breathtaking stretches of coast line in the world. We might follow that up with a hike through one of Oregons many old growth forests with trees dating back to the birth of christ. Then of course we would need some nourishment so we would stop at one of my favorite Oregon breweries Fort George for a good pint and a great meal. Then we’d spend the evening in down town Portland enjoying the night life and stopping at a few of my favorite watering holes like Tear Drop or the Pink Rabbit.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I want to dedicate my success to YouTube and the countless people who take the time to put educational content online. I sometimes say that i am completely self taught. But that isn’t exactly true. Sure i was the one that made the effort to research certain topics online and learn how to do certain things. But i wouldn’t have been able to do that if it wan’t for the ever growing resource of online instructional videos available to our generation.

Website: www.bourbonmoth.com

Instagram: bourbonmoth

Facebook: bourbon moth woodworking

Youtube: bourbonmoth

Image Credits
Craig Paulsen

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