
Yesterday I watched a series of amazing lifestyle business videos I happened on by chance while looking for something on Youtube. To be fair nothing that appears on your Youtube feed – or any social platform – is entirely by chance these days but we’ll put that to one side for now. The point is that aside from learning something very practical I also got some very powerful insights. Insights into what a true lifestyle business can be. Not what what I was expecting but a real bonus.
The videos in question covered the building a small wooden house. 12ft by 10 ft to be precise. I’m interested in this becuase we recently demolished a derelict shed on our property. We’ve talked from time to time about replacing with something a little bigger and grander but have always assumed that this would be: A. Unjustifiably expensive and B. Very difficult with no carpentry or building skills. But a hour or so spent with Dave and Brooke on their Youtube channels Bushradical and Girl in The Woods, has made me think again.
But We have Land
In a 3 part series the couple go through the entire process of building a very nice, habitable cabin on their land in Northern America. If this of interest to you I’ll provide the links at the end of the post. I was inspired to write this more by Dave’s breakdown of the project’s cost and his responses to questions from the 5 million plus views the video has had.
Many of these questions are of the “This is all very well if you have a huge plot of land like you do but that’s too expensive for most of us”, variety. I’ll admit that I was thinking the same thing initially as I watched Dave and Brooke working away on their huge patch of lovely countryside. I loved Dave’s response to this.
He first of all pointed to his pickup truck. This truck cost me $300 and I fixed everything it needed done myself. I also have this 11 year old car with 350,000 miles on it. I’ve never owned a new car.. but I have land. I don’t have a fancy cellphone with mobile internet access I’m on the cheapest most basic plan on the market…. but I have land. We paid for this land in cash and built our own house. We have no mortgage….. but we have land.
Rinse, Repeat, Build

After telling is exactly how much land they own and how much it cost, he goes on to breakdown exactly how they were able to buy it. Again I recommend you watch the videos but basically they built and lived in a succession of small homes starting in a 10ft by10ft cabin which they lived in for over 2 years, one of those years with a new baby. Each time they sold for a profit which they invested in …… you guessed it …. land. By rinsing and repeating this process and putting in a lot of hard work they’ve got where they are now.
On the praticalities of the actual build Dave also has some inspiring words. We are meant to build things – our own homes in particular – and we should all at the very least give it a try. None of what you’ve seen in these videos, he says, is rocket science. Anyone who decides to do it can can do it.
Anyone Can Have A Lifestyle Business If They Decide To
He highlights this by telling a story – with a tear in his eye – about a an unforgettable experience that never fails to inspire him. While rummaging for chimney parts in a local dump he saw a man who had somehow lost half his body, doing the same.
This guy was the most extreme amputee he had ever seen. He had lost not only his legs but apparently his pelvis and everything from the bottom of his ribcage. As Dave watched, this man “walked” on his arms to a waiting car, got in and drove away. Talk about a can do attitude.
Youtube presented this series of videos to me because I’d been watching a video about building a pizza oven. Now I’m presented with all kinds of videos about off grid living and DIY projects. These are internet rabbit holes I’ll no doubt venture down at some point but for now I’m certainly glad I met Dave and Brooke.
They are a perfect example of how to leverage the Internet. The channel descriptions says its all about living a more free and rustic life, adventure, survival, homesteading and off-grid living. Its clearly a labour of love.
With 313K subscribers and at my very rough count over 20 million views Its also clearly a source of some pretty decent ad revenue. I’ve only watched 3 of the channel’s videos but at a glance I see some product revues and unboxing videos. It safe to assume that there will some affiliate commissions coming in from those too.
The Perfect Lifestyle Business?
All in all this is my idea of the perfect modern holistic, lifestyle business. These guys are just doing what they love doing. They’re living life as they want to. They’ve made a business out of their lives rather than buidling a life around a business.
By leveraging the Internet to document and share their lifestyle, experiences and knowledge they have created multiple passive online income streams. I’ve no idea what other marketing they may be doing but these are clearly resourceful people so I’m sure they are. Like building a little cabin, this is something anyone can do if they decide to.
