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My First Million

He Turned A $300/Mo Gardening Side Hustle Into $45 Million/Year | Kevin Espiritu Interview

[Steal This] Get our proven writing frameworks that have made us millions 👉 Episode 591: Sam Parr talks to Kevin Espiritu, AKA The Plant Daddy, about how he turned a side hustle into a $45M business in his backyard.

Sam ParrhostKevin Espirituguest

May 31, 20241h 6mWatch on YouTube

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Chapter summaries

Epic Gardening’s scale: from hobby blog to a $40–45M/year business
The host introduces Kevin Espiritu and frames the episode as a transparent breakdown of how Epic Gardening grew from a gardening blog into a large revenue business. Kevin’s growth is positioned as content plus commerce plus acquisitions, with deal-level detail promised throughout.
- •The host describes Epic Gardening’s origin as a blog about Kevin’s hobby
- •The host previews detailed revenue-by-year transparency
- •The host highlights acquisitions as a major driver of growth
- •The host sets expectations that the conversation will include why deals were done or passed on
A viral kneeling-device video as market validation (and a supply crunch)
Kevin explains how a short-form video about a kneeling device unexpectedly went massively viral across platforms. He describes the content as a way to test whether his audience would want the product—only to find the manufacturer had no U.S. inventory left to sell him.
- •Kevin describes discovering the kneeling device from an Instagram reel and filming a quick test
- •He explains posting across TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube and seeing huge total views
- •He frames the post as a validation tactic to decide whether to carry or improve the product
- •He shares the manufacturer couldn’t supply units due to sold-out U.S. inventory
- •The host asks about missed revenue; Kevin says he’s unsure and guesses it was under the host’s estimate
Early money and skill-building: online poker and the shift away from accounting
Kevin recounts earning significant money playing online poker while in college, which helped pay for school and altered his career path. He and the host discuss what makes a strong online poker player and how pattern recognition complements probability and math.
- •Kevin says he made roughly $200K–$250K playing online poker in college
- •He explains preferring online poker because it’s faster and allows multiple tables
- •Kevin describes probability and hand ranges as core skills for online play
- •He adds that familiarity with opponents and timing patterns can create a “sixth sense”
- •He explains poker earnings reduced his desire to become an accountant
From web design to SEO experiments: Pat Flynn influence and the ‘cocoa butter’ affiliate site
Kevin describes building websites to pay bills and learning SEO as a way to create recurring value beyond one-off web builds. He credits Pat Flynn’s content as a blueprint and shares an early affiliate attempt reviewing cocoa butter products under an alias—his first small taste of online revenue.
- •Kevin says he started designing websites and then moved into SEO to avoid one-time project income
- •The host and Kevin discuss following Pat Flynn’s content and income reporting
- •Kevin shares launching a cocoa butter review site tied to Amazon affiliates
- •He describes using an alias persona while writing reviews
- •Kevin emphasizes the psychological impact of earning his first small amount online
Another internet hustle: the Kendrick Lamar news site and print-on-demand shirts
Kevin explains buying into a music news site with his cousin and building it into a major source of Kendrick Lamar news before the artist’s breakout. They monetized with print-on-demand merchandise until trademark issues forced the site to shut down.
- •Kevin says a friend offered multiple up-and-coming artist blogs for sale
- •He describes his cousin funding a Kendrick Lamar site and Kevin holding a small stake
- •They focused on becoming a top news source before the album release Kevin mentions
- •Kevin says monetization came primarily from print-on-demand shirts
- •He explains the operation ended after trademarking required shutting the site down
Epic Gardening begins: hobby content, going full-time, and early revenue milestones
Kevin details how gardening started as a hobby he documented via blog posts and YouTube videos, with modest ad and affiliate monetization. He explains quitting his job to go all-in despite making only a few hundred dollars monthly, then shares year-by-year growth as a media business before products.
- •Kevin says he’d gardened consistently since 2013 but treated the site as a hobby until 2016
- •He describes building the blog initially as a “digital business card” to show web clients
- •Kevin says he quit his job and went full-time when the business made about $450/month
- •He shares media revenue milestones: about $17K, then $72K, then $225K, then $550K
- •He explains he initially only hoped for a few thousand dollars per month and didn’t grasp scale
The inflection point: selling metal raised beds and learning fulfillment the hard way
Kevin explains how audience demand for the metal raised beds shown in his content prompted him to import inventory and sell directly. He describes buying a shipping container of product without understanding logistics, selling out quickly, then learning to use freight forwarding and a 3PL.
- •Kevin notes repeated audience questions about the metal raised beds in his garden photos/videos
- •He describes contacting an Australian supplier over time until they agreed to sell to him
- •Kevin says he bought a 20-foot container (about 550 beds) for roughly $35K
- •He explains his initial plan involved trying to ship orders himself from a storage unit
- •Kevin says he sold out quickly even before inventory arrived, validating demand
- •He later adopted a freight forwarder and 3PL after guidance from a commerce-savvy friend
Content + commerce compounding: rapid growth, high margins, and ‘negative CAC’
Kevin and the host discuss how adding products transformed Epic Gardening from a media business into a scalable commerce engine. Kevin shares the jump from hundreds of thousands in revenue to millions, describing strong profitability driven by organic distribution through his content.
- •Kevin says 2019 revenue was about $550K with roughly half from product
- •He shares 2020 revenue around $2.8M and 2021 around $7.3M–$7.4M
- •He describes running the business with a very small team at that stage
- •Kevin estimates profit around 50% during the $7M+ year
- •He emphasizes having no paid acquisition spend and calls it “negative CAC” because media drove sales while also earning revenue
Why raise capital: complexity, hiring, and partnering with experienced operators
The host challenges Kevin on why he raised money given strong profitability and control. Kevin explains the operational complexity of scaling a physical-goods business, his limited hiring experience, and the strategic desire to stay ahead by partnering with investors who understood media-to-commerce models.
- •The host argues bootstrapping preserves freedom and questions taking outside capital
- •Kevin describes a long decision process and says the investor check was huge to him
- •He cites operational burdens: hiring, redundancy, inventory planning, and multi-state sales tax complexity
- •He says he knew he didn’t understand what scaling would require
- •Kevin notes the fundraising environment at the time and the goal of staying ahead in his category
- •He explains the partnership was meant to add expertise in building media-to-commerce businesses
Life-changing money and the ‘rich life’ framing: paying for time and reducing stress
Kevin reflects on what financial security felt like and how it changed his day-to-day priorities. He and the host discuss spending on services that remove disliked tasks, referencing conversations inspired by Ramit Sethi about defining a personal version of a “rich life.”
- •Kevin says taking some money off the table was life-changing, but emotionally underwhelming
- •He describes money as reducing worry more than increasing happiness
- •Kevin rejects the idea that a fixed income threshold determines happiness, emphasizing real-world costs
- •He gives examples of paying to avoid chores like cleaning as a quality-of-life upgrade
- •Kevin and the host both reference Ramit Sethi’s questioning style about “rich life” spending
- •Kevin describes building capacity to focus on winning the business rather than personal spending sprees
Today’s scale and the path to $100M: using acquisitions for speed
Kevin shares current headcount and revenue range and explains why he believes crossing $100M is likely. He frames acquisitions as a faster route than building everything internally, especially when the team has the competence (or support) to integrate what’s purchased.
- •Kevin says the business is around 90 people and targeting roughly $40–$45M in annual revenue
- •He says the company is profitable, noting a transition year after hiring ahead of growth
- •Kevin predicts reaching over $100M is likely, driven in part by acquisitions
- •He answers that acquisitions are primarily about speed and internal capability
- •He explains smaller acquisitions were led by him, while a larger one required heavier investor diligence
Acquisition #1: a durable seed tray product line that sold out in seconds
Kevin расскаnts a partnership with a gardening educator who designed a sturdier seed tray, then shows how Epic Gardening validated demand via a single short post. After repeated sell-outs, they structured an asset purchase plus hiring and equity to bring the product line in-house and expand it.
- •Kevin describes immediately recognizing the tray’s durability and user-friendly features
- •He proposes testing sales through Epic’s store and splitting profits with the creator
- •He says they sold roughly a couple weeks of inventory in about 25 seconds after an Instagram Reel
- •Kevin describes moving from revenue-sharing to acquiring assets (including molds) and hiring the creator as product lead
- •He says the line expanded to many SKUs sold D2C and wholesale
- •He characterizes the deal as a sub-$500K acquisition and frames it as a win-win
Acquisition #2: buying a competing gardening blog and boosting SEO monetization
Kevin explains acquiring a gardening blog built by an SEO practitioner who also applied for Epic’s editorial leadership role. By migrating the acquired site into Epic’s stronger domain, they increased traffic and blog revenue efficiency, and Kevin says the incremental cash flow effectively financed the deal.
- •Kevin says Epic’s blog was already sizable and mostly search-driven
- •He explains the candidate couldn’t both work for Epic and run a competing gardening site
- •Epic bought the blog and migrated it into Epic Gardening to combine authority and content
- •Kevin says the migration produced a traffic lift beyond simple addition due to SEO strength
- •He says blog RPM increased substantially after the acquisition
- •He describes a structure with upfront plus earnout, plus job and equity, in the $500K–$1M range
Acquisition #3: buying Botanical Interests and learning acquisition red/green flags
Kevin describes the broader acquisition search with investor support and then the process of buying a long-running seed company he’d unknowingly used early in his gardening journey. He highlights the operational complexity of seeds as a key risk, but calls the brand quality, wholesale footprint, and online upside major advantages.
- •Kevin says they reviewed and contacted many potential targets with investor help doing diligence
- •He recounts visiting Botanical Interests in Colorado and meeting the owner, who recognized him from YouTube
- •Kevin describes using his media presence—wearing the company hat in content—to build trust during the process
- •He says they won the deal despite not being the highest bidder
- •He lists seed-business complexities: testing, certifications, contracting growers, and managing many SKUs
- •He highlights upside: a strong brand, a wholesale-heavy business with online growth potential, and increased online growth after moving to Shopify and announcing the acquisition
Celebrity risks for creators: privacy, boundary-crossing fans, and filming at home
The host asks about being recognizable and the downsides of internet fame, especially when content is shot at home. Kevin describes steps he’s taken to protect privacy but explains why it’s difficult, then recounts an incident where a fan entered his property and treated it as normal.
- •The host compares Kevin’s potential trajectory to home-and-lifestyle celebrities and asks about obsessive fans
- •Kevin discusses being stereotyped because of being a younger man in gardening and dealing with internet assumptions
- •He says he tried removing personal information online but notes filming at home makes privacy hard
- •The host shares experiences of people finding addresses via images and maps
- •Kevin describes a woman entering through a gate and trying to access the backyard, alarming his assistant
- •He explains that at large audience scale, a tiny fraction of boundary-crossers becomes a real number of incidents
Branded plant varieties and licensing: how cultivars, grafting, and patents create moats
The conversation shifts to the business model behind licensed plant varieties, with Kevin explaining why developing new cultivars can take decades and how genetics are preserved through grafting rather than seed. He describes how successful breeders can patent and license varieties, creating long-lived cash flows that are difficult to compete with quickly.
- •The host describes licensing and branding plant varieties as a long-term moat
- •Kevin explains cultivar development is time-consuming and success rates are low
- •He gives an example of a breeder working for many years on a potato that could be grown from true seed
- •Kevin explains why fruit trees are propagated through grafting to clone genetics rather than using seeds
- •He describes patents and licensing fees as the economic engine behind standout varieties
- •Kevin notes the model is challenging but attractive to people who are deeply passionate about the work
Food freshness, farmers markets, and hobby choices: chickens, coops, and beekeeping
The host asks about eating homegrown food and whether it feels different than grocery-store food, and both discuss skepticism about common health narratives. The conversation closes with practical talk about spotting farmers-market resellers and a tour of adjacent hobbies and products like smart chicken coops and beekeeping.
- •Kevin and the host express skepticism about parts of the “Blue Zones” narrative and discuss data/record-keeping issues
- •Kevin says fresher food logically seems better and frames backyard-grown produce as the freshest option
- •He warns about farmers market fraud and suggests questions to test whether sellers know their farming practices
- •Kevin shares where he buys meat and mentions interest in splitting bulk purchases with others
- •The host brings up a smart chicken coop product and the guest notes having covered it on his podcast
- •The host describes beekeeping as a low-maintenance hobby and points to its potential for content and commerce
- •They close with enthusiasm for hobbies and the host wraps the interview

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