Here at Curiosity, every employee is given an extra day off each year to go out and try something new, adventurous or just plain crazy. This day is appropriately named “A Curiosity Day”.
As a digital marketing professional, I use my woodworking hobby and blog as a way to learn about my own industry and how different things connect people, ideas and passions. Exactly the same thing we hope to accomplish with the clients we serve.
My curiosity day began several months ago when I learned that a local businessman was going to be closing down his industrial cabinet making facility after 60 years. The facility he owns is well over 40,000 sq/ft, and is filled with a treasure trove of one-of-a-kind exotic lumber and woodworking equipment. I’ve purchased hundreds of board feet of lumber from him over the years and have spent time sharing this secret cache of lumber with fellow woodworkers over the years. The owner’s health has severely deteriorated over the last 5 years and he’s made the decision to close the operation down.
Rather than simply putting the whole place up for auction, I suggested we coordinate a lumber sale that would be open to the public. Having fellow woodworkers create something amazing from this gold mine was particularly appealing to the owner, and offered him the opportunity to bring in some additional cash for his retirement and family’s well-being.
Over the last month and a half, I leveraged my blog, previous woodworking projects that used this lumber, along with the social connections I’ve established through social media channels over the years to begin promoting this event. Leading up to the event, I received a 10x increase in site traffic to the blog posts detailing the event, price lists and featured products and materials.
Last weekend (Friday and Saturday), well over 200 woodworkers came to the warehouse and picked out single boards all the way through 100’s of board feet. Attendees drove up to 800 miles to take advantage of this once in a lifetime opportunity. Well over 75% of the attendees had heard about the event from my blog, and were familiar with the projects I’ve featured that used the materials. Sales for the two days totaled well over $100,000 and remote orders from New York and Montana are likely to double that.
All of this as a result of some blog posts, personal connections with fellow passionate woodworkers and a physical event. Plenty to take from this experience and apply to future client work.
Take a look at the recap I posted on my own site here.