Daily Inspiration: Meet Taylor “Agate Dad”

Today we’d like to introduce you to Taylor “Agate Dad”.

Hi Taylor, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I started my rockhounding and lapidary YouTube channel, Agate Dad, back in August of 2019. I started it to share my passion of searching for Lake Superior agates, which is the state gemstone of Minnesota, they come in many varieties and are all individually unique.

Initially, our YouTube channel was just about exploring for Lake Superior agates, primarily in my home state of Minnesota (we occasionally sneak over to Wisconsin) but then I started finding other minerals and fossils on my adventures, which led us to search for more than just agates. Eventually, our channel started exploring the realm of lapidary, where I started sharing videos of cutting and polishing many different minerals with my lapidary equipment.

Our Agate Dad YouTube channel is nearing 200 videos and has grown to over 22,000 subscribers in less than 3 years. I post at least one video a week and share a lot of behind the scenes pictures and videos on our offical Agate Dad Instagram and Facebook accounts. Creating all that content, as well as being supported by other amazing YouTube channels and our subscribers, has helped us reach levels never imagined. I had initially made a goal that as long as I loved doing all of this, to hopefully reach the milestone of 1000 YouTube subscribers in 3 years.. We have been blessed with so much support from the rockhounding and lapidary community, it never goes unnoticed and is always appreciated!

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has not been a smooth road, even though we have grown to levels never imaginable, I still had to conquer one of my fears through all this, which is public speaking. To be honest, I’m nowhere near conquering that fear, I still fumble my words in every video and get extremely nervous filming myself if other people are around, which includes my amazing wife and kids. I didn’t want to let that fear get in the way of this dream though, so I have worked very hard at being comfortable and okay with sharing my true goofy self.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I create videos, my main goal is one I need to accomplish on a weekly basis, which is to create an enjoyable experience for the viewer. Whether the video is exploring a beautiful river or beach from the North Shore of Lake Superior.. or powering up my lapidary saw to cut open some Lake Superior agates and expose some internal agatey goodness, I try my absolute best to make each video as enjoyable as I can.

The thing I am most proud of is our YouTube channels subscribers.. Not the specific number amount of them, but the community that has formed with them. They are the life blood of this whole journey and they mean the world to me. I love talking with them, answering their questions, seeing pictures of the treasures they have found, and if I am lucky, meeting them in real life.

What would you say have been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
The greatest lesson I have learned is that some dreams don’t come easy, they are not handed to you. I have put an insane amount of time and energy into all of this. I cannot tell you how many nights I have stayed up into the AMs editing videos until I fall asleep, or watching countless YouTube videos on how to get better at videography, photography, and editing videos. These are all things that I have worked so hard to get better at so that the viewer gets a more enjoyable experience.. It’s truly all about them. They’re worth it and it all has been worth it. Even the hard times that were not that fun at all, needed to happen to get where we are today. I wouldn’t change anything about how this journey has gone.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/agate_dad
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/agatedad
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/c/agatedad
• Other: www.amazon.com/shop/agatedad

Image Credits
Taylor