Anne Briggs

Eric Girouard  0:00  

This is Bucket Talk, a weekly podcast for people who work in the trades and construction that aren't just trying to survive, but have the ambition and desire to thrive. The opportunity to trade and construction is absolutely ridiculous right now. So if you're hungry, it's time to eat. We discuss what it takes to rise from the bottom to the top with people who are well on their way and roll up their sleeves every single day.

Jeremy Perkins  0:27  

This is Jeremy and Eric here with Bucket Talk powered by BRUNT. This week, we're going to take a week off spend time with family, it's Thanksgiving week, and we're gonna re air Anne Of All Trades, an oldie but goodie podcast. But before we jump into that, Eric, what's been going on?

Eric Girouard  0:45  

Ha man so with this week approaching, you know, from my perspective, in the broad perspective, it's been nonstop planning for the past realistically few months, but really intense for the past few weeks, obviously, Thanksgiving weeks, a big week for the business. And we've actually got our Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals coming up. And you know, we're not a brand that really ever discounts or does anything of that nature because our pricing so sharp, but this is the one time of the year. And so tonight, technically Tuesday night at midnight, and we're turning on our Black Friday deals where you can not only get $10 off pretty much every pair of boots, but we also have a limited edition all blacked out BRUNT beanie. So that'll be exciting for the next few days. And then we're also dropping a limited edition, all blacked out version of our Marin boot. So I'm excited. So once it sells out, it's gone. It's not like we're gonna restock it and maybe we'll do it again next year next Black Friday, but this is it. So it's been crazy. Crazy Crazy. No sleep no nothing but we're almost past the finish line excited to hopefully spend some time with family what do you got coming up,

Jeremy Perkins  1:47  

dude, what dude, I am barns giving. So we're gonna put on Thanksgiving for all of the borders in the barn. We're gonna have a huge party. Hopefully we don't blow out any windows. You know, I'm not in the market of replacing windows, but it's gonna be a ripper. And we're gonna have everybody that rides horse that are stable and their friends come over to the house and tear it up for a night and it's kind of our you know, thank you for being such loyal people to our bond that a lot of them have helped out with chores and, and what have you. So this is our give back. We appreciate them as clients and I'm super pumped to just kind of rub elbows with some of the people that I work with daily because it's

Eric Girouard  2:25  

your business. It's a dry Thanksgiving, right? This party is there. No,

Jeremy Perkins  2:28  

no dude, man has different has different rules. But yeah, no, I'm super pumped. And to be honest with you, I love this episode. So we're super pumped to give you Anne Of All Trades. 

Hey guys, I'm here with animal trades. First thing I'd like to say is thank you for joining us today.

Anne Briggs  2:50  

Thanks so much for having me, dude, I'm stoked to be here.

Jeremy Perkins  2:54  

So you are a woodworker and organic farmer along with many other

Anne Briggs  3:00  

hacks you were correct. That is correct.

Jeremy Perkins  3:04  

Give us a little background, you know who you are, where you live. And how'd you get here today.

Anne Briggs  3:09  

That could be a very long story, but I'll try to shorten it up as much as possible. But I'm currently in Nashville, Tennessee, we actually just moved here a couple of months ago from Seattle, Washington. Prior to that I was living in Taipei, Taiwan. And prior to that I was living in Beijing, China. And a lot of people stop at those points and want to know more. But basically, my parents have been full time missionaries for the last 40 ish years, they were part of a missions organization. That was also like basically an intentional living community. And so I had a really cool upbringing, getting to live all over the world with a group of people that were really invested in intentional relationship, which is really, really rad. That's kind of, you know, I got exposed to a lot of different cultures and a lot of different things as a kid. And I've had a vast array of interests over the years as a result. And that kind of basically led me to what I'm currently doing with the Anne Of All Trades thing is basically giving a name to my utter and complete lack of direction and short attention span.

Jeremy Perkins  4:22  

Well, I mean, and that's funny, because, you know, I think I'll speak for a lot of people in the trades is, you know, I had a shorter attention span, and hence why I'm a mechanic because you know, then every job that rolls in is different. So you know, it's good to do a job complete it and get it out and work on the next thing. So I'm constantly moving constantly, you know, figuring it out, but what made you what made you get to where you are today. I mean, it's a pretty unique path you took in and there had to been some sort of some sort of, I don't know something behind it anyway.

Anne Briggs  4:57  

Yeah, well, I struggled in School, I have a couple of learning disabilities. And also I was pretty badly bullied when I was a kid. Plus, we traveled all the time. And so my schooling was very, very non traditional. When we were in the States, and it worked. Okay, I would go to public school and from, you know, for certain time periods, my parents are pulling me out of school for various reasons. And during one of those longer periods, my my parents are homeschooling me. And I, they started taking me to this place called the heritage place, which was, like, basically a living history museum, where you could, you could, like, use old tools, and you could turn butter, and, you know, basically just see and experience firsthand what it was like to live, you know, in the 1840s 1850s 1860s. And that then pretty much sparked an absolute fascination for that time period for me, paired with the fact that my grandfather was a woodworker, and a mechanic and a jack of all trades. And, you know, we didn't get to see them a ton when I was a kid, but he definitely was probably the biggest influence on my young life, as far as just I have vivid memories of spending a lot of time in his shop and tinkering around with his tools. And he trusted me with his tools and would let me, you know, do do things, he would teach me how to safely use them, and then allow me to use them. And so I mean, as a kid, I just kind of rose to the challenge. And I loved working with my hands. And again, we didn't get to spend a ton of time with them. And he did pass away when I was really young. So it was kind of at the back of my mind, always from, you know, from that living history museum and my experience with my grandfather that someday, if I ever lived in America, I wanted to have my own farm. And I wanted to have my own workshop where I could do and fix anything that I wanted. And so, you know, fast forward, you know, many, many years, when I moved, when I moved from Taiwan to Seattle, that was the first time in my life that I had disposable time, and a garage. And so even though I was dead broke, I bought a bunch of tools on Craigslist, you know, basically broken tools for rock bottom prices. And I would take them apart and figure out how they worked, figure out how I could fix them. And I'd turn around and sell them for a profit. And that's basically I trade it up, over and over and over again, to get a working toolset that I could actually use in my garage there to build the then fix and tinker with the things that I wanted to. And I had at that time, I was working in tech, I had no intention of ever, you know, doing all this stuff for a living. But the more tools that I acquired and the more hand skills that I learned, the more passionate about it I got, and the more dissatisfied with my job that I got. And I basically realized then that I wanted to figure out a way out of that lifestyle. So foolishly, I got into woodworking, and I started building some pieces of furniture. And I think I got that early confidence that a lot of young woodworkers do. And I was like, ah, like, you know, I could totally do this. And so I quit my job prematurely, and completely failed as a furniture maker, I realized that basically turning that aspect of, of something that I really loved into a business that I relied on for my income, took all of the excitement and all the passion away from me because I like I don't care about money. So I wasn't necessarily motivated by the money. And it like all the romance of just being self employed and, and building spending all my time in my shop was kind of robbed by all of the administrative work that I hadn't really considered that I would need to do. Like, it was funny, I quit my job working in tech because I wanted to spend less time working at the computer. But then all of a sudden, I had to figure out how to make a website and I had to become my own accountant and I had to market my stuff. And I had to send invoices and all those things that like, took all this computer time. And suddenly I was actually in the shop even less. So I after basically settling into a very, very deep depression and letting a whole bunch of potential clients down. I decided to go back to work, but with the intention of figuring out my next way out, so I went back to work for a couple years continued to build my skill sets. by happenstance, I started accidentally posting pictures on Instagram. And I met a really cool group of really talented crafts people that really helped to encourage and champion me and by like a series of happy coincidences, I ended up getting a job running a woodworking program at at Fine Arts Center. And so that was basically my ticket into doing this full time for a living again. And through that they basically needed someone to revamp their entire education program. So I got to hire new teachers and right new course curriculum. And basically, I created the woodworking school that I always wished that I had been able to attend, and then used that job to attend it. During that whole time, I was building my online business and still definitely wanting to go full time on my own, again, just with a very different path. And I did three years later, on January 1 2018, I quit my job. And I've been doing this insanity ever since

Jeremy Perkins  10:46  

that's awesome. I mean, that's actually incredibly inspirational. You know, I know for, for a lot of people in in, you know, our, our generation, I've had a few buddies that have had, you know, just in their 30s decided that they weren't going to wrench anymore, and they went off to be a plumber. And I think, you know, it takes a lot of guts to do what you did, instead of going through the motions every day to to really fulfill what you want it to do. And you know, through hard work and everything, you made it a lucrative trade. So to move along, I mean, what's a day in the life of animal trades? Oh, well,

Anne Briggs  11:27  

funnily enough. So I mean, I've talked a lot about this other places, too, but I struggled pretty greatly with anxiety and depression. And so I had to work. Like knowing that I was going to be self employed, I had to work some kind of external force routine into my lifestyle, routine and accountability. Because I mean, left to my own devices, I'll be good for a long time. And I'll be on a creative streak, and I'll be really productive and things will go great. And then I'll hit some kind of hiccup or some kind of roadblock, or have some kind of like personal sadness, that'll just trigger a pretty negative stream of events. So anyway, all that to say that five years ago, I decided that I wanted to finally realize my dream of having an organic farm. And so with that, I was going to use the organic farm to force myself into a some sort of semblance of a routine. And so even though, you know, woodworking was kind of my main squeeze, and all that stuff, the farm, ironically, actually takes up a whole lot more time than my woodworking does. And I wasn't that good at showing that on social media for a really long time. Because I do really like to encourage people to do the things that they love. And I mean, I mean, quite frankly, I think it's just like the nature of social media that you always show like the good parts, and not necessarily the hard parts. But those first few years on the farm were pretty tough because a I didn't know what the heck I was doing. Like, the funniest thing about that routine thing that I was telling you about is I realized that I needed not only to have animals that I had to feed because like animals not going to starve to death in one day, if I'm really depressed. And I like, you know, can't like go out and see them like that. But I realized like an animal that you have to milk, like you cannot leave it for more than 12 hours without being milked. And so I realized quite early on that, like, you know, I was going to need to have an animal that I milked every day, something that really counted on me for a specific time a specific start and a specific end to my day. So I started so I got a milk goat but I had not milked anything since I was a kid. I didn't know anything about it. Like funnily enough and I mean only people who've ever milked anything will think that this is nearly as funny as it is. But I just literally like got this goat and brought it home. And just like assumed that it would just stand there and let me milk it. So I like you know went out there like proudly with my little milk pail that first time and like bent down to squeeze that little peep and I got kicked in the face. He ran away. And like basically what followed was like eight hours of me chasing her around like getting about a quarter of a teaspoon of at a time of milk. It was just a disaster. And then like you know, I humbly was like scraped up knees and like filthy and from head to toe like went inside and like Googled like how to milk a goat. And then I build like a goat looking stanchion and all this stuff. So anyway, you asked me what my days are like

Jeremy Perkins  14:40  

no, but I completely. I'm completely enthralled right now because you know, I was a kid that at a young age was diagnosed in the 90s with ADHD and my wife calls me zero to 60 Jeremy because I can go from just being down in the doldrums to, you know, like nonstop on something So, I mean, you're definitely speaking to the right crowd of, of, of people who have just, you know, it's been a tough road for us. It hasn't been easy. But we do have, you know, the ability to create a life for ourselves. That's, you know, absolutely magical and seems like you're doing that. And but yeah, please, you know, continue with, with a day in the life of man.

Anne Briggs  15:24  

Now, fast forward from that first goat milking disaster. By the way, that goat and I did develop a beautiful relationship after I got through stanchion and tethers and all kinds of other things. What

Jeremy Perkins  15:35  

was what was the name 

Anne Briggs  15:37  

Maple, 

Jeremy Perkins  15:37  

Maple?

Anne Briggs  15:39  

Yes, she is. She is a 3d, I actually, there's a longer story there, but I don't have a day in my life is I wake up at about six o'clock, 536 o'clock, depending on you know, what I have to actually do that morning. And I answer some emails and do some computery stuff in the warmth of my bed, which is actually honestly a horrible habit, I really need to break it. And I've been trying to get better at that, but it just isn't, is right now. And then I go down, and I bring in the cows and milk, my cow rib and milk and tire. And she's in a local herd share program. So I milk her with my partner Tyler and my milking partner just to be clear. And then Tyler has her own cow as well. And so she makes her cow milk mine, then we clean all of the milking equipment and put the all the herd share order. So we like filter the milk and and get everyone's order for the orders for the day. So that's like, different people buy milk and yogurt and other products. And so we get those ready, we put them out in the because of COVID we have like this special like no contact drop off thing. So we put them out in the drop off fridge. And then I go home and women you know, come home and have some coffee and breakfast, and then run back down to the barn and start taking care of all the other animals I'm bottle feeding two lambs right now. We have a baby goat that needs some special attention as well. Nope, dead She's very cute. If you haven't seen her already, definitely should hashtag peanuts in and then I also have 25 chicks in my brooder right now and I have 10 laying hens that are like running amok in the barn because I haven't finished building my chicken coop yet because you know, April 14 seemed like a really long time away. When I first ordered them and shock of all shocks that deadline came and went without a chicken coop. So anyway, they're just hanging out ruining my life right now. And then I feed the donkeys I have two miniature donkeys that Garner fuck Howdy impella. And I feed the rest of the goats and change all the water buckets and muck up the barn. And then I feed I just recently inherited, I have a no pet rule here on the farm. But my neighbor had this pig who's like, really, really funny and cute. And she was like, had some major behavior problems. And so he couldn't keep her and I was like, Okay, well bring her over. So now I have a pet pig named Lucy. And so I feed her and Dino just like wrestle around with all the baby animals for a little while. And then that brings us to about 8:39am and I walk into my office and do whatever computer work I need to do i do i use a system called scrim analysis to organize my time. So don't ever if you ever like watching Instagram stories or lives or anything in the background, you can see these whiteboards that have like hundreds of sticky notes on them. Yeah. But anyway, so I walk in, I organize my scrum system for the day. And I like figuring out what's, what's my highest priorities, what's reasonable for me to take off the board and to do that day. And then I create like a basic schedule for the day. And usually that involves like three or four hours of computer work three or four hours of project time. And then all of that's constantly interrupted by feeding the lambs every couple hours. Yeah, then that brings us to usually about six or seven, run up to the house, make dinner, and then come back down and feed everyone let one last time Shut up the barn and put it run away. And that brings us to about 930 And then I go back up to the house and go to bed.

Jeremy Perkins  19:32  

That's That's it sounds busy and fulfilling?

Anne Briggs  19:37  

Yeah, I love it. I mean, like, there. I mean, a lot of people say you know, do what you love, and you'll never work a day in your life. And I honestly think that that's not really how it works. I mean, if it works for people, then that's amazing. But I think at the end of the day, even if you do what you love, there's certain aspects of it that are always going to be a job and things that are going to be work but I mean, there's a reason And I've turned my hobbies into my job like, I enjoy even the work parts, like there's a reward.

Jeremy Perkins  20:07  

Yeah. So, um, speaking of Lucy, my daughter's name is Lucy and I spend a lot of my time between my my two children who are very young, and I want them to be able to work with their hands and be able to enjoy it. And I don't necessarily think that, you know, the trades are right for them. It's way too early, but I do want to, you know, instill some sort of, you know, skill set or value that they can they can take to wherever they want, whether it's hard work, or, you know, early rising, or even, you know, planting a garden and seeing it all the way, you know, to harvest your kids, would you would you wish this upon them? Or do you want to shy them away from the trades?

Anne Briggs  20:50  

I mean, if we're looking like financially speaking, and the world is changing at an extremely rapid rate, like so much of our jobs, like, I mean, even the job that I used to do in Tech has been completely outsourced now. And so, you know, what's funny, is that the only thing that cannot be outsourced, like, you can't have someone in India build you a fence of someone in China, you know, diagnose your 1953 pickup truck over the phone. And so, like, the trades are really the only thing that's guaranteed and and the thing is, a lot of my a lot of my like craftiness right now has been really strongly influenced by my mentor who's almost 100 now, but I spent a lot of time with him starting about six years ago. And he, I mean, like I said, when I met him, I think he was 9096 years old. And he had never in his life called a repairman. Even at 96, he was climbing up scaffolding that he made to blow the leaves off of the roof of his own house. And like literally, there's like neighbors, like screaming at him like to get down and like other stuff. But I mean, he had just never called a repair repairman. I mean, there's, I mean, I even call repairman I like even if I'm fully confident to fix something, there's a lot of things that I just like, thankfully have the resources to now not have to do like, I mean, I started off dead broke. And I had to go swimming in my septic tank five years ago to fix it, because I couldn't afford to call anyone and thankfully, that's no longer the case. I mean, I like I hope that we have kids, and I hope at the very least I'm going to teach them how to use tools and how to be confident in their own abilities or their own ability to figure things out. Whether they, you know, want to do that for a living or not is completely up to them. It is really sad to me that so few kids have the opportunity to experience making things with their hands. Yeah, because, I mean, even me as a kid, like, I wish I had more access to tools to figure things like just to have the opportunity to express myself more creatively, you know, with, with, with tools, and with craft at a younger age, because a lot of that, you know, just like fine motor skills and stuff like that is is so easy to develop at a young age, but is really, really hard to learn as an adult Not to mention that kids you know, fall on the stairs and trip and like fall and like they fail constantly, and they're not nearly as afraid of failing as adults are. And so to get that confidence in yourself while you're like still fully available or fully able to fail, I think is is such a gift and so to provide kids with, you know, the opportunity to learn and, and respect tools at an early age is really important.

Jeremy Perkins  23:53  

So I asked this question, usually to people have a actual specific trade and seeing that you spent multiple trades. I'm gonna address it more as a lifestyle than a trade but do you see any unspoken trends or issues you're seeing in your lifestyle or even the trade

Anne Briggs  24:13  

negative or positive?

Jeremy Perkins  24:14  

I would go with negative

Anne Briggs  24:17  

Epoxy pours

Jeremy Perkins  24:26  

you don't like the tables with the rocks on

Anne Briggs  24:29  

Theyre not my favorite

Jeremy Perkins  24:31  

actually found that quite interesting. I mean, I was at a bar the other day? Well, not the other day but over the over the winter time is at a ski resort and they had the whole bar. My kids thought it was interesting.

Anne Briggs  24:44  

You know what here's the thing I actually like there's I know some people that like that epoxy is their whole craft and there is definitely a craft to it. The whole idea of just like getting two pieces of wood and pouring some plastic between it and screwing On some metal legs, like that's not craft, and like, you know, it just that that kind of stuff kind of bums me out. But if there is really like art, artistry and skill involved in it, and I mean, at the end of the day, really any kind of creativity that's being expressed, like if someone makes it, you know, if someone makes an epoxy pour table, and that's the first thing that they've ever made, and they like it, and they're proud of it. Who the heck am I to say anything negative about it? Oh, absolutely. But as far as like skilled craftsmen going pouring plastic between two tables, that is a trend that I would be happy to see disappear.

Jeremy Perkins  25:35  

So tell me about a cool builder project you done been excited about? I'm sure you have actually a lot. And I did see the democratic chair. And that was actually unbelievable to watch how much craftsmanship you put into that one chair.

Anne Briggs  25:51  

Thank you. Yeah, the funny thing is about that chairs, that's that, that's like the whole point of that chairs that you use a really limited toolset, and you use whatever Woods available. And it also it's like, it's the quote unquote, easiest winter chair that can be made. I mean, it still involves a lot of a lot of, you know, finesse and stuff, and understanding of how it all goes together. But it is it is one of the easier easier ones, which is actually why I wanted to do it because I like quite simply just don't have time to make a full dining set of regular Windsor chairs. And my husband's really been complaining about having to sit on the floor to eat dinner. So I wanted to make a set of chairs, and I really liked that design. So I think I'm gonna make some of those. I'm excited about that. I was like, like making chairs. I mean, my whole life is one big project right now, we just bought a new farm. And it's like, completely starting over. I don't have a workshop here. So I'm actually I'm building one. And I'm like it really, really excited, but also really scared to take this on. But I'm about to build a 5000 square foot shop here. Wow. And so that's, that's huge. I'm hoping to run classes out of it. And so yeah, it's, it's gonna be quite the end ever for sure. And so that's definitely one that one that's, you know, in the forefront of my mind currently,

Jeremy Perkins  27:12  

don't take your skills with you pass them along. I mean, it is key to, to empower the younger generation. And, you know, I, like you said, you have your mentor who's nearly 100. But I had, I had a guy who I've, he moved to Virginia, he retired in Virginia, and I'm super bummed about it. But he, you know, taught me everything from sharpening the teeth on a chainsaw to hand making bowls out of wood, he was a woodturner. But he was he was a guy that you go, Hey, I need firewood, he goes, come on, we'll go to the dump just basic stuff, you know, just go to the dump and get that or he, you know, he'd say, hey, you know, roadkill, you know, if you get it, if you get it in, in, in November, and you get on the list, you can get a deer right off the bat will come over a butcher. And so it was it was small tips like that, that would actually, you know, make your life cheaper and more fulfilling. And I think that's, that's amazing to pass those skills on. So I you know, I'm actually proud of you for potentially starting a classroom. That's amazing. You so you said with it with the chair that you use the basic set of tools, and I've watched the videos, and I saw that, you know, you're using a draw knife, you're using a plane you're using, you're actually using stuff, I mean, me I have a belt sander and chop saw. And, you know, I'm completely not efficient. But you know, I'm a mechanic, time is of the essence for me. So it's how fast you can get it and you are more of the you know, being a part of your your work. And I mean, that's amazing. So you want to elaborate on some of the tools you use.

Anne Briggs  28:56  

I mean, just kind of going back to again, that like the kind of the impression that that like living history museum made on me, I've always wanted to live in a world that I could create with tools that I could make myself. And so a while back I kind of endeavored to make all the tools that I would need to build my own furniture. And so that's kind of what got me into blacksmithing I mean, that is what got me into blacksmithing Yeah, and so I made a few draw knives and you know, axes and a fro and like a lot of the tools that you would need to, you know, a knife carving knife, a lot of the tools that you need to make a chair and so, you know the democratic chair, you can you can make it with an axe, spoke shave, a draw knife, and a fro. And then you've carved out the seat with a tool called a Travis shear, which is basically like a curved It's like a mix between a spoke shape and a draw knife kind of and all of those tools are tools that I know how to make and that's pretty cool. So As soon as I kind of get set up to make stuff again, I want to finish running out my toolkit of tools that I made and build a chair entirely with the tools that I made.

Jeremy Perkins  30:09  

Yeah. Do you use any power tools, though?

Anne Briggs  30:13  

Not for the chairs necessarily. Well, I mean, you can, you can hurry the process of stock removal for the chairs down by using a lathe. You don't have to, actually, well, here's the thing. I'm also extremely competitive. And I have started like competitively like timing myself and timing other people doing certain tasks. So specifically with the lives of professional like the guy who taught me how to make chairs, very Pennington, he told me that he could turn the legs are called Double bobbin. He told me he could turn double bobbin legs in like three minutes and some seconds. And I like the first time I tried it, I was it was like, you know, 15 minutes, I was like, I've got to get this down. By the end of that, like, I spent like a week trying to turn it down. No pun intended, actually planning. And I got it down to like, six minutes. But this last on the Democratic chair, I got it down to like four minutes instead of seconds. And I was like, boom. This is great.

Jeremy Perkins  31:13  

Yeah, I mean, that that plays into my industry, I mean, we're given we're given a task, and the manufacturer says, you know, takes you it should take you eight hours to do it. And for, you know, a kid that that tries to, you know, perfect it, I always want to be below the time, but a lot of times, I find that, you know, thinking recreating it, instead of following the plan and trying to not necessarily cut corners, but find a new way to do it and substantially beat the time is, is kind of kept me you know, loving, loving my trade. I mean, a lot of times it fails. But it's definitely one of those things that you know, that competitive nature has kind of kept me going all these years and in my trade. So it's that's cool to see that you know that you do find a little bit of competition in what you do day to day.

Anne Briggs  32:06  

Oh, yeah, it definitely keeps the wheels turning. But in answer your question about power tools, though I am in by no means like against power tools. The thing is, if I had been introduced to power tools beforehand, tools, I may never have actually gotten into hand tools. Because I do love accomplishing things quickly. And I'm not like, you know, I'm not by any means a purist or anything else. I think a lot of people that like followed me early on thought that I was because I basically only showed hand tools. But literally it was because the only tools that I could afford to buy were an antique Stanley handplane. And a handsaw like these are things I like, hadn't built up my tool collection to a point that I could afford to buy those other things more by necessity than then purity by any means. But I mean, even now, I was just talking with one of my, one of my friends today about like my long term strategy. And as far as like creating educational content, and one of the one of the things that I'm really passionate about is showing people how to do things, like you know how to do things, you know, with a full machine shop, whether it be you know, with the blacksmithing stuff using all the power equipment that's available, and also being able to show it just completely by hand. And there's a lot of skill that goes into both of those things. And some of that I possess and some of I don't, but like with, you know, I did a video series A while back on a whiskey cabinet. I showed, I showed a lot of the processes, both the power way and the hand way to do all the different joints. And I think it's really important for people because there are people that are staunchly power. And there are people that either can't afford power tools are afraid to use power tools, or just want to know how to do it by hand.

Jeremy Perkins  33:52  

Which I have seen your whiskey cabinet actually, a few people have replicated it, and they are on the internet. And I think it's it's awesome. I've seen a few people actually do your design, which is amazing.

Anne Briggs  34:06  

Yeah, that's a pretty cool thing. It's like, it's pretty rare. Honestly, I like when I'm making videos and stuff. I know that like, you know, the majority of the people that are watching my stuff are probably not handle woodworkers or anything else. And I don't ever want to like feel like I'm showing off or anything like that, by any means. I'm more I'm just really excited to show people how things you know, would have been done, you know, a period of time ago, but also just the level of craftsmanship. That's possible because like, quite frankly, I'm not. I'm not an amazing woodworker i i have a certain attention to detail. And I've practiced a lot of the things that I've read and learned about, but I mean, at the end of the day, I've only been doing this eight years. And so there's only so much you can learn in that much time, especially when you have so many other interests like I do. There's really very little, you know, focused attention that's been spent on it. Yep. All that to say it's possible for anyone who has an iota of an attention span, to do any of the stuff that I'm doing. But it's cool because

Jeremy Perkins  35:09  

it's, you know, it's a new thing every day, and you know, that every day is not the same and serve people that, you know, always want to change the scenery, you know, you're never gonna get bored. And I think that's an amazing thing to have is every day is new, you know, truth single thing that changed your career,

Anne Briggs  35:29  

getting hired at pret to run that woodworking program was definitely, I mean, I was grossly, vastly under qualified for that job. But they saw something in me, and they hired me anyway. And I definitely rose to the challenge and worked my butt off and created a program that I was absolutely so proud of. And then I was able to hand it off to someone I was really proud to hand it off to after I'd done everything I could do for the program and was ready to launch up on my own.

Jeremy Perkins  35:59  

I mean, I always talk about getting uncomfortable. And I think that that is a huge point to be made is that, you know, I am not a public speaker. I never really recorded myself, I, you know, I'm good with my hands. But then I joined on this podcast, and, you know, really, now I'm talking to people, and I'm trying to find my words. And, you know, I think getting uncomfortable will, you know, definitely catapult you to the next level. It's something for me that if I stay mundane, in my daily tasks, I don't want to do many more. So it's, it's always, you know, what's going to keep it exciting. And I always have a goal to, to work towards. If not, I'll just be lost amongst the masses, you know? Yeah. So I have recently been doing obstacle course races, buddy of mine had got me into Spartan Races. And I was kind of at a point where we had two children, and we're eating pizza every day. And we're like, let's do something. And my buddy's, like, you gotta do these obstacle course races. And it changed in my, my absolute mindset on, you know, the capabilities of my body, especially, you know, now that that sheer use has kind of left and now I actually have to work for things. But I, I been doing Spartan Races, which are amazing and doing things that I never thought I could do. And even being in the military, I actually was more physically fit now than I than I was when I left boot camp, which is, which is something to say, but what's your release? What other than work? What do you do?

Anne Briggs  37:32  

I mean, I spend a lot of my time working, but Well, I mean, first of all, I have a 1953 Chevy that I'm restoring and that's really fun. But it's also kind of slow and tedious because it's also a pretty expensive project. So I have to kind of like do projects, a little farm a few between. But yeah, I've been I got this golf cart, I traded my truck for it, and I got a golf cart. And I have been like just doing these stupid resto mods on it. And I'm having a blast actually, I just got like earlier today I got a package in the mail that I'd ordered. It's 150 decibel train horn.

And I'm gonna put it on the golf cart, 

Jeremy Perkins  38:12  

pneumatic obviously,

Anne Briggs  38:14  

it is pneumatic but it but it has its own included compressor so and that runs off with a 12 volt battery. And so my golf cart is run on 612 volt batteries. So

Jeremy Perkins  38:25  

solid. So you've probably heard in prior episodes that I am a GM guy or Chevy guys through and through because otherwise

Anne Briggs  38:33  

I'd have to hang up right now.

Jeremy Perkins  38:36  

So is the 53 year daily driver.

Anne Briggs  38:38  

It will be when it drives daily.

Jeremy Perkins  38:41  

That's amazing. I mean, so that's a that's a column shift Chevy

Anne Briggs  38:46  

Yeah, it's three on the tree. Nice.

Jeremy Perkins  38:49  

It was funny when I got into the industry learning out how to so I you know grew up on a standard shift by you know, my dad had like a Saturn and GM by the way, so I never strayed, but it's never driven column shift. And that's, that's interesting. It's, you know, three speeds that's it.

Anne Briggs  39:09  

Like I actually also restored a Ford Mustang don't kill me a 64 coupe and it was that was my first product and actually did that one in on my grandpa. He was a Ford guy. That was my first three three speed but it was ridiculous. Like I had never personal I've never driven a stick before so I learned how to drive stick on that car that I was working on myself. So half the time I was like my shifting wrong or is there something like gravely wrong with the car? Let's find out. But yeah, like with the with this with the Chevy truck. I had to I like all the vintage manuals and stuff. And when I was first learning how to drive it, I had the manual sitting with the little diagram open next to me for like, a month because I kept being like, oh wait, where is it?

Jeremy Perkins  39:58  

Yeah, cuz it's not written on it. Well, thanks for being on the show. It was a pleasure I love getting, you know down and dirty with with everything that you do and you know hats off to you. I don't have a green thumb by any means. I think I killed sunflowers the other day. I just wanted to give you the opportunity now to you know, have any final words or thoughts, just the audience and and let us know.

Anne Briggs  40:24  

One of my favorite phrases is dirty hands clean money.

Unknown Speaker  40:28  

There you go. Anyway, thank you for your time and thanks for having me.