Marc Spagnuolo

Marc Spagnuolo is a woodworker, and a popular YouTuber.

He has 855K subscribers on his YouTube channel, ‘The Wood Whisperer.’

Marc is also an author, and a blogger.

Introduction-

Marc Spagnuolo was born on 15 April and hails from Trenton, New Jersey, United States.

His mother, Lorna Gladwell, helps him with his woodworking business and his stepfather, Arlie, also used to help him with his business.

As a kid, Marc loved science and wanted to grow up to become a scientist.

Hating wood & turnaround-

As Marc grew up in a house with a lot of oak paneling, he disliked anything with wood grain and felt them to be antiquated; at that time, he was into modern materials.

Later, in 2002, he watched the ‘WoodWorks’ television show of David J. Marks and liked his method of working and idolized him.

Later, Marc met David at a woodworking show in Orange County, California, where he was teaching, and he attended the seminar.

After seeing him building modern furniture with a lot of exotics, Marc fell in love with woodworking; he also met and introduced himself to David.

After this event, he returned home and continued with his job and started studying woodworking; he observed that David was offering woodworking teaching classes on his website.

Marc wanted to take his classes but at that time, he wasn’t in a position to travel to Santa Rosa, California and take his class; but his wife, the breadwinner, inspired him to take the class.

He spent three days working alongside David, and as they had many commonalities, both of them hail from New Jersey and are tattooed, drummers and have love for woodworking, they became friends.

A few months later, Marc went back to him, and a couple of different times had extended stays to work with him; thanks to these, he learnt a great deal about woodworking.

He also learnt woodworking from woodworking forums.

Education & career-

Thanks to Marc’s childhood love for science, in 1995, he joined Rider University, New Jersey to study Bachelor of Science in Molecular Biology; at that time, he was interested in genetic research.

He graduated in 1999.

At that time, even though Marc wanted to get into research, he couldn’t, as he didn’t have a high university degree (PhD).

So, after graduation, he moved to California and started working in quality control in a biotech company producing reagents and kits for scientists; he wasn’t satisfied with his job.

Later, Marc moved to a managerial role in this company; here, his job involved training people; he realized that he liked teaching upon knowing the subject matter; this later proved helpful when he started teaching woodworking through his YouTube videos.

After working in the biotech company, he started working in technology service; he hated this job.

Discovering & realizing his passion of woodworking-

In 2002, Marc was surfing on his DirecTV system and stumbled upon ‘WoodWorks’ television show of David J. Marks and got fascinated by his tools and techniques.

Later, he along with his wife bought their first home in Temecula, California.

And at that time, Marc had watched many seasons of ‘WoodWorks’ show and felt confident about woodworking and ventured into it in 2004 and designed a nightstand; this was his very first woodworking project, and he never looked back.

At that time, even though he loved science, he didn’t have the desire, ability, and time to get back to the school for a PhD to get into research.

So, Marc filled his time with woodworking, and it became his creative outlet.

At that time, he was working at his day job, and used his salary to pay his mortgage, and to buy wood and woodworking tools.

Starting his woodworking business; many struggles & becoming a content creator-

After his apprenticeship with David Marks and building a few projects for his family, friends, and coworkers, and having a few paying gigs, he decided to start his woodworking business.

So, in 2004, Marc started his business, ‘Marc’s Wood Creations,’ and quit his job.

At that time, he started working from his home shop and was working for long hours, refinishing, which he didn’t find gratifying.

Marc started custom woodworking but found it difficult from a business perspective.

At that time, he used to listen to a few technology podcasts like ‘This Week in Tech,’ etc. and used to also watch video podcasts; but during that time, there were no podcasts covering the woodworking niche.

Once, Marc’s wife was out of the town for a few days and he got bored; so, he decided to create a woodworking video podcast.

So, he took his old camcorder and his wife’s iBook and went to his shop and recorded his first woodworking video podcast; this was much before his YouTube channel.

After shooting the video, Marc edited it, added music to it, and showed it to his wife.

Then, it struck him that he could use videos for the growth of his woodworking business.

Marc’s plan was to film his woodworking projects from start to finish and hand them as mementos to his customers as he believed that the videos could easily convince the customers to purchase the expensive furniture.

His videos were educational in nature, thanks to his teaching experience he had while working at the biotech company.

As Marc posted his videos on a couple different forums, they received great feedback and people loved them; so, he decided to regularly publish videos.

At that time, he wasn’t earning money by his videos and was making a living by refinishing gigs and a couple of times, he returned to working at jobs.

Motivation to succeed as an entrepreneur-

As Marc’s woodworking business wasn’t earning him enough, in the end of 2004, he started working as a full-time site evaluator at a local engineering company in Phoenix; he despised his boss.

He continued working on his business on the side.

Marc worked at the engineering company for six months; as he had a taste of freedom working at his ‘Marc’s Wood Creations’ business, he developed an intense urge to make his business successful, so that he could be freed from his boss.

So, he started working hard at his business to make it work and quit his job.

Later, Marc started working at a refinishing shop downtown in Phoenix; here, he gained substantial High Volume Low Pressure (HVLP) and wood finishing experiences.

At that time, he was also focusing on his business, both on making furniture and video production.

In 2006, Marc called a couple of woodworking tool companies, Powermatic, and Festool and succeeded in getting them as sponsors for his woodworking video production business.

During that time, he was publishing his videos on various video services platforms like Vimeo, Blip.tv, etc.; he was focusing more on iTunes and RSS feed than on his YouTube channel, as at that time, YouTube wasn’t hugely popular.

Marc was just repurposing his videos for YouTube; he used to also have videos on his website, ‘The Wood Whisperer,’ which he started in November 2006.

He also worked as a woodworking instructor at a few woodworking schools in the United States.

His YouTube channels & books-

Marc started his YouTube channel, ‘The Wood Whisperer’ on 19 October 2006; on the same day, he published his first YouTube video, ‘1 – Introduction to The Wood Whisperer.’

As of December 2023, he has 855K subscribers on this YouTube channel.

And has 603K followers on his Facebook page and 301K followers on Instagram.

Marc earns from a variety of sources like ‘TWW Guild’ (he sells woodworking courses), advertisements on his YouTube channel and website, affiliate marketing, sponsorships, merchandise (on his website), YouTube ‘Membership,’ and ‘Super Thanks.’

He also accepts donations on Patreon, and Stripe.

In addition to his primary YouTube channel, Marc also has three other YouTube channels, ‘TWW BBQ,’ ‘Wood Talk,’ and ‘Wood Whisperer en Español.’

He published three books, ‘Essential Joinery,’ ‘Hybrid Woodworking: Blending Power & Hand Tools for Quick, Quality Furniture,’ and ‘Finishing: it ain’t over till it’s over.’

Marc also published an app, ‘The Wood Whisperer;’ has a forum, ‘WoodTalk Forum;’ and a podcast, ‘Wood Talk.’

He has a team for helping with his business.

Marc’s favourite woodworking books-

• ‘Understanding Wood: A Craftsman’s Guide to Wood Technology.’
• ‘Understanding Wood Finishing’
• ‘The Minimalist Woodworker’
• ‘Greene & Greene: Design Elements for the Workshop’
• ‘A Marquetry Odyssey: Historical Objects and Personal Work’
• ‘The Impractical Cabinetmaker’
• ‘By Hand And Eye’
• ‘The Unplugged Woodshop: Hand-Crafted Projects for the Home & Workshop’
• ‘Wood Bending Made Simple’
• ‘Workbenches.’

His favourite self-help book is ‘The 80/20 Principle: The Secret to Achieving More with Less.’

Personal life-

Marc is married to Nicole Spagnuolo; she helps him with his business.

This couple has a son, Mateo, and a daughter, Ava.

Marc is an ailurophile and loves Marvel Comics, video games, BBQ, coffee, and Spider-Man.

He lives in Wentzville, Missouri, United States.

So, how are you inspired by the success story of Marc Spagnuolo?

Share with me in the comment section below.