In a way, John Malecki owes his 1.2 million subscribers on YouTube to an affordable coffee table.
Had he owned a sturdier table, he won’t have thought twice about his enthusiasm for HGTV's home improvement show “Fixer Upper,” which he watched repeatedly as a fringe offensive lineman within the NFL.
However, because it turned out, Malecki's table broke just before his final preseason together with his hometown Pittsburgh Steelers in 2013. And being the “Fixer Upper” fan that he was, constructing a brand new one sounded quite a bit higher than simply buying a alternative.
At that time, Malecki was on his fifth team in 4 years. An undrafted free agent out of Pitt, football has at all times been his North Star and has guided his every decision since elementary school.
Now in his mid-20s, his North Star has faded.
In between practices at training camp, Malecki built a homemade coffee table for his apartment on Pittsburgh's South Side with the assistance of some Home Depot twins. Reflecting on his appreciation for Chip and Joanna Gaines' work on “Fixer Upper,” he thought, “I kind of want to build my own cool stuff.”
In the weeks that followed — and particularly after his NFL profession ended when he was released in September of that 12 months — he purchased some latest woodworking tools. The starting of a giant collection – and a totally latest passion.
Today, Malecki's 1.2 million YouTube subscribers tune in to his woodworking channel to observe him construct all the pieces from cutting boards and side tables to a hidden whiskey cabinet and a Lord of the Rings-inspired door.
Like others who’re fully dedicated to their work, Malecki didn’t see himself as someone who had many interests outside of football. When he began constructing his coffee table, he had no formal training and didn't know what he was doing; he was simply curious and allowed himself to follow him.
So what happens once we pay slightly more attention to those on a regular basis thoughts and provides ourselves the liberty to explore latest areas of growth?
Passions can come out of us at unusual times, but most frequently once we feel a fundamental need for change in our lives. For Malecki, that meant creating opportunities to experiment, fail and grow after football.
If you watch one among his videos now, you may notice a tattoo on Malecki's arm. He got it after one among his college coaches at all times preached the importance of persistence.
It says: Keep chopping wood.
Two years earlier, Malecki had holed up in an extended-stay hotel on Christmas Day, alone aside from a bottle of Jack Daniels and a moose puzzle. Malecki was a member of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers practice squad on the time and was on his third team this season. The Bucs played the subsequent day and the bottle and puzzle filled his time away from home.
Back in Pennsylvania, Malecki's family prepared their annual lavish offering: tenderloin with homemade pasta, his grandmother's homemade gnocchi, and his mother's pumpkin pie.
His mother had sent him a care package that week, attempting to repeat the experience.
Still, he said, “I was totally depressed.”
And yet he also lived out all the pieces he had at all times wanted. When he was a 10-year-old growing up in Murrysville, half-hour from downtown Pittsburgh, he had put a chunk of paper in a time capsule that said his dream: “I'll be in the NFL.”
If that meant spending Christmas alone in a hotel room and away from his family, then that was a part of the deal.
“Back then I was a firm believer that you have to suffer to get what you want in life,” he said.
After that season with the Bucs, he made two more appearances with the Steelers, followed by a transient stop in Washington. When Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin called him into his office in 2013, Malecki's intuition told him it could be everlasting.
“Appreciate your work, John,” Tomlin told him.
His football profession was over.
The next spring, Malecki applied for a sales job with an organization that makes metal byproducts. He hadn't played within the NFL in months, and what he wanted greater than only a sales job was one other likelihood within the NFL.
But when the corporate owner told him within the interview, “That’s great, John, but you have no experience,” it was like a slap within the face.
“I was useless,” Malecki said. “I had no skills. …All the hopes and dreams of my childhood are crumbling. I was just sad. Just lost in the many facets of life.”
The only thing Malecki continued to do during this time of uncertainty was to construct latest things out of wood.
John Malecki (No. 74) plays in college against Syracuse. (George Gojkovich/Getty Images)
One day, Malecki was together with his former teammate Baron Batch, who had just bought a brand new house. The lack of furniture in the home was glaring. No table or chairs, just sofas.
They sat in the brand new, empty garage and checked out the workbench within the corner that had plenty of supplies on it.
“What if we built things?” Malecki asked Batch.
The same excitement Malecki had before constructing the coffee table for his apartment crept in. Soon after, Batch's house was outfitted with homemade tables, cabinets, and shelves.
Malecki bought tools on Craigslist, used more 2x4s from Home Depot and an old carpenter his father gave him, and commenced spending most of his time constructing latest buildings.
“I was just drinking and hanging out with my buddies,” Malecki laughed. “We were very curious and I was trying to figure out what would happen next in life.”
He began posting on Facebook and Instagram showing what he and Batch were doing. He had no expectations of where this could lead on. But the comments kept piling up:
Batch and Malecki decided to open a full-time studio together called Studio AM, combining Batch's artistic vision with Malecki's woodworking skills. As time passed and his followers on Instagram and Facebook grew, he decided that a YouTube presence could be helpful and commenced posting just a few videos.
“They’re so bad,” Malecki said. “Just terrible.”
Then, in 2016, he posted a video of a compound slide, a standard woodworking tool. It was a straightforward YouTube post and he expected the standard mild response. Except it had just a few hundred thousand views.
“Holy shit,” he thought, “I don’t know how I’m going to capitalize on this, but this feels good.”
As he found his way, he kept telling himself the identical mantra he used throughout his football profession: “Just do the reps, John. You go to the gym, you hate it, just do the reps. You don’t like this exercise, you don’t like this exercise, the coach said do it, do it.”
Malecki allowed himself the liberty to explore an area he was inquisitive about and step by step let go of the concept his only purpose in life was football. But he retained his sense of purpose, the things he believed in and that might be applied to all areas.
“Effort and attitude,” Malecki said. “Those are two of the controllable things you have. I took that from football and transferred it dramatically to the next phase of my life. You can’t lose if you don’t give up.”
In 2018, Malecki signed a one-year sponsorship take care of an organization price $65,000, his big financial break. It was the primary time he realized he could actually make a living working wood. Now he's doing almost what he did in his best 12 months within the NFL in a month.
“We were just surprised at how creative he was,” said Max Starks, a former Steelers teammate. “We knew he was creative, we knew he was funny, but to be able to combine those two things so seamlessly while still being authentic is something that's kind of fascinating.”
Former teammate Ramon Foster met Malecki for the primary time as a Steeler and it quickly became clear what form of person he was.
“He came to work every day, he took a lot of crap, and he stayed and persevered,” Foster said.
When Malecki began selling his creations, Foster wanted it to be one among his first big sales. He now owns a custom University of Tennessee cutting board, in addition to a coffee table, corn hole boards and cutting boards made by Malecki.
Foster only asks for one thing in return.
“I just want to get it out there,” Foster said. “If he ever meets Chip and Joanna Gaines and doesn't invite me and my wife, we're going to have a real problem!”
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