Aussie dad ditches job to become YouTube gardening star with 2.3 million followers

Facing financial hardship, the gardening guru had planned to stop posting videos. Then something amazing happened.

Left - Mark Valencia in front of a bed of lettuces. Right - Mark Valencia holding a big lettuce.
Mark Valencia loves sharing tips to other gardeners on his popular YouTube channel. Source: Self Sufficient Me

When a stressed Aussie dad quit his job and announced plans to become a YouTube star, his in-laws pulled his wife aside.

“It was a big, big, issue. They were not happy at all and couldn’t see a future in it. They thought I was shirking my responsibilities and being a loser,” Queenslander Mark Valencia recalled.

Twelve years on, the 55-year-old is YouTube famous for his gardening advice – and his kids are now eating homegrown organic food rather than takeaway from plastic containers.

When Yahoo News Australia asked him how his in-laws feel now, the burly former military man blushed. He's now making up to five times his previous salary, but most importantly, the family is happy.

“They are very proud of me. And they watch my YouTubes on their television. I don’t say 'I told you so'. They’re just happy we’re doing well,” he said.

Of course it wasn’t just his in-laws who had their doubts. Five years after he began his Self Sufficient Me page on the video-sharing platform, a friend at a barbecue asked how much he’d earned. “I said: Well this month I’d made $2. And she laughed.”

On the way home, his wife Nina suggested the woman was being rude, but Mark wasn’t disheartened – he was confident he could make his sustainable gardening page a global success.

“I got it. It seemed like I’d been toiling at this for a long time and not getting anywhere," he said.

“But I thought: If I can make $2, I can make $2000. It’s just a matter of multiplying that and getting content out. And I was right. I turned that $2 into, into $20, into $2000.

“I’ve turned it into a family business, and both my sons are working for me.”

Today Mark’s YouTube channel has almost 2.3 million subscribers, and his most watched video – a guide on burying scraps – has more than 11 million views. Despite being one of Australia’s biggest social media content creators, he’s received almost no media attention.

Back in 2008, before Mark decided to pick up a camera and learn to edit, life had been awful. He and Nina were living near Brisbane and frustrated they weren’t spending enough time with their two young boys.

After the birth of their second son they moved to a two-acre property in Bellmere, southwest of Caboolture. They’d hoped the change would result in quality time at home away from the hustle and bustle, but instead it just added to their stress – travelling to work was taking an hour each way.

“It got to the point where we were getting up when it was dark, dropping the kids off at childcare and then by the time we picked them up it was dark again,” Mark said.

“We were making good money. But it just wasn’t fun. It wasn’t living. We were feeling so sorry for the kids.”

Mark with a spade on a raised garden bed at his Queensland home.
Mark began his garden as part of an effort to feed his family. Source: Supplied

Mark and Nina began to argue a lot and so they came to an agreement that one of them would need to drop out of the workforce to be with the kids, do the housework and maintain the garden.

“It was kind of a funny moment. We were arguing over something trivial like dishes or how the place was a mess, and we were going to drop the kids off at childcare, and I said: Something’s going to break here if we don’t stop it,” he said.

“I said: One of us is going to have to resign and stay at home. And she said: It’s not going to be me. So I looked at her and thought: Oh, well I’m going to give it a shot.”

  • Plant at the right time of year.

  • Use organic fertilisers and good sourced manures.

  • Make your own compost and reuse your scraps.

The decision to start growing veggies in his backyard came out of a need to save money. In between changing nappies and vacuuming, Mark began researching, reading and learning how to garden.

By 2011, his mates were impressed and they’d often ask for tips on growing plants and creating preserves. Mark would always repeat similar advice and it was Nina who suggested he put together a website, and direct them there instead.

“I thought: That’s a bloody great idea. So I researched how to make a website,” he said.

“The kids were five and eight by then and a little more self sufficient. But I would burn the midnight candle trying to learn how to code so I could improve headings. It’s much easier these days of course.”

That same year, Mark started up his YouTube channel. But things didn’t initially go well.

Because he’d worked as a trainer in the military, he thought he could just stand in front of a camera and instruct viewers on how to grow things.

“But I had no idea that getting in front of a little Sony camera would be so intimidating. I switched it on and got stage fright. I was used to talking with people, but there was no one in front of me,” Mark said.

“God it was awful. I had to make all these jump cuts in the edit, because I kept on pausing like a moron staring into this abyss, not being able to think of what I could say.”

An older still of Mark in front of his lemon tree. A still from the YouTube video.
It's was Mark's video on growing lemons that was his breakthrough. Source: Supplied

Initially his plan was simply to earn a little extra cash to help his wife pay the bills. “We were still stretched living off one income. We were robbing Peter to pay Paul. It was a rough time,” he said.

“But we were happier. We didn’t regret it. Because Nina could concentrate on her career and I could concentrate on the kids, the house, and making her happy when she got home.”

But by 2016 things weren’t going well. The family had struggled to pull together enough cash to fly overseas to a friend’s wedding, and when he got back, Mark was going to get a part time job.

“It wasn’t justifiable for me to be sitting at home. The boys were in high school and it was time for me to earn some money,” he said.

“Because of my background, I could have became a delivery driver or security guard, and I would have been totally happy… So I made a video saying: You’re not going to see me on YouTube for a bit.”

Mark switched his phone off as he got on the plane. Then got the shock of his life when he flicked it back on again in Dubai.

“I tapped into the WiFi and next minute my phone was going nuts with all these notifications,” he said.

“It was dinging out of control. And I had this congratulations from YouTube, saying you've got your first 1000 likes on a video. About an hour later it said you've got your first 10,000 likes then you've got your first 100,000 views, and then all these comments flowing in.”

That video was an instructional piece on how to grow lemons. And there was one big difference between it and his previous attempts – he’d had fun with it.

“I was sort of more military than human, and I knew I needed to relax. So almost out of despair I decided to be myself,” he said. “I just gave five of my main tips on how to grow a tonne of lemons. That video skyrocketed to a million views and then I zoomed up to 100,000 subscribers.”

Off the back of that one video, Mark’s subscriber base continued to grow. His most popular videos simply answer questions he and his audience are curious about.

Left - a stock image of take-away chicken in plastic. Right - a home cooked zucchini meal with a flower on it.
Mark stopped feeding his family takeaway and started growing and cooking food at home. Source: Getty/Self Sufficient Me

Continuing to follow his own interests, he’s recently started a new channel with one of his sons. While he didn’t push them towards a career in social media, he was thankful to be able to offer it as a choice when tragedy struck.

“My son James was going to go into welding and I thought that would be a really good trade. But unfortunately one of his mates died in a welding accident when he was practising at home,” Mark said.

“James decided he couldn’t go ahead with being a welder, so I said: There’s a door here. If you want to take a hiatus, work for me, do some editing and see how you go.

“Then I thought why don’t you start a fishing channel, and that’s now grown to 15,000 subscribers.”

Although he is now a professional organic gardening guru, he continues to learn from his subscribers.

"They've helped me grow with my videos. But also with my garden. The gardening community is really strong on YouTube, and they will tell me if I’ve done something wrong,” he said.

“I find a lot of good hints and tips that I will thank them for. And while I can't reply to 2000 comments, I will reply usually to at least the top 100.”

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