Everyone knows the names Chip and Joanna Gaines, but not everyone knows exactly how they built their billion-dollar empire in Waco, Texas. The couple sat down with Guy Raz for his “How I Built This” podcast to discuss just that.
“Before they were household names, Chip and Joanna Gaines were nearly broke—renovating houses in Waco during the 2008 crash. Most people would’ve quit,” Raz captioned a clip from the podcast via Instagram on Monday, October 20. “They didn’t. They doubled down—on their partnership, their faith, and their hometown.”
Chip Gaines Was Always Entrepreneurial
After being cut from the Baylor baseball team in his sophomore year of college, Gaines began hustling to make money.
“It was pretty simple for me, kind of like simple economics,” he explained. “I started a lawn care company, which was kind of my primary…just to make money.”
He explained that he hated sitting in the classrooms and often dreamed about being outside with the landscapers “on a cool day.” He begged the workers to let him work with them, and after reluctance, he landed his dream job.
According to Gaines, his handyman skills came from his father, and it ultimately led to his successful house-flipping career.
Joanna Gaines Dreamed of Opening a Storefront
While working at her father’s tire shop, Joanna would doodle her dreams in her notebook. Encouraged by her then-fiancé to pick one of her dreams to pursue, Jo tried her hand at owning “a little home store.”
“No one pushed back on Waco [as the location], they pushed back on me, though,” she recalled.
Before going full throttle on the storefront, Jo tested her hand by selling products at her father’s tire store.
“I remember one thing I was super proud of. I would go to garage sales on the weekend, I would spray paint stuff, sand it down a little bit, and then bump it up–like double the price,” she explained.
After weeks, and on the verge of giving up, Joanna sold a two-foot wicker sled for $25, which she took as a sign.
“A year later, my dad sells that Firestone back to corporate, so now they’re running. I’m helping him move out, and I find that little sled up in the attic,” she recalled. “But what he doesn’t know, it was the right moment in time. Because I would have quit.”
HGTV Gave Them a Chance of a Lifetime
After years of renovating homes in the Waco area, the couple began a blog, which caught the eye of a production company.
“I thought it was a scam,” Chip said. “This is gonna be some kind of a, you’ve gotta pay somebody $5,000, and they’re gonna come down and produce some nonsensical thing.”
Joanna had to persuade her husband to take the chance.
“We didn’t have a TV. We didn’t watch reality television,” Jo said, adding that they were confused.
“Fixer Upper” was reaching 5 million viewers a week, becoming a cultural movement and making farmhouse chic mainstream.
In the years since, the couple have gone on to build an empire which includes a TV network, retail brands, restaurants, a hotel, books, and a magazine.
