The Story Behind the Curious Millionaire

Here's the real story behind the Curious Millionaire.

Every time I tell people about the Curious Millionaire program I always get the same response, "How did you come up with something like that?"

I usually tell them something to the effect of "I was inspired by my brother-in-law", but the true story is much deeper than that.

I know the following story may be too long for most folks to read, but it is the true story of how the events in my life had led me to create The Curious Millionaire.

My First Company

When I was 10 I hired my first employee.

Our family was running a two-day garage sale and I decided that if I operated a lemonade stand I was going to become rich. After all, it was Summer in Texas.

My business plan was simple:

1. Garage sale customers will be exhausted from the heat.

2. They will have quarters because they made change at the garage sale.

3. They will give me their change in exchange for lemonade.

4. I will buy candy and toys with the money.

This was by far my best business plan to date. By the end of the first day, I had made a whopping $13. This is the kid-version of being a millionaire.

However, I learned a valuable lesson that day. I loved looking for business opportunities, making lemonade, and decorating signs, but I hated running the booth.

Once the immediate gratification of collecting quarters ran its course, I learned that running a lemonade stand in Texas was exhausting work. So I hatched a plan…

I asked if my friend Emily could come work at the Lemonade stand the next day. The offer was simple, if she helped me with the stand I would give her 50% of the revenue.

After a brief training session with Emily, I spent the rest of the day watching cartoons inside my house.

When the lemonade went dry, I would refill the pitcher. All-the-while, Emily was selling the Lemonade.

This cycle continued until my Mom found me inside watching cartoons. She said to me, "You need to be outside running the lemonade stand with Emily."

It was at that moment that I knew we had very different approaches to business.

Note: I should mention that not only did I pay Emily her $6.50 at the end of the day, I also gave her a 50¢ bonus. I hope she bought some bitcoin with the money.

Psychopathic tendencies aside, this lesson was one of the defining moments in my life. It gave me a taste of what it’s like to run a company.

The Insanity Continues

These weird business endeavors continued for most of my childhood.

1. Operation Candle - Instead of doing a school-sanctioned fundraiser, I sold candles door-to-door throughout my neighborhood. I made $1,400 and took a trip to DC. It became one of the defining trips of my life.

2. Candy Bars - I noticed that kids at school were selling candy bars as a fundraiser. So I decided to up the ante and pick up a box of candy bars and a bag of chile corn suckers. By the end of my first day, I had made $76. By the next day, I had an employee. By day three our operation was shut down by the principal. I should have got a business license… darn.

3. Lawn Mowing - I started a lawn mowing business in high school. After taking on a few clients I hired a college student to help me. This was my first time leading someone who was older than me. It was weird, but it taught me that age and aptitude are not related.

This weird cycle continued for years. I was finding success in work, but they all seemed like an unrelated chain of events.

Until I found a calling...

A Mission

My first video gig was at a Summer camp in 2006. My youth pastor was tasked with providing daily recap videos for the camp and he hired me to be the camera guy.

Throughout the week I shot video, had fun, and accidentally broke the camera (we'll just skip over that detail for now).

At the end of each day of camp, we would show the video to hundreds of campers and the response was always the same, resounding joy!

I realized that when paired with great content, video was the most powerful form of art imaginable. It was now my mission to bring excitement to people through video.

I created videos throughout high-school until I found a sub-section of video production called 'Motion Graphics'. MoGraph, as the cool kids say, is like graphic design that moves.

Here’s a demo reel of my High-School video work. It is cringey…

From a technical and artistic standpoint, Motion Design is a real challenge. Not only do you need to know good design and storytelling principles, but you also have to know about physics, music, pacing, and a myriad of other subjects.

How was I going to navigate this confusing world? Short answer, a guy named Andrew Kramer.

In the days before YouTube found its footing, Andrew Kramer was a pioneering tutorial creator. He told jokes, had cool hair, worked with big directors, and was insanely good at creating Motion Graphics. The guy was the definition of cool to my nerdy 16-year-old self.

These are the types of tutorials I would watch.

Through watching his tutorials I finally saw the path that I needed to be on, content creation for artists. In fact, I don't think it's a stretch to say that at that moment I wanted to become Andrew Kramer.

But how was this going to happen?...

Can You Manifest Your Dreams?

I continued to pursue video and motion design work throughout college. By using the creative calling formula, I combined my video skills with my animation skills to develop a superpower that set me apart in the very complex and competitive world of video production.

However, my desire to create and teach artists was deep.

At every opportunity in college, I tried to help others on their artistic journey. I taught senior-level classes on how to use Photoshop as a Freshman. I started a weekly training session called 'Tutorial Thursday' where we helped new video editors out by answering their editing questions. I helped dozens of students with their short film projects and was soon hired at the TV station to run the marketing division.

Here’s another video from that season… Hilarious… I know.

I know this isn't true for most people in college, but everything in my life seemed to make total sense.

But love, as it often does, was complicating things...

Love Birds

To those who have ever met my wife Shelby you will know that she is the kindest, silliest, and most authentic being on the planet. Her natural love for others is palpable. She sees people as people, not objects.

If I was the lemonade stand owner watching cartoons on the couch, she is the owner who continually checks with her employee to make sure they are doing ok.

In short, love is in her DNA.

So you can imagine why I would fall in love with her as a teenager.

After dating for a year and a half we decided to get married. It wasn't a typical wedding. I was 20 and she had just turned 18, and I can only imagine the thoughts that were going through the heads of the people in attendance.

They were probably all aware of my precociousness, but marriage was serious business. And one of the first serious decisions we had to make was my employment at the TV station.

The long hours, low pay, and relational stress associated with that job, made my position at the TV station incompatible with a thriving marriage.

So the difficult decision was made, I quit my job and it felt like the momentum was over.

Was this the end of my creative journey?

The Union

As newly-weds in college without steady income, life was very confusing. Not only were we balancing schoolwork, friends, church, family, and marriage, but we knew that money needed to start flowing in or we were going to be in trouble.

I browsed the school job board and found a video production gig at the student union that paid $11 an hour, a small fortune!

I applied for the job, put on my bright purple dress shirt, and met Steve Meehin, the manager and sole-employee in the video production department.

I was hired and soon spent most of my days in a small office that we un-ironically called 'the closet'.

Video production work at an academic institution is kinda weird.

Sometimes you are assigned projects, but most of the time you are really making up your job as you go.

However, with an open schedule and a closet full of expensive video gear, it was clear that we were about to have a lot of fun...

I made it my mission to use this opportunity to parody every video genre imaginable. While at the union we parodied The Walking Dead, Spongebob Squarepants, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and a lot more in a weekly web show called The Green Screen.

My favorite project was this Lonely Island style video, which is actually a parody of a parody if you think about it.

I used this time to learn about graphic design, music producing, cartoon directing, cinematography, and dealing with actors.

I made beautiful friendships, collaborated on fun projects, and even went viral. It was a dream job for a college student.

I had thought leaving the TV station was a mistake, but it was far from it. I was learning more now that I ever imagined, and it wouldn't have happened without my boss Steve.

But I was running into some problems...

The Refuge

As I was learning about media production I would often have technical questions and run to Google, only to find a lack of great content on the subject matter. There was either no content on the subject, or the content was so boring I could hardly read it.

This was frustrating to a guy who craved connection with content. Why did learning a fun creative field have to be boring? I refused to live in that reality, so I decided to do something about it.

Armed with a cheesy Wordpress blog and a desire to teach, I started writing about cameras on a site called Camera Refuge with a single slogan, 'Learning Should be Fun'.

Some of the enthralling content from Camera Refuge…

To get an idea of how exciting my content was, my first article was on how to read the numbers on an SD card. Exciting, I know...

After publishing a few blog posts, and receiving basically no traffic to the site, I thought I was a failure. Not only was the content not taking off, but I was also a terrible writer. 

It wasn't exactly a recipe for success, but like so many times up until that point in my life, God was using those small steps of faith and empathy to open big doors.

A Weird Email

In the first semester of my senior year of college, I received a LinkedIn message from a guy named Danny Greer. He worked for a music company called PremiumBeat.com and he was curious if I had any interest in writing about video production part-time.

Not only did I not see the connection between writing about video production and selling music, but I also thought he was trying to scam me. PremiumBeat sounded like a made up name, so I ignored the email.

I waited a few days and decided that I should at the very least hear the guy out, so I emailed Danny back and we met at a sandwich shop near campus.

I was instantly captivated by Danny's ability to balance work proficiency while making you feel special. To this day I don't think I've ever met someone who naturally produces safety, encouragement, and confidence in the way that Danny does.

He quickly became my hero and for some reason, he decided to offer me the job.

For the second time in a few years, it felt like I was leaving a really good situation on a gamble. The thought of leaving my friends at the Union and more specifically Steve, made me sick, but given my desire to help artists (and become employed after graduation) it had to happen.

My First Job

I worked part-time at PremiumBeat in an 'internship-like' capacity until the end of college when they offered me a full-time job.

There's no way to beat around the bush here, I was a horrible writer.

I think the only reason they kept me on the team is that I was cheap and they had bigger things to care about.

I learned more in my first week at PremiumBeat than my entire time in college. I discovered how content marketing works, how SEO is better than social likes, and how to create a compelling work culture. My brain was unlocked.

While there were no video production projects at the job, I was helping video creators by crafting the blog content I’ve always desired to consume. I was working from empathy with purpose, and getting paid for it! It was a perfect combination.

As a growing team, we would periodically fly to Montreal to go to lavish work retreats at Spas. There would be private chefs, masseuses, fancy cocktails, and golf in the Canadian mountains.

For a 21-year old kid from West Texas, I was out of my element in the best possible way.

It was another dream come true.

Continued Growth

The days at PremiumBeat were simple. Our expanding team would brainstorm great content on Monday and create great content throughout the week.

In a weird way, this simplified approach to our work made it easy to stay focused and create incredible things.

Over time, we were able to collaborate with camera manufacturers and brands. The success was impressive and shocking, even to me. However, it was soon clear that blog content was only going to get us so far. We had crafted the world's best filmmaking blog, yet times were changing.

Video tutorials were increasingly becoming an essential part of success for brands and it was clear that we needed to adapt, or we'd soon see our blog traffic plateau.

Plus, I wanted to become Andrew Kramer someday so I used this as an opportunity to get there.

Using our new video templates site as a testing ground, I started creating tutorials on video production. They weren't much. Just me screen recording a silly technique in After Effects (a popular motion graphics software).

However, I wasn't reinventing the wheel. I knew there was a formula for crafting great After Effects content.

1. Make Something Flashy

2. Be Funny

3. Give Away the Project File

My content strategy wasn't much beyond that.

I would just sit around thinking of cool things to create, hack something together in After Effects, and give away the project file for free.

The tutorials proved to be successful and PremiumBeat slowly gave me more and more freedom until I could basically do whatever I wanted to do. This is where things got really interesting...

Reinventing a Company

I continued to create video content through our acquisition by Shutterstock. All of the typical minutia that goes along with business mergers ensued, but I stayed motivated.

I saw a huge opportunity for our flailing video templates site, Rocketstock.

My thought was simple, what if instead of selling templates, we simplified our business to create drag-and-drop assets for video?

Think of the difference between using Photoshop and Instagram filters. I wanted our products to be simple enough for anyone to use.

They allowed me to shoot our first pack, along with my friend Johnathan Paul, we created our first product in my apartment using flashlights and a DSLR.

It was a smashing success.

Rocketstock was transformed overnight, and video packs soon became the primary focus of the company.

This change all-but-sealed my reputation in the company. I was soon flying up to give business demos in Montreal while impressing my bosses who worked in the Empire State Building.

I was 24, and for the third time, had incredible business momentum.

I led a team, created fun stuff all day, and played video games every afternoon. There was no better job for me.

And yet something felt off.

I couldn't ever quite put a finger on it. I was successful, at a cool company, and growing in my career, but it was all beginning to feel weird.

This feeling was overwhelming and it was clear to me that I needed to change jobs, but what would I do? How in the world could I find a job that would give me the same freedom and excitement as PremiumBeat?

Motion Mondays

In my last couple of years at PremiumBeat I received a weekly newsletter from a company called School of Motion. The company was started by a rock-star named Joey Korenman. Joey is one of those people that make life look easy.

He is wildly successful, has a great personality, and keeps a very level head. He’s also REALLY into drumming.

His electric personality struck me when his tutorials first came to my computer screen at PremiumBeat. After watching them for the first time I said to Danny, “This guy’s the next Andrew Kramer.” My hunch proved to be correct.

Joey's successful launch of Animation Bootcamp, an online course about animation principles in After Effects, led him to wild success in the niche market of Motion Design. I was impressed, and also a little jealous of his company's laid-back approach to work.

So when I saw a job opening for a content creator role at School of Motion, it was clear that this was the place I was looking for.

After a series of interviews, I was offered the job, but it wasn't an easy decision. While I was growing in my dissatisfaction at PremiumBeat, taking a job as a content creator at School of Motion was going to be a pay cut and a step down in terms of momentum towards a high-level corporate job.

I had been leading a team of content creators, collaborating with artists around the world, and offered a good salary and stock to stay with a Fortune 500 company. At School of Motion I would be copying and pasting content for my first few months on the job. It wasn't exactly a step up in my career.

This was me during my first few months at School of Motion. I listened to a lot of podcasts.

Ultimately the decision to join School of Motion was made from my heart. The thought of inspiring artists in an environment that was training artists felt like another dream come true.

SOM

It was clear from the beginning that School of Motion was very different from PremiumBeat. For starters, SOM was an entirely remote company. While I did work in a satellite office at PremiumBeat, I still had coworkers whom I could go to lunch with. At SOM it was a different story. Self-discipline was the name of the game, and it was a continual challenge to feel like I had a 'real' job.

My time at SOM was full of incredible opportunities to meet all of the Motion Design folks whom I admired. I soon became friends with many of my heroes.

The pinnacle of my time at SOM came at a party in Las Vegas when none other than Andrew Kramer himself was in attendance. Joey introduced me to him and with shaky knees and sweaty palms, I took a selfie with my hero.

However, Kramer also said something that was the defining moment of my career. He said, 'I saw a School of Motion tutorial on Master Properties. I really liked how simple it made that concept.' I don't think he even realized that it was a tutorial I created, but it was the biggest compliment I had ever received.

This was that tutorial… it’s super nerdy.

For years I made it my mission to become like Andrew Kramer. To help artists, inspire others, and create incredible things. Now he was telling me that I had helped him. My life had come full circle.

I was living the thing that I envisioned years before...

A Dilemma

It's a weird feeling when you think your life has peaked at age 26.

I often say it, but the problem with goals is that you can achieve them. I was having a severe identity crisis.

I felt like I had achieved everything I ever wanted in my career, and I was only 5 years into it.

I continued to work at SOM, finding success and having fun, but deep down it all felt lacking. I had nothing left to do in the Motion Design world. I had repaid my creative debt to the industry and now sat at a crossroads.

I could see what the next 5 years of my life were going to be like; parties, collaborations, stock options, maybe an acquisition… The startup formula seemed clear-cut, maybe even exciting, but it wasn't right for me. Not anymore.

The Question

Shelby and I try to take one great vacation a year. In 2017 our big vacation led to us becoming inspired to move to LA. The 2019 trip was of equal significance.

Some photos from our Napa trip.

We spent a week in Napa Valley enjoying wine, riding horses, and eating great foods. On one car ride from the Muir Woods back to our hotel we decided to go through a series of marriage questions online.

Most of the questions were silly like 'If you could be a superhero, who would it be?', but one question hit me like a ton of bricks...

'What necessary action are you avoiding because you are too scared to take it?"

This question literally made my heart sink. I knew the answer; I needed to quit my job.

All of the years building up my career, all of the long hours working on tutorials, chatting with friends, writing blog posts, developing a love for content creation, were they for nothing? Was I about to throw away my career?

Through prayer, we made the decision for me to leave my job in February, but I didn't know where I was going to go. It would be another huge leap of faith.

The Pettit’s Come to Town

In the time between our trip and me quitting my job, my Brother-in-Law and Sister-in-Law came into town with their daughter Addison. We had a fantastic time hanging out and having fun.

However, at the end of every night, we would begin to have conversations about success, dreams, and launching companies. I was surprised to hear my conversations with them as I laid out a clear foundation for launching a business.

It was a formula I'd seen before time and time again. It all seemed so simple.

That's when my brother in law said, "It may seem simple to you, but it's not simple to me."

That was the moment that Curious Millionaire was born.

What if I could combine my love of creativity with my experience in growing companies? What if I could unlock the world of business to folks who might not pursue it otherwise?

I wanted to create a game that teaches people how to create a business. But was this even possible?

The Demo Version

The goal of creating an online business adventure seemed impossible.

I don't have any experience with programming or game development. My only experience with course production was at School of Motion and VFX City (which would later be rebranded to Curious Refuge).

Why was I complicating things? Why can't I just make a simple course? People aren't asking for this business game. But that's where my heart and my head are at odds.

My head wants me to create a simple business course, sprinkle in some humor, and call it a day. My heart wants to create an online experience that makes learning fun.

So that's where we are today.

The Curious Millionaire is currently in development. I am excited by the initial reaction to the content and I am working tirelessly to get it out into the wild. Here's an overview of the adventure:

You can learn more about our online adventure on the Curious Millionaire page. We are currently accepting applications for beta testers to unlock the program.

A New Vision

As you can tell, I am not launching this business because I think it will be easy. I'm not even launching it because I think I'm the best at it, I'm definitely not.

I'm launching it because when I close my eyes and visualize Curious Refuge in the future, I see people finding emotional freedom, I see happy business owners with connected families, and I see physical buildings where people can find rest and healing.

These aren't the fleeting visions or greed, they are reality for me. God already has them in his hand and he is putting them together for us now.

I hope the work Shelby and I do with Curious Refuge will transform your life. It is all made with love.

Thank you for supporting us on this journey.

With much Love,
Caleb