so what brought you to Colorado I mean I
you Atlanta and Brazil yeah yeah this
time I had been in Brazil for 10 12
years you know on and off and I would
come back to Colorado and go skiing
every year uh my sister lived the next
street over from my shop here and uh
come back every year go skiing and then
one year I was here in the summertime
and there was no
humidity I this is nice I grew I grew up
in the South I lived in Brazil I I'm
used to a lot of humidity and I thought
man this is this is kind of nice and uh
so I thought you know I went back to
Brazil and kind of marinated a little
bit year later I came up I'm skiing
again I'm still thinking this is a nice
area and at that time uh I used to do a
lot of surfing on the internet and get
contacts for businessmen that I would
teach in Brazil and there was one site
that I went to and it said Portuguese
speaking Spanish speaking Denver
Colorado I said that's strange this is
2000 and I said man that's that's very
strange Portuguese speaking in Denver
Colorado called them up and they said
hey you know it's you know this this and
this Tech job would you mind coming by I
said well it's not really for me it's
for my clients and no but we'd like to
talk to you I said well I'm on vacation
I don't have a suit I don't have a
resume ah it don't matter come on by I
said by the way I married the girl from
epan she speaks Portuguese would you
like her to come by yeah bring her on in
so we went in and uh had a little
interviews Tech job for a company here
in Denver and they said look it was
actually third party it was a recruit
Head Hunter and they said can you come
back tomorrow we'll take over the
company I said well I'm supposed to be
on a plane to Atlanta tomorrow then
going back to Brazil can you postpone I
said sure why not so I postponed the
flight and the next day I'm uh sitting
at a company here in Denver and they
showed us the company promised us the
world wanted to pay for the move blah
blah blah and when we got all done with
the interview the the person
interviewing and said would you like the
job my wife said sure and I said
no I had a pretty good gig going down to
Brazil and it was long plane ride back
to Brazil the next day you know long
story short 30 days later I'm sitting
behind a desk in a cubicle in a
snowstorm in Denver Colorado thinking oh
my gosh what have I done we sold the
business my my wife got out of her
business there in Brazil sold the
apartment sold everything 30 days later
I don't know how it happened it must
have been Destiny just for things to
happen that quick and here I am in
Brazil 911 rolls around M had the
terrorist attacks in New York and they
were downsizing at the company and so
they let me go my wife was able to
continue
on and
uh the next day I you know I need to
make a living so I threw on my tool belt
went back to my woodworking skills and
started building houses here in Colorado
doing high-end construction custom work
built-ins basement basement finishes
things like that and uh I went on for a
year or two at the same time I'm still
kind of building guitars on my own MH
and uh then one day I said you know I
think I'd like to learn period Furniture
reproduction 1,700 18800 high-end
furniture and I knew about Red Rock
Community College I called them up
learned about their program they' had a
new director up there and they were
seeming to invest in it I said sure uh
the guy said have you ever built
anything I said yeah he said well bring
a portfolio in or bring something in so
I did I took a guitar and when I opened
the case he said would you like to teach
I said well I guess so sure he said well
here's the deal uh we don't have a Lu
three Department you're going to start
it and uh if you want to do that sure I
said okay I didn't have much else going
on in life was that was 2002 that was
2003 I think towards the middle of
2003 and uh I started with 11 classical
students
M and
uh in the space of about 9 years took it
from 11 students to over 100 students a
semester I was hired on as co-head of
the department after a couple years
full-time employee uh I hired uh
electric guitar building mandolin
building uh guitar setup and repair
finish I mean the whole nine yard we we
were the premier Lu three School in
Colorado or in in the nation when we had
guys coming from all over the nation to
study with us there and uh that went on
until just just last year 2012 and then
I decided to leave and go out on my own
and I always and and during the time
when I was at Red Rocks uh I was always
teaching privately I mean I had three
months off a year Christmas I was off
and uh you know two months in the summer
I was off and so I all the time was
getting emails saying hey would you you
know take on a student so I have guys
coming in from all over the world to
spend you know seven eight nine days
with me to learn how to build guitars
and I really enjoy that I mean I've been
in teaching for 25 years so the teaching
perspective was really fun while I was
at Red Rocks I mean I was there for 9 10
years took it from you know from 11
students to over 100 during that time me
personally I I would teach the classical
guitar class and the still string guitar
class as well as the French polishing
high gloss finishing you know those kind
of classes um Everybody other
instructors would do the other topics
but uh during that time me personally my
students we built over 500 guitars
that's a lot of guitars sure
combinations of Steel strings and
classical you know steel strings and
class
actually what do you think of breakdown
was I'd probably say about 6040 because
I I used to have two still stream
classes to one classical class uh so
about 6040 overall if you average them
all together but a lot of guitars a lot
of students I mean guys moving in from
out of state to study scholarships and
grants I mean it was it was a cool thing
really was a cool thing so I got a lot
of hands-on experience not only with my
guitars but with their guitars and I
used everyone as an experiment I'd say
hey try this tried this and you don't
thank God everything worked but yeah we
had a lot of very very nice guitars come
out of there so then I left Red Rocks
and decided to go solo uh by now uh my
tips to jur is going on and uh you know
things are happening I get a lot of
emails a lot of uh commissions and
things and so I decided to go solo my
personal shop uh now we understand the
history where you came from how you got
to where you are today let's talk about
some of the things that that you know
you're you're into like how you started
because it looks like because the the
the teaching background with teaching um
English as a second language in down in
Brazil and and and all the other
different teaching things that you've
done that you're still have this mindset
of trying to get knowledge out there you
know and I think and that's why I want
to try to Segway how did how did the
tips do yours start and sure sure uh
Kent Everett taught me something very
interesting one time this was back in
the 90s I I was living in Brazil and I
flew up with the guy who taught me how
to build guitars we him and I together
flew to Atlanta for a weekl long class
with Kent Evert uh and that's how I met
Kent ever back in the '90s uh and Kent
Evert said something in that class I'll
never forget something to the effect of
hey the higher the tide the more we all
benefit we all surf together and so i'
I've always had that philosophy in life
and when he said that it just resonated
in the Guitar Building Lu three aspect
hey the more knowledge we can get and
share everybody benefits and that's the
cool thing about the guild yeah the
guild is all about sharing knowledge now
I remember back in you know when I
started building guitars it was very I
mean there's no internet and that kind
of stuff um Frank Ford was just getting
started I think with frets.com and which
I you know I found that when I was still
living in Brazil I think man this is
cool um but I mean the aspect of of
finding somebody to teach you that was a
huge hurdle if you found somebody
sometimes they would hold back on you as
far as you know teaching you I mean they
they show you one way but their shop is
a different way kind of thing um but
then the internet I mean these days you
dial it up and it I mean there's videos
and it's Living Color and guys are very
very giving of their knowledge and so I
want to be a part of that I think that's
I think that's cool I think we all
benefit um if we do that y i first
stumbled across the first tips toour I
think was when I was on the um U luus
Forum it it was just a link there and I
was like yeah check what's this so how
how how long has that been G because I
don't know if I stumbled across the
first time you ever did that what how
well I started first with the DVDs and
and when I when I first started teaching
at the college I it's a university level
course we need Audi visual aids and
things like that so I said I said well
I'll do a DVD oh actually I was going to
write a book and so I called LMI at that
time I said hey I'm going to write this
book about your kits and you know how-to
manual using your kits are you guys okay
with that I was asking for permission
and they kind of said hey that's a cool
idea and so the more I got into it the
more I figured out man a book is a huge
undertaking and I de saidd well maybe
the DVD the audio visual technology
thing is coming up mhm so maybe I'll
just do a DVD the more I got into the
DVD I knew absolutely nothing about
video work or anything like that the
more I figured out that man this this is
huge why don't I do do still shots with
audio overdone that way I can compact a
lot of information on one disc keep the
cost down I can rehearse the script
write it out blah blah blah and so
that's what I did so I got this DVD done
I called up LMI I said hey I've got this
DVD done and they said would you mind if
we know put it in our
kits no that's that's fine so that that
kind of took off and over the years I've
always added to and created more for my
students at the college and I remember
one day I was in the shower seems to be
most of my ideas come to me in the
shower I don't know why but come to me
in the shower and uh I thought man it'd
be really kind of cool to put these you
know Snippets these little tips out on
YouTube YouTube was just coming in a ag
right then and yeah what can I call Lu
your tips to your oh that's kind of cool
so just can't kind of came to me in the
shower once again I knew absolutely
nothing about video work grabbed my
little video camera there started
shooting and and then I went to edit it
and oh my gosh I mean it was just it was
it was it would fail you know I a render
and blow up the computer and after about
3 or four weeks of this I just called
LMI and I said man you know I got this
idea tips toour and it's just not
happening and what do you guys recommend
and they said hey why don't you try this
other software I got the other software
started the learning curve all over in
the rest of History just are you using
Pinnacle I'm using Sony Vegas video you
know what I use Pinnacle my dad just
told me to get Sony yeah I've been using
Sony for since I started this is in 2008
that I started the tips toour and LMI at
that time wanted to use me as a
consultant as well so they said would
you mind if we just put these on our
website I said no once again free flow
of information get information out now
it's come back to me many times over
because you know I get students and
stuff like that brand recognition so
that's how the tips deure started and
about a year or two into it I was out at
the hbur Guitar Festival I was talking
to one of the people at Ali and the guy
said you realize you got over three and
a half hours of video on on YouTube this
is 2009 2010ish I said no I had no idea
pretty soon I'm going to have my whole
build sequence out there for free but
you know what the heck I mean it's
benefiting a lot of people yeah and and
since then you know I've done complete
online video courses that I charge for
and all that kind of stuff but um I mean
it's it's been very beneficial for guys
all over the world it it kind of
exploded on me it's got over 2 and a
half million hits on YouTube I've got
almost 8,000 subscribers I'm just like
whoa what happened
here so that also because you're you
know because of the YouTube thing
started I mean you've got a pretty
decent presence in Facebook you got I
mean you use a lot of that social media
I don't see a lot of luers doing that I
see but you seem to the exception there
with a lot of you're you're out there
you know it's it's kind of a necessary
evil these days I got D in the chat
groups years ago you
know I mean enough said they're good and
bad you know they're good and bad I
don't comment a lot these days how can I
diplomatically say that upet I don't
comment a lot I mean a lot of times you
put information out even with my tips
toour I might get emails from guys all
over the world sometimes even comment on
my YouTube page ah you can't do it that
way that's wrong well okay I mean it
works for me I it's not necessarily the
best thing for you so I get a lot of
that so it's just you know hey if you
don't like it I'll refund your money you
know it's free
anyway anyway where was I going with
that thought uh it's interesting because
you know you got the website you got
Facebook oh the social media aspect yeah
um the YouTube channel I don't you know
you know and I I know absolutely nothing
about this stuff I'm just kind of flying
along I mean I started Twitter three or
four years ago when it was first getting
started and I put out there I'm in my
shop who the hell cares you know these
guys are responding I'm having coffee
okay but I'm not getting any work done
you know so I quit that within a couple
months I've since come back to it
because it's a it's a necessary evil it
gets your brand out it gets the
recognition out um all of my classes
that I give I take daily progress
reports put them out on Facebook things
like that um I'm but I know nothing
about it I I would like to know more I
just don't have the time to study up on
it um I've since had people that have
talked to me that say man you're doing
everything by the book I said what book
is that apparently there's some books
out there on how to use social media and
they're saying you know do this this and
this and and then they say Robie you're
doing exactly that I well
it's by accident but anyways it must
take up a lot of time though I mean I
huge amount of time I do it it's like I
barely do it and it's huge amount of
time if I did not make some of my living
as an instructor teaching guitar B I
would definitely not do it because it
takes a huge amount of time I get
hundreds of emails a day literally I'll
spend sometimes 8:00 in the morning till
noon just answering emails before I can
even get into the shop but it has a
return financially for me because I I
give classes um that's why I do it I'm
kind of locked into having doing it
having to do it now so but yeah I mean
it's it's a good thing it's a good
perspective because again I don't see a
there's some luers out they may have a
website you know but you seem to be out
there in that space and to know that
because of the teaching aspect and
things like that you're it's coming back
it is coming back you're putting in is I
see a return but it's like any
advertising I mean uh if you if you
start advertising in a magazine you
can't quit after one addition you you
keep it out there a year or two years
three years you start to see the return
social media has allowed us to do that
for free why not take advantage of it
sure so that's what I do well that's
good cuz it it talks about I like this
section because it talks about tips it
talks about using the internet it talks
about those things
so in the past I mean 20 years ago I get
emails from Czechoslovakia Asia Europe I
me all these guys asking me questions or
commenting on my work I mean 20 years
ago how would you get
that how would you make that happen how
we got in Germany learn about Robert
O'Brien guitars now with the social
media and the internet guys ask me
questions got a guy from Brussels coming
to study with me here in a few months
found me on the internet worldwide
exposure yes ma'am I'm
going I'm going okay yeah