ABOUT
How I Got Here
My name is Dan. Gears & Gadgets is a reflection of who I am, how I got here, and what I genuinely care about.
I have always been drawn to cars, trucks, motorcycles, and motorsports. Long before careers, titles, or responsibilities entered the picture, weekends were often spent in the driveway with my father fixing whatever vehicle he relied on just to get by. I helped where I could, learned by watching, and absorbed how mechanical things come apart and go back together, sometimes more than once because the first time was not actually how it went back together. That early exposure shaped how and why I still wrench today.
Like a lot of people, some of those passions took a back seat as adulthood set in. Responsibility, career, and the need to provide became the priority. Interests were set aside out of necessity. Forks in the road were chosen for survival and stability.
I spent over 20 years in construction, starting as a truck driver and eventually managing multi-million-dollar projects. That time built a deep respect for blue-collar America and the people who design, build, haul, fix, and maintain the infrastructure this country depends on. It also shaped how I evaluate vehicles, tools, and technology practically, honestly, and based on what actually holds up in real use, not just what looks good on a spec sheet.
In 2014, a major inspiration hit while I was standing in the living room of my 400 sq ft apartment, watching a Good Morning America segment featuring SaabKyle04 . Hearing that YouTube was paying him six figures simply for making videos about cars he loved nearly blew my mind. He was only 23 at the time, and I was already about a decade into my career. It was not the money that hit me. It was the realization that doing something you genuinely loved could open doors at a time when I felt like I kept closing one after another in the pursuit of happiness. At the same time, YouTube still felt like a young man’s game, something you had to get into early or risk missing altogether.
That story stuck with me, and about ten years ago I picked up a camera with a simple goal to become a better communicator. I wanted to explain ideas clearly, connect more effectively, and build bridges to new opportunities wherever the road led.
As I was toying with how to make videos without really knowing how, Casey Neistat’s daily vlog series began in March of 2015 and completely changed how I saw things. Over roughly 500 straight days and more than 800 episodes, he fundamentally changed how people thought about YouTube. It was about showing up, doing the work, and telling honest stories consistently.
I set off on my own journey to learn. Content creation sharpened how I thought and helped me translate real-world experience into clear, effective communication.
Those skills eventually carried me from construction project management into construction technology. Skills developed through YouTube opened new and unexpected paths in my full-time construction career.
Working in technology, I became a technical resource for construction professionals who understood the industry because they lived it. Much of the surrounding content struggled to resonate with the people actually using the products and was often created to satisfy internal marketing KPIs on a spreadsheet. I remember saying more than once, “If we are not asking ourselves whether we would have watched this on our lunch break when we worked in the industry, and the answer is not yes, then we failed.” In practice, very little of that content met that standard.
When content is rooted in real use and real experience, the product naturally earns its place. That is where content becomes more engaging to watch and more rewarding to create. Because it is real, not a manufactured storyline.
Content creation brought me back to a more grounded and authentic version of my childhood self. It pulled me back toward the same stuff that lit me up as a kid, cars, motorcycles, motorsports, and figuring out how things work. Those flames never really died. I just buried them under responsibility for a while. Making content gave them a place to live again, but this time with adult perspective, real standards, and real consequences. It also gave me a way to call it how I see it and speak directly to people making real ownership decisions with their own money.
Gears & Gadgets grew naturally out of that process. It exists for people who value honesty over hype.
I resonate deeply with blue-collar America. While content creation sometimes means testing higher-end trims and top-tier equipment, I never lose sight of the fact that most people are working hard to afford what makes sense for their lives. I will never forget where I started or who this work is ultimately for.