3 years ago we had to move. 2 years ago we were shut down. This week, we crossed 5 million views in a month for the first time.
On a Saturday in Feb of ’23, and we were loading up my friend’s truck with the last of our stuff from the old office: a warehouse in St. Francis with an open work area, lofts, a makeshift studio, and a space where we used to throw pre-pandemic events.
Our marketing agency, which had been doing well, was quickly going downhill. Podcast downloads were dropping, and I had just hired Bre—my gf at the time (now fiancée).
We were at a crossroads: shut the whole thing down or double down and try to make it work.
I didn’t want to give up. So, we put in everything we had saved from the business, moved out, and rebranded both our services and the show.
We started the buildout, and in May 23′ Story Mark Studios and Milwaukee Uncut were born.
We launched Uncut with a strong lineup.
I hit publish on the episode, and… crickets.
We ended up pulling the plug after six episodes and didn’t post anything between Aug ’23 and Dec ’23.
I still believed in the brand. So, we made changes and built a backlog of new content.
During that time, we caught a few breaks: Charlie Berens came on and the Milverine showed up—20 minutes late and dripping sweat from his walk.
In December of 2023, we re-launched with a new video format.
One of the first clips we posted got over 100,000 views.
A clip of how far Milverine walks per day got over 250,000 views.
Charlie’s clips did well.
Russell Nicolet saw these clips, DMed us, and ended up partnering with us that February – a big break for a show we were trying to get off the ground.
We kept pushing and realized golf content could work and we crossed 1M views in a month for the first time in July of ’24.
On the Brewer’s final playoff game against the Mets in early October, we drove over to AmFam and found Owen from Whitewater and asked him how many beers he was drinking. It went viral.
In November, we drove to Lambeau Field and ran into a 49ers fan wearing a gold suit who went off about his newfound love for Wisconsin and some Norbs graduates who were having 13-18 beers before the game. We crossed 4M views that November.
This past year we’ve kept pushing, experimenting and expanding:
- Hosting events and fundraisers
- Getting into skit content
- Working with events, festivals and travel content
- Bringing on amazing new partners
- Launching and selling out the Milwaukee Uncut Tropical Pale Ale with 3 Sheeps (ps: Broken Bat just tapped it)
- Adding new talent/personalities to the show
- Launching our 2x/weekly newsletter that has 30,000 subscribers and growing fast.
I’m thankful we get to do what we do, and we’ll keep pushing to fulfill our mission of bringing Wisconsin & Milwaukee together through non-traditional news, entertainment, and experiences, and grow this as large as possible to make the community a better place.
If you’re interested in partnering in ’26 or have any show recs, let us know!