We recently connected with David Utrera and have shared our conversation below.

Hi David, thanks for joining us today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

Everyone can come up with a “million dollar idea” but very few people will actually do what it takes to execute that idea and make it tangible. The hardest part of starting a business often times is the execution. This is why I believe it is extremely important to have your mind set on a purpose for your business and consequently, a list of goals to get you there. This is how I took a passionate hobby of mine to a world renown business…

In the beginning, my business started with a deep passion and love for animals and more specifically, reptiles. Initially, I was just a teenager that thought I would breed geckos to make some side money and have fun in the meantime. I never thought someone could support their family selling reptiles. It wasn’t until I worked at a local reptile store that I understood that making a living through this industry was not only possible but very realistic for someone like me that had already been engulfed in the hobby… As I started to see how the reptile business operated, I started to implement everything I learned to my own growing business. The key here was making an effort into everyday improving the business and not staying idle. I was very clear in my purporse (breed and produce the worlds best geckos) and I broke it down to very attainable goals that I could achieve on a weekly basis to help get me there. I reinvested all the profits back into the business (higher quality animals, enclosures, marketing, etc) and before I knew it the business had grown 10x. The most important things I learned from taking this initial idea of breeding geckos to a tangible business was that you have to be in constant motion (towards your goal) and to invest in yourself!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is David Utrera and I am the owner of TikisGeckos. We specialize in breeding high quality reptiles for the pet trade. We primarily breed geckos from New Caledonia and we focus on selective breeding these lizards which produces vibrant and unique colorations and patterns within the species.

My involvement in the “reptile industry” was sparked by the love and passion of animals and nature. When I was a young kid I would go hiking with my dad in the rainforests of Venezuela and I believe that led to my appreciation of all living things. When I moved to the United States as a kid, I was obsessed with reptiles and my uncle bought me a bearded dragon that just sent my obsession out of control.

One of the things I am the most proud of is our professionalism within our industry and the world famous lines of geckos we have created at our facility. Some of the most vibrant reds, oranges and other colors can be seen in our geckos. For anyone that doesn’t know what a crested or gargoyle gecko looks like, I highly encourage you to find us on Instagram and see for yourself how incredible these animals are.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

The two pillar keys of social media is understanding the audience and consistency.

1)The Audience- What do people in your niche like watching on social media? what questions do they want answered? what controversial topics pull people in? how can you provide value to the audience? Answer those questions and you will create endless content that will grow your follower count.

2) Once you have the content, you need to be consistent in your posting. The social media platforms (the algorithm) likes to promote people that they can rely on. Just like an employer wants someone who is reliable and predictably at the job from 9-5. Once you have started posting on a schedule, you can look at your analytics and see when the best time for your posting would be according to your followers activity times.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

As a business owner, specially one that is starting out, it can be hard to let go and give someone else control of “your baby”… You can only scale your business if you focus on the most important role you have as a business owner. Marketing and selling. That means once you get to the point where you can pay someone else to do the cleaning, website updates, restocking, etc. you need to do so to scale.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.tikisgeckos.com
• Instagram: @tikisgeckos
• Facebook: @tikisgeckos
• Twitter: @tikisgeckos
• Youtube: @tikisgeckos
• Other: @tikisgeckos on everything else! tik tok, snapchat, threads, etc

Image Credits

Ralph Hernandez