Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Hector and Jorge. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hector and Jorge, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?
Our brand House of Trouble started from our desire for minimalist shirts with risqué designs. Similar concepts existed but we could not find designs that really represented the trouble in us. In the meantime, Jorge’s sister who is very crafty, was working on screen printing shirts for herself. So, with help from YouTube and his sister we created our first shirts, Plant Daddy and Sucia. These two were a hit every time we wore them out. The attention our shirts were getting inspired us to make a bigger quantity and open our first online store. Although it took us a while to launch because screen printing involved a heft chemical process that cost us many shirts to get right. Luckily making the designs was easy because we already had a list of ideas collected from conversations with friends or overheard comments at bars. When we finally released our full collection our friends and family were our biggest supporters. Seeing them find designs that inspired them was so reassuring! One design that continues to receive a lot of love from our community is “every body is beautiful” depicting 3 different bodies together. Seeing how much passion came from this design we are now working on creating more bold designs that represent Miami’s vibrant queer community.
After a couple of months of launching H.O.T, we decided to expand it by including events. Our goal was to create spaces for LGBTQAI+ individuals to meet and enjoy their time together in a space outside of the night scene. One of our most successful events, The Beach Party, is hosted in a famous naturist beach in South Florida and It started by us celebrating Hector’s 28th birthday. We curated our playlist, packed supplies for 25 people, and everything needed to enjoy a day at the beach. Our invite to friends was “don’t bring anything! Just come and enjoy!” However, like any great party, the word spread, and what we thought was going to be enough food and drinks quickly disappeared. Fortunately, Jorge’s family lived close by and are very supportive of all our ventures. So, a quick call to Mom solved everything! She arrived an hour later with all the supplies to keep the party going to sunset! Now coming close to our 5th Beach Party, our popularity within the community has risen and we constantly get asked when our next party will happen. We are gladly hosting up to 50 guests per event now!
Our third entrepreneurial branch was just recently launched. We had been planning H.O.T Adventures since before the pandemic but had to postponed it until this year. H.O.T Adventures is a series of travels planned and guided by us. As two nature lovers we wanted to share the magic of National Parks with our guests. Our first adventure happened last month when we took 10 of our friends to the Great Smoky Mountains. For 5 days, we showed them hiking trails and waterfalls during the day, while also partying it up at night in our luxurious cabin in the woods. And of course, having a trip with this many gays caused some unwanted drama, but as Daddies we were able to talk it over individually so everyone can enjoy the great outdoors. We also had to scare away some bears! And we learned barbequing in the Smokys is not a great idea. We learned many other survival tips when traveling with a gaggle of gays that prepared us for the many adventures to come!
Looking back on how we started to where we are now, we both agreed that it has been a fun and manageable experience thanks to the support from our friends and family. As we get ready to release more designs and host more events we always look to our community for inspiration. What makes us more excited about House of Trouble is that we get to work on it together as partners and husbands.
Hector and Jorge, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
We are Hector and Jorge, also known as, daddies of House of Trouble (H.O.T) sharing over a decade of love together. We are both self-proclaimed troublemakers, professionals in our careers and dedicated to our families. When deciding to create H.O.T, we wanted it to be a combination of all our passions, the main one being bringing people together. In 2019, we Launched H.O.T’s merchandise selling minimalist style for the modern hoe. What set us apart from others was our range of risqué to heartfelt designs. All our designs were carefully created to be bold and conversation starters. We wanted our shirts to be a reason for people to meet. Apart from the designs, our fabrics are soft and comfortable, perfect for Miami’s weather. We continue to add more designs and styles inspired by feedback and experiences in our community.
After the pandemic, we noticed a need for more LGBTQAI+ events. We have had experience hosting events for other brands but wanted to take the chance on us. So, In the summer of 2021 we launched H.O.T Events, all-inclusive experiences for people to mingle and enjoy time outside the nightlife. Our biggest event has been The Beach Party, hosted in South Florida’s famous Naturist Beach. This event is curated with all the necessary supplies to enjoy a day at the beach. Think of us as party planners setting up a vibe for all to come and enjoy. After multiple events we noticed everyone comes for the fun but stays for the company. Our greatest accomplishment has been seeing new friendships grow from a H.O.T Event.
Our newest venture stems from our events, in that we are creating safe spaces for people to meet and enjoy while also traveling to wonderous places. H.O.T Adventures is all-inclusive travel experience, where once you book your trip all you have to do is come enjoy the ride! We are offering a stress-free vacation with like-minded people to destinations that many want to visit but do not know how to plan. So far, we have traveled to the Great Smoky Mountains for 5 days, staying in a luxurious cabin with all food and transportation included. During the day our guests hiked through waterfalls, rivers, and magnificent sceneries. At night they enjoyed home-made dinners, campfire, and plenty of opportunities to bond with the group. We have a few trips planned for 2023 that will soon be available to book. These include, Zion National Park (Utah), Pereira (Colombia), Joshua Tree National Park (California), and New Orleans (for Southern Decadence). From here you can see our range is wide, but the fun is all the same!
Overall House of Trouble is trying to build a community. Whether it’s from t-shirts that spark conversations, to events that let strangers become friends, or adventures where you’ll make everlasting memories. We invite you to find more at houseoftrouble.org.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
We have grown our audience through making sharable content. What we mean by this is content that sparks someone’s interest to share you on their feed. Things that are regularly shared are funny, informative, or inspirational. We use a lot of informative content as a way to build our audience. For example, during Miami Beach Pride, we always create and share our own itinerary of the places we want to visit during pride. Thanks to this we have received a lot of interest on our pages from a new audience. We also create informative content for places we have visited or big events happening in our city. The downside is that it takes a lot of dedication to do make informative content fun and engaging, but the payoff is great!
How’d you think through whether to sell directly on your own site or through a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc.
We started selling our merchandise on Etsy. It was a great platform to start and get into the motion of selling online. They made it easy to set up and handled all the fees seamlessly. However, once we began selling more, we noticed the fees were eating into our revenue. We built our own website using Wix.com, and we were able to increase our revenue just from eliminating certain fees. However, running our own page required more time getting the website together, and managing all the backend that Etsy handled for us.
We would recommend starting with a platform that is all inclusive to get your feet wet with ecommerce. The pros of using Etsy was its simplicity from launch to execution, but the cons were bigger fees and no customization. The pros for building your own site is control on the feel of your site and less fees to pay. However, the time needed to learn how to use and maintain your site can be overwhelming at times.
Whichever ecommerce you use its important to market your page and get as much traffic as possible. Both Etsy and Wix helped us market our pages, but we enjoyed the greater reach offered through Wix.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.houseoftrouble.org/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/house.of.trouble/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-4JRbzPF6YIbnNJLC1k_jg
- Other: https://www.instagram.com/hjdoubletrouble/
Image Credits
House of Trouble Family.