We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Luke and Samantha Kuhn a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Luke and Samantha thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you scale up? What were the strategies, tactics, meaningful moments, twists/turns, obstacles, mistakes along the way? We’d love to hear the backstory the illustrates how you grew your brand.

Scaling our business happened over several years of hard work, hundreds of “yes” responses to opportunities, long nights writing and editing footage, and an extra dose of perseverance. We knew we had stories to tell about our own lives, experiences, and ways to explore around you, but we also knew there were so many exceptional stories out in the world that others needed to hear, too. Our own small town of Sherwood, Ohio (where Luke was born and raised) needed a caffeine IV, and we wanted to bring it back to life. So we decided to tackle several aspects, with our brand having a blog element, a local empowerment branch, and a for-hire videography aspect.

Everyone says to “find your niche,” but we have never been able to decide on just one. It’s made our content calendar hectic, but our hearts full. We aren’t always the fastest to execute, but we prioritize quality over quantity, taking care to infuse our unique personality into each project.

We’ve seen people severely undervalue our work, but keeping our vision aligned with our mission — to live our best lives every day — has been crucial. We focus on high-impact, local content in NW Ohio, as well as travel gems and helping lower the bar and reduce the apprehension people have about traveling. The world is too incredible a place and our lives too short to sit back and watch it all go by without canon balling in.

The growth of our YouTube channel, @BornInDefiance, has been a big eye-opener that dedication pays off. At first, our videos we labored over only saw a few dozen views; Last month, our top video had 8,000 + views. Seeing the value we provide in the comment section helps us see where we can improve.

Welcoming our first daughter to the world this past February has been a game changer as well. Young children don’t make running a business easier, but they do add joy sevenfold. Navigating care logistics, balancing housework, and executing creative projects all while still working our 9-5 day jobs has been all-consuming. As a husband-wife team, we’ve had to sharpen our communication skills, set realistic expectations, prioritize our time, and learn to lean heavily on help from family.

It really does take a village, and growing closer with ours — both personally and professionally — has made this journey more rewarding than we can properly put in words.

Luke and Samantha , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

As a husband-wife team based in NW Ohio, we run a travel and lifestyle blog, as well as a videography company all under one brand: Born in Defiance. Our name stems from our desire to be “born in defiance” of all the world says you cannot do or be; our mission is to battle each day to become our best selves, whether by supporting local businesses and events, appreciating the world through travel, telling others’ stories, or even sharing our own.

Our core projects come from our blog, where we share our travels, advice, and experiences. Our videos covering our travel are fun, lighthearted, and full of spunk, which is how most people initially find us online.

As both of us come from communications and marketing backgrounds, we also provide creative services to businesses, including copy writing, editing, social media, videography, and more. We conduct interviews, cover events, and can help a business tell their unique story.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Building our audience on social media has taken shape over the last 4 years. We are honest and authentic, never heavily editing photos and usually posting casually to show “behind the scenes.” I think in a time where everyone feels pressure to be perfect, it’s refreshing to see a home that’s not all white, modern, and sparkling clean, subjects not dressed as fashion models, and — to put it simply — a photo that allows the viewer to believe “that could actually be me.”

We are real, down-to-Earth, and not your typical influencers. Posting content as such allows people to get to know us and join our mission because it feels attainable.

Anyone else starting on social media should aim for authentic posts, even if it’s not every day. Weekly or even bi-weekly is fine. Don’t get caught up in the mad machine of algorithms that is social media. People can sense fraud and filler content, so don’t post just for the sake of it.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being a creative is seeing the end result of your imagination, vision, and hard work come together into something that is bigger than yourself. When we produce videos, we never plan or script them out. We subscribe to an “amor fati” motto and decide to “love our fate,” whatever happens, because thats what was meant to happen. Our best work often takes shape from unforeseen circumstances, but we have to be open to that (sometimes winding) path to get to the beautiful end result.

Seeing the joy that others get from consuming our content is also incredibly satisfying. There’s no other way to emotionally impact someone quite like video.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.BornInDefiance.com
• Instagram: @BornInDefiance
• Facebook: @Born In Defiance
• Youtube: @BornInDefiance