Te-Jay Brewer shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.
Hi Te-Jay, thank you for taking the time to reflect back on your journey with us. I think our readers are in for a real treat. There is so much we can all learn from each other and so thank you again for opening up with us. Let’s get into it: What is a normal day like for you right now?
A typical day for me isn’t much different from most people’s days. I wake up and go through my morning routine, then eat breakfast before heading to work. One big difference is that it’s only about a 60-yard walk to my shop. Once I get there, I usually look around to decide what I want to accomplish for the day. You know the saying, “my eyes are bigger than my stomach”? Well, some days my brain thinks I can work faster than my hands—or maybe it’s the other way around. Needless to say, I work throughout the day, sometimes into the evenings, and occasionally on weekends. The rest of my time I spend with family and friends.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is Te-Jay Brewer, and I am the owner of T3 Woodworks LLC. We were formerly known as T3 Lumber Shed but decided to change our name to better reflect what we do—creating custom wood products such as cabinets, furniture, and other unique items. For a while, we received multiple calls about building sheds, which isn’t something we do. We learned from that and made a change.
At T3, our logo says “built to last,” and we truly take that to heart. We do our best to listen to our customers and come up with ideas that suit their needs. We ensure that everything leaving our shop is done right and represents the best work we can deliver on every project—whether it’s a high-end design with premium materials or a budget-friendly build.
Because of that commitment, most of our business comes from repeat customers, and we love building long-term relationships with them as we go through life together.
Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. What was your earliest memory of feeling powerful?
I would say one of my biggest memories of feeling powerful was in youth football, the first time I scored a touchdown. It felt great—I felt like I could be counted on to help the team win and get the job done.
Another memory was the first time I built something by myself. I used to love watching The New Yankee Workshop, hosted by Norm Abram. I was fascinated by how he could take pieces of wood and shape them into beautiful projects. So, when I made my first project on my own, I was proud of what I had done. I wouldn’t say it was beautiful, but it was proof that I could do it. It felt like unlocking a new kind of power—and, later in life, it opened the door to a future I hadn’t imagined.
Was there ever a time you almost gave up?
On this journey, I’m honest when I say I can’t remember how many times the thought has gone through my head that I should give this up and do something else. I could give you a list of reasons—the biggest one being a lack of confidence in my abilities. There are times when I don’t know what to do or what the next step should be. But as time has gone on, I’ve learned that I will figure it out. It might take five minutes, or it might take a day, but I always find a way.
There’s also the frustration, the lack of money, and the lack of space to be productive as my business has grown. I’m extremely fortunate to have my wife and friends who see what I do and know how much I love it. My wife has been my biggest fan, even when I haven’t been a fan of myself.
There have been times when we’ve barely been getting by, because running a business as the sole employee has been a steep learning curve. I’ve felt like I wasn’t doing my part to provide for our family, and I’ve come to her ready to give up and do something else. But she knows better than anyone what our family needs, what she needs, and what I need. And her response has always been no.
If it weren’t for her, I probably would have closed shop multiple times. Over time, I’ve come to understand the importance of waiting. If I put my best into the business, the slow times will pass, the frustration will pass, and we’re even working on having more space so we can be more productive.
I can’t see years down the road, but I know T3 is what it is today because I wasn’t allowed to give up—thanks to my wife and my own love for what I do. And what I do is make handmade pieces that people are proud to own.
I think our readers would appreciate hearing more about your values and what you think matters in life and career, etc. So our next question is along those lines. What would your closest friends say really matters to you?
I like this question, and I didn’t want to answer it for them, so I asked. I sent out some texts and got back these answers: family, friends, and my faith. I do my best to make family and friends a big part of my life. I feel that my faith is always with me—it might feel less present at times, but it’s what makes me whole. With any of those three missing, I’m not at my best.
Okay, we’ve made it essentially to the end. One last question before you go. What false labels are you still carrying?
I would say my biggest struggle is believing I’m not talented enough or good enough to do what I do. I have failed many times in my life—I know that feeling very well. I’ve told myself that this is how it will always be: moving from one thing to another. I could just accept it, move through life, and stay on that path.
Or, instead, I can take all those failures and not let them scare me. All it takes is that one time—finding what I’m good at, the talent God has allowed me to foster. I know I can still choose to fail if I tell myself it’s too hard or that I’m not good enough. I can tell myself, “This is just one more thing you’ll fail at.”
But I can also take that talent, as small and unimportant as I sometimes think it is, and try. I can take that feeling of failure and let it push me forward, to keep going.
Over the last five years, I’ve struggled countless times—with the learning curve that comes from trying something new, with finances, with starting a business, and with projects I had never done before. I have struggled, but I have not failed.
Success is a personal measure, and I’m not sure I’ve reached it yet—or even fully thought about what it would look like. For a long time, my focus has only been on how not to fail. Some days that thought consumes me. Other days, success feels like it’s getting closer.
After five years of woodworking, I’ve learned a few things. First, I will struggle. I’ll struggle to learn new skills. I’ll struggle with feeling like my work isn’t good enough. I’ll struggle with believing I’m not good enough.
But I’ve also learned two very important lessons:
1. Struggle and failure are not the same.
2. Struggle is necessary—maybe even mandatory—and by going through it, I become better.
I don’t always like it—actually, I never like it—but it’s part of the path. And if I want to succeed, whatever that might look like, I have to walk that path.
For now, doing the best I can—while carrying that constant feeling of failure at my heels—has gotten me this far. And I’d say making it through those struggles is its own small success. The bigger successes are still to come…
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