- One Tallahassee man has gained over five million followers on Tik Tok posting home repair videos.
- He said his goal is to help people learn how to take care of their home.
- Watch the video to hear from the director at Lively Technical college on a trend they've noticed when it comes to repair skills.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Experts with BigRentz say 38 percent of Americans don’t know how to make a common fix around their home.
One Tallahassee neighbor is trying to change that, teaching millions how to make repairs around their home
Our neighbor "Gator" is the one behind that project.
Gator, his childhood name, is what he is known by on Tik Tok by 2.8 million people.
"it was just a complete accident," Gator said. "My son has Tik Tok and you know I didn't have the app and I said let me just get on here and see what's going on."
Posting about a tape measure, his first video got over 2 million views in 2 days.
"The comment section was just how do you fix your door, how do you fix your sink and I thought well this is crazy," Gator said.
Under his username jmg8tor, he has gone on to create hundreds of videos teaching people how to make common fixes.
His latest: teaching people how to clean solar lights.
"Take some bug spray, spray it on the top just like that, let it sit there for a second and wipe it off," Gator said.
He said his goal is to help.
"It affects a lot of people you know, I don't realize how many people I do affect around the world," Gator said.
Others teaching some of those skills: educators at Lively Technical College.
Director of Lively Tech BJ Van Vamp said she has noticed a trend with people coming to them to learn.
"Our enrollment is continually going up," Van Vamp said. I think that this new generation recognizes somethings they don't know how to do."
She said she hopes people interested in Gator's videos could pick up where he left off in his Tik Toks by learning more at Lively.
"That will give you a small foundation but then coming here will give you that real deep technical skill that is so in demand," Van Vamp said.
Gator said he is just happy he can educate people on how to take care of their home and themselves.
"It's nice to see all the comments from people who need help and say my dad passed away and I use your videos and those things are cool you know."
Gator says he checks his comments for requests, so send him a note if you want a specific tip.
