Check Out Jordano Costanzo’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jordano Costanzo.

Hi Jordano, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Where I came from, there really wasn’t much opportunity to do something big, and knowing that was intimidating. Throughout school, I had no idea what wanted to do for a career, and that whole “you need to go to college” thing really weighed on me. Growing up, we didn’t have much money and I wasn’t good in school, so college didn’t even seem like an option. At that time, the only thing I was truley passionate about was bass fishing. As crazy as it sounds, That was my plan. To become a professional bass fisherman.

When I wasn’t fishing, I was skateboarding, and I started picking up cameras to film and edit our tricks. I wasn’t passionate about it, but I was decent at it. Looking back now, I never would’ve guessed a camera would be the gateway to my success story.

Fast forward to graduating high school—I had no idea what I wanted to do. My friends were all heading off to college. Deciding not to go, I felt left behind. One thing I did have, was tunnel vision. I was determined to fish and go pro. To do that, I needed a boat. So, I got a job at Dick’s Sporting Goods in the fishing department. I quickly realized minimum wage wasn’t going to buy the boat I needed, so I found a job at a local warehouse that paid just enough to pursue this dream. During that time, I was watching a ton of YouTube videos to learn how to get better at fishing—another huge factor that I never realized was going to change my life.

I finally saved up the money, took out loans and bought the truck and boat I needed. I quit the warehouse and started fishing amateur tournament trails. But what felt like a dream come true quickly humbled me. I learned that I was good, but not good enough to compete at a pro level. Gas and entry fees were expensive, and my pro fishing dreams crumbled right in front of me as I spent just about every penny I ever made on a dream that clearly wasn’t panning out.

The only other thing I was somewhat good at was filming, so I blew the dust off the skateboard camera and started making videos for people. I did wedding, corporate, and small business videos as a side hustle. Surprisingly, it started to take off. I didn’t love making videos, but I couldn’t deny that people loved the work I did.

One night, I was sitting in my room watching one of my favorite fishing YouTubers, Jon B. He posted a video of an expensive sports car he bought just from making fishing videos. After seeing that, I went down a wormhole of research and found out you could actually make a decent living off of YouTube. From that, I thought to myself “Maybe I could still chase the fishing dream” I was just going to have to do it in a different way.

So in 2017, I started a fishing YouTube channel called TightlineTV. The videos didn’t get much traction at first, but it was a start. Around that time, my filming business led to a contract with a local food blog in Cleveland, filming chefs. I didn’t love filming food, but it paid the bills and allowed me to chase this new fishing YouTube dream. Then, things really got interesting. I had a couple of videos hit over 100,000 views, and I quickly got noticed by one of the biggest fishing companies on social media at the time: Catch Co. (aka Mystery Tackle Box). They reached out to sponsor me, and on top of that, my YouTube channel got monetized and I started making about $300 a month from my fishing videos. It wasn’t much, but I felt like it was a start to “something”.

Around two years later, just as things were getting good, COVID hit. Everything shut down, and I lost my job at the food blog. At age 23, I was stopped dead in my tracks with rent, car, and boat payments, and absolutely no income. Nobody was hiring, either. At this time, I had never felt more vulnerable. As much as I wanted to break down and cry, I knew I had to do something. Desperately, I reached out to my sponsorship manager at Mystery Tackle Box and asked if there was any way I could do work for them to get by.

Little did I know, while the rest of the world was crashing down, the fishing industry was booming because millions of people were going outside to fish. Coincidentally, my manager responded, telling me they were looking to hire a full-time YouTuber to represent the company, and told me to apply. So I did. Sadly, I didn’t hear back. I was now unemployed; I had no job offers, but I had the YouTube channel. I made $300 a month from it. That didn’t even cover my truck payment, but it was all I had, so I put all my effort into that. Four months later, I was failing miserably and coming down to the last bit of the money I had saved. Ready to give up, I randomly received a phone call. It was Catch Co. with an offer for a full-time salary to bass fish. Turns out the company considered me the whole time; they just hadn’t got around to applications. It was a dream come true. I got to spend that year traveling the United States bass fishing, and I even got my face on products that ended up in stores like Walmart and Dick’s Sporting Goods—the place I used to work. It truly felt like this was where God wanted me to be.

Until it wasn’t. A year and a half later, just like when I was hired, I received a call completely out of the blue telling me the company was going out of business. Just like that. I hung up the phone, and my dream job was gone. The worst part was, earlier that year, I had purchased my first home—a total fixer-upper. Not only was I in debt from the house, but I had been living paycheck to paycheck trying to fix it up. After a few months of unemployment and mortgage payments, I had about $400 left in my bank account.

Once again desperate and not knowing what to do, I fell back on filming and editing. I decided to send an email to my favorite YouTuber at that time, Andrew Flair, who was pretty much the biggest creator in the outdoor industry. The email basically stated that I was really good with a camera and just needed an opportunity. I typed up the email at 10:00 PM and clicked send, expecting to never hear from someone of that caliber. Out of nowhere, I heard ‘DING.’ I received a response with a phone number telling me to call it. It felt like a fever dream. I called, and lo and behold, Flair answered. Turns out he needed a filmer and editor, and knew my sponsorship manager from Mystery Tackle Box who swore by my work. The only catch was I had to move to Nebraska. With only $400 to my name, I packed up my truck and drove out to Nebraska.

I spent that year filming and editing for Flair, but I wasnt happy. I didn’t love Nebraska, and I wanted to build my own channel not someone else’s. So, I took the money I saved, packed my bags, and headed back to Ohio to try and turn my own YouTube channel into a full-time career.

At that time, YouTube fishing had become incredibly saturated. No matter how much I filmed, I still couldn’t make enough to pay the bills. During this time, I was hanging out a lot with one of my best friends, Tristan Thorsell. Tristan was a third-generation rodeo cowboy and rancher. His grandfather had passed away and his father had to take a job out of state, leaving him to take care of the family ranch. The ranch didn’t exactly pay, and he was doing anything to get by so that the family legacy kept going. I didn’t have a job and I knew absolutely nothing about ranching or rodeo, but I offered my friend help. We were both broke and needed to figure something out soon. After countless days working with cattle and horses with Tristan, I brought up the idea of starting a YouTube channel together. The concept was simple: two best friends running a ranch—a real cowboy teaching a kid from the suburbs how to become a cowboy. He loved it, and so did I. We called the channel Creekbend Boyz.

We spent the next three months pre-filming videos. While Tristan taught me to ranch, I taught him to film and be on camera. Finally, in the summer of 2024, we put our first video out. At first, it got no attention, and I got that pit in my stomach that I had failed yet again. But two weeks later, right after we launched the second video, the first one suddenly caught traction out of nowhere. It went from 300 views to 10,000, then 50,000, then 100,000, and it just kept going. In our first month, the channel grew to 25,000 subscribers, and by the start of 2025—just six months after launching—the channel hit 100,000 subscribers and surpassed 15 million views. Alongside that, I started filming myself building boats in my garage as a hobby, which also took off and breathed life back into my personal fishing channel.

Here we are in 2026, My best friend and I living A dream making a real living on our own. Doing more than any 9-to-5 could ever offer us. Our ranching channel has 150k Subscribers and My fishing channel has 60k subscribers. We have brought in well over 50 million views on our content and continue to grow every day. Along with that, thanks to the expertise of my best friend, we now own several cattle, beautiful horses and a few award-winning bucking bulls

Looking back now, if I could give anyone advice, it would be this: Never give up and always believe in yourself, because doubt kills dreams more than failure ever could. But most importantly, trust God‘s planning. I wanted to be a pro fisherman, and I got to be one. Was it short-lived? Yes, but I can’t deny that it happened. I never thought becoming a cowboy was something I’d do, but apparently, that’s where God wants me to be. Tristan always says, ‘The only thing constant in life is change.’ It’s 2026, and this year my dad was diagnosed with cancer. A new obstacle, a new hardship. Even when things are good, life will test you. But instead of fear, choose faith. I can promise having faith will never let you down

Thankyou,
Jordano Costanzo

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
No, I have feared failure, almost went broke several times, lost good friends along the way and even now, I am watching my dad fight cancer.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am a YouTuber and I make content running a 100 acre cattle ranch with my best friend. We truly believe what we do is unlike anything else on YouTube. which is hard to come by these days

I also run another YouTube channel building custom boat.

Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
When it comes to investing in yourself, almost every decision you make is a risk, whether it’s financially or just trying something completely out of the norm, you have to be 110% all in all the way. When I became a YouTuber, everybody thought I was a joke, when we had no followers, everyone laughed at us, they didn’t take me seriously, and I can assure you no one want to invest in us.. but if you do what you love, the money will come. You have to remember that Doubt kills dreams more than failure ever would.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/creekbendboyz
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1HxncS1ST7/
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@creekbendboyz and https://youtube.com/@tightlinetv