The Woodpreneur Podcast

Nathan Nowak: Wyco Wood Co. “It’s probably been about five years ago now. With the idea of just taking trees that had no other purpose and turning them in into something other than firewood. Never really thought it would materialize into more than that. But as time went on, we learned how much we really enjoy, opening up a log and seeing what’s inside of it.” Nathan Nowak Welcome to a brand-new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today, your host Steve Larosiliere is joined by Nathan Nowak, the co-founder of WYCO Wood Co. Company. Nathan started the company with the idea of taking trees and turning them into firewood. With time, they ventured into milling dimensional lumber after realizing it could be turned into a business. In this episode, Nathan shares the most rewarding parts of starting and running a woodworking business, his vision, and some of the challenges he faces. Being employed as a firefighter and running the company can be a huge task, but he shares how he balances his work time and still runs the business. Since it is a business that only relies on providing services to clients, they share some of the investment plans that could see the company generate more from developing products and not just their services. Listen now and get the whole story! Read More

Welcome to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today your host Steve Larosiliere sits down with Nate Matlack, owner of Matlack Fine Woodworking. Nate’s beginnings in woodworking started with a pocket knife given to him by his father to carve things and keep him out of trouble. Despite that humble beginning, Nate continued to carve things whenever he got bored, and in high school he took an intro class to furniture making, and things progressed from there. From discussions about starting young, getting his first commission, and much more, you won’t want to miss this episode. Check it out!

Walt Primrose: Primrose Woodworks “I decided to move back to Rhode Island. I saw more opportunities for the type of work I wanted to do. You know, just bigger and better things out here. Rhode Island is pretty affluent. I don't fall into that category, but it's a place where they value the work I wanted to do. I figured I needed to be in a place like this to flourish in that line of work.” ∙ Walt Primrose Welcome to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today, your host Steve Larosiliere sits down with Walt Primrose, the owner of Primrose Woodworks. The transition from working with his father-in-law as a contractor to becoming an independent craftsman wasn't easy at first—it took a lot of time and effort for Walt to get his business off the ground. But now, nine years later, it seems like all that hard work paid off; Primrose Woodworks is still going strong! “I would literally drive around and find job sites that were houses being built. I'm 10 minutes from the ocean here, and along the shoreline, there’s one giant monstrosity house after the next, they're all over the place with constant building going on. Read More

Welcome to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today, your host Steve Larosiliere sits down with Jeremy Howard, President of Nyle Systems. In this episode we discuss everything from meeting customers' specific needs, the importance of having a niche for growing and scaling, and how to operate a top-tier business model. With all that and more, you won’t want to miss it! Read More

Welcome to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today, your host Steve Larosiliere sits down with Jeff Krug and Rob Barone of Greene Street Joinery. Jeff and Rob’s shop is a custom design and build focused shop located in Monmouth County, New Jersey. Between discussing moving into being a full-time wood business quickly, developing sustainable ecological practices, and finding the right customer base, there is a lot to get into with this episode. Check out the full episode, and don’t forget to take a look at Greene Street Joinery at their socials below! Website: https://www.greenestreetjoinery.com Instagram: @greene_st_joinery https://www.woodpreneurlife.com/jeff-krug-rob-barone-greene-street-joinery

Welcome to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today your host Steve Larosiliere sits down on his own to provide an update on how things have been going since the last solo episode of the podcast! Between Woodpreneur Podcast origins, travel stories, and plans to make your fourth quarter a profitable one, you won’t want to miss this episode. Check it out!

Tom Fox: TruCut Welcome to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today your host Steve Larosiliere sits down with Tom Fox, owner of TruCut Mills and Fox Forestry LLC. This is Tom's second appearance on the Woodpreneur Podcast, and a lot has changed since his last visit. You won't want to miss this one. Check it out! Instagram: @trucutmills Instagram: @foxforestryllc

“We are the only ones in the world doing it. We follow you on Instagram and I listen to your podcast from time to time and it just gives me a little bit of inspiration. So reaching out to you was just a matter of time when we had our act together. Hemp wood is a derivative of several different technologies that have come up through the years, which started with skriver in the 1970s in Australia.“ Greg Wilson Welcome to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today, your host Steve Larosiliere sits down with Greg Wilson, who is the founder of HempWood. Greg designed materials from various fibers derived from the controversial hemp wood to promote sustainable building. To those who are not familiar, hemp is related to and often lumped together with cannabis. Check out this episode where Greg talks about the background story of his creation, HempWood, and its parent company, Fibonacci. https://www.woodpreneur.com/greg-wilson-hempwood

Welcome to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today, your host Steve Larosiliere sits down with Cagen Chaney of Coach's Custom Woodworking. Cagan is one of the recent members of a particularly impressive club, which is woodworkers who have gone full time as Woodpreneurs! Focusing on high-end tables and dining sets and progressing from a long waitlist of custom orders you won’t want to miss this episode.

Justin & Olga: Cowtown Wood Co. "Justin needed to be to become the master sawyer, and I needed to be a hardcore woodworking networker, and a social media expert, basically. Adding a whole other thing was just going to bog us down." Olga Welcome back to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today your host Steve Larosiliere sits down with Olga and Justin from Cowtown Wood Co. Justin and Olga are part of the newer wave of Woodpreneurs, as they started their business two and a half years ago doing small woodworking projects. Around that point they started listening to the podcast, which inspired the pair to invest in their own sawmill! “It's almost kind of like you start to become more serious. We got the sawmill and right off the bat, I'm gonna have to just get on this thing and just tear stuff up for a while. I'm gonna have to mess some stuff up, I'm gonna have to figure out what I'm doing. I don't come from a long line of sawyers or anything like that. I'm completely new. So that's what I did for the first month. I was still working full time and in my spare time, I would just grab whatever I could and just put it on the mill and just see how it runs. Like ‘Okay, this is kind of how this pushes vs this pushes.’ After that, after I felt more experienced with it, we decided to start taking on customers and stuff like that. It was almost instantly that we went from hobbyist to me quitting my job. The week of us going live with it, it was appointment after appointment after appointment. It was also overwhelming. Honestly, I wasn't ready for the full swing to happen that fast. But it was intentional, it was all planned. I mean, we put everything in place to make it happen that way.” Justin Read More

Nick Price: Valley View Industries “We’re well-known in town for what we do because we do a good quality product, so it’s an easy sell.” Nick Price Welcome to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today your host Steve Larosiliere sits down with Nick Price from Valley View Industries. From ambitious beginnings to the story of a long-held family business, you won’t want to miss this one! “Our origin story is that my dad started the business well over 30 years ago. When I graduated high school in 2009, I started working for my dad; I was like, ‘Oh yeah, I’ll get rich, and it will be awesome.’ But that was not the case. My dad’s a pretty stern old man, and I got quite the whoopin’ and learned how actually to work. So it was a pretty good opportunity for me. As the years went on working for him, I was like, ‘Hey, I liked this. I love working with cedar.’ That’s the wood we work with primarily, and it just went on and on. Then he started going away in the winters going to Thailand. So I naturally took over parts of the business and started learning more about business and marketing. And I was like, ‘Oh, I really like that.’ So in 2017, I purchased the business from him. We were a six-figure business then, I took it over in 2017, and now we’re into the seven figures. So doing great and growing the business, and yeah, it’s awesome.” Steve Larosiliere Read More

Hey everyone, this week it's just family, Steve, and Jake from @ollogginepoxy on the podcast. Let's talk networking! Make sure you follow The Woodpreneur Podcast anywhere you get podcasts, so you don't miss an episode!

Katrina Amaral: Timberdoodle Sawmill “They'll put us in touch with the landowner if they’re like ‘Well, I've never thought of this. We could use it’” Katrina Amaral Welcome to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today your host Steve Larosiliere sits down with Katrina from Timberdoodle Sawmill. Katrina and Miles began custom sawmilling with a homemade chainsaw mill way back in 2010. Since then, the business has grown enough for both of them to focus their time and energy heavily on the business, and what a journey it has been! “We have a nonsensical origin story: Miles built a sawmill, it snowballed aggressively, and that’s what we’re doing now. So we are currently a vertically integrated sawmill business in rural New Hampshire. We have the capacity to cut down trees and handle the chain of custody all the way through milling and post-processing, which means that we do like a very geographically circular product. When we were still sawmilling out of the duplex apartment that we were renting near the college town that we went to. I came home from my day job, I do conservation work, and miles had been milling. I was coming home early to help him, and I was like, ‘Oh, I can tell by the smell of the sawdust that you’ve been milling a lot of red oak today.’ And he was like, ‘Yeah, we were doing boards.’ I was like, ‘Okay, if I am deep in this enough to identify wood species by the smell of its sawdust, it feels like we’ve been doing a lot of it.’” Katrina Amaral Read More

Steve Thomson: Happy Life Wood Welcome to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today your host Steve Larosiliere sits down with Steve Thomson from Happy Life Wood. Larosiliere and Thomson connected almost two years ago when Thomson purchased a Woodpreneur sweatshirt. It was then that Thomson was able to show off the incredibly unique work that he does with Happy Life Wood. “Yeah, I do a form of intarsia, where I take different species of wood, and basically utilize them in a fashion that replicates a photograph or an object. So I take pieces of different species of wood, I glue them all together, and build what I call a foundation. Then I sculpt and carve it. That's really the basics at its root of intarsia, but if you look at Tarja, and you look at my process, there are some subtle differences. The end result is quite a bit different because I end up with something that's a little bit more realistic than your typical intarsia. They tend to just round over the edges and put it together like a puzzle, whereas I get them all together, and then I sculpt the whole thing as one unit.” Steve Thomson Read More

"People will come to me and say, 'Well, do you think you could like make a bowl out of that?' We can make like 15 tables; we could make your entire hardwood flooring. Showing people how much wood is actually in a tree's trunk is eye-opening for many people." Ron Dyrcz Welcome to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today your host Steve Larosiliere sits down with Ron Dyrcz from Ronders wood and metal works in Illinois. Ron is a rare type of Woodpreneur, A chainsaw miller. Steve is fascinated with chainsaw milling because it is a very accessible form of milling but requires a lot of hard work. "It all started with being in the art world all my life, lots of family members, carpenters, trade people, you name it. So I've always been in the industry, but I never really saw the tree or the arborist industry. Then I got diagnosed with Crohn's, got sick, and lost my way. I didn't know where I would head or what job I would do. I started taking down trees in my own yard because they were old and dead trees and garbage. So I started cutting that stuff down and realizing we could do something more with this. From there, it just snowballed, I kept going more and more with the arborists and realized that here in Chicagoland, there's a crazy market for firewood and mulch, and that's the only thing the arborists in the area can afford to do. Since their overhead is so high, they can't spend time wondering what they will do with these logs. They have to chip it, dump that truck, and get onto the next job. Suddenly, I realized there was a little market for someone to come take those logs from these arborists, and that's when I started cutting my own lumber by just taking the logs from them. It's now to the point where I have more logs than I have time to cut." Ron Dyrcz Read More

Erika Horigan: Horigan Urban Forest Products “It's this product that does everything that you sort of want it to. It's beautiful, sustainable, at this point, it's plentiful. We can keep on producing it; there's so many good things in it.” Erika Horigan Welcome back to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast! Today your host Steve Larosiliere sits down with Erika Horigan of Horigan Urban Forest Products. Erika is a rare Woodpreneur interview for Steve because she is also located in Chicago, not an area with an abundance of urban lumber involvement. “Horigan Urban Forest Products got started in 2003, so it's been a while. Prior to that we had a tree business. It was my husband, Bruce, who had seen these trees going into the landfill at first, and then into firewood or mulch and he thought that there's got to be a better way. Taking them to a higher use was the beginning thought and we started to look into milling and kiln drying, it took quite a while. Then in 2003, we sold Horigan Tree Industries, we started the wood business, and the rest is history. Since then, we have gotten back into tree care. After our non-compete came up, we just decided to jump back in; it was sort of a natural combination between the mill and the trees.” Erika Horigan Read More

Collaboration For An Ever-Evolving Product FT. Ryan Cochrane | Cochrane Kayak "I wasn't a good athlete because I was a talented athlete. I was a good athlete because I put everything into that. Exactly that. And I focused on it." Ryan Cochrane Welcome back to a brand new episode of the Epoxy Business Podcast. Today your hosts, Steve Larosiliere and Jake Latvala, sit down with Ryan Cochrane. Ryan is a former Olympian, a Woodpreneur Podcast alumni, a good friend of Jake and Steve's, and this past year has become an essential partner with Ol Loggin Epoxy. "Epoxy is something that I used before but in a different way, because I was using it more in kayaks because I was as a kayaker as an athlete. So it was more for boat-building processes and things like that. But I watched many people make these river tables and do stuff like that, which made me want to see if I could do that. Alan, a friend of ours, reached out to me on Instagram and said, 'Hey, do you want some product?' I said, 'Yeah, I'd love to give it a go.' I worked with epoxy a little bit when I started working for the company I'm currently working for, which I ended up buying into with some partners. It all just snowballed from there. My style is that if I do something, I do it. There's no halfway; I'm going to go all into it. I'm going to figure everything out, and I'm going to learn everything about that product and everything I can do with that product. So it became an obsession, and from there, it kept rolling. I mean, it's been years now, and it feels like it was yesterday." Ryan Cochrane Read More

Justin Ephraim: Reduxwood Welcome to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today your host Steve Larosiliere sits down with Justin Ephraim from Reduxwood! Justin is part of the returning guests club, and a lot has happened since Justin was on the podcast last. Over the nearly two years since Justin and Steve have spoken, an entire pandemic and massive growth for Reduxwood has occurred. So you won’t want to miss this one! “A lot has happened in the last year and a bit. When we spoke last time, we had just opened our first location with the J. Edward Group in California and San Diego. Since then, we’ve been expanding. First was Vancouver Reduxwood West about three and a half years ago. Then the J. Edward Group opened, and they got their first container just before California locked down. It’s been a wild couple of years. We were quite aggressive many years ago, acquiring many of the logs we got from the lakes. I flew down there a decade ago, and over eight years, we acquired hundreds of trees from the lakes. So I saw it as a unique opportunity. Something that had some history and a real genuine story. We were one of the first companies in Vietnam to import some of the species into Vietnam; they had not even been registered. Over the past ten years, I’ve had some very big dealers, lumber retailers, and people in the industry come to our facility.” Justin Ephraim Read More

Now That’s Social Media Marketing Ft. Alex from Backyard Resin “Just trying to optimize everything step by step and trying to get better. That’s where we’re at now.” Alex from Backyard Resin Welcome to a brand new episode of the Epoxy Business Podcast. Today, your hosts, Steve Larosiliere and Jake Latvala, sit down with Alex from Backyard Resin. Alex has made his mark with incredible videos of phenomenally eye-catching pieces. His epoxy tables have inspired his hundreds of thousands of followers, and all it takes is one look to see why. “This whole thing started as pretty much everybody starts their hobby. I worked in sales and had a great career, and I decided I wanted to make things with my hands. I saw the epoxy tables, which I thought were really interesting. So I decided to make one, and I loved it. Then I made one for my brother, my mom, and my grandma, and eventually, people said, ‘Hey, you’re pretty good at this. You should probably start selling.’ One of my friends also told me, ‘You should also make an Instagram account. I’m sure people would love to see the process and everything.’ I wasn’t very into social media, but I decided to go for it, and eventually, I saw that people started to follow. It was really nice to be able to show the process and show people how I did my stuff, and eventually, it just took on a life of its own. When COVID hit, I saw an opportunity to say, ‘You know what, it’s now or never; I really like this. Let’s go full on.’ So I quit my career and literally worked from my shed at the back of my house. I was like, ‘if this doesn’t pan out, I can always be a salesman elsewhere. But I need to try this out.’ It turns out that it went super well, and now I’ve got an 8000 square foot shop and employees, and it just scaled it up fast.” Alex from Backyard Resin Read More

Adam Beasley: Lazy Guy DIY Welcome to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today, your host Steve Larosiliere sits down with Adam Beasley, who goes by the name Lazy Guy DIY. Steve and Adam met up in person just before the start of the pandemic at WORKBENCHcon in 2019. “First and foremost, my channel Lazy Guy DIY started in 2016 focused on woodworking, DIY, and tool reviews, and that's been going pretty strong. I also run social media for several companies, I have a consulting company where I consult with brands, and we set up Ambassador programs. I work with a few makers here and there and I do a maker show, which is online woodworking, competition, art and furniture flipping. I'm a co-owner of that, and it’s one of the biggest online competitions out there right now. Lastly, I am a carpenter on a TV show that's getting ready to air this winter. We're filming episodes, and I actually leave here in a few weeks for another location, and that's going to be on the Outdoor Channel in December.” Adam Beasley Read More

Learning the Tricks of the Epoxy Trade Ft. Arthur Santel “I started learning and developing my technique and that stuff by myself. And I really enjoy being able to chat with my guys, working on this project, working and collaborating with the clients.” Arthur Santel Welcome to a brand new episode of the Epoxy Business Podcast. Today, your hosts, Steve Larosiliere and Jake Latvala, sit down with Arthur Santel, owner of Art de Seve. Arthur started his business about two years ago. Before that, he worked with a company handling concrete and epoxy flooring until he found an opportunity to work with wood. “I decided to try different stuff with wood. I had no experience before, but I had a shop where I could do that. So basically, I just bought a piece of wood for the first time a year ago, and then I met Lab Surface and you guys, and then everything started. So now I have three other associates, we’re based in Montreal, and we’re doing everything with epoxy, wood, and concrete, like furniture, tables, and that kind of stuff. It’s starting slowly, but it’s growing slowly and steadily.” Arthur Santel Read More

“We sell and retail in all kinds of dimensional and live edge slabs. I think we probably have one of the largest selections of kiln dried live edge slabs in Alberta.” Jacob Dennill Welcome to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today your host Steve Larosiliere sits down with Jacob Dennill from The Bearded Ox. Jacob has been an entrepreneur for about 14 years and was very successful in the company he started previously, but it didn’t give him the feeling he needed to keep going. “I was making good money, and all that was great, but a little piece of my soul died every day. So I decided I had to do something different. I went and did a lifelong dream and got my commercial helicopter pilot’s license, and I was going to start a helicopter company. But in the meantime, I need to do something to make money because you can’t just fire up a helicopter company the next day. So I told my wife that I’d be a pretty grumpy guy if I had to keep doing what I was doing, so let’s start another company. She was like, ‘Sure thing, let’s go.’ I started doing some research, and at the same time, a friend of mine was working on the business plan for the helicopter company and trying to make that go. Then I realized that to get into what I wanted to do, there was no middle ground to spend 12,000 bucks on a small mill, put it in my backyard, and do it on the weekends or jump all the way in. I’m not a halfway kind of guy, so we jumped all the way in.” Jacob Dennill Read More

Building an Epoxy Business Community Ft. Kevin Patanella Welcome back to a brand new episode of the Epoxy Business Podcast. Today your hosts, Steve and Jake, sit down with Kevin Patanella, an epoxy artist, ambassador, and friend to Ol Loggin Epoxy. “Like many, I feel like I got pushed into starting something because of COVID. I was working in masonry as a laborer, and we were put on hold for six months, and that’s before they began to help everyone out. My father is a framer, so I grew up with tools, but I didn’t really have the attention span to start a house and frame it out, and I wanted to do little projects and knock them out quickly. So, I started with his old tools, a table saw, a circular saw, a belt sander, and an orbital. That’s all I had.” Kevin Patanella The Draw of Epoxy Every person who works with epoxy, whether they focus on river tables, artwork, or anything in between, is drawn to the material for a reason. Sometimes it’s the durability, the inherent creativity, or some other factor that draws a person in. In Kevin’s case, it was a little bit of everything. “So, I was a chef for a while and was in the kitchen for probably close to 18 years. Executive Chef or Sous Chef for the past five, going between restaurants. I’m not with my daughter’s mother, but I was getting her on weekends, and as anyone that’s ever worked in that business knows, you can’t say, ‘Oh, I want Saturdays and Sundays off.’ So I had to make a choice. Luckily my father owns his own company, so in between finding what would be next, which I do a lot of times, I’ll work for him for a while. And then you know, go on to the new job. But having the server drop off a plate that looks like it costs $300, and the people are ecstatic. It’s the same thing when you ship out a new table or a new board or something; just to see the reactions is worth it. But I mean, obviously, I’ve got to make money too.” Kevin Patanella Instagram: @kp_rusticdesign Read More

Yelitza Mora: BuildTX Solutions Welcome back to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today your host Steve Larosiliere sits down with Yelitza Mora from BuildTX Solutions. Steve and Yelita met at a mastermind in San Diego, where Yelitza explained that she operates a construction company. She may not be your typical Woodpreneur, but wood is one of the many mediums that Yelitza works with. Additionally, the brand and lifestyle she has built around herself paint her as a stellar example of what Woodpreneurs can be capable of. “We started about five years ago here in Dallas, Texas, because there was a need. I was consulting before we started the company, and then I wanted to start investing in real estate. When we tried to find good and reliable contractors, we couldn’t find any; it was just like the horror stories. Everyone has this idea that contractors are terrible, they’re going to go ahead and run off with your money, and they’re not going to do things the right way. So I told my business partner, a civil engineer, I was like, ‘Hey, you have a lot of experience in the construction part of things in Venezuela, where we’re from, on the commercial side. Why don’t we collaborate? I’m good at sales, consulting, looking at problems, and creating solutions. And you’re good at doing, boots on the ground, running the crews, making sure everything is supposed to go how it is supposed to go. Then we see if we’re a good fit for the community and the marketplace.’” That’s how we launched the business in 2017, and since then, it’s been rapid growth for us.” Yelitza Mora Read More

“I still have years of work still available to me. But I'm looking to change this hat to a crown and be the king of casting.” Alan Nicholson Hello and welcome to a new episode of the Epoxy Business Podcast. Today, your hosts, Steve Larosiliere and Jake Latvala, sit down with Alan Nicholson. “It all started about seven years ago for me. I was in the cleaning business before, and it was the cleaning business that brought me into the epoxy industry. Some of the school districts were requesting certain jobs to be done and asked if there were certain things that I could do. So it was thanks to the school district that I got into the epoxy business. After being in the cleaning industry for 25 years, I specialized in tile and grout restoration. They asked if I could restore those famous Bradley sinks in the school washrooms. The circular one where you turn it on with your foot. In figuring out how to restore it, I used epoxy, ground it all down, and then re-covered the entire thing with epoxy. So that’s how it all started.” Alan Nicholson Ps. Since recording Alan is no longer with Lab Surface Read More

“I think in order to understand how urban forestry can be successful, I think it's really important for people in the community to see what the process is like to get from a tree to lumber.” Tom Hamilton Welcome back to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today your host Steve Larosiliere sits down with Tom Hamilton from Lumbercycle in San Diego. Steve and Tom just recently hosted a Woodpreneur meet up at Tom’s shop in National City, which allowed so many familiar and new faces to get a chance to meet up, network, and share ideas! “We do things a little bit differently from most sawmills because we are a 501C3 non-profit. We started back in 2016 down here in San Diego and we have a community college called Palomar College, which has one of the greatest woodworking programs in the nation. You can learn to make literally anything you want there and they have so much community and staff that's ready to help you with any project you want to do. They also have a sawmill urban forestry program, where they accept logs, and they'll cut and dry the wood and then sell it to their students for a super crazy discount. After I volunteered with them for a couple of years, when I was getting out of the program, I wanted to try and continue the mission that they were doing by salvaging logs and finding ways to affect people's lives with it by making the logs affordable and accessible for as many people as possible. I want to try and do that for the public. In San Diego, trying to find urban wood in this area, it is really expensive stuff because there's not a lot of people that are doing it. I know the goal is to try and save as many trees from going into landfill as possible, but it seemed like it would make more sense to save more trees if we could do more volume. And by doing more volume, you can lower your costs, and if you can make it accessible and affordable for low income and disadvantaged communities, then you can try and make that more systemic organic movement on the working man's level to make long term changes for urban forestry sustainability.” Tom Hamilton Read More

Two to Canada, our Trip to Lab Surface and Formula 1 Ft. Jake and Steve "Not many people know Lab Surface because they're a flooring manufacturer, and they're just now getting into the casting world, and they're putting 100% faith into us that we're going to take the casting world to the next level." Jake Latvala Welcome to a brand new episode of The Epoxy Business Podcast. Today, your host Steve Larosiliere and Jake Latvala sit down together and talk about their trip to Montreal to visit Lab Surface. Although the trip was based on building relationships and getting work done, they had the opportunity to check out a Formula 1 race while there. Check out the episode to hear all the stories of their adventure up north! Read More

John Christensen: Native Lumber “I don’t want to branch out and try to have all these other little avenues. I want to focus on what the mill is good at and make it ten times more efficient.” John Christensen Welcome to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast! Today, your host Steve Larosiliere sits down with John Christensen from Native Lumber. With discussion about multi-generational woodworking, how things change over time, and the challenges facing businesses in today’s marketplace, you won’t want to miss this episode! “We’ve had a little sawmill on our family ranch for just about every generation, which my little girls will be the fifth generation on the place. The first mill was right after the turn of the century, a little steam-powered circle mill that my grandfather and his brothers used to build their house. Their father actually worked in a bigger production mill not far from here. They grew a little bit bigger on an American Number One that they ran in the 40s and 50s. My dad took that over, and my mom and dad ran that into the 90s until they went a different direction because of a partner leaving. So we haven’t had an operational mill since then. My wife and I and best friend Curtis Baker put our heads together to rebuild that circle mill. After some research, we purchased a Cooks sawmill and edger five years ago to take care of our own needs and hopefully sell some boards here and there. Since then, it’s blown into a full-scale operation. So now there’s three of us full-time and two more guys that come in part-time and help us at the end of the week.” John Christensen Read More

Building Brand Recognition with David Pingrenon “I’ve got three really cool tables I’m about to pour. One is a Viking table, and I ordered a full-size Damascus ax, a shield, a drinking horn, and some bone runes and stuff that will all go in the table.” -David Pingrenon Welcome to a brand new episode of The Epoxy Business Podcast. Today, your hosts, Steve Larosiliere and Jake Latvala sit down with David Pingrenon from Rotten Stump Creations, based out of British Columbia. David is an Ol Loggin Epoxy distributor and one of the relatively few Canadian representatives on the West Coast. “I just got sick of doing the day job and was looking for something to do. I’ve always liked making stuff artistically with my hands, and I like stuff that comes from the art side of your brain, writing poems, playing guitar, things like that. It’s just not blue-collar work. So I had a friend of mine, he’s on Instagram as well, and I saw he was making tables, and I thought it was cool. The first table that came out was just this awesome swirl of brown and gold. I’m not even a fan of those two colors, but together they made this great scene with the wood in the backdrop, and I went, ‘Oh, I wonder how hard that is.’ I just looked into it and asked him a bunch of questions. I’ve done a lot of woodworking in my life, so I just thought, ‘Hey, you know what, I’m just gonna try this out.’ So I grabbed the hardest table I could think of, which was a solid color with a clear on top, and I figured if I could make the hardest table work, I could probably do this. They came out looking really nice, and I just haven’t stopped since then.” -David Pingrenon Read More

Miles Lanier: Tall Pine Outfitters & Lanier Lumber Co Welcome to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today your host Steve Larosiliere sits down with Miles Lanier of Tall Pine Outfitters & Lanier Lumber Co. Miles started the tree service company Tall Pine Outfitters with his brother and then vertically integrated another company, Lanier Lumber Co, into their business when they saw the need and opportunity. "My brother and I have a background in landscaping. We were doing landscaping for a while, landscaping installs, and maintenance until we transitioned over and started our tree service company. So we went full-time residential tree service and land clearing land management. In the first couple of years in business, we produced so much material through the tree service that it became a no-brainer to integrate vertically. Then we could turn this raw material into something workable that we could bring to market instead of just burning it or disposing of it." -Miles Lanier Read More

Jake & Steve What We’ve Learned in 1 Year Welcome to a brand new episode of the Epoxy Business Podcast. Today your hosts, Steve Larosiliere and Jake Latvala, sit down together to talk about a momentous occasion. It’s the one-year anniversary of Ol Loggin Epoxy! Although the actual Ol Loggin Epoxy product didn’t launch until July of 2021, Jake and Steve became business partners one year ago today. They started the process of their partnership agreement in January of 2021, and much of the time spent was working on agreement details and going through the process of finding the right partner in Lab Surface. Building a partnership takes time, trust, and a willingness to collaborate and communicate. However, establishing an official business partnership involves many more agreements than people may be aware of. Check out this episode to learn the ins and outs of building a collaborative business and all the steps that go into it! Proudest Moments “What we did last year is we’ve created quite a community. I think we did a pretty good job of recruiting a team, and if you look at our posts or our webpage, we’re getting tagged all over the place. What I love the most is going to forums where you people ask, ‘What’s your go-to epoxy?’ I see more and more Ol Loggin Epoxy on those forums. I think that’s one of our greatest accomplishments so far, and it’s just the beginning.” -Jake Latvala Read More

Bao Loi: DesignCraft Workshop "That's a good point, because social media can be a good tool for you or it could just be a life draining mess. If you're always thinking about the views, subscriber counts, if that's what you're in this for, you'll probably get burnt out real quick." Bao Loi Welcome to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast! Today, your host Steve Larosiliere sits down with Bao Loi from DesignCraft Workshop. Bao started as an architect, went to architecture school, got his license and everything. But not long after graduating, he found himself missing working with his hands, so Bao found that he needed to make a change. “Being able to go out there on a daily basis, working on your models, working on building stuff. I definitely missed that. So after school, I stayed in town to save a little money, and I was able to work on our projects and build stuff. When I entered the workforce, there was a huge disconnect between what architects do and what they teach you in college. Many new graduates might have that shock of going through college and into the workforce; it’s totally different. That affected me a lot. So I purchased my first table saw to sell stuff because, in college, that’s what we did. That started my journey on woodworking part-time, just doing cutting boards starting out. From there, it went towards more commissioned work, furniture builds, built-ins, etc.” Bao Loi Read More

Taking Quality and Collaboration Seriously Ft: Jonathan Gagnon “I’m driven by growth, technology, and new products. I’m a former banker, but I have a strong interest in technology and R&D.” Jonathan Gagnon Welcome back to a new episode of the Epoxy Business Podcast with your hosts, Steve Larosiliere and Jake Latvala. Today, Steve and Jake sit down with Jonathan Gagnon, president of Lab Surface, and partner in creating Ol Loggin Epoxy. Jonathan and Lab Surface fill a critical position in helping the development of Ol Loggin Epoxy. While Steve and Jake are experts in marketing and woodworking, they are not chemists, and to create a quality product like Ol Loggin Epoxy; it is vital to have experts on every front. Check out this new episode to learn about changing industries, growing a business from the ground up, embracing technology, and much more. Read More:

“We set out on a path to learn as much as we could to make local material be as good if not better than the traditional supply chains.” Paul Timmins Welcome back to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today your host Steve Larosiliere sits down with Ben Christensen and Paul Timmins of Cambium Carbon. Ben is the CEO and co-founder of Cambium Carbon, and Paul is the Director of Wood Products at the company. At Cambium Carbon, their priorities go beyond just selling wood products; their mission is to create a solution for significant problems such as climate change. "I wanted to take it to the next level and tie that into addressing climate change. We’re a public benefit company, and we focus on helping the communities that we work with, our milling partners, and the different supply partners we work with across the country. Then we reinvest in the forests where we see that salvage wood comes from. We have a 15% tree planting commitment. We work with many amazing local planting organizations, and anytime we sell the table or wood product or flooring, we put that directly back into community planting. That’s what we’re all about.” Ben Christensen Read More ps. join our personal branding workshop coming up at the end of June! Build Your Wood Brand Organically to Sell More Wood Products & Services without having to Spend More on Ads! 3 Day Personal Branding Workshop For Wood Entrepreneurs Live - June 20 - 22, 2022 This is for Woodworkers, Carpenters, Furniture Makers, and Sawmills.

A Grassroots Epoxy Business Ft. Brad Williams “Hamilton Lee Supply started from Hamilton Lee Designs, one led to another. Hamilton is my youngest son’s first name, and Lee is my eldest son’s middle name. So I wanted to keep it in the family.” Brad Williams Welcome to a brand new episode of the Epoxy Business Podcast. Today, your hosts, Steve Larosiliere and Jake Latvala, sit down with Brad Williams from Hamilton Lee Supply. Brad got started on his woodworking journey when a tree fell in his backyard, and he wanted to do some work with it. “This was back in 2017. The network wasn’t as prominent as it is now, with social media and sawmill operations everywhere. So I got a sawmill, and as a custom home builder, I was taking four to six trees off of every demo lot we’re doing. Before long, I had 30 to 40 trees. So started with a sawmill, moved on to epoxy, and just dovetailed from making into supply and working with customers.” Brad Williams Read More

Welcome to the first episode of The Epoxy Business Podcast, hosted by Steve Larosiliere and Jake Latvala. Steve and Jake run Ol Loggin Epoxy, one of the best premier epoxy brands for woodworkers by woodworkers, and they wanted to create a show to help document the building of this brand. Together, they are doing something that no one else is doing, and they want to invite you along for the journey. Steve runs the Woodpreneur Podcast and a marketing agency called Acres of Timber alongside the Acres CRM, which is software for woodworking businesses. He works with many big brands and with Woodpreneurs of all sizes to help grow their sales and marketing. Jake Latvala owns Ol Loggin Sawmill, teaches people how to build epoxy tables and serving trays, and he does it all with urban lumber. He and his company process the lumber from tree to table and work heavily with epoxy as well. Read More

Justin Bailey: Campfire Woodworks Welcome back to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today, your host Steve Larosiliere sits down with Justin Bailey from Campfire Woodworks. Justin had the idea to start Campfire Woodworks many years ago based on his love of building and creating. However, at the time, he had no outlet for that creative energy. Follow along as Steve and Justin discuss growing up, finding your path, and the inspiration behind his company’s brand. “I've always been a crafty person, high school shop class and all that, but I sort of got away from it. I went to college in New York City, and I've lived in New York City for about 14-15 years. Then five years ago, my wife and I decided to move out to the suburbs, so we bought a house in Rahway, New Jersey. That house came with a garage and one of the agreements that we had when we first moved here was that anything that needed to be made or fixed or done around the house, we would try to do it ourselves before we paid someone else to try and do it. So out of necessity, I ended up building a kitchen island for our kitchen with a couple of tools in the yard, on a folding table from Costco. Then I kind of caught the bug again, I remembered how much I enjoyed doing crafty stuff. One project turned into two, then three, until eventually I built a cutting board and I moved all my tools into the garage. We had never parked a car in there and had been empty for the first year we had the house. So I cleaned up the garage, put a little Workbench and a couple of tools in there, did some projects, and a bunch of my friends reached out to me asking, ‘Hey, can you make me this? Can you make me that?’” Justin Bailey Read More

Derrick Radford: Radford Woodworks “I sold a table for $2,300. I’m turning this raw material into this. It took me maybe a week to produce, and I was happy every moment of doing that.” -Derrick Radford Welcome back to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today your host Steve Larosiliere sits down with Derrick Radford from Radford Woodworks. Like many other Woodpreneurs, Derrick started his woodworking journey when he bought his first house and was looking for furniture. Early on, Derrick wanted to acquire a lot of items for himself and his fiance, but they were not necessarily affordable options. So Derrick felt inspired by the idea that he could probably create the kind of furniture his fiance wanted himself. Read More

Colton Rosman: Bearded Moose Woodworking Welcome back to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today your host Steve Larosiliere sits down with Colton Rosman from Bearded Moose Woodworking. Colton and his company operate just outside of Grand Rapids, Michigan, and he is very at home out in the country. “I grew up in Michigan out in the country, and my parents had about 100 acres. So I grew up doing a lot of outdoor stuff. After graduating from college to be an engineer, I moved to Portland, Oregon, where I worked for a very large company in the city for about six years. My now wife and I moved out and did apartment living for a while, but I got really stir crazy. So we decided to buy a house in Oregon and get a little bit of space. As soon as we moved into the house, I was back into hands-on stuff and DIY upgrades. Then when COVID hit, my wife also had our daughter at the same time, so we were locked in our house. I spent a ton of time on YouTube and went down the rabbit hole of furniture. I had a decent amount of tools from the DIY stuff, and I told my wife, ‘Hey, I’m gonna start building some furniture.’” Colton Rosman Read More

Bud Farmer: Forrest Design Co. Welcome to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today, your host Steve Larosiliere sits down with Bud Farmer, owner of the Jacksonville, Texas-based Forrest Design Company. Bud has established himself as something of a social media posting expert. Highlighting the entire build process in his reels and perfectly incorporating the right music and the right vibe for every video means that he has an ideal visual representation of his products and his company. Check out this episode and listen to learn all about Bud’s social media expertise, his company’s history, the details of his most recent builds, and much more. Read More

Bo Shepherd: Woodward Throwbacks Welcome to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today your host Steve Larosiliere sits down with Bo Shepherd from Woodward Throwbacks. Steve’s wife has followed Bo online, and last summer Steve had the opportunity to go to Bo’s store when she was running a big sale. Woodward Throwbacks has a phenomenal brand, exceptional content, and unique products with a distinctly Detroit feel to them. Check out this episode and listen to Bo talk about how she has brought this business to where it is today! A Reclaimed Origin “So Woodward Throwbacks is a sustainable design studio that focuses on designing furniture, buildings, and spaces using primary reclaimed materials. We started in 2014 organically, in a way where, in Detroit there was a lot of illegal dumping around that time which is material that's been discarded on the street. So being at a college, being on a budget, we're gathering those materials while we bike around the city and making furniture for ourselves. Fast forward a couple of years, we started selling that furniture to friends and family, and at the local farmer's market. We got our big break when we started selling for Nordstrom. So we got into a couple of like, big box companies. Then our business kind of started to evolve, where instead of doing smaller home decor, we started doing larger scale furniture. Now we're in our 24,000 square foot old Dodge dealership, which is our workshop, our warehouse, and our showroom. It was partly trying to clean up our neighborhood, but also just working on a budget and wanting to make really cool things for our house.” -Bo Shepherd Read More

Zach Wedekind: Rustic Lumber Store Welcome to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today, your host Steve Larosiliere sits down with Zach Wedekind from Rustic Lumber Store, based out of Louisville, Nebraska. For a unique piece of podcast trivia, in over 200 episodes of the Woodpreneur Podcast, Zach is only the second guest from Nebraska to be featured on the show! In its current form, Rustic Lumber Store has been in operation for three years now, but they have operated in the wood industry since about 2010 with their Timber King sawmill. Originally the intention was for the business to focus on cutting up logs and timber beams for construction. However, over the last few years, the slab and woodworking industry has exploded in popularity, which has shifted the focus of the business. Read More

Austin Aaron: Dancing Grains Woodworks “I’ve been trying to get to a point where we get to really build our furniture lines. I feel like I’ve put a lot of effort and had a lot of inspiration around the designs. And that’s what I’ve really wanted to do and spend time on; it’s about the craft.” Austin Aaron Welcome back to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today, your host Steve Larosiliere sits down with Austin Aaron from Dancing Grains Woodworks, based out of Boulder, Colorado. Steve and Austin met at the recent Woodpreneur meetup in Denver, and Steve took interest immediately. Austin started his business in 2008, right during the recession, but that wasn’t able to keep this Woodpreneur down, and he has grown his business successfully in the years since then. Read More

At NY City Slab, Robert and his team mill urban lumber from what might seem an unlikely source. The idea began when Robert was building a house and wanted to use local wood. Robert found that trees in his locality were being used for mulch and wanted to put those cut-down trees to better use. Robert started off using a Lucas mill but it found it slow in terms of production. At a woodsmen show, Robert bought the biggest mill he could buy with his money at the time. He went for a 14 inch bandsaw mill and built a 50ft track to go with it that enabled him to cut through 6-8 logs in a day. Read More

Sean Harmer: Sean Harmer Woodworking Welcome back to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today, your host Steve Larosiliere sits down with Sean Harmer from Sean Harmer Woodworking. Steve and Sean met at the Denver, Colorado, Woodpreneur meetup, and Sean is now bringing his knowledge and expertise to the Woodpreneur Podcast. Sean is coming up on the five-year anniversary of his woodworking journey. Like many other woodworkers, Sean gets a great deal of inspiration from his parents. Both his father and mother were artists and creators, and they have passed on that passion to Sean. “In 2018, I was working at a startup in Boulder, kind of like a commercial real estate thing, until I got laid off. So I took some of that severance money and invested in some tools and a CNC machine, and I wanted to expand it to like a whole new thing; I wanted to be creative. Fast forward a couple of years, the pandemic hit in 2020. At that point, I was a couple of months into having a little boy, and I still wasn’t working and was having a hard time finding a job. I looked around at my friends and the opportunities they were looking for, which led me to create my company, Hardwood Climbing, where I made hang boards, which are like a training board that you mount above your door for rock climbers.” Sean Harmer Read More

Carmen Rodriguez: Eutree “I’ve heard ‘no’ so many times with architects and designers. But don’t be shy about bringing a brand out there and being proud of what you do.” Carmen Rodriguez Welcome to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today your host Steve Larosiliere sits down with Carmen Rodriguez from the Atlanta, Georgia-based wood company Eutree. The company’s founder Sims Acuff was formerly an arborist and part of a tree service business. Eutree was a project he started while attending Georgia Tech and something he continued to grow after leaving. In the early stages of the business, Sims worked primarily in the Atlanta metro area, handling the removal of old-growth trees, especially white oak, which is prevalent in Atlanta. He grew frustrated with throwing the trees away in these early stages, whether to a landfill or a chipper, which led him to purchase a small portable sawmill. This purchase marked the beginning of Eutree and helped establish the core tenants of the business. Sims and Carmen believe firmly in protecting old-growth trees and utilizing every possible piece of lumber removed from people’s yards and properties. Read More

Marc Spagnuolo: The Wood Whisperer “I found this woodworking thing to be incredibly appealing. It’s so much fun to do, and it was great therapy for me when I would come home from basically an hour and 10-minute commute each way.” Marc Spagnuolo Welcome back to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today your host Steve Larosiliere sits down with Marc Spagnuolo, also known as The Wood Whisperer. Marc used to work in the biotech industry in Southern California, and he eventually reached a point where he was very disenchanted with his job, so he started woodworking as a hobby on the side. This path is shared by many woodworkers who discover a passion for woodworking after starting it as a hobby. Like other Woodpreneurs, Marc found not only a knack for woodworking but a genuine passion and a skill for the discipline. Through moving states to better his business, finding his niche within the industry, and much more, Marc has had an exceptional journey. Read More

Nick Hunsaker: Hunski Hardwoods “It's tough finding the time to balance working, making furniture, wrapping products up, surfacing, milling, just trying to balance all of that because it’s just my dad and I that do it.” Nick Hunsaker Welcome to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today your host Steve Larosiliere sits down with Nick Hunsaker of Hunski Hardwoods. Steve has been following Nick’s work since about 2015 when The Woodmizer Way did an article on Hunski Hardwoods. Nick started Hunski Hardwoods with his father, who has been in the wood business in one form or another for almost fifty years. Due to his father’s early involvement in the wood industry, Nick has been surrounded by and involved in it for his whole life. Read More

“I never intended to go down this path. If you’d have told me five years ago that I’d quit a six-figure government job and a desk and work for myself, I’d have said you were crazy.” Brendan Vande Kamp Hello and welcome to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today your host Steve Larosiliere sits down with Brendan Vande Kamp from Log to Lumber. Steve and Brian met initially on Facebook about three years ago while Brendan was still working for the government and he had just purchased his sawmill. Brendan never meant to go down the woodworking path. Five years ago, he never would have believed that he would leave his six-figure government job to pursue a career in woodworking, where he owned his own business. At this point, Brendan has just recently ordered his fourth sawmill and has purchased a debarker and edger, and he loves what he does every day. Read More

"Finding the right people. You can find people that are capable and talented, but finding people that are passionate and loyal, especially with woodworking, that's why we have a cooperative model." Megan Offner Welcome to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today your host Steve sits down with Megan Offner from New York Heartwoods! Megan was one of the first ten podcast guests ever and the first female Woodpreneur to join the podcast guest list. When the Woodpreneur Podcast was called the Sawmill Business Podcast, Megan was primarily a milling business. However, in the six years since her first appearance, her business has grown exponentially. She has diversified her company's focus, and an enormous amount of change has occurred. Who They are Today "Today, we are a fabricator of sustainable wood furniture. As you know, we started off milling and selling lumber and slabs, and very early on, people started asking for furniture. So initially, I was subbing that out and then gradually put a team together. Now it's more of a cooperative or collective business at this point; all women. We do a lot of furniture made from local wood and our clients' trees. Because of the milling and drying background, I work with clients who are either doing new construction or have removed trees because they are dying or diseased, or they're afraid they're going to fall on their house. Still, they want to have that material incorporated into their home. So I now just project manage the milling and drying process, work with the client on the designs with my team, and we return the wood from that tree to the client in the form of primarily furniture, but we do all sorts of surfaces." Megan Offner Read More