The Woodpreneur Podcast

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

200th Episode with Steve and Ethan “One of my favorite quotes ever that has been really a big driver for me is one by Jay-Z. He said, ‘Nine to five is how you survive; I ain’t trying to survive, I’m trying to live it to the limit and love it a lot.’ That’s been a huge motivator for me.” Steve Larosiliere Welcome to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. This is our 200th episode, and today we’re going to switch things up a little bit! Today Steve is joined by Ethan Abramson, host of the Building a Furniture Brand Podcast, the fastest-growing podcast for furniture designers and makers out right now. Ethan is also a fantastic interviewer and a great person, so for the 200th episode, Ethan will be interviewing Steve about his life and career. In episode 100, Steve had his very first guest on the podcast interview him, so episode 200 is a return to form. Check it out! “I started the podcast six years ago. My background before that was in Marketing and Entrepreneurship. I had a marketing company, my first career that I ran for three or four years, and then I started working in the nonprofit field. I did that until earlier this month, but I ran that for 18 years. So I have a lot of experience with Marketing and Entrepreneurship and starting businesses. The organization that I started mentors kids; I grew it nationally and helped over 10,000 kids. I raised lots of money, I built networks and marketed each part, so I did a lot of stuff.” Steve Larosiliere Read More

“Woodworking is very emotional; it just calms me down. We’ve been through a lot in life, and it’s the one thing where I feel focused and free. So it’s just something that I always want to be doing.” Mike Leas Welcome to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today, your host Steve Larosiliere sits down with Mike and Cindy from MikCin Creations. Recently, when Steve gets asked how to get started in the business by aspiring Woodpreneurs, he refers them to listen to the Woodpreneur Podcast, and Mike and Cindy took that advice and ran with it. While Steve was working on his woodworking projects in Michigan, Mike reached out to mention that he had been listening to the Woodpreneur Podcast and had been applying the lessons to make money. Steve immediately pulled Mike and his family into an Instagram Live conversation to talk about the process they went through to get where they are now. A Long Hard Road “It’s a long story, but the short part of it is we started doing this, just like a lot of other makers and woodworkers, out of necessity. We didn’t have a lot of money, and we moved around a lot, and we were having a hard time financially at the beginning of our marriage. So we’ve had like three cars stolen within our first four years of marriage, our house flooded, we literally had to swim out of our home, and things like that. We were always struggling financially, but we finally got ourselves to a point where we were starting to pick back up.” Mike Leas “We were living in a rental, but the lady we were renting from let us paint, so I started painting the walls. Then I started painting our furniture, and I started painting artwork. And that led to like, ‘Can you make me this? Can you make me that?’ We needed some stuff around the house like shelves built and stuff like that. I was tired of the same stuff that I had from college that I got from dumpsters or hand-me-downs, and I was just tired of the same boring gold, copper, and burgundy colors. I need something fresh, so we just painted everything that we had.” Cindy Leas Although they didn’t have a garage or a proper space to work in, Mike and Cindy used their carport to great effect with a cheap sander and a circular saw. Mike would pick up pallets from work, look on Pinterest to see how to do the projects, and start working on them. Read More

“It’s not just for resin. I didn’t want resin in the actual name because you can use it for concrete, you can use anything on it, and it doesn’t bond. So I didn’t want to restrict it to only resin or epoxy as it has multiple purposes.” Corné Welcome back to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast; today, your host Steve sits down with Corné and Aaron, owners of Makers Reusable Mold (MRM). Recently the Woodpreneur community has been taken by storm by the incredible quality and usability of Corné and Aaron’s ingenious molds. Part of what makes MRM so capable of delivering quality products is that Corné and Aaron have their own maker business, Arisan Wood, as well. Corné has a long career as an artist, and Aaron has around 15 years of experience making wood products, primarily furniture. When epoxy began to take the wood industry by storm, Corné and Aaron joined in the excitement and began using epoxy almost five years ago. However, they quickly grew tired of making poor quality molds to pour the resin into their pieces, so they decided to take matters into their own hands. Read More

Brian Presnell: Indy Urban Hardwood Co. Welcome back to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today your host Steve Larosiliere sits down with Brian Presnell from Indy Urban Hardwood Co. Born and raised in Indianapolis Indiana, Brian studied at the Herron School of Art and Design and studied furniture and sculpture back in the 90s. Brian worked in a variety of museum positions, building things and recycling materials for exhibits and developing his own understanding of urban wood before the term had been coined. In 2000, the museum he was working at underwent some renovations and cleared a load of trees out from the property. Brian then had the idea to bring in a Woodmizer to cut up some of the logs into usable timber. Now 20 years later, it’s an incredible story. “They were renovating the building, and when they cut some of these big trees down to make space for a new parking garage, I ran over to the horticultural people and said ‘Hey, can we recycle the logs?’ And they're like, ‘What are you talking about?’ Really, the first time I thought there might be a use for this stuff was back then I was just getting going. I had a studio, I studied furniture design, and so I mean, by virtue of being a starving artist, in a way was how I started finding reclaimed and recycling material. There was a furniture factory on the east side. And I used to dumpster dive and get maple and cherry and other stuff to make some of my early projects with.” Brian Presnell Read More

Welcome back to another episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today, we are revisiting our episode with Matt Ruben from Ruben Custom Sawmilling and Woodworks. Matt started about three years ago when he decided to buy a Woodmizer IT 40 standard. When he began, he watched many YouTube videos learning about the potential profit that he could earn from running an independent sawmill as a one-person operation. Currently, Matt is focusing primarily on portable sawmill work, selling live edge slabs, and developing the custom projects part of his company. Matt explains that he had almost no woodworking experience outside of high school woodshop, but he didn't let that stop him as he fell in love with the experience of opening up logs to see the many different types of beauty that they contain. Read More

Welcome back to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today, your host Steve sits down with Brent Jarvis of Clean Cut Woodworking. Unlike most of the other guests on the podcast, Brent is a manufacturing company, not solely a woodworker. Brent is located in New Orleans, Louisiana, where woodworkers are a bit of a rare breed. Despite, or perhaps because of that fact, Brent really enjoys working and selling his products in the region. “It all started about seven or eight years ago, something like that. My daughter said she wanted a bed for Christmas. I built her a bed with a jigsaw and our palm sander basically, so that was where the woodworking pretty much started. I got the bug and went from there. I did custom orders for about two years just building a shop, getting tools, doing that. Then I thought, hey, I can make some money off of this.” Brent Jarvis Read More

Welcome to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today, your host Steve sits down with the first three-peat guest Jake Latvala from Ol Loggin Sawmill and Ol Loggin Epoxy. Jake's Woodpreneur journey has been chronicled through the podcast. During his first appearance, he was just beginning his business; he hadn't even quit his day job at the time. By his second appearance at the podcast, he was well into full-time working on his own business. At this point, Jake has been developing his business for years now. He has been creating content and building furniture and has already dug deep into branding and developing his epoxy brand as well! Read More

This week on the podcast we talk about different financing options for your wood company. Many woodpreneurs are working part-time in their wood company before they transition into being a full-time business owner. Others decide to jump right into being full-time and bet on themselves or work from their savings. In this episode, we will talk about some of the options for funding your start-up wood company. From private loans to business plans and grants, this isn't one you want to miss. Tune in and join us for another great episode! Read More

This is the last podcast episode of 2021. If I think back to this past year, this was a record-breaking year for my agency and me, and a lot of my clients. I've had three people go full time this year, like quitting their job during a pandemic to go all-in on their passion, their Woodpreneur business. I'm super proud. Some of my brand clients just had great years. And it reminded me that the outside world shouldn't dictate what happens in your inside world and your business. You only fail when you decide to give up. I've encountered a lot of Woodpreneurs that are afraid of failure. But I've found that the more risks you take, especially calculated risks, the more successful you become. Read More

Justin Ephraim: Reduxwood Revisited Welcome back to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur podcast. It's not really a brand new episode, it's actually a repeat episode! To end off the year we're going through some of my favorite interviews. This one is with Justin from Reduxwood out in Vietnam. Talk about a big vision! He gets his stuff from the bottom of the Panama Canal, and all-over Asia. He's got a showroom in Canada, San Diego, and also the UK. So if you want to get inspired, check out Reduxwood. We'll have brand new episodes of the podcast starting in 2022. I can't believe it. I hope you all are having a good holiday season, and I'm excited to continue to serve you all next year. Read More Here

Mara Harding: Mara Designs On today’s episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast, we re-visit a favorite from our last season of the podcast, our sit down with Mara Harding. Mara began her journey into the wood industry when she was 41, because when her children began to reach the double-digit ages, she began to wonder what her purpose was on the planet. At the time, she owned and ran an advertising agency, and while she had several big clients she felt that it was not her calling, so she shut the agency down at the age of 40. After that point, Mara took about four months to decide what she wanted to, and she had an opportunity to create some Christmas designs out of wood, which led to her “aha moment.” This revelation caused her some issues as she had no training, no passport, no experience, and no access to mentors in Jamaica that could teach her woodworking.

Laura Sissoko: Atlantic Fine Woods Welcome back to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast! Today, your host Steve Larosiliere sits down with Laura Sissoko from Atlantic Fine Woods. Laura's story and the story of Atlantic Fine Woods began about ten years ago. "I studied architecture in school, and I was interested in furniture design. And I had been working for a furniture designer in New York City for a while. My father saw an opportunity when Gibson Guitars was getting raided for having allegedly illegally sourced ebony and other exotic woods. The country where I was born, the Central African Republic, had recently started a managed forest system with neighboring countries, The Congo and Cameroon. So we knew that we had a single chain of custody source for exotic woods, and that's how we started. Several years into it, there was a coup d'etat in the Central African Republic, and we were no longer able to export ethically. That's when we had to switch to domestic wood, and that's when we also started hearing about urban lumber. So that was our next step, and it's thriving and doing great." Laura Sissoko Adapting and Changing From the time they started the company to now, a lot has changed. Not only have they swapped from importing exotic woods to harvesting domestic, but Atlantic Fine Woods has also been doing a lot more furniture projects over the last five years. Since they are located in the urban center of Atlanta, they recognize that not everybody has the knowledge, tools, or space to make their own tables. So they have been doing a lot of custom work for their client base. Currently, their main products are kiln-dried live edge slabs that they sell to other woodworkers and DIYers. Laura notes that the first few years of selling exotic woods were relatively slow since it was a new business. However, when they pivoted the company to selling domestic wood, they could use it as a marketing opportunity and go to all of the local papers and design blogs. Knowing their Audience As a result of pivoting their business model, Laura has found that their client base is far more interested in urban lumber than exotics. Additionally, Atlantic Fine Woods has managed to become the primary destination for people within the central area of Atlanta. "Atlanta has this ring highway around it, and it's considered inside the perimeter and outside the perimeter are the kinds of cultures of Atlanta. For the most part, our customers are inside the perimeter, sort of city people. I believe outside of the perimeter; there is access to sawmills and that kind of thing if you go maybe an hour and a half, two hours out of town. So we're mostly the city people, and our custom business has been growing beautifully. What we'd like to do is open a retail store with tops and do work with a blacksmith. So we'd like to have people just kind of choose their tops and bases and do like that in a beautiful retail setting that is not a dusty warehouse." Laura Sissoko Read More

This week on the podcast it's a note from your host Steve! As we move into the holiday season, don't forget to keep your foot on the gas pedal! Steve also catches us up on the news for Acres of Timber, Purpose Wood Co., and unveils his new Woodpreneur Mastermind and conference plans for 2022. Check it out and we hope you are going into the new year excited to keep making big moves in your wood business! Read More Here!

Hey everyone! Welcome to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur podcast. Today's guest is Zach Wicks From Wood By Wicks, based in Edmond, Oklahoma. Zach has been working for himself for thirteen years, but he describes his business as truly being realized around eight years ago. It started when Zach thought it was a great idea to harvest some cedar from his property. So he cut some cedar trees down and thought he was going to process them with a chainsaw. After one log, though, he knew the chainsaw wasn't going to cut it. "Handling the material is extremely hard, just getting it along from point A to B. That's kind of why I was thinking, "Well, maybe I should take this wood to a sawmill." So I took it to Woodmizer. As soon as I saw the Woodmizer process that log, I knew I needed to have one. It took a while to get my Woodmizer. I've been selling wood for eight years. And I was paying other sawmills to cut my wood and then taking that wood. But I was really good at selling beautiful pictures of wood that I salvaged." Zachary Wicks The Business Today Today, Zach's business is entirely based on mobility. He notes that the only reason he didn't buy a sawmill until as late as he did was that he lives in a residential setting, and there was no place for it there. He would have loved to run a mill out of his backyard, but it was just not an option in his area. "I literally keep my sawmill in a storage unit. If I need to use my sawmill, it's 100% portable, so like I never cut here, I'm going to the logs 100% of the time. It takes a lot of preparation as it's the same amount of prep work to cut for one hour as it is for 10 hours. I've cut for hundreds of people, but cutting for people has to make sense. It needs to be a minimum of half a day, including the cutting and a setup fee. I love cutting for people if they agree with the $100 an hour price and the setup fee. Then I primarily just cut for myself. All the wood I cut is pretty much for myself." Zachary Wicks Alongside his milling operation, the other half of Zach's business is his lumber sales. He explains that he wouldn't be where he is without the community and support around him. One notable element of Zach's business is that many of his buyers will buy wood from him within 12 hours of acquiring it. Since Zach's goal is to save as many trees as possible, this quick turnover helps him enormously. Most of the time, he can sell all of his white woods quickly, and he stores his walnut pieces as they move much more slowly. Read More

Welcome to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today, your host Steve Larosiliere sits down with Marc Dubac of Windwood LLC. Like many other Woodpreneurs, Marc got his start in woodworking during downtime from his primary career. “I play in the Oregon symphony. That's my full-time job. During the summertime, we don't have work, so we only have work for nine months out of the year, basically. In the summertime, generally, my musician colleagues and I would travel around the country and play in different music festivals. A lot of them are really good. And some pay really well, too. But I had young children at the time, and it was just kind of a pain to haul screaming children across the country for sometimes good pay, and sometimes not. So I kind of got into just doing handyman work for neighbors. I just wanted to be able to stay at home and work and through that process, I think I just got enamored with woodworking.” Marc Dubac Marc spent time listening to the Woodpreneur Podcast, as well as another major inspiration, the Wood Whisperer podcast, which caused him to fall in love with hardwoods. From there, he did a swan dive into woodworking and set up a home shop in his garage. Read More

Welcome back to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today's guest is John Graves from City Hardwoods of Birmingham, Alabama. City Hardwoods started because of the difficulty that many hobbyist woodworkers in Birmingham had with sourcing hardwood lumber. "There used to be a few big distributors that folks would go buy from, but they kind of closed down to the public. And so, a couple of guys came up with this whole idea. We opened up a place where the hobbyist can walk in pick through every stick of lumber that we have here with no minimums or anything like that. So we've been here for about six years, and the building we're in now we've been here for about three years. It's just been a need around this place. As everybody knows, it's hard to find good hardwood lumber, live edge slabs, stuff that's actually been dried properly and essentially ready to ready to make a piece of furniture out of." John Graves Read More

Today we talk to Josh Clarkweiss from Full Circle Forest Products and discuss sustainability, creative business practices, grants, and more. In this episode, we explore how the focus on sustainable forestry has changed consumer habits and we discuss the perspective that folks hold about urban lumber. We also dive into an incredibly important aspect of running a wood company, delegation. As we've touched on before, you need to be using your time for the highest value tasks and remember that just because you can do everything, doesn't necessarily mean you should. Josh also participated in the Woodpreneur Mentorship program and discusses what he learned in terms of branding as well as the valuable connection with other wood businesses. Check out this episode for a great story and some killer marketing advice on "stale" products. Check out our Website

Welcome to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today's guest is Randall Williams from Fireside Farm and Sawmill. Randall explains that the farm side of the business started first when he and his wife moved to a nine-acre homestead together. They were both teachers and wanted to live a life around growing food, raising livestock, and tending to their community. When they first moved, Randall had some difficulty with some giant pine trees right behind the house. So he called a forester to come and look at them, and then a logger who said the only option was to clear cut the area. That option horrified Randall, so he decided to fell and mill the trees himself. One of his neighbors who owned a sawmill came by to consult with Randall, and he said that it was possible, but it would take a long time. So he sold Randall his old sawmill, which Randall then used to start milling all of that lumber for use around his property. "At that point, people started bullying me to mill their lumber. At the time, I was teaching at a Quaker school in Durham, and on the weekends, I was milling lumber for other people. That kind of started the process where I started selling lumber and then coming up with a fee structure to mill for other people. In 2017, my wife and I left our jobs teaching and went all-in on the farm. And at that point, I ramped up the sawmill operation, which has been going full time for the last four years. Nowadays, I run the farm operation, and my wife grows cut flowers mainly for weddings." Randall Williams Read more here!

Welcome to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today, Steve sits down with Alma Rosa Villalobos of Pink Soul Studios. Like many woodworkers, Alma's first influences came from her family. Her grandfather was a woodworker, and her mother provided a super creative effect on her as well. Alma bought her first house in Detroit when she was 24, and because she couldn't afford much at the time, she started building things as she needed them. Soon after, Alma started making things for her family and friends and slightly further afield. She moved away from woodworking for several years as her interest in engines grew, especially those for smaller motorcycles and vintage scooters. However, after her son was born and they moved to Chicago, she wanted to make his toys and furniture, and the woodworking passion reignited. "I was just self-taught! I wanted a vintage Becka in my 20s, and I met a cool bunch of kids my age, and we had a club called the Jedi Knight scooter club. We were super nerds. We did the whole knighting with the lightsaber type thing. We would get together as often as we could and teach each other how to work on bikes and small engines and things like that. It was just something to do, and I wanted to ride, but I couldn't find anyone to really work on those bikes. That just grew from there, and I started getting into bigger bikes and things like that." Alma Rosa Villalobos Understanding Branding Steve notes that Alma has an exceptional sense of self and her branding is already on point. She believes that Instagram was the most significant part of the growth she has experienced in her business so far. Alma describes herself as a terrible hype man for herself. Although she can hype up her friends and family, she struggles with advertising for herself, and Instagram (especially early on) provided a relatively easy place to grow and find community. "I just posted what I was doing, and anything that I was proud of, and people would start to DM me and ask me, "Hey do you do this? Can you make this?" I'm fortunate enough to be able to kind of say yes or no to certain jobs, but I'd say just Instagram is where I got a lot of my clients in the beginning. Once I got into CNC work, I was making templates for other makers or things like that. I got really into making push sticks once I got my CNC, and so the majority of my sales were from other makers, so it was cool to see that." Alma Rosa Villalobos Alma considers herself very fortunate to pick and choose the jobs and projects that she wants to do. Since she doesn't make her living from these projects, she considers all of the money she makes as extra. This freedom means that Alma can put her heart and soul into whatever she works on and not lock her into working with only one style. Originally, Alma intended to be a graphic design artist, and she considers herself pretty artistic, which has aided her in branding her business. She notes that she's not the biggest fan of pink, but when people scroll through social media for woodworking, the color makes her profile stand out in a sea of brown, green, black, and white. Read More

Steve Larosiliere: Season Recap Today we have a recap episode of the podcast, we’re going to talk about some of the awesome guests we’ve had, and dive into some current trends happening in the wood business. First off I want to give a shout-out to my partner Ethan at the Building a Furniture Brand Podcast, he has been absolutely crushing it. It’s been amazing watching him grow that podcast. You can check it out on Woodpreneurlife.com or any other podcast platform. Looking back at the podcast, it has been about four months since we’ve taken a break, so this is a good time to check-in and recap. I feel grateful that the podcast continues to grow and I love the community that's been building around it, it is absolutely amazing. I wanted to talk about a couple of things today. First off, I'd love some feedback. What do you all think about the advice that I give? I'm getting good feedback, but I'd love to hear more about that. The other thing that I want to talk about is: who else do you want to see on the podcast moving forward? I feel like that's an even more important question. Who do you want to see? Who are the Woodpreneurs out there that inspire you and motivate you when you look at them on social media and you see what they're doing? Looking Back at Everything we’ve Accomplished I ended up moving back to Chicago. My house is semi-finished but we got the flooring and I'll post that to Instagram when the house is completely done. We also ended up making some butcher block countertops for our island. My time in Michigan was amazing. I feel like I further connected to the wood and sawmill industry and got an even better sense of what you all need. When I look back at the past couple of months, there have been a few people that I want to highlight. Ryan Cochrane: We talked about building community. Mat Makin Things: He approaches it from pure organic content, a sort of generalist’s perspective. If you listen to Pete Parisi’s episode, I walk everybody through what it takes to start a business from scratch. Matt Ruben: He quit his job. He was also a client, I worked with him, built his website, coached him, and now he’s full-time in his business. Kyle Kidwell: An amazing furniture maker. If you want to talk about what it takes to build a furniture line, that's a good one to listen to. Matt Morgan: Another incredible episode worth giving a listen to. Christian and Lauren: They started a business with just an iDRY and then expanded into the urban lumber and slub industry. Danny Torres: Another incredible woodworker with an amazing business. There are so many amazing people on the podcast, and the downloads just keep going up. I also want to talk about some trends that I'm seeing. One is, I'm seeing more and more stories out there, I'm seeing more people talk to the camera. This is great, because what it does is it allows you to connect more with your audience. I'm also seeing a lot more videos. Video is great because that's what the social media platforms want, they want more video, no more stills. You kind of need to see the behind-the-scenes of how things are being done. The day and age of just having finished product shots are done. You just need to show more videos. The brands that are winning more are the ones that connect more to their audience. So they're telling more of the story of the product and highlighting the customer. I've talked before about making your customer the hero. This is what I mean. Another underutilized resource is tapping into urban lumber. In many ways, if you're buying lumber that isn't mass-produced, you have a story to tell. Read More

John Mahoney: Mahoney Woodworks Welcome to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. In today's episode, your host Steve Larosiliere speaks with John Mahoney, owner of Mahoney Woodworks. John owns his own contracting business, and he's been doing woodworking on the side for about fifteen years. Much of John's career has been focused on general contracting, including everything from electrical to custom cabinetry and carpentry. One advantage of his career is that he has used many of his contracting tools to help create projects on the side. Over the last eight years, in particular, he has been honing his woodworking craft to make a more marketable product. Currently, John is in the process of transitioning away from his contracting business so that he can take his woodworking passion to the next level. A central turning point happened at the start of the pandemic when his contracting work began to slow down. "I had an assistant working with me, and I wasn't able to really support him in the way that I wanted to. So we parted ways, and I said, "I really want you to blossom, and this is not the time for you with me." During that transition, I was able to work from my home and focus on my woodworking, and I started on Instagram and met a lot of people in the community. My page took off pretty well. I got a lot of followers, I've had some transactions, and my wife and my family have given me the opportunity to focus on this. Over the next few months, I'm going to work exclusively on doing some woodworking from my house and trying to turn it into a means of income and reach out to the community and make it a lifestyle." John Mahoney Building an Audience Compared to many fledgling businesses, John considers himself very fortunate compared to other people woodworking from home. The combination of a garage workshop (with no cars allowed!) and the numerous tools that John has picked up through his career as a contractor has given him a leg up when it comes to initial investments. Additionally, people have already been very receptive to John's designs in the early stages of his business. As such, his current focus is on creating a customer base, developing word-of-mouth advertising, and getting specifically commissioned pieces from that expanding customer base. Over the last several months, John has been focused on doing craft shows to give people the opportunity to feel and handle his products in person. He believes that those who aren't woodworkers can't get a good sense of scale through a photo, so these events give him the ability to provide context for people to experience his work. Although the Philadelphia area is full of craft shows and other trade events, John finds that their prevalence means that the spots are often very full, preventing him from gaining access. "Many of the shows are completely full. I'm talking like the Oaks Convention Center, which can hold thousands of vendors, and they have a craft show coming up. Actually, they have three of them coming up, and they're all indoor, which is really nice because I'd like to have my products indoors. But they're full, and I've also had a few issues getting contacted back about signing up for vendors. A lot of these places seem to be grandfathered in, with people getting annual spots. So that's one of the hurdles that I'm working on, but I think that would be one of the best things, as opposed to a social media platform, to really get out there, interact with the community and get a local customer base." John Mahoney Read More Here

James Matthius: Pocono Table Company Welcome back to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today, your host Steve is joined by James Matthius, owner of Pocono Table Company. James’ father always had a woodshop in the basement of their family home, so James was always around woodworking from a young age. His father often made cabinets, tables, and other furniture for their family, and he would teach James whenever he felt like learning. As James grew older, his interest in woodworking went on the back burner for several years until he married and lived in his own house. He decided then that he wanted to start making things for his family and before long, friends would ask for something, which got the ball rolling for him. James began making decor items like wooden flags and cutting boards and soon decided to give woodworking a shot, so he started an Etsy account. “I completely got demolished on Etsy for a pretty good time because I didn’t have any understanding of SEO, and how to take proper product photos, and how to word things to catch people’s attention. So I decided, “Okay, I gotta, I gotta learn this; this is something I really need to learn.” I went to YouTube, and I basically taught myself how to do all that. I’m still not good at it, but once I started applying those techniques, I saw sales coming in. And I said, “Oh, boy, alright, awesome.” That kind of lit a fire under me.” James Matthius Read More

Austin Keenan: Keenan Slabworks Welcome back to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today, your host Steve sits down with Austin Keenan of Keenan Slabworks. Austin started his company back in February of 2017 with his father who had been looking to retire from his job as an attorney and had always enjoyed dabbling in woodworking. Originally, the project was only supposed to be a hobby, it was never supposed to grow into a business. However, they started to get paid to mill for people, dry their wood, or build things for them, which turned that plan around. When they were hired to do their first log removal, which was a large black walnut from a nearby town, they realized that they did not have the equipment needed to do any urban log removals. “We didn't even have a mill. We were renting a chainsaw from a rental facility nearby and trying to hack our way through some of these logs. Getting started, we had no idea the differences in chainsaw chains or anything so we kind of butchered a couple of the initial first logs.” Austin Keenan Started as a Hobby and Grew from there Since Austin and his father jumped into woodworking intending for it to be a hobby, they ended up doing some things inefficiently early on, but their enthusiasm for the process and learning new things kept the excitement going strong. One realization that hit the pair quickly was the need for a bandsaw mill, and after researching many different options they purchased one, which fulfilled their desire to learn new skills. The bandsaw mill ended up becoming part of the attraction for their business early on. People would come by because they had never seen a bandsaw mill before and they wanted to try to use it. Austin and his father happily demonstrated by tossing a log on the mill to showcase what it could do, and then people started asking to buy material from the pair of them for their own projects. Though Austin had no intention of developing it into a business, he thought it was a really cool project and his friends thought so as well. Whenever he would post photos to his personal Facebook account of a project they worked on, it would get a lot of interest, and one of his customers ended up providing Austin with advice that wound up turning his hobby into the business it is today. “I was speaking with a customer, he was a woodturner and he said, “Hey, you should try selling some of your slabs on Facebook marketplace.” At the time, I had no idea what that was and I didn't know how to use it. So of course it was something new to learn, and we made a listing. We milled 60 or 70, black walnut slabs and put them on Facebook Marketplace, and those got 20,000 views in less than a day. I realized that this is incredible! This is free marketing right here. I was getting messages sent to me like every three to five minutes, I had to put my phone on silent when I went to bed at night and I woke up and I had like 100 messages that I had to respond to. All from this tool that I didn't even know existed.” Austin Keenan Read More

Welcome to another episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast! Today we have Danny Torres from Deadwood Revival Design joining the "Two Timers Club" and coming back for a second episode! A lot has changed since the last time we talked to Danny and we are so excited for you to hear all the incredible moves this company has been making. From giving back to the community to environmentally-focused incentives this episode is an incredible look at passion. We hope you enjoy this episode! Check out more from Deadwood Revival Design at the links below! Instagram: @deadwoodrevivaldesign Website: https://www.deadwoodrevivaldesign.com/

Welcome back to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast with Steve Larosiliere. Today’s guest is Damon Barron, the founder of Carolina Urban Lumber based out of North Carolina. Damon has been in the bulk commercial lumber space for over twenty years, and Carolina Urban Lumber is very much a natural extension of that career. Damon describes himself as being intrigued by unique specialty wood especially in the latter part of his career, and although he isn’t a sawyer, he intrinsically understands that there is a real story behind urban trees. A major shift occurred when he was on an otherwise run-of-the-mill sales call, and heard an unusual story. A man called Damon explaining that he was building a coffin from the wood of a tree he planted when he was five years old. For the rest of the day, all Damon could think about was the customer’s story, and he explains that he had an epiphany moment that led him back to Charlotte, North Carolina to make some changes in his life. “I started learning what happened to urban logs through going to trade services and just asking questions. And that was a two year kind of exploratory mission while I was still working. I learned and I developed a plan of action to build a business and go to market by selling urban logs. The next thing I know, I quit my job, and boy, my wife was pregnant. All perfect timing, like anybody starting a business right?” Damon Barron Read more here

Welcome back to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today’s guest is Brian Ciciora the founder and CEO of Truewerk. Brian and his company Truewerk are the first apparel brand to be featured on the Woodpreneur Podcast, and while he has a very unique story to share, it is rooted in the same journey as so many other Woodpreneurs. He wanted to solve a problem, and work with and support the trades. Brian’s story begins at the start of the recession in 2008. At the time, he was working for a tech startup and got laid off when the recession hit. Despite the layoff, he was good friends with the company’s CEO, who sat Brian down and told him that while he was doing sales at the time, he had the skills and the heart to make it in the tech industry, and he should “build a house or something.” “I kind of laughed and then took it to heart and realized that, to a certain extent, I’d been playing in a game that I was set up to play. Go to college, get a job behind a desk, try and make money. But my heart was in building, it was in the trades. I was ultimately just going to keep getting set up for failure in desk jobs. It was a leap of faith, it was a jump to leave the security of a desk job, and to ultimately do something that I often felt like society was telling me was in some way beneath me. But in my heart, it felt like the right journey.” Brian Ciciora Photo Credit: @truewerk Starting it as a Test One of the things that inspired Brian was a company that was selling simple steel-framed tables with wooden tops, but they charged high prices for their products. Brian wondered if he could make something just as nice and charge around the same for them, so he put an ad out on Craigslist to sell a table of that style. At the time he put out the ad, he hadn’t built one yet, but he was gauging interest. Immediately he was inundated with replies from people wanting to buy the table that he had posted about. Brian responded that the one he had posted was gone, but he would be happy to make another one for that person. This test speaks to the entrepreneurial mindset, and Steve notes that Brian just went ahead and said he could build the product to see if the market wanted it, which gave him the certainty that his fledgling business would have an audience. Around this time, Brian began to develop relationships with several people in the Denver, Colorado area as he had just moved up to the mountain town of Winter Park. Originally, Brain was making one or hour-and-a-half drives to Denver to pick up steel from a fabricator there, but after a while, he struck a bargain with a local fabricator who, as he puts it, “suckered him” into welding for them doing spiral staircases, ornamental railings, and structural work. “I think there’s a lesson here for people who are looking at opportunities in the skilled trades. There’s this narrative that life in the skilled trades is kind of like this sentence that at 18, you sign up for the skilled trades, and you’re going to forever be a plumber if that’s where you start out. But it’s just this journey that you can move around. And there’s so much opportunity, that it’s anything but a closed door. The journey through all of these different skilled trades often culminates in doing something that combines a bunch of them in a way that that really works for you.” Brian Ciciora Read more here: https://www.woodpreneurlife.com/brian-ciciora-truewerk/

Welcome to another episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast! Today, we have a recent repeat guest Christian and Lauren from Big Sky Wood Company. They used to be called Big Sky Dry but they've rebranded! The last time the pair were on the show they realized that they were expanding quickly and wanted a name to reflect the new products and services they were offering. Steve helped out with the name suggestion, Christian and Lauren loved it and felt it would create a brand that encapsulated everything they were doing. The pair has also moved from the little garage they started in, to a real location with a warehouse, showroom, and a brewery across the street! Lauren and Christian talk a bit about community and how moving to their new location has given them the means to expand their community even further. “We were already trying to get involved in the woodworking community through social media, but we were in a pretty remote location before. Now we're in this neighborhood where all the businesses are locally owned businesses that are trying hard to work together and help each other out.” -Lauren, Big Sky Wood Co. To See more from Christian and Lauren, check out the links below! Big Sky Wood Company @bigskywoodcompany Read the rest of the blog on our website!

Today on the podcast our guest is Frank from Frank Does it. Frank Does It is primarily a media company, Frank doesn’t focus on making commissions anymore. He recalls that the origins started all the way back in High School woodshop. Then Frank and his wife went nine years in their marriage without having an actual bed with a headboard and footboard vs. just a mattress and metal frame. Frank’s wife really wanted a nice bed frame, so Frank looked into the cost and then thought, “I can make that.” Frank went and bought a miter-saw and some impact drivers and he fell back in love with woodworking. Then Frank put some photos of the bed on Craigslist and got a ton of engagement. People wanted to commission him and he did that for a while, but he has a full-time job as a journeyman lineman with a wife and four kids so he is too busy for much commission work. “I work scheduled 40 hours a week, but with power outages and anything like that, you know, I end up working a crazy amount. I have my wife and four kids, and I live busy. I work 4/10’s at my normal job, so I spend pretty much a full day, one day a week on that three-day weekend that I get in the shop. What everybody sees is what I do on that one day, and then I trickle it out throughout the week.” Frank Instagram: @therealfrankdoesit YouTube: Frank Does It

Welcome to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today's guest is Nick Mooers from Maverick Sawmill. This is Nick’s second time on the podcast, and he and Steve discuss the changes that have happened since his last appearance. Nick notes that he was certainly burning the candle at both ends when he was on the podcast last time. He was working his day job, taking care of his family, and building the wood business simultaneously. In the year that has passed between podcast appearances, Nick has successfully transitioned to full time work with the wood business, and notes that he is in love with his work. He adds that it was a carefully made decision, as they waited until they had a good backlog and consistent sales as well as enough work in the pipeline for about six or eight months before making the change. Since then, Nick and his family have had more time during the day to meet with commercial clients and other important people, which has been an incredible transition. Website: www.mavericksawmill.com Instagram: @mavericksawmill

Welcome back to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today Steve is joined by Viktor from the Stump Shop. Viktor is one of the very first repeat guests on the podcast, and in the time since his last appearance, he has grown and accomplished a lot.Viktor was originally on the podcast when it was still the Sawmill Business Podcast. Since that time, Steve has transitioned it from purely being about sawmills, to having a focus on many different woodworking aspects. He adds that since Viktor works outside of sawmills specifically, he was one of the people that sparked the name and subject change for Steve.Steve calls Viktor the Stump King of North America, a title that he has earned over the years of doing incredibly creative work with stumps. Viktor laughs, and notes that he doesn’t know if he’s been called that specifically before, but he does do a ton of work with stumps and he loves doing it so much. Instagram: @thestumpshop Etsy: TheStumpShopCanada

Hello Woodpreneurs! On the show today our guest is Matt from M2 Lumber. M2 Lumber is a sawmill and lumber yard that specializes in salvaging local trees that come down from storms or new development. They mill those into slabs and dimensional lumber but mostly live edge slabs, then dry those in one of their two kilns. M2 Lumber has a solar kiln that they built two years ago based on Virginia Tech's design and also a new iDRY Standard vacuum kiln that came in February. M2 sells directly to the public, to other woodworkers, construction companies, contractors, interior designers, and even retail sales through that avenue. They also do a little bit of furniture building but that's more of a guilty pleasure Matt says as he loves to build furniture. The Origin Story of M2 Lumber Matt says it was not on purpose for sure. It was more of an accident. He grew up surrounded by woodworking as his dad is a very talented woodworker. Matt clarifies that his father isn’t a woodworker by trade, but just as a hobby, he has built almost everything. Everything that is extremely challenging you can imagine in the woodworking world, he's built. Beautiful furniture, secretary desk, dining tables, corner cabinets, Matt recalls he built a grandfather clock, and even a violin once! In Matt’s college years, he naturally gravitated back to woodworking as a hobby. This continued after college. Looking to make some extra money on the side while also doing something he enjoyed, he started to do woodworking as a side business. Matt was building tables and small furniture as well as cutting boards trying to make a little extra money. Then, in 2015, he moved out to the country, as they discuss. “We have about five acres of land where we live now. My neighbor and I were talking one day, and we had a tree come down and I was like, “Well I don't know what we're gonna do with this. I guess I'll burn it or whatever.” And he said, “Well, why don't you take it over to the sawmill?” and my ears perked up when I was like “Sawmill what?” I didn't know there was a sawmill around here and sure enough, there's a sawmill run by name a guy named Terry Ellison, about two miles down the road. He milled it up for me and charged me like $60 or something ridiculously cheap. I was really hooked at that point because that was the first experience taking a tree getting it milled into lumber and then being able to do something with it.” To see more from M2 Lumber check out the links below! M2Lumber.com @m2lumber

Hey everyone, welcome to another awesome episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast, today's guest is Kyle Kidwell from Kidwell Fabrications. Kidwell Fabrications started in Fall 2017 and recently the focus has been more on fine furniture, custom designs, and small-batch signature collections. Go to www.Woodpreneurlife.com to read the full blog post! To see more from Kidwell Fabrications, check out the socials below! Kidwell Fabrications @kidwellfabrications