Sawmill Business Podcast

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

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

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 co

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.  Ma

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,

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 someo

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 furnitu

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 ou

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

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

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