Sawmill Business Podcast

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 di

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

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 w

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 pro

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 co

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 happe

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 i

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 own

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

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.maveri

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,

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

Today’s episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast features Steve Larosiliere sitting down with Pete of PeteSquared who is based in San Jose, California. Steve starts out the show by asking Pete how he became a Woodpreneur.  “So I've always been making things. I was an artist A long time ago, I guess I still am. But my dad is a crazy woodworker guy. And he's done it pretty much all his life. And just seeing his tools and seeing his process and the things he's built around the house. When I got older, I kind of needed a release from working in tech. About two years ago, I left Apple and just needed something to do and needed something to feel good about, you know. So I just started you know, tinkering around in the garage working on stuff, building stuff for around the house. And it's evolved into doing this.” Pete Parisi Pete spent about 20 years in video games as a 3d artist building environments and characters special effects for games like Age of Empires and Halo Wars. He explains that 3d modeling in 3d

When thinking about how he got started Mat muses that he didn’t even actually consider himself a business, he considered himself a hobby woodworker. How it really took off was when the local CrossFit gym wanted a CrossFit pile of blocks. Mat took on the project and then requests just kept coming in. Eventually the offerings expanded as requests for tables and benches came in. That’s how it really spiraled, as Mat says, it all started from a box. When Mat first started, he didn't have a brand, but he had a connection through his social media and got a branding iron shipped out to him.  In terms of growth Mat says that he feels his story is similar to a lot of wood businesses as he’s just been scaling as the work comes in. If someone wants something and he has the tools to do it, he takes on the job, or if it’s time to invest in a certain tool he hasn’t worked with or when he takes on something he’s never done but has the capacity for, he’ll take the project and then do some trial and error prototypes bef

On this episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast we have Ryan Cochrane here with us. Ryan had a different path than most to get into the wood industry. He was an Olympic athlete who went to two Olympic Games, competed at the World Championships for many years, and was on the Canadian national team for sprint kayaking for 14 years. His time kayaking on lakes and rivers spurred on a curiosity about trees that he has had since childhood, and he had always intended to get into the wood industry after he retired from being an athlete.   After some more discussion, Steve asks about Ryan’s current wood business. Ryan explains that originally he was making charcuterie and epoxy boards and selling them through Etsy on the side. Now he works with his team at his new workshop making dining tables, benches, and many other types of furniture. Currently his role is the director of production which means a combination of directing the products to be built as well as researching and developing new ways to improve the business.