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
New Beginnings
“The story is that when I was just dating my wife, she took me home to meet her family. Her dad knocked on the door in the morning and said, ‘Hey, would you like to chop down a tree and mill it?’ So I went out into the woods, and we cut down a couple of logs and then hauled them to a sawmill.
Her family comes from two generations of tree farmers and woodworkers and craftsmen, and I got fascinated for two reasons. I’d hit a roadblock in my journey as an entrepreneur. I devoted my life and my career to this nonprofit, and when you’re when you start something new, and there’s kind of nowhere else to go, you need to learn new skills. I just became fascinated with the idea of woodworkers and like the lumber and sawmill industry.”
- Steve Larosiliere
Steve’s father-in-law was a significant influence on Steve at this time and gave Steve the idea of starting a business based on other people’s passions rather than just a singularly good idea. This newfound curiosity about the wood industry led Steve to go through the process of emailing and calling around 50 wood companies and asking them what their number one problem was.
When the business owners would respond by asking why, he would say, “Because whatever your number one problem is, I’m going to start a business around that.” A few people hung up on him because they thought he was a jerk, but the others would talk to Steve for hours about their businesses. This helped Steve to understand their challenges and their needs incredibly profoundly.
The Number One Problem
“I ended up writing a report, and it was about the state of the lumber and sawmill industry, and I interviewed people from 20 different states. I got a really good understanding, and the number one problem was that nobody knew about marketing and advertising. Since my background is in marketing, one of the first things I did was create an Instagram account called Acres of Timber.
It used to be called Sawmill Business, and all I did was just start sharing people’s information, sharing their posts, and growing a network. I used #sawmillbusiness, and then eventually, I changed it to #woodpreneur and came up with the idea surrounding Woodpreneur.
Soon I started to work with some people who said, ‘Hey, I need help.’ I was like, ‘It sounds like you need a marketing plan.’ So I’d write a marketing plan. It sounds like you need a website, or you need a logo. So I just started helping people. I did all of this stuff for free for my father-in-law, built his website, got his logo, helped with his search engine marketing; I did all this stuff for him. I love business, I love helping people, and I love marketing, but most importantly, I love working with people that build and make stuff.”
- Steve Larosiliere
The more Steve learned about the wood industry, the more he enjoyed every aspect of it. When he was younger, he had friends that made music or art, and he loved the creative process, and Steve believes deeply that if you make things, you love doing so, and you’re good at it, then you deserve to be paid well.
This ideology translated into business, and so a few months after starting the Instagram account, Steve started the podcast and built the entire business and concept around community sharing information. Before he knew it, more prominent companies began reaching out, and Steve applied his marketing background and skills to this new industry to great effect.
Steve’s Advice Corner
Over the many episodes of the Woodpreneur Podcast, Steve has asked his guests to talk about the challenges facing them so that he can provide some advice in turn. For the 200th episode, Steve’s advice revolves around mindset and understanding and making sure you have the right driving forces in your life.
“One of my favorite quotes ever and 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 massive motivator for me. It’s like, nine to five is not necessarily just about that job. It’s this condition that you have to do these things from this time to this time, and you’ve got to do this and this and this.
I was like, Yeah, I don’t like that. We’re not just going to make it; we’re going to thrive, we’re going to overcome things, we’re going to grow, we’re going to build, we’re going to eat, we’re going to get wealthy. That’s my motto. When you go off and do things alone, it can feel very lonely, and I always wanted to do something where you’re in a community together, which is why I started a nonprofit. I didn’t want to go snowboarding by myself, so I created a snowboard mentoring program.
I love community, and if you get plugged into a community, everybody’s going along the same path and not thinking in this sort of linear way, amazing things can happen. So get out of the nine to five survival mindset. Nature’s abundant; there are so many trees out there, so why can’t that apply to your own life? Why can’t that apply to your own business?”
- Steve Larosiliere
Website: https://woodpreneurlife.com
Website: https://www.thebuildwithethan.com