Steve Thomson: Happy Life Wood
Welcome to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast. Today your host Steve Larosiliere sits down with Steve Thomson from Happy Life Wood. Larosiliere and Thomson connected almost two years ago when Thomson purchased a Woodpreneur sweatshirt. It was then that Thomson was able to show off the incredibly unique work that he does with Happy Life Wood.
“Yeah, I do a form of intarsia, where I take different species of wood, and basically utilize them in a fashion that replicates a photograph or an object. So I take pieces of different species of wood, I glue them all together, and build what I call a foundation. Then I sculpt and carve it.
That’s really the basics at its root of intarsia, but if you look at Tarja, and you look at my process, there’s some subtle differences. The end result is quite a bit different because I end up with something that’s a little bit more realistic than your typical intarsia. They tend to just round over the edges and put it together like a puzzle, whereas I get them all together and then I sculpt the whole thing as one unit.”
- Steve Thomson
From Corporate to Creative
There are many paths that Woodpreneurs walk to end up operating their dream business. For Steve Thomson, like many others, that path started as a creative outlet that turned into something more. Many of us need to make ends meet by working in a corporate environment, but that isn’t always sustainable, and if you can find a way around it like Thomson has, it can pay off in the long run!
“I spent 25 years in the corporate world as a marketing director, and was kind of just looking for an outlet. I tried to do some DIY projects in the woodworking space, but I had never even picked up a tool in my life. I didn’t have any experience at all. I tried a couple simple things, started buying tools, and watched a ton of YouTube videos to teach myself the basics of fundamental woodworking.
I continued down that path for about a year trying different things. I built a table, I built coffee tables, the typical woodworking journey in the beginning. Buying tools and building a shop and setting up dust collection along the way. I’ve always been an illustrator and drawn and painted and stuff like that. In terms of woodworking, I was always looking for a creative spin to put on it.”
- Steve Thomson
Steve’s Advice Corner
“The one real goal that we have is to ultimately have the business be able to support both of us. My son is extremely talented. That’s all him in terms of building relationships, working with people and gaining their trust to work with us. We’ve got myself as the artist, but we’re also building a brand and we want to take that brand and somehow umbrella it over multiple different things.”
- Steve Thomson
No matter what niche your wood business occupies, the goal for most Woodpreneurs is to fully sustain their lifestyle from their passion. Steve Thomson and his son are no different in that regard, but with their high-detail and custom designed projects, it can be challenging to create a sustainable regular customer base. Fortunately, Steve Larosiliere has a lot of experience in bridging this particular gap.
“I don’t know what the price point is for the really high-end custom stuff. But I think you should probably have a look at your pricing strategy and come up with some low tier products under $100. It should be something unique, one-of-a-kind that you do a drop of every month, or every six weeks.
Especially if you can align your products to be aligned with the major sneaker drops. If you could somehow get plugged into that, it would be really incredible. The second thing is to align yourself with particular dates.”
- Steve Larosiliere
Website: https://www.happylifewood.com
Instagram: @happylifewood