Episode 1 – Turning Business Failure into Growth

Brian Davis 00:05
Steve, thanks for being here today.

Steve Holt 00:07
Yeah.

Brian Davis 00:08
So for anybody that doesn’t know who you are, what you do, just give us, like a brief overview of what you’ve been up to lately. So

Steve Holt 00:17
my name is Steve Holt. I own a business called Olive Branch millworks, or the official name is all of branch designs. I take in logs and I turn them into reusable lumber.

Brian Davis 00:31
So like, how, how long have you been doing that?

Steve Holt 00:33
I started the business about five years ago. Five, six years ago. I’ve been into woodworking pretty much my whole life. He’s an even as a kid, I grew up around it, but the the business, I started it about five years ago. Okay,

Brian Davis 00:46
so what was it like for me Like I was, I was working for a company in 2014 and they ended up going through bankruptcy, and they moved it to Ogden, Utah. I realized that I I hadn’t. I had no control. I had no say in that. And I saw the way that they kind of treated the people that had been there for decades, like some of these people had been working there, you know, 20, 30, 40, years, they’d been with the company, and as soon as they sold, they got out of bankruptcy, like they they just cut ties with everyone, like I’ve worked for companies that are good companies that you could tell that their priorities are, are more about themselves. Yeah, definitely. So after that, like, I wasn’t excited about jumping into another, like, full time job, and so I started freelancing. But like, I knew that, like, I wanted to build up my own company. What Was it that kind of helped you Get in that other frame of mind of like, I don’t want to work for another person, like, I want to be able to start and do my own thing and be able to build my own company?

Steve Holt 01:54
Yeah, I had, I had a lot of similar situations like that. I got tired of working for companies. You have to work for companies to get experience, you know, when you’re younger and I mean, that’s it. You can’t just jump to the top of the ladder unless you’re got some super talent and everybody wants to exploit you. But you know, so I worked for different companies. I was in a lot of management positions. My background is construction. There was a company that I had worked for before I had started my company that just kind of, I guess it was the last straw that broke the camel’s back. I was just, I couldn’t take it anymore. What was that? Though, that is at least the last straw. Like, well, you know, just like you said, people are out for themselves, even the people that work in the companies, and there is, you know, corruption and companies. You know, it’s not all just, you know, belt, you know bells and whistles and you know rainbows and everything’s happening. It’s not, you know, there’s always something that goes on. I didn’t want to operate my business that way. I didn’t want to treat employees that way. And so I just decided, you know, you know, it’s gonna be a hard, hard jump, but I’m gonna start my own business, and I’m gonna run the way I want to. I’m gonna treat people right. I’m going to treat customers, right? And not just think about the money, you know, I understand every company’s got to make money, you know, obviously, that’s why we’re in business. But it’s, it’s not always about just making money. It’s about treating everybody, all your customers, you know, like they’re your friend, almost, you know. And when you do that, you just, business grows quick, you know, people really appreciate that. It goes a long ways. The last company I worked for was about themselves, you know, there was people that were trying to come up in the company for their own benefits, you know. And I just that’s tough,

Brian Davis 03:57
yeah, it is like everybody suffers, yeah. And in the long run, they suffer because then they end up working in a company where nobody else is excited to work in,

Steve Holt 04:06
yeah, you got it, yeah. That’s, you know, I was a Facility Manager at a golf course, and I had a, I had a handful of people that worked under me that were not treated correctly, you know, because they cleaned the toilets or they mopped, you know. And so they saw me. When they saw me come in, they were worried that I was going to treat them disrespectfully or boss them around and what they were used to, that’s just what they were used to, and get the the stuff that they were doing and not value, like who they were doing, yep. And they had a hard time when they hired me. They had a hard time with, you know, keeping these people happy, getting the job done. And I was told by about not too long after I started the job, maybe a few months after I started, that the employees. They told me, they said, you know, they thanked me. You know, you know the way you treat us so fairly. You know I, I treated them with respect. You know I, I wanted them to feel that they were appreciated. And when you do that and you don’t treat them like you’re a boss. You got to be, you know, like you’re, you’re working with them. You know, you’re a team. So when you treat them like that, they they get excited about their job, they feel good, even if it’s just mopping the floor, you know, polishing the porcelain, you know, the you know you if you make somebody feel good about that, you know, you’re gonna get 110% out of somebody. So I do the same thing with my business and the customers that I have, you know, I treat them if they’re buying something that’s $40 piece of wood or, you know, $2,000 piece of wood, you know, I treat everybody the same, the $40 customer, I’ll go out of my way to treat them the same way, you know? So it goes a long way. Yeah, you keep people. It’s all about the long, long term customers and relationships.

Brian Davis 06:13
It is, man. So then, while you’re transitioning from like working for somebody else, you had this experience where you saw how a business was run and how management was taken care of, and you wanted to do the opposite. So you break off, you start your own business now, like that’s a huge risk. What type of support were you getting from family, from friends? Where did you have anybody? Because when I did it, I had people that were pretty close to me, yeah, like, man, like, you’re out of your mind. Like, just, just don’t do that. It’s not going to be stable. You know, it’s not gonna Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. What about you did? Did you suffer any of that?

Steve Holt 07:01
Yeah. I mean, you know, what’s that cracks me up, that little, I don’t even know it’s it shows like a entrepreneur and what their life is like. And it’s like this roller coaster, you know, of emotions. And that’s exactly what it is. You know, sometimes you feel like you’re on top of the world, and things are going amazing. You know, business is growing, you’re progressing, and then the next day, you’re just like, oh my gosh, man, I just, I want to quit. Like, yeah, I still go through that. I mean, but you got to be persistent. But anyways, to answer your question, yeah, my wife, she is, I love her. She She’s given me a lot of support. It was hard for her, too. And I completely understand my dad You know, he had his own business. Okay? He understands. You know, that when work comes in, you work, and then you have work, okay? So it’s not, not nine to five, and you work all the time, because the business is there. So you always work, and you take it while you can get it. And my wife, you know, this is completely fine. She came from a background where her dad taught her, you know, you get a nine to five, you work hard, you know, and you go to work, and that’s what you do, you know. So she that was her mentality. So she was very supportive, but she did have a very hard time with me, trying to, trying to do the opposite of what she was trained to do, you know, the mortgage would come around, her bills and whatnot, and she would freak out, you know, like, where’s the money coming from? You know, we’re gonna make this work, yeah. How are we gonna make this work, you know? And, you know, I was always persistent. And her dad, even, too, was like, you know, Steve, yeah, you know, you got to, you know, get a solid job. And, you know, he told me that in the beginning, and, you know, he’s just looking out for his his daughter, but yeah,

Brian Davis 08:54
and, I mean, it makes sense, like it works out for the vast majority of people, yeah, yeah. It’s like the majority of people, they’re working within the company. And so, like, it works out there, there is a sense of, you know, security there, but like, still, at the end of the day, it’s not something that you really control. No, you know, it’s like, you’re still, like, kind of looking at whoever’s running the company and just being, like, okay, like, well, you know, yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s up to them whether or not this continues or not, you know, yeah, especially with how some companies are run, it is, man, there’s, there’s a lot of people out there that think that, you know, the the way to move forward is to go out and try to be as secure as possible, yeah, but when you’re starting your own thing, I mean, there’s just, like, tons of risk, as you have continued to work and build your business, has that dynamic kind of changed with you and the people that are close to you? Oh, yeah,

Steve Holt 09:55
yeah, definitely. I mean, the work is, it’s been, like I said, I think five or six years now. Know, yeah yeah, there’s still times when you know you’re just it work is consistent, okay, but it’s, it’s still sporadic. So as long as you you’re not, you know, frivolous with your money, and you just save, then you know you’ll be all right, you know, you just got to be you got to budget things a lot. You got to stick to a budget, you know, you got to pay all your bills. And then, you know, if you have, you know, 50 cents to save, save it after everything’s done, right?

Brian Davis 10:30
And then, even when Wendy, I think you tell me that she started a business, yeah,

Steve Holt 10:36
yeah, my wife has a succulent business. She’s got a big following on Facebook. She does arrangements, succulent arrangements. She sells just succulents, and she grows and propagates them. And she does pretty well too. She ships every single day consistently. And yeah is she’s doing pretty good. So it’s surprisingly, yeah, not, not. If you’re watching this babe, it’s not, I’m not, no, I’m not surprised. You’re very talented. But it’s just, it’s amazing how her business has grown, yeah So

Brian Davis 11:15
now she is. She’s incredibly talented, seeing the stuff that she does, yeah. It’s, yeah, amazing the way that she puts the plants together with the, you know, she puts them on, she, like, arranges it.

Steve Holt 11:28
Yeah, she does. Actually, I’ll help her out too. Our business goes hand in hand, because i She’ll want logs and I’ll carve them out. Or, you know, the wood slices, you know, sometimes she puts arrangements on that, yeah, that’s various things like that. You know, cast

Brian Davis 11:46
Succulents are a strange thing, like my wife and she, she’s gotten into them, and it’s like they could die, and then they come back, yeah, and, like, part of it dying, you just cut it off, put it in the ground, replanted, and it’s, yeah. I

Steve Holt 11:59
wish it was like that, yeah.

Brian Davis 12:02
So, like, okay, sometimes I think about the businesses that are growing like, I’ve thought about my business as, like, growing it in phases. And so when I first started it, I was focused on trying to trying to get more clients, but really like developing my own capabilities. And so I was looking at equipment, you know, I needed to go out and I needed to get have the equipment so that I could do the work that I needed to do. And then, like, when the pandemic started, like, that whole entire year was like, really about sustainability. For me, it was like, Okay, now, like when I’m in this incredibly uncertain time, like, Can this business continue to sustain? And thankfully, like, it, it totally did, and we ended up having a really good year that year. Now for this year, like, my focus has been in, like, developing team and so getting the getting the team together. I know that you haven’t started developing a team yet, you know, but, like, it’s been interesting because I’ve been following you as you’ve been going through this process of, like, really developing your capability. Can you kind of, like, walk us through that, you know, you starting off like, I remember coming over to your shop and like, seeing, like, these big, huge, the chainsaws and stuff, big collection of them. And I remember you called me up one day, and you’re like, dude, like, you never believe this, like, this mill that it just got. And so it’s just been, it’s been really cool to see, yeah, to see, like, your progression, yeah, in, in building your capacity, right. So, like, what are they just kind of, like, walk us through, like, a quick roadmap. Yeah, I

Steve Holt 13:42
was excited. Yeah. I like collecting chainsaws. You know, some people like collecting cameras. You know, somebody saw, they see my wall of chainsaws, and they’re like, What in the world

Brian Davis 13:53
They’re like some of the biggest ones I’ve ever seen. Yeah,

Steve Holt 13:55
I got old ones and small ones. And that’s just kind of they, most of them work. It’s just that’s kind of fun. But anyways, where I’m going with that is that started my business with the chainsaws. If I’m answering you correctly, yeah, I started with the chainsaw mill. And with my business, it’s

Brian Davis 14:11
like, describe what a chainsaw mill is like.

Steve Holt 14:14
It’s basically Okay. A chainsaw mill is a chainsaw with a really large bar. Chainsaw bar, you don’t call it a blade, by the way. It’s a lot of people call the chainsaw chains blades. They’re actually getting off on a tangent, but this is they’re actually chains. They’re not blades, and that chain goes around a bar. Okay, so you have a very large bar with the chain, and you slide the chainsaw mill back and forth like this on a jig. So it’s all a jig. The jig goes on the chainsaw, and then that jig slides across this like ladder, uh, looking thing on that’s on top of a lot out of metal. Yeah, yeah. Me. You can make it out two by fours. And so

Brian Davis 15:01
it allows you to just make these big these, these big slabs, yeah, these big slabs.

Steve Holt 15:05
And it’s absolutely pain in the butt to to do it that way, okay, because a curve is the size of the cut that the the chain makes, or, like a table saw when you cut something that’s called a kerf, okay, that’s very small. All right, so the smaller the curve, the better. On a band saw, you have a very small curve, you can cut things very fast. All right, takes out less wood with chainsaw, you know, takes out about a quarter of an inch. So you’re getting you could be, like, depending on how large the log is, it could take you, like, a couple hours or more to cut one slice, because you just taken out so much of the wood. Yes, yeah. And so I started off my my company like that. I started off in the garage. I was, I built a little, you saw it, a little wooden shelf, and I was selling slabs here and there. That was before I even incorporated my business. And then I eventually came into a chainsaw, or, I’m sorry, a bandsaw mill. Okay, after, you know, about five years that helped me progress the business drastically, which is this to that that’s, this is the bandsaw mill. Okay. This is the workhorse, the wood, miser, LT, 50, hydraulic. And this, I

Brian Davis 16:21
like, I remember, I vaguely remember, because you were telling me about the deal that you made on how to get this, or how you got that, how

Steve Holt 16:28
I got that. Then, yeah, I was very fortunate to get a deal on this. I got this. I bought basically the guy’s whole business. I bought he had a bunch of logs in a lot, and he had this saw, and he had it in Southern California here, which is unheard of. These saws are usually in Northern California, where there’s a lot of logging going on. So I’m all the trees there, yes. So I’m like, one of the only wood nerds down here, and that wants to mill logs. And some guy had this is, I couldn’t believe it. I was absolutely astounded. And I found out about this through customer mind. He comes to me, you know, and he says, Hey, do you know there’s, there’s another guy and, and Simi Valley, he’s got a, he’s got a wood miser bands on you. I think he’s looking to sell it. I’m like, right, you know, so I linked up with them, and he I got contact with them, and I talked with them, and I made that deal, and I purchased this for pennies on the dollar. We’ll put it that way. I just like, I was very fortunate to get a very affordable deal, and and that pretty much started my the business right there I had, I had purchased, along with this, I’d purchased probably 50 logs and a stack of pre cut slabs, wood slabs ready to go. And I started, and I had a yard that I had taken over, and then I went from there. So it went from the chainsaw mill to to this and and it’s just been progressing, you know, I got a forklift after that, I bought a truck. I’ve got logs that come in regularly before. I think you get an employee with this stuff. You need the equipment to even get this stuff going, you know, because, you know, one man can operate all this, you know, for a while, but, you know, we’re getting to that point where we need more people working with us.

Brian Davis 18:28
Wasn’t it? Wasn’t it something where he was, like, leaving the the logs and the slabs that he’d already cut, and he just didn’t want to do any of it anymore, yeah. And then he came in, and then, like, from the lab that from the slabs that he had already cut, didn’t you, like, turn around and was able to, like, make all of your investment back, oh, like, just all of the stuff that he

Steve Holt 18:52
Hey you got to be savvy, you know, you got to be savvy. That’s exactly what I did. So some of the slabs were, you know, they twisted. He didn’t really you have to stack slabs properly to let them air dry. Okay, so some of them were all stacked properly, and it was pine. Pine is not top dollar. So, yeah, I thought to myself, I’m like, Man, I started adding up. I knew, you know, all the prices, you know what you could get for them. But I was thinking of myself after I just made this purchase. I thought, okay, if I sell all these, you know, at this price, you know, let’s not think about, you know, the most that I can get out of these, you know, I want to, I’m thinking about a price where I can move these things and make my money back. That’s what it’s about, right? So I priced them all. I think, like, at about 60 bucks each, you know, and they were flying out the door. I made, I say I sold, I mean, hundreds of them. I sold so many of them that I paid for this whole mill and the investment that I and more. I’ll put it that way. So that was a big blessing. I mean, that really got my whole business started. Yeah. So it’s not about the way I like take is not always even, you know, going back to just selling these things, even till this day, it’s not about making top dollar, you know, because you don’t make money with products sitting around, yeah, you know, you make money when it when it’s going out the door. So if you have a slab, let’s say that’s where this is way, I think I’ll just tell you, if you have a slab that’s worth $500 okay, that you know you might you probably get that, but it could sit around for a year till you find that right buyer. But if you put a price tag on them, let’s say 160 maybe 200 bucks, that’s gonna fly out the door. It’s gonna motivate somebody who maybe couldn’t afford a 500 slab to buy that slab. So you sell more of those at that price. You know it’s it’s better like that, to sell in quantity. So that’s how I’ve always run my business, is to keep affordable prices for everybody, and not not be cheap, but have affordable prices. That’s how I continued my business, and I still do. It’s just, I keep moving product. That’s what I’m about. Yeah,

Brian Davis 21:05
no, super smart, yeah. So that you’re not only doing the lumber, but you’re also, you’re also, I don’t want to say Carpenter, but, yeah, fine craftsman. I mean, like, the, I’ve seen some of the furniture, and just like all the detail work that you do, yeah, thank you. Like, it really like, like, you’re an artist, so, but you also have people, not only buying the raw lumber from Yeah, but you also have clients that are hiring you to come into their houses, yeah, build furniture. Oh, you know, just all this stuff, yeah. Tell us a bit about how kind of that got started. Yeah. So

Steve Holt 21:44
I’ve always, yeah, I’ve always liked, I love selling. I mean, not, I’m sorry. I love, actually, like, just cutting up lumber and seeing, like, what’s inside. It’s like a it’s like a grain. Oh, God, you ask a lot of guy, I’m not the only, I’m not the only, weird, I like that. There’s a lot of woodworkers that are just, they love doing that, you know? It’s like, so beautiful. Yeah, it’s like opening, you know, you, I mean, you kind of know, if you’ve studied logs a lot, like, I have what it’s gonna look like, but it’s like opening a gift on Christmas, you know, you just get so excited.

Brian Davis 22:14
It’s just like you’re sitting in there, yeah? You start looking at every tree. That’s when you’re driving down the street, yeah Like, there’s,

Steve Holt 22:20
there’s some, well, that’s what I I’m getting off of your question. I’ll get back to it, but I do that, you know, I’ll be driving down the road with my wife, and I’m like, You know what, money’s growing right there? I said, You know what that tree she’s tired of hearing. It’s like, oh my gosh. I said. I told her. I told her, Money does grow on trees. You know, for me that is, anyways, so yes, not only do I sell lumber in the live edge slabs, but yeah, I’m also an artist. I create furniture, do sculptures. I do a lot of furniture. So people, or I should say, my customers, or my clients, they they come to my yard, they pick out their slabs, and then if they want work out something, and I create a table for them, yeah? Or not just table, anything, furniture, vanities. I do a lot of that stuff,

Brian Davis 23:10
yeah, whatever they do, yeah. I guess I’ve seen you like, do built in stuff. I do build that, yeah, yeah, inside their houses. And I was just looking at earlier today, like, a big, like, a privacy fence that you put up. Oh, yeah, lock wall, yeah, that was out in Fillmore. That was fun. Yeah? That was super cool. Like, I’ve seen fences where the slats are all vertical, right, yeah. And yours was, like, all horizontal, yeah?

Steve Holt 23:34
And I milled all that wood myself, so I’m able to do that. So, yeah, that’s super cool. That’s one of the perks of having a sawmill you want to purchase. You saw mill the lumber yourself.

Brian Davis 23:47
Seriously Yeah. So, like, tell me a little bit more about just, like, making the furniture, and maybe some of the things that you’ve learned about, like dealing with clients in that. Because it’s one thing to to, to, like, make a product, you know, or to to get to get a log and cut a bunch of inventory, right? And then the customer comes in and they pick out the the slab that they want. But then it’s a different thing, maybe, to make for winter, for somebody, yeah, when you’re when you’re when you’re, you know, making, like, a one off piece, uh huh, and maybe they’re, they’re really invested in it, not just financially, but you know, like this is super meaningful to them. It’s going to be in their kitchen, yeah, where their family meets. Oh, yeah. They have ideas of how they want it to be. Yeah. Talk to me about, is there

Steve Holt 24:34
a difference? Is there a difference between selling lumber and and and making a table for someone? Huge difference. I will say it is nice selling lumber and, you know, be like, you know, have a good day come again.

Brian Davis 24:55
Requires a little bit less for me, right? Yeah,

Steve Holt 24:57
people, it’s

Brian Davis 24:58
an easier part. Process, yeah, and

Steve Holt 25:00
I don’t mind, I don’t mind it at all, but yeah, it’s definitely a different process. Because one, you know, you get a lot. They may be, let’s not say, the people that are picking out the lumber for their project, the people that are just coming to buy or, I mean, a project for me to make for them, the people that come to pick out a slab to make for themselves. They look around, they buy it, and then, you know, they’re on their way to make their own project for me, when, when the customer comes, they pick out their own slab. It’s a process, you know, you stick with them. It usually takes a couple months to build a big table, you know, a really nice table, especially, you know. I mean, it could take longer depending. I mean, it just depends on my workloads. My workload, too, you know, how long? And then epoxy takes a long time to, you know, not a long time. But it’s a process to dry, you know, your deep, poor epoxies could take, like, you know, 72 hours to dry. And then, yeah, so, you know, do you have to do those in layers? Well, that’s the thing. Okay, so it’s a process, because you gotta, you just see on YouTube videos that people, you know, throw the epoxy and, hey, we’re done. You know, it doesn’t go like that. You gotta. And the reason why they cost so much, too, is because you’re building, you gotta build a form. You gotta make sure that that’s slick. You You have to have, you have to surface the slab so it’s flat, you know, it’s that setup process, you know. And then you you finish the slab, you point the epoxy. And epoxy is very expensive. Okay, that’s, people don’t realize the epoxies, you know, could be 150 anywhere from 90, 150 $200 a gallon. But

Brian Davis 26:37
some of these tables, they take a lot.

Steve Holt 26:38
Oh, yeah, I’ve built, I built tables where they’re, you know. Customer spends just two, $2,000 on epoxy, you know. And that’s just epoxy, you know. That’s not the, you know, the slab and the forms, you know. So you have all those costs that go into it to get back what you’re saying, Yeah, you’re more invested with the customer. You walk through them, you’re with them for a couple months, you know. And it’s usually a big expense for the customer, you know, and it’s something very special that they’re buying. So they want this, you know, it’s got to be, you know, perfect. And I try to always achieve that. And thankfully, I haven’t had any real big complaints. But you know, when it comes to somebody spending money like that, there’s always, like, one little, fine little detail that, you know, they might point out. So it’s a little different than selling a piece of slab or just one slab.

Brian Davis 27:30
Yeah, no, I imagine, yeah. So, like, considering your experience over the past five to seven years, like, what would what would you say are, like, some of some of the big lessons that you’ve learned, you know, are kind of like aha moments. And maybe some of the ways that, like, the way that you think about things have changed, like your mindset has just kind of changed

Steve Holt 27:53
as a business owner, like the aha moments. Pay the government on time.

Brian Davis 27:59
That’s a big one. Yeah, your LLC, California, do that, yeah, what about What about, like, misconceptions, or, like, limiting beliefs? Like, I’ve noticed it in my business, like, as as a step to the next level, each level, like, there’s kind of like this, these voices inside of my head, you know, just like, oh, this is going to be too difficult. Oh, I

Steve Holt 28:25
see what you’re saying. Yeah, you know, oh, I

Brian Davis 28:28
got some for you, yeah. And then, and then as soon as, as soon as you actually go through it, and you step through that, right, and then you’re on the other side of that, and you’re looking back at it, you’re like, man, like that that was, like, that was too easy. Like, I can’t remember, like, I thought that was going to be much more difficult. It could it could be difficult and it could take effort. But it’s like looking back in retrospect, like it wasn’t as large as I thought it was going to be, it wasn’t as scary as as I thought it was going to be, the mountain wasn’t as big as I thought it was going to be to get over.

Steve Holt 29:00
Sometimes you feel like things are going very well, you know, like, oh man, had great month, a lot of business, and then everything’s clicking, everything, yeah, yeah. And then, you know, some days you’re just like, feel like, throwing in the towel, but, but you that’s the hurdle I’m talking about when you when you get your mindset out of that, and you just think, you know, like, sometimes you just gotta, like, become a robot and just just go through the motions. Get your get your routine done, take care of your customers, maintain the the yard. Oh, here, here, here’s Here we go. So sometimes maybe there’s not stuff coming in, you know, but what do I do? I just, I go to the yard and I make it presentable for the customers. I always find something to do there, because even if I’m not making money today, doing what I’m doing, it’s gonna help me in the future. You know, it’s gonna help my business. It’s gonna I’m gonna have a presentable yard. I’m gonna have products that are displayed. Uh. It’s going to be safe for people to walk around and so little things like that, you know, you got to get through those hurdles of like, you know, yeah, what am I going to do? Or, you know, stuff like that one, oh, here’s another one. I hope that wasn’t too confusing.

Brian Davis 30:16
No, no, that was great, man. That was like, there’s, there’s always something productive to do

Steve Holt 30:20
there is whether, you know, I always, I told a friend, I said, You know what in his business? I say, you you always have to find something with your business, even if, like, I just, I know I’m repeating myself, but you have to, even if you’re not making money today, it will help you out in the future, you’re always find something to do. You know, I don’t care if it’s like, like I said, picking up, sweeping, you know, something, making it safe for people, you know, you know, make some calls, see if somebody wants to come, buy some lumber. Follow up calls I do all the time. I mean, I’m constantly calling people or texting people. Hey, you want to come. You want to come. And then, so I do stuff like that, okay, say I get a load of logs. And sometimes I get just, you know, I mean, massive logs when they come in, you know, it’s, it could be a lot of work, you know, you got a lot of, you got a lot of moving around to do. You got to put them, you know, I’m, what’s going through my mind is like, Okay, I have all these logs. I got more inventory to move. I’m going to have a lot of excess cuttings, I got to get rid of the cuttings. I’m gonna have more stuff. So it’s not a bad thing, you know. But I do, when I get more logs in, it sometimes overwhelms me, you know. But I notice, I know it’s a good thing, you know, because everything, it eventually, like always, sells the logs they come from. You know, I’ve developed quite a few business relationships, and I do a lot of I’ll just go out and some, sometimes I will, wouldn’t say, just go out to different companies and ask them or offer them. Say, Hey, you want to, you know, this is what I do, you know? I know you have to pay to dub this. You want to come, bring it to my yard, you know, and that’s how I get my logs. Or I’ve actually developed a contact with I’ve got something worked out with a city, and I’m able to go and pick up all their logs. So I have,

Brian Davis 32:16
you know, the city has their, their, yeah, guys that go out, not only trim the trees, but also take out trees that have died and stuff. Oh, there’s a

Steve Holt 32:25
huge amount I my business, and I wish, I I wish I had a bigger yard at the moment, because there are so many trees that come in every single day. It is unbelievable. I just it’s staggering, like I could, if I was able to keep up with the amount of trees that came in every day from the city, I would, I would have just inventory till, you know, I don’t even know, till the world ends, you know, yeah, it ends, good problem to have, yeah, Yeah. And it’s not just me, because I love woodworking I do and I love milling, but I also want to be a part of, like, helping to reduce green waste, and I’ve been trying to do that, because a lot of this stuff is just gets thrown back into the dump, you know. Or what they do is they put it in these big machines called tub grinders, and then they just shoot the, not the debris, but the wood chips, back onto the freeway, you know, the sides of the freeway. So that’s how they get rid of all that stuff, yeah? And it’s not the most effective way to do it.

Brian Davis 33:32
And it could be enjoyed, yeah. It could be, yeah,

Steve Holt 33:32
yeah, be turned into furniture. It, you know, it could be turned into building lumber. There’s, there’s a lot of unique and very, very beautiful logs and trees different species. Just here in the city, it’s pretty, it’s pretty amazing, like, you know, a lot of lot of, I hear about, a lot of guys just going, you know, oh, let’s get, you know, the exotic wood from imported from here and there. I mean, yeah, that’s fine, you know. And, you know, get it out of the rainforest. But they don’t even realize, you know, there’s, you know, you got walnuts, Brazilian Pepperwood, which is grows like a weed around here. And it’s absolutely amazing. I’m trying to educate a lot of different a lot of woodworkers about this because they don’t use it, Brazilian Pepperwood. There’s the olive tree, which is one of my favorites. And more and more, there’s a lot more,

Brian Davis 34:33
yeah, now totally man, I remember going over to your shop, yeah, me and like, all these beautiful woods, yeah, you know, and asking, what is this? And you’re like, I just, it was a treat. It was growing, you know, yeah, on the other side of the city, yeah. Now it’s here and, but it’s just, it’s gorgeous, yeah. And then you sell it, yeah, yeah.

Steve Holt 34:53
So that’s awesome. So yeah, there’s always, and even though I may get it for free, there’s always, I get this question all the time, Man, will you get the. For free. I’m like, Well, yeah, but you know, the thing weighs nine tons, you know, I didn’t, you know it takes, you know, a semi truck and a large excavator to load it, and somebody’s got to pay for that. So, you know, it does, you know, I may be getting them for free, but they, they it gets paid for somehow, you know. So, transportation costs, yeah, definitely transfer talking, yeah. You know, the cost of processing it once you get it exactly, yeah. So it’s not, it’s not completely free, so no, want everybody to keep that in mind, yeah,

Brian Davis 35:31
yeah, awesome. Now. So what would you say is next for you? And then, before you’re talking about that, you’re looking to, you know, hire somebody to come in. What do you think at the end of this year, you know, your company is going to look like? Yeah, I’ve

Steve Holt 35:45
actually thought about, yeah, I’ve talked about that all the time, but I was putting some thought into that earlier this week, and I I’m right now, I’m in the in the process of looking for a large property so that I can grow, you know, I want to have consistent sales. I want to stack inventory up as much as I can. I don’t want there to be a restriction on the logs that I can take in. And I want, I would like to get, possibly a salesperson and a couple people helping so that we can push product more. So just and increase the productivity of the yard, you know, it’s turn it, you know? So, yeah, that’s what I mean, that’s what I’d like to do. And you know, we’ll get we’ll get there. Just, I don’t know when you know, just, you’ll do all i Yeah, all I know is, if you’re persistent and you don’t give up, even when you’re discouraged, then you know, you’ll, you’ll know, you’ll come through.

Brian Davis 36:51
That’s huge. That’s huge lesson, man, yeah, it’s like, it’s, it’s the idea that you don’t fail until you stop trying, right? Yeah, you

Steve Holt 36:58
got to, you got to just do what you know best. You know you can’t. I know that. I know there’s a lot of people out there trying to do a lot of different gimmicks, but you know, you can’t be distracted from all this stuff going on in the world. You guys just got to do what you know best, and then you know all you know, work hard, treat people, right? And then everything will follow. Awesome, brother.

Brian Davis 37:21
Well, thanks for thanks for coming in. Yeah, if there’s anybody that wants to get in touch with you or kind of keep up with what you’re doing, you’re pretty what’s your Instagram handle?

Steve Holt 37:31
Yeah, Instagram is olive branch designs s the the business name. The Instagram is @olivebranchmillworks and my email is uniqueinnovation@hotmail.com you can reach me through there

Brian Davis 37:47
Sweet dude. Thanks.

Steve Holt 37:49
Yeah, it was a pleasure. Thanks.