We recently connected with Aaron Boening and Krystyna Kitlinski and have shared our conversation below.
Aaron and Krystyna, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?
During Covid in 2020, one day my fiancé and I were bored and I stumbled across the thought of wanting to build a set of cornhole boards. Being from the Midwest we loved playing the game and thought what would it take to make a set. From that point on I started gathering the knowledge by research and watching YouTube videos on cornhole board creations and we built our own set. After seeing the product of our first build and receiving compliments from friends and family, the love for woodworking began and we made a few other projects and felt like this could be a small side business for us. Speeding up our learning process wasn’t necessary for us. Due to trial and error we took the time to learn what was working and not working for the end product. We believed we needed this time to grow and be educated in the art of woodworking and design.
Patience would be the number one skill for this learning process. Learning to take your time with the the build and not get frustrated if something went wrong. Communication between my fiancé and I was important to help the building process flow without any hitches. Since we have been together for a while, our communication was good already but since this was a new endeavor, we had to learn how to communicate in this new realm of having a small business.
Time needed to learn more and build more was and is a struggle for us. We both have full time jobs and don’t have as much free time to devote to the woodworking as we would like. But we both find time to make this work because we believe in ourselves and our business. Having the right tools is also an obstacle for this line of work. We currently have to be more patient and take our time with designs because we don’t have the nicest industry tools to do larger products. But over time with our business we hope to keep progressing and get to a point to have the nicer tools and be more efficient with our time spent on the job. Lastly, weather is a hassle for us, being from the Midwest, and working in the garage it is difficult to do work in the colder months of the year unless we bring it inside the house. Investing in a warmer area year round to do work in the future would help us continue to do projects year round.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?
My fiancé Krystyna and I are your normal relationship couple, I am an electrical engineer and she just finished her masters degree and is now a therapist. We are also dog parents of Mamba, who is a 4 year old schnauzer rat terrier. During Covid times, the days just seemed to go by and with all 3 of us just hanging out we had to find creative things to make the days meaningful. One of those days was the thought of having our own cornhole board set and what it would take to make it. From that point on, we took our little to no knowledge in woodworking and have made a small woodworking business 2 years later. We design cornhole board sets, other woodworking furniture, such as coffee tables, stove top covers, toy chests, bed frames, etc., and have even done a swing set, picnic tables, and balcony bars. If there is something that you have in mind and we haven’t done it yet, let us know what you want and we will definitely look into it and see if we can make what you desire. We are here for you and ready to design and build whatever project is in your future. We put our whole hearts into these projects to make them exactly what you’re looking for. The reactions of our clients is what keeps us motivated to deliver quality woodworking. Follow us on social media to not only see mamba approved woodworking but also to see cute day to day doggie pics.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is having multiple identities. On the surface, we seem like normal day to day, 9 to 5, workers, but once you get to know us you find out that we have more to offer. We feel it makes us more well-rounded individuals and presents us with opportunities where we need to be resilient and know how to take criticism so we can be better people in the long run.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
In our first year of business, we had a hard time saying no to incoming business, to the point where we overloaded ourselves with wood working. To add to the pressure, Mamba (our dog) was attacked and severely hurt by another dog. He had many sutures, a broken leg muscle, and a scratched lung. During this time we had to stop woodworking because he couldn’t be left alone and needed constant attention. This was when we had to have hard talks with our customers and tell them we had to delay their projects for an unknown amount of time. To us, we thought that despite the circumstances that this presented us in a bad light. Which when starting out a business we thought could be detrimental, but to our surprise everyone was very empathetic and understood the situation. Once we were able to get back in the workshop, we had projects on top of projects to do and realized that all new projects we were getting had to be given a more realistic timeline. Coming into our second year we have been able to understand how many projects we can take on at a time and understand how to manage our time better, because you never know what real life can throw your way.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://mambasworkshop.com/
- Instagram: mambasworkshop
- Facebook: Mambas Workshop
- Other: mambasworkshop@gmail.com