Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Michael Steinman. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Michael, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.

Starting a business just a few weeks before the COVID shut down was a huge gamble for us because no one knew how long the effects would last and buying a custom piece of furniture wasn’t a priority for most people, but we didn’t want to wait years to give the business a try so we dove in with our fingers crossed. We were having trouble getting businesses to buy pieces from us with all of the uncertainty, and we struggled to get our name out there with no public events to show our work. We didn’t have trade shows or art fairs to talk with people and explain what we did or let them see and interact with our pieces in person. We continued to work on example pieces and practiced new techniques all of 2020 as we searched for new customers. I really didn’t know if we were going to be able to make it. By the end of the year though we started getting requests to turn customer’s spare bedrooms and offices into more permanent work from home spaces. It was a rocky start, but in the end COVID helped us find some of our first customers!

Michael, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Of course, my father and I own and operate Iron Roots Woodworks, a custom woodshop that focuses on creating one of a kind pieces of hardwood furniture and specializes in wood and epoxy creations. My love of building and making goes back as far as I can remember. Even as a child I was fascinated with how things worked and seemed to always be taking things apart, attempting to fix them, and putting them back together. I helped my father do a number of home remodeling projects over the years and worked construction as a summer job throughout college, all of which kept me busy and allowed me to work with my hands. After college my desk job wasn’t scratching that itch and I knew I wanted to continue making in some capacity. That opportunity came a year later when my family had the idea to start an escape room business. It was our family’s first dive into entrepreneurship, and as it turns out it would not be the last for me, so alongside my three siblings and parents we started Missing Pieces Escape Games. Each escape room needed to be built out to look like a spaceship, ancient ruins, or other unique locations and be filled with props and decorations for the players to interact with. My father and I were tasked with building everything and I was consumed with how to build the pieces to fit the room’s aesthetic and still be functional. Getting to work with my hands again and creating these unique pieces sparked something in me that I knew I didn’t want to lose so I decided to start building pieces of furniture for friends and family in my spare time. They weren’t anything fancy at first, just small functional pieces like side tables and benches, but I gained so many core skills from those simple projects that I knew it was building, no pun intended, to something bigger. I knew I would need a partner to help me get my new business off the ground, and after working with my father on all of the escape rooms I eagerly asked him to join me! In February of 2020 we found a shop space in Brooklyn Park, MN and officially started Iron Roots Woodworks. I love getting to work with my dad everyday, he always jokes that he just pounds nails but he has the same creativity that I do and I think that is why our pieces are so unique.

Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.

My father and I have always been very hands-on learners and enjoy building and creating things, but besides a basic wood shop class in junior high neither of us had really done anything like this. We joined a few maker spaces in the cities so that we could have access to some of the tools we needed to build the props and puzzles for our escape rooms. We all of a sudden had access to a lot of professional equipment, from industrial table saws and jointers to CNC and laser engraving machines. That was a great introduction to woodworking for both of us and we were able to build up our skills on all sorts of equipment that, at the time, we couldn’t afford otherwise. The people we met through the maker spaces were a tremendous help as well, so many of them helped guide and teach us those core skills! Once we finally started Iron Roots Woodworks we spent the first year experimenting with new materials and building techniques. We really wanted to specialize in resin and epoxy work to add a unique element to our pieces but there were plenty of failures along the way, we scrapped so many failed pieces while learning all of the ins and outs of working with it. It has been a long journey and we are always learning new things but I am really proud of both of us for being self taught and producing some really amazing pieces!

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I think that starting your own business is the definition of resilience. It is like standing at the base of a mountain and looking up at the climb you have to make. There are so many things that you have never done before that you have to learn and teach yourself to do, there are lots of late nights and long days struggling to make something work. You can put so much effort into something and it still fails or is met with criticism, you just have to pick yourself back up and try again. Eventually you realize that not everything will be perfect, that mistakes will be made, and lessons will be learned, that not everyone will like what you do or be happy with what you make, and that’s okay. You have to learn to take feedback that will make you better and to filter out what you can’t change or what isn’t helpful. You just have to stay focused on your goal and what you want to accomplish, take it one step at a time until you reach the top.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.ironrootswoodworks.com/
• Instagram: @iron_roots_woodworks
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ironrootswoodworks/