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Welcome back to a brand new episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast with Steve Larosiliere. Today’s guest is Damon Barron, the founder of Carolina Urban Lumber based out of North Carolina. Damon has been in the bulk commercial lumber space for over twenty years, and Carolina Urban Lumber is very much a natural extension of that career.

Damon describes himself as being intrigued by unique specialty wood especially in the latter part of his career, and although he isn’t a sawyer, he intrinsically understands that there is a real story behind urban trees. A major shift occurred when he was on an otherwise run-of-the-mill sales call, and heard an unusual story.

A man called Damon explaining that he was building a coffin from the wood of a tree he planted when he was five years old. For the rest of the day, all Damon could think about was the customer’s story, and he explains that he had an epiphany moment that led him back to Charlotte, North Carolina to make some changes in his life.

“I started learning what happened to urban logs through going to trade services and just asking questions. And that was a two year kind of exploratory mission while I was still working. I learned and I developed a plan of action to build a business and go to market by selling urban logs. The next thing I know, I quit my job, and boy, my wife was pregnant. All perfect timing, like anybody starting a business right?”

• Damon Barron

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