A Noble Profession with Matt Noble of Overkill Woodcraft LLC

“There’s no point in trying to swim upriver, so to speak, just so you can look like the company down the street.”

• Matt Noble

Welcome to Building a Furniture Brand with Ethan Abramson, the show that talks about the business behind the furniture business. In this episode, Ethan sits down with Matt Noble, owner of the northern Georgia-based furniture company Overkill Woodcraft LLC. 

As you will soon find out, Matt started his furniture company with a haircut. An unlikely twist of fate started him down a road that, although hard, is precisely where he wants to be headed. Because hard work isn’t something that Matt turns away from. Instead, he embraces it and works out a way to overcome it. 

Using whatever he has at hand, from taking on challenging clients to understanding complex builds to making furniture despite physical limitations, Matt has found a way to not only face these challenges but to go beyond that and make his business a success. Follow along as they talk about luck, first preparation, how to gain your client’s confidence, the importance of keeping your body healthy, and much more. 

Change Starts with a Haircut

“My dad owned a hurricane shutter company. Many people in South Florida deal with hurricanes, so I kind of grew up around the trades. He was also a craftsman in general, and he was always making stuff out of wood, tree houses, stairs, and such.

I remember actually making our first epoxy table when the Marlins won the World Series in 1997; I believe it was. That was always just a part of who I was growing up, but I never really viewed it as really artistic or anything. Ironically enough, I remember just wanting a career that didn’t involve a ton of manual labor. But I also didn’t have the degree to get that.”

• Matt Noble

Searching for a path, Matt joined the military in 2005. Over the ten years he spent in that capacity, his military career took its toll on his body. On his third deployment, he became medically separated, which is the military’s term for being medically retired.

As of right now, Matt is officially a disabled veteran and made some changes to his life to accommodate his lifestyle. He moved back home to South Florida and worked for the local government while putting his energy into renovating his first home. The tipping point occurred when he was building a cornice for a vast sliding glass door on his house, and he realized he could put his twist on this because it was not a prefabricated thing; he owned it.

Matt’s fateful haircut happened when he visited his usual barber, an old friend of his. He showed his barber the photos of the things he was doing around the house for himself, and the owner mentioned that he couldn’t get anyone to build benches for his shop at a reasonable price. After bringing in some mockups to the barbershop after a terrible day at his day job, Matt was amazed at the genuine awe and joy that the barber displayed. He knew at that moment that he had found his path in life.

Humble doesn’t get Customers

Throughout the episode, Matt notes how he tried to stay humble as he embarked on his woodworking journey, an admirable goal to strive for. However, Ethan notes that when a person is starting their own business, breaking through to establish their customer base, they have to go beyond that. You can stay humble personally, but when building a company, you have to create your own luck and know your own worth.

“Ethan, you rock. I say that because you just reminded me of something that I used to struggle with for a very long time. That I had almost too much humility in the sense that I still think I’m a terrible salesman, which I know sounds pretty bad because I own a furniture company and I’m selling a product. 

I don’t know what it was. Maybe I had a bad experience as a kid or something where we went to a used car lot, but it’s just something I never imagined myself doing. I was pretty bad about selling, not just what I’m making, but me as well. Let’s face it; many people out there have furniture companies, while mine kind of fell more into the local area. It’s like; there were still plenty of other options for these people. 

I believe everyone should have a sound support system. So thankfully, it’s something that my wife, mom, and other family members just kind of helped me get through. It took a while for me to get over that through experience and seeing that what I’ve made has held up for a very long time, or it never gets any negative feedback.”

• Matt Noble

Sacrifices and Solutions

Matt has had a strong career with many ups and downs, and he notes that whether you’re starting a business or developing an existing one, there will be a lot of obstacles in your path. He encourages people to prepare as best they can, but it’s impossible to be ready for everything, and there are always solutions to any problem you might come across.

“To a certain extent, you’re never going to be ready. I certainly wasn’t ready when I started my business. I probably shouldn’t have resigned from my job at the time because it would have helped. I didn’t have an extensive enough client list, and there were some downtimes where I wasn’t making custom builds for people or pulling in money. 

So establish that client base but don’t be afraid to pull the trigger at some point. If you’re going to do it, if you’re really passionate about it, you just need to jump in and do it. There will always be challenges involved, but it’s really about just finding a way to overcome them. Is it going to require sacrifices? Probably. But generally, there’s a solution out there. 

This is probably a little personal, but I ended up having to pull my 401k Within the first couple years of my business and using that because while I was making money on builds, there were just a lot of other unforeseen expenses that I wasn’t prepared for. 

For those wanting to grow, I struggled with this for a while because my first couple of commissions were more cabinetry-oriented. Still, I didn’t want to solely be in that kind of specialized part of furniture building because there’s just so much out there. If you’re going to open up your own company and start making furniture because it’s something you’re passionate about, well, I’d say take that even a step further. 

Find a part of woodworking that you’re incredibly passionate about. Cutting boards can be your thing; for example, you just love building cutting boards, but you know cabinetry will sell. And you’re good at cabinetry, but you just want to branch out, then slowly start incorporating that. I’m a firm believer in face-to-face interactions, and if you’re getting your face in front of the right people, maybe higher-end clients who want to pay more than that could be a solution there. 

So find what you’re really passionate about because we’re already taking a leap and a gamble here. We’re doing this because it’s something we love. So you don’t want to get into this and just be like, ‘Well, hey, you know, at least I’m not stuck behind the desk all day. But at the same time, I’m getting really tired of building cabinets.’ Just find what makes you happy. I know a lot of this just sounds like some silly cliches, but I’ve had to work through these things myself, and there are ways to get to it. It’s just finding the right people and getting your product in front of the right people, and the rest will line up.”

• Matt Noble

Instagram: @overkillwoodcraft