Walnut Studiolo Co-Owner Featured on "How I Built This" Podcast

A Black woman wearing a denim shirt is carrying a bicycle down a set of stairs in an urban environment. The bicycle has a green paint job and honey leather wrapped handlebars.

Original, unique designs to help with lifting and carrying your bicycle

Lifetime leather bar wraps in five styles for every type of handlebar and bicycle

A woman bicycling on a bright summer day over a green lawn wearing suede fringe cowgirl boots and with a 6-pack of Anchor Steam beer connected to the top tube of her bicycle with a honey leather 6-pack frame cinch

Best-selling "commuter essentials" for making the daily commute easier

A dark brown leather round, barrel-shaped saddle bag with cedar wood sides mounted to the back of a brown leather Brooks saddle on a cream-and-brown painted bicycle

Stunning handcrafted bicycle bags carry the essentials and turn heads!

Two people playing a game of travel cribbage on a wooden picnic table with a small leather and birch cribbage board

Our original best-selling Travel Cribbage Boards have fans worldwide

Two sets of travel dice on a dark brown leather table surface. Both sets show six dice coming out of a square brass tube. The dice are 7mm, smaller than standard. One has white dice and the other has black dice.

Play dice anywhere you go in a handcrafted brass keychain or necklace.

Two people playing dominoes using small, domino-sized playing cards on a walnut wood table with snacks and drinks. The domino cards are double 12 with different colors for each number and hand-drawn.

Uniquely functional for travel: hand-drawn domino playing cards (2 sizes!)

Close-up of a folding leather travel backgammon board mid-play on a weathered wood surface. A hand is reaching in and moving four game pieces (which are brass nails) between triangles, which are laser-engraved in the honey dyed leather. Accessories are visible, dice and doubling cube and peg storage

Our newest folding leather board and favorite game: Travel Backgammon!

A variety of handcrafted leather and wood handles on a sample board as seen from above and an angle

Leather handles in 8 styles, 4 leather colors, and 3 metal finishes

A white chest of drawers in a white and lilac baby nursery with three colors of leather Morrison bin pull handles, in Honey, Dark Brown, and Black

Strong yet soft, durable and sustainable, no-bumps and no-bruises

A white kitchen drawer under a gray countertop that has a natural tan colored leather handle with nickel hardware and an engraved label that says 'Silverware'

Add a label to handles and pulls for superior organization

Two cabinet doors swinging open towards each other with matching leather Lovejoy loop handles. The leather touches so the cabinets don't crash into each other, a solution for problem corners in kitchen design planning

Flexible but sturdy, creative solutions to tricky problem corners

A roll of natural leather on a white background

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Valerie and Geoff from Walnut Studiolo are standing on a pile of driftwood between two boulders on the North Oregon Coast beach near Manzanita, with mountains and grey sky in the background

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A long dark brown leather blueprint tube is shown on a long countertop being hand stitched together by Geoff, whose stitching hands are in the background

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Valerie and Geoff Franklin of Walnut Studiolo standing behind their bicycles on a grassy green lawn. Geoff is doffing his hat to Valerie and she is smiling, as a gesture of service.

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Our blog "In a Nutshell" is chock-a-block with fresh and intriguing content written by in-house humans!

by Valerie Franklin
May 27, 2024
1 min read

Listen to Walnut Studiolo co-owner Valerie Schafer Franklin on the 621st episode of How I Built This with Guy Roz!

This was an Advice Line episode, pairing new business owners with seasoned business experts for Q&A and advice. Valerie was representing Artisans Cooperative, a cooperative handmade marketplace she helped found as an alternative to Etsy. The theme was about marketing and growing a customer base.

The business expert was Gary Erickson of CLIF Bar! Gary and his partner Kit maintained control of CLIF Bar, sharing ownership of 20% of the company with its employees as part of the employee ownership movement. In 2022, he and the employees sold the company to Mondelez for a reported $2.9 billion, earning the employees $580 million.

It was fascinating to go behind-the-scenes and be involved in the recording of a podcast with a listener base of over 1,000,000! After a sound test and a practice run with the producer, the episode was recorded online using a special podcast software, and edited for time. It was such a thrill to see the seasoned podcaster Guy Roz switch gears from the regular banter used to rattle us poor nervous small business owners into the smooth, professional presence we all know and love.

Find the episode on Amazon Music, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and more on the Wondery page.

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Walnut Studiolo Co-Owner Featured on "How I Built This" Podcast

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