Meet Zachary Miller

We were lucky to catch up with Zachary Miller recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Zachary, thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?

My work ethic comes from three places: seeing great results, experiencing joy from pushing myself, and my dad. I’ll start with him, because that built a foundation that has lasted to this day. I started working alongside my dad at age nine, with frequent days out collecting stone. He was a mason, and working with him as I went through grade school was as normal as eating dinner. I got to see firsthand what it meant to grind through repetitive work, and slowly build toward a satisfying end result. I also learned what it meant to be tired. When I got home I was exhausted, but that felt good. Really good, in fact. When I started my own business after college, that feeling multiplied as I saw the results of hard work helping me grow and provide for my family.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I created Miller Stoneworks in 2008. While I can perform a number of different masonry tasks for clients, most of my work centers around fireplaces. Although rarer as the years progress, I build real masonry fireplaces from block and brick, then face them with stone. I also use natural materials, with most stone being hand collected and carried long distances in five-gallon buckets. In some ways this feels like a lost (or diminished) art, but I see it as unique and fulfilling. Carefully choosing the stone I use means I get to plan and design each project from the ground up. This is especially helpful in making each project distinctive for my clients. At the end of the day, I want them to love what they are looking at. For that reason I approach each project with one simple objective – if my clients are happy, I am happy.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

An important quality for any business owner or artist to start with is a desire to learn. More specifically, a sense of humility. This becomes even more important when you grow and become established. Knowing that you don’t know everything is very helpful. It keeps you from making mistakes, or helps you fix them at the moment they are realized. It keeps you moving forward. When you stop innovating and developing new techniques, your work becomes stagnant and less interesting.

Another helpful part of development is investing in a community of like-minded people. For me, this means connecting with other masons. I don’t see rivals, I see colleagues. I’m not looking for ideas to copy, I’m trying to expand my vision of what can be created. I am friendly, and I love collaborating and encouraging other masons.

My best advice for people at the beginning of the journey is to find a few others who are at a similar place in their development. They don’t even have to be in the same field. When I started my business, I met a couple times a month with a woodworker and fly fisherman who started their businesses around the same time. There wasn’t a lot of overlap in our markets, but we experienced the same growing pains of starting a business. We went through the seasons of feast-or-famine together. We talked about ideas for growth, and frustrations with new projects. We shared what we were learning, the many mistakes we made along the way, and the joys of accomplishment. This will help you from losing your mind when times are tough, and keep you grounded if you get a little too prideful.

What would you advise – going all in on your strengths or investing on areas where you aren’t as strong to be more well-rounded?

A great question that doesn’t have one answer. Both are actually relevant; it just depends on what type of business or artistic venture you are on. Some people benefit greatly from diversifying their talent. This might be very helpful for someone in a small town or market. In these places, a special niche might not keep your schedule full. On the flip side, specializing in one area can be very satisfying, especially if you love what you do.

I am blessed to work in a place where I can focus on natural stone fireplaces. Many masons grow their business through broadening their skill set with concrete and tile work. They can also expand their reach by hiring more employees and taking on commercial work. In my case, I have gone the opposite direction, building mostly one thing (fireplaces and stove backings). I also have chosen to move in the artistic direction, taking on smaller jobs that don’t require employees. I have been developing my own unique style and approach over the years, almost like a painter. The result is that people find me not only when they want a fireplace, but my specific approach to building a fireplace.

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