HATTIE: Hi. I'm Hattie Bryant. We're all about how
to start, how to run and how to grow a business. In fact,
our mission statement is learn today, earn tomorrow.

If you take time to learn, you increase your power to earn.

Today you'll meet Mike Neary, founder and owner of Oregon Log Homes. Also, our marketing advisor, will tell us why it is important to set aside a certain percentage of our revenue for the sales and marketing efforts and why selling is such a mysterious process. We call what you are now going to experience a Master Class. This is not a traditional class taught by a teacher. This is an opportunity for you to be with a master small business owner.

Teachers teach classes. Working artists present a master class. No gurus, no academics, no journalists allowed in the master class. Come with me now to Sisters, Oregon, to meet a master small business owner, inventor, artist, craftsman and visionary.

(Voiceover) What is this mystique that a lot of us have about logs and living in a log house?

MIKE NEARY (Oregon Log Homes): (Voiceover) Well, it's just the most comfortable feeling in the world to be in a log home.

HATTIE: (Voiceover) Back in 1970 Mike Neary dropped out of college because he was too busy skiing and teaching skiing on Mt. Hood in Oregon. He built his first log home on National Forest Service property in view of the mountain he loved. Was it one room or...

MIKE: Yeah. It was a 20-by-20 cabin, had a cute little loft and it had a little sunken fireplace area and a little fireplace in it.

HATTIE: And a little bathroom and a little kitchen.

MIKE: Well, no bathroom. The bathroom was actually behind the trees outside 'cause we had no plumbing. Remember this was on Forest Service land and not mine.

HATTIE: So, no television.

MIKE: No. No TV. No.

HATTIE: Because there was no power.

MIKE: There was no power.

HATTIE: So this is a contrast to what we're going to see later.

MIKE: Oh, totally. Yes. It's a total contrast. But, you know, I wouldn't mind living in that again. I would love to have that little cabin. There was a petition by the little town of Rhododendron, which is on Mt. Hood. Everybody just loved this little cabin. It was really cute. And we weren't hurting anyone. But, you know, the Forest Service felt, `Well, if we let these guys do it, everybody's going to do it and we're going to have a community in here and it doesn't work.' So they made me tear it down. But I said, `Well, I want to build another home. I've designed this house, this log house, and I want to build another one and I need some logs.' The forester -- the ranger at the time -- said, `Well, let's work it out.' So for $130, he gave me enough logs out of the Mt. Hood watershed -- they didn't usually let you log in there -- to build that second house.