Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jessica & Luke Cheney. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Jessica & Luke, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your organization?

Jessica got into puzzling pretty consistently in 2019 as a way of coping with the many stressors from her job. It became a sort of therapeutic outlet for her, a way to calm her mind, relieve some anxiety and find peace in the pieces. As work got even more stressful the puzzle boxes just started piling up and Luke would end up just taking them to GoodWill when Jessica was done with them. They both didn’t love the idea of donating the puzzles to a store where they would then just sit on a shelf collecting dust or get used maybe one more time.

So one day on a walk around the neighborhood the two of them passed a Little Free Library for books and BOOM, LIGHTBULB! Why not create a free library solely for jigsaw puzzles? The truth is most puzzles are built to last and can be done time and time again, so trading them around the community just made perfect sense.

We started by creating our own puzzle trading post out of an old Barbie Hotel. With a lot of love and some creative liberties, that large piece of plastic was transformed into The Puzzle Palace. This first puzzle library resides in front of Jessica’s parents’ house in La Crescenta, CA and was so successful that Jessica & Luke just couldn’t stop there. So hence The Puzzle Republic was born in January of 2020, (very timely, right?).

Since then, Jessica & Luke have created 3 other puzzle libraries on their own, but the count doesn’t stop there. They have used their social media following to get the word out about The Puzzle Republic and encourage people to start libraries of their own. They even created a step by step guide to help aspiring Puzzle Republic Ambassadors get started and have a Facebook group for them to share their stories & exchange ideas. On top of that, thanks to some investigative research on various social media platforms, they discovered dozens of libraries across the globe that already existed and reached out to get them added to the map on The Puzzle Republic website.

Three and a half years later, The Puzzle Republic now has free puzzle libraries in over 70 locations across the globe and counting! From Europe to Australia, Canada and The US, you can now search the map on their website to find a location near you. If you have a puzzle library of your own and want to be added to the map, or are interested in starting one then fill out the form at www.thepuzzlerepublic.com. We would love to add you as another piece to our puzzle!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

The Puzzle Republic is an ever-growing network of free puzzle trading posts founded by LA locals, Jessica & Luke Cheney, with a mission to spread the joy of puzzling.  It’s similar to other little libraries but just for jigsaw puzzles! Take a puzzle or leave a puzzle. Yep, it’s that simple.

Sharing is caring and let’s be honest, we all rarely do a puzzle more than once.  So what better (and more sustainable) way to connect with your community than with a trading post!? We are gaining momentum and connecting people with over 70+ locations across the globe.

Could this be the missing piece that your neighborhood needs?  Check out our website to see how to create one of your own or find the nearest one to you!  www.thepuzzlerepublic.com

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Our social audience grew from zero the good old fashioned way, slow and steady. People will find you if you create good content that is on board with current trends.

We got lucky and had a video get 9 million views on IG, it grew our following by 240% within a month. We say “lucky” because we’re still not sure exactly how it went viral. Maybe it was the editing style, maybe it was the hash tags.

If you are serious about your socials, hire a social strategist to audit your accounts and see where you can improve. But most importantly, be patient & consistent because it can take time. We like to think that “if you build it, they will come”. So just keep laying the ground work and the rest will follow (pun intended).

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

The Puzzle Palace is our very first and flagship library that started this whole journey for us. However, given it was pieced together out of a plastic Barbie Hotel, it has also been our most difficult library to keep up with.

We installed it in January and soon after learned that it was not as weather-proofed as we would have hoped. Rain had been seeping through the cracks of the door and we had to add rubber stripping to fill the gaps. Then, not more than a few months after we installed the library, the strong Santa Ana winds ripped the front door right off. The hinge was destroyed so we had to re-fasten a new hinge on the opposite side of the door and switch the door handle over to match it. (Very confusing at first for people who were used to opening it from the right side and came to find the handle on the left now).

The front facade of the palace contained a lot of plastic parts and accent pieces that often fell off, cracked and needed to be re-adhered. To this day this is still one of our most popular libraries and being that it is located on the same street as an elementary school means that it has seen a lot of foot traffic. And eventually the old Barbie Hotel front facade just could no longer stand any more wear and tear. So early in 2023 we replaced it with a new and improved structure that while it may not have the Barbie charm, is equally magical and much more durable! The Puzzle Palace 2.0 is now shining and shimmering for all to enjoy for many years to come.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.thepuzzlerepublic.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepuzzlerepublic/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thepuzzlerepublic
• Linkedin: linkedin.com/company/the-puzzle-republic
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-hGx08gbuaUcSHMkN95wNw
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@thepuzzlerepublic