We were lucky to catch up with Jon-Lise Frazier recently and have shared our conversation below.

Jon-Lise, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

I had 3 kids in college and I needed to update some furniture, money was pretty tight as you can imagine. I went local thrift store and bought a $5.00 coffee table and painted it white with paint we already had. I hit with a sander and transformed this old outdated table to something new and fresh. I started working updating the whole house one thrift store piece at a time. I had put up an add to sell my couch on Craigslist and the lady that came and bought the couch wanted the coffee table too. I sold it to her for $125.00. That is what sparked the idea to start painting furniture for sale. I had heard about chalk paint, how fast it dried and how forgiving it was and wanted to start using it to complete pieces faster to sell. Chalk paint was pretty expensive so I tried to make my own. That failed miserably. I decided to increase my prices by $5.00 per piece to cover the additional cost of the chalk paint and it worked. In my evolution as a furniture artist I experimented with things that you did not typically see in my market at the time. I always used color, podged images on furniture and used stencils. This was something that is standard now but not 10 years ago. The Farm Gypsy was born out of that sense of experimentation and freedom.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

When I realized I could supplement my income by flipping furniture it was a financial endeavor to begin with, but it quickly flipped to become a passion. My daytime gig is a credit and collections manager for a growing company Spartan Management. It is an intense job that comes with a lot of hard conversations with people, at the end of the day walking in to my studio turning on my music really loud and creating is such a release. It is always just fun.

I work on antique or work furniture exclusively. I will use every product under the sun that will bring me the look I want to achieve. I was a content creator for a while for some paint brands and products for furniture artist. I loved the products I worked with but I found the exclusivity limiting. I do not want to be confined.

I love helping my clients re imagine an old family piece that they treasure but does not work for their ascetic. I love helping people that cannot afford to buy an entire new bedroom suite of furniture update what they have into something they love, that tells their story.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I had to pivot like everyone else during Covid. The store I was in for years closed but I was lucky enough that the owners of Eclectic Finds had a very successful location close by so I moved the Farm Gypsy there, but my husband and I moved about an 1.5 always about 3 months after the move. I realized I could not maintain the store from our new home the way I wanted to so I closed my shop. That was a hard decision. I went from running non stop to very quiet very fast. The town I moved to is too small to support a business like mine so I have been at a cross roads this year. I just started picking up the brush again in the last few months and I feel really good an inspired to create but at a slower pace. I am super passionate about the company I work for and we are growing so fast that I am happy to let that be my focus right now.

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

When I started the Farm Gypsy there was only Craigslist and a new app called Let Go. Facebook Market Place was not a thing. I was working at a tech company at the time and learned that staying in front of people 24/7 on the online space is how businesses can grow. That was 8 years ago. Facebook launched Marketplace and the online yard sales and I was in 15 local groups. I posted every day, bumped 3 days a week and did a fresh post of the store every Saturday. It was taxing and required a lot of discipline but it worked.

My advised would be to find your jam. I was not motived by likes or loves, I wanted the sales and the CONNECTION. I did not enjoy teaching classes and doing video tutorials which could have been an income source. If you do not truly love what you are doing then you will not do it well.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thefarmgypsy/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheFarmGypsyfurniture/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jon-lise-frazier-05470673/

Image Credits
I took all these photos and own the images