We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Megan McDonald Shurbet. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Megan below.
Megan , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.
My family has been in the furniture industry for 35+ years. We originated in Keller in the traditional furniture market– when “Rustic” furniture was introduced, we switched over and transitioned away from traditional furniture. Into the West had a location in Keller and a location in Fort Worth! We owned our location in Keller and rented a building in FW. We were planning on staying in our FW location for 5 more years, but the owner of the property died and everything went to legal battle with the family and we ended up losing that lease. We were forced to close the FW location and move bak to just the one. This was a very difficult thing to lose our presence in FW. We were always looking for a new spot, but couldn’t find anything.
I finally found this old building located in a great central location of FW (in an up and coming area so not totally developed now). I begged my parents to take a look and give it a chance. It was destroyed— dirt floors, old original exposed brick, a historical brothel located upstairs. It was a huge undertaking. My parents were not too interested in such a huge project, but I was persistent. We ended up taking the plunge and are located in the building now. We used a historical contractor and the building and its renovation was featured on the History Channel. The building dates back to 1904 and has SO much history. Downstairs was originally a bank and upstairs was a working brothel– the story is that cowboys would buy and sell their cattle in the stockyards, come to the bank to handle their business, then take their money upstairs! The upstairs had the original hallway with all the rooms and metal room numbers above it, a head mistress room with a bid madam’s closet, and the original 1900 wall paper backed with cheese cloth. It was certainly something to see! The building now kept the original hardwood flors, original exposed brick walls, original beadboard ceiling, etc. We even used some of the old door frames from the brothel incorporated throughout the store!
We opened the Fort Worth location in 2017 and are so proud to still be here today! We have continued to do improvements to our building and currently have a home base right in the heart of Fort Worth. It was huge risk to buy a building in that shape and in an “up and coming” location,but we are so thankful we did! I can include some pictures and more info for you!
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
We are Into the West, a family-owned and operated boutique store specializing in unique hand-crafted fine home furnishings and accessories. Deep in the heart of Fort Worth, we offer uniquely designed, heirloom-quality furniture. Into the West offers a variety of services and products. Our goal is to provide custom pieces made to your specifications. We also offer in-house design services for individual pieces, rooms, homes, and commercial spaces. Our customers know and trust our nationwide white-glove delivery services and financing options.
Deep in the heart of Fort Worth, Into the West offers a legacy of custom, handmade furniture and accessories, styled to your specifications. Or, purchase our showroom pieces for quick white-glove delivery to your home, ranch house, or corporate office.
Our trusted team of artisans can create incredible custom and western furniture pieces made from 150-year-old reclaimed wood and old doors, hammered copper, and natural travertine stone. When you design with Into the West, you’ll know there’s not another piece like yours anywhere.
We sell western furniture that’s designed for your space.
Into the West specializes in unique and fine home furnishings and accessories inspired by the American Old West, Hacienda, and Old World style. The McDonald family has been delivering custom-made western furniture and design services since 1994, and we’re proud of our Fort Worth history and heritage.
Megan is a Fort Worth native and graduate of TCU (Go Frogs!). She works full time at Into the West and specialize in social media, press, advertising, international buying (her favorite part!), customer service, and design. She is a people person who loves meeting customers and welcoming them into the family.
Her other passions include teaching dance, choreographing, and traveling. She married my childhood sweetheart, Jordan, and they are raising the next generation of the Into the West legacy, Jude and Poppy. You can find her two stepping in the Stockyards and loving all things Fort Worth, if she ever has any spare time.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
We do not currently sell online– this has been, and still is, a HUGE battle for us. So much of our furniture is one of a kind and very substantial. Shipping and shipping prices has been a huge hurdle that we haven’t been able to jump yet. We aren’t a big box store able to offer free shipping and free returns, especially when a lot of our sales are custom pieces. With all of this being said, a website has been a bit of a struggle for us. We are constantly having to change and evolve into the next trend and find a way to do so without selling online. This is where social media comes in to play. We obviously started from nothing and it was a slow start to gain followers and likes. Now, we get hundreds of likes and comments a week. The biggest advice is being consistent. I am always trying to take social media courses and find hot tips on creating ads/boosting posts/etc. I also really love being able to tap in to.a very specific audience! It does seem that once the momentum gets rolling, it just keeps going. But, when I lack consistency in posting, I see a dip.
The other huge thing that helped gain a lot of attraction is being a human and showing my face/voice. I do live videos walking through the store and showcasing new items that we get in. I also show my face on the camera sometimes. People love it. They love to ee who is behind the scenes and say hello and really connect! I always try to speak and call people out by their names and really welcome them in to our family!
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
My father, the founder of Into the West has always been a VERY active part of the business. He is very hands on and always involved in every detail from ordering products to delivering and refinishing things. He got sick in August of 2018 and was placed on a transplant list immediately. When this happened, our world and business suffered and shifted. While we all have our strengths, he was the one who really navigated our success and path. My mom, brother, and I really had to step up and figure out how we could fill all of the gaps. Then covid happened! It was another HUGE kink in everything. In March of 2020, my dad received a transplant! It was the best and happiest day! What a blessing in the midst of all the insanity.. Although it was the greatest news and so many answered prayers, we knew we had a long road ahead. And then adding the “shutdown” on top of that. We had to get creative. We did live sales on social media r to generate sales. We really leaned on that social media platform! We looped our customers and ITW family in to what we were going through and my dad’s recovery journey! Our customers loved it and sent to much love and support our way!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.itwhome.com. We are currently working with a new marketing company and building a new site!!!
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/intothewesthome/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IntoTheWestHome/
Image Credits
Into the West