We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Michele Beardsley. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Michele below.

Michele, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?

At the age of 48, after working my dream job for someone else for 25 years, I (along with a coworker in the same situation) made the decision to leave that job.

I began doing guitar repairs at a prominent Minneapolis shop when I was pretty fresh out of school. I gradually worked my way up to a full-time position gaining lots of valuable experience and clientele. My boss was very patient, generous, and encouraging, kind of like a second father. I absolutely loved working there. This employment bliss continued for about 15 years.

Things began to turn sour, due in part to nepotism. My coworkers and I tried many times in many ways to make things work like they always had; meetings with the boss about what could make us feel valued and not taken for granted, ways to improve our outlook and the business itself. These attempts were always met with uninterest and lack of sympathy. I continued on there for the next 10 years as things got worse, frequently angry and unsure of my future.

One coworker and I decided we were going to make something happen and open our own guitar repair shop, the way we wanted it to be, by our own rules. We didn’t feel like we had a choice. I was terrified! I didn’t know anything about owning/running a business! All we knew was how to do really good work and that we wanted to be the best guitar repair shop in town. I received a lot of encouragement from family and friends, did a bunch of research, and found a mentor through the Twin Cities SCORE organization, which provides free business mentoring, learning, and business developement. We learned how to write a business plan, registered with the state, leased a space, fixed it up, and things just kind of fell into place. I’m not saying it was easy, but we made it all happen. I learned that I actually do know a lot about running a business. It requires things like a sense of responsibility, knowing how to communicate with people, and most importantly, a desire to succeed.

Our business took off very quickly, exceeding our expectations. My old clients stuck with me and I get new ones every day.
I now consider myself a success and I’m so glad I took that risk!

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

I started playing guitar at age 9, thanks in large part to John Denver (this is not a rock n roll story), who was huge at that time. Later on in my teenage years, I became interested in woodworking, being lucky enough to have a woodworker grandfather who taught me a lot. I did all the woodshop classes in school (yes I was a nerd). There’s just something special about the feel of the wood in my hands and the amazing things that can be created from it. In 10th grade my guidance counselor asked me what I wanted to do after I graduated. Sure that she would laugh at me, I told her I wanted to make guitars. She gave me a pamphlet from the Red Wing Technical College where they actually offered a year long program to learn just that. She did not laugh at me. I am forever grateful to her. So I enrolled. I was determined to make my living doing what I loved, not really caring or thinking about how much or how little money I would make. I followed my dream and it paid off. When I got my first job I started slowly, one day a week, and worked my way to what I feel now is the top.

In 2017 I opened my own repair shop along a business partner in St. Paul’s West 7th neighborhood, called…wait for it…St Paul Guitar Repair. We repair, build, restore, modify, and maintain fretted stringed instruments. We have tons of experience and expertise. Our mission was and is to provide the absolute best work and customer service that we can, and we pride ourselves on treating everyone with the same respect and quality work regardless of who they are, how well they can play, or how much money their instrument is worth. We work for absolute beginners to world-renowned players. That recipe seems to be working because we are busy and I love my job again!

I also build HepCat lap steel guitars in my spare time. Lap steels are kind of niche thing. There are thousands of guitarmakers out there, so it’s hard to stand out, but there aren’t very many lap steel makers. A lap steel is an electric guitar that is played on the lap with a steel bar that slides on the strings. They sound super cool and are used in many different kinds of music these days, not just Hawaiian music which is what they evolved from. I build them pretty slowly, maybe just 2 or 3 a year, but I do it mainly because I enjoy it, and it’s a bonus when people buy them! I love the style and sound of many of the old classics but also want to improve on them by using high quality materials and workmanship, such as real hardwood fingerboards, top-shelf modern electronics, and adjustable bridges. A lot of the vintage lap steels were made with cheap plastic parts, inferior electronics, and little attention to detail. I love making a really nice instrument that is still relatively affordable.

I have been building, repairing, and restoring guitars and other stringed instruments for 36 years.

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

I work in a field that is and always has been dominated by men. In many ways I feel like I fit in with them pretty easily; I like guitars, I like music, I like woodworking, I can appreciate a good joke or a good beer. Many of my favorite people are men. Still, every so often, I get a man in the shop or on the phone who says to me something idiotic like, “how long have YOU been working here?” Or, “are you the secretary?” Or, “I need to speak to a luthier” (the old-world title for what I do). These kinds of comments really piss me off. I bite my tongue a lot. I have struggled not to take those things personally and say, “this is MY shop!” Or, “why do you assume I know anything about secretarial work?” Or, “you are ALREADY speaking to a luthier!” I usually don’t say those things unless the guy is acting like a jerk in other ways too. I need to remember that I’m a surprise to them; they are ignorant and once they give me a chance I’ll be their new favorite luthier.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

Well…it’s the only strategy we’ve ever tried for growing our clientele, We really focus on listening to our customers, being honest, taking pride in our work, and standing behind it. Our clients tell their friends. It’s basically doing our best and letting our clients tell others; I guess it’s called word-of-mouth. We really didn’t advertise until the last 3 years or so when we started underwriting a couple small local radio stations. This strategy apparently works wonders because we are always BUSY.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.stpaulguitarrepair.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stpaulguitarrepair
• Soundcloud: soundloud.com/mishlb
• Other: St Paul Guitar Repair
  1101 W 7th St
  St. Paul, MN 55102
  651.224.4168
  [email protected]