We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Mike Fister a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Mike, appreciate you joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

Not sure it was so much coming up with the idea, but a passion of mine…

I first began woodworking like many of my ‘era’, doing whatever it took to improve our homes using sweat equity and possibly to even offset some furniture purchases in favor of buying tools with the savings. Of course, my wife soon figured out that the latter was never a timely solution, but allowed me the luxury…

Apprenticing with my talented father, Sears was my primary tools source and most often softwood or cheap hardwood (poplar, sometimes oak) was my base; it’s why manufacturers created dark stain and paint. That said, we did tackle some huge projects and one that comes to mind was 2 stories worth of center staircase in a 100 year old Victorian that we owned – 80 period reproduction spindles of turning, a 10″ diameter newel post, and many feet of 3″ handrail (including volute) AND all 12/4 rough oak, on a 10″ radial arm saw, 4″ jointer, Craftsman lathe, and hand tools. The danger-quotient was ridiculous and I only wish I had some pictures because it was a showcase when we sold the house.

After a long career in high tech, I concentrate mostly on furniture commissions, custom cabinetry, and explore a myriad of turned vessels and art objects. Operating from a relatively small 3000 sq ft shop, I prefer to design from concepts and use precious materials that can be hand finished (as opposed to painted material) and selected to allow the natural grain of the wood to incorporate into the objects. The picture collage represents a very small cross-section ranging from musical instruments, natural slabs, turnings, and art nouveau. My furniture interests range from traditional to contemporary and incorporate mixed materials like glass, integrated lighting, and even motion control at all types of scale.

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

Designing and building custom/commissioned furniture pieces is my focus.

It all starts with design and I typically solicit ‘inspiration pictures’ from prospective clients and then refine a 3D design – sometimes even with color renderings. In this I’m probably unique since I do this to ‘qualify’ the process and best insure a good understanding of what the client’s dream is all about. Since my background was rooted in technology, I use computer tools and geometric elements can be finely tuned this way.

Then further separation is my focus on materials selection, grain matching, technique, and attention to detail. Especially in complex pieces (the more complex the better to me), this often involves even mixed media and in furniture think of the integration of elements like glass, metal, lighting, etc. In many cases this is problem solving at its foundation and most often includes ‘design ideas’ as to style in addition to form and function.

My work is in high-demand and an extensive array of styles, pieces, scope, and scale. It also includes artistic elements and I take as a compliment that many of my clients consider some of my pieces as art as well as craft – in stark contrast to what some refer to woodworkers as carpenters…

From a woodworking standpoint, I’m also a woodturner of some skill and sophistication. This further differentiates what kind of elements I can integrate into furniture pieces, and is also a foundation of my ‘art’ which includes a wide variety of open and closed vessels and am glad to have sold these to various fans and collectors all over the world.

My brand is my work and its manifestation into client’s homes and businesses and much of my work is by referral. Often once I do one piece for a client, I am commissioned to do several more for them and this is maybe the best indicator of the continuing evolution of my business!

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Not so much a pivot, but my life and success in high tech AND my upbringing is a work ethic and desire to NEVER STOP doing things that interest me; fortunately I’ve been pretty good at this.

In this respect, whether it was as a computer designer, public company CEO… and now furniture designer, the ‘pivot’ so-to-speak was/IS to translate that ethic and skill(s) into this outlet. Small business is fundamental to the USA (economy, development, and evolution) and I’ve always wanted and now am exploring how to be a very small part of demonstrating some of that prowess and how those ecosystems are changing and growing.

We all age and the best use that as fundamental ‘experience’ that can be applied to the task at hand. This is not a “hobby” to me, but the next thing I’ve thrown myself into that challenges me intellectually, creatively, and physically and this may well resonate with others doing their own businesses.

How’d you think through whether to sell directly on your own site or through a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc.

My business is not retail-focused, but has some interesting commercial elements.

First of course is making amazing pieces and having client’s love them.

Of course I have a web site and that is mostly a check-the-box and find little incoming leads from that as it is highly dependent on people finding it. It IS a source of spam calls soliciting ways to spend money improving your Google search prominence and to me digital marketing in general isn’t very applicable to what I do.

But, in furniture and associated pieces (ie casework, art, etc) finding other craftspeople is a structural component of evolution and growth. In this adventure, this could include relationships with interior decorators, contractors, upholsterers, artists and the list goes on. I’ve established many of these and it’s a continuing process which is also very rewarding – many of these people become friends or collaborators. Also, in these ‘fellow travelers’, most all are involved in similar thought-processes like building a brand, valuable networks, and exploring things like social media and Ecommerce and marketing affiliation.

So I’ve tee’d up a couple to discuss…

In this effort, there is quite a trend of sites that are marketing ‘arms/outlets’ for furniture and art. Think of 1st Dibbs, Wescover, and the like that want relationships with craftspeople who supply high-quality standard and commissioned pieces of all types. I’ve been solicited by several of these and experimenting and the jury is out whether its worth the effort, but imagine there are also parallels even for those not doing stuff like I do. This is of course, easier and potentially more scalable than developing a storefront and in my case, am experimenting with a furniture ‘line’ where this may be the outlet as opposed to solely commissioned pieces as an example…

Another are matchmakers like Angi’s List and Houzz. These aim to ‘pair’ a client with a project to a craftsperson and grow their business by geographic reach and scale. Early days here to as many projects are poorly and mis-positioned, have unrealistic expectations/understandings of cost vs value, etc but potentially a valuable source of leads and/or tools to help small business grow. I’m a member of both these and a few others with a variety of customer experiences as you might infer.

I’ve also experimented with elements of Ecommerce including Etsy and Amazon and for me, this has been pretty much a waste of time. Most of this has been with my turned ‘art’ and my experience is the comparison of similar items that are dramatically different in terms of development, production, and the list goes on is difficult to communicate and/or reward.

Especially for my ‘art’ I’ve had galleries with interest and have researched others. In general I find these desire way too much of the ‘value’ of a piece to offset their overhead and retail presence.

Lastly a fascinating exploration is the impact of social media of many forms. This can be promotion and networking of things like/via Facebook, presence and even technique-demonstration via Instagram, and even YouTube. For me, I’ve tried and given up on Facebook and Instagram is interesting to many of my clients and fellow woodworkers (as I’ve described a use above), but is vulnerable to its regulation (I got hacked and lost of lot site development) as well as spammed by bots and the like… AND does it matter to trying to add followers? YouTube is quite common and followed by people who either do what I do and/or like to watch it because my ‘process’ can be quite VISUAL; but the production time is something I haven’t invested in and/or some of my colleagues who have find themselves a slave to building their followings and monetizing the potential for revenue streams that way.

One last thing along the line of networking are things like LinkedIn. In my tech life I had a presence and a very wide number of contacts/followers. For my current adventure, I see no value in using this as a networking resource.

ALL in all, my view is have an open mind and try things, but don’t let it distract to much from the task at hand!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://woodenimagination.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/woodenimagination_workshop/
• Other: https://www.houzz.com/pro/webuser-400439885/wooden-imagination