From Middle School Teacher to Furniture Restoration, meet Tonya Cassidy in North Carolina
Tonya Cassidy has been a middle school teacher near Piedmont, North Carolina, for her whole career — and she loves her students. But on the side? She’s been running Appaloosa Artisans, her furniture restoration business, creating seriously gorgeous pieces for her clients. And now, with retirement on the horizon, Tonya’s getting ready to take her furniture business full-time — which is kind of wild considering how unexpected this whole path was. But if you’ve seen her work on Instagram, you’d swear this was always the plan.
👉 What you'll get from this episode:
Tonya was actually one of the first flippers I followed after getting laid off, and honestly, she gave me so much hope when I was trying to figure out my next step. I think you’re going to love this one. Hit play and let’s dive in! ❤️
Connect with Tonya
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/appaloosa___artisans/?hl=en
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/appaloosaartisans/
Jenny 00:00:02 Welcome to the Career Flipper podcast. I'm your host, Jenny Dempsey. Just a regular person trying to figure out my own career path. One step at a time. I am not a career flipping expert. I spent 18 years in customer experience at tech startups thinking I had it all figured out. Spoiler alert I didn't. I got laid off. I stumbled into some freelancing. I started furniture flipping. Go ahead and check out San Diego Furniture Flipper on Instagram and TikTok. If you want to see what I'm up to. And thanks to a random dream one night I ended up launching this podcast. So yeah, I know how overwhelming and exhausting and weird career changes can be, and I'm still figuring it out as I go. And that's why I started this podcast, because I just have so many questions. How do people actually pull off big career changes without totally falling apart? Or how do they push through the self-doubt and imposter syndrome when nothing feels certain? How do they juggle side gigs and full time jobs without losing their minds? Instead of sitting alone with all these thoughts, I figured, I don't know why.
Jenny 00:01:14 Not just ask people who've been through it and learn from them. So every week I sit down with real people from all kinds of industries, from all over the world who've made these bold career changes. We get into the messy middle, the setbacks, the winds, the what the heck am I doing moments so that you and I can take the next step with a little more confidence and maybe a few extra tools in our back pockets. So if someone took the time to share this episode with you, I hope you thank them. That means they believe in you, and they know that you have got what it takes to figure this out, because you can learn from others too. Even when. Whatever career pivot you're on feels really challenging. They believe that you got this and they want you to keep going. You've got some solid support in your corner. Today's episode is all about Tanya Cassidy, middle school teacher by day, furniture restoration, flipper and maker by night. She's been teaching near Piedmont, North Carolina for her entire career and genuinely loves her students.
Jenny 00:02:28 But on the side, she's been running Appaloosa artisans, her furniture restoration business. And let me tell you, the pieces that she restores for her clients. Our next level. Like, you got to go check them out. And now, with her retirement coming up, Tanya is planning to go full time with her furniture business, which is pretty wild considering how unexpectedly this all started. But if you've seen her work on Instagram and I really hope you check it out, you would swear that this was always the plan. Tanya was actually one of the first flippers I followed after I got laid off, and she's been such an inspiration for me. You know, seeing how she balances teaching family life and her creative business really gave me a lot of hope when I was figuring out my next steps. And in this episode, Tanya opens up about that first time holding an orbital sander and how it just instantly clicked, and what it's like being a woman in a male dominated industry. How to set boundaries with her phone and stay present with her family, and why building real connections with clients and fellow flippers is at the core of everything she does.
Jenny 00:03:42 This is a great episode and I hope you get a lot out of it. Let's get into the conversation now. Okay, I am having an absolute fangirl moment because you and everyone will meet you in just a second here, but I just I have to say, you are one of the first flippers that I found on Instagram. You were like targeted to me. And honestly, it might have been one of the reasons why suddenly, when I was laid off and figuring things out, that I got so into it because I saw the magic that you made with these junky pieces of furniture and how you're, like, dancing around them. And it's like, so fun. Tanya Cassidy. Hello. Welcome to the career flipper.
Tonya 00:04:31 Hello. Thank you for having me. I'm so excited.
Tonya 00:04:36 Me? Me too. Me too. I'm going to try to.
Jenny 00:04:38 Contain myself here, but really, the work that you do to bring these junky pieces of furniture back to life is incredible. And the way that you document it and show it and have a frickin blast doing it.
Jenny 00:04:51 But there's so much more to your story and I cannot wait. Cannot wait to hear it and to share it with everybody. So go ahead, tell everybody who you are, where you are in the world and what you are doing now.
Tonya 00:05:05 All right, so I am Tonya Cassidy. I will be turning 50 very soon. no. Yeah. by profession, I am a middle school teacher. That's my one profession. And then the other profession is I am a furniture refinishing furniture flipper, custom furniture builder, whatever you want to call me. I do a little bit of it all. I am married, I have two daughters, a sweet dog, who's staring at me right now. and I am based out of North Carolina. We are about an hour above Charlotte, North Carolina. I will be retiring from teaching this year and then I will focus mainly just on my furniture. typically in a week, I spend a whole lot more time with the furniture side of the business than the teaching side of my life, and we'll get into that later.
Tonya 00:06:15 But, so I am looking forward to having one full time job. It's going to be a celebration for sure.
Jenny 00:06:23 Yeah. Well, congratulations on the upcoming milestone birthday and also on your retirement. I mean, that's incredible. So how did this all begin for you, Tonya? Like, when did you like you started in teaching? I'm guessing. So when did that kick in? And then when did furniture find you?
Tonya 00:06:45 Okay, so I started teaching by default. that's that's a story within itself. Two degrees, one in psychology and one in religion. Okay. And I wanted to find the cure for alcoholism. That's where the degree in psychology came from. And then I started having these really amazing religion professors at my college. So they convinced me to also get a double major in religion. So right after college, I was, placed in a mental health facility for my first job. And I was also a part time youth minister. So they assigned me to the unit of male adolescent sex offenders instead of the alcohol unit.
Tonya 00:07:37 And those people, those patients were not receiving any type of education. They were there for a six month program, were not receiving any type of education, and then they're going to go back out into the world and try to succeed. Yeah. So I took it upon myself to start teaching them. I researched the curriculum for six through 12th grade and started teaching them because I wanted them to have a fair shot when they went back to school. And then my mind started spinning. Well, maybe I could just become a teacher. So I went back and got my master's degree in teaching, and I taught elementary school for 21 years. Then I moved to middle school when both of my daughters were in middle school and high school. So I've been at the middle school for now, seven, almost eight years. as far as the furniture business, that happened by complete accident. Complete accident. So that is my husband. He is also an engineer by trade, but he is just very creative and can make and build and create anything that he sees and sets his mind to.
Tonya 00:08:51 So he has always had a little woodworking shop down in our basement, and he would build anything I wanted him to build for our own home. And when friends would come over, they would see the pieces he had created. They would ask where it came from. And when you said Thad built it, then he would start building pieces for them. So the actual business started with him, custom building furniture pieces. And I didn't do anything. I didn't have social media, I didn't do anything. and then I would go down there and just watch him. And he thought he could trust me with a sander. That was my first ever patch up. Because he hates sanding. He hates sanding with the passion. Yeah. So I started sanding the pieces he would build, and then I started building up my confidence and thought maybe I could try to buy a junkie piece. Refinish it and see if it would sell. Yeah, so I got this little table. It was a little t tiny side table.
Tonya 00:09:55 I refinished it in the very trendy colors of 15 years ago. and stay in the top. And then I put it just on my personal Facebook page because I didn't have Instagram or anything like that yet. And it sold in like 37 seconds.
Speaker 4 00:10:13 What? Whoa. That's wild. I know, so.
Tonya 00:10:18 I thought I had something that I could do, like on the side as a hobby and kind of be like that and do something just, you know, in my own creative way. So I was heading out to buy other thrifted pieces, and people actually instantly started messaging me, hey, I have this dining room set. Could you redo it? Hey, I have some end tables. I would like them to look like this. So the custom refinishing just took off and I never had to once go buy anything to refinish myself. It has solely been a custom furniture refinishing business for now. 15 years.
Speaker 4 00:11:00 Wow.
Tonya 00:11:01 Yeah. And I love that aspect of it. I don't have any kind of overhead.
Tonya 00:11:05 I don't have to worry about pieces selling or not selling. I have met so many amazing people along the way. of course, I'm always going to have some customers that are not pleased or unsatisfied, but I would say out of the, I don't know, 1000 pieces I do a year, maybe there's one every couple of years that aren't satisfied. I mean, so I, I do love that. I love that aspect of custom refinishing. let me see. I guess I don't know if that answers that question or not.
Jenny 00:11:43 That that answers it above and beyond. And I gosh, I have so many questions for you. So 15 years ago, completely by accident and actually in a as a benefit to your husband. So you were doing the same thing that he didn't want to do.
Speaker 4 00:11:56 Exactly.
Jenny 00:11:57 You found your way into this creative space. Now, were you always a creative person? Did you always do some type of art on the side, even as a kid or.
Tonya 00:12:06 I always well, my mother would redecorate the house all the time, like, rearrange and redecorate the house.
Tonya 00:12:11 So I think I got it from her. And I did love to style my home. I love to decorate decorate for holidays. I loved that part about it. And I would paint like my own furniture pieces, but I never thought I could do it. Like, has an actual career. Yeah. At all.
Speaker 4 00:12:31 That's so.
Jenny 00:12:32 Isn't that wild? How it just, like, shows up and it's like, actually you can't.
Speaker 4 00:12:37 Yeah. So.
Jenny 00:12:38 So you are doing all client pieces and people just start rolling into your DMs and they're just like, Will you do this for me? And in the beginning, you know, it sounds like you just had your personal Facebook, but now you have a really strong community on Instagram. When did that start?
Tonya 00:12:56 Okay.
Speaker 4 00:12:57 That's funny. so I.
Tonya 00:13:00 Had no idea what Instagram even was. My oldest daughter was in middle school and she had gotten an Instagram account, and so I solely got an Instagram account just so I could spy on her.
Speaker 4 00:13:15 That's that's the only reason I love it.
Speaker 4 00:13:18 I got one completely.
Tonya 00:13:22 And then so I did not post anything. It was just for spy purposes only. And and then I.
Speaker 4 00:13:30 Started following.
Tonya 00:13:31 Some people like mainly decor people. And I thought, well, maybe I should post, you know, some pictures of our house here and there. So I did that for a while and I was in more of a like, decor community. And then, I'll give a shout out to my friend Dean, who lives in Washington State, and he's on Instagram. He's a talented woodworker. He is the one that said, why don't you showcase you actually working on furniture? Because I would share, like, some pictures of painted pieces I had done or something. And he said, why don't you show like yourself actually doing it? And I never thought anybody would even be entertained or want to be a part of that. But I took the step to do it. And here we are today.
Speaker 4 00:14:19 And here you are.
Jenny 00:14:21 That is I mean, that's funny that you found your way into it through spine.
Jenny 00:14:26 And then your friend Dean had the great idea. And now, I mean, that's incredible. That's incredible. And I am also curious, because you were still teaching while you were starting to build this up. So you're getting these DMs, you're taking on custom projects and you were teaching and also, you know, a parent and, you know, living the rest of your life. How did you juggle all that? Because the projects are I mean, there's a lot of time that goes into fixing up this old stuff. So how did you juggle the projects in addition to everything else, or how do you do it now?
Speaker 4 00:15:03 I know.
Tonya 00:15:05 So fortunately, if the business started like 15 years ago, I was already halfway through teaching. So I was a, we'll say, veteran teacher at that point. So I had already kind of figured out how I could do the majority of my work at home, leave teaching at home or at school, and then come home and not have to bring anything.
Tonya 00:15:27 it was tougher when I was an elementary school teacher Sure. Because you don't have a very long planning period and you are responsible for every subject, content planning and grading. So and thankfully though, the business started out with that just building pieces. And then I came in later. So during that time I was still an elementary school teacher. but then I don't I don't honestly know. I think I do a really good job of leaving teaching at school, and then I come home straight and do furniture. it is a juggle, though. The hardest part is making time for my family and also juggling customers, picking up and dropping off. It is a 24 over seven 360 revolving door at our house. just like today. Before this.
Speaker 4 00:16:26 I.
Tonya 00:16:26 Had a customer picking up at 430. So there are people at our home all the time dropping off, picking up. I have a very small garage that I'm working in right now as we're building our big shop. And so I have to juggle making sure that I can fit all of their pieces in at a time.
Tonya 00:16:46 Usually I can fit about, I don't know, 5 to 6 customers pieces in my garage at a time. but I do make sure that I have time for my family. especially since my daughters are getting older and they're leaving home. And definitely anytime they're home, I make sure that they're the priority. I don't know. I think I do a lot of my social media at night is whenever I'm finished working on furniture. But I'm also a person that I don't know. I probably would have been labeled with attention deficit disorder when I was younger. I can manage a lot of things at the same time. So I can be working on pieces down in the shop, also showing a real and engaging with people on stories, but also coming upstairs to check on dinner. And I can manage doing all of that at the same time. And it doesn't seem chaotic to me, but I'm sure it would seem chaotic to some people. I think any type of creative person has to have that little bit of a chaotic learning in them.
Jenny 00:17:58 That resonates so much. And because I feel like I'm the same way, I always have multiple things going. There's always so many things going on. And my ability to juggle has always been what I feel like a superpower. There are times where I reach a capacity where I know I'm like, oh, too much, too much. I need to taper down. But then I realize maybe I'm doing something in that mix that maybe I don't want to do as much. And I'm like, okay, it's probably just that. But I think there there's a bit of an art to it, but it is also very much a personality thing.
Tonya 00:18:30 I get nervous if I'm sitting still for long periods of time to say I cannot stand it. And I think the older I get like just to sit down and watch a movie, I almost cannot sit down and watch a movie anymore because my brain is just always going, and I am on my phone a lot more than I would like to be, but it's because I'm scheduling clients either dropping off or picking up, or I am on social media.
Tonya 00:19:01 Filming rules and filming. Filming before and afters or just engaging in stories. So I'm on my phone more than I would like to be. Yeah, I have to be if I want to continue.
Jenny 00:19:12 Right.
Tonya 00:19:13 Right out there.
Jenny 00:19:15 Yeah. No, that makes sense. That makes sense. And I know you have the shop, the bigger shop coming, which I want to talk about. But before I do that, I want to ask a question and if you if it's TMI, feel free to let me know. But nothing TMI. Great, great, I love it, I love it. But during the early process when you were, you know, starting to learn how to sand, for example, and then you're posting on your personal Facebook and people start reaching out to you. Was there ever a moment in your mind where some self-doubt crept in, or this like, part of like, oh, maybe I can't do this, or who would I who am I to turn into a business? That's that's business.
Jenny 00:19:56 Like, was there ever anything like that that popped into your mind? For sure.
Tonya 00:20:02 because especially since our business started with Thad building his beautiful furniture pieces. Yeah. That's where my self-doubt came from, that I knew I would never be able to create masterpieces like he did. So my self-doubt came from that and also just self-doubt because I was a woman. And it's not a traditional women's field. Or at least it wasn't 15 years ago, where you're playing around with power tools and creating in a more male dominated type of hobby. We will call it. so, yeah, a lot of self-doubt. then I'm also prone to accidents and injuries. So when I would use power tools for the first time, I would injure myself quite often because I also have no grace. So self-doubt came through that to just thinking, well, maybe this isn't something I can actually do. but that's when social media helped. When people started seeing your pieces and commenting about how beautiful they were and how amazing they were. Then your self-doubt goes away because you realize I'm actually doing something that's valuable and worthwhile.
Tonya 00:21:22 So. But. Yeah. And I still doubt myself. I compare myself to other people that are doing maybe better in social, in the social media aspect, if they have like a lot of collaborations and it seems like they're making a ton of money on social media, because that's not even my focus at all on social media. I'm not trying to make any kind of money on social media. and I don't ever really look at my following count or my likes or because that's just not why I'm there. I'm there more to educate people. The teacher in me comes out. I'm there to educate people, explain the process to people, explain the products I use. I don't try to keep anything. I'm authentic. But yeah, I still have doubt. I think I have doubt probably every single day. But I try to manage it. Yeah.
Jenny 00:22:14 I mean, you definitely do a great job with that. You are such a natural teacher. I think that's the one thing that I mean early on for me personally, and I'm sure many other furniture, flippers or makers or restorers like watching your videos.
Jenny 00:22:28 You just make it really easy to understand what it is without watching, you know, a full on, tutorial. Like, I can get it. I'm like, oh, okay, she did it this way. Let me try that. And I think, also just your ability to show up, like, authentically, like, I think I've seen stories where you're like, oh, this didn't work out the way that I had planned or this color, I don't like this. And so I it kind of gave me this permission to mess up and know that that's totally okay. I'm like, if she's doing it like I can't do. And I think that there's like that validation kind of that you mentioned and community building where it's not even about these big numbers. It's more about like a quality over quantity type, connection piece, but also just the way that you show up as real as, you know, as you are. And it is just it's really cool and it's very refreshing, I think, because sometimes it can be quite the opposite.
Jenny 00:23:25 And I think sometimes that can limit us. But yeah. And you have.
Tonya 00:23:31 That first brainstorm to over to the furniture side of it, I would reach out to bigger accounts thinking that we had so much in common and they wouldn't even reply back to me. So I made a point that I would never be that person. I would spend time checking my messages. I would spend time commenting on their comments, and I think I will continue to do that because again, I'm here for the authenticity and to help people, not just to get numbers. I could care less if I make any type of money on Instagram.
Jenny 00:24:09 Right, right. No.
Tonya 00:24:11 I love the fact that people now like customers reach out from Instagram. It is a platform where I can work with customers, so I do love that aspect of it.
Jenny 00:24:20 Yeah. Oh yeah, that's awesome. And then they get to see that transformation and watch the whole process. I feel like that's such a special experience. I've had clients reach out to me, and I found either they found me on Instagram or they bring me some pieces or friends of friends or whoever it is, and then I fix this up for them and they're like, I can't wait to see the story.
Jenny 00:24:39 Don't show me pictures beforehand. I want to win. It's like it's the full it's full on experience that really only that type of platform can provide. So there's like some magic to that. And, Okay, quick pause for a shameless plug that actually helps keep the podcast going. So as you know, my career path has been kind of all over the place, from customer service to furniture flipping to podcasting to marketing. It's been a colorful ride, but through it all, one thing has stayed true. I really just love helping people, and that's why I actually put together some customer service training courses on Udemy for business. They're full of lessons from my corporate days, when I worked on the front lines and in leadership roles and customer service and experience, and I really capture the wins, the awkward fails, and everything in between in these courses. So if you've ever felt like you could use a little more confidence handling tricky situations with customers at work, or you just want to learn how to work in customer service yourself, these might actually help.
Jenny 00:25:49 They're under 60 bucks. They're available worldwide and virtual. Over 16,000 students have already taken them, which still blows my mind. And honestly, checking them out really does help keep the podcast going. Which means that I get to keep sharing these amazing stories with you. So if you're curious, head over to the Career Flipper. And if it's not for you, but you know someone else who could use it, maybe you'll pass it along. It might just be what they need. Okay. Thanks for letting me share that. Let's get back to the episode. And so moving forward. You have big plans. Like, there's some things, kind of waiting in the wings, right? Can you can you talk about that a little bit?
Tonya 00:26:36 So we are in the process of building our dream shop at our former house, because we moved to this house in a year from today, basically. So we've been in this house for a year. We were in a neighborhood that we loved. We were there for 20 years, but it was a neighborhood on half an acre of land.
Tonya 00:26:59 and Thad Shop was in the basement. My shop was in the garage and we worked separate, and that was a really great thing. But then we found this house that we love and it's on a ton of land, and we promised each other that we would build our dream shop when we got here, and we are now currently both stuck in a two car garage, and it does not work very well because not that we don't get along, but we see things differently. And if he needs to build something. But I'm finishing something and I have a fresh coat of poly on it. He can't use his table saw, so it's tricky. It's very tricky. We need some bigger space. So we are currently building our dream shop. We've, we've already reached out to the builder, we've got our plans, we've reached out to our grader. The grader is coming any day now to start the grading. We had to move a little building for that to get space for the bigger building. and then inside that building.
Tonya 00:28:08 what I'm hoping to do, because I should be retiring very soon after the completion of the building. Then what I'm hoping to do is, of course, still do custom furniture refinishing. That's the main priority. I've been asked by thousands upon thousands of people to create a YouTube channel. So I would love to do that because then I can do what I want to do. As far as the length. Instagram, you know, you can only do like a minute or now three minute reels, but nobody watches it for the full time. So. So I would love to do like extended, really in-depth tutorials of how the process really is because that's why I'm here. So I second priority is definitely doing a YouTube channel. then I also want to do some monthly classes Places where people either add by little pieces or people bring their own pieces. And we have like flips and snips where they come and we refinish pieces together and I teach them exactly how to do it, and maybe we can and enjoy some yummy food and some cocktails as well.
Tonya 00:29:25 that's a big request around here. A lot of people want to do that because women feel empowered when they are using power tools and when they're creating, and that they've done something that they never thought that they could do. So I want to empower women and make them feel as powerful as I feel. I also want to get my hands in more thrifting and have like a little storefront in our building, and it's going to have thrifted goods, it's going to have some of our merchandise, like our t shirts and our hats and everything. and then I also want to actually buy pieces and finish myself my style and also try to sell those in the little shop. So that's about it. I do not want to do any type of teaching though. Like as far as substitute teaching or anything like that, I really, truly want to turn over a new leaf whenever I retire from teaching.
Jenny 00:30:24 Yeah. Wow. Well, that's I mean, that's all incredible. And, like, so much fun. I'm like, I would love to go to a flip and sip party.
Jenny 00:30:31 Like, that sounds so much fun. And, you know, empowering women. I got to say there is something to that. Like when I picked up an orbital sander for that first time ever and literally watched a YouTube video of how to use it and figured it out and saw, like the after, I was like, whoa! But then I would walk into Lowe's and ask a question, and the comments were kind of like, oh, this can't be for you. And it was.
Tonya 00:30:58 You find that for your husband?
Jenny 00:31:00 Yeah.
Tonya 00:31:00 Are you searching for a Father's Day gift.
Jenny 00:31:02 Right. Yeah. Oh. Is this something. Yeah. It was just it was very uncomfortable. I was like wait what. No I just did this like. And so it's, it's interesting and it, I see so many women on Instagram flipping furniture. But when I look around when I was doing kind of my initial research in San Diego to see, you know, well who, who else finishes who actually has been businesses here that finishes furniture.
Jenny 00:31:27 And no offense to any old white men, but it was all old white men. And I was like, oh, so I'm kind of the only female doing like this particular thing. And so it felt a little isolating. But once I was on Instagram, I was like, oh, there is a whole community here people. Yes.
Tonya 00:31:45 And I still get that, I still will get like whenever customers reach out to me for the first time and they send me a picture and I try to explain, well, your table is made of laminate, so I'm not going to be able to sand it down and refinish it. But I've taught myself how to make it a little bit different, a little bit better. Well, could you ask your husband? I'm sure he would be able to. Or if they're going to drop off pieces, would your husband be there to help load and unload? And I try not to be a smart alecky and say, well, who do you think moves all this furniture all the time anyway? Yeah.
Tonya 00:32:24 or when they show up to the house and they look around for a mail and they realize that it's just me. Yeah. so. But then I think they have an appreciation for it when they realize that it's just me. So. But I don't know. I think that that opens up people's eyes, that anybody can do anything, that it doesn't have to be the traditional ways. And of course, on Instagram, too, you're always going to get the haters as far as when you do pieces or when you're explaining pieces, they think that they know a whole lot more than you do, and you just have to let that roll off. Yeah, I'm really letting that roll off at this point.
Jenny 00:33:12 Right? It's not worth the energy. You're just like, okay. Like not at all. but you know, and speaking of of that, like women who are thinking about maybe taking up furniture or flipping or maybe even pivoting their careers or starting a hobby and something else that is a little bit more male dominated.
Jenny 00:33:31 Do you have any kind of words of wisdom or advice to them to try it out, or to keep going, even when you get that pushback or you know, what's really helped you kind of keep going through that, how do you now just let it roll off?
Tonya 00:33:49 I think, oh, gosh, I think I'm just a very strong minded, stubborn person. and I have a little bit of spunk and fire in me, I guess so. But. And I've also always wanted my two daughters to be strong. And I think they have done a very good job, or I've done a very good job of creating two strong young women. I don't know. Words of advice. Of course you're going to fail. You're going to fail miserably at times. I probably have to pivot. About every 3 to 6 months, there will be a furniture piece that just does not go the way that I planned. And you have to. And you learn from that. You learn from your mistakes and you learn from your failures.
Tonya 00:34:37 But I mean, just be daring to do it. Be willing to do it. And if it doesn't work out, then you may try something different. Because whenever we first started the official business, I didn't think I would ever pick up a sander or power tools or even mess with furniture. I was going to be happy, like making little seasonal wreaths or whatever, and that was going to be part of the business. I was going to be the girl behind it. And then I completely switched gears and it became me refinishing pieces. And that hardly ever even builds pieces anymore. Covid times made our business flip flop for some reason. I don't know if people were at home. They were looking at their own pieces and they thought that they could bring them to me. But the custom building part of the business kind of subsided and the refinishing business exploded. And he hates refinishing pieces. He will look at a piece and he would never, ever even touch it. He would just throw it in the garbage.
Tonya 00:35:42 He does not have the vision at all. That's wow. But now we're people that are trying to branch out. Or for people like me, that you already have a career that you love Because I love teaching and I still love teaching, and I'm in my last year doing it. you can though, try something else and you may have to adjust things. You may have to adapt a little bit, but you can try to do a couple of things at a time. You don't have to be sedentary in just your one career. You can start branching out. And luckily for me, I'm branching out and moving on from one career to the next when it's in full motion. but again, don't don't be scared to try. I mean, that's just the bottom line.
Jenny 00:36:30 Yeah. So. Well said. So well said. And thank you, Tanya, for sharing that, because I think there are so many people that are just like, oh, I'm you know, I'm afraid to try that or I don't know what I'm doing and I'll, I'll mess it up and, and kind of hearing that and going back to what we were kind of chatting about earlier, like the permission to just make mistakes and kind of figure it out and ask questions like, people can DM you and I've done that, like and ask questions.
Jenny 00:37:00 And I think that like there's a, there's a whole community of people just waiting to help whatever, you know, little niche it is. I feel like there's always people within that are willing to just be like, hey, yeah, I can help with that and offer advice. And. Tonya, thank you for sharing so much. This has been so much fun. I want people to find you and connect with you. So where are all the places they can do that?
Tonya 00:37:27 Okay, so I only have two right now. And because I'm trying to minimize my phone time, so I am on Facebook. It is Appaloosa artisans. Appaloosa is a type of horse, and that's the street name that we used to live on. So when we were coming up with a name, that's what we chose. So APA. AP a l o o s a Appaloosa. Artisans. And then on Instagram, it is the same name, but there's three underscores in between. So it's Appaloosa, three underscores and then artisans.
Tonya 00:38:04 I will be starting once I retire from teaching because I know I can't juggle a website. but once I do retire from teaching this year, then I will also have a website and I will keep the same name as well. So, and then I will be creating a YouTube channel, maybe even this summer. and again I will create and use the same name unless that name is already taken, which I hope it's not. but it would be Appaloosa artisans whenever I do for my YouTube channel. So that's it. And I'm located in central Piedmont, North Carolina.
Jenny 00:38:43 Amazing. Thank you so much, Tanya. I was I was going to ask also how the name came to be, because I was very curious about that street name. I love it. I love it. Oh, amazing. Well, thank you so much for being here.
Tonya 00:38:58 Welcome. Thank you for having me. I was looking forward to it all day. I was telling my students all about it. They are so excited. Even for middle schoolers.
Tonya 00:39:08 They thought it was pretty cool that their teacher was going to be on a podcast.
Speaker 5 00:39:11 Yes, I love it. Oh my gosh.
Jenny 00:39:18 That's a wrap on today's episode. Thanks so much for hanging out with me and Tanya. And if you want to connect with her, make sure to check out the show notes for all the details. If today's story hit home, or you know someone who's stuck in career limbo to send this episode their way seriously, it might be exactly what they need to hear to keep going when things get really messy. Oh, and if you've got your own career flip story, or maybe you know someone with a story of their own. Head over to the career flipper. Com to see how you can be part of a future episode. While you're there, sign up for the mailing list so you don't miss any new episodes or behind the scenes stuff. And hey, just remember that every single teeny tiny step counts. Even when it doesn't feel like it. You've got this. What's the best that could happen?