May 28, 2025 • 31 mins
Lauren Harwell Godfrey creates bold, geometric fine jewelry, with rich symbolism in every piece. She has major clients, including former She Pivots guest, Vice President Kamala Harris! But Lauren’s jewelry business began as a creative side project - one that turned into a deeply personal calling, inspired by her heritage and honed through years of risk-taking. In this episode, Lauren shares how she went from over 15 years in advertising as an award-winning creative director, to culinary school and food blogging, to ultimately launching her own fine jewelry brand.
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She Pivots was created by host Emily Tisch Sussman to highlight women, their stories, and how their pivot became their success. To learn more about Lauren, follow us on Instagram @ShePivotsThePodcast or visit shepivotsthepodcast.com.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to She Pivots.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
I'm Lauren Harwell Godfrey.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
Welcome back to She Pivots, the podcast where we talk
with women who dare to pivot out of one career
and into something new and explore how their personal lives
impacts these decisions. I'm your host, Emily Tish Sussman. I'm
so excited to welcome Lauren Harwell Godfree to the podcast.
(00:36):
I discovered Lauren's jewelry when I bought one of her
necklaces as a fortieth birthday gift to myself, and little
did I know she was a pivoter. Lauren began her
professional life in the fast paced world of advertising, dedicating
over fifteen years as an award winning art and creative director.
Her work in this arena honed her eye for design
(00:56):
and storytelling, skills that would later become in valuable in
her entrepreneurial ventures. After years of feeling the urge to
do something more creative, she took the leap and enrolled
in culinary school. Her passion for food led her to
work in some of San Francisco's esteemed kitchens and start
(01:17):
her own food blog. But something wasn't quite right, so
she followed her creative instinct and started to explore her
next pivot. What started as a side project crafting unique
pieces for herself quickly evolved into a calling. Lauren channeled
her unique design into founding her fine jewelry company, Harwell Godfrey,
(01:39):
inspired by her father and her lineage. Her jewelry is
celebrated for its bold and geometric designs and rich symbolism.
Lauren Harwell Godfrey's journey from advertising to culinary arts, and
ultimately to jewelry design exemplifies the courage to pivot and
the beauty of following one's evolving passions.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
My name is Lauren Harwell Godfrey, and I am a
jewelry designer.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
So we're gonna back up. I guess we'll start like
little Lauren. Tell us about Little Lauren. Tell us about
your family. Where are you from, Where are you in
the family order? Tell us about your family.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Sure, I am from southern California, so definitely a California girl,
although I did live here for a little while too,
and that was fun. But little Lauren was a jock.
Little Lauren loves sports, and I did so many sports.
It was like track and field. I was an equestrian competitively.
I played soccer competitively and just loved all of it,
(02:39):
and then also had just an affection for art and thought,
you know, the chances of becoming a professional athlete are
probably pretty slim, but doing something professional with the art
is something that I was always interested in, so I
kind of pursued that path. But I was raised by
a single mom, and I have a brother, and I'm
the oldest, so older sister.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
To little brother.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
And growing up with a single mom, what did your
mom do, Like, did you have to pitch in many ways?
Did you start working early? I did start working early. Actually,
my mom was a nurse.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
After she and my dad split up, she'd put herself
through school to become a nurse so she could like
take care of us and support us, which was really amazing,
and she ended up working her way up to being
a nurse practitioner, so she as we were growing up,
she went back to school and just kept pursuing her
degree even further, which was really cool to see. But yes,
she was very interested in having us work because she
wanted us to understand like what a work ethic was,
(03:30):
and like she found it very character building. So my
first job was at a place in Redlands where I
grew up, and it was called the Crackerjack Gift Company,
and they sold like clear acrylic boxes and frames and things,
and I just drew art on them for people so
people could come in and say, you know, I want
this sort of a theme, and I would like do
hand lettering and art and things like that, which.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
Was a lot of fun.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
She was clearly drawn to art and creativity, yet like
so many eighteen year olds, she went the pragmatic route
and moved to Flagstaff Arizon for College to study advertising, and.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
It wasn't a good ad program, so I was out
of there in two years. But that was my start
to college. And then I moved to San Francisco, back
to California and went to the University of San Francisco
and they had a partnership with the Academy of Art college,
so I studied art as my major. It was actually
very specific advertising design with an emphasis in art direction
do the Academy of Art and then took all my
(04:24):
liberal arts classes at USF.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
Okay, So that was if you had a major that specific,
it feels like you had a pretty good vision of
where you were going.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
I did I did. I think it was due to
be witched.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
I was a very big TV watcher and I always
saw like people, Oh there's another one. I think, who's
the boss. Maybe she was an AD exec. AD execs
just looked cool. I'm like, these people are riding around
a limos, They're going to fancy meals, they get to use,
you know, do things with art. It looks really exciting
to me. So I just like that was my tunnel vision,
which is pretty funny because I went directly for it.
(04:56):
And I took an internship while I was still in
college at an advertising each and see, And that's kind
of how that ball got rolling because I know it's
what I wanted to do, and I just kept applying
to places for internships because actually at that time, I
was working at Macy's in the spree department. If that
can age me pretty well. So I was desperate to
get out of there. Retail was also not my thing
(05:18):
at that point in time, and desperate to get out
of Macy's and so I put a lot of energy
into like getting this.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Internship to turn into a job.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
So yeah, they hired me when I graduated, and I
worked there for seven years. And it was really formative,
Like truly, it's such an amazing experience. But I got
to work with incredible creative directors and go around these
shoots and just sort of learn how to take an
idea and make it into a reality and how to
like tell brand stories. So I find that still so
(05:48):
useful for everything I've done since. It's just like the
training that you get of repeatedly over and over again,
like conceptualizing ideas, coming up with ideas, and then communicating
those ideas to people so they make sense.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Learning how to be a storyteller visually.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
And the advertising industry is not known for excellent camaraderie,
Like there's a lot of shows made about mainly how
bad the culture is. Did you find that, I mean,
you were in for so long and they were such
formative professional years for you, did you find that.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
You know, it's a competitive culture for sure. You know
they picked the best work. So if you're not performing
well and if your work isn't getting selected and people
aren't responding to what you're doing, you'll get cut really easily.
A lot of ad agencies will beef up if they
have a big client, and if that client leaves, then
they like just lay everybody off, So, you know, it's
just this very competitive culture.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
I found that there was camaraderie. But it's funny.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
A lot of my favorite people were the project managers,
and I think there's just a doer in me that
respects hustle and so I always really liked the project
managers that I worked with and just like how much
they hustled and what they got done.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
And the producers too. But yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
I you know, it can be a bit cutthroat, but
I think there's also when you gain people's respects, it
can be a very interesting and like respectful culture too.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
And you met your husband at work, right.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
I did? How did that work?
Speaker 2 (07:09):
I was a junior art director and he was a VP,
so it was definitely a little bit scandalous. Oh but
he I just, I don't know, there's always something about
him that I just loved. His desk was always kind
of like the hangout spot. He always was playing good music,
He had a little bar setup.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
It was very madman.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
We would all kind of congregate over at his office
at the end of the day and hang out and chat,
and he was just he's a very He's the funniest
person I know. So he just I don't know immediately
I was like this guy, And that was a while ago.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
We met in like ninety nine, so it has been
a long time. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
And so you were in advertising, you were doing well.
Did you feel like when you started to pivot out,
like what was that? I want to spend a little
time here because it seems like I think that people
when they pivot careers, it's either they're pivoting towards something
they wanted you or they're pivoting away from the thing
they're doing. And it seems like in your case, you
(08:03):
were pivoting away. I think it was a little bit
of both. But advertising, again, it's interesting. It's not super
friendly to women in my opinion, because the hours can
be so grueling, and if you want to start a family,
or you want, you know, things other than just pure advertising,
it gets really difficult. I think I was getting very
burnt out by.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
The hours, and I ended up my last agency was
just not a culture fit for me, and so it
was just this combination of things where I was like,
I don't love being there.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
I was dreading going to work every day.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
I was exhausted, and I wanted bigger things, and I
felt like I had more in me than I was
being asked to give it that place, and I just,
I don't know, just kind of was a colder scene.
I had some really wonderful moments in the industry, and
the last spot just wasn't it. So it kind of
pushed me out the door a little bit. But I'm
so grateful that it did. So can you talk us
(08:56):
through what those steps were?
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Like, you turn in your notice, do you have an
idea that you're going to go to culinary school of
what you're going to do next?
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Yeah, so I what I figured out.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Again, advertising taught me so much, but I was realizing
that there's just more in me than purely making you know,
branded ads for people. That's a very specific form of
creative thought. That's interesting. But after a while, it just
it wasn't interesting to me anymore. And so I like
to manifest I would like to say that I'm a manifestor.
And I was like, what do I want more of
(09:28):
in my life? What am I enjoying right now? Like
what feels creatively fertile to me? And what can I
do to leverage what I already know? And so I
thought that the food industry was appealing because I was like,
I could be a food stylist, Like I'm you know,
I know how to do things visually. I could, you know,
write recipes, I could have a blog. And so that's
that's kind of the direction that I went in with food.
It wasn't so much like be a chef and you know,
(09:50):
run a restaurant, which I think is amazing and incredibly difficult,
and I don't know how they do it, the really
amazing ones. It's like completely insane to me. But yeah,
I just thought the idea of working creatatively with food
would be really compelling. So that's what got me going
down that path. And I love to cook, and I
still love to cook.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
Like so many of us pivoters, Lauren had been craving
a change, letting herself daydream and browse for programs online.
Then finally a new culinary school caught her eye, so
she took it as a sign and made the leap.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
It was called the San Francisco Cooking School, and I
was actually there very first enrollly, which is kind of fun,
student number one because they were just opening. But they're
kind of the difference for them is it was a
faster path to graduation if fuels like a six month
culinary program, and then at the end they placed you
in an externship at a restaurant so you could actually
(10:42):
have some like boots on the ground experience, and that
was different from any other program that I saw. So
I was kind of looking into programs and thinking, I
think this is the path I want to take, and
I saw that one and it really propelled me to
make the jump leave the agency and go right into school.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
I didn't really take downtime, and it's funny because I do.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
You remember one of my girlfriends was like, really, you're
not taking any time off. You're just She's like, you
just go from job to job to job, like you
just are always working, takes some downtime.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
I'm like, that's not me.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
I like actually really like to work, and I really
like being creative and feeding that really feeds me. So
like it's important for me just as a human to
do that stuff and work as part of that.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
For me.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
Soon, Laurn started a food blog, diving headfirst into her pivot.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
You know, it's funny because I think when you do
something like that and you really put it out there.
The path almost is given to you in a weird
way in my opinion, because people start seeing you as that.
But I think people definitely question that pivot. For me,
they were like, what is happening here? Who is this person?
I thought, I knew, what is she doing now? And yeah,
I just I mean putting something out there. People just
(11:49):
start to identify you with it. So it definitely became
a thing. And I had a lot of like media
outlets reaching out to me for recipes and things like that,
and it's actually part of the reason why I stopped
working in the culinary industry. I thought that I ended
up doing a really good job writing recipes. I helped
out on some cookbooks, I did this beautiful blog, and
(12:10):
I kept getting requests for free work. So they're like, well,
we'll run you on our magazine, but we won't pay
you for your time give us content. We will you know,
promote you this way. But I came from a space
where I was used to getting paid very well for
my work, and I was like, I don't like how
this feels. I don't love that I'm doing a ton
of work for these big magazines and other content providers,
(12:33):
and they weren't paying for it, so it actually it
kind of pushed me out of food because I thought
that that wasn't fair, and I thought my time was
valuable and my work was valuables. Another thing about the
food industry is that I feel like I never totally
got myself into a place where I thought I was
contributing something important or different or meaningful. I wasn't the
only vegan blogger out there, you know, I wasn't the
(12:56):
only person who could do some pretty food styling. It
just never well to me like I was contributing something
so profoundly different or interesting that it made sense because
that's important to me. And I think that's another thing
that got ingrained to me and the competitive agency world
is like you need to think differently than other people.
(13:16):
You need to stand out, you need to have a
point of view that's unique to you. And I feel
like I never really hit on that in food.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
If you know Lauren's jewelry, you'll know there is no
question she has found that unique perspective. When we come back,
Lauren talks us through her second pivot, and later we'll
find out just how she honed in on that unique
point of view before the Break. We left off with
(13:53):
Lauren feeling unenthusiastic about her pivot into the culinary space,
knowing she had more to give.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Yeah, I was helping on a culinary project that I
was frustrated on, and I was having a lot of
self doubt because I was like, who am I if?
I Like, am I about to pivot again? Like what
does this mean? I already felt like I was kind
of coming across flaky. I'm like, this is going to
get really ugly. But I just wasn't happy, and so
I was like, you know, what can I do today
(14:21):
that's creative but not making food? Like what else could
I make? And I actually made a belt, which is
totally strange, but.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
I was like, I need a belt.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
I'm going to go find some leather and I'm going
to like figure it out and make myself a belt.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
I want to just do something completely off the wall.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
And so I started working with the leather for the
belt and I kind of liked it.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
I was like, this is fun, but like what if
I added some stones on the leather? What would that be?
Speaker 2 (14:45):
And I started making these necklaces that I was wearing
around and I used to go to like a lot
of music festivals and I'd wear the necklace and people
started asking about them, so I started making them to sell.
And it was this very kind of accidental, I don't know,
just roll into jewelry in a very different ways than
what I'm doing right now even but it all kind
(15:05):
of you know, it's funny because it's like advertising fed
the food thing, and the food thing actually did kind
of feed into this, like leather tooling, and then the
leather tool jewelry is how I got to the fine jewelry.
But it was definitely, you know, a creative process to
get here.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
Did you feel like if you had been running towards
food because it was feeding your creatively, but then you
found the actual industry dissatisfying. Did it no longer feed
that creative side of you? And then you were looking
for something that did.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
It Basically I had a few amazing places that I
worked with, and I worked on some cookbooks that I'm
super proud of, but yeah, I just I hit a
place where again where I was like, I don't feel like,
creatively I'm adding to the conversation in a meaningful way.
And so that kind of bummed me out, which is
why I stopped wanting to like do that creatively. And
I tried for a while. I was like, I'm going
to keep trying. I'm going to keep trying. Then finally
(15:56):
I'm like, I think I think I've hit a wall.
Like I think I've done trying.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
So did that feel like, I mean, you will leave
into this a little bit? But like, did it feel
like a failure?
Speaker 1 (16:05):
It did. It felt like a complete failure.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
And as somebody who you know had this like big
career to like then leave it to do this thing
and have it not work out at all was very
challenging for me. My ego couldn't handle it very well either.
I don't think I think there was some ego in
there that made it really challenging for me. And again
where I was like, I'm not getting paid, I don't
have any respect. People just want everything for free. I
(16:27):
think my ego was bruised totally.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
And why starting at essentially the bottom again, like why
did that feel better?
Speaker 2 (16:35):
I think that it was another step away from having
to report to somebody or like have a kind of
a hierarchy there, Like for with the jewelry, I was
completely in charge with food. It was still that I
was like working for a pub or doing this to
you know whatever, and it was like there was definitely
higher layers involved.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
And with the jewelry it was just like purely me.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
It was the most entrepreneurial I've ever been, and that
felt completely different. So it was starting at the bottom,
and I had some moments in the industry that were
pretty hard because you know, no one knew who I was,
and here I am starting at the bottom again. But
I don't know, I just it said a part of
me that I didn't know existed, which was the entrepreneurial
side that I want to own a business side, because
(17:18):
the food thing never really was a fully fledged business.
It was kind of more like attempts at things and
freelancing and that sort of stuff. But the jewelry thing
was like, oh, I'm starting a business.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
Well, you went into an industry that is quite technical
and quite capital intensive, with not a lot of connections
or knowledge, So how did you overcome those steps?
Speaker 2 (17:40):
So luckily, one of my best friends has a fine
jewelry showroom where she represents independent jewelry designers, and as
I started making these leather necklaces, I reached out to
her and I was like, hey, can you help me,
Like I need to get the word out there, like
I want to make this a real business. And she
was like, this isn't really what I do because it
wasn't fine jewelry. But she's like, I can try to
(18:01):
help you, and she tried. But then I was like
really watching what she did, and I'm like, oh, fine
jewelry is really interesting, Like there's something really beautiful there
and I would love to have more of that in
my life.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
So I approached her again.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
I was like, hey, what if I stopped making leather
jewelry and like started making fine jewelry And she was
like Patrick, my husband. She's like, he's going to kill you.
It is so expensive. It's like it takes so long
to break through. It's so saturated. Like do you really
want to do that to yourself? Because she was my friend,
and I was like, I absolutely do want to do
that to myself, Like you know, I don't know, it
(18:35):
was just funny. I'm like I don't. Looking back on it,
I'm like I can't believe I did that. And it
was taking another chance. But I started sketching and she
really helped me to understand how to put together a
collection and how to get it in front of retailers,
and she had connections, so I hired her, and just
(18:55):
you know, I think coming out of a place professionally
where I knew that you need to around yourself with
people who are really good at things that you might
not be good at, or people have connections that you
don't have, it just end up working out really well.
And I love working with her and we still work
together to this day. But I also I realize that creatively,
I like to go a little wild and not limit
(19:16):
myself based on like is this possible?
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Is this not possible.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
I kind of like to just think big, and then
I have a team of people who helped me produce
my jewelry, and we figure out how to make it possible,
rather than like saying, oh, let's not even go there
because like we haven't seen that before, we don't know
if this can be done. A lot of times I
come up with stuff and we're like, let's figure out
how to make it. And sometimes there are some errors,
and it's expensive when you're buying gold and stones and
(19:41):
you know, things that are capital intensive. But I truly
believe that's part of what I love about what I do,
and what makes my work actually unique in the industry
is that I do try to just come up with
interesting ways of doing things and then figuring it out
as we're going.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
Soon, her unique pieces took off, and celebrities were seen
sporting her fun and colorful designs. Even past she pivots
guest and former vice president Harris is a client.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
She's amazing, and I'm so proud that she wears my jewelry,
and so it's just it's a thrill. I respect her
so much, and I love what she did and continues
to do, and I'm excited to see where she goes
next because I'm hoping she'll still be a part of our,
you know, public lives and continue doing the public service
that she does because she's really incredible.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
Can you talk us through like the scaling the business piece? Now,
I know you've said that the bigger you got, actually
the more complicated your problems got, So tell us more
about that.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
Yeah, I think the complication right now for me that
I'm trying to work through is how to run the
business but also be the sole creative that you know,
designs everything. Design takes time, and running a business takes time,
and I'm pretty I'm pretty controlling and things done the
way I like them done, so I have a hard
time delegating. I'm struggling with that a little bit right now,
(21:06):
and I think, you know, that's going to be the
next phase of the business. But again, I keep looking
at this business and going like, there's so many possibilities
for what can be done.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
So adding a store was what I did last year.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
Like I feel like every year, I'll do a little
something that like kind of pushes the boundaries of the
business a little bit further. So adding the retail component,
having like a flagship store was last year's kind of
big push and big challenge.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
In twenty twenty four, Lord opened her first brick and
mortar store, slowly growing the business, but she wouldn't necessarily
say she had a plan going into it.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
But I wouldn't say I'm so much like a planner
in the sense that I'm like, Okay, you know, I
want to open a store in the next three years
or whatever. The only reason why I opened this store
is that I shop. It's at the Marine Countrymart. That's
where I shop, and I noticed their jewelry store had closed,
and I was like, Oh, look at that, there's a
store space. What it would be like if I took
that over and I went for it. And it's been great.
But that's kind of that's kind of how I roll,
(22:05):
And I think I'm starting to trust myself more on
making decisions like that. You know, I don't know that
I should be teaching any courses to anybody on how
to run a business. It's definitely me doing things my way.
But I'm really happy with how it's been going.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
Are you finding the challenge of the business of building
an actual business fulfilling in the way that the other
careers had not been?
Speaker 2 (22:28):
Like?
Speaker 3 (22:28):
Is it filling that gap for you? Like the creativity
clearly is coming through your work is so creative.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
I actually, I'll say I really love the entrepreneurial side
of it. Like part of what I love about this
is that there are all these business challenges constantly, and
it's I have to constantly be making decisions about like
where I'm dedicating money, what I'm making, how many pieces
I'm releasing.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
There's just and then you know, taking care of my employees.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
There's just there's a lot of kind of just pure
business that needs to be done, and I'm finding that
really enjoyable that I never thought I would And for
a long time, I feel like my narrative is like, well,
I'm a creative but I'm not a business person. But
I feel like I'm really living in both of those
worlds right now in a way that I like.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
We're going to take a quick break and when we
come back, we'll hear more about the personal inspiration behind
Lauren's jewelry design. I want to talk a little bit
(23:34):
about the inspiration, like the actual design, it's so's you
can tell immediately that they're your pieces, Like you really
have a very strong perspective, And can you talk us
through how it has connected you to your father's family,
your heritage by part of your family. Can you talk
us through how it's made that connection for you.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Yeah, So I mentioned earlier that my parents divorced when
I was young. I was four, so my mom's caucasion.
My dad was black. He actually passed away pretty recently,
but I wasn't as close to him as I was
with my mom because I didn't live with him. And
I've always, like I think, just emotionally sought a connection
to him, and that part of my family, the black
side of my family that I'm very proud to be
(24:18):
a Black American, and so it really kind of started
striking me in the work. I looked around me, and
I looked at the things that I love and the
things I've collected from the places I've been, and I
just felt like there's something in kind of African textiles
that really spoke to me. And that is something I've
always sort of looked at in my work and kind
(24:39):
of trying to interpret that through the work, which is
a lot of geometry and the way that colors come
together and the way that shapes come together. And it's
not a literal interpretation, but I do feel like that's
where it comes from.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
And it's been a really important part of the work
for me.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
It's made me really kind of feel more connected to
that side of my family.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
Yeah, did you have this clear design perspective right from
the beginning or has it evolved?
Speaker 1 (25:05):
You know, it's.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
Evolved for sure. And it's funny because sometimes I'm like,
am I evolving too far? Am I not evolving enough?
Like that's that's a creative conversation that I have to
have with myself because I think it is important and
I know this hav been coming from the world of branding,
that being identifiable matters, and so that's something that I've
always tried to infuse into the work.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
But then I also like stretching my legs.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
So I talk about like, I feel like I've created
a design language that is our well, godfree, and how
far can I push it and keep myself creatively entertained,
but yet create pieces that are you know, that fit
within this world that I've created, that are recognizable. So
that's definitely an ongoing thing that I think about.
Speaker 3 (25:48):
Not only does Lauren make jewelry that is meaningful to her,
but she has made philanthropy core to her business through
her charity Hearts, which are custom design pendants where one
hundred percent of the profits benefit charities like Human Rights Campaign,
Futures Without Violence and more.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
So, I've always thought that being philanthropic was very important,
Like I, as somebody who makes money through doing my work,
I like to give back as well. And so when
the pandemic started and it was becoming clear that families
had food insecurity, which just broke my heart because I
was like, if I couldn't feed my young son at
that time, I just it would be devastating. I wanted
(26:26):
to do something to help support the families that were
out there suffering, and so I launched my first charity,
Heart for World Central Kitchen. And the thing that was
kind of crazy about the launch of this was that
I launched it as a sketch.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
It wasn't it didn't exist.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
I drew something and asked people to buy it, and
then I made it later, which I've never done that
since I don't, it's kind of wild to me that
it actually had garnered some success and people actually bought
things based on a sketch that I made, and I
looked at that design. It was basically meant to look
like a heart that had been broken, using some of
my signature triangular details, and I thought it could actually
(27:03):
apply to other charities. So when George Floyd was murdered,
I really wanted to do something to support all the
work that was being done for black justice. And I
like supporting people who do things legally to enact laws
that protect people. So I went with the NAACP for that,
and I did not ask permission. I've never asked permission.
I just sell them and then i'd send them money.
(27:24):
So they were the second one, and then I did
some work with Every Mother Counts Futures Without Violence, which
is a Bay Area based organization every Town for Gun Safety.
But yeah, so through the charity Heart Series, I've raised
over a quart of a million dollars and I see
it as evergreen. It's really important to me and it's
an important part of the business. I haven't launched one
(27:44):
in a while, so I'm kind of feeling some thoughts
percolating on that. But they are always available and they
always will be as long as I have the business.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
How do you define success for yourself?
Speaker 2 (27:55):
Now, that's a great question. I think the business being
helped and profitable. If I find that to be a
big success. You know, I certainly appreciate when I get
good feedback from people, be it customers or a publication
or one of my retail partners. Positive feedback definitely feels
like a big success. Seeing it on people being surprised
(28:17):
where I see it feels like success.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
What is something that in retrospect at the time you
thought was like a total low and now looking back
on it, in retrospect, you see it as having really
launched to where you are now.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
Yeah, I think something that felt like a big loa
to me was when I left the culinary world, because
I felt like I kind of went out on the low.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
I left advertising on a high.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
I went out having, you know, won awards and achieved
the position I wanted, and worked at great agencies with
great people, and in food. You know, I had some
good moments and some great experiences and some friendships still
through that industry, but there was never a big win,
if you will. So I just felt like a failure
and that was a really hard thing for me. But
I think what it showed me was that I have resilience,
(29:02):
and you know that I have kind of an interesting,
I guess menu of tools, if you will, because there's
a lot of things that I like to make and do,
and I don't know, just kind of it's ended up
feeling more like a positive than it did at that moment.
Do you think you'll pivot again? You know, I think
I'll make jewelry for a very long time. I think
one of the things I love about the industry is
(29:23):
I think that you can age into it, where some
industries you age out of. I think the more time
you spin and jewelry, the more respect you have people
you know, trust that you know what you're doing. And
I think there's so much to learn in jewelry that
I'm feeling very satisfied creatively, and I feel like I'm
continuing to add to my arsenal of what I know
about jewelry. But I love to make things, so there
(29:46):
I could see myself adding on to that. I think
jewelry is here to stay, but I could see, you know,
are there other things I could do or bring in
that support that, or that just you know, live next
to it.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
I don't know, but never saying ever, Oh, I love that.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
Thank you so much, Lauren, so great having you on.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
Thank you. This has been so much fun.
Speaker 3 (30:10):
Lauren is going from strength to strength with Harwell Godfrey,
putting out remarkably bold pieces every year. You can even
see them on the cover of this Vogue groundbreaking Met
Gala issue and at the gala. You can shop her
beautiful designs at Harwellgodfrey dot com or follow them on
Instagram at Harwell Goodfrey. Talk to you next week. Thanks
(30:33):
for listening to this episode of She Pivots. I hope
you enjoyed it, and if you did, leave us a
rating and tell your friends about us. To learn more
about our guests, follow us on Instagram at she pivots
the Podcast, or sign up for our newsletter, where you
can get exclusive behind the scenes content on our website
at she pivots thepodcast dot com. Special thanks to the
(30:59):
she pivots team, Executive producer Emily eda Velosik, Associate producer
and social media connoisseur Hannah Cousins, Research director Christine Dickinson,
Events and logistics coordinator Madeline Snovac, and audio editor and
mixer Nina pollock I endorse t pivots
Welcome back to She Pivots.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
I'm Lauren Harwell Godfrey.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
Welcome back to She Pivots, the podcast where we talk
with women who dare to pivot out of one career
and into something new and explore how their personal lives
impacts these decisions. I'm your host, Emily Tish Sussman. I'm
so excited to welcome Lauren Harwell Godfree to the podcast.
(00:36):
I discovered Lauren's jewelry when I bought one of her
necklaces as a fortieth birthday gift to myself, and little
did I know she was a pivoter. Lauren began her
professional life in the fast paced world of advertising, dedicating
over fifteen years as an award winning art and creative director.
Her work in this arena honed her eye for design
(00:56):
and storytelling, skills that would later become in valuable in
her entrepreneurial ventures. After years of feeling the urge to
do something more creative, she took the leap and enrolled
in culinary school. Her passion for food led her to
work in some of San Francisco's esteemed kitchens and start
(01:17):
her own food blog. But something wasn't quite right, so
she followed her creative instinct and started to explore her
next pivot. What started as a side project crafting unique
pieces for herself quickly evolved into a calling. Lauren channeled
her unique design into founding her fine jewelry company, Harwell Godfrey,
(01:39):
inspired by her father and her lineage. Her jewelry is
celebrated for its bold and geometric designs and rich symbolism.
Lauren Harwell Godfrey's journey from advertising to culinary arts, and
ultimately to jewelry design exemplifies the courage to pivot and
the beauty of following one's evolving passions.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
My name is Lauren Harwell Godfrey, and I am a
jewelry designer.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
So we're gonna back up. I guess we'll start like
little Lauren. Tell us about Little Lauren. Tell us about
your family. Where are you from, Where are you in
the family order? Tell us about your family.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Sure, I am from southern California, so definitely a California girl,
although I did live here for a little while too,
and that was fun. But little Lauren was a jock.
Little Lauren loves sports, and I did so many sports.
It was like track and field. I was an equestrian competitively.
I played soccer competitively and just loved all of it,
(02:39):
and then also had just an affection for art and thought,
you know, the chances of becoming a professional athlete are
probably pretty slim, but doing something professional with the art
is something that I was always interested in, so I
kind of pursued that path. But I was raised by
a single mom, and I have a brother, and I'm
the oldest, so older sister.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
To little brother.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
And growing up with a single mom, what did your
mom do, Like, did you have to pitch in many ways?
Did you start working early? I did start working early. Actually,
my mom was a nurse.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
After she and my dad split up, she'd put herself
through school to become a nurse so she could like
take care of us and support us, which was really amazing,
and she ended up working her way up to being
a nurse practitioner, so she as we were growing up,
she went back to school and just kept pursuing her
degree even further, which was really cool to see. But yes,
she was very interested in having us work because she
wanted us to understand like what a work ethic was,
(03:30):
and like she found it very character building. So my
first job was at a place in Redlands where I
grew up, and it was called the Crackerjack Gift Company,
and they sold like clear acrylic boxes and frames and things,
and I just drew art on them for people so
people could come in and say, you know, I want
this sort of a theme, and I would like do
hand lettering and art and things like that, which.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
Was a lot of fun.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
She was clearly drawn to art and creativity, yet like
so many eighteen year olds, she went the pragmatic route
and moved to Flagstaff Arizon for College to study advertising, and.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
It wasn't a good ad program, so I was out
of there in two years. But that was my start
to college. And then I moved to San Francisco, back
to California and went to the University of San Francisco
and they had a partnership with the Academy of Art college,
so I studied art as my major. It was actually
very specific advertising design with an emphasis in art direction
do the Academy of Art and then took all my
(04:24):
liberal arts classes at USF.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
Okay, So that was if you had a major that specific,
it feels like you had a pretty good vision of
where you were going.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
I did I did. I think it was due to
be witched.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
I was a very big TV watcher and I always
saw like people, Oh there's another one. I think, who's
the boss. Maybe she was an AD exec. AD execs
just looked cool. I'm like, these people are riding around
a limos, They're going to fancy meals, they get to use,
you know, do things with art. It looks really exciting
to me. So I just like that was my tunnel vision,
which is pretty funny because I went directly for it.
(04:56):
And I took an internship while I was still in
college at an advertising each and see, And that's kind
of how that ball got rolling because I know it's
what I wanted to do, and I just kept applying
to places for internships because actually at that time, I
was working at Macy's in the spree department. If that
can age me pretty well. So I was desperate to
get out of there. Retail was also not my thing
(05:18):
at that point in time, and desperate to get out
of Macy's and so I put a lot of energy
into like getting this.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Internship to turn into a job.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
So yeah, they hired me when I graduated, and I
worked there for seven years. And it was really formative,
Like truly, it's such an amazing experience. But I got
to work with incredible creative directors and go around these
shoots and just sort of learn how to take an
idea and make it into a reality and how to
like tell brand stories. So I find that still so
(05:48):
useful for everything I've done since. It's just like the
training that you get of repeatedly over and over again,
like conceptualizing ideas, coming up with ideas, and then communicating
those ideas to people so they make sense.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Learning how to be a storyteller visually.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
And the advertising industry is not known for excellent camaraderie,
Like there's a lot of shows made about mainly how
bad the culture is. Did you find that, I mean,
you were in for so long and they were such
formative professional years for you, did you find that.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
You know, it's a competitive culture for sure. You know
they picked the best work. So if you're not performing
well and if your work isn't getting selected and people
aren't responding to what you're doing, you'll get cut really easily.
A lot of ad agencies will beef up if they
have a big client, and if that client leaves, then
they like just lay everybody off, So, you know, it's
just this very competitive culture.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
I found that there was camaraderie. But it's funny.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
A lot of my favorite people were the project managers,
and I think there's just a doer in me that
respects hustle and so I always really liked the project
managers that I worked with and just like how much
they hustled and what they got done.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
And the producers too. But yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
I you know, it can be a bit cutthroat, but
I think there's also when you gain people's respects, it
can be a very interesting and like respectful culture too.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
And you met your husband at work, right.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
I did? How did that work?
Speaker 2 (07:09):
I was a junior art director and he was a VP,
so it was definitely a little bit scandalous. Oh but
he I just, I don't know, there's always something about
him that I just loved. His desk was always kind
of like the hangout spot. He always was playing good music,
He had a little bar setup.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
It was very madman.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
We would all kind of congregate over at his office
at the end of the day and hang out and chat,
and he was just he's a very He's the funniest
person I know. So he just I don't know immediately
I was like this guy, And that was a while ago.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
We met in like ninety nine, so it has been
a long time. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
And so you were in advertising, you were doing well.
Did you feel like when you started to pivot out,
like what was that? I want to spend a little
time here because it seems like I think that people
when they pivot careers, it's either they're pivoting towards something
they wanted you or they're pivoting away from the thing
they're doing. And it seems like in your case, you
(08:03):
were pivoting away. I think it was a little bit
of both. But advertising, again, it's interesting. It's not super
friendly to women in my opinion, because the hours can
be so grueling, and if you want to start a family,
or you want, you know, things other than just pure advertising,
it gets really difficult. I think I was getting very
burnt out by.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
The hours, and I ended up my last agency was
just not a culture fit for me, and so it
was just this combination of things where I was like,
I don't love being there.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
I was dreading going to work every day.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
I was exhausted, and I wanted bigger things, and I
felt like I had more in me than I was
being asked to give it that place, and I just,
I don't know, just kind of was a colder scene.
I had some really wonderful moments in the industry, and
the last spot just wasn't it. So it kind of
pushed me out the door a little bit. But I'm
so grateful that it did. So can you talk us
(08:56):
through what those steps were?
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Like, you turn in your notice, do you have an
idea that you're going to go to culinary school of
what you're going to do next?
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Yeah, so I what I figured out.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Again, advertising taught me so much, but I was realizing
that there's just more in me than purely making you know,
branded ads for people. That's a very specific form of
creative thought. That's interesting. But after a while, it just
it wasn't interesting to me anymore. And so I like
to manifest I would like to say that I'm a manifestor.
And I was like, what do I want more of
(09:28):
in my life? What am I enjoying right now? Like
what feels creatively fertile to me? And what can I
do to leverage what I already know? And so I
thought that the food industry was appealing because I was like,
I could be a food stylist, Like I'm you know,
I know how to do things visually. I could, you know,
write recipes, I could have a blog. And so that's
that's kind of the direction that I went in with food.
It wasn't so much like be a chef and you know,
(09:50):
run a restaurant, which I think is amazing and incredibly difficult,
and I don't know how they do it, the really
amazing ones. It's like completely insane to me. But yeah,
I just thought the idea of working creatatively with food
would be really compelling. So that's what got me going
down that path. And I love to cook, and I
still love to cook.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
Like so many of us pivoters, Lauren had been craving
a change, letting herself daydream and browse for programs online.
Then finally a new culinary school caught her eye, so
she took it as a sign and made the leap.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
It was called the San Francisco Cooking School, and I
was actually there very first enrollly, which is kind of fun,
student number one because they were just opening. But they're
kind of the difference for them is it was a
faster path to graduation if fuels like a six month
culinary program, and then at the end they placed you
in an externship at a restaurant so you could actually
(10:42):
have some like boots on the ground experience, and that
was different from any other program that I saw. So
I was kind of looking into programs and thinking, I
think this is the path I want to take, and
I saw that one and it really propelled me to
make the jump leave the agency and go right into school.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
I didn't really take downtime, and it's funny because I do.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
You remember one of my girlfriends was like, really, you're
not taking any time off. You're just She's like, you
just go from job to job to job, like you
just are always working, takes some downtime.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
I'm like, that's not me.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
I like actually really like to work, and I really
like being creative and feeding that really feeds me. So
like it's important for me just as a human to
do that stuff and work as part of that.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
For me.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
Soon, Laurn started a food blog, diving headfirst into her pivot.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
You know, it's funny because I think when you do
something like that and you really put it out there.
The path almost is given to you in a weird
way in my opinion, because people start seeing you as that.
But I think people definitely question that pivot. For me,
they were like, what is happening here? Who is this person?
I thought, I knew, what is she doing now? And yeah,
I just I mean putting something out there. People just
(11:49):
start to identify you with it. So it definitely became
a thing. And I had a lot of like media
outlets reaching out to me for recipes and things like that,
and it's actually part of the reason why I stopped
working in the culinary industry. I thought that I ended
up doing a really good job writing recipes. I helped
out on some cookbooks, I did this beautiful blog, and
(12:10):
I kept getting requests for free work. So they're like, well,
we'll run you on our magazine, but we won't pay
you for your time give us content. We will you know,
promote you this way. But I came from a space
where I was used to getting paid very well for
my work, and I was like, I don't like how
this feels. I don't love that I'm doing a ton
of work for these big magazines and other content providers,
(12:33):
and they weren't paying for it, so it actually it
kind of pushed me out of food because I thought
that that wasn't fair, and I thought my time was
valuable and my work was valuables. Another thing about the
food industry is that I feel like I never totally
got myself into a place where I thought I was
contributing something important or different or meaningful. I wasn't the
only vegan blogger out there, you know, I wasn't the
(12:56):
only person who could do some pretty food styling. It
just never well to me like I was contributing something
so profoundly different or interesting that it made sense because
that's important to me. And I think that's another thing
that got ingrained to me and the competitive agency world
is like you need to think differently than other people.
(13:16):
You need to stand out, you need to have a
point of view that's unique to you. And I feel
like I never really hit on that in food.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
If you know Lauren's jewelry, you'll know there is no
question she has found that unique perspective. When we come back,
Lauren talks us through her second pivot, and later we'll
find out just how she honed in on that unique
point of view before the Break. We left off with
(13:53):
Lauren feeling unenthusiastic about her pivot into the culinary space,
knowing she had more to give.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Yeah, I was helping on a culinary project that I
was frustrated on, and I was having a lot of
self doubt because I was like, who am I if?
I Like, am I about to pivot again? Like what
does this mean? I already felt like I was kind
of coming across flaky. I'm like, this is going to
get really ugly. But I just wasn't happy, and so
I was like, you know, what can I do today
(14:21):
that's creative but not making food? Like what else could
I make? And I actually made a belt, which is
totally strange, but.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
I was like, I need a belt.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
I'm going to go find some leather and I'm going
to like figure it out and make myself a belt.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
I want to just do something completely off the wall.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
And so I started working with the leather for the
belt and I kind of liked it.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
I was like, this is fun, but like what if
I added some stones on the leather? What would that be?
Speaker 2 (14:45):
And I started making these necklaces that I was wearing
around and I used to go to like a lot
of music festivals and I'd wear the necklace and people
started asking about them, so I started making them to sell.
And it was this very kind of accidental, I don't know,
just roll into jewelry in a very different ways than
what I'm doing right now even but it all kind
(15:05):
of you know, it's funny because it's like advertising fed
the food thing, and the food thing actually did kind
of feed into this, like leather tooling, and then the
leather tool jewelry is how I got to the fine jewelry.
But it was definitely, you know, a creative process to
get here.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
Did you feel like if you had been running towards
food because it was feeding your creatively, but then you
found the actual industry dissatisfying. Did it no longer feed
that creative side of you? And then you were looking
for something that did.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
It Basically I had a few amazing places that I
worked with, and I worked on some cookbooks that I'm
super proud of, but yeah, I just I hit a
place where again where I was like, I don't feel like,
creatively I'm adding to the conversation in a meaningful way.
And so that kind of bummed me out, which is
why I stopped wanting to like do that creatively. And
I tried for a while. I was like, I'm going
to keep trying. I'm going to keep trying. Then finally
(15:56):
I'm like, I think I think I've hit a wall.
Like I think I've done trying.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
So did that feel like, I mean, you will leave
into this a little bit? But like, did it feel
like a failure?
Speaker 1 (16:05):
It did. It felt like a complete failure.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
And as somebody who you know had this like big
career to like then leave it to do this thing
and have it not work out at all was very
challenging for me. My ego couldn't handle it very well either.
I don't think I think there was some ego in
there that made it really challenging for me. And again
where I was like, I'm not getting paid, I don't
have any respect. People just want everything for free. I
(16:27):
think my ego was bruised totally.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
And why starting at essentially the bottom again, like why
did that feel better?
Speaker 2 (16:35):
I think that it was another step away from having
to report to somebody or like have a kind of
a hierarchy there, Like for with the jewelry, I was
completely in charge with food. It was still that I
was like working for a pub or doing this to
you know whatever, and it was like there was definitely
higher layers involved.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
And with the jewelry it was just like purely me.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
It was the most entrepreneurial I've ever been, and that
felt completely different. So it was starting at the bottom,
and I had some moments in the industry that were
pretty hard because you know, no one knew who I was,
and here I am starting at the bottom again. But
I don't know, I just it said a part of
me that I didn't know existed, which was the entrepreneurial
side that I want to own a business side, because
(17:18):
the food thing never really was a fully fledged business.
It was kind of more like attempts at things and
freelancing and that sort of stuff. But the jewelry thing
was like, oh, I'm starting a business.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
Well, you went into an industry that is quite technical
and quite capital intensive, with not a lot of connections
or knowledge, So how did you overcome those steps?
Speaker 2 (17:40):
So luckily, one of my best friends has a fine
jewelry showroom where she represents independent jewelry designers, and as
I started making these leather necklaces, I reached out to
her and I was like, hey, can you help me,
Like I need to get the word out there, like
I want to make this a real business. And she
was like, this isn't really what I do because it
wasn't fine jewelry. But she's like, I can try to
(18:01):
help you, and she tried. But then I was like
really watching what she did, and I'm like, oh, fine
jewelry is really interesting, Like there's something really beautiful there
and I would love to have more of that in
my life.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
So I approached her again.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
I was like, hey, what if I stopped making leather
jewelry and like started making fine jewelry And she was
like Patrick, my husband. She's like, he's going to kill you.
It is so expensive. It's like it takes so long
to break through. It's so saturated. Like do you really
want to do that to yourself? Because she was my friend,
and I was like, I absolutely do want to do
that to myself, Like you know, I don't know, it
(18:35):
was just funny. I'm like I don't. Looking back on it,
I'm like I can't believe I did that. And it
was taking another chance. But I started sketching and she
really helped me to understand how to put together a
collection and how to get it in front of retailers,
and she had connections, so I hired her, and just
(18:55):
you know, I think coming out of a place professionally
where I knew that you need to around yourself with
people who are really good at things that you might
not be good at, or people have connections that you
don't have, it just end up working out really well.
And I love working with her and we still work
together to this day. But I also I realize that creatively,
I like to go a little wild and not limit
(19:16):
myself based on like is this possible?
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Is this not possible.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
I kind of like to just think big, and then
I have a team of people who helped me produce
my jewelry, and we figure out how to make it possible,
rather than like saying, oh, let's not even go there
because like we haven't seen that before, we don't know
if this can be done. A lot of times I
come up with stuff and we're like, let's figure out
how to make it. And sometimes there are some errors,
and it's expensive when you're buying gold and stones and
(19:41):
you know, things that are capital intensive. But I truly
believe that's part of what I love about what I do,
and what makes my work actually unique in the industry
is that I do try to just come up with
interesting ways of doing things and then figuring it out
as we're going.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
Soon, her unique pieces took off, and celebrities were seen
sporting her fun and colorful designs. Even past she pivots
guest and former vice president Harris is a client.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
She's amazing, and I'm so proud that she wears my jewelry,
and so it's just it's a thrill. I respect her
so much, and I love what she did and continues
to do, and I'm excited to see where she goes
next because I'm hoping she'll still be a part of our,
you know, public lives and continue doing the public service
that she does because she's really incredible.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
Can you talk us through like the scaling the business piece? Now,
I know you've said that the bigger you got, actually
the more complicated your problems got, So tell us more
about that.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
Yeah, I think the complication right now for me that
I'm trying to work through is how to run the
business but also be the sole creative that you know,
designs everything. Design takes time, and running a business takes time,
and I'm pretty I'm pretty controlling and things done the
way I like them done, so I have a hard
time delegating. I'm struggling with that a little bit right now,
(21:06):
and I think, you know, that's going to be the
next phase of the business. But again, I keep looking
at this business and going like, there's so many possibilities
for what can be done.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
So adding a store was what I did last year.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
Like I feel like every year, I'll do a little
something that like kind of pushes the boundaries of the
business a little bit further. So adding the retail component,
having like a flagship store was last year's kind of
big push and big challenge.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
In twenty twenty four, Lord opened her first brick and
mortar store, slowly growing the business, but she wouldn't necessarily
say she had a plan going into it.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
But I wouldn't say I'm so much like a planner
in the sense that I'm like, Okay, you know, I
want to open a store in the next three years
or whatever. The only reason why I opened this store
is that I shop. It's at the Marine Countrymart. That's
where I shop, and I noticed their jewelry store had closed,
and I was like, Oh, look at that, there's a
store space. What it would be like if I took
that over and I went for it. And it's been great.
But that's kind of that's kind of how I roll,
(22:05):
And I think I'm starting to trust myself more on
making decisions like that. You know, I don't know that
I should be teaching any courses to anybody on how
to run a business. It's definitely me doing things my way.
But I'm really happy with how it's been going.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
Are you finding the challenge of the business of building
an actual business fulfilling in the way that the other
careers had not been?
Speaker 2 (22:28):
Like?
Speaker 3 (22:28):
Is it filling that gap for you? Like the creativity
clearly is coming through your work is so creative.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
I actually, I'll say I really love the entrepreneurial side
of it. Like part of what I love about this
is that there are all these business challenges constantly, and
it's I have to constantly be making decisions about like
where I'm dedicating money, what I'm making, how many pieces
I'm releasing.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
There's just and then you know, taking care of my employees.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
There's just there's a lot of kind of just pure
business that needs to be done, and I'm finding that
really enjoyable that I never thought I would And for
a long time, I feel like my narrative is like, well,
I'm a creative but I'm not a business person. But
I feel like I'm really living in both of those
worlds right now in a way that I like.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
We're going to take a quick break and when we
come back, we'll hear more about the personal inspiration behind
Lauren's jewelry design. I want to talk a little bit
(23:34):
about the inspiration, like the actual design, it's so's you
can tell immediately that they're your pieces, Like you really
have a very strong perspective, And can you talk us
through how it has connected you to your father's family,
your heritage by part of your family. Can you talk
us through how it's made that connection for you.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Yeah, So I mentioned earlier that my parents divorced when
I was young. I was four, so my mom's caucasion.
My dad was black. He actually passed away pretty recently,
but I wasn't as close to him as I was
with my mom because I didn't live with him. And
I've always, like I think, just emotionally sought a connection
to him, and that part of my family, the black
side of my family that I'm very proud to be
(24:18):
a Black American, and so it really kind of started
striking me in the work. I looked around me, and
I looked at the things that I love and the
things I've collected from the places I've been, and I
just felt like there's something in kind of African textiles
that really spoke to me. And that is something I've
always sort of looked at in my work and kind
(24:39):
of trying to interpret that through the work, which is
a lot of geometry and the way that colors come
together and the way that shapes come together. And it's
not a literal interpretation, but I do feel like that's
where it comes from.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
And it's been a really important part of the work
for me.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
It's made me really kind of feel more connected to
that side of my family.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
Yeah, did you have this clear design perspective right from
the beginning or has it evolved?
Speaker 1 (25:05):
You know, it's.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
Evolved for sure. And it's funny because sometimes I'm like,
am I evolving too far? Am I not evolving enough?
Like that's that's a creative conversation that I have to
have with myself because I think it is important and
I know this hav been coming from the world of branding,
that being identifiable matters, and so that's something that I've
always tried to infuse into the work.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
But then I also like stretching my legs.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
So I talk about like, I feel like I've created
a design language that is our well, godfree, and how
far can I push it and keep myself creatively entertained,
but yet create pieces that are you know, that fit
within this world that I've created, that are recognizable. So
that's definitely an ongoing thing that I think about.
Speaker 3 (25:48):
Not only does Lauren make jewelry that is meaningful to her,
but she has made philanthropy core to her business through
her charity Hearts, which are custom design pendants where one
hundred percent of the profits benefit charities like Human Rights Campaign,
Futures Without Violence and more.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
So, I've always thought that being philanthropic was very important,
Like I, as somebody who makes money through doing my work,
I like to give back as well. And so when
the pandemic started and it was becoming clear that families
had food insecurity, which just broke my heart because I
was like, if I couldn't feed my young son at
that time, I just it would be devastating. I wanted
(26:26):
to do something to help support the families that were
out there suffering, and so I launched my first charity,
Heart for World Central Kitchen. And the thing that was
kind of crazy about the launch of this was that
I launched it as a sketch.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
It wasn't it didn't exist.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
I drew something and asked people to buy it, and
then I made it later, which I've never done that
since I don't, it's kind of wild to me that
it actually had garnered some success and people actually bought
things based on a sketch that I made, and I
looked at that design. It was basically meant to look
like a heart that had been broken, using some of
my signature triangular details, and I thought it could actually
(27:03):
apply to other charities. So when George Floyd was murdered,
I really wanted to do something to support all the
work that was being done for black justice. And I
like supporting people who do things legally to enact laws
that protect people. So I went with the NAACP for that,
and I did not ask permission. I've never asked permission.
I just sell them and then i'd send them money.
(27:24):
So they were the second one, and then I did
some work with Every Mother Counts Futures Without Violence, which
is a Bay Area based organization every Town for Gun Safety.
But yeah, so through the charity Heart Series, I've raised
over a quart of a million dollars and I see
it as evergreen. It's really important to me and it's
an important part of the business. I haven't launched one
(27:44):
in a while, so I'm kind of feeling some thoughts
percolating on that. But they are always available and they
always will be as long as I have the business.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
How do you define success for yourself?
Speaker 2 (27:55):
Now, that's a great question. I think the business being
helped and profitable. If I find that to be a
big success. You know, I certainly appreciate when I get
good feedback from people, be it customers or a publication
or one of my retail partners. Positive feedback definitely feels
like a big success. Seeing it on people being surprised
(28:17):
where I see it feels like success.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
What is something that in retrospect at the time you
thought was like a total low and now looking back
on it, in retrospect, you see it as having really
launched to where you are now.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
Yeah, I think something that felt like a big loa
to me was when I left the culinary world, because
I felt like I kind of went out on the low.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
I left advertising on a high.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
I went out having, you know, won awards and achieved
the position I wanted, and worked at great agencies with
great people, and in food. You know, I had some
good moments and some great experiences and some friendships still
through that industry, but there was never a big win,
if you will. So I just felt like a failure
and that was a really hard thing for me. But
I think what it showed me was that I have resilience,
(29:02):
and you know that I have kind of an interesting,
I guess menu of tools, if you will, because there's
a lot of things that I like to make and do,
and I don't know, just kind of it's ended up
feeling more like a positive than it did at that moment.
Do you think you'll pivot again? You know, I think
I'll make jewelry for a very long time. I think
one of the things I love about the industry is
(29:23):
I think that you can age into it, where some
industries you age out of. I think the more time
you spin and jewelry, the more respect you have people
you know, trust that you know what you're doing. And
I think there's so much to learn in jewelry that
I'm feeling very satisfied creatively, and I feel like I'm
continuing to add to my arsenal of what I know
about jewelry. But I love to make things, so there
(29:46):
I could see myself adding on to that. I think
jewelry is here to stay, but I could see, you know,
are there other things I could do or bring in
that support that, or that just you know, live next
to it.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
I don't know, but never saying ever, Oh, I love that.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
Thank you so much, Lauren, so great having you on.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
Thank you. This has been so much fun.
Speaker 3 (30:10):
Lauren is going from strength to strength with Harwell Godfrey,
putting out remarkably bold pieces every year. You can even
see them on the cover of this Vogue groundbreaking Met
Gala issue and at the gala. You can shop her
beautiful designs at Harwellgodfrey dot com or follow them on
Instagram at Harwell Goodfrey. Talk to you next week. Thanks
(30:33):
for listening to this episode of She Pivots. I hope
you enjoyed it, and if you did, leave us a
rating and tell your friends about us. To learn more
about our guests, follow us on Instagram at she pivots
the Podcast, or sign up for our newsletter, where you
can get exclusive behind the scenes content on our website
at she pivots thepodcast dot com. Special thanks to the
(30:59):
she pivots team, Executive producer Emily eda Velosik, Associate producer
and social media connoisseur Hannah Cousins, Research director Christine Dickinson,
Events and logistics coordinator Madeline Snovac, and audio editor and
mixer Nina pollock I endorse t pivots
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