May 26, 2026 • 29 mins
Mike goes solo and shares five real-life ways jewelry shows up in our world, from a family brooch tradition to the surprising value hidden in old coins. Along the way, we unpack what “worth it” really means when selling an old piece of jewelry.
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Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_01 (00:01):
Welcome back everybody to In the Loop.
What is up, everybody?
My name is Michael Burpo.
Thanks again for listening to Inthe Loop.
This week we're going soloagain.
Uh, it's been a little whilesince I did one of these, and
I've interviewed some awesomepeople, but every now and then,
very uh, I don't know,narcissistically of me.
(00:21):
I really enjoy just having alittle one-on-one chat.
And here are five topics relatedto jewelry that I think are
really interesting.
Uh, these are more kind of likepersonal kind of experiences,
but also some things I'm payingattention to.
And one of the things that I uhhave been thinking about more as
I, you know, live in a smalltown is where does jewelry fit
(00:44):
in in my life?
Uh, around here, luxuries don'tusually take the form of um of
jewelry as much.
A lot of times they take theform of like really quality
workwear or tools or things likethat.
But I don't know, I still reallylike jewelry, so I wanted to
talk about that a little bitmore.
So, in joy me talk about fivetopics surrounding jewelry that
(01:05):
I think are really interesting.
SPEAKER_00 (01:10):
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Schedule a guided demo today atpunchmark.com slash go.
And now back to the show.
SPEAKER_01 (02:11):
So here are five topics I find really interesting
and how jewelry is involved inmy life and what I've been
thinking about these days.
Uh so the first one.
I did an episode a few episodesback all about my grandmother's
brooch.
And I was bequeathed this LucienPicard um brooch, and I really
(02:32):
kind of liked it.
It was probably my mostpersonal, you know, in-the-loop
episode of all time.
I I don't know if it can getmuch more personal than that.
And I actually had a really nicereception.
I actually had a number oflisteners reach out, say some
really nice things to me, and uha lot of listeners that you know
shared my sentiment, and alsosome family members listened to
(02:54):
it.
It was just like a really a veryspecial episode.
But I want to give it a littleupdate.
So one thing that was reallycool is uh at my grandmother's
funeral, uh funeral, I guess itwas more of like a celebration
of life, but it was at a church,and one thing that was really
neat was she had all thesebrooches, and we all wore uh all
(03:14):
the men of the family.
So she had um, you know, severalgrandsons, and also my my dad,
and also my uncle.
We all wore some brooches, andit was really neat because we
all wore, you know, dark suits,and to look around, you saw
these like pops of color, andyou know, I wore my fancy Lucien
(03:37):
Picard one, and then my mybrother wore this one that was
actually my mom's, and it wasthis really nice heavy gold one
with these um sapphires in it,and I thought that was really
cool.
My brother, um Steve, wore thisone that looked like a Celtic
knot, and it had like white andalso yellow gold kind of like
tied up.
Um, that was really pretty.
(03:58):
My dad wore um one that lookedlike a uh a pine cone on a pine
needle branch, and that's reallyfitting because he was a
forester, and that was reallyneat.
Um, I thought I felt very aptfor him, and um, yeah, all these
people they they all wore likedifferent different pieces that
kind of felt like they I don'tknow, spoke to them a little bit
(04:22):
more, and I thought that was areally uh a neat tie-in.
Um it was again, it was just oneof those ways that jewelry can
like help to share the story andextend someone's love in a very
tactile kind of way.
Um yeah.
I haven't worn my my pin againsince then, but I haven't really
(04:42):
had many opportunities.
I'll probably wear it to an artopening uh soon.
I just think it's just uh areally cool thing.
I also someone told me I shouldalso consider putting it on a
chain and wearing it like a uhmedallion.
I don't know, that's a littleit's a little much for me, but
we'll see.
Anyways, I want to give anupdate on that.
Um, yeah, it was really special.
All right, here's another one.
(05:04):
Uh I wanted to talk about theconversations I had at the
client workshop in Charlotte,North Carolina.
Uh, some of the conversations Ihad were so interesting.
One uh it's no secret, like I goto this, uh uh, you know,
Punchmark is very nice, they flyme down, and it's part of the
time for me to see my coworkersand kind of connect with them
(05:28):
and feel like I'm part of thecompany more than I do when I'm,
you know, coming in throughZoom.
Even though, as far as mostpeople go in the company, I'm
very uh visible for the companybecause I lead all hands and I'm
always I always have my cameraon on Zoom because I don't know,
it's just like an accountabilitything for myself.
Um, I don't expect other peopleto have it, but for me I do.
(05:52):
But some of the conversations Ihad at this client workshop were
really interesting.
Um, so one in particular, Ispoke to two of the girls that
uh work for Falls Jewelers in uhCannapolis and um just north of
Charlotte.
And they come to, I mean, FallsJewelers haven't missed a uh
(06:12):
single client workshop over theyears.
And what's really cool is uh thegirls were getting their uh
gemological degrees, and one ofthem was quite young.
I think she was like 20, and theother girl had been with the the
company for a couple of years atthis point, and they were both
getting their uh GIA uh degreesum at the same time, and I was
(06:37):
really interested.
So while we were at Fahrenheiton the rooftop, um I was asking
them a whole bunch of questions,like, oh, so like how does you
know, how does this work?
And they were talking about how,oh, there's these different
lessons and you have to takethese tests every week.
It sounds like a lot of work,and uh very sheepishly I kind of
told them I was like, you know,at one point I thought about
(06:59):
taking taking the GIA like youknow gemologist uh class and
seeing if I could like pass itand like what would go into it
and and getting that degreebecause one, it'd be cool to say
I'm uh you know, I have a GIA,but um at the same time, I when
I was hearing them, I was like,man, there's no chance I would
(07:19):
have ever passed that.
It sounds really complex andvery interesting, and like you
really gotta be payingattention.
Uh, they talk a lot about likealso it's kind of expensive, you
know, Falls jewelers um pays forit for them.
But if it was coming out of yourpocket, oh my gosh, I think that
it's like maybe it's 50-50.
I don't know what the deal was,but it sounds like it's a pretty
(07:42):
serious commitment.
And I must admit, I all thoseletters that go at the back end
of your name, it's terrible tosay.
I've never really superrespected all the you know,
there's so many of them, youknow, with the exception of PhD
and MD.
Um I I've never really liked, orCPA actually is another one that
(08:04):
I really like, sort of like willmake me turn my head at.
But that one, I now I've learnedthat's a lot of work.
So just something I thought wasreally interesting.
Another conversation was uh Ihad a good conversation with
Cole from um Wares Jewelers.
I did a whole in the loopepisode with him, so if you go
back, you can listen to that.
But it was super interesting totalk to him about uh what he's
(08:27):
been doing to his store to makeit feel more like his.
Um, one of the things hementioned in the in the loop
episode was he talked about uhhow he makes the music be more
modern or more music that helikes, as opposed to like 70s
classic rock.
And that just struck me as sucha a human decision that it it's
(08:49):
really stuck with me.
Um listening to him talk aboutthis, he it also is crazy.
He's really young, and for somereason in my mind he was always
like 40.
But uh no, he's like my age andhe's just kind of figuring this
whole thing out, and he'sputting his whole heart into it,
and he's you know, trying hishardest.
(09:10):
I thought that that was a reallycool conversation.
And then the last conversationat this client workshop that I
thought was really neat was itwas just so human, was talking
with um Ray Lance from uhLance's Diamond Shop, I believe
it is.
And uh he's talked about howhe's listened to In the Loop
before, but um, we also had incommon a different podcast that
we listened to.
Um, it's with this guy, uh ScottGalloway.
(09:32):
And I actually, you know, havemodeled a lot of the solo
conversations that I have onthis over his way of hosting.
Um, he's one of the, I mean,he's a business um analyst and
he's very successful.
He started a lot of companies.
Uh, he's this very popularpodcast called Pivot, which he
hosts with uh Kara Swisher,who's um tech reporter, and he's
(09:55):
also does one, Scott Galloway,um, or Prof.
Markets, I think it's called.
He's also written several books,and I do find it very
interesting that we had incommon this sort of perspective
about business, but theconversations that I had
surrounding jewelry were sorefreshing.
Um, it's so interesting.
(10:16):
A lot of times I go to thesenetworking jewelry events, and
sometimes I'm like hesitant totalk about business because I
don't want to be known as theguy that he oh, I can't I can't
talk about anything except forbusiness.
So like I kind of steer too faraway and I'm like asking them
about their you know lives andlike learning about them as
persons.
But there is somethinginteresting to know that like
(10:38):
these people do care aboutbusiness, if you know what I
mean.
Um, yeah, it was just a coolconversation.
Um, I'm really inspired byespecially about the Falls
girls.
Uh, I hope that when they gettheir GAA degrees that I um that
they'll reach out to me and Iwould love to interview them to
hear about the process.
It was it's it sounded hard.
(10:59):
So yeah, here's another one.
So I was given not exactly frommy grandma, but uh my mom had
this extra watch hanging around,and it's a mechanical watch,
it's a classic uh boulevardwatch, and it's uh has a pretty
small face, and it's had methinking about the topic of
(11:21):
wearing a mechanical watchversus a smartwatch.
Uh I'm an Apple Watch kind ofguy, I'm an Apple product kind
of guy, I should say, and I'vebeen wearing an Apple Watch for
the past um three years at thispoint, two and a half years.
And here are the things that Ilike about an Apple Watch.
I really like how it tracks mysleep, and I really like how it
(11:46):
tracks uh my workouts.
So I wear it when I go for arun, and I really like that it
um does all the workout thingsfor me.
Like, you know, I can just Ijust have it connect in my
Strava and it's two buttons forme to start and stop a workout.
As opposed to on my on my phone,the workout process is a little
bit more in depth, and I alsojust hate being tied to a phone,
(12:08):
so um, yeah, there's that.
Here's things I hate about anApple Watch.
I can't stand how often I haveto charge it.
Because if I wear it at night, Ihave to charge it during the
day, which is not the worstthing in the world because at
the same time I work from home,so I could just charge it during
the day, but I also want to wearit.
I don't know.
(12:29):
But I've been wearing this bullya bunch more, it's a very small
face, it's um it's like a moreof a I don't know, it kind of
reminds me of like one of thoseskinnier citizen watches, or
like not that it's as fancy asuh Patek Philippe, but it's more
of like um it's a smaller watch.
(12:50):
And what's funny about it isit's really scuffed up.
It looks like someone wore thecrap out of it, and I think that
my grandpa it was my grandpa's,and I think he did.
And I used, you know, I did alittle bit of looking, and this
is a pretty classic um watch,but it's definitely not worth a
ton of money.
(13:11):
It's you know, the evaluation Igot through ChatGPT was that it
was like probably$300,$350.
If I touched it up a bit more,maybe it would be worth like
$500.
But at the same time, that's notenough for me to sell, you know?
So I've been wearing it.
What do I like about it?
I love the little ticking noise.
(13:32):
I wonder if you could hear this.
Probably not, but it ticks, andI love that it has no um battery
to it.
And something about this, thefact I took it, I put it on my
wrist, and then if you can hearthis, that's me winding it.
(13:53):
What's so nice about it is thatwhen you wind it up, it just
immediately started working.
And there's been all this likestuff that it's incredible to me
that this was made so many yearsago.
Uh, this is estimated to be fromlike the 40s or 50s.
And what's so interesting isthat like it just works.
(14:15):
And as I've been thinking aboutit a little bit more, it's like
it's crazy that this thing justsat dormant for probably 30
years because my grandma didn'twear it.
And when you take it back outand you twist it up, the hands
spin and it just works.
And it's had me thinking, I Iwas wondering whether or not I
should send it to uh to Vincentpossibly to to have him uh you
(14:39):
know clean up or like make it Idon't know, like the the face of
it, the dial of it is very umvery dark and it has like a
bunch of smudges inside of theglass.
And the and the crystal itself,I I think it's called the
crystal, right?
It's like the glass over the topof the face, is uh really
scuffed.
I have it just in my hand.
(15:01):
And what's really interestingabout it is that it has this
second hand and the second or uhI'm sorry, the yeah, the
second's hand, and it runs onlike this little tiny dial on
the bottom.
And it just is so dainty.
It's crazy to me that someonewas able to make this so many
years ago.
But it's had me thinking aboutit, what do I not like about
(15:24):
this watch?
Well, it doesn't track my sleep.
I know it's a stupid thing tosay, but it doesn't.
It doesn't track my workouts,okay.
Um the the it doesn't keep timeperfectly because sometimes I
forget to wind it as much, andthen I sometimes I notice I
(15:46):
think it like runs a coupleseconds behind.
Um like even right now, yeah,it's about one minute off off
what's on my uh on my laptop.
It just kind of had me thinkingabout that.
Same thing with so I I starttalking to Ross about this, my
boss, and Ross was talking abouthow he has a um one of those
(16:07):
solar-powered citizen ecodrives, and he's like, Yeah,
it's really nice.
I leave it in the my window, andlike it, you know, gets like
charged by the sun.
But he's like, it's too nice,and like I can't wear it when I
work out, or I don't wear itwhen I work out, and it's like a
little bit too nice for me towear like you know, casually, so
(16:28):
I just don't end up wearing itever.
And he's like, even when I go tolike trade shows, sometimes I
forget, and then it's like Idon't I wear it one time during
the entire year, and I've alwayshad this opinion about
wearables, if you will, thatthings are made wearables are
made to be worn, you know.
That's how I am with sneakers,and what I've kind of been
(16:52):
contemplating is when I buy mysneakers, I sort of tell myself,
oh, it's an investment.
But the truth is, is it aninvestment if I would never sell
them?
Because as soon as I get them, II put them on my feet and I wear
them out, and uh I don't keepthe boxes, even though you're
supposed to if you want to sellthem, and like I immediately am
(17:13):
like like uh there's no value inthem.
And this watch, it's like, oh,like this is uh an investment,
but is it an investment if Iwould never sell it?
It's kind of an interesting kindof like um thought experiment,
and the answer is I don't know,I would never sell this.
But then I had the conversation,this watch, then I had the
(17:36):
conversation with my brothersabout what if it was worth a
little bit more money, would Ibe willing to sell it?
But not like enough that'slife-changing.
What if it was worth$1,200?
$1,200 is a pretty decent amountof money, you know?
Like maybe I would take it andlike, you know, I could uh
whatever, fix up part of myhouse with it.
(17:57):
But it's also like, man, I'dhave to let it go.
And that would be really uhthat'd be really hard.
I've I sometimes you guys asjewelers probably have to
experience that when peoplebring in something and it's like
the sentiment of it is justthere's a certain kind of it
lets it makes it hard to let go.
I don't know.
Okay, well, that's that topic.
(18:19):
Something more introspective,the the feeling of smart watches
versus mechanical watches.
I don't know.
It's it's such a such a weirdtopic.
Alright, everybody, we're gonnatake a quick break and hear a
word from our sponsor.
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(18:40):
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Thanks and back to the show.
(20:04):
And we're back.
Alright, let's move on.
Alright, I've been also doing alot of thinking about this
omni-channel experience that iscoming to a lot of stores.
We've been working with, uh youknow, you've probably been
listening to this podcast.
We've been talking andintegrating and working with a
lot of these um vendors that arecreating these in-store
(20:29):
experiences increasingly, uh,what I'm calling iPad
experiences.
So these are like to name oneeasily, CarrotWise.
CarrotWise has one that's like awhole experience that lets you
build this engagement ring.
And what I'm starting to see isjust some of the conversations
(20:49):
are involve like stores whenthey're redesigning their store.
They're not just maximizingdisplay case size.
There's also like they want tohave like a little spot at their
store where people can have likea one-on-one or a two-on-one,
you know, clientele, you know,bespoke experience where they
(21:09):
sit there and they have an iPadand maybe they hook it up to a
TV so that people can kind ofwatch on, and they let them sort
of pick their ring settings,they can pick their um, you
know, the diamond and and havethis custom tailored approach.
And what was it also, you know,it's an interesting leap because
(21:31):
for a long time we've beenalways saying, Oh, the
omnichannel experience is soimportant, where like you go
from online to in-store and instore to online, what does that
look like?
And from a website perspective,to me, it's about making sure
that your products perfectly aremirrored into your store.
So if someone pre shops online,they can just add it to their
(21:54):
wish list, go in and be like,here you go, this is what I'm
looking for.
And then the sale is veryfrictional.
But this tailored approach, Ithink it was with uh the guys at
Jeweler OS, um, you know, I th Iuh Devin, it was earlier this
year, and his uh experience islike it's kind of like going to
(22:16):
uh men's warehouse or uh JosephA bank where you're gonna get a
tailored suit or a customtailored suit.
It's not like they are taking abolt of cloth and they're
measuring you everywhere andthey're gonna cut the cut the
fabric for your body.
That's what they do in likeItaly, and that that suit's
gonna run you ten thousanddollars.
(22:38):
But it's like they're gonnatailor this suit and make it so
that you pick the interiormaterial and like the
measurements are all great, andyou can maybe have like a little
bit of embroidery on it, andyou're gonna have like a little
uh you know extra uh pocketsquare that goes with you a
little bit better, and maybethey throw in a an extra you
(23:01):
know tie that makes it so thatit's you know exactly what you
like.
And is that a custom suit?
Well, the answer is like yes andno.
It's custom to you, but it's notlike fully custom, if that makes
sense.
And I think that's kind of wherethese engagement ring
experiences are going, andwedding bands.
I mean, we've also seen a lot ofexperiences coming from a lot of
(23:24):
these vendors that have these uhyou know experiential ring
pickers.
And I don't know, I think thatthat is very interesting and is
going to be in more prominentpretty soon is these people that
like, oh, you want to build yourengagement ring?
Yeah, well, hey, come over here,let's like sit down on these
(23:47):
sofas.
Like, let me pull it up, and youpull it up on your iPad and you
know, get a chance to workcollaboratively with this uh
this uh client.
And if it's going well, maybeyou have some people from the uh
the back room bring you oversome like you know, a little
whiskey or like a uh littlecocktail or maybe if or wine or
(24:07):
a um or just water, whatever,something that kind of social
lubrication, if you will, keepsthem feeling feeling good about
it.
And that's kind of I think whata lot of people want, a certain
subsect of client want.
There's certain people that theywant to go in, they want to buy
something right out the case.
Then there are also some peoplethat want to go fully bespoke,
(24:28):
and then there are also I thinksome people that want to shop
online and do not want tointeract with a human at all.
But I think having that littletailored one-on-one or
two-on-one approach is a prettygood one.
Um, so it's something I've beenthinking about.
I think that shopping is gonnakind of trend that way,
personally.
Okay, and the last one is uh oneof the things that was given to
(24:54):
me as we cleaned out my uhparents' old stuff is um all
these coins.
It was really interesting.
And I just had a conversationwith Justin Van Mater from
Stratus Estate Buyers, and hewas talking about like, oh you
know, like we'll buy uh you knowcoins and um militaria and all
that kind of stuff.
(25:14):
It was so funny, is like for along time I was like, oh, who
even has coins?
Well, and then I got given thesecoins, and my mom was like, Oh,
just figure out how to like sellthem and and we can talk about
what we should do with the moneyafterwards, like maybe we use it
for this or or whatever.
And I took it and I took somephotos of it and fed it in the
Chat GPT to see if there was anyvalue in there.
(25:37):
And in this bag, uh there waslike 50 uh half dollars, you
know, uh Kennedy heads, and someof them looked a little bit
different.
So I started looking at them,and my mom seemed to think that
they were all worth a lot.
Well, half of them were worth alot, half of them were not
worth, they were worth 50 cents.
(25:57):
And it's funny because I tookthem and I started looking at
them, probably half the stackwere Kennedy heads, and there
are some that might be worth alittle bit more, but none of
mine were those.
And then 50 of them were theseEdison heads, and these were
made in like the you know 30sand 40s, I think, 40s and 50s
(26:18):
maybe.
And these had uh are almostsolid silver, they're like 90 or
95% silver.
So as a result, they're worthlike a ton right now.
And it's so funny.
I took that and I like, oh,these ones are worth something,
and these ones are literallyworth 50 cents.
And now I gotta figure out howdo I sell these silver coins and
(26:42):
not get ripped off?
And it's like, oh my gosh, am Igonna sell them on eBay?
And it's like, oh my gosh, Idon't want to have to figure
that out.
I haven't ever sold anything offof eBay.
It's like, am I going to sell,like, go there's I know there's
a person in like Albany.
Albany's like two hours away.
Am I gonna drive all the way outthere just to sell this stack of
coins for like maybe$300,$400?
(27:05):
It's like, man, that's kind of abig commitment, and I'm sort of
eating into my profits.
Uh, so it's just one of thosethings.
After I talked with uh Justin, Iwas like, oh, I could see why
these estate buying eventsactually work.
So just kind of a funny thingand made me sort of laugh about
like, oh, I see the use case forthese things.
So that's my topics.
(27:26):
There's five things talkingabout broaches, talking about
the client workshopconversations, talking about the
mechanical watch versus smartwatch, sort of mental debate,
uh, talking about omni-channelin-store, like iPad experiences,
and then talking about coins andhow I don't know what to do with
my coins.
If anybody out here just likewould be down to like let me
(27:49):
send them my coins and you canjust like melt them and send
them back to me.
Um, I'd be interested in that.
I don't know how that works, butum, yeah, shoot me a text or uh
an email, Michael atpunchmark.com.
All right, I think that's gonnabe where we leave it.
Something a little bit looser, alittle bit more kind of casual.
Sometimes I have theseconversations and uh I do a lot
(28:09):
of prep for my interviews.
And this one is just like here'sstuff I've been kicking around
that I find interesting.
So thought I'd at least um getthis recorded and and sent out
because I think that this is uhthese are the ones I think are
really fun as well.
All right, thanks.
(28:31):
Alright, everybody.
Thanks for listening.
That's the end of the show.
This episode is brought to youby Punchmark and produced and
hosted by me, Michael Burpo.
This episode was edited by PaulSuarez with music by Ross
Cochran.
Don't forget to leave usfeedback on punchmark.com slash
loop.
That's L-O-U-P-E.
Or leave us a five star ratingon Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
(28:53):
We'll be back next week,Tuesday, with another episode.
Cheers.
Bye.
Welcome back everybody to In the Loop.
What is up, everybody?
My name is Michael Burpo.
Thanks again for listening to Inthe Loop.
This week we're going soloagain.
Uh, it's been a little whilesince I did one of these, and
I've interviewed some awesomepeople, but every now and then,
very uh, I don't know,narcissistically of me.
(00:21):
I really enjoy just having alittle one-on-one chat.
And here are five topics relatedto jewelry that I think are
really interesting.
Uh, these are more kind of likepersonal kind of experiences,
but also some things I'm payingattention to.
And one of the things that I uhhave been thinking about more as
I, you know, live in a smalltown is where does jewelry fit
(00:44):
in in my life?
Uh, around here, luxuries don'tusually take the form of um of
jewelry as much.
A lot of times they take theform of like really quality
workwear or tools or things likethat.
But I don't know, I still reallylike jewelry, so I wanted to
talk about that a little bitmore.
So, in joy me talk about fivetopics surrounding jewelry that
(01:05):
I think are really interesting.
SPEAKER_00 (01:10):
This episode is brought to you by Punchmark, the
jewelry industry's favoritewebsite platform and digital
growth agency.
Our mission reaches way beyondtechnology.
With decades of experience andlong-lasting industry
relationships, Punchmark enablesjewelry businesses to flourish
in any marketplace.
We consider our clients ourfriends, as many of them have
(01:30):
been friends way before becomingclients.
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It's never too late to transformyour business and stitch
(01:52):
together your digital andphysical worlds in a way that
achieves tremendous growth andresults.
Schedule a guided demo today atpunchmark.com slash go.
And now back to the show.
SPEAKER_01 (02:11):
So here are five topics I find really interesting
and how jewelry is involved inmy life and what I've been
thinking about these days.
Uh so the first one.
I did an episode a few episodesback all about my grandmother's
brooch.
And I was bequeathed this LucienPicard um brooch, and I really
(02:32):
kind of liked it.
It was probably my mostpersonal, you know, in-the-loop
episode of all time.
I I don't know if it can getmuch more personal than that.
And I actually had a really nicereception.
I actually had a number oflisteners reach out, say some
really nice things to me, and uha lot of listeners that you know
shared my sentiment, and alsosome family members listened to
(02:54):
it.
It was just like a really a veryspecial episode.
But I want to give it a littleupdate.
So one thing that was reallycool is uh at my grandmother's
funeral, uh funeral, I guess itwas more of like a celebration
of life, but it was at a church,and one thing that was really
neat was she had all thesebrooches, and we all wore uh all
(03:14):
the men of the family.
So she had um, you know, severalgrandsons, and also my my dad,
and also my uncle.
We all wore some brooches, andit was really neat because we
all wore, you know, dark suits,and to look around, you saw
these like pops of color, andyou know, I wore my fancy Lucien
(03:37):
Picard one, and then my mybrother wore this one that was
actually my mom's, and it wasthis really nice heavy gold one
with these um sapphires in it,and I thought that was really
cool.
My brother, um Steve, wore thisone that looked like a Celtic
knot, and it had like white andalso yellow gold kind of like
tied up.
Um, that was really pretty.
(03:58):
My dad wore um one that lookedlike a uh a pine cone on a pine
needle branch, and that's reallyfitting because he was a
forester, and that was reallyneat.
Um, I thought I felt very aptfor him, and um, yeah, all these
people they they all wore likedifferent different pieces that
kind of felt like they I don'tknow, spoke to them a little bit
(04:22):
more, and I thought that was areally uh a neat tie-in.
Um it was again, it was just oneof those ways that jewelry can
like help to share the story andextend someone's love in a very
tactile kind of way.
Um yeah.
I haven't worn my my pin againsince then, but I haven't really
(04:42):
had many opportunities.
I'll probably wear it to an artopening uh soon.
I just think it's just uh areally cool thing.
I also someone told me I shouldalso consider putting it on a
chain and wearing it like a uhmedallion.
I don't know, that's a littleit's a little much for me, but
we'll see.
Anyways, I want to give anupdate on that.
Um, yeah, it was really special.
All right, here's another one.
(05:04):
Uh I wanted to talk about theconversations I had at the
client workshop in Charlotte,North Carolina.
Uh, some of the conversations Ihad were so interesting.
One uh it's no secret, like I goto this, uh uh, you know,
Punchmark is very nice, they flyme down, and it's part of the
time for me to see my coworkersand kind of connect with them
(05:28):
and feel like I'm part of thecompany more than I do when I'm,
you know, coming in throughZoom.
Even though, as far as mostpeople go in the company, I'm
very uh visible for the companybecause I lead all hands and I'm
always I always have my cameraon on Zoom because I don't know,
it's just like an accountabilitything for myself.
Um, I don't expect other peopleto have it, but for me I do.
(05:52):
But some of the conversations Ihad at this client workshop were
really interesting.
Um, so one in particular, Ispoke to two of the girls that
uh work for Falls Jewelers in uhCannapolis and um just north of
Charlotte.
And they come to, I mean, FallsJewelers haven't missed a uh
(06:12):
single client workshop over theyears.
And what's really cool is uh thegirls were getting their uh
gemological degrees, and one ofthem was quite young.
I think she was like 20, and theother girl had been with the the
company for a couple of years atthis point, and they were both
getting their uh GIA uh degreesum at the same time, and I was
(06:37):
really interested.
So while we were at Fahrenheiton the rooftop, um I was asking
them a whole bunch of questions,like, oh, so like how does you
know, how does this work?
And they were talking about how,oh, there's these different
lessons and you have to takethese tests every week.
It sounds like a lot of work,and uh very sheepishly I kind of
told them I was like, you know,at one point I thought about
(06:59):
taking taking the GIA like youknow gemologist uh class and
seeing if I could like pass itand like what would go into it
and and getting that degreebecause one, it'd be cool to say
I'm uh you know, I have a GIA,but um at the same time, I when
I was hearing them, I was like,man, there's no chance I would
(07:19):
have ever passed that.
It sounds really complex andvery interesting, and like you
really gotta be payingattention.
Uh, they talk a lot about likealso it's kind of expensive, you
know, Falls jewelers um pays forit for them.
But if it was coming out of yourpocket, oh my gosh, I think that
it's like maybe it's 50-50.
I don't know what the deal was,but it sounds like it's a pretty
(07:42):
serious commitment.
And I must admit, I all thoseletters that go at the back end
of your name, it's terrible tosay.
I've never really superrespected all the you know,
there's so many of them, youknow, with the exception of PhD
and MD.
Um I I've never really liked, orCPA actually is another one that
(08:04):
I really like, sort of like willmake me turn my head at.
But that one, I now I've learnedthat's a lot of work.
So just something I thought wasreally interesting.
Another conversation was uh Ihad a good conversation with
Cole from um Wares Jewelers.
I did a whole in the loopepisode with him, so if you go
back, you can listen to that.
But it was super interesting totalk to him about uh what he's
(08:27):
been doing to his store to makeit feel more like his.
Um, one of the things hementioned in the in the loop
episode was he talked about uhhow he makes the music be more
modern or more music that helikes, as opposed to like 70s
classic rock.
And that just struck me as sucha a human decision that it it's
(08:49):
really stuck with me.
Um listening to him talk aboutthis, he it also is crazy.
He's really young, and for somereason in my mind he was always
like 40.
But uh no, he's like my age andhe's just kind of figuring this
whole thing out, and he'sputting his whole heart into it,
and he's you know, trying hishardest.
(09:10):
I thought that that was a reallycool conversation.
And then the last conversationat this client workshop that I
thought was really neat was itwas just so human, was talking
with um Ray Lance from uhLance's Diamond Shop, I believe
it is.
And uh he's talked about howhe's listened to In the Loop
before, but um, we also had incommon a different podcast that
we listened to.
Um, it's with this guy, uh ScottGalloway.
(09:32):
And I actually, you know, havemodeled a lot of the solo
conversations that I have onthis over his way of hosting.
Um, he's one of the, I mean,he's a business um analyst and
he's very successful.
He started a lot of companies.
Uh, he's this very popularpodcast called Pivot, which he
hosts with uh Kara Swisher,who's um tech reporter, and he's
(09:55):
also does one, Scott Galloway,um, or Prof.
Markets, I think it's called.
He's also written several books,and I do find it very
interesting that we had incommon this sort of perspective
about business, but theconversations that I had
surrounding jewelry were sorefreshing.
Um, it's so interesting.
(10:16):
A lot of times I go to thesenetworking jewelry events, and
sometimes I'm like hesitant totalk about business because I
don't want to be known as theguy that he oh, I can't I can't
talk about anything except forbusiness.
So like I kind of steer too faraway and I'm like asking them
about their you know lives andlike learning about them as
persons.
But there is somethinginteresting to know that like
(10:38):
these people do care aboutbusiness, if you know what I
mean.
Um, yeah, it was just a coolconversation.
Um, I'm really inspired byespecially about the Falls
girls.
Uh, I hope that when they gettheir GAA degrees that I um that
they'll reach out to me and Iwould love to interview them to
hear about the process.
It was it's it sounded hard.
(10:59):
So yeah, here's another one.
So I was given not exactly frommy grandma, but uh my mom had
this extra watch hanging around,and it's a mechanical watch,
it's a classic uh boulevardwatch, and it's uh has a pretty
small face, and it's had methinking about the topic of
(11:21):
wearing a mechanical watchversus a smartwatch.
Uh I'm an Apple Watch kind ofguy, I'm an Apple product kind
of guy, I should say, and I'vebeen wearing an Apple Watch for
the past um three years at thispoint, two and a half years.
And here are the things that Ilike about an Apple Watch.
I really like how it tracks mysleep, and I really like how it
(11:46):
tracks uh my workouts.
So I wear it when I go for arun, and I really like that it
um does all the workout thingsfor me.
Like, you know, I can just Ijust have it connect in my
Strava and it's two buttons forme to start and stop a workout.
As opposed to on my on my phone,the workout process is a little
bit more in depth, and I alsojust hate being tied to a phone,
(12:08):
so um, yeah, there's that.
Here's things I hate about anApple Watch.
I can't stand how often I haveto charge it.
Because if I wear it at night, Ihave to charge it during the
day, which is not the worstthing in the world because at
the same time I work from home,so I could just charge it during
the day, but I also want to wearit.
I don't know.
(12:29):
But I've been wearing this bullya bunch more, it's a very small
face, it's um it's like a moreof a I don't know, it kind of
reminds me of like one of thoseskinnier citizen watches, or
like not that it's as fancy asuh Patek Philippe, but it's more
of like um it's a smaller watch.
(12:50):
And what's funny about it isit's really scuffed up.
It looks like someone wore thecrap out of it, and I think that
my grandpa it was my grandpa's,and I think he did.
And I used, you know, I did alittle bit of looking, and this
is a pretty classic um watch,but it's definitely not worth a
ton of money.
(13:11):
It's you know, the evaluation Igot through ChatGPT was that it
was like probably$300,$350.
If I touched it up a bit more,maybe it would be worth like
$500.
But at the same time, that's notenough for me to sell, you know?
So I've been wearing it.
What do I like about it?
I love the little ticking noise.
(13:32):
I wonder if you could hear this.
Probably not, but it ticks, andI love that it has no um battery
to it.
And something about this, thefact I took it, I put it on my
wrist, and then if you can hearthis, that's me winding it.
(13:53):
What's so nice about it is thatwhen you wind it up, it just
immediately started working.
And there's been all this likestuff that it's incredible to me
that this was made so many yearsago.
Uh, this is estimated to be fromlike the 40s or 50s.
And what's so interesting isthat like it just works.
(14:15):
And as I've been thinking aboutit a little bit more, it's like
it's crazy that this thing justsat dormant for probably 30
years because my grandma didn'twear it.
And when you take it back outand you twist it up, the hands
spin and it just works.
And it's had me thinking, I Iwas wondering whether or not I
should send it to uh to Vincentpossibly to to have him uh you
(14:39):
know clean up or like make it Idon't know, like the the face of
it, the dial of it is very umvery dark and it has like a
bunch of smudges inside of theglass.
And the and the crystal itself,I I think it's called the
crystal, right?
It's like the glass over the topof the face, is uh really
scuffed.
I have it just in my hand.
(15:01):
And what's really interestingabout it is that it has this
second hand and the second or uhI'm sorry, the yeah, the
second's hand, and it runs onlike this little tiny dial on
the bottom.
And it just is so dainty.
It's crazy to me that someonewas able to make this so many
years ago.
But it's had me thinking aboutit, what do I not like about
(15:24):
this watch?
Well, it doesn't track my sleep.
I know it's a stupid thing tosay, but it doesn't.
It doesn't track my workouts,okay.
Um the the it doesn't keep timeperfectly because sometimes I
forget to wind it as much, andthen I sometimes I notice I
(15:46):
think it like runs a coupleseconds behind.
Um like even right now, yeah,it's about one minute off off
what's on my uh on my laptop.
It just kind of had me thinkingabout that.
Same thing with so I I starttalking to Ross about this, my
boss, and Ross was talking abouthow he has a um one of those
(16:07):
solar-powered citizen ecodrives, and he's like, Yeah,
it's really nice.
I leave it in the my window, andlike it, you know, gets like
charged by the sun.
But he's like, it's too nice,and like I can't wear it when I
work out, or I don't wear itwhen I work out, and it's like a
little bit too nice for me towear like you know, casually, so
(16:28):
I just don't end up wearing itever.
And he's like, even when I go tolike trade shows, sometimes I
forget, and then it's like Idon't I wear it one time during
the entire year, and I've alwayshad this opinion about
wearables, if you will, thatthings are made wearables are
made to be worn, you know.
That's how I am with sneakers,and what I've kind of been
(16:52):
contemplating is when I buy mysneakers, I sort of tell myself,
oh, it's an investment.
But the truth is, is it aninvestment if I would never sell
them?
Because as soon as I get them, II put them on my feet and I wear
them out, and uh I don't keepthe boxes, even though you're
supposed to if you want to sellthem, and like I immediately am
(17:13):
like like uh there's no value inthem.
And this watch, it's like, oh,like this is uh an investment,
but is it an investment if Iwould never sell it?
It's kind of an interesting kindof like um thought experiment,
and the answer is I don't know,I would never sell this.
But then I had the conversation,this watch, then I had the
(17:36):
conversation with my brothersabout what if it was worth a
little bit more money, would Ibe willing to sell it?
But not like enough that'slife-changing.
What if it was worth$1,200?
$1,200 is a pretty decent amountof money, you know?
Like maybe I would take it andlike, you know, I could uh
whatever, fix up part of myhouse with it.
(17:57):
But it's also like, man, I'dhave to let it go.
And that would be really uhthat'd be really hard.
I've I sometimes you guys asjewelers probably have to
experience that when peoplebring in something and it's like
the sentiment of it is justthere's a certain kind of it
lets it makes it hard to let go.
I don't know.
Okay, well, that's that topic.
(18:19):
Something more introspective,the the feeling of smart watches
versus mechanical watches.
I don't know.
It's it's such a such a weirdtopic.
Alright, everybody, we're gonnatake a quick break and hear a
word from our sponsor.
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(18:40):
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Thanks and back to the show.
(20:04):
And we're back.
Alright, let's move on.
Alright, I've been also doing alot of thinking about this
omni-channel experience that iscoming to a lot of stores.
We've been working with, uh youknow, you've probably been
listening to this podcast.
We've been talking andintegrating and working with a
lot of these um vendors that arecreating these in-store
(20:29):
experiences increasingly, uh,what I'm calling iPad
experiences.
So these are like to name oneeasily, CarrotWise.
CarrotWise has one that's like awhole experience that lets you
build this engagement ring.
And what I'm starting to see isjust some of the conversations
(20:49):
are involve like stores whenthey're redesigning their store.
They're not just maximizingdisplay case size.
There's also like they want tohave like a little spot at their
store where people can have likea one-on-one or a two-on-one,
you know, clientele, you know,bespoke experience where they
(21:09):
sit there and they have an iPadand maybe they hook it up to a
TV so that people can kind ofwatch on, and they let them sort
of pick their ring settings,they can pick their um, you
know, the diamond and and havethis custom tailored approach.
And what was it also, you know,it's an interesting leap because
(21:31):
for a long time we've beenalways saying, Oh, the
omnichannel experience is soimportant, where like you go
from online to in-store and instore to online, what does that
look like?
And from a website perspective,to me, it's about making sure
that your products perfectly aremirrored into your store.
So if someone pre shops online,they can just add it to their
(21:54):
wish list, go in and be like,here you go, this is what I'm
looking for.
And then the sale is veryfrictional.
But this tailored approach, Ithink it was with uh the guys at
Jeweler OS, um, you know, I th Iuh Devin, it was earlier this
year, and his uh experience islike it's kind of like going to
(22:16):
uh men's warehouse or uh JosephA bank where you're gonna get a
tailored suit or a customtailored suit.
It's not like they are taking abolt of cloth and they're
measuring you everywhere andthey're gonna cut the cut the
fabric for your body.
That's what they do in likeItaly, and that that suit's
gonna run you ten thousanddollars.
(22:38):
But it's like they're gonnatailor this suit and make it so
that you pick the interiormaterial and like the
measurements are all great, andyou can maybe have like a little
bit of embroidery on it, andyou're gonna have like a little
uh you know extra uh pocketsquare that goes with you a
little bit better, and maybethey throw in a an extra you
(23:01):
know tie that makes it so thatit's you know exactly what you
like.
And is that a custom suit?
Well, the answer is like yes andno.
It's custom to you, but it's notlike fully custom, if that makes
sense.
And I think that's kind of wherethese engagement ring
experiences are going, andwedding bands.
I mean, we've also seen a lot ofexperiences coming from a lot of
(23:24):
these vendors that have these uhyou know experiential ring
pickers.
And I don't know, I think thatthat is very interesting and is
going to be in more prominentpretty soon is these people that
like, oh, you want to build yourengagement ring?
Yeah, well, hey, come over here,let's like sit down on these
(23:47):
sofas.
Like, let me pull it up, and youpull it up on your iPad and you
know, get a chance to workcollaboratively with this uh
this uh client.
And if it's going well, maybeyou have some people from the uh
the back room bring you oversome like you know, a little
whiskey or like a uh littlecocktail or maybe if or wine or
(24:07):
a um or just water, whatever,something that kind of social
lubrication, if you will, keepsthem feeling feeling good about
it.
And that's kind of I think whata lot of people want, a certain
subsect of client want.
There's certain people that theywant to go in, they want to buy
something right out the case.
Then there are also some peoplethat want to go fully bespoke,
(24:28):
and then there are also I thinksome people that want to shop
online and do not want tointeract with a human at all.
But I think having that littletailored one-on-one or
two-on-one approach is a prettygood one.
Um, so it's something I've beenthinking about.
I think that shopping is gonnakind of trend that way,
personally.
Okay, and the last one is uh oneof the things that was given to
(24:54):
me as we cleaned out my uhparents' old stuff is um all
these coins.
It was really interesting.
And I just had a conversationwith Justin Van Mater from
Stratus Estate Buyers, and hewas talking about like, oh you
know, like we'll buy uh you knowcoins and um militaria and all
that kind of stuff.
(25:14):
It was so funny, is like for along time I was like, oh, who
even has coins?
Well, and then I got given thesecoins, and my mom was like, Oh,
just figure out how to like sellthem and and we can talk about
what we should do with the moneyafterwards, like maybe we use it
for this or or whatever.
And I took it and I took somephotos of it and fed it in the
Chat GPT to see if there was anyvalue in there.
(25:37):
And in this bag, uh there waslike 50 uh half dollars, you
know, uh Kennedy heads, and someof them looked a little bit
different.
So I started looking at them,and my mom seemed to think that
they were all worth a lot.
Well, half of them were worth alot, half of them were not
worth, they were worth 50 cents.
(25:57):
And it's funny because I tookthem and I started looking at
them, probably half the stackwere Kennedy heads, and there
are some that might be worth alittle bit more, but none of
mine were those.
And then 50 of them were theseEdison heads, and these were
made in like the you know 30sand 40s, I think, 40s and 50s
(26:18):
maybe.
And these had uh are almostsolid silver, they're like 90 or
95% silver.
So as a result, they're worthlike a ton right now.
And it's so funny.
I took that and I like, oh,these ones are worth something,
and these ones are literallyworth 50 cents.
And now I gotta figure out howdo I sell these silver coins and
(26:42):
not get ripped off?
And it's like, oh my gosh, am Igonna sell them on eBay?
And it's like, oh my gosh, Idon't want to have to figure
that out.
I haven't ever sold anything offof eBay.
It's like, am I going to sell,like, go there's I know there's
a person in like Albany.
Albany's like two hours away.
Am I gonna drive all the way outthere just to sell this stack of
coins for like maybe$300,$400?
(27:05):
It's like, man, that's kind of abig commitment, and I'm sort of
eating into my profits.
Uh, so it's just one of thosethings.
After I talked with uh Justin, Iwas like, oh, I could see why
these estate buying eventsactually work.
So just kind of a funny thingand made me sort of laugh about
like, oh, I see the use case forthese things.
So that's my topics.
(27:26):
There's five things talkingabout broaches, talking about
the client workshopconversations, talking about the
mechanical watch versus smartwatch, sort of mental debate,
uh, talking about omni-channelin-store, like iPad experiences,
and then talking about coins andhow I don't know what to do with
my coins.
If anybody out here just likewould be down to like let me
(27:49):
send them my coins and you canjust like melt them and send
them back to me.
Um, I'd be interested in that.
I don't know how that works, butum, yeah, shoot me a text or uh
an email, Michael atpunchmark.com.
All right, I think that's gonnabe where we leave it.
Something a little bit looser, alittle bit more kind of casual.
Sometimes I have theseconversations and uh I do a lot
(28:09):
of prep for my interviews.
And this one is just like here'sstuff I've been kicking around
that I find interesting.
So thought I'd at least um getthis recorded and and sent out
because I think that this is uhthese are the ones I think are
really fun as well.
All right, thanks.
(28:31):
Alright, everybody.
Thanks for listening.
That's the end of the show.
This episode is brought to youby Punchmark and produced and
hosted by me, Michael Burpo.
This episode was edited by PaulSuarez with music by Ross
Cochran.
Don't forget to leave usfeedback on punchmark.com slash
loop.
That's L-O-U-P-E.
Or leave us a five star ratingon Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
(28:53):
We'll be back next week,Tuesday, with another episode.
Cheers.
Bye.
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