March 3, 2026 • 30 mins
Mike talks through four topics not about jewelry that he has been paying attention to that can help reframe the jewelry conversation in a new and interesting way.
The crashing of the rare plant market, an Olympian who capitalized on the spotlight, how publishing Instagram Reels helps with reach in 2026, and a book release event.
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Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_00 (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.
And this week we're going solo.
This time I wanted to talkabout, I have four topics that I
think are very interesting, andthey're all sort of tangentially
related to our normal topics forIn the Loop.
(00:24):
They're all about, you know, analmost like an allegory for the
lab versus natural diamond kindof conversation, framed in a
different way.
I also saw this girl from myhometown who went to the
Olympics, and she used her ownplatform on Instagram to launch
a different business, and I kindof wanted to just share it.
(00:44):
It's just topics like that thatI found to be very interesting
and compelling, and they standout enough to me that I thought
if I put them together that theywould be interesting for someone
to listen to.
I did one of these episodes backin I think November, and it did
really well.
I think that people sort ofenjoy when I just kind of yap a
little bit instead of having areal strict interview like I
(01:07):
have been for the past fewinterviews, and I wanted to, you
know, share some things that Ithink are interesting.
Alright, let's jump into it andenjoy.
SPEAKER_01 (01:20):
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And now back to the show.
SPEAKER_00 (02:21):
Alright, before we jump into this, I gotta
apologize.
I am a little bit sick, asseemingly everybody is, so my
voice is extra bassy.
So do apologize.
The first thing I wanted to talkabout was the rare plant market
crashing, which you're probablylike, wow, Mike, that is a bit
of a reach for uh the connectionto in the loop.
(02:44):
But just give me a second toexplain.
So, first of all, to set up thestory, I am really into plants.
I've I have a lot of plants inmy studio.
Um, in my house, I have a spacethat has uh it's almost kind of
like has surrounded by windows.
And in each of all the windows,I have tons and tons of plants.
I have a special affinity forMonstera, uh especially Monstera
(03:06):
Delioso, which is the uh youknow, the Swiss cheese plant,
the big, big, enormous leaveswith the beautiful inner
fenestration holes.
And I've always kind of beeninterested in expanding my
collection, and I, you know,love giving out the cuttings.
And I recently watched thisYouTube video that was titled, I
(03:27):
accidentally crashed the rareplant market.
And it's by this creator, Plantsin Jars, which I've actually
never watched her contentbefore.
And this episode found its wayinto my feed on Instagram by
someone reacting to it, actuallycalling it a lie.
And then I went in and I wantedto do my own research.
(03:48):
The long and the short of theepisode is this girl found a
way, or I guess she applied amethod to use tissue culture for
these very expensive, rare,quote unquote rare plants in
order to clone them.
(04:09):
And then if she wanted to, shecould have sold them.
But if something is uh rare, youshouldn't be able to mass
produce it.
And to bring into like anotherkind of topic, she actually
compares a lot of things to it.
One of them is lab-growndiamonds, so like if you can
(04:30):
produce them ad nauseum, thenyou can drive down the price.
And as the popularity goes up,so too does the demand, so does
the production, which then racesto the bottom.
What's fascinating is also itjust like she compares all of
these different types of luxuryniche businesses.
(04:50):
And I don't want to spend toomuch time getting into each of
these topics because I have awhole episode to do, but what I
found fascinating is that shetalks about how if the means of
reproduction are enabled toindividuals, and even
individuals could be individualcompanies, instead of one thing,
(05:14):
then that value suddenly amatter of um people agreeing on
the value.
That's a terrible way todescribe it.
But what I thought was veryfascinating is that she was
saying that, you know, thecommon discourse around her um,
you know, tissue culture plantsand these what you might call
(05:37):
natural plants, is that in somesome people are saying, like,
oh, the natural ones are betterbecause they grow better.
And she was like, Well, that'snot true because they are, you
know, scientifically the exactsame plant.
So how could one grow betterthan the other?
And she goes on to describe, youknow, lab grown versus natural
diamonds.
Uh, you know, some people saythat some of them shine better,
(05:59):
or they are naturally better.
And she makes a very valid pointwhere she's like, well, how can
that be true when scientificallythey are identical?
So it's almost like you need todecide whether or not you're
going to agree with the scienceof it all.
What I thought was also veryinteresting is I have uh a
(06:21):
nostalgia for uh Pokemon cards.
And in case you have no ideawhat I'm talking about, Pokemon
cards and even Magic theGathering cards are these uh
trading cards that you know cameout in the 90s and now they're
still existing today.
And especially for Pokemoncards, they actually hold
seemingly their value.
(06:42):
But the thing that's fascinatingis there's no inherent value to
them other than what is agreedupon, as is true for other
things.
What I found to be different,and I kind of was grappling as I
I watched this this video likethree times, is when you talk
about Pokemon cards, uh, thecompany that produces the
(07:04):
trading card game, they actuallykeep some of these prices um up
because of the fact that theyhave agreed to not crash the
market.
So, for example, here's anhere's one.
The most valuable, one of themost valuable Pokemon cards is a
Charizard, and the Charizard isfrom you know the 1990s, late
(07:28):
1990s, early 2000s, and there'sspecific values and rarities to
them because of one, how oldthey are, two, because there's
demand for them.
And since there's a limitedsupply, the demand keeps it up.
If the company, the Pokemoncompany that produces these
cards, if they were to releasethat card again and it would be
(07:51):
identical to the original one,the value would come down,
though the production would goup.
And I thought it was veryinteresting because why is the
value dependent on the number ofthem?
And it's like, oh, I guess it'ssupply and demand.
But when you go to it and youhave these plants, anybody can
(08:14):
make these.
She actually sells her own um,you know, plants in jars starter
kit on her website.
And it was just one of thosethings having plants and having
diamonds and having Pokemoncards compared in the same video
and sort of uh contrasting itwith other um you know luxury
(08:36):
goods is suddenly veryinteresting.
Like, what if you were to mixother luxury goods into this
conversation?
Like, let's talk about LouisVuitton bags.
Louis Vuitton bags, they holdyour bags, they hold your stuff
the same way as like uh, youknow, a garbage bag or you know,
a brown paper bag if you wantedto.
(08:56):
But it's something about thedemand and the way that they're
made.
But like you can get better, youknow, made bags elsewhere, but I
guess it then it comes down tobranding.
So now branding isn't is likethis kind of extra layer.
So not to get start tuckingmyself into circles, but I
watched this really interestingvideo and it had me thinking
(09:18):
about the lab grown and naturaldiscussion in a different light,
and it also has me thinkingabout plants in like kind of
this uh capitalistic sense,which is kind of an interesting
thought, you know, quandary.
So, anyways, that's one about uhthe plant market crash video.
I thought it was veryinteresting.
(09:39):
All right, next one.
Okay, so the next one I wantedto talk about was this girl from
my uh my hometown, um, you know,Lake Placid, Saranac Lake area.
Her name is uh Sophia Kirkby.
She is a oops, she is a uhwinter Olympian.
She just competed for Team USA,and she's a women's doubles luge
(10:04):
competitor.
She actually was on the firstsled that ever competed in that
category because this was thefirst Olympics uh that that
happened.
What was really interesting tome is this girl, uh, I didn't
really know her.
Uh I I don't really know her atall.
But what was fascinating is shegoes on to be an Olympian and
(10:26):
she really took advantage of thespotlight and of, you know, the
international um, I guess,attention for, you know, just
athletes in general, the factthat her uh competition is
happening for the first time.
I really thought it was veryinteresting how she took
(10:47):
advantage of this and uh isspinning it out to then promote
a different business.
And that business is her own.
She's a ceramicist.
And I thought it was reallyinteresting, and it had me
thinking about seizing themoment and taking the momentum
that comes around, which itdoesn't come around all the
(11:08):
time.
So, what Sophia did is she kindof adopted the moniker of the
pin trading queen and shehandmade her own ceramic pins.
In case you don't know anythingabout the Olympics, uh, pin
trading, very popular.
You know, every a lot of theathletes have their own national
pins, but you can also have yourown personal pins.
(11:29):
So some people, like Snoop Dogg,who was at the Olympics, had his
own personal pins.
And if you interacted withSnoop, then you could trade him
a pin and he would put it on hislanyard, and then he would give
you one, and that was kind oflike your way of saying, Oh, I
bumped elbows with um withSnoop.
With Sophia, she made her ownand they look very different
because they're ceramic insteadof you know metal or enamel.
(11:52):
And I thought that she did sucha good job of capitalizing on
it, and she also was makingthese reels talking about how uh
she was looking for looking fora date or looking for love at
the Olympics.
Uh Valentine's Day took place atduring the Olympics, and she was
(12:16):
saying, like, hey, I'll trade apin for a date.
And it was just kind of thiscute like thing that she was
doing.
But what was really quiteinteresting along the story, uh
long and short of the story, isthat she went on and she was
very successful with growing herplatform.
Uh, she added 50,000 followers,which is that's a lot.
(12:38):
Uh she started out with I thinklike 3,000 followers before the
Olympics, and then she went outand she got her story, got
picked up a couple times.
She was posting a lot, and youknow, NBC Olympics and the
Olympics page kind of promotedthat she was this, you know,
first-time Olympian going on toum you know making these
(12:58):
handmade ceramics, and it kindof had me thinking, what is the
value in 50,000 followers ofattention?
And I think that she made uh shestruck while the iron was hot,
and what I found is veryinteresting is she's going to be
able to leverage that if shechooses to then go on to uh
(13:20):
promote her own ceramicbusiness.
And I think that that is, youknow, really the the modern, I
guess, entrepreneurial dream isyou have this opportunity, and
she went in and she really tookit, and she is using it that the
Olympics are, you know, theyended.
They ended already.
And as a result, what can shekeep with her?
(13:43):
You know, she's only an activeOlympian during the Olympics,
but she can take the followersand the attention and the
moniker and the the brand of itall and carry that forward.
It reminded me a lot of youknow, Alona Mar.
Alona Mar, she plays for the uhwomen's USA rugby sevens team, I
(14:06):
think.
I think she plays for sevens.
Uh, she is just really wellspoken, she's very cool.
Um, she's from uh Burlington,Vermont.
So as a result, uh I had livedthere for a little while.
Everybody, you know, loves herbecause she's the hometown hero.
And she did a great job ofparlaying her.
She, I think they won a silveror bronze for the first time,
(14:29):
you know, women's rugby won awon a medal at the Olympics, but
she went on and and she's stillum in the zeitgeist, or still
popular today, two years after,you know, that star could have
faded.
And it had me thinking a littlebit about what is the power of
personal brand in 2026.
I mean, 50,000 followers in2015, you could have been the
(14:54):
most popular person in the, youknow, you could you could have
moved mountains with that.
Nowadays, follower counts areare are sort of are strange, you
know?
They don't really matter a ton,but they do matter a little bit.
And it had me thinking aboutlike, if you own that brand, how
can you centralize and like umwhat is the word?
(15:16):
Like really boil it down intosomething tangible and more
valuable.
I think that's one of thereasons why you see these people
moving people onto uh Patreon,for example, or they move them
onto a secondary platform, andthat way you don't have to worry
about the algorithm kind ofgobbling you up and and making
your brand less valuable.
(15:39):
But, anyways, I thought that uhif you want to follow her,
Sophia.kirkby is her Instagramhandle.
Uh, she makes really cutecontent, and the I'm interested
to follow how she's going totake this new kind of budding
stardom and turn it intosomething more long-term.
Uh, it was just one of those uhfeelings or brands that I kind
(16:02):
of that jumped out at me,especially for the Olympics, and
I'm sort of excited to see whatshe does with it.
Um, I'd love to get a chance tomeet her and and and hear if she
had that as a plan going intoit.
Okay, next one.
On the topic of social media,and I again we've already
agreed, social media isn'treally uh everything these days,
(16:25):
and uh increasingly I'm kind ofconflicted about where social
media plays a role in my life.
I sometimes feel like uh Idefinitely am probably spending
too much time on it, and I sortof want to get away from using
social media a little bit uhright now.
It's just that it's also myticket to uh a ticket to making
(16:48):
more money and growing mywatercolor business.
But one thing I thought was veryinteresting is I kind of took
the lead from some of theseOlympians and I went on and
recently I went and created aseries of Instagram reels about
(17:08):
this event that goes on in mytown.
It's called Winter Carnival,it's nine days long, it goes
from a Friday until um thefollowing Sunday, so you know, a
week and a bit, and I love it.
I I mean, don't get me wrong, itis my favorite time of the year,
and it happens in the middle ofthe winter.
Um, there's a parade, there's atheme, you dress up every day,
(17:30):
there's live music every singleday of carnival, there's uh
themed events, there's acornhole tournament, there's uh
races, and there's all sorts offun stuff.
We build this giant ice palaceout of blocks of ice that we cut
from the from the lake, and I'mvery involved in it.
And it had me thinking a littlebit about capitalizing on the
(17:53):
moment, kind of like with uhSophia's conversation, but also
about a the idea of makingcontent that is spur of the
moment and being like the sourceof of news about a topic.
So over the you know, over thattime, I made uh over the stretch
(18:16):
of winter carnival, nine days, Imade five Instagram reels.
So I made one about the openingnight, I made one about the uh
the first weekend, I made oneabout an event I sponsor called
Artist Night at the Palace.
So that's like one of the eventsthat I run and I kind of
document myself watercoloring inyou know negative 10 degrees
(18:39):
Fahrenheit weather.
Uh, I did one about the rest ofthat week, and then I did one
about the parade that happens onSaturday.
And that content has done betterthan I've ever done before.
I had a 40% reach more tonon-followers than I had any
(19:00):
other time.
And what was really interestingis I went on to find the I dove
into the analytics of it alittle bit, and the content that
did really well was absolutelythe reels.
But the way I changed my contentthroughout the week had me sort
(19:20):
of thinking about how could ajewelry store or a business
capitalize on an event in theirtown or their city and be this
cool like, how can you makeyourself a source of of
interest?
And what I was realizing is as Iwent through the week, more and
(19:41):
more people would share thereels with each other to be
like, hey, have you seen thisone?
And you can see that on youryour metrics, you can see people
sharing that information, uh,sharing your reels with others,
and it kind of each time they doit, there's like a little bump.
And I think that that is anunderrated aspect.
(20:04):
I sometimes wonder, are wereaching too wide?
I think that one time Punchmarkhad this client who wanted to uh
compete globally with likeBrilliant Earth.
And I remember we counseledthem, we were like, you know,
it's really hard to uh competewith that brand.
And they were like, no, we wantto be a national brand.
(20:28):
And I remember it's it's so hardbecause when you're a generic
national, or when you're anational brand, you become
generic.
But it's almost like my my townis like 4,000 people, and if you
can saturate that 4,000, I dothink it spills over, and then
you have this much more uhimmediate splash point, even,
(20:52):
with your content, as opposed toreaching broader and hoping it
coalesces around some, you know,crystallizes around some.
And I thought that it was one ofthe first times I ever
successfully made a series aboutwinter carnival or like about an
event and had the follow-throughsort of build into like a
(21:15):
crescendo.
Did it turn into like sales?
Well, that's that's a hardquestion.
I did do some sales, you know,and I sell some stuff that is
specific to Winter Carnival, andI probably could have done a
better job promoting theproducts better, but I think
that it really did a great jobof brand.
(21:35):
Um, I don't know, stabilizationor building, you know, and then
the content you make afterwardsis a result of that, uh, is
better.
But one thing I will actuallymention is so I'm a member of
this guild.
This guild is a gallery, andwhat I was doing for some of my
content is I was tagging them asa collaborator.
(22:00):
On some of the reels, and as aresult, it would appear in their
feed.
What's really interesting is theguild has then gone on to gain,
like not an exaggeration, like350 new followers in the last um
less than a month.
And it's because a lot of thepeople that my content was
(22:20):
reaching was like, oh, let'sfollow this gallery, and it's
more of like a business.
Mine is in my personal accountis more of like a person, and
they wanted to follow a businesseither instead of or in addition
to my account.
So kind of like a funny knock-onuh effect.
My I also run the guild'sInstagram account, and so
(22:43):
sometimes I would go in and Iwould look and I'd be like, Why
is this account gaining you know50 followers a day and I'm
getting, you know, gainingwhatever?
It doesn't followers don'treally matter.
It's a vanity metric a lot ofthe times.
But I will say it was kind offunny to see it actually
working.
Um, just another kind of topic Ithought was uh really quite
(23:05):
interesting.
The other thing I thought waswas worth mentioning is that the
stories really do matter quite abit.
Uh the stories of the um thatyou share with the reels.
So I would post the reel andthen I would immediately share
it to my story, and I would taga couple of accounts if they
were mentioned, and getting thatpickup is actually was very
(23:28):
effective.
So just that I mentioned thatone.
Kind of cool.
Okay, and then the last one.
This one was kind of like alittle flyer, and this is one of
the first times I feel like Igot tricked a little bit, but
I'm not mad.
I went to a it's gonna soundcringe, but don't judge me.
(23:49):
A singles night.
I went to a singles night at abookstore, which is like, wow,
Mike, you really uh you'rereally trying your hardest,
aren't you?
I went to a singles night, myfriend put it on, she works at
the bookstore, and thisbookstore did a release for a
book.
It the singles night was like afew days before Valentine's Day,
(24:11):
and I think that it washopefully getting people to
mingle with each other and likemake new friends or or find a
find a lover, that kind ofthing.
But to walk you through it, Ibought this ticket because my
friend was putting it on and Iwanted to support her, and the
ticket was really expensive, uh,relatively to around here.
(24:32):
It was like a$25 ticket.
And I remember I was like, wow,that's kind of expensive for a
singles night.
But what's really funny is itcomes with the fact that you
also get a free book at thesingles event.
And I go, I went to the event,and when you're there, they have
(24:55):
your book set aside for you.
They had you get a free beer ingoing, and the author for the
book was was there.
And I got a chance to speak withthe author.
The book uh in question was, youknow, like a romance book, and
so it kind of fits the theme,and it's you know, it's a little
bit cornball and whatever.
(25:17):
But the author was there andkind of did a little talk and
was like, hey, thanks so muchfor coming, and sort of made it
feel like an event.
We all stood around and there'sdifferent people there, and I
got a chance to meet some newpeople.
But when I was leaving theevent, I I got my book and then
I had the author sign the book.
(25:38):
Uh, and as I was leaving, I waslike, Oh, they tricked me.
This was actually a bookrelease, and it was branded
differently because, you know,who really cares about a book
release sometimes, you know.
I I don't know if I would Iwouldn't have gone if it was
just a book release, but theybranded it as like singles
(26:00):
night, free beer, you know, comein and get the chance to meet an
author, you get a free book withit, let's talk about the book.
But the fact is it was actuallyjust a book release, and it sort
of had me thinking about how canwe market different events at
our stores better than just whatthey are.
(26:22):
Does that make sense?
Like, how can you be like uhit's a Black Friday sale, but
how can you actually likereframe it to be like, oh, it's
um, or it's a wish list um eventwhere you put stuff on your wish
list.
Like, I think changing it to be,you know, try out a glam uh
(26:42):
fitting day in making it so thatit's like an experience in the
less about your kind of Trojanhorse in the commerce aspect of
things.
I thought it was just a uh aninteresting, uh like I got I got
scammed, but I'm not mad.
I learned something.
You know, could you do somethingwhere you have like a maybe a
(27:08):
luxury or some type of brandfitting, you know, a suit try-on
event, and people could try onlike fancy suits, and then the
jewelry is there, and you cantry on the jewelry and then do
like a photo shoot.
But man, I I'd probably buy apiece of jewelry from that if
it, you know, really fit thelook and I buy the rest of the
(27:29):
look.
That's the sort of thing I waslike, wow, how could you Trojan
horse in some jewelry into theseother events?
You know, like the idea of I'veheard about people sometimes
memoing or allowing brides towear fancy jewelry to their
wedding, in addition to thejewelry that they sold them to
(27:51):
sort of kind of glam up theirtheir wedding day look, and then
offering them like a really gooddeal on that piece of jewelry
because maybe they've grown uhyou know uh attached to it.
Anyways, I got scammed into acall and into a book release,
and uh, I'm not even mad.
So, all of that to say, there'ssome really interesting, you
(28:14):
know, market and marketing kindof conversations to be had if
you look outside of the lens ofjewelry.
Uh, I thought about adding inhere and like talking about the
fact that, hey, gold is reallymainstream, and I had my friends
ask me about gold uh unpromptedrecently, and like what does
that conversation mean for therest of the jewelry store, uh
(28:36):
jewelry industry if people arehaving these regular
conversations?
But I was more interested in thefact that people are still
finding new and different waysto leverage the internet and to
leverage their own creativitybeyond just putting out a flyer
and saying, hey, we have goodstuff, come buy it.
(28:58):
You know, it's just it's stillkind of inspiring.
If the fact that I can beinspired by, you know,
capitalistic marketingtechniques, um, maybe I've
jumped the shark a little bit,but at the same time, I do find
kind of find it exciting thatpeople are creative out there,
even if it means um creative ina different way.
(29:20):
So, enough of that.
Long rambling talk.
I appreciate you listening.
This is one of thoseconversations, this is so
indulgent for me to be able toshare this with you.
I am really glad that you areall with me and able to listen.
We had a uh we've had a greatstart to this season.
Uh, it's been our most popularseason so far by a long shot,
(29:40):
and it wouldn't be possiblewithout all of you listening to
me talk about plants.
So thanks everybody, and we'llbe back next week, Tuesday, with
another episode.
Cheers.
Bye.
All right, everybody.
That's the end of the show.
Thanks so much for listening.
This episode was brought to youby Punchmark and produced and
(30:03):
hosted by me, Michael Burpo.
This episode was edited by PaulSuarez with music by Ross
Cochran.
Don't forget to rate the podcaston Spotify and Apple Podcasts,
and leave us feedback onpunchmark.com slash loop.
That's L O U P E.
Thanks, 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.
And this week we're going solo.
This time I wanted to talkabout, I have four topics that I
think are very interesting, andthey're all sort of tangentially
related to our normal topics forIn the Loop.
(00:24):
They're all about, you know, analmost like an allegory for the
lab versus natural diamond kindof conversation, framed in a
different way.
I also saw this girl from myhometown who went to the
Olympics, and she used her ownplatform on Instagram to launch
a different business, and I kindof wanted to just share it.
(00:44):
It's just topics like that thatI found to be very interesting
and compelling, and they standout enough to me that I thought
if I put them together that theywould be interesting for someone
to listen to.
I did one of these episodes backin I think November, and it did
really well.
I think that people sort ofenjoy when I just kind of yap a
little bit instead of having areal strict interview like I
(01:07):
have been for the past fewinterviews, and I wanted to, you
know, share some things that Ithink are interesting.
Alright, let's jump into it andenjoy.
SPEAKER_01 (01:20):
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
(01:41):
been friends way before becomingclients.
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It's never too late to transformyour business and stitch
(02:02):
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_00 (02:21):
Alright, before we jump into this, I gotta
apologize.
I am a little bit sick, asseemingly everybody is, so my
voice is extra bassy.
So do apologize.
The first thing I wanted to talkabout was the rare plant market
crashing, which you're probablylike, wow, Mike, that is a bit
of a reach for uh the connectionto in the loop.
(02:44):
But just give me a second toexplain.
So, first of all, to set up thestory, I am really into plants.
I've I have a lot of plants inmy studio.
Um, in my house, I have a spacethat has uh it's almost kind of
like has surrounded by windows.
And in each of all the windows,I have tons and tons of plants.
I have a special affinity forMonstera, uh especially Monstera
(03:06):
Delioso, which is the uh youknow, the Swiss cheese plant,
the big, big, enormous leaveswith the beautiful inner
fenestration holes.
And I've always kind of beeninterested in expanding my
collection, and I, you know,love giving out the cuttings.
And I recently watched thisYouTube video that was titled, I
(03:27):
accidentally crashed the rareplant market.
And it's by this creator, Plantsin Jars, which I've actually
never watched her contentbefore.
And this episode found its wayinto my feed on Instagram by
someone reacting to it, actuallycalling it a lie.
And then I went in and I wantedto do my own research.
(03:48):
The long and the short of theepisode is this girl found a
way, or I guess she applied amethod to use tissue culture for
these very expensive, rare,quote unquote rare plants in
order to clone them.
(04:09):
And then if she wanted to, shecould have sold them.
But if something is uh rare, youshouldn't be able to mass
produce it.
And to bring into like anotherkind of topic, she actually
compares a lot of things to it.
One of them is lab-growndiamonds, so like if you can
(04:30):
produce them ad nauseum, thenyou can drive down the price.
And as the popularity goes up,so too does the demand, so does
the production, which then racesto the bottom.
What's fascinating is also itjust like she compares all of
these different types of luxuryniche businesses.
(04:50):
And I don't want to spend toomuch time getting into each of
these topics because I have awhole episode to do, but what I
found fascinating is that shetalks about how if the means of
reproduction are enabled toindividuals, and even
individuals could be individualcompanies, instead of one thing,
(05:14):
then that value suddenly amatter of um people agreeing on
the value.
That's a terrible way todescribe it.
But what I thought was veryfascinating is that she was
saying that, you know, thecommon discourse around her um,
you know, tissue culture plantsand these what you might call
(05:37):
natural plants, is that in somesome people are saying, like,
oh, the natural ones are betterbecause they grow better.
And she was like, Well, that'snot true because they are, you
know, scientifically the exactsame plant.
So how could one grow betterthan the other?
And she goes on to describe, youknow, lab grown versus natural
diamonds.
Uh, you know, some people saythat some of them shine better,
(05:59):
or they are naturally better.
And she makes a very valid pointwhere she's like, well, how can
that be true when scientificallythey are identical?
So it's almost like you need todecide whether or not you're
going to agree with the scienceof it all.
What I thought was also veryinteresting is I have uh a
(06:21):
nostalgia for uh Pokemon cards.
And in case you have no ideawhat I'm talking about, Pokemon
cards and even Magic theGathering cards are these uh
trading cards that you know cameout in the 90s and now they're
still existing today.
And especially for Pokemoncards, they actually hold
seemingly their value.
(06:42):
But the thing that's fascinatingis there's no inherent value to
them other than what is agreedupon, as is true for other
things.
What I found to be different,and I kind of was grappling as I
I watched this this video likethree times, is when you talk
about Pokemon cards, uh, thecompany that produces the
(07:04):
trading card game, they actuallykeep some of these prices um up
because of the fact that theyhave agreed to not crash the
market.
So, for example, here's anhere's one.
The most valuable, one of themost valuable Pokemon cards is a
Charizard, and the Charizard isfrom you know the 1990s, late
(07:28):
1990s, early 2000s, and there'sspecific values and rarities to
them because of one, how oldthey are, two, because there's
demand for them.
And since there's a limitedsupply, the demand keeps it up.
If the company, the Pokemoncompany that produces these
cards, if they were to releasethat card again and it would be
(07:51):
identical to the original one,the value would come down,
though the production would goup.
And I thought it was veryinteresting because why is the
value dependent on the number ofthem?
And it's like, oh, I guess it'ssupply and demand.
But when you go to it and youhave these plants, anybody can
(08:14):
make these.
She actually sells her own um,you know, plants in jars starter
kit on her website.
And it was just one of thosethings having plants and having
diamonds and having Pokemoncards compared in the same video
and sort of uh contrasting itwith other um you know luxury
(08:36):
goods is suddenly veryinteresting.
Like, what if you were to mixother luxury goods into this
conversation?
Like, let's talk about LouisVuitton bags.
Louis Vuitton bags, they holdyour bags, they hold your stuff
the same way as like uh, youknow, a garbage bag or you know,
a brown paper bag if you wantedto.
(08:56):
But it's something about thedemand and the way that they're
made.
But like you can get better, youknow, made bags elsewhere, but I
guess it then it comes down tobranding.
So now branding isn't is likethis kind of extra layer.
So not to get start tuckingmyself into circles, but I
watched this really interestingvideo and it had me thinking
(09:18):
about the lab grown and naturaldiscussion in a different light,
and it also has me thinkingabout plants in like kind of
this uh capitalistic sense,which is kind of an interesting
thought, you know, quandary.
So, anyways, that's one about uhthe plant market crash video.
I thought it was veryinteresting.
(09:39):
All right, next one.
Okay, so the next one I wantedto talk about was this girl from
my uh my hometown, um, you know,Lake Placid, Saranac Lake area.
Her name is uh Sophia Kirkby.
She is a oops, she is a uhwinter Olympian.
She just competed for Team USA,and she's a women's doubles luge
(10:04):
competitor.
She actually was on the firstsled that ever competed in that
category because this was thefirst Olympics uh that that
happened.
What was really interesting tome is this girl, uh, I didn't
really know her.
Uh I I don't really know her atall.
But what was fascinating is shegoes on to be an Olympian and
(10:26):
she really took advantage of thespotlight and of, you know, the
international um, I guess,attention for, you know, just
athletes in general, the factthat her uh competition is
happening for the first time.
I really thought it was veryinteresting how she took
(10:47):
advantage of this and uh isspinning it out to then promote
a different business.
And that business is her own.
She's a ceramicist.
And I thought it was reallyinteresting, and it had me
thinking about seizing themoment and taking the momentum
that comes around, which itdoesn't come around all the
(11:08):
time.
So, what Sophia did is she kindof adopted the moniker of the
pin trading queen and shehandmade her own ceramic pins.
In case you don't know anythingabout the Olympics, uh, pin
trading, very popular.
You know, every a lot of theathletes have their own national
pins, but you can also have yourown personal pins.
(11:29):
So some people, like Snoop Dogg,who was at the Olympics, had his
own personal pins.
And if you interacted withSnoop, then you could trade him
a pin and he would put it on hislanyard, and then he would give
you one, and that was kind oflike your way of saying, Oh, I
bumped elbows with um withSnoop.
With Sophia, she made her ownand they look very different
because they're ceramic insteadof you know metal or enamel.
(11:52):
And I thought that she did sucha good job of capitalizing on
it, and she also was makingthese reels talking about how uh
she was looking for looking fora date or looking for love at
the Olympics.
Uh Valentine's Day took place atduring the Olympics, and she was
(12:16):
saying, like, hey, I'll trade apin for a date.
And it was just kind of thiscute like thing that she was
doing.
But what was really quiteinteresting along the story, uh
long and short of the story, isthat she went on and she was
very successful with growing herplatform.
Uh, she added 50,000 followers,which is that's a lot.
(12:38):
Uh she started out with I thinklike 3,000 followers before the
Olympics, and then she went outand she got her story, got
picked up a couple times.
She was posting a lot, and youknow, NBC Olympics and the
Olympics page kind of promotedthat she was this, you know,
first-time Olympian going on toum you know making these
(12:58):
handmade ceramics, and it kindof had me thinking, what is the
value in 50,000 followers ofattention?
And I think that she made uh shestruck while the iron was hot,
and what I found is veryinteresting is she's going to be
able to leverage that if shechooses to then go on to uh
(13:20):
promote her own ceramicbusiness.
And I think that that is, youknow, really the the modern, I
guess, entrepreneurial dream isyou have this opportunity, and
she went in and she really tookit, and she is using it that the
Olympics are, you know, theyended.
They ended already.
And as a result, what can shekeep with her?
(13:43):
You know, she's only an activeOlympian during the Olympics,
but she can take the followersand the attention and the
moniker and the the brand of itall and carry that forward.
It reminded me a lot of youknow, Alona Mar.
Alona Mar, she plays for the uhwomen's USA rugby sevens team, I
(14:06):
think.
I think she plays for sevens.
Uh, she is just really wellspoken, she's very cool.
Um, she's from uh Burlington,Vermont.
So as a result, uh I had livedthere for a little while.
Everybody, you know, loves herbecause she's the hometown hero.
And she did a great job ofparlaying her.
She, I think they won a silveror bronze for the first time,
(14:29):
you know, women's rugby won awon a medal at the Olympics, but
she went on and and she's stillum in the zeitgeist, or still
popular today, two years after,you know, that star could have
faded.
And it had me thinking a littlebit about what is the power of
personal brand in 2026.
I mean, 50,000 followers in2015, you could have been the
(14:54):
most popular person in the, youknow, you could you could have
moved mountains with that.
Nowadays, follower counts areare are sort of are strange, you
know?
They don't really matter a ton,but they do matter a little bit.
And it had me thinking aboutlike, if you own that brand, how
can you centralize and like umwhat is the word?
(15:16):
Like really boil it down intosomething tangible and more
valuable.
I think that's one of thereasons why you see these people
moving people onto uh Patreon,for example, or they move them
onto a secondary platform, andthat way you don't have to worry
about the algorithm kind ofgobbling you up and and making
your brand less valuable.
(15:39):
But, anyways, I thought that uhif you want to follow her,
Sophia.kirkby is her Instagramhandle.
Uh, she makes really cutecontent, and the I'm interested
to follow how she's going totake this new kind of budding
stardom and turn it intosomething more long-term.
Uh, it was just one of those uhfeelings or brands that I kind
(16:02):
of that jumped out at me,especially for the Olympics, and
I'm sort of excited to see whatshe does with it.
Um, I'd love to get a chance tomeet her and and and hear if she
had that as a plan going intoit.
Okay, next one.
On the topic of social media,and I again we've already
agreed, social media isn'treally uh everything these days,
(16:25):
and uh increasingly I'm kind ofconflicted about where social
media plays a role in my life.
I sometimes feel like uh Idefinitely am probably spending
too much time on it, and I sortof want to get away from using
social media a little bit uhright now.
It's just that it's also myticket to uh a ticket to making
(16:48):
more money and growing mywatercolor business.
But one thing I thought was veryinteresting is I kind of took
the lead from some of theseOlympians and I went on and
recently I went and created aseries of Instagram reels about
(17:08):
this event that goes on in mytown.
It's called Winter Carnival,it's nine days long, it goes
from a Friday until um thefollowing Sunday, so you know, a
week and a bit, and I love it.
I I mean, don't get me wrong, itis my favorite time of the year,
and it happens in the middle ofthe winter.
Um, there's a parade, there's atheme, you dress up every day,
(17:30):
there's live music every singleday of carnival, there's uh
themed events, there's acornhole tournament, there's uh
races, and there's all sorts offun stuff.
We build this giant ice palaceout of blocks of ice that we cut
from the from the lake, and I'mvery involved in it.
And it had me thinking a littlebit about capitalizing on the
(17:53):
moment, kind of like with uhSophia's conversation, but also
about a the idea of makingcontent that is spur of the
moment and being like the sourceof of news about a topic.
So over the you know, over thattime, I made uh over the stretch
(18:16):
of winter carnival, nine days, Imade five Instagram reels.
So I made one about the openingnight, I made one about the uh
the first weekend, I made oneabout an event I sponsor called
Artist Night at the Palace.
So that's like one of the eventsthat I run and I kind of
document myself watercoloring inyou know negative 10 degrees
(18:39):
Fahrenheit weather.
Uh, I did one about the rest ofthat week, and then I did one
about the parade that happens onSaturday.
And that content has done betterthan I've ever done before.
I had a 40% reach more tonon-followers than I had any
(19:00):
other time.
And what was really interestingis I went on to find the I dove
into the analytics of it alittle bit, and the content that
did really well was absolutelythe reels.
But the way I changed my contentthroughout the week had me sort
(19:20):
of thinking about how could ajewelry store or a business
capitalize on an event in theirtown or their city and be this
cool like, how can you makeyourself a source of of
interest?
And what I was realizing is as Iwent through the week, more and
(19:41):
more people would share thereels with each other to be
like, hey, have you seen thisone?
And you can see that on youryour metrics, you can see people
sharing that information, uh,sharing your reels with others,
and it kind of each time they doit, there's like a little bump.
And I think that that is anunderrated aspect.
(20:04):
I sometimes wonder, are wereaching too wide?
I think that one time Punchmarkhad this client who wanted to uh
compete globally with likeBrilliant Earth.
And I remember we counseledthem, we were like, you know,
it's really hard to uh competewith that brand.
And they were like, no, we wantto be a national brand.
(20:28):
And I remember it's it's so hardbecause when you're a generic
national, or when you're anational brand, you become
generic.
But it's almost like my my townis like 4,000 people, and if you
can saturate that 4,000, I dothink it spills over, and then
you have this much more uhimmediate splash point, even,
(20:52):
with your content, as opposed toreaching broader and hoping it
coalesces around some, you know,crystallizes around some.
And I thought that it was one ofthe first times I ever
successfully made a series aboutwinter carnival or like about an
event and had the follow-throughsort of build into like a
(21:15):
crescendo.
Did it turn into like sales?
Well, that's that's a hardquestion.
I did do some sales, you know,and I sell some stuff that is
specific to Winter Carnival, andI probably could have done a
better job promoting theproducts better, but I think
that it really did a great jobof brand.
(21:35):
Um, I don't know, stabilizationor building, you know, and then
the content you make afterwardsis a result of that, uh, is
better.
But one thing I will actuallymention is so I'm a member of
this guild.
This guild is a gallery, andwhat I was doing for some of my
content is I was tagging them asa collaborator.
(22:00):
On some of the reels, and as aresult, it would appear in their
feed.
What's really interesting is theguild has then gone on to gain,
like not an exaggeration, like350 new followers in the last um
less than a month.
And it's because a lot of thepeople that my content was
(22:20):
reaching was like, oh, let'sfollow this gallery, and it's
more of like a business.
Mine is in my personal accountis more of like a person, and
they wanted to follow a businesseither instead of or in addition
to my account.
So kind of like a funny knock-onuh effect.
My I also run the guild'sInstagram account, and so
(22:43):
sometimes I would go in and Iwould look and I'd be like, Why
is this account gaining you know50 followers a day and I'm
getting, you know, gainingwhatever?
It doesn't followers don'treally matter.
It's a vanity metric a lot ofthe times.
But I will say it was kind offunny to see it actually
working.
Um, just another kind of topic Ithought was uh really quite
(23:05):
interesting.
The other thing I thought waswas worth mentioning is that the
stories really do matter quite abit.
Uh the stories of the um thatyou share with the reels.
So I would post the reel andthen I would immediately share
it to my story, and I would taga couple of accounts if they
were mentioned, and getting thatpickup is actually was very
(23:28):
effective.
So just that I mentioned thatone.
Kind of cool.
Okay, and then the last one.
This one was kind of like alittle flyer, and this is one of
the first times I feel like Igot tricked a little bit, but
I'm not mad.
I went to a it's gonna soundcringe, but don't judge me.
(23:49):
A singles night.
I went to a singles night at abookstore, which is like, wow,
Mike, you really uh you'rereally trying your hardest,
aren't you?
I went to a singles night, myfriend put it on, she works at
the bookstore, and thisbookstore did a release for a
book.
It the singles night was like afew days before Valentine's Day,
(24:11):
and I think that it washopefully getting people to
mingle with each other and likemake new friends or or find a
find a lover, that kind ofthing.
But to walk you through it, Ibought this ticket because my
friend was putting it on and Iwanted to support her, and the
ticket was really expensive, uh,relatively to around here.
(24:32):
It was like a$25 ticket.
And I remember I was like, wow,that's kind of expensive for a
singles night.
But what's really funny is itcomes with the fact that you
also get a free book at thesingles event.
And I go, I went to the event,and when you're there, they have
(24:55):
your book set aside for you.
They had you get a free beer ingoing, and the author for the
book was was there.
And I got a chance to speak withthe author.
The book uh in question was, youknow, like a romance book, and
so it kind of fits the theme,and it's you know, it's a little
bit cornball and whatever.
(25:17):
But the author was there andkind of did a little talk and
was like, hey, thanks so muchfor coming, and sort of made it
feel like an event.
We all stood around and there'sdifferent people there, and I
got a chance to meet some newpeople.
But when I was leaving theevent, I I got my book and then
I had the author sign the book.
(25:38):
Uh, and as I was leaving, I waslike, Oh, they tricked me.
This was actually a bookrelease, and it was branded
differently because, you know,who really cares about a book
release sometimes, you know.
I I don't know if I would Iwouldn't have gone if it was
just a book release, but theybranded it as like singles
(26:00):
night, free beer, you know, comein and get the chance to meet an
author, you get a free book withit, let's talk about the book.
But the fact is it was actuallyjust a book release, and it sort
of had me thinking about how canwe market different events at
our stores better than just whatthey are.
(26:22):
Does that make sense?
Like, how can you be like uhit's a Black Friday sale, but
how can you actually likereframe it to be like, oh, it's
um, or it's a wish list um eventwhere you put stuff on your wish
list.
Like, I think changing it to be,you know, try out a glam uh
(26:42):
fitting day in making it so thatit's like an experience in the
less about your kind of Trojanhorse in the commerce aspect of
things.
I thought it was just a uh aninteresting, uh like I got I got
scammed, but I'm not mad.
I learned something.
You know, could you do somethingwhere you have like a maybe a
(27:08):
luxury or some type of brandfitting, you know, a suit try-on
event, and people could try onlike fancy suits, and then the
jewelry is there, and you cantry on the jewelry and then do
like a photo shoot.
But man, I I'd probably buy apiece of jewelry from that if
it, you know, really fit thelook and I buy the rest of the
(27:29):
look.
That's the sort of thing I waslike, wow, how could you Trojan
horse in some jewelry into theseother events?
You know, like the idea of I'veheard about people sometimes
memoing or allowing brides towear fancy jewelry to their
wedding, in addition to thejewelry that they sold them to
(27:51):
sort of kind of glam up theirtheir wedding day look, and then
offering them like a really gooddeal on that piece of jewelry
because maybe they've grown uhyou know uh attached to it.
Anyways, I got scammed into acall and into a book release,
and uh, I'm not even mad.
So, all of that to say, there'ssome really interesting, you
(28:14):
know, market and marketing kindof conversations to be had if
you look outside of the lens ofjewelry.
Uh, I thought about adding inhere and like talking about the
fact that, hey, gold is reallymainstream, and I had my friends
ask me about gold uh unpromptedrecently, and like what does
that conversation mean for therest of the jewelry store, uh
(28:36):
jewelry industry if people arehaving these regular
conversations?
But I was more interested in thefact that people are still
finding new and different waysto leverage the internet and to
leverage their own creativitybeyond just putting out a flyer
and saying, hey, we have goodstuff, come buy it.
(28:58):
You know, it's just it's stillkind of inspiring.
If the fact that I can beinspired by, you know,
capitalistic marketingtechniques, um, maybe I've
jumped the shark a little bit,but at the same time, I do find
kind of find it exciting thatpeople are creative out there,
even if it means um creative ina different way.
(29:20):
So, enough of that.
Long rambling talk.
I appreciate you listening.
This is one of thoseconversations, this is so
indulgent for me to be able toshare this with you.
I am really glad that you areall with me and able to listen.
We had a uh we've had a greatstart to this season.
Uh, it's been our most popularseason so far by a long shot,
(29:40):
and it wouldn't be possiblewithout all of you listening to
me talk about plants.
So thanks everybody, and we'llbe back next week, Tuesday, with
another episode.
Cheers.
Bye.
All right, everybody.
That's the end of the show.
Thanks so much for listening.
This episode was brought to youby Punchmark and produced and
(30:03):
hosted by me, Michael Burpo.
This episode was edited by PaulSuarez with music by Ross
Cochran.
Don't forget to rate the podcaston Spotify and Apple Podcasts,
and leave us feedback onpunchmark.com slash loop.
That's L O U P E.
Thanks, we'll be back next week,Tuesday, with another episode.
Cheers.
Bye.
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