July 28, 2026 • 19 mins
Mike is solo this week while everyone’s at RJO and IJO, so he's running through five jewelry industry topics that have been on his mind. I talk about faster fulfillment through dropshipping, the real-world ripple effects of tariffs, and why seemingly small website choices can make or break sales.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
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.
And this week I'm doing a littlequick episode.
Everybody and their mother areout at RJO and IJO, and as a
result, I get all left on mylonesome in upstate New York.
And I'm talking about fivejewelry industry topics that are
(00:25):
of interest to me.
This is everything from stuffworking at a punchmark and
things that affect me on aday-to-day, as well as things
I've been talking about, becauseas I spend more time around my
hometown, people start to learnthat I work in jewelry, and when
they have questions aboutjewelry, sometimes they ask me,
which is kind of cool.
And so these are five that I'vebeen thinking about.
I hope you enjoy.
SPEAKER_00 (00:56):
Our mission reaches way beyond technology.
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
been friends way before becomingclients.
Punchmark's own success comesfrom the fact that we have a
much deeper need and obligationto help our friends succeed.
(01:19):
Whether you're looking forbetter e-commerce performance,
business growth, or campaignsthat drive traffic and sales,
PunchMark's website andmarketing services were made
just for you.
It's never too late to transformyour business and stitch
together your digital andphysical worlds in a way that
achieves tremendous growth andresults.
Schedule a guided demo today atpunchmark.com slash go.
(01:43):
And now back to the show.
SPEAKER_01 (01:50):
Okay, like I said in the intro, here are five Julia
industry topics that have methinking.
Some of them are personal, someof them are industry specific,
and some of them are more orless uh global.
So without further ado, let'sget into this episode.
We're rolling out Stellardropshipping as an option.
(02:11):
Uh, it's actually gonna probablygo out literally on the day this
episode goes out, and that'skind of a big deal.
Dropshipping is one of thosebuzzwords that I have heard
literally since I have gotteninto the industry, and I don't
know, I feel like no one hasever been able to live it up.
It's always been like one ofthose white whales, and one of
(02:33):
those funny things that we'vetalked about doing it, and we
have done it with uh, forexample, Revelation and
CarrotWise with their ringbuilder.
We set up a um a drop shippingsystem for them, and then we
were able to expand it to um useStullar.
And Stular is obviously the onthe forefront of the jewelry
(02:53):
industry, and what this will dois allow people to buy stuff off
of jewelers' websites, even ifthey don't have it in stock, and
have it go, the order be sentdirectly to Stular, and then
they would package it and printout a receipt with the jeweler's
um, you know, logo and brandingon the on the receipt, and then
fulfill the the order, put it ina box, and then ship it directly
(03:17):
to the uh shopper.
Why is this a big deal?
Well, the way that the premiumvendor program works currently,
one of the pitfalls has alwaysbeen let's just say you order a
pair of diamond studs from me,and they're very specific, uh,
and they're from this greatbrand that I carry.
And I don't have those specificones because on the premium
vendor feed that I carry,they're included, but I just
(03:37):
might not have them in stock atmy store when they're ordered.
Well, uh, the you'd have toplace the order with the vendor.
The product would have to comein the mail to your store, you'd
have to unpack it, inspect it,you know, uh repackage it, and
then ship it out.
That can take up to I alwayssaid seven days because I think
that's about how long it takes.
(03:59):
But that means that you have tobuild in that fulfillment period
to accommodate for that.
So that can be like, you know,uh buy today, get it in 14 to 21
days.
And I gotta be so real, it's abit of a turnoff for shoppers
when they see 14 to 21 days oror even longer.
Um, so seeing like buy today,get it in three days, that is so
(04:24):
tantalizing, especially for likeyou know, jewelry can be a
little bit of an impulse or alast-minute um, you know, gift
idea.
I'm hoping that when people turnthis on, they'll be able to uh
take this and then like havelike a category on their page,
which is probably just gonna bestaller, a category on their
page that's like um get it uhlike one day shipping or get it
(04:49):
within three day shipping,whatever the the the turnaround
is gonna be, and basicallymarket to that landing page.
And I think that would bepretty, I don't know, pretty
interesting and like a bigleverage point.
Uh it's something we've neverbeen able to uh help with and
and no one has.
And now I think we're the firstones to the industry, a
(05:10):
punchmark is uh to to bringreally strong drop shipping to a
website.
Um, so I'm pretty excited aboutthat.
Okay, next.
Uh Canadian tariffs.
I can't believe it.
I'm having another episode abouttariffs.
I thought I had stopped.
No, and these things age aboutas well as uh I don't I don't
(05:32):
know, broccoli in your fridge.
They go bad pretty quickly, butuh Canadian tariffs are they
just rolled them out at 50%.
And Brazil has like, I thinkit's at like uh 20%, at least
that's what they were talkingabout.
And but I mean by the time thiscomes out, it'll probably have
changed, but still that iscrazy.
Um why am I bringing up that uhtariffs?
(05:54):
That's nothing new, but for me,tariffs are uh especially
impactful um because of like youknow, Can Am.
Um, so in Sarnak Lake, where Ilive, there is uh we're right on
the border, essentially, ofCanada um in the US.
(06:14):
We're on like the northernborder of New York.
And we get a lot of Canadiantourism, especially in the
summer, but also in the winter,they come for skiing, but in the
summer, they come down here forevents.
This weekend uh is actually theCan Am Rugby Tournament.
It's the biggest in the nation,it's the largest uh rugby
(06:35):
tournament.
Um, I think it's the oldest too.
I think it's 51 years old, andit's very impactful.
It's great for our economy.
Like, literally, all of the barsand all of the hotels are about
to have their best um, you know,one of their best weekends.
And it's like four days long,and you know, ruggers are
awesome.
I I love them.
(06:56):
And what I can tell though iswith these tariffs, you can tell
that in the last two years,there has been like a change in
the flavor.
Um, last year, I don't thinkthat there were any Canadian
teams that came for Canom Rugby,which is crazy because you know
we market to the Canadians.
(07:16):
Um, it was also at the height ofthat like whole like, you know,
uh the relations weren't greatum between the nations.
And I think that people justwent elsewhere.
And I think that this year Iwould be surprised if we see
that again.
Um, you know, it's very easy tosay these like oh uh tariffs,
(07:39):
they don't really impact you,but it just is the feeling and
the flavor in the air sometimeswhen you go and you start to
have these like mixers betweenthe the nations, and you can
definitely tell that like um alot of the Canadians didn't
really appreciate uh some of thethings said about them, and I
definitely have noticed thatthere are fewer Canadians that
(08:00):
have made the trek in the lasttwo years as a result.
Um, yeah, I won't get into ittoo much.
Obviously, it's a little bit ofa delicate subject sometimes,
but uh I I can only imagine howit's gonna affect jewelry,
especially with Canada's thecountry that we have the second
most clients in, uh, after theUS.
So I don't know how um howthat'll shake out, but it's
(08:20):
something I've been thinkingabout.
Alright.
We are in the process of rollingout a feature that I am almost
afraid for us to roll out.
And let me explain.
We're in the process of weinternally launched navigation
editor for our websites.
Navigation editor, so in caseyou don't know what your
(08:43):
navigation is, navigation is thetop part of your website.
There's the header, and the navis usually the list of main
links that are on yournavigation.
Um up until now, you've neverbeen able to edit your
navigation without opening up aticket.
If you open a ticket and tell uswhat you want, we'll do it for
(09:04):
you.
But until now, we haven't kindof given that control back to
the retailer.
I have sometimes thought, oh, weshould do this.
It's not like we didn't have thetechnical capabilities for it.
It's just the quickest way torender your website absolutely
unusable is by messing up thenavigation.
(09:25):
It's how you get everywhere.
However, we built out this tooland it is super user-friendly.
But navs are just inherentlykind of complex.
And it's one of those things inuser experience design where
it's you're not supposed to uhfear what can be done with your
(09:47):
tool, but I sort of am afraidthat people are going to use it
and they're going to just makedumb decisions with their
website.
No offense to the retailerslistening.
I like think that maybe I knowunderstand like the navigation
better, but there's like no onestopping you from just adding a
ton of nav navigation links,which is not good, or adding or
(10:08):
removing a bunch of yournavigation links, which is
obviously not good, or uhrenaming a whole bunch of stuff
and making them really longwords, which is not good.
Uh, there's a lot of ways thatthis can go poorly when a
retailer has or uh you know auser, you might say, has un I
(10:31):
don't know, no real guardrails.
But the thing is, it's like,okay, Michael, why don't you
just build guardrails?
It's not as simple as you thinkto say to do that.
You're probably like, oh, justmake it so that like there's a
character limit on your um onyour nav links, and it's uh to
you know, so you can't put likeshop engagement rings and bridal
(10:54):
jewelry as one long nav link.
That's obviously not good.
But when you start putting inthese guardrails, you start
making things inflexible, andmaybe we want the flexibility.
It's I hope I'm wrong, but Icould see people using this and
going crazy with it, and then uslike, I don't know, like turning
(11:14):
it back off because uh I don'tknow.
I'm I'm worried that you'regonna do something stupid with
it.
Um, no offense to anybodylistening.
You aren't the ones I'm talkingabout.
But I just think that when yougive people all the control,
it's like we don't allow you to,I don't know, write your own
database or something like that.
Because like, is there one ortwo or three retailers that
(11:36):
would probably like find a greatand useful way to use that that
tool?
Yes.
But like also one mistyped wordor variable literally bricks
your entire website, andsuddenly you're like, Well, why
hasn't anyone bought anythingoff my website in in six months?
And then we pull it up, and it'slike, oh yeah, you um you added
(11:57):
this thing, and it makes theload times impossible.
And it's like, oh, why didn'tyou stop me from doing that?
And I'm like, I don't know, Ididn't think you would do that.
Uh, you see what I'm kind ofdiscussing.
We did something similar to thatwhen we uh built our page
builder tool, page builder.
Uh so we built the second one.
Me and Dan, um, that wasactually my my big project.
(12:19):
I I worked remotely back in 2019from uh from Amsterdam in the
Netherlands, and Dan assigned mea big project to work on when I
wouldn't have service.
Um, sometimes I'd be on trains.
And my big project was designingum page builder.
And it was, I think I considermyself, I I did a pretty good
(12:40):
job.
And what's funny about it is wegave so many features and tools
in it that some one of like thepieces of advice or um feedback
we got on it is like it's toocomprehensive.
And some people told us, like, Iwish you would make it um you
know more simple.
And it's that's kind of just oneof those feedbacks.
One of the ways you can go ishave it be um too complex, and
(13:03):
sometimes you make it too um toosimple and and and and
straightforward.
So it's a real balancing act,and I'm unsure about the nav
editor.
I'm hoping that I am going to beexcited and pleased, and
everyone's going to play reallynice with their navs.
Um you never know.
I hope I hope it goes smoothly.
(13:25):
Okay, next.
We're at gold at I don't know,have you checked the price of
gold lately?
Price of gold is at as of thisrecording.
$4,071.20.
And I looked for what the lowestit's been year to date, and from
what I can see, the lowest goldgot was$4,008.
(13:49):
So it never, and that was onJune 25th, so about one month
ago.
So in looking, oh no, I lookeduh$3,994.
That's the lowest it got.
And it's so interesting.
I did an episode at the start ofthis year back when gold was at
$5,300.
I I thought it was gonna gotowards six.
(14:11):
Um, and now it's down to four.
I wonder what happens,especially with a lot of the
things with uh with oil.
Um, you know, in case you didn'tknow, oil is set to be really
even more expensive, especiallywith all the different things
going on at all of the differentum straights, uh, at the three
different straits.
Um, they are they couldcontribute to the price of uh a
(14:34):
barrel of oil pushing into likethe 120s or 140s.
That just seems reallyexpensive, and everything runs
on oil, it seems like.
So definitely concerning.
But I guess we're halfwaythrough the year, a little more
than halfway through the year,and I am definitely um
(14:55):
interested in in following itclosely.
I don't think it'll go down tothrees, but it could.
I think it's more likely to gotowards five than it is to
three, but uh, you know what?
I've been wrong in the past, andI could be wrong again.
And then the last, I just wantto say, I did an interview with
(15:16):
Brian Moeller and Alexis Pattisas the episode before this one,
and I thought it was so good.
I uh sometimes I do an interviewwith a president, and I I've
been very fortunate I'veinterviewed uh the president of
several different uh majorjewelry organizations, and I you
(15:38):
know they're always really niceand they're always charismatic.
Man, when I finished speakingwith Brian uh Moeller, the new
AGS president, I felt sooptimistic.
And it's like just watchingsomeone who's like a natural
leader, who is in the driver'sseat, who is ready for the task,
uh just crush it.
(15:59):
I thought he did a really goodjob.
It was so cool also having bothof them on at the same time
because we started with Alexis,and I'd had Alexis on twice
before, and Alexis uh talkedabout her time with, you know,
uh I had her on when it wasannounced she was the president.
She was the, you know, the firstum, you know, this this first
(16:22):
female, I think first femalepresident, and it was just a
kind of like a like a reallynice moment, you know.
She talked about her goals, butshe also said, you know, it's
only going to be two years.
And then I had a mid uh termcheck-in with her last year,
where we talked about everythingthat she's been working on, what
she still has to do.
And then this year it was towrap it up.
(16:42):
And we spent the first, I don'tknow, probably 10 minutes of the
podcast kind of like catcatching up with her.
And Brian, you know, sat in theback and sort of, you know,
listened and just let her haveher spotlight.
And then as the podcast shifted,Brian sort of stepped in and
Alexis let the conversationshift to the future and letting
(17:03):
him sort of uh you know take thelead.
And it was, you know, really aspecial moment to watch them
naturally cede where they aresupposed to to the you know the
correct person that should bespeaking in that moment.
And I just found it really uh, Idon't know, fulfilling.
(17:24):
Like I was doing a service tothe industry, and like I uh had
the privilege of getting achance to speak to both of them.
I thought that they were um, youknow, are just very impressive
people.
So if you haven't checked thatone out, I'd go check it out.
It's the next episode after thisone, so go do that.
Okay.
All that to be said, RJO and IJOare taking place right now, and
(17:45):
everybody is at that.
All the vendors that I have uhrecording appointments are are
are there, so I'm gonna recordwith them afterwards.
All my uh a bunch of myco-workers are there, everyone's
having a great time.
Um, so I can't wait to hear allthe tales.
And if you're there and you'relistening to this or you're
about to, make sure you go anduh check it out.
(18:06):
I can't wait.
Uh stop by the punchmark booth,check it out.
Uh, we have a lot of excitingstuff.
Mention the things I I said orthat you listened in the loop,
and I'm sure that they'll be uhpleased, but um, that's where I
think we'll call it.
Thanks everybody.
Appreciate you listening.
We'll be back next week,Tuesday, with another episode.
Cheers.
Bye.
(18:27):
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
hosted by me, Michael Burpo.
This episode was edited by PaulSuarez with music by Roz
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.
(18:48):
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 I'm doing a littlequick episode.
Everybody and their mother areout at RJO and IJO, and as a
result, I get all left on mylonesome in upstate New York.
And I'm talking about fivejewelry industry topics that are
(00:25):
of interest to me.
This is everything from stuffworking at a punchmark and
things that affect me on aday-to-day, as well as things
I've been talking about, becauseas I spend more time around my
hometown, people start to learnthat I work in jewelry, and when
they have questions aboutjewelry, sometimes they ask me,
which is kind of cool.
And so these are five that I'vebeen thinking about.
I hope you enjoy.
SPEAKER_00 (00:56):
Our mission reaches way beyond technology.
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
been friends way before becomingclients.
Punchmark's own success comesfrom the fact that we have a
much deeper need and obligationto help our friends succeed.
(01:19):
Whether you're looking forbetter e-commerce performance,
business growth, or campaignsthat drive traffic and sales,
PunchMark's website andmarketing services were made
just for you.
It's never too late to transformyour business and stitch
together your digital andphysical worlds in a way that
achieves tremendous growth andresults.
Schedule a guided demo today atpunchmark.com slash go.
(01:43):
And now back to the show.
SPEAKER_01 (01:50):
Okay, like I said in the intro, here are five Julia
industry topics that have methinking.
Some of them are personal, someof them are industry specific,
and some of them are more orless uh global.
So without further ado, let'sget into this episode.
We're rolling out Stellardropshipping as an option.
(02:11):
Uh, it's actually gonna probablygo out literally on the day this
episode goes out, and that'skind of a big deal.
Dropshipping is one of thosebuzzwords that I have heard
literally since I have gotteninto the industry, and I don't
know, I feel like no one hasever been able to live it up.
It's always been like one ofthose white whales, and one of
(02:33):
those funny things that we'vetalked about doing it, and we
have done it with uh, forexample, Revelation and
CarrotWise with their ringbuilder.
We set up a um a drop shippingsystem for them, and then we
were able to expand it to um useStullar.
And Stular is obviously the onthe forefront of the jewelry
(02:53):
industry, and what this will dois allow people to buy stuff off
of jewelers' websites, even ifthey don't have it in stock, and
have it go, the order be sentdirectly to Stular, and then
they would package it and printout a receipt with the jeweler's
um, you know, logo and brandingon the on the receipt, and then
fulfill the the order, put it ina box, and then ship it directly
(03:17):
to the uh shopper.
Why is this a big deal?
Well, the way that the premiumvendor program works currently,
one of the pitfalls has alwaysbeen let's just say you order a
pair of diamond studs from me,and they're very specific, uh,
and they're from this greatbrand that I carry.
And I don't have those specificones because on the premium
vendor feed that I carry,they're included, but I just
(03:37):
might not have them in stock atmy store when they're ordered.
Well, uh, the you'd have toplace the order with the vendor.
The product would have to comein the mail to your store, you'd
have to unpack it, inspect it,you know, uh repackage it, and
then ship it out.
That can take up to I alwayssaid seven days because I think
that's about how long it takes.
(03:59):
But that means that you have tobuild in that fulfillment period
to accommodate for that.
So that can be like, you know,uh buy today, get it in 14 to 21
days.
And I gotta be so real, it's abit of a turnoff for shoppers
when they see 14 to 21 days oror even longer.
Um, so seeing like buy today,get it in three days, that is so
(04:24):
tantalizing, especially for likeyou know, jewelry can be a
little bit of an impulse or alast-minute um, you know, gift
idea.
I'm hoping that when people turnthis on, they'll be able to uh
take this and then like havelike a category on their page,
which is probably just gonna bestaller, a category on their
page that's like um get it uhlike one day shipping or get it
(04:49):
within three day shipping,whatever the the the turnaround
is gonna be, and basicallymarket to that landing page.
And I think that would bepretty, I don't know, pretty
interesting and like a bigleverage point.
Uh it's something we've neverbeen able to uh help with and
and no one has.
And now I think we're the firstones to the industry, a
(05:10):
punchmark is uh to to bringreally strong drop shipping to a
website.
Um, so I'm pretty excited aboutthat.
Okay, next.
Uh Canadian tariffs.
I can't believe it.
I'm having another episode abouttariffs.
I thought I had stopped.
No, and these things age aboutas well as uh I don't I don't
(05:32):
know, broccoli in your fridge.
They go bad pretty quickly, butuh Canadian tariffs are they
just rolled them out at 50%.
And Brazil has like, I thinkit's at like uh 20%, at least
that's what they were talkingabout.
And but I mean by the time thiscomes out, it'll probably have
changed, but still that iscrazy.
Um why am I bringing up that uhtariffs?
(05:54):
That's nothing new, but for me,tariffs are uh especially
impactful um because of like youknow, Can Am.
Um, so in Sarnak Lake, where Ilive, there is uh we're right on
the border, essentially, ofCanada um in the US.
(06:14):
We're on like the northernborder of New York.
And we get a lot of Canadiantourism, especially in the
summer, but also in the winter,they come for skiing, but in the
summer, they come down here forevents.
This weekend uh is actually theCan Am Rugby Tournament.
It's the biggest in the nation,it's the largest uh rugby
(06:35):
tournament.
Um, I think it's the oldest too.
I think it's 51 years old, andit's very impactful.
It's great for our economy.
Like, literally, all of the barsand all of the hotels are about
to have their best um, you know,one of their best weekends.
And it's like four days long,and you know, ruggers are
awesome.
I I love them.
(06:56):
And what I can tell though iswith these tariffs, you can tell
that in the last two years,there has been like a change in
the flavor.
Um, last year, I don't thinkthat there were any Canadian
teams that came for Canom Rugby,which is crazy because you know
we market to the Canadians.
(07:16):
Um, it was also at the height ofthat like whole like, you know,
uh the relations weren't greatum between the nations.
And I think that people justwent elsewhere.
And I think that this year Iwould be surprised if we see
that again.
Um, you know, it's very easy tosay these like oh uh tariffs,
(07:39):
they don't really impact you,but it just is the feeling and
the flavor in the air sometimeswhen you go and you start to
have these like mixers betweenthe the nations, and you can
definitely tell that like um alot of the Canadians didn't
really appreciate uh some of thethings said about them, and I
definitely have noticed thatthere are fewer Canadians that
(08:00):
have made the trek in the lasttwo years as a result.
Um, yeah, I won't get into ittoo much.
Obviously, it's a little bit ofa delicate subject sometimes,
but uh I I can only imagine howit's gonna affect jewelry,
especially with Canada's thecountry that we have the second
most clients in, uh, after theUS.
So I don't know how um howthat'll shake out, but it's
(08:20):
something I've been thinkingabout.
Alright.
We are in the process of rollingout a feature that I am almost
afraid for us to roll out.
And let me explain.
We're in the process of weinternally launched navigation
editor for our websites.
Navigation editor, so in caseyou don't know what your
(08:43):
navigation is, navigation is thetop part of your website.
There's the header, and the navis usually the list of main
links that are on yournavigation.
Um up until now, you've neverbeen able to edit your
navigation without opening up aticket.
If you open a ticket and tell uswhat you want, we'll do it for
(09:04):
you.
But until now, we haven't kindof given that control back to
the retailer.
I have sometimes thought, oh, weshould do this.
It's not like we didn't have thetechnical capabilities for it.
It's just the quickest way torender your website absolutely
unusable is by messing up thenavigation.
(09:25):
It's how you get everywhere.
However, we built out this tooland it is super user-friendly.
But navs are just inherentlykind of complex.
And it's one of those things inuser experience design where
it's you're not supposed to uhfear what can be done with your
(09:47):
tool, but I sort of am afraidthat people are going to use it
and they're going to just makedumb decisions with their
website.
No offense to the retailerslistening.
I like think that maybe I knowunderstand like the navigation
better, but there's like no onestopping you from just adding a
ton of nav navigation links,which is not good, or adding or
(10:08):
removing a bunch of yournavigation links, which is
obviously not good, or uhrenaming a whole bunch of stuff
and making them really longwords, which is not good.
Uh, there's a lot of ways thatthis can go poorly when a
retailer has or uh you know auser, you might say, has un I
(10:31):
don't know, no real guardrails.
But the thing is, it's like,okay, Michael, why don't you
just build guardrails?
It's not as simple as you thinkto say to do that.
You're probably like, oh, justmake it so that like there's a
character limit on your um onyour nav links, and it's uh to
you know, so you can't put likeshop engagement rings and bridal
(10:54):
jewelry as one long nav link.
That's obviously not good.
But when you start putting inthese guardrails, you start
making things inflexible, andmaybe we want the flexibility.
It's I hope I'm wrong, but Icould see people using this and
going crazy with it, and then uslike, I don't know, like turning
(11:14):
it back off because uh I don'tknow.
I'm I'm worried that you'regonna do something stupid with
it.
Um, no offense to anybodylistening.
You aren't the ones I'm talkingabout.
But I just think that when yougive people all the control,
it's like we don't allow you to,I don't know, write your own
database or something like that.
Because like, is there one ortwo or three retailers that
(11:36):
would probably like find a greatand useful way to use that that
tool?
Yes.
But like also one mistyped wordor variable literally bricks
your entire website, andsuddenly you're like, Well, why
hasn't anyone bought anythingoff my website in in six months?
And then we pull it up, and it'slike, oh yeah, you um you added
(11:57):
this thing, and it makes theload times impossible.
And it's like, oh, why didn'tyou stop me from doing that?
And I'm like, I don't know, Ididn't think you would do that.
Uh, you see what I'm kind ofdiscussing.
We did something similar to thatwhen we uh built our page
builder tool, page builder.
Uh so we built the second one.
Me and Dan, um, that wasactually my my big project.
(12:19):
I I worked remotely back in 2019from uh from Amsterdam in the
Netherlands, and Dan assigned mea big project to work on when I
wouldn't have service.
Um, sometimes I'd be on trains.
And my big project was designingum page builder.
And it was, I think I considermyself, I I did a pretty good
(12:40):
job.
And what's funny about it is wegave so many features and tools
in it that some one of like thepieces of advice or um feedback
we got on it is like it's toocomprehensive.
And some people told us, like, Iwish you would make it um you
know more simple.
And it's that's kind of just oneof those feedbacks.
One of the ways you can go ishave it be um too complex, and
(13:03):
sometimes you make it too um toosimple and and and and
straightforward.
So it's a real balancing act,and I'm unsure about the nav
editor.
I'm hoping that I am going to beexcited and pleased, and
everyone's going to play reallynice with their navs.
Um you never know.
I hope I hope it goes smoothly.
(13:25):
Okay, next.
We're at gold at I don't know,have you checked the price of
gold lately?
Price of gold is at as of thisrecording.
$4,071.20.
And I looked for what the lowestit's been year to date, and from
what I can see, the lowest goldgot was$4,008.
(13:49):
So it never, and that was onJune 25th, so about one month
ago.
So in looking, oh no, I lookeduh$3,994.
That's the lowest it got.
And it's so interesting.
I did an episode at the start ofthis year back when gold was at
$5,300.
I I thought it was gonna gotowards six.
(14:11):
Um, and now it's down to four.
I wonder what happens,especially with a lot of the
things with uh with oil.
Um, you know, in case you didn'tknow, oil is set to be really
even more expensive, especiallywith all the different things
going on at all of the differentum straights, uh, at the three
different straits.
Um, they are they couldcontribute to the price of uh a
(14:34):
barrel of oil pushing into likethe 120s or 140s.
That just seems reallyexpensive, and everything runs
on oil, it seems like.
So definitely concerning.
But I guess we're halfwaythrough the year, a little more
than halfway through the year,and I am definitely um
(14:55):
interested in in following itclosely.
I don't think it'll go down tothrees, but it could.
I think it's more likely to gotowards five than it is to
three, but uh, you know what?
I've been wrong in the past, andI could be wrong again.
And then the last, I just wantto say, I did an interview with
(15:16):
Brian Moeller and Alexis Pattisas the episode before this one,
and I thought it was so good.
I uh sometimes I do an interviewwith a president, and I I've
been very fortunate I'veinterviewed uh the president of
several different uh majorjewelry organizations, and I you
(15:38):
know they're always really niceand they're always charismatic.
Man, when I finished speakingwith Brian uh Moeller, the new
AGS president, I felt sooptimistic.
And it's like just watchingsomeone who's like a natural
leader, who is in the driver'sseat, who is ready for the task,
uh just crush it.
(15:59):
I thought he did a really goodjob.
It was so cool also having bothof them on at the same time
because we started with Alexis,and I'd had Alexis on twice
before, and Alexis uh talkedabout her time with, you know,
uh I had her on when it wasannounced she was the president.
She was the, you know, the firstum, you know, this this first
(16:22):
female, I think first femalepresident, and it was just a
kind of like a like a reallynice moment, you know.
She talked about her goals, butshe also said, you know, it's
only going to be two years.
And then I had a mid uh termcheck-in with her last year,
where we talked about everythingthat she's been working on, what
she still has to do.
And then this year it was towrap it up.
(16:42):
And we spent the first, I don'tknow, probably 10 minutes of the
podcast kind of like catcatching up with her.
And Brian, you know, sat in theback and sort of, you know,
listened and just let her haveher spotlight.
And then as the podcast shifted,Brian sort of stepped in and
Alexis let the conversationshift to the future and letting
(17:03):
him sort of uh you know take thelead.
And it was, you know, really aspecial moment to watch them
naturally cede where they aresupposed to to the you know the
correct person that should bespeaking in that moment.
And I just found it really uh, Idon't know, fulfilling.
(17:24):
Like I was doing a service tothe industry, and like I uh had
the privilege of getting achance to speak to both of them.
I thought that they were um, youknow, are just very impressive
people.
So if you haven't checked thatone out, I'd go check it out.
It's the next episode after thisone, so go do that.
Okay.
All that to be said, RJO and IJOare taking place right now, and
(17:45):
everybody is at that.
All the vendors that I have uhrecording appointments are are
are there, so I'm gonna recordwith them afterwards.
All my uh a bunch of myco-workers are there, everyone's
having a great time.
Um, so I can't wait to hear allthe tales.
And if you're there and you'relistening to this or you're
about to, make sure you go anduh check it out.
(18:06):
I can't wait.
Uh stop by the punchmark booth,check it out.
Uh, we have a lot of excitingstuff.
Mention the things I I said orthat you listened in the loop,
and I'm sure that they'll be uhpleased, but um, that's where I
think we'll call it.
Thanks everybody.
Appreciate you listening.
We'll be back next week,Tuesday, with another episode.
Cheers.
Bye.
(18:27):
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
hosted by me, Michael Burpo.
This episode was edited by PaulSuarez with music by Roz
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.
(18:48):
Thanks.
We'll be back next week,Tuesday, with another episode.
Cheers.
Bye.
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