May 20, 2025 • 23 mins
Michael's childhood friend, Taylor, shares his journey of designing a custom engagement ring with a lab-grown sapphire centerpiece, highlighting the collaborative decision-making process with his fiancée Jen who had a clear vision from the start.
Send feedback or learn more about the podcast: punchmark.com/loupe
Learn about Punchmark's website platform: punchmark.com
Inquire about sponsoring In the Loupe and showcase your business on our next episode: podcast@punchmark.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Welcome to In the Loop a year and a half or so and
I wanted to bring it back totalk with one of my best friends
, my childhood friend, taylor,and he recently just got engaged
and it's just an in-personinterview, which is really cool
for me, but I wanted to hearabout his process of building a
custom ring and also choosing asapphire lab-grown stone for the
(00:41):
center and what he went intoand thought about when it came
to building and designing acustom ring.
It's really cool and I thinkit's very important for jewelers
to sometimes hear an unbiasedapproach to what goes through
typically a guy's head when itgoes into buying an engagement
ring.
You know they're not alwayscaring about clarity and color.
(01:04):
Sometimes they just wantsomething that their fiance will
love and I think that you canhear it in his words that he
cared about how this turned out.
But what mattered is sometimeswhat you know gets overlooked
sometimes by jewelers and Ithink that these are really
interesting kind of userinterviews that I think gives us
(01:25):
insight into the buying processfor a customer.
I hope you enjoy.
Let me know if you want me todo more of these, All right,
enjoy.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
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
(01:56):
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.
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 totransform your business and
(02:17):
stitch together your digital andphysical worlds in a way that
achieves tremendous growth andresults.
Schedule a guided demo today atpunchmarkcom.
Slash go.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
And now back to the show.
What is up everybody?
I'm joined by my buddy, taylor.
How are you doing?
Speaker 3 (02:42):
today, Tay Doing pretty well.
Mike, Good to be hanging withyou this morning.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Yeah, so Tay is actually.
This is an in-person podcastrecording and I don't have a ton
of these.
I usually am doing stuffthrough Zoom so people can't see
my legs very often.
It's more like upper body.
But I really wanted to bringyou on and talk about your ring
buying process.
So we have this recurringseries called let's Talk with
(03:06):
Ring Buyers and I've done allsorts of different processes, so
custom design projects and Etsypurchases and you know
traditional engagements and I'veeven had my brother on and
yours was super cool becauseyours was like a slightly
different experience.
Can you tell me about it alittle bit?
Speaker 3 (03:24):
Yeah, so, kind of right off the top, I think one
of the things that made ourexperience different from a lot
of my friends is that my fiance,really, you know she had a
vision and drove a lot of theprocess.
So, you know, talking to a lotof friends, I find that people
usually kind of, you know,usually the guy, the, the guy in
the relationship, has the uh,the idea of what his ring should
(03:47):
look like and what he wants togive us that gift.
And our experience was not, youknow, like that right, Jen kind
of came up to me andcommunicated, uh, pretty
strongly, with a full Pinterestboard and all of that, Like
these are the styles.
I like you know this is thekind of stone I want to see.
I like you know this is thekind of stone I want to see, Um,
and so she really had, you know, she had the mental model of
(04:08):
what she wanted and then kind ofgave me the last finishing
touch, uh, decisions to to makeon that.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
So when you're explaining that to me the first
time, I was saying it's almostlike two different schools of
approach.
Where you're talking to, uh,someone could see it as like, oh
, I'm going to make all thedecisions, because then the ring
is like almost like a gift ofmine, it's a unique uh, I had
described it as macaroni art.
It's like, oh, like you madethis and it comes with a piece
(04:33):
of you, right?
But then there's another schoolof approach where it's like the
person who's going to bewearing, uh, this should be the
one making a lot of decisionsand should be the one, like,
tailoring it to their style, butshe really knew what she wanted
, which is also really cool.
You know, yeah, 100.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
and you know, we, we had talked about what, um, what
we might want in a ring, how wemight want to do that
communication, probably as faras a yeah, I would would say a
year before the actual proposal.
So timeline there, right, soit's 2025.
We got engaged in February ofthis year.
(05:12):
We probably opened thatconversation in winter of 24.
And so the ring was starting toget produced in the summer and
ultimately I didn't end up usingit for a few months after that.
But, yeah, kind of from the get, jen really let me know what
she was interested in and thenwe kind of, you know, we took a
(05:36):
step back a little bit you know,because we weren't quite ready
to do the thing yet.
But yeah, she very much wasdirective on.
These are the things I'm reallypassionate about.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
These are the things I don't like, so let's talk
about what the ring actuallylooks like, because people are
going to be listening.
They're retail jewelers, soretailers.
One thing I've learned aboutjewelers jewelers love talking
about jewelry.
They do this checks out.
And so tell me, do you know thespecs?
Yeah, what was the?
What was the center stone?
Speaker 3 (06:08):
Center stone is a, so it's a lab sapphire.
We were kind of going for likea, like a purplish kind of blue,
right, we wanted a bit of that,a bit of that hue to it.
It's got a nice like.
It kind of comes down to a apretty deep point, uh,
rectangular shape, more or lessobviously rounded um edges.
(06:31):
I don't want to say it's like Idon't know, it's like seven or
eight, uh, mil millimeters,something like that, but it's
rectangular shape, so I forgetthe exact specs on it.
And and then what I really likemost about it is the side
profile.
So it has this kind of swooping, almost like a water splash
(06:52):
shape to it and it makes thisreally nice cross shape, oh cool
.
So that's gorgeous and it's setin platinum.
And we also kind of had thisback and forth too, around like,
uh, what types of side stones,if any side stones?
And we realized it was justwith the stone by itself it was
going to be a little bit uh,imbalanced like it.
(07:13):
Just, you looked at it andyou're kind of wanting for
something.
Right, there's room, room tokind of uh finish it, I guess,
uh.
And so we we kind of wentthrough the cycle of like do we
want circles, do we wantteardrops, do we want, like,
little biscuits, like what typeof?
and ultimately we, just we wentto a jeweler and tried like just
put the stone in the middle onthis little fake setting and
then just tried putting theothers you know they had samples
(07:35):
yeah, putting these littlestones on the side until we kind
of had the uh, the ring, yeahso walking back for a second.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
So you're first of all, for people listening.
This is why I do theseinterviews.
They're so fascinating becauseyou go the side stones are they
going to be circles or teardropsor biscuits?
Sometimes I think that jewelersI have this kind of thesis that
jewelers are, like I said, lovetalking about jewelry and
sometimes they get too caught upin the sauce where they think
(08:03):
that people like are like in thenitty gritty about you know the
, the florescence and the andthe inclusions and stuff like
that.
But then when you realize thatthey're calling you know
baguette shaped biscuits andthey, you know pear shapes,
there's teardrops.
It's like, oh, like.
Maybe we should be focusing onlike, what it looks like and not
necessarily like these.
You know arbitrary numbers andnames, that like we know so well
(08:27):
.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
But at the same time, yeah, yeah definitely, and
actually to that point too, likeanother uh, I forget the term
you used, but another thing thatwe definitely did look at was,
uh, for the side stones, the, Iwould say, like the brightness,
right, how much, like, how muchlight do they give off?
How much of a twinkle do theyhave, because they're kind of
pulling?
They have the potential to pull, uh, attention away from the
(08:49):
mainstone.
So I think we intentionallywanted them to be, I guess,
dumbed down a little bit so thatyou, the focus would stay on
the mainstone was just by itsshape has this like from the top
profile, it kind of comes intoa point that's you wanted that
to be where your attention goes.
So why did you guys choose?
platinum um, I mean, ultimatelythat's uh, why did jen choose
(09:13):
correct question?
Uh, I don't know.
I think I think it was because,like properties of the metal, I
think you know we we do a lot,of, a lot of outdoor activities,
uh, and know that gold can geta little bit banged up.
So I think, as I understand it,just it's a little more
resilient, but the color alsojust really suits it, the stone
(09:35):
well, it complements it superwell.
It just wouldn't have madesense with the gold, certainly
not like a typical gold, andthen you kind of go through some
of the other options aroundthere and it really just looked
the best, I guess, like I can'treally put anything more to it
than that.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
So you go and you buy this.
You go to buy this ring.
Did you buy anything along withit?
So did you buy.
Did you buy insurance orwarranty?
Speaker 3 (10:02):
That's a great question, so we are in the
process of trying to do so, butone of the things that we're
finding is so we need to get thering resized, oh, um, and for
the insurance which this iscrazy to me uh, we need to have
an appraisal of the ring.
Now, what's crazy to me aboutthis is that we, to get that
(10:25):
appraisal, we bring the ringinto the shop that we just
bought it from, who charged ussome sum of money, yeah, so, um,
it feels to me like a littlebit out of order of like yeah,
why is the ring not appraisedwhen you sold it to me, like why
don't you?
have, uh, you, I should just beable to ask you this number, or
it should just be on the receiptright on my bill of sale.
(10:45):
Right, I have paperwork forthis ring, uh but, yeah, so we
we have not yet done that.
Uh, we do need to do that, but Ithink partially because jen has
, uh, some like bachelorettetrips and things like that this
year that she's trying to timeresizing her ring and everything
so that she will have her ringfor those events.
Um, but yeah, it's that to mewas just like I was super taken
(11:09):
aback.
Yeah, it feels like I should beable to just like share the
receipt with the insurer.
And well, that's the price youpaid for a new item, so that's
what the item is worth.
Isn't that how it works withoutany other good?
Speaker 1 (11:21):
so I think the people listening right now probably
have like tons of opinions onthat, one of the things that I
have always wondered about.
So when you were buying this,did they offer you anything else
?
Did they offer you a deal onwedding bands, or did they offer
you a deal on hey, here's acoupon for groomsmen gifts, or
here's a coupon for cufflinks orsomething like that Gifts for
(11:46):
guys, you know.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
Yeah, that's a good question.
I don't think that they reallystrongly recommended anything
like that.
Ultimately, like we wereworking with a place that seemed
to specialize in, uh, inwedding rings, uh, so we we
worked with a jeweler.
I live in Portsmouth, newHampshire.
We worked with a jeweler um intown there, so it was, it was,
(12:08):
it was, you know, 15 minuteswalk from our apartment to be
able to go in and see that spotand we shopped around a little
bit.
Um, ultimately we went.
We kind of went based on thelike, just the vibes of the
staff, like the people who wewere working with primarily and
vibes are important.
We had we had one shop that wewent into and they had, like
they had exactly what we werelooking for with very subtle you
(12:29):
know we custom built the ringor got it, you know,
commissioned and they had greatsamples at this other shop we
went to but ultimately theperson that we were working with
just didn't give us like thebest impressions.
I was like okay with it, butJen was like I didn't like that
conversation, I don't want to goback to this shop.
And at the end of the day thatwas a really big factor for us,
(12:53):
for kind of who we worked with,but no, I don't really remember
them giving us anything like youknow, diamond cufflinks or
whatever, anything like that.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
But I sometimes think it's a missed opportunity
because it's like so to give youan idea People listening
already know this but to catchyou up to speed.
So engagement rings a lot oftimes are considered like this
really important touch point inbuilding a relationship with a
customer.
They buy this really big dealitem and then you try to link
(13:25):
them, uh, hook them in for moreum purchases.
So whether that's uh, getting aset of wedding bands or getting
uh cleanings or gettingconsigning or like, yeah, you
know, lending uh jewelry for thefor the wedding or it's, you
know, bridal gifts or groomsmengifts or things like that, yeah,
and they are uh, a lot ofjewelers see like getting the
(13:48):
engagement ring.
Obviously it's such a bigpurchase and just in dollars
amount, but the engagement ringsrun the jewelry industry as
like a you know more or less.
It's like kind of the pinnacleand like the most important key
point.
But I guess at the same time Iwant to talk about you go and
you custom design this thing,yeah.
(14:09):
So what was the steps along theway?
Did they give you like a waxmodel?
Did they let you like pick up,like what the?
Or a 3D printed CAD orsomething like that.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
So I believe they it's been a bit so I'm not
exactly remembering, I believethey gave us so definitely did
everything in CAD.
So we, you know, we flippedthrough books, we found sort of
sample references for the mostlythe shape of what the platinum
band ended up being Because,like I mentioned, it has that
(14:41):
kind of swoopy side profile toit.
So, and that was something thatwe also kind of played around
with on, like how tall shouldthat be?
Because, again, right, we don'twant like too prominent or
proud, I guess, of a ring, soyou don't want it to catch on
things, and all of that, um.
So that was that was a bigpiece of the process was
(15:03):
figuring out like how do westill get that nice side profile
while while not hurting thefunctionality, I guess, of the
piece too much?
Um?
So a bit of tinkering around inCAD.
Uh, they did give us, I want tosay, one wax like printout of it
, um, before we ultimately madethe ring, um.
(15:24):
But we also had so many samplepieces at their shop that we
could kind of use and alternatepieces around, and they had a
lot of different for typicalband shapes.
They had these little samplepieces that you could put on and
put your stone into and get asense of like how does that look
?
Is it too proud, does it needsort of accompanying stones,
(15:48):
things like that?
So we had really nice likevisual, tactical or tactile
rather references that we coulduse to like start to feel the
ring before it was.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
That's cool, I'm just I'm a little surprised that you
know, if everything is allcustom, that it had to be
resized, I guess, yeah,surprising.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
Yeah, definitely, and I think it could be.
It could have just been like atime of year thing, because I
think if we, we probably wouldhave done most of the sizing and
things like that in, um, likethe summer months, and then the
ring actually arrived in themiddle of winter, so I think
that that that could havecontributed just like naturally.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Yeah, I noticed it with my, with my own ring is, uh
like.
The biggest one I noticed is ifI go out boozing the night
before, if I go out like on thetown with my friends the next
morning, my, my ring fits reallyuh, really tight yeah.
And then if, especially duringthe winter, the winter, if I go
out skiing, I come back my ringis super loose, yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
So yeah, you almost dry out.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Yeah.
But so one last thing, or oneof them, is you guys aren't
planning on getting married foranother year, yeah.
So do you think is it on you tofind the wedding bands, or do
you think is it on you to findthe wedding bands, or do you
think is that going to beanother collaborative project?
Will you pick your own or doyou want to like match with
Jen's?
Speaker 3 (17:08):
Yeah, I mean.
So I don't think I necessarilywant to match hers.
We have different preferences.
Like I already have some ideasof what I would want to see in
my own band and we talked alittle bit about it last night.
I don't know, I think we'll.
We'll probably shop on that abit together.
Um, yeah, we'll definitely shopin that a bit together.
(17:30):
We already talked about forwhat her wedding band would look
like.
Um, so I, I think it would bereally subtle on stones, uh, and
it would just kind of come to apoint.
Um, and then it matches with theband right matches with the
band and then it just sets inreally nice uh on the with the
engagement ring.
So they, they're.
I think those are meant to bepaired together and that's one
(17:53):
one cool thing that I think weget out of having worked on the
ring together, versus me justtaking a swing and then her
picking, you know, let's say,she picked the wedding band.
That's more limiting.
I would say, um, but yeah, Ithink it'll.
It'll ultimately ultimately bealso a platinum, uh, less loud
(18:14):
of a of a shape, more just meantto complement the, the
engagement ring.
And then on my end, I don'tknow, I have, I have some ideas.
We actually have a friend whodid uh for his wedding ring a,
uh, it's like a piece of fossil,oh cool, uh, yeah, so, and it
took a while for they had to doa lot like follow-up work on it.
(18:36):
So I don't even know if I'velike, if I've seen it more than
once and they got married likesix, seven months ago at this
point, but when you were, whenyou were designing your ring,
yeah, so you guys you and Jen,everybody I know I told you this
yesterday are the mostwell-traveled people I know.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Taylor's been to did the remote digital nomad style
and like I would just look atyour guys' Instagram and you
guys would be in like friggingMacau and then Beijing.
And then it's like, oh you're innorthern Buenos Aires and oh,
he's back in town.
No way, and it's just like so,and Jen even more so, actually
like she's a real hiker and youalso both of you work with your
(19:15):
hands a lot concern.
Did you think at all about whattype of ring you could wear in
like uh, in some differentcountries, like as you're
traveling?
So, for example, my mom won'twear uh when she travels abroad.
A lot of times she only wearsher wedding band and won't wear,
(19:37):
like, any engagement rings orany of the jewelry that my
grandma has given her yeah,that's a good question, good
question.
I will say like we haven't umcause.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
I know that there are there are definitely places and
we've been to some of themwhere you know you're on the
lookout, you're more vigilantfor safe next pockets.
So you know how do you defendagainst that Easy things like a
cross body bag or like, uh, youknow something tucked in inside
of your your waistband, justthings not being accessible on
your person or in your pockets,things like that.
(20:06):
We haven't really since gettingengaged, and this is largely
because we've been kind ofsettled more or less for about a
year and a half.
Now we're coming up on a yearand a half, so we haven't really
run into that circumstance.
But I definitely could see usdoing kind of following your
mom's lead on that and you know,either hiding the ring or just
(20:28):
like putting on a necklace?
Speaker 1 (20:29):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
And I mean at the end of the day.
It's like I do really likethose little necklaces, the ones
that have the.
It's almost like the, like alittle puzzle to then put it on.
They're pretty neat.
Yeah, those are sweet, but yeah, I imagine we'll probably be.
Yeah, tuck the rings away,because you just don't want to
be.
You don't want to stick out anymore than you already do as a
(20:51):
tourist.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
I'm with you.
Yeah, okay, this has been superinteresting.
I think the reason why we havethis is just I mean, you come
from a world of user experienceand just data-driven inferences.
But what's fascinating is, alot of times, the reason why we
do these episodes is becausejewelers sometimes, I feel like,
are conducting their interviewswith ring buyers in their
(21:16):
stores, either before or aftertheir purchase, and I do think
it can skew the data and I thinkit's important just for
jewelers to hear what aconversation with a ring buyer
is like and like what actuallywent through their head, and
just to get, like you know,listening on a user user
interview.
I've conducted user interviewsabout our own products a bunch
(21:40):
of times and it's fascinating,like what's really important to
me is sometimes not even closeto important for them, because,
like you learn that your loginisn't very successful, it's like
, oh, I hate having the login.
It's so annoying how thisfeature doesn't work, yeah.
And then it's like, oh, I'mlike I'll focus on, like, what
does the UI look like deeper in?
And it's like, actually, itjust fixed the login and you
(22:02):
wouldn't know that unless youtalk with someone.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
So yeah, definitely.
I totally agree with you on thebias there.
Right, you put someone in thatawkward conversation where you
know they're about to make whatcould be the biggest purchase of
their life so far and and uhyeah, they might not be as
honest as they might be or in asclear of a state of mind as
they might be if they, you know,are in a totally separate
setting yep, taylor.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
Thanks for thanks for joining bud.
Thanks for having me.
Mike, appreciate it.
All right, everybody.
We'll be back next week,tuesday, with another episode.
Cheers bye.
All right, everybody.
That's the end of the show.
Thanks so much for listening.
My guest this week was my buddy, taylor.
(22:46):
It was really cool getting achance to talk with him.
We grew up together and gettinga chance to speak with him
about this next phase of hislife is really cool.
This episode was brought to youby Punchmark and produced and
hosted by me, michael Burpo.
This episode was edited by PaulSuarez with music by Ross
Cockrum.
Episode was edited by PaulSuarez with music by Ross
Cockrum.
Don't forget to rate thepodcast on Spotify and Apple
(23:06):
Podcasts and leave us feedbackon punchmarkcom slash loop.
That's L-O-U-P-E.
We'll be back next week,tuesday, with another episode.
Cheers Bye.
Welcome to In the Loop a year and a half or so and
I wanted to bring it back totalk with one of my best friends
, my childhood friend, taylor,and he recently just got engaged
and it's just an in-personinterview, which is really cool
for me, but I wanted to hearabout his process of building a
custom ring and also choosing asapphire lab-grown stone for the
(00:41):
center and what he went intoand thought about when it came
to building and designing acustom ring.
It's really cool and I thinkit's very important for jewelers
to sometimes hear an unbiasedapproach to what goes through
typically a guy's head when itgoes into buying an engagement
ring.
You know they're not alwayscaring about clarity and color.
(01:04):
Sometimes they just wantsomething that their fiance will
love and I think that you canhear it in his words that he
cared about how this turned out.
But what mattered is sometimeswhat you know gets overlooked
sometimes by jewelers and Ithink that these are really
interesting kind of userinterviews that I think gives us
(01:25):
insight into the buying processfor a customer.
I hope you enjoy.
Let me know if you want me todo more of these, All right,
enjoy.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
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
(01:56):
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.
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 totransform your business and
(02:17):
stitch together your digital andphysical worlds in a way that
achieves tremendous growth andresults.
Schedule a guided demo today atpunchmarkcom.
Slash go.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
And now back to the show.
What is up everybody?
I'm joined by my buddy, taylor.
How are you doing?
Speaker 3 (02:42):
today, Tay Doing pretty well.
Mike, Good to be hanging withyou this morning.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Yeah, so Tay is actually.
This is an in-person podcastrecording and I don't have a ton
of these.
I usually am doing stuffthrough Zoom so people can't see
my legs very often.
It's more like upper body.
But I really wanted to bringyou on and talk about your ring
buying process.
So we have this recurringseries called let's Talk with
(03:06):
Ring Buyers and I've done allsorts of different processes, so
custom design projects and Etsypurchases and you know
traditional engagements and I'veeven had my brother on and
yours was super cool becauseyours was like a slightly
different experience.
Can you tell me about it alittle bit?
Speaker 3 (03:24):
Yeah, so, kind of right off the top, I think one
of the things that made ourexperience different from a lot
of my friends is that my fiance,really, you know she had a
vision and drove a lot of theprocess.
So, you know, talking to a lotof friends, I find that people
usually kind of, you know,usually the guy, the, the guy in
the relationship, has the uh,the idea of what his ring should
(03:47):
look like and what he wants togive us that gift.
And our experience was not, youknow, like that right, Jen kind
of came up to me andcommunicated, uh, pretty
strongly, with a full Pinterestboard and all of that, Like
these are the styles.
I like you know this is thekind of stone I want to see.
I like you know this is thekind of stone I want to see, Um,
and so she really had, you know, she had the mental model of
(04:08):
what she wanted and then kind ofgave me the last finishing
touch, uh, decisions to to makeon that.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
So when you're explaining that to me the first
time, I was saying it's almostlike two different schools of
approach.
Where you're talking to, uh,someone could see it as like, oh
, I'm going to make all thedecisions, because then the ring
is like almost like a gift ofmine, it's a unique uh, I had
described it as macaroni art.
It's like, oh, like you madethis and it comes with a piece
(04:33):
of you, right?
But then there's another schoolof approach where it's like the
person who's going to bewearing, uh, this should be the
one making a lot of decisionsand should be the one, like,
tailoring it to their style, butshe really knew what she wanted
, which is also really cool.
You know, yeah, 100.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
and you know, we, we had talked about what, um, what
we might want in a ring, how wemight want to do that
communication, probably as faras a yeah, I would would say a
year before the actual proposal.
So timeline there, right, soit's 2025.
We got engaged in February ofthis year.
(05:12):
We probably opened thatconversation in winter of 24.
And so the ring was starting toget produced in the summer and
ultimately I didn't end up usingit for a few months after that.
But, yeah, kind of from the get, jen really let me know what
she was interested in and thenwe kind of, you know, we took a
(05:36):
step back a little bit you know,because we weren't quite ready
to do the thing yet.
But yeah, she very much wasdirective on.
These are the things I'm reallypassionate about.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
These are the things I don't like, so let's talk
about what the ring actuallylooks like, because people are
going to be listening.
They're retail jewelers, soretailers.
One thing I've learned aboutjewelers jewelers love talking
about jewelry.
They do this checks out.
And so tell me, do you know thespecs?
Yeah, what was the?
What was the center stone?
Speaker 3 (06:08):
Center stone is a, so it's a lab sapphire.
We were kind of going for likea, like a purplish kind of blue,
right, we wanted a bit of that,a bit of that hue to it.
It's got a nice like.
It kind of comes down to a apretty deep point, uh,
rectangular shape, more or lessobviously rounded um edges.
(06:31):
I don't want to say it's like Idon't know, it's like seven or
eight, uh, mil millimeters,something like that, but it's
rectangular shape, so I forgetthe exact specs on it.
And and then what I really likemost about it is the side
profile.
So it has this kind of swooping, almost like a water splash
(06:52):
shape to it and it makes thisreally nice cross shape, oh cool
.
So that's gorgeous and it's setin platinum.
And we also kind of had thisback and forth too, around like,
uh, what types of side stones,if any side stones?
And we realized it was justwith the stone by itself it was
going to be a little bit uh,imbalanced like it.
(07:13):
Just, you looked at it andyou're kind of wanting for
something.
Right, there's room, room tokind of uh finish it, I guess,
uh.
And so we we kind of wentthrough the cycle of like do we
want circles, do we wantteardrops, do we want, like,
little biscuits, like what typeof?
and ultimately we, just we wentto a jeweler and tried like just
put the stone in the middle onthis little fake setting and
then just tried putting theothers you know they had samples
(07:35):
yeah, putting these littlestones on the side until we kind
of had the uh, the ring, yeahso walking back for a second.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
So you're first of all, for people listening.
This is why I do theseinterviews.
They're so fascinating becauseyou go the side stones are they
going to be circles or teardropsor biscuits?
Sometimes I think that jewelersI have this kind of thesis that
jewelers are, like I said, lovetalking about jewelry and
sometimes they get too caught upin the sauce where they think
(08:03):
that people like are like in thenitty gritty about you know the
, the florescence and the andthe inclusions and stuff like
that.
But then when you realize thatthey're calling you know
baguette shaped biscuits andthey, you know pear shapes,
there's teardrops.
It's like, oh, like.
Maybe we should be focusing onlike, what it looks like and not
necessarily like these.
You know arbitrary numbers andnames, that like we know so well
(08:27):
.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
But at the same time, yeah, yeah definitely, and
actually to that point too, likeanother uh, I forget the term
you used, but another thing thatwe definitely did look at was,
uh, for the side stones, the, Iwould say, like the brightness,
right, how much, like, how muchlight do they give off?
How much of a twinkle do theyhave, because they're kind of
pulling?
They have the potential to pull, uh, attention away from the
(08:49):
mainstone.
So I think we intentionallywanted them to be, I guess,
dumbed down a little bit so thatyou, the focus would stay on
the mainstone was just by itsshape has this like from the top
profile, it kind of comes intoa point that's you wanted that
to be where your attention goes.
So why did you guys choose?
platinum um, I mean, ultimatelythat's uh, why did jen choose
(09:13):
correct question?
Uh, I don't know.
I think I think it was because,like properties of the metal, I
think you know we we do a lot,of, a lot of outdoor activities,
uh, and know that gold can geta little bit banged up.
So I think, as I understand it,just it's a little more
resilient, but the color alsojust really suits it, the stone
(09:35):
well, it complements it superwell.
It just wouldn't have madesense with the gold, certainly
not like a typical gold, andthen you kind of go through some
of the other options aroundthere and it really just looked
the best, I guess, like I can'treally put anything more to it
than that.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
So you go and you buy this.
You go to buy this ring.
Did you buy anything along withit?
So did you buy.
Did you buy insurance orwarranty?
Speaker 3 (10:02):
That's a great question, so we are in the
process of trying to do so, butone of the things that we're
finding is so we need to get thering resized, oh, um, and for
the insurance which this iscrazy to me uh, we need to have
an appraisal of the ring.
Now, what's crazy to me aboutthis is that we, to get that
(10:25):
appraisal, we bring the ringinto the shop that we just
bought it from, who charged ussome sum of money, yeah, so, um,
it feels to me like a littlebit out of order of like yeah,
why is the ring not appraisedwhen you sold it to me, like why
don't you?
have, uh, you, I should just beable to ask you this number, or
it should just be on the receiptright on my bill of sale.
(10:45):
Right, I have paperwork forthis ring, uh but, yeah, so we
we have not yet done that.
Uh, we do need to do that, but Ithink partially because jen has
, uh, some like bachelorettetrips and things like that this
year that she's trying to timeresizing her ring and everything
so that she will have her ringfor those events.
Um, but yeah, it's that to mewas just like I was super taken
(11:09):
aback.
Yeah, it feels like I should beable to just like share the
receipt with the insurer.
And well, that's the price youpaid for a new item, so that's
what the item is worth.
Isn't that how it works withoutany other good?
Speaker 1 (11:21):
so I think the people listening right now probably
have like tons of opinions onthat, one of the things that I
have always wondered about.
So when you were buying this,did they offer you anything else
?
Did they offer you a deal onwedding bands, or did they offer
you a deal on hey, here's acoupon for groomsmen gifts, or
here's a coupon for cufflinks orsomething like that Gifts for
(11:46):
guys, you know.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
Yeah, that's a good question.
I don't think that they reallystrongly recommended anything
like that.
Ultimately, like we wereworking with a place that seemed
to specialize in, uh, inwedding rings, uh, so we we
worked with a jeweler.
I live in Portsmouth, newHampshire.
We worked with a jeweler um intown there, so it was, it was,
(12:08):
it was, you know, 15 minuteswalk from our apartment to be
able to go in and see that spotand we shopped around a little
bit.
Um, ultimately we went.
We kind of went based on thelike, just the vibes of the
staff, like the people who wewere working with primarily and
vibes are important.
We had we had one shop that wewent into and they had, like
they had exactly what we werelooking for with very subtle you
(12:29):
know we custom built the ringor got it, you know,
commissioned and they had greatsamples at this other shop we
went to but ultimately theperson that we were working with
just didn't give us like thebest impressions.
I was like okay with it, butJen was like I didn't like that
conversation, I don't want to goback to this shop.
And at the end of the day thatwas a really big factor for us,
(12:53):
for kind of who we worked with,but no, I don't really remember
them giving us anything like youknow, diamond cufflinks or
whatever, anything like that.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
But I sometimes think it's a missed opportunity
because it's like so to give youan idea People listening
already know this but to catchyou up to speed.
So engagement rings a lot oftimes are considered like this
really important touch point inbuilding a relationship with a
customer.
They buy this really big dealitem and then you try to link
(13:25):
them, uh, hook them in for moreum purchases.
So whether that's uh, getting aset of wedding bands or getting
uh cleanings or gettingconsigning or like, yeah, you
know, lending uh jewelry for thefor the wedding or it's, you
know, bridal gifts or groomsmengifts or things like that, yeah,
and they are uh, a lot ofjewelers see like getting the
(13:48):
engagement ring.
Obviously it's such a bigpurchase and just in dollars
amount, but the engagement ringsrun the jewelry industry as
like a you know more or less.
It's like kind of the pinnacleand like the most important key
point.
But I guess at the same time Iwant to talk about you go and
you custom design this thing,yeah.
(14:09):
So what was the steps along theway?
Did they give you like a waxmodel?
Did they let you like pick up,like what the?
Or a 3D printed CAD orsomething like that.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
So I believe they it's been a bit so I'm not
exactly remembering, I believethey gave us so definitely did
everything in CAD.
So we, you know, we flippedthrough books, we found sort of
sample references for the mostlythe shape of what the platinum
band ended up being Because,like I mentioned, it has that
(14:41):
kind of swoopy side profile toit.
So, and that was something thatwe also kind of played around
with on, like how tall shouldthat be?
Because, again, right, we don'twant like too prominent or
proud, I guess, of a ring, soyou don't want it to catch on
things, and all of that, um.
So that was that was a bigpiece of the process was
(15:03):
figuring out like how do westill get that nice side profile
while while not hurting thefunctionality, I guess, of the
piece too much?
Um?
So a bit of tinkering around inCAD.
Uh, they did give us, I want tosay, one wax like printout of it
, um, before we ultimately madethe ring, um.
(15:24):
But we also had so many samplepieces at their shop that we
could kind of use and alternatepieces around, and they had a
lot of different for typicalband shapes.
They had these little samplepieces that you could put on and
put your stone into and get asense of like how does that look
?
Is it too proud, does it needsort of accompanying stones,
(15:48):
things like that?
So we had really nice likevisual, tactical or tactile
rather references that we coulduse to like start to feel the
ring before it was.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
That's cool, I'm just I'm a little surprised that you
know, if everything is allcustom, that it had to be
resized, I guess, yeah,surprising.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
Yeah, definitely, and I think it could be.
It could have just been like atime of year thing, because I
think if we, we probably wouldhave done most of the sizing and
things like that in, um, likethe summer months, and then the
ring actually arrived in themiddle of winter, so I think
that that that could havecontributed just like naturally.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Yeah, I noticed it with my, with my own ring is, uh
like.
The biggest one I noticed is ifI go out boozing the night
before, if I go out like on thetown with my friends the next
morning, my, my ring fits reallyuh, really tight yeah.
And then if, especially duringthe winter, the winter, if I go
out skiing, I come back my ringis super loose, yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
So yeah, you almost dry out.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Yeah.
But so one last thing, or oneof them, is you guys aren't
planning on getting married foranother year, yeah.
So do you think is it on you tofind the wedding bands, or do
you think is it on you to findthe wedding bands, or do you
think is that going to beanother collaborative project?
Will you pick your own or doyou want to like match with
Jen's?
Speaker 3 (17:08):
Yeah, I mean.
So I don't think I necessarilywant to match hers.
We have different preferences.
Like I already have some ideasof what I would want to see in
my own band and we talked alittle bit about it last night.
I don't know, I think we'll.
We'll probably shop on that abit together.
Um, yeah, we'll definitely shopin that a bit together.
(17:30):
We already talked about forwhat her wedding band would look
like.
Um, so I, I think it would bereally subtle on stones, uh, and
it would just kind of come to apoint.
Um, and then it matches with theband right matches with the
band and then it just sets inreally nice uh on the with the
engagement ring.
So they, they're.
I think those are meant to bepaired together and that's one
(17:53):
one cool thing that I think weget out of having worked on the
ring together, versus me justtaking a swing and then her
picking, you know, let's say,she picked the wedding band.
That's more limiting.
I would say, um, but yeah, Ithink it'll.
It'll ultimately ultimately bealso a platinum, uh, less loud
(18:14):
of a of a shape, more just meantto complement the, the
engagement ring.
And then on my end, I don'tknow, I have, I have some ideas.
We actually have a friend whodid uh for his wedding ring a,
uh, it's like a piece of fossil,oh cool, uh, yeah, so, and it
took a while for they had to doa lot like follow-up work on it.
(18:36):
So I don't even know if I'velike, if I've seen it more than
once and they got married likesix, seven months ago at this
point, but when you were, whenyou were designing your ring,
yeah, so you guys you and Jen,everybody I know I told you this
yesterday are the mostwell-traveled people I know.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Taylor's been to did the remote digital nomad style
and like I would just look atyour guys' Instagram and you
guys would be in like friggingMacau and then Beijing.
And then it's like, oh you're innorthern Buenos Aires and oh,
he's back in town.
No way, and it's just like so,and Jen even more so, actually
like she's a real hiker and youalso both of you work with your
(19:15):
hands a lot concern.
Did you think at all about whattype of ring you could wear in
like uh, in some differentcountries, like as you're
traveling?
So, for example, my mom won'twear uh when she travels abroad.
A lot of times she only wearsher wedding band and won't wear,
(19:37):
like, any engagement rings orany of the jewelry that my
grandma has given her yeah,that's a good question, good
question.
I will say like we haven't umcause.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
I know that there are there are definitely places and
we've been to some of themwhere you know you're on the
lookout, you're more vigilantfor safe next pockets.
So you know how do you defendagainst that Easy things like a
cross body bag or like, uh, youknow something tucked in inside
of your your waistband, justthings not being accessible on
your person or in your pockets,things like that.
(20:06):
We haven't really since gettingengaged, and this is largely
because we've been kind ofsettled more or less for about a
year and a half.
Now we're coming up on a yearand a half, so we haven't really
run into that circumstance.
But I definitely could see usdoing kind of following your
mom's lead on that and you know,either hiding the ring or just
(20:28):
like putting on a necklace?
Speaker 1 (20:29):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
And I mean at the end of the day.
It's like I do really likethose little necklaces, the ones
that have the.
It's almost like the, like alittle puzzle to then put it on.
They're pretty neat.
Yeah, those are sweet, but yeah, I imagine we'll probably be.
Yeah, tuck the rings away,because you just don't want to
be.
You don't want to stick out anymore than you already do as a
(20:51):
tourist.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
I'm with you.
Yeah, okay, this has been superinteresting.
I think the reason why we havethis is just I mean, you come
from a world of user experienceand just data-driven inferences.
But what's fascinating is, alot of times, the reason why we
do these episodes is becausejewelers sometimes, I feel like,
are conducting their interviewswith ring buyers in their
(21:16):
stores, either before or aftertheir purchase, and I do think
it can skew the data and I thinkit's important just for
jewelers to hear what aconversation with a ring buyer
is like and like what actuallywent through their head, and
just to get, like you know,listening on a user user
interview.
I've conducted user interviewsabout our own products a bunch
(21:40):
of times and it's fascinating,like what's really important to
me is sometimes not even closeto important for them, because,
like you learn that your loginisn't very successful, it's like
, oh, I hate having the login.
It's so annoying how thisfeature doesn't work, yeah.
And then it's like, oh, I'mlike I'll focus on, like, what
does the UI look like deeper in?
And it's like, actually, itjust fixed the login and you
(22:02):
wouldn't know that unless youtalk with someone.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
So yeah, definitely.
I totally agree with you on thebias there.
Right, you put someone in thatawkward conversation where you
know they're about to make whatcould be the biggest purchase of
their life so far and and uhyeah, they might not be as
honest as they might be or in asclear of a state of mind as
they might be if they, you know,are in a totally separate
setting yep, taylor.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
Thanks for thanks for joining bud.
Thanks for having me.
Mike, appreciate it.
All right, everybody.
We'll be back next week,tuesday, with another episode.
Cheers bye.
All right, everybody.
That's the end of the show.
Thanks so much for listening.
My guest this week was my buddy, taylor.
(22:46):
It was really cool getting achance to talk with him.
We grew up together and gettinga chance to speak with him
about this next phase of hislife is really cool.
This episode was brought to youby Punchmark and produced and
hosted by me, michael Burpo.
This episode was edited by PaulSuarez with music by Ross
Cockrum.
Episode was edited by PaulSuarez with music by Ross
Cockrum.
Don't forget to rate thepodcast on Spotify and Apple
(23:06):
Podcasts and leave us feedbackon punchmarkcom slash loop.
That's L-O-U-P-E.
We'll be back next week,tuesday, with another episode.
Cheers Bye.
Popular Podcasts
Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club
Welcome to Bookmarked by Reese’s Book Club — the podcast where great stories, bold women, and irresistible conversations collide! Hosted by award-winning journalist Danielle Robay, each week new episodes balance thoughtful literary insight with the fervor of buzzy book trends, pop culture and more. Bookmarked brings together celebrities, tastemakers, influencers and authors from Reese's Book Club and beyond to share stories that transcend the page. Pull up a chair. You’re not just listening — you’re part of the conversation.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com