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September 2, 2025 • 50 mins

Michael interviews his eldest brother, Joseph, about his custom engagement ring process with Vincent from Arezzo Jewelers, revealing that custom projects can be affordable and quick when incorporating family jewelry pieces.

If you're considering a custom engagement ring, don't assume it will be more expensive or time-consuming than buying off the shelf. Talk to a jeweler about incorporating family pieces to create something meaningful and unique.

Visit Arezzo Jewelers' website: arezzojewelers.com

Learn about our sponsor JewelerOS: trytheringbuilder.com

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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Welcome to In the Loop with an episode of let's
Talk with Ring Buyers and thisis a recurring series that we do
and this is a very special onebecause I'm interviewing my
eldest brother, joseph.
He's a long time In the Looplistener.
What's up, joe?
And we're talking about acustom ring build.
That he actually did withanother In the Loop guest and

(00:40):
listener, vincent from ArezzoJewelers, and it was a really
interesting conversation.
I had the same conversation twodifferent times to talk about
what the ring building processwas like for a shopper and for
the jeweler, and I get into thata little bit more, but it was

(01:00):
very cool to compare andcontrast what the experiences
were like, in that custom ringprojects are not always more
expensive and I also think thatthe timeline was a lot quicker
than I had expected.
So let's get into it and enjoy.

Speaker 2 (01:21):
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Speaker 1 (02:14):
And now back to the show.
All right everybody, all righteverybody.
So I wanted to offer a littlebit of reasoning for why I do
these user interviews for ringbuyers, and what I've learned
over the course of a lot ofyears is that the things of

(02:37):
importance for a shopper versusa retailer versus a vendor,
versus a retailer versus avendor versus a podcast host are
all very different when itcomes to an engagement ring
process.
There's no one way to do this,and especially if you're, you
know, men buying for men, menbuying for women, women buying
for women or, like this episode,custom engagement ring

(03:00):
processes are all very uniqueand offer an insight into an
experience that I've never kindof undergone, and user
interviews are one of those waysthat UX designers can kind of
better tailor their products andprocesses and journeys to make

(03:22):
things more seamless or morecomfortable.
And what I've learned is thatby me doing these interviews,
retailers can sometimes betterrefine or get new insights into
what's going through the mind ofthe shoppers.
A lot of times I have apersonal connection to these

(03:44):
shoppers as well.
This one in particular is myelder brother.
This is Joseph.
He's a longtime In the Looplistener, very supportive.
He's probably listening to thisepisode.
What's up, joe?
And he had approached me andtold me you know, I want to do a
custom ring project.
Do you have anyone that yourecommend?
And of course I recommendedVincent.

(04:07):
He actually had done a ringproject for me once upon a time
several years ago, where heengraved my family crest onto a
signet ring for me and it wassuper easy working with him.
I've had him on the podcastseveral times in the past and
also I just really like him.
I think he's a good guy and Irecommended it.

(04:27):
But I also knew I wanted to benot involved in this process
because to me it's very much ait's a personal thing.
You know, a custom engagementring or just engagement ring
buying thing.
I don't know if I would want tobe at the center of it.
It should just be between Joeand this.

(04:48):
You know this guy and I didn'twant to be kind of altering that
or too heavily involved.
So after the connection I sortof stepped away and left it to
Joe and Vincent to sort out.
But what was really cool indoing this interview?
I had the interview twice.
I interviewed Joe one-on-oneabout his, you know, ring

(05:12):
building designing process andthen I interviewed Vincent and
we talked about the same thingsbut through the lens of a
shopper or, I guess, the guy,and then through the eyes of a
jeweler, and the things that Inoticed is that Joe was very

(05:32):
concerned about a certain set ofthings, like he really wanted
it to turn out good, he wantedto be under budget, he wanted to
have the communication easy andwith Vincent, he wanted to make
sure that the shopper reallyliked it.
And I think that having thosekind of core principles out in
the open with each other, withopen communication, really made

(05:56):
the process super great.
So I'm going to hopefully havethese interviews sort of
intermingle with each other andyou'll sort of see how, through
different vantage points,through the eyes of a shopper,
through the eyes of a retailer,you can see the same process and

(06:16):
how there are different focuses, and I think that that's pretty
cool.
I haven't really seen very manyof these Custom ring projects.
I always thought that they weresupposed to be really expensive
and after talking with mybrother, joe and to Vincent, I
realized that if you come tothis process with, for example,

(06:37):
some material, then it doesn'thave to be as expensive as if
you came in with nothing.
I also thought that thetimeline was going to be a lot
longer.
I thought that ring projectstook like four or five months
because you know it seems sointense like a lot of things
going on, and this one only tookabout like a month and I

(06:59):
thought that was pretty cool.
So please enjoy listening to myolder brother and Vincent from
Arezzo talk about a custom ringbuild project.
Cheers, what is up everybody?
I'm joined by my brother, superfan of In the Loop.

(07:23):
He's named In the Loop, hisnumber one podcast for the last
five seasons in a row.
We're hoping to make it six.
Joseph Urpo, how are you doingtoday?
I'm doing great, mike, thanksfor having me.
I can't believe it.
We're finally having my otherbrother on.
If you remember back I think itwas back in season two I had my

(07:43):
second oldest brother, steven,on to talk about his engagement
ring buying process.
He bought from a brick andmortar, just a regular store in
the area that we grew up in.
Joseph, you took a slightlydifferent route.
Give me like an overview, kindof idea on the vision you had
for your ring project and kindof what you're you're hoping to

(08:05):
do to make it special.

Speaker 3 (08:07):
Yeah, sure.
So, like you said, uh, I'm abig fan of in the loop.
I I download uh every week andI knew that I want to follow the
custom engagement process.
So, when I knew that we weregoing to be going down this

(08:28):
route, um, I reached out to youand I asked uh for your
suggestion on who you wouldsuggest to be the best um custom
jeweler.
Uh, you said, uh, vincentcent.
And I actually went back intothe archive of in the loop and

(08:48):
listened to his two episodesthat he was, uh, he was on.
Oh, that's cool um yeah, andthen I took on the materials
that I was going to be able toadd to the engagement ring.
Um, it was two diamond studsand I reached and I knew that I
wanted to utilize a lab grownEmerald because I had listened

(09:15):
to in the loop and we and thedebates that you guys had had on
lab grown versus mind.
We had made up our decision,casey and I had made up our
decision on how we wanted tohandle that and I reached out to
Vincent basically with what Iknew we were going to utilize

(09:36):
and he was really receptive onstarting the process.

Speaker 1 (09:41):
Yeah, so kind of a cool couple of nuggets in there.
So the first one I think that'sreally interesting is talking
about the lab versus natural.
You ended up going with anemerald.
I guess lab, lab, emeralds nottalked about as much as usually
the debate about diamonds.
We've discussed it ad nauseum.

(10:02):
At this point on in the loop Ialmost even stay away from the
topic because I feel like we'verehashed it so many times.
Was there like a main thing youwent to school for?
You know environmental scienceand like nature related things?
I guess, loosely, was thatsomething that was a priority to
you.
Or was there something to dowith with pricing?

Speaker 3 (10:21):
get a little bit more bang for your buck on a, on a,
on a lab do with, with pricing,get a little bit more bang for
your buck on a, on a, on a lab.

(10:41):
It was a priority for casey.
Um, she did not want, she didnot want the ring, the, the,
because of the politicalsituations that are around, uh
uh mine diamonds.
But we did have, we do havemind uh diamonds as uh side side

(11:02):
, side parts of the engagementring.
But the actual main centerpoint is a lab-grown emerald.

Speaker 1 (11:14):
Yeah, I think that's a really cool part.
Adding the side stones into it,coming from these studs that
you already had, like more of afamily kind of piece, and adding
them to the side of it I thinkis one of those sort of like
something old, something new,you know that kind of thing.
It felt really to complete it.
But I actually went back and Ifound the.

(11:36):
I went back and I found theconversation that I introduced
you and Vincent in and it wasreally neat because Vincent
actually had built out or hadengraved my family crest ring
and that was I knew that he hadalready, you know, was able to
accommodate and very easy towork with.

(11:56):
Let's talk about what was thenext step, beyond emails.
What did after you had a phonecall with him or as you went
through the process, what didyou do afterwards?
Did he provide a CAD file or asketch?
What'd that look like?

Speaker 3 (12:12):
So, like I said, I I had to take an inventory of the
product that I had that wasgoing to be that I made
available to Vincent to to workaround.
Um, at the time of ourengagement, casey's mom had
actually recently died and Caseyinherited two major jewelry

(12:38):
pieces.
One was a just over five caratdiamond and the other one are
total half carat um diamondstuds.
And we decided, you know, we'renot gonna go with uh, the, the,
the big, the big chonker, uh asthe front, mainly because I

(13:00):
can't afford security, uh to tobe going around with us at every
step of the way.
And then also we wanted to havethe basis be an emerald for,
kind of in the basis that I hadgiven her a clotta ring early in
our relationship.
So I knew what we had, I knewwhat the material was.

(13:26):
I want the basis is a platinumband, and I I sent that
information over to vincent andhe said, well, here's what,
here's what I think that itwould look like.
And actually he had recentlydone something very similar for
another client.
And then he had talked aboutwhat size, what am I looking for

(13:51):
?
And then actually the basisoverall was price.
I had given him my price pointthat I wanted to be able to pay
for the entire thing.
And he said actually, becauseI'm adding, I'm adding the two
diamonds, I'm not purchasingthose diamonds myself.
Uh, it was actually cheaper forfor me to do the custom, the

(14:17):
custom part instead of making itmyself nice.

Speaker 1 (14:21):
That's why I mean definitely having some materials
that you can kind of weave intothe project definitely brings
the overall pricing down and Ithink it's just like a great way
.
Actually, our parents, theyredid or they made their wedding
bands with reclaimed gold and Ithink that's just one of those

(14:41):
you know makes it a little bitmore special, a little bit more
unique.
So after you kind of outlineeverything for him, then what
did he do?
Did he like send you like amock up for it, or did you have
to mail him over the the, thestones?

Speaker 3 (14:58):
So, because I had the actual appraisals because Dan
Casey's dad is very organized,he actually had all of the
insurance appraisals available Iwas able to send that over to
Vincent and then, with thatinformation, he then sent me

(15:21):
renderings of what it would looklike before I even sent, uh,
diamonds to him.
Um, so he, I was actually ableto see what it was going to look
like at the end.
Um, before I, even before Ieven sent him a dollar or sent
him the diamonds, wow, he then.

(15:42):
He then said, you know, wow.
He then said you know, hey, Ineed the diamonds by this point
in the in the setup, because hewas able to have all of the prep
work done and he goes.

(16:02):
You know, I tracked it theentire time and the same thing
happened on the way back,because that plus, I think my
bikes are the most expensivething I've ever sent through
through the postal service.

Speaker 1 (16:18):
I get stressed about that and everyone seems to blasé
over the fact that it's likejust a parcel that just kind of
goes seemingly through thesystem, but no one seems to
stress about it.
I know there are some jewelersthat are, you know, sending
parcels back and forth withtheir vendors or their
manufacturers, and they're thesepackages that have like six

(16:42):
figures high, six figure valuesin them and it's just like yep
of it's part of the business.
I get stressed about that forsure.
So you sent him everythingyou'd already seen, the cad file
, and then is this where he, youknow, showed you, like a, what
was the next step in the processfor a custom ring build so he,

(17:02):
he then sent me, uh, using hiswhite box, he sent me the actual
, the actual photos, um, and hegoes this is what it's gonna
look like.

Speaker 3 (17:14):
You know, this is actually what it looks like and
I'm about to send it to you, youall good.
And I and I said yeah, um, youknow, and I I sent him I think I
sent him a zelle to to his, tohis account, and nice, and he
and he said he shipped it.
He shipped it to me that'sreally interesting.

Speaker 1 (17:36):
How long did this process overall take, from the
second I uh introduced you to tohim being like here's what it's
going to look like.
Do you want to accept payment?
How long did that take about so?

Speaker 3 (17:49):
I'm looking at my emails and you put me in contact
with him April 29th and I gotan email from Bright about
insurance on May 31st, so Ithink it was delivered on May
31st.
So I think it was.
Oh, it was delivered on May30th, so one month.

Speaker 1 (18:11):
Wow, that's a way quicker turnaround than I
expected.

Speaker 3 (18:14):
And a lot of that, I think, was you know I, I really
wanted to make sure I approvedof every step along the way.
I was not interested in doing a.
I'll pick that one, you know,from the display case.
I wanted to have input in, orat least approval in, every step

(18:39):
of the design.

Speaker 1 (18:41):
Do you feel like your ring is more special because of
that as doing a custom ringbuilder project, like, for
example, the only thing the onlycustom jewelry I've ever done
is this engraving, and I thinkit's cool to know that this is a
one of one.
This thing exists.
It is theoretically an heirloomin the fact that it, without

(19:06):
the exception that it is kind ofnot that old Like how old does
something have to be to be anheirloom With your design?
I think it's pretty cool thatyou know you customize these
things brought in these otherpieces of jewelry.
What does like doing a customproject mean to you?
Is that like something that youalways wanted to do or is it

(19:27):
just purely out of utility inthe fact that you know?

Speaker 3 (19:31):
casey had some very specific asks I think that I
look at the ring on her hand andI think that I was a part of
that.
That's not just something thatI bought stock.
I a part of me is on her handand it's not you know, it's not

(19:53):
Cristiano Ronaldo's you know bigring that looks that looks like
a piece of tinfoil wrappedtogether and then put on the
back of somebody's hand.
It's, it's, it's that is mewith her, and so I really liked

(20:14):
that as part of the process ofgoing from dating to to to
marriage.

Speaker 1 (20:23):
That's really nice.
That's a really good way tolook at it and I guess I mean
I'd be remiss if we skipped.
Give me an overview.
How'd you propose?
I think I kind of loosely know,because you mentioned it, but I
heard something.
It was very rainy.
Give me a little detail aboutyou proposing.

Speaker 3 (20:45):
The short story of it all Is Casey and I have kind of
done this out of order.
We have we've been dating andwe actually bought a house
together before we were engaged,which did cause a bit of
difficulty with the paperwork,but, yeah, that's the only way
that I knew how to do it at thetime, so it wasn't that bad that

(21:20):
, um, our house, the backyard,extends into a wildlife corridor
.
Uh, it's one of the, if not thefavorite part of our house.
Uh, so, and previously we havegone out the back and cleaned up
the space, and I encouraged herthat we should do this again,

(21:41):
because we do like to make ourcommunity better.
The things that we like to do,we like to make it better.
So we jumped the fence, went outthe back and had her, had her
picking up trash for 30 minutesbefore we got to a space that we

(22:01):
can really see from the backporch.
That's where I proposed, and Iwas well prepared enough that I
brought ribbon, and I was wellprepared enough that I brought
ribbon.
So, that way, to mark thelocation where I proposed, and

(22:21):
we now are going to be plantingwhen the planting season becomes
more advantageous, we are goingto plant a tree at that spot.
So that way for the next 10years or something like that, we
can look out and see the tree,know, hey, this was, this was
our spot and it'll grow, as sodoes your love grow, wow man,

(22:45):
the burbo family, we are soromantic.

Speaker 1 (22:48):
Golly, we're doing pretty good.
Nice job, jojo.

Speaker 3 (22:51):
Yeah, especially when she complains about the outfit
that she wore.

Speaker 1 (22:58):
Yeah, I think every girl who's ever been proposed
has that, you know what?

Speaker 3 (23:01):
Hey?
We had to go pick up the trash.

Speaker 1 (23:05):
We had to go pick up the trash.
You know, I really like that.
I think that the custom designproject is really one of those
parts of jewelry that I think isreally kind of underserved and
under talked about that you cando.
You can do anything custom ifyou wanted and honestly, it's
not that outrageously expensivewhen you get over the cost of

(23:27):
materials, because, in the end,what are we buying?
We're buying, you know,gemstones and precious metals.
If you already have those, itshould be cheaper.
And I think that's kind of areally interesting thing that
your project was less expensivethan your original kind of
budget idea, partially becauseof the fact that you had

(23:49):
something that you were going todo, no matter what you wanted
to tie in these earrings, tokind of tie in some legacy into
it.
The fact that you did that, Ithink that was cool, no matter
what, and the fact it broughtthe price down is even cooler.
I think that's a really neataspect to it, something I'm
probably going to recommend tomy friends as well that they
should look into.
Hey, do you have any legacypieces or things you can do for

(24:11):
the side stones or metal thatyou can add?
Things like that?
I think that it really justelevates the project and also
just saves you some dollars too.

Speaker 3 (24:20):
It really freed up my budget to do other things.
Right.
It actually got to.
If I had to spend the worth ofthe diamonds on the diamonds, I
would have gotten a smallergemstone, I would have gotten
maybe not the most ideal metalfor the band, but because I was

(24:45):
able to free up the cost, I wasable to be more specific and
pick the things that she wantedUm it uh for for her piece of
jewelry that she wears everysingle day and it's everything
but going to sleep in and isthat way she doesn't back

(25:07):
herself out.

Speaker 1 (25:09):
Yeah, oh, really cool , jojo.
One one last thing before wekind of wrap this is there
anything you'd want me to askVincent about the process to get
his perspective on?
Because I would you know, thisis the first interview I've had
where I'm going to have thebuyer or the client and then the
jeweler talk about the sameproject and I'm hoping to kind

(25:31):
of have two sides of the samecoin.
What would you want to know theperspective of him on?

Speaker 3 (25:37):
A really good question.
I would like to know if theanswers that I gave to the
questions that he asked werethey clear enough and did I give
him enough runway, as an artisthimself, to to do his art?
Or was I, as an engineer, toospecific and he felt like

(26:03):
somebody who just was, uh,toiling away at his his, using
his loop and his gem box and allthat kind of stuff, and he got
to?
He just did the job and did he,or did he get to have fun doing
it?

Speaker 1 (26:22):
yeah, it's really.
That's a really interestingquestion because, of course you
know this, I do a lot ofpainting, commissions, and one
thing that's kind of funny aboutcommissions is that it's not
there's like a range to thedirection.
Some people are like, hey, canyou just paint something
beautiful?
And then some people are like,hey, I want you to do exactly

(26:43):
this on this size paper.
I want you to tie in this imageand this image and this image
and both of those are actuallynot as good.
The middle range, where theyhave some semblance of an idea
but they leave it up to me toexecute, is the best case
scenario.
When someone says like, oh, Iwant you to do what you want to
do, it's just a really toughkind of prompt.

(27:05):
But on the flip side, ifsomeone's like you know, too
specific, well, then that's notas fun either.
That said, if you run abusiness, those very specific
ones I mean, that's what paysthe bills is, you know, you
could very easily just churnthem out and you already had
everything kind of figured out.
You put them on second basebecause you had a relatively

(27:27):
clear picture of what you wanted.
Yeah, I'll ask him that.
See what his perspective is onit.

Speaker 3 (27:32):
I think it's a really kind of aware thing to even ask
, yep, but jojo, anything elsebefore we get you off your
favorite podcast of all time uh,the one thing that I'd be
remiss in saying is that in theprocess in the, in the
engagement action, two thingsthat I made sure that I had to

(27:56):
do was just that I had to makesure that her dog now our dog,
Rory, was apposaled to.
So the first step of that was Ipulled out her ring out of my

(28:17):
pocket before we went out and Iwent to show Rory the ring to
make sure that she approved Rorythe ring, to make sure that she
approved.
As I opened it up, I found outthat the box that I had grabbed
was the studs.
Uh, like the empty studs yeahyeah, yeah, it was not the ring.

(28:38):
I'm so glad that I did thatbecause if I didn't, I would
have gone through the wholeprocess of having Casey pick up
trash and be out in the in thewildlife corridor, opened it up
and no ring to put on her fingerfor.
So, uh, make sure that you youcheck and you know which box

(29:00):
that you you grab, and also makesure that you get the, uh the
authorization of, uh the twoimportant people in her life uh,
rory the dog, and uh, her herdad, dan.
So those were the two thingsthat I uh that I took care of
before that that's very cute,that is.

Speaker 1 (29:21):
It's so funny.
Imagine you go to propose, havethis a whole, whole moment and
everything.
It's just like two, two studshanks, just like hanging out
just empty.
Just really start the, therelationship or the rest of your
life off and kind of like awith a big old f-bomb yeah I
love it.

(29:42):
well, dodo, I really appreciateit.
Super cool getting a chance tohave you on.
I've now had both my brotherson In the Loop and, yeah, I
think that it's kind of a fullcircle sort of moment.
You've been one of my longtimesupporters for In the Loop.
Every now and then you'll sendme a text, as you've listened to
one of the interviews, and saylike, oh, you know, that's a

(30:04):
really interesting tidbit and Ithink it's kind of cool that you
still listen to it occasionally.
I think that's a really neatthing.

Speaker 3 (30:10):
Yeah, you know recently to date the date of
this episode.
The chat GPT five episode justcame out and I'm running through
that and it's actually teachingme about what what the use,
some additional use of of GBTand jewelry is not my, is not my

(30:34):
industry.

Speaker 1 (30:36):
Well, I appreciate that.
Thanks everybody, I always lovethese.
Uh, let's talk with ring buyerepisodes.
One of the longest runningseries that we've had've had,
but this one just a slightlydifferent one.
Got to have my brother on andalso talk about a custom design
project from start to finishReally neat.
All right, everybody, we'regoing to take a quick break and
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Thanks, and now back to the showand we're back.

(32:33):
What's up everybody?
I'm joined by Vincent Spolacciofrom Arezzo Jewelers.
How are you doing today,Vincent?
I'm great, Mike.
How are you so well?
I've had you on a couple ofdifferent times.
We've talked about you as ajeweler and we've talked about
your focus in what I call nerdjewelry, which I love.
But one thing I've alwaysadmired is that you have this

(32:56):
understanding of custom jewelry,and recently you did a custom
jewelry project for my brother.
Is that a big part of yourbusiness as a jeweler?

Speaker 4 (33:05):
Yeah, yeah, um, in my store it's probably my, it's my
job.
It's my biggest job in thestore.
Personally, I am the customjeweler here, so it's um, I'm
the only person that handles it.
I pretty much do everything,start to finish, so I do have a
a pretty good formula to handlethese.

Speaker 1 (33:27):
Yeah, so you recently did an engagement ring project
for my brother, Um, so one ofthe things I was, I was kind of
outlying, uh, this, this project, and what I wanted to discuss
with you.
First of all, custom jewelry issomething I just always assumed
custom meant more expensive andafter speaking with my brother
which we're hopefully going tobe cutting in a couple of parts

(33:47):
of the conversation to hear itdoes not seem like custom always
means that it's justimmediately way more expensive.
It was just one of a kind Isthat kind of what you typically?

Speaker 4 (34:00):
see.
Correct.
Yeah, so custom jewelry canmean a lot of things.
Custom jewelry essentially justmeans that the ring is being
made or any piece of jewelry isbeing made for a specific
customer.
That does not at all entailthat it's more expensive,
especially when it comes to anengagement ring.
The majority of the time thecustomer, the gauge ring that he

(34:23):
wants or he or she wants, issomething that's not totally out
there.
So it's like for your brother,for instance.
He wanted a beautiful threestone with the cushion a square
cushion, emerald in the centerand two rounds on the sides.
That's something I couldformulate pretty quickly because
it is more of a it's atraditional three stone design.

(34:44):
Formulate pretty quicklybecause it is more of a it's a
traditional three stone design.
So that's not something that'sgoing to incur a high custom
costs, as if somebody wantedsomething completely unique,
completely ornate and somethingI had to come up with on my own.
That's a totally differentcustom process.
I'm sure that.

Speaker 1 (34:57):
I mean AI very popular right now and
increasingly.
I know that I mean you couldjust just open up chat gpt to
right now during this episodeand spin up the most insane
engagement ring you've everheard of.
Do you have people come to youand just be like, hey, can you
make this?
Is that?

Speaker 4 (35:13):
oh yeah, you're probably battling yes, um,
before, back when we were doingit, like a year or two ago chat,
gpt and mid journey they cameup with some pretty crazy
designs that just cannot be made.
But it's gotten a lot betterand the pictures have become a
lot more photorealistic.
Uh, and also the the results ofthe ai has been coming way more
traditional designs than thanit used to.

(35:35):
So when it I'm sorry, go ahead.
No, I, I, so I.
Uh, my 10-year anniversary wastwo years ago.
I used AI to design my livestream.

Speaker 1 (35:52):
Oh, really, that's so cool.
What kind of prompts are yougetting on your end, because you
obviously understand the ringprocess better than this AI
probably does.
Are you specifying the shanksand what the band is going to
look like?

Speaker 4 (36:03):
kind of yes, I'm doing, I'm trying to be as
specific as possible.
I'm not really putting too manytechnical terms.
I'm uh trying to, I, I type itin as if I'm trying to explain
it to myself and I'm the onesitting at the bench.
Uh, I don't.
I know there's like code wordsand a lot of stuff you could use
in chat, gpt, but I just go, Iwing it, I, I wing, I tell it, I

(36:23):
wing it, I tell them what Iwant.
If it doesn't shoot out what Iwant, I modify this prompt and
do it again.
So I don't have a formula forprompts.

Speaker 1 (36:31):
Yeah, I don't have a formula either, I to me, I just
think I'm trying to explain it.
But in explaining it to thatpart to my mom, uh, in the past
I've been like it's okay to alsogive it these words that give
it like some wiggle room, sothat it's not just a hard rule,
it can also kind of allow forsome interpretation.

(36:51):
But maybe just reeling thisback in to this ring project,
yes, so I my brother was likehey, I want to do a custom ring.
I already kind of know what Iwant.
Do you have anyone yourecommend?
Of course, recommend you youhad done.
I actually have it on right now, my family crest.

(37:12):
I'm still very proud of it.
This is probably the onlydifference between an heirloom
and a piece of custom jewelry isjust how long it's been around.
I think is pretty much kind ofwhat it comes down to.

Speaker 4 (37:22):
Well, I consider, if I make a custom piece of jewelry
, I consider that an heirloom,because it's not something that
they're just, it's not a, it'snot a fast fashion piece.

Speaker 1 (37:40):
It's not a costume piece, so even if they're the
first person wearing, yourecommend Gave him your name,
introduced it.
But what was really interestingis my brother, joe, already
kind of knew what he sort ofwanted, because he had talked to
his now fiance about this, buthe also had some materials with
him, materials with him.

(38:02):
So what was fascinating, Ithought, was that he had these
studs, um that his uh yeah,pretty nice.
Is that something you find islike common in custom?

Speaker 4 (38:16):
projects as people bring material to you.
Uh, it's getting more common.
Uh, I actually encourage it.
I love doing that.
I love, uh, repurposingosing.
Sometimes I'll take a couplerings or several ring pieces of
jewelry and I'll put that all ina piece.
So I actually love doing that.
That's repurposing, so that'slike creating a new heirloom, or
bringing breathing new lifeinto an heirloom, taking

(38:38):
something like from your, from afamily's past and making a
future for it rather than sit ina box.
I love doing that.

Speaker 1 (38:46):
Yeah, it's really kind of interesting, though from
a business perspective if youdon't mind me peeking behind the
curtain on this, not at all.
For example, I've startedgetting into wine.
I like wine.
I like wine when I go out fordinner, and one thing you can do
that I've learned afterwatching some videos on it is
you can buy a nice bottle ofwine, and then you can, if you

(39:09):
go to a kind of fancierrestaurant, you can call in and
be like hey, I was wondering ifyou guys do on corking, I can
bring my own bottle, blah, blah,blah, and most fancy places
actually will allow you to dothat, and if you have a bottle
of white, they'll put it on icefor you.
Um, the thing is is I sometimeswonder if they're kind of like,

(39:31):
ah, like I wish that youwouldn't, because they obviously
are losing something on.
You know, if I buy a bottle ofa nice wine, there would be a
lot more.
Are you at all, as a businessowner, kind of along the lines
of like sort of like losing someof the markup by not providing

(39:52):
the studs and going to Rapnet orStuller or whoever you get your
stones from?
What does that look like as abusiness owner?

Speaker 4 (40:00):
Well, when it comes to that, like I'll do it if I'm
providing a majority amount ofservice material like so if
someone came to me with everypiece, like here's the gold,
here's the back, can you justput this all together for me?
I would kindly refuse that.
But when someone comes to mesaying this is from my mom, this
is from my grandma, this isfrom this, I want to make

(40:21):
something out of this I don'treally think of it as that um is
that it's just.
It's just a different servicethat I'm offering.
That's just how I think aboutit.
If someone brings, brings me ina pair of diamond earrings, like
like your brother did, I amhappy to put those in a in a
ring, because if I don't have,if I didn't have them, I'd have
to go buy them anyways.

(40:41):
There's one less thing I haveto produce, and it's and it, uh,
it helps the customer know,like have a better idea what the
final product's gonna look like, because I'm using their items
too yeah, and I think it maybeit does make it more personal
and much more like tied to them.

Speaker 1 (41:01):
Yeah, but for example , you you know my family I guess
has like a little bit of ahistory with this my, my mom and
dad actually had their um, uhwedding bands made from
reclaimed uh gold.
You know my mom's like looseearrings and a couple of
bracelets that she didn't everwear, and then they melted them

(41:22):
down and they made a pair ofbands In that.
That example.
Would you take that on or isthat two answers to that.

Speaker 4 (41:37):
Two answers to that, because that's a hard one.
When someone brings me a lot ofgold, you can't just melt it
and make a new piece.
It's just not how it works.
You can't throw it all into acrucible, throw some fire on
there and it's going to meltinto a nice piece of gold in my
brain you, you could do rightyes, the thing is like when you,
when you're purchasing goldjewelry, you're purchasing
diluted gold.
So you're purchasing gold withan alloy.
So let's say, 14 karat gold is58 and a half percent pure gold.

(41:57):
Then there's alloys, so there'seither silver, nickel, uh,
brass, copper to changedepending on the color of the
gold.
Uh, each piece, depending onwhere it's made, they have
different alloys, even if it'sthe same yellow gold here.
Yellow gold here one's usingcopper, one's using brass, one's
using a lesser alloy.
You mix all those together.
Yes, they will mix together, butwhen you try to create a final

(42:18):
product out of it, there will bea ton of gas bubbles and what
we call porosity, so a bunch ofholes will always appear and
it'll be brittle and it'll break.
So if we do that, there's twothings that we offer.
If someone wants to give us alltheir gold, either we take all
their gold and we give them avalue, and that that we'll buy
that gold, and that willactually go the furthest.

(42:39):
And 90% of people say, yeah,absolutely, we'll take that gold
, put it to something new andwe'll use whatever stones we
could use.
That's the most of the time howit works.
But if someone had like, saysno, this gold is very
sentimental.
I need, I need it to be thisgold.
Okay, not a problem, it's got togo to a refiner and there's
probably going to be a 10 to 30loss on it because we're going

(43:01):
to refine it back.
Yes, because we got to refineit.
It's called uh, you assay it.
So if you refine it, we got tomake, we're going to make it
back to 24 karat and then diluteit again to make a properly
finished piece of jewelry.
So that costs more, but you'restill, you're getting your gold
back.
So, because there's a lot morework involved in that, so we do

(43:21):
offer that majority people don'toff, uh, don't go for it, uh,
unless they're just doing aplain wedding band.
If it's a plain wedding band,like by all means, just, we
could go that route what a manit's so funny I've been doing
this thing, this, this, for thispodcast for like six years.

Speaker 1 (43:38):
I I did not know.
I thought that, uh, they cut um14 karat with the same metals,
no matter where you were.
Wow.

Speaker 4 (43:49):
That's crazy.
When I buy Italian gold fromone factory and then I buy gold
locally, if it's manufactured inMexico, you hold the two next
to each other.
They look completely different.
That's because the alloys thatthey use are different.

Speaker 1 (44:01):
There's no standardization on that.

Speaker 4 (44:04):
The standardization is just the ratio, oh I mean oh,
wow because there's acceptedmetals that are.
There's a.
There's a whole bunch of metalsthat are acceptable to alloy
alloy with gold.
Some are more expensive thanothers that's super fascinating.

Speaker 1 (44:21):
What a really cool, cool little piece.
But so back on this ringproject.
I wanted to kind of ask aboutthe back and forth.
So how, as my brother Joe, onething he said that he
appreciated about working withyou is the communication was
very, very easy.
It was maybe because, you know,uh, you came recommended.

(44:44):
It felt like he was speakingwith, like um, I don't want to
say a friend, but more like uh,someone that you knew to make a
friend, yeah, like a friendthere you go.
So, like, as a result, you kindof have this relationship and
and it's kind of more push-pulleasy.
Uh, what's your?
How do you kind of bill foryour communication as a custom

(45:08):
project because, like charge,you mean, how do I charge?
Yeah, like, are you buildingthat into the entire project?
Or are you because what ifsomeone you know requires a lot
of hand holding and it's takinga lot of your time?
You're not even behind thebench, you're just texting or
emailing with them.

Speaker 4 (45:27):
It's more of.
I have a minimum than I don'treally want to.
Hey, I'm charging you $700 justto use me, because you could go
anywhere and they could get acustom project done anywhere.
It might take longer, but I'mnot going to charge just to use
me.
I'm going to charge, basically,like when everyone else does.
It's gonna be, uh, whatever theproduct is, it's just a minimum

(45:50):
.
So like, if I'm gonna do acustom ring for you, gotta spend
at least 2500, like I can't.
I'm not gonna do, um, like aone carat lab diamond set in the
air and whatnot.
So like set in a singlesolitaire ring like I, that's.
That's basically how it justhas to be worth it more than I'm
gonna charge.
I'm gonna charge you for acheap ring.

(46:11):
I'm gonna charge you more.
You know, no, I try to becompetitive with the pricing, so
I'm not gonna charge extra forcertain custom jobs, unless it's
very ornate and I'll, you know,put that uh ahead of time.

Speaker 1 (46:23):
it's really do you just joe was talking about, like
he was texting and working withyou?
Do you have like a work phoneand like a private phone?
Or how do you kind of separateyour life, your business life
and life?

Speaker 4 (46:39):
Yeah, instead of another phone, I just have a
Google Voice number.
I set that up a couple of yearsago.
Just go on Google, you couldget a new phone number.
For I just have a Google Voicenumber.
I set that up a couple of yearsago.
Just go on Google, you couldget a new phone number for free
and download the Google Voiceapp.
And that's my work cell phone,so all on the same phone.
So whichever number you call,it's still going to come to the
same phone, which is great,works perfect.
I don't have to switch betweenphones.

(47:05):
But the reason why I'm prettygood at back and forth
communication because one,there's, my main job here is
bridal and custom uh.
Two, this is I'm well aware of.
This is the third largestpurchase you're probably going
to make in your life your house,your car gauge bearing, and
this is, uh, it's a love storyand I'm not going to screw that
up.
Yeah, I'm going to be and I'm apart of it and I want to be as
much a part of it and I want tobe'm a part of it and I want to
be as much a part of it and Iwant to be a good part of it.

(47:26):
I don't want to be a hard partof that process so I've done it
plenty of times.
I have a pretty solid workflow.
I know I anticipate a lot ofquestions that people are going
to ask me, so I try to answerthem beforehand and I kind of

(47:48):
got an idea, idea what myclients want and how they want
to be helped.
So for all these years like I Ijust become, I got a steady
workflow and it works good forme it's really cool, man, uh,
it's fascinating.

Speaker 1 (47:57):
Also, having experienced it both, you know,
working with you, uh, on thispodcast on my own ring, but then
seeing my brother do this, Imade a very conscious decision.
I did not want to be involvedin the project at all beyond the
introduction and even to thepoint.
I actually saw you at theclient workshop.
I was talking to you and I waslike no, I don't want to see, I

(48:18):
don't want to see anything.
I don't want to even hear aboutthe project because if I get
involved, I have to be veryinvolved.
I can't just be a little bitinvolved, I have to be so in.
And to me, like you said, it'sa, it's very personal, it's a
love story and it's kind of likeI don't even want to, um, I
don't want to, I don't want toget into it because it's their

(48:40):
story and uh.
But I will say, having been onthis side, their story, yeah and
uh.
But I will say, having been onthis side, you made me look
really good and I reallyappreciate you handling my
brother's?

Speaker 4 (48:50):
uh, my brother's.

Speaker 1 (48:50):
I appreciate you thought of me, it was a huge
honor, ah, and it turned outspectacularly, and I'm sure you
already heard, but she said yesand uh.
So, casey, if you're listeningto this, welcome to the family
very excited.
I can't wait.
So, vincent, I can't thank youenough, man, it was really
really cool to hear about yourproject.
It was my pleasure.

Speaker 4 (49:12):
Your brother was awesome to work with, so it was
honestly God my pleasure, and Ican't thank you enough for
having me do it for you, Heckyeah, man, if people are
listening and they want to seemore of your work and maybe
refer some clients over to you.
Uh, where should they go?
Arezzo Jewelers Uh, my handleonline is.

Speaker 1 (49:58):
Arezzo Jewelers or wwwarezzojewelers.
Bye, check them out.
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.
Don't forget to rate thepodcast on Spotify and Apple
Podcasts and leave us feedbackon punchmarkcom slash loop.
That's L-O-U-P-E, thanks.

(50:18):
We'll be back next week,tuesday, with another episode.
Cheers, bye.
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