June 3, 2025 • 32 mins
Marketing professionals Lisa-Marie Delgado from Gary J. Long Jewelers &
Aurora Simpson from Holliday Jewelry share insights on retail strategies, event planning, and industry trends in an energetic conversation LIVE from the Punchmark Client Workshop in Charlotte, NC.
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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 in Charlotte, north
Carolina, and this time I had ontwo guests that I haven't had
on before.
This time it was Lisa MarieDelgado from Gary J Long
Jewelers and Aurora Simpson fromHoliday Jewelry, and these two
are definitely a focus onmarketing, so we talked all
about events and differentin-store projects and trends
(00:42):
that they're following.
It was a really coolconversation.
They're full of a lot of energyand we're in front of a live
crowd, which is always a lot offun, and I love having a chance
to have a conversation with somepeople that I haven't spoken
with before, so please enjoy.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
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
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We consider our clients ourfriends, as many of them have
(01:20):
been friends way before becomingclients.
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Slash go.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
And now back to the show.
Like I was saying before, thisis actually a recurring series
that we do.
So we do retailer roundtablesbecause I think that one of the
truest facts about the jewelryindustry is that jewelers love
listening to jewelers talk aboutjewelry and these are always
(02:15):
our best episodes.
Everybody I've had on severalpeople here.
I've had on Cole in the past.
I've had on Caleb.
In the past I've had on I feellike who am I presenting?
Oh, anna, vincent, Anybody else,several people in here and it's
really interesting because theconversations are never the same
(02:37):
.
Sometimes we talk about you know, what fashion trends are going
on, and I've had on people fromas diverse of a range of places,
as different coasts from coastto coast, so from Oregon all the
way down to California or allthe way down to Florida and
California and back again, andas a result, the stores are so
(02:58):
different that you get thesegreat conversations and I'm
hoping to kind of contrast thatright now as well.
We just had this conversationwith two of our vendors this
will be airing the week afterthat, but our previous vendors
were Jordan with Bravani andCraig with Ospy, and that
conversation was all aboutvendors and how, what they're
(03:21):
going through with the currentstate of trade and global trade.
And this one, I'm hoping, withLisa and Aurora from Gary J Long
Jewelers and Holiday Jewelry,I'm hoping we can talk a little
bit about what's going on inyour store as well.
So first of all, can you maybeintroduce yourself and how long
you've been with your store?
Speaker 3 (03:39):
My name is Lisa Marie Delgado.
I've been with Gary J LongJewelers in Stockton, California
, for four years and I juststarted my GAA courses to be a
graduate gemologist.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
That's awesome, that's so cool and Aurora.
Speaker 4 (03:52):
Hi, I'm Aurora Simpson.
I'm director of marketing forHoliday Jewelry and I've been
with them for about three and ahalf years.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Super cool.
So you were saying I'mrelatively new to the industry
but I consider that a seasonedvet.
At this point that's super cool.
And you're going to school tobe a certified gemologist Just
to give people an idea what goesinto kind of getting that
certification.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
Luckily it's online courses.
You can do in-person classeslike your diamond grading labs
and everything like that.
That'll come down the line.
It just started.
It's self-paced, so I feel likeit's a big challenge for me.
I never went to school afterhigh school, so I never went to
college, so I didn't think Icould learn again or obtain
(04:36):
information and retain it, sobeing able to do this at my own
pace.
But also it takes a lot ofdiscipline that I didn't know
was going to come with the wholegig.
So I thought it was just goingto be a breeze, but I had to
really put everything down, putmy phone down and really focus
(04:57):
on school once I left work, soit's been a challenge.
I just started with Essentials,so Diamond Grading starts in
June, and it's been a challenge.
But I I just started withessentials, so diamond grading
starts in June, and it's been achallenge.
But I know that the end goal isgoing to be like a really big
thing for me and for my store.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
That's so cool.
It's one of those things that Ifeel like people talk about
like, oh, I'm going to be agraduate gemologist and I guess
I've never really understoodwhat goes into it, but it's
definitely something I've heardlots of people talk about.
Aurora, did you go to schoolfor marketing, or is that
something that you kind ofslipped into?
Speaker 4 (05:29):
Yeah, actually I did go to school for graphic design
and marketing as well asphotography, and that's kind of
where my background was, andthen I kind of fell into the
jewelry industry through those,through David Welk.
I was photographing for anevent for a nonprofit that Ray
Holiday attends every year andsupports and is very much
involved in, and he said he justlooked over and said, oh, I
(05:50):
should hire her.
That's awesome.
And he did that's so cool.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
And so we're at the client workshop and, I'm sure,
kind of continuing with youreducation.
How has the workshop been?
I think this is both of yourfirst time attending.
Have you learned anything new,anything in particular maybe?
Speaker 3 (06:08):
The best thing that I've learned is that I am not
alone in the fact that marketingis really hard in this industry
.
From taking photos of jewelryto make it actually look good to
coming up with some type ofcampaign or some type of sale or
some type of anything to getpeople in our store.
It's a lot harder than what Idid before.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Yeah so yeah.
Anything in particular, anyfavorite presentations so far.
Speaker 4 (06:34):
Oh gosh, there's been a lot of really good
information and a lot of thatI'm really excited about.
A lot of really interestedpeople just looked up to see
what you're going to say thereyeah, there's a lot of tidbits
of things that I want to startimplementing and a lot of things
is like okay, I knew I wasn'tutilizing that the right way, so
(06:55):
I need to circle back to that.
Yeah, there's been a lot.
The AI stuff has been reallyinteresting.
There's been a lot of talkabout it in my store and one of
the things that we've beentrying to you know, how can we
use this best for our business?
Speaker 1 (07:08):
And that's been, that's probably, that's probably
like one of the top things forsure, and so we talked about a
little bit about events and justmarketing in general, and I
think events is something I feellike we sometimes all say that
we want to do, and thensometimes it's like oh yeah,
we'll just wait until Christmas,you know, and then we're going
to do a Christmas event, orwe're going to wait until
Valentine's Day, and then we doValentine's Day.
So let's start with this.
(07:29):
Are there anything other thanthe two I just mentioned that
you guys do for events that havebeen interesting at your store,
any events that aren't just,you know, valentine's Day or
Christmas?
You know, classic wish listevents.
Valentine's Day or Christmas,you know, classic wishlist
events.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
We are going to be implementing a little bit better
this year, but last year wewanted to start a kind of like a
wishlist party, inviting ourclients via our email blast
because I feel like it's alittle more personal, since they
signed up for that.
Last year did not go too well,but the store allowed me to do
four events instead of our onebig trunk show for Christmas.
(08:07):
So I think if I implemented alittle bit earlier maybe because
we blink and it's Christmas-especially at this point.
So I'm going to try to implementthis time a little bit better
the wish list event, because theEdge has the wish list.
It has been extremely helpfulfor our other clients that may
need a little assistance.
(08:27):
It also helps track who madethat sale initially in the
beginning, who put it on thewish list.
It helps us in that way.
So I think the wish list partywill be a little bit more.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
Can you just talk to me a little bit about what a
wish list?
Speaker 3 (08:44):
party is.
Is someone able to do their own?
Last year we did it for a wholestore open, so from 10 am to
5.30, we invited people in ourclients in for hors d'oeuvres,
just refreshments, nothing untilabout 5.
We did like drinks, but weinvited our clients in to look
around.
We have all this product in foryou.
(09:05):
We brought it in for you.
It helped us learn what wasreally kind of on trend that we
were going to be seeing in theholiday season.
It didn't get too much traction,but I'm very hopeful that if we
can kind of keep doing it justas wonderful as our trunk show
is we can start doing somethingmid-year and have the same event
or same turnout as we do inchristmas.
(09:26):
So fingers crossed, yeah andwhat about like?
Speaker 1 (09:30):
so I I think it was uh lenny that gave the
presentation and he wasmentioning, like how uh 50 of
your clients are going to do.
Lenny, do you remember the?
The stats off the top?
Speaker 2 (09:41):
of your head.
It's 10% of your customers do50% of their business.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
There you go.
So around that topic of I meanthe term I always use is VIPs Do
you guys do anything related tomarketing to them or just
reaching out to them to ask likehey, you know, we have a
holiday coming up, or heyhaven't seen you guys in a while
, would you guys?
I just got this thing that youmentioned that you might've
liked.
Is VIP marketing somethingthat's on your guys' radar, or
(10:13):
is that something you guys wantto do in the future?
Speaker 4 (10:15):
Most definitely.
It's something that we utilizea lot.
Um, we actually do quite a fewevents and that's one of the
first things I do and we justhad the uh, we did an estate and
antique jewelry event withbeneficial estate just last
month, I think, or maybe it wasmarch, I can't remember now.
So, burr, but uh, it was a verygood event.
(10:36):
You know a lot of high-endstuff and all that.
We did save the dates to ourvips, we did reminders, we did
follow-up phone calls and we hada really good traction on the
event, which has just been.
Yeah, it's been great so, whichis it's a lot of fun too,
because we do quite a few eventsoh, that's so cool.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Yeah, and besides I mean, just like um alisa was
mentioning, is there a uh likean event that's not just like
the normal run in the mill, thatthat's been successful for you
in the past?
Speaker 4 (11:01):
um, well, I think one that's really been successful
for over the years that hasgotten really big in our area is
our balloon pop.
We do a gemstone balloon pop.
We fill our store with balloonsthat have genuine gemstones
inside of them and we have acouple different price points
that people hit and they come inand they pop a balloon and they
(11:21):
keep the gemstone.
Then we do a follow-up eventthat we're implementing this
year for a mounting event.
That's going to be a lot of fun.
That's going to pair with acouple other things.
We have.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Wow, that's so cool.
I just want the gemstone, Ijust kind of want to hold on to
it.
Oh, people love it, it's so fun.
Speaker 4 (11:37):
People are so excited about it.
You get balloon with a gemstonein it pop and they're just oh,
what I got?
What I got?
Yeah, and it is just it was.
It's something that juststarted as kind of a fun event,
something to just generate alittle bit of traction and get
some awareness out there, andit's really turned into
something that is, you know,more profit driven.
We partner with a non-profit anddonate 20 of the proceeds wow
(12:00):
um and that just has had greatturnover and work with them
quite a bit to help feature them.
You know kind of pull in theirgroup with everything and it's
gone really, really well.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
How do you source your gemstones?
If you don't mind me asking, ifyou don't mind giving up the
question how do you source yourgemstones?
Speaker 4 (12:18):
Well, ray has done a lot of that.
We do a variety of thingsbecause I know they go to a lot
of the shows and they do somebuying there as well, as we have
a full service repair shop.
We have a lot of estate jewelry, a lot of stuff.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
You know we'll pull stones and so we kind of collect
for it all year long.
Oh cool, yeah, great way to use.
Like I would never call itscrap, but like yeah leftover
materials and shrinkage.
Speaker 4 (12:35):
That sounds great yeah, we do a lot of sorting so
they go through, and they do gothrough and check everything,
and so it's there's a lotinvolved in it, but it's, it's
done.
Great for us, it's.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
We're known for it all over our area do you guys
ever have a any uh temptation tolike slip into some of these um
trend uh events, such as likeuh permanent jewelry?
It's something I I wanted to doan episode about it and then I
canceled it because I was likeman, this isn't gonna stick
around.
And then it's still around liketwo years later.
Have you guys done any likeanything around that kind of
(13:07):
thing?
Speaker 3 (13:08):
um, that's kind of awful to say, but Gary is very
old school, traditional, um, buthe's very open.
Um, I haven't sold him onpermanent jewelry yet.
Um, I think, uh, jordan hadmentioned something, um, from
Bravani when he was saying thatwhen you had to ask him about
trending and is it worth it?
And you kind of like, well, I'mgoing to go through all the
(13:30):
hassle of doing this, gettingall these, all this, all that
you need just to have that oneclient maybe to come in.
And I don't, I want I thinkpermanent jewelry is really cool
.
But then you think about, well,what happens when it busts up?
And it's now your fault.
It's not the client's fault,it's your fault.
I don't wear it that often, youwear it every day.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
So you kind of run into those things.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
But I think that we have been tempted a lot with a
lot of trends, but I feel likewe're always so far behind that
by the time we maybe get to thatpoint of having that in stock
the trend is now over.
Speaker 4 (14:09):
Um, that's what I thought, that's how I that's how
I see it.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
Is that by the time we get there, it's not going to
be worth it anymore.
Um, but you never know.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Trends are constantly coming right back around, yeah,
they come right back and whatabout yourself?
Have you guys?
Have you thought about, uh,maybe getting into that?
Speaker 4 (14:23):
um, not so much we're in.
I mean, we're a good 10 yearsbehind everybody where I live,
it's all you know where thetrends don't hit nearly as
quickly.
Um, and so you know, we kind oflook for a little bit more
sustainability and just not asreactive to that.
I try, I definitely payattention to it and I do use a
(14:43):
lot of it, kind of like oursocial media more so but we
haven't had too much of thatbring anything in for, like our
events, or too much that we'redoing.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
I guess that's related to the next point I want
to ask about is do you guys payattention to jewelry fashion?
Are you guys following anything?
Is there a source that you getyour trends in fashion about,
following anything?
Is there a source that you getyour, uh, your, your trends in
fashion about, like, is theresomething that you're paying
attention to most?
Because I feel like if you, Icould show you 37 different uh
(15:17):
points that are, oh, it's this,this is the next big thing, but
what really matters to yourlocation is completely, you know
, uh, isolated.
Do you have like a source thatyou'd like, as far as far as you
know, fashion news or trends?
Speaker 3 (15:26):
Instagram.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
Yeah, yeah.
Do you have like a localinfluencer that you follow?
Speaker 4 (15:30):
No, I don't follow any influencers.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
I look into the events that are happening.
Just recently, of course, wasthe Met Gala.
Ah yeah, and I feel like thejewelry completely stole the
show because it was a tailoredtheme, so it's straight lines,
it's clean cut and the coloredgemstones were just, they were
beautiful, they werebreathtaking.
So I just kind of look intothese events.
(15:53):
I'm not sure if my social mediais ready for me to go that
direction, so I'm kind of slowlythinking of how I can put this
into our store.
Um, I know anybody who'sanybody likes to see celebrities
, likes to see these things andpair it with something that we
may have in stock.
Um, so I'm trying to figure outhow to have the best way to do
(16:14):
that, but it's really justInstagram and, um, I come from a
different background ofmarketing.
I came from a clothing brand,so I worked with a lot of music
artists um, so I watched them.
I watched the football playersbecause those are everyone loves
to see that, um, but that's theonly thing I get.
It's all Instagram.
That's all it is and Instagrammagazine.
(16:34):
They have really good articlesabout the trends that are out so
and big events that happen.
Speaker 4 (16:38):
Yeah, about yourself uh, yeah, kind of similar.
I don't have a lot of specificones I follow right now because
I try to be kind of broad soit's not too tailored like to me
personally or what I'mspecifically looking at, um, but
I do kind of follow like a lotof like kind of our local I
don't want to say influencers,but I guess that's what it's
called.
Yeah, the micro influencers youknow in in our areas of kind of
(17:01):
like what they're doing, whatsome of the shops there are
doing, um, and kind of justkeeping to that Cause, a lot of
our stuff is just so still kindof really traditional, um, but
yeah, like Met Gala, the bigevents like that, the
celebrities, you know what,what's popping up on them, so do
a lot of that Uh.
And then whatever emails say oh, 7g was on, yeah, I was
(17:23):
comfortable on, cabaret was onum, so those are helpful.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
So I kind of kind of watch a lot of that.
It's really interesting thatyou mentioned, uh, colored
gemstones, because it does feellike that's starting to become
like a big trend that is slowlystarting to emerge.
It's kind of uh I feelsimilarly about it the way I did
about, um just athletes ingeneral uh, so increasingly
they're saying that it used tobe that celebrities were driving
(17:49):
jewelry and just fashion ingeneral forward, but now
increasingly I think you'restarting to see athletes,
especially sports, that arehelmetless.
You know that you can see theirfaces.
So basketball and baseball andtennis, because they have
usually have walk-ins and theyare pushing their own personal
brand and it is incentivizing tothem to be wearing certain
(18:12):
pieces of jewelry.
Or even when it comes totimepieces you're seeing it a
lot with I think it's F1.
I'm not an F1 fan, but they'reall sponsored by every watch
brand imaginable, and I thinkit's because of, like, how much
airtime and how muchopportunities they get to kind
of push their own personal brand.
(18:32):
So it's cool that you'refollowing that as well.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
It's interesting, and so when it comes to buying, do
you guys get to do the marketing?
Are you able to say like, hey,we don't have any Cuban links
and I've seen lots of trendsWe'd love to push that.
Could you like have aninfluence on the buying?
Do you guys go to trade shows,or is that not something that
(18:55):
you're usually involved in?
Speaker 4 (18:57):
Well, I'm going to my first trade show in July.
Oh which one?
I'm going to IGO.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
Oh, exciting.
Speaker 4 (19:05):
Shout out to Penny yeah, yep, so I'm looking
forward to that.
I haven't I want to say I'vehad too much influence in that
right now, usually like I'musually going through okay, what
do we have here already thatmeets with these trends, or that
I want to kind of showcase?
Yeah, we'll see.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
I say it's too much responsibility.
Even if a rep comes, I'm likeno, that's really nice.
But Gary's joke is if you pickit, you have to sell it.
So, that's just a little toomuch pressure for me, but I do
like I do watch these MetGallupevents like that and I do
mention it.
I do send the links to mygeneral manager who goes to the
(19:45):
trade show with Gary.
We have brought in a few thingsbut because our resources are
so easy to reach out to and do aspecial order for, we don't
usually keep anything kind ofoutrageous or kind of crazy in
stock.
We have our larger pieces,which is fantastic, and mostly
in color gemstones, which isgreat in lab, but we know that
(20:07):
we can get what that client'slooking for and be able to make
them happy within a couple days,that we don't really keep
anything too big like that instock.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
With marketing, I always wonder.
So everybody says, ok, you needto be taking more photos and
marketing more and things likethat.
I guess this is that is yourjob.
Is it just going around andpicking one or two pieces and
saying, hey, can I borrow you toput it on your wrist and take a
quick boomerang or a reel orsomething like that?
Or is it more thought out?
(20:39):
Because I've heard argumentsfor both, like the spontaneous
kind of approach versus the morekind of thought out, scheduled
approach.
Is there any value to one orthe other?
Speaker 4 (20:49):
both.
You gotta have both.
Yeah, I, I try to utilize bothand, depending because I do the,
I am that would get back here.
Come here, you don't play modeltoday.
We're doing this, we're gonnado this and I'll try and get as
much, you know, as many assets Ican right then, when I have
someone, because we're a busystore, I'll try and pull someone
and then next thing you knowit's an hour or two, they've
been busy, I've moved on tosomething else, so it's not
(21:12):
happening right then.
So I've got to have some sortof plan and action.
I try and schedule as much as Ican Now.
I'm out of the store right nowat this, so it's like okay, here
I I try to have a strategy withit, but still have that
flexibility to pull somethingtogether and just get what's
going on right now, because alot of people they want to see
that that was what's happeningright now.
(21:33):
Oh, I just saw this, I just sawyou on there Download, come
down and talk to you about it,and just having that immediacy
is great.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (21:40):
So, or like we just did, um, we've had a huge you
know the fake gold scam.
Um, I'm sure everyone'sprobably I don't know if
everyone's had that, but peopleare y'all selling fraudulent
gold chains, stuff down at thegas station, or they've come in
and they've got a sob story andnow people have bought this.
You know, what we're seeing nowis thousands of dollars worth
(22:01):
of you know junk jewelry, um,and coming into us to have it
tested, see what they can do,and we're having to tell them
this is, this is nothing.
Yeah, and we had two people inwithin the first 15 minutes of
opening one day that had gottenhit for one gentleman got hit
for $8,000 and another one for$10,000.
(22:21):
I hate, that and it, yeah, andit was.
It was terrible and these areone guy, you know, he's out in
the boonies, he's, you know, 20,30 miles outside of town and
they came knocking on his doorin the middle of the night with
a sob story and he, he wentahead and, you know, bought us
(22:46):
test it.
He's like 80, 90 years old, um,you know, and so right there,
like all right, we need to makea make a reel.
We're gonna talk about thisright now.
Don't do it, come and have ustest it.
We'll test it right there foryou.
We don't have to be involved,we just want to make sure, okay,
um, and so we just kind of acommunity psa, yeah, and we did
right there that morning andboom, got it out there and just
started, got pushed everywhere.
Um, actually, the news evencalled us to feature it and
interview Derek, our new owner,about it wow, that's a.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
That's a.
Really.
It's amazing how that thatcontent is um, what I would call
like fresh.
You know, it's very uh like notseen everywhere else, but
that's awesome that you'reinvolved in that.
I think that I bet there's waysthat you could do that with
even more stuff with likediamonds, for example.
If you have like a diamondtesting one and just doing like
a little bit of informationabout either what you can look
(23:30):
for or just get it tested beforeyou try to buy it, yeah, that's
awesome.
Speaker 4 (23:35):
Yeah, and we're always willing to do that.
Bring it in, we'll test it,we'll check it, we'll clear it,
give you an approximate value,and we just encourage expertise
and lend that authority to ourcommunities because we want to,
you know, help protect ourcommunity.
Speaker 1 (23:51):
Is that something you get oversight on from your, uh,
from management, or your, your,your owners, where it's like
what your, what content you'reputting out there?
Are you at all, uh need to runit by them?
Or because it's spontaneous,you're given that kind of
latitude to be able to makedecisions like that?
Speaker 4 (24:07):
Oh, that's my department.
That's awesome, that's me.
That one's all me.
I do tend to, you know, I liketo show it to people and review
it with them so they have someidea about it.
What's going on, um, but yeah,it's kind of.
If someone has something wrongwith it, they come tell me later
, and I think I've only had oneissue in the last three and a
half years.
Yeah, so, and now actuallystarted a little facebook
(24:29):
Facebook group with messages, soI just share it to our staff
group.
So they have, they know what'son there, they know what
products are being featured,they can see their reels that
they're being featured in andthey don't have to go looking
for it.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
Oh, that's so smart.
So when?
Speaker 4 (24:42):
customers are looking for it too it's right there and
they go through and easilyaccess it and that's been really
helpful.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
That's how that's amazing.
I love that.
I love that.
It's uh, you know, ties intothe store even more, but that's
great.
And I guess that kind of tiesinto a little bit more of like
projects.
So obviously a big one for youis, um, getting your
certification.
But when it comes to like yourstore or just even just doing
marketing, uh, do you have anyprojects that you guys are
(25:19):
working on?
Because the the true kind ofthrough line for retailer
roundtables that I've done inthe past is that there's always
a project being worked on.
There's always something thatyou're trying to even improve
for your store or get better at.
Is there anything that kind ofis in the works for you that you
like, whether it's like puttinga new cabinet or display cases
(25:40):
or, you know, upgrading a pieceof utility, anything like that?
Speaker 3 (25:44):
For us it's just.
We did a complete remodel ofour store on the first year that
I was there, so three years ago.
But now we're starting tonotice it's not as warm as we
thought it was.
So we're adding, we're tryingto figure.
Speaker 4 (25:58):
no, it just color, warm it doesn't it's?
Speaker 3 (25:59):
it's very inviting now, but it seems a little cold,
so we're trying to warm it up.
Um, so we're we're looking intoaccent walls and we can't
decide, um, and just kind ofjust adding a little bit of a
little bit of a change.
But projects outside of design,there's nothing really too much
(26:20):
going on right now, and whenwe're a small team so we all
wear multiple hats I mean, I'min marketing, but I'm also sales
and I'm admin and we all justkind of we all put everything in
, everyone helps everybody.
So it's right now, we're justwaiting for Christmas to come.
To be honest, you get to thatpoint of the year that that's
(26:40):
what we're kind of focused onright now.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
That's exciting.
Anything for you guys, anythingthat's in the works.
Speaker 4 (26:46):
Oh, so many things.
I have a long list of projects,anything you want to share, um,
well, right now, one of the bigones, too, is just you're
working on the website,redeveloping that.
It's just you utilizing it, soit's a better tool for us, yeah,
and there's so many things thatare there that we haven't been
utilizing, um, and things Ihaven't dove into, and so that's
(27:08):
really exciting to kind of lookat that and it's like, oh, I
can, I can do that now.
Oh wait, I can just do that.
Oh, I just got to go over hereand do that.
You know, cause there was justthat little disconnect.
Um, cause, when I started, Ijust I just jumped it and
started and just hit the groundrunning, and so a lot of things
that I'd been wanting to do, umare just now coming up to the
(27:28):
time to be able to do it.
We've had a big transition with,you know, ray, our owner,
retiring.
This is our also our 50th yearin business, wow, um, so we're
planning yeah, so we're.
We have our golden 50thanniversary coming up, and so
we're planning on that.
We're going to have a whole lotof rollouts for that.
That's that's exciting.
That's in development right nowand trying to finalize it.
But just, yeah, lots ofprojects, lots of events We've.
(27:52):
With the big retirement sale youknow we had, we had a huge sale
and we really saturated ourmarket and so it's been kind of
a recap.
What can we do now to recoverfrom that as well as build
business and rebuild thatmomentum we had, because we've
had a great several years.
Now we have this big sale andwe had a big backlash too with
(28:16):
that, because everyone's likeyou're closing, you're closing.
We're like, no, we're notclosing, ray's retiring, we're
not closing.
But still, that rumor mill wentout there and it's been really
hard to kind of recover fromthat Interesting Wow, yeah, it
was really.
I had people coming and going ohGod, you're closing, where am I
going to go?
People are having panic attacksbecause we're closing, okay.
(28:40):
So it's like, no, you're fine,you're good and it's just, it's
been a real, we're a veryvisible community.
We're really stepping up a lotof those efforts, kind of with
the new management team and thenew owner, to be maintain that
same value and show like, hey,we're still here, we're still
going to be here for another 50years.
Um, and yeah, you come see us.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
Yeah, come talk to us 50th year anniversary, um kind
of sale that will like kind oftie in and allow you to, you
know, kind of dispel that though, yeah.
Speaker 4 (29:08):
Yeah, we've been pulling all sorts of stuff in
for that.
It's probably like, hey, thisis our fifth year in business,
we're not going anywhere, we arestill here, and so I think it's
a lot of things that are goingto be coming up, a lot of things
.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
So you had mentioned that you had been working on the
website.
Have you used the new pagebuilding tool yet?
Speaker 4 (29:32):
It only rolled out a couple of days ago, gonna shit,
not yet.
I'm looking forward to that forsome of the stuff that I just
did and it's like, oh, thatwould have been great for this.
That would have made it so muchsimpler because, like some
things I just threw togetherreally fast, like, okay here,
how quickly can I get this doneto get it up there so that it's
there and not really utilize it?
Um, as well as it could be, andso I'm excited for that.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
It's like that'll make that so much faster well,
you guys seem like you're superbusy and working on like a
million things.
I'm so glad that you guys wereable to come here and, you know,
take part in a round table, butalso just take part in the
workshop, because there's alwayslike that's the one thing that
we've learned every year when wecome here is that there is
different technology everysingle year.
(30:07):
I remember I was just lookingback, I was searching for some
notes, and I went back and Ifound our notes for the first
workshop and it's so funny.
It was like still similartopics.
You know, hey, um man, I guessit was, um, it was all about
diamonds at the time.
Oh my gosh, lab grown diamonds.
Are you guys selling that labgrown diamonds?
Asking all these questions and,as a result, I feel like the
tie-in is that the trends change, but I feel like the hard work
(30:31):
and the marketing, the effortnever has to, it can never stop
and it has to be something thatyou tie in and continue pushing
forward.
So definitely, I appreciate youguys coming in and sharing your
story and being a part of that.
So thank you so much.
Thank you, yeah, thankseverybody.
I appreciate it.
We'll be back, uh, next weekwe'll have this episode out on
Tuesday and, if you'reinterested, again, like I
(30:52):
mentioned yesterday, theseepisodes come out every Tuesday
on Spotify, apple Podcastsanywhere you get your podcasts
and these episodes are alltailored specifically to retail
jewelry stores and we try ourbest to cover information that
would be helpful or interestingor something that you might want
to listen to while you'rebehind the bench working or on
(31:12):
your way to work or somethinglike that.
So if you're interested, pleasetune in or let me know and I
would love to talk with youabout it.
So in the meantime, thankseverybody.
I appreciate your time.
We'll be back next week,tuesday Cheers.
Thanks guys.
All right, everybody.
(31:32):
That's the end of the show.
Thanks so much for listening.
This week my guests were LisaMarie Delgado from Gary J Long
Jewelers and Aurora Simpson fromHoliday Jewelry.
They were my guests at thePunchmark Client Workshop.
We have it every year in May.
Maybe you'll join the next one.
This episode was brought to youby Punchmark and produced and
hosted by me, michael Burpo.
(31:52):
This episode was edited by PaulSuarez with music by Ross
Cocker.
Don't forget to rate thepodcast on Spotify and Apple
Podcasts and leave us feedbackon punchmarkcom slash loop.
That's L-U-P-E.
Thanks.
We'll be back next week,tuesday, with another episode.
Cheers, bye.
Welcome to In the Loop in Charlotte, north
Carolina, and this time I had ontwo guests that I haven't had
on before.
This time it was Lisa MarieDelgado from Gary J Long
Jewelers and Aurora Simpson fromHoliday Jewelry, and these two
are definitely a focus onmarketing, so we talked all
about events and differentin-store projects and trends
(00:42):
that they're following.
It was a really coolconversation.
They're full of a lot of energyand we're in front of a live
crowd, which is always a lot offun, and I love having a chance
to have a conversation with somepeople that I haven't spoken
with before, so please enjoy.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
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
(01:20):
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
(01:42):
stitch together your digital andphysical worlds in a way that
achieves tremendous growth andresults.
Schedule a guided demo today atpunchmarkcom.
Slash go.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
And now back to the show.
Like I was saying before, thisis actually a recurring series
that we do.
So we do retailer roundtablesbecause I think that one of the
truest facts about the jewelryindustry is that jewelers love
listening to jewelers talk aboutjewelry and these are always
(02:15):
our best episodes.
Everybody I've had on severalpeople here.
I've had on Cole in the past.
I've had on Caleb.
In the past I've had on I feellike who am I presenting?
Oh, anna, vincent, Anybody else,several people in here and it's
really interesting because theconversations are never the same
(02:37):
.
Sometimes we talk about you know, what fashion trends are going
on, and I've had on people fromas diverse of a range of places,
as different coasts from coastto coast, so from Oregon all the
way down to California or allthe way down to Florida and
California and back again, andas a result, the stores are so
(02:58):
different that you get thesegreat conversations and I'm
hoping to kind of contrast thatright now as well.
We just had this conversationwith two of our vendors this
will be airing the week afterthat, but our previous vendors
were Jordan with Bravani andCraig with Ospy, and that
conversation was all aboutvendors and how, what they're
(03:21):
going through with the currentstate of trade and global trade.
And this one, I'm hoping, withLisa and Aurora from Gary J Long
Jewelers and Holiday Jewelry,I'm hoping we can talk a little
bit about what's going on inyour store as well.
So first of all, can you maybeintroduce yourself and how long
you've been with your store?
Speaker 3 (03:39):
My name is Lisa Marie Delgado.
I've been with Gary J LongJewelers in Stockton, California
, for four years and I juststarted my GAA courses to be a
graduate gemologist.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
That's awesome, that's so cool and Aurora.
Speaker 4 (03:52):
Hi, I'm Aurora Simpson.
I'm director of marketing forHoliday Jewelry and I've been
with them for about three and ahalf years.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Super cool.
So you were saying I'mrelatively new to the industry
but I consider that a seasonedvet.
At this point that's super cool.
And you're going to school tobe a certified gemologist Just
to give people an idea what goesinto kind of getting that
certification.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
Luckily it's online courses.
You can do in-person classeslike your diamond grading labs
and everything like that.
That'll come down the line.
It just started.
It's self-paced, so I feel likeit's a big challenge for me.
I never went to school afterhigh school, so I never went to
college, so I didn't think Icould learn again or obtain
(04:36):
information and retain it, sobeing able to do this at my own
pace.
But also it takes a lot ofdiscipline that I didn't know
was going to come with the wholegig.
So I thought it was just goingto be a breeze, but I had to
really put everything down, putmy phone down and really focus
(04:57):
on school once I left work, soit's been a challenge.
I just started with Essentials,so Diamond Grading starts in
June, and it's been a challenge.
But I I just started withessentials, so diamond grading
starts in June, and it's been achallenge.
But I know that the end goal isgoing to be like a really big
thing for me and for my store.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
That's so cool.
It's one of those things that Ifeel like people talk about
like, oh, I'm going to be agraduate gemologist and I guess
I've never really understoodwhat goes into it, but it's
definitely something I've heardlots of people talk about.
Aurora, did you go to schoolfor marketing, or is that
something that you kind ofslipped into?
Speaker 4 (05:29):
Yeah, actually I did go to school for graphic design
and marketing as well asphotography, and that's kind of
where my background was, andthen I kind of fell into the
jewelry industry through those,through David Welk.
I was photographing for anevent for a nonprofit that Ray
Holiday attends every year andsupports and is very much
involved in, and he said he justlooked over and said, oh, I
(05:50):
should hire her.
That's awesome.
And he did that's so cool.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
And so we're at the client workshop and, I'm sure,
kind of continuing with youreducation.
How has the workshop been?
I think this is both of yourfirst time attending.
Have you learned anything new,anything in particular maybe?
Speaker 3 (06:08):
The best thing that I've learned is that I am not
alone in the fact that marketingis really hard in this industry
.
From taking photos of jewelryto make it actually look good to
coming up with some type ofcampaign or some type of sale or
some type of anything to getpeople in our store.
It's a lot harder than what Idid before.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Yeah so yeah.
Anything in particular, anyfavorite presentations so far.
Speaker 4 (06:34):
Oh gosh, there's been a lot of really good
information and a lot of thatI'm really excited about.
A lot of really interestedpeople just looked up to see
what you're going to say thereyeah, there's a lot of tidbits
of things that I want to startimplementing and a lot of things
is like okay, I knew I wasn'tutilizing that the right way, so
(06:55):
I need to circle back to that.
Yeah, there's been a lot.
The AI stuff has been reallyinteresting.
There's been a lot of talkabout it in my store and one of
the things that we've beentrying to you know, how can we
use this best for our business?
Speaker 1 (07:08):
And that's been, that's probably, that's probably
like one of the top things forsure, and so we talked about a
little bit about events and justmarketing in general, and I
think events is something I feellike we sometimes all say that
we want to do, and thensometimes it's like oh yeah,
we'll just wait until Christmas,you know, and then we're going
to do a Christmas event, orwe're going to wait until
Valentine's Day, and then we doValentine's Day.
So let's start with this.
(07:29):
Are there anything other thanthe two I just mentioned that
you guys do for events that havebeen interesting at your store,
any events that aren't just,you know, valentine's Day or
Christmas?
You know, classic wish listevents.
Valentine's Day or Christmas,you know, classic wishlist
events.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
We are going to be implementing a little bit better
this year, but last year wewanted to start a kind of like a
wishlist party, inviting ourclients via our email blast
because I feel like it's alittle more personal, since they
signed up for that.
Last year did not go too well,but the store allowed me to do
four events instead of our onebig trunk show for Christmas.
(08:07):
So I think if I implemented alittle bit earlier maybe because
we blink and it's Christmas-especially at this point.
So I'm going to try to implementthis time a little bit better
the wish list event, because theEdge has the wish list.
It has been extremely helpfulfor our other clients that may
need a little assistance.
(08:27):
It also helps track who madethat sale initially in the
beginning, who put it on thewish list.
It helps us in that way.
So I think the wish list partywill be a little bit more.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
Can you just talk to me a little bit about what a
wish list?
Speaker 3 (08:44):
party is.
Is someone able to do their own?
Last year we did it for a wholestore open, so from 10 am to
5.30, we invited people in ourclients in for hors d'oeuvres,
just refreshments, nothing untilabout 5.
We did like drinks, but weinvited our clients in to look
around.
We have all this product in foryou.
(09:05):
We brought it in for you.
It helped us learn what wasreally kind of on trend that we
were going to be seeing in theholiday season.
It didn't get too much traction,but I'm very hopeful that if we
can kind of keep doing it justas wonderful as our trunk show
is we can start doing somethingmid-year and have the same event
or same turnout as we do inchristmas.
(09:26):
So fingers crossed, yeah andwhat about like?
Speaker 1 (09:30):
so I I think it was uh lenny that gave the
presentation and he wasmentioning, like how uh 50 of
your clients are going to do.
Lenny, do you remember the?
The stats off the top?
Speaker 2 (09:41):
of your head.
It's 10% of your customers do50% of their business.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
There you go.
So around that topic of I meanthe term I always use is VIPs Do
you guys do anything related tomarketing to them or just
reaching out to them to ask likehey, you know, we have a
holiday coming up, or heyhaven't seen you guys in a while
, would you guys?
I just got this thing that youmentioned that you might've
liked.
Is VIP marketing somethingthat's on your guys' radar, or
(10:13):
is that something you guys wantto do in the future?
Speaker 4 (10:15):
Most definitely.
It's something that we utilizea lot.
Um, we actually do quite a fewevents and that's one of the
first things I do and we justhad the uh, we did an estate and
antique jewelry event withbeneficial estate just last
month, I think, or maybe it wasmarch, I can't remember now.
So, burr, but uh, it was a verygood event.
(10:36):
You know a lot of high-endstuff and all that.
We did save the dates to ourvips, we did reminders, we did
follow-up phone calls and we hada really good traction on the
event, which has just been.
Yeah, it's been great so, whichis it's a lot of fun too,
because we do quite a few eventsoh, that's so cool.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Yeah, and besides I mean, just like um alisa was
mentioning, is there a uh likean event that's not just like
the normal run in the mill, thatthat's been successful for you
in the past?
Speaker 4 (11:01):
um, well, I think one that's really been successful
for over the years that hasgotten really big in our area is
our balloon pop.
We do a gemstone balloon pop.
We fill our store with balloonsthat have genuine gemstones
inside of them and we have acouple different price points
that people hit and they come inand they pop a balloon and they
(11:21):
keep the gemstone.
Then we do a follow-up eventthat we're implementing this
year for a mounting event.
That's going to be a lot of fun.
That's going to pair with acouple other things.
We have.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Wow, that's so cool.
I just want the gemstone, Ijust kind of want to hold on to
it.
Oh, people love it, it's so fun.
Speaker 4 (11:37):
People are so excited about it.
You get balloon with a gemstonein it pop and they're just oh,
what I got?
What I got?
Yeah, and it is just it was.
It's something that juststarted as kind of a fun event,
something to just generate alittle bit of traction and get
some awareness out there, andit's really turned into
something that is, you know,more profit driven.
We partner with a non-profit anddonate 20 of the proceeds wow
(12:00):
um and that just has had greatturnover and work with them
quite a bit to help feature them.
You know kind of pull in theirgroup with everything and it's
gone really, really well.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
How do you source your gemstones?
If you don't mind me asking, ifyou don't mind giving up the
question how do you source yourgemstones?
Speaker 4 (12:18):
Well, ray has done a lot of that.
We do a variety of thingsbecause I know they go to a lot
of the shows and they do somebuying there as well, as we have
a full service repair shop.
We have a lot of estate jewelry, a lot of stuff.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
You know we'll pull stones and so we kind of collect
for it all year long.
Oh cool, yeah, great way to use.
Like I would never call itscrap, but like yeah leftover
materials and shrinkage.
Speaker 4 (12:35):
That sounds great yeah, we do a lot of sorting so
they go through, and they do gothrough and check everything,
and so it's there's a lotinvolved in it, but it's, it's
done.
Great for us, it's.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
We're known for it all over our area do you guys
ever have a any uh temptation tolike slip into some of these um
trend uh events, such as likeuh permanent jewelry?
It's something I I wanted to doan episode about it and then I
canceled it because I was likeman, this isn't gonna stick
around.
And then it's still around liketwo years later.
Have you guys done any likeanything around that kind of
(13:07):
thing?
Speaker 3 (13:08):
um, that's kind of awful to say, but Gary is very
old school, traditional, um, buthe's very open.
Um, I haven't sold him onpermanent jewelry yet.
Um, I think, uh, jordan hadmentioned something, um, from
Bravani when he was saying thatwhen you had to ask him about
trending and is it worth it?
And you kind of like, well, I'mgoing to go through all the
(13:30):
hassle of doing this, gettingall these, all this, all that
you need just to have that oneclient maybe to come in.
And I don't, I want I thinkpermanent jewelry is really cool
.
But then you think about, well,what happens when it busts up?
And it's now your fault.
It's not the client's fault,it's your fault.
I don't wear it that often, youwear it every day.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
So you kind of run into those things.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
But I think that we have been tempted a lot with a
lot of trends, but I feel likewe're always so far behind that
by the time we maybe get to thatpoint of having that in stock
the trend is now over.
Speaker 4 (14:09):
Um, that's what I thought, that's how I that's how
I see it.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
Is that by the time we get there, it's not going to
be worth it anymore.
Um, but you never know.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Trends are constantly coming right back around, yeah,
they come right back and whatabout yourself?
Have you guys?
Have you thought about, uh,maybe getting into that?
Speaker 4 (14:23):
um, not so much we're in.
I mean, we're a good 10 yearsbehind everybody where I live,
it's all you know where thetrends don't hit nearly as
quickly.
Um, and so you know, we kind oflook for a little bit more
sustainability and just not asreactive to that.
I try, I definitely payattention to it and I do use a
(14:43):
lot of it, kind of like oursocial media more so but we
haven't had too much of thatbring anything in for, like our
events, or too much that we'redoing.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
I guess that's related to the next point I want
to ask about is do you guys payattention to jewelry fashion?
Are you guys following anything?
Is there a source that you getyour trends in fashion about,
following anything?
Is there a source that you getyour, uh, your, your trends in
fashion about, like, is theresomething that you're paying
attention to most?
Because I feel like if you, Icould show you 37 different uh
(15:17):
points that are, oh, it's this,this is the next big thing, but
what really matters to yourlocation is completely, you know
, uh, isolated.
Do you have like a source thatyou'd like, as far as far as you
know, fashion news or trends?
Speaker 3 (15:26):
Instagram.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
Yeah, yeah.
Do you have like a localinfluencer that you follow?
Speaker 4 (15:30):
No, I don't follow any influencers.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
I look into the events that are happening.
Just recently, of course, wasthe Met Gala.
Ah yeah, and I feel like thejewelry completely stole the
show because it was a tailoredtheme, so it's straight lines,
it's clean cut and the coloredgemstones were just, they were
beautiful, they werebreathtaking.
So I just kind of look intothese events.
(15:53):
I'm not sure if my social mediais ready for me to go that
direction, so I'm kind of slowlythinking of how I can put this
into our store.
Um, I know anybody who'sanybody likes to see celebrities
, likes to see these things andpair it with something that we
may have in stock.
Um, so I'm trying to figure outhow to have the best way to do
(16:14):
that, but it's really justInstagram and, um, I come from a
different background ofmarketing.
I came from a clothing brand,so I worked with a lot of music
artists um, so I watched them.
I watched the football playersbecause those are everyone loves
to see that, um, but that's theonly thing I get.
It's all Instagram.
That's all it is and Instagrammagazine.
(16:34):
They have really good articlesabout the trends that are out so
and big events that happen.
Speaker 4 (16:38):
Yeah, about yourself uh, yeah, kind of similar.
I don't have a lot of specificones I follow right now because
I try to be kind of broad soit's not too tailored like to me
personally or what I'mspecifically looking at, um, but
I do kind of follow like a lotof like kind of our local I
don't want to say influencers,but I guess that's what it's
called.
Yeah, the micro influencers youknow in in our areas of kind of
(17:01):
like what they're doing, whatsome of the shops there are
doing, um, and kind of justkeeping to that Cause, a lot of
our stuff is just so still kindof really traditional, um, but
yeah, like Met Gala, the bigevents like that, the
celebrities, you know what,what's popping up on them, so do
a lot of that Uh.
And then whatever emails say oh, 7g was on, yeah, I was
(17:23):
comfortable on, cabaret was onum, so those are helpful.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
So I kind of kind of watch a lot of that.
It's really interesting thatyou mentioned, uh, colored
gemstones, because it does feellike that's starting to become
like a big trend that is slowlystarting to emerge.
It's kind of uh I feelsimilarly about it the way I did
about, um just athletes ingeneral uh, so increasingly
they're saying that it used tobe that celebrities were driving
(17:49):
jewelry and just fashion ingeneral forward, but now
increasingly I think you'restarting to see athletes,
especially sports, that arehelmetless.
You know that you can see theirfaces.
So basketball and baseball andtennis, because they have
usually have walk-ins and theyare pushing their own personal
brand and it is incentivizing tothem to be wearing certain
(18:12):
pieces of jewelry.
Or even when it comes totimepieces you're seeing it a
lot with I think it's F1.
I'm not an F1 fan, but they'reall sponsored by every watch
brand imaginable, and I thinkit's because of, like, how much
airtime and how muchopportunities they get to kind
of push their own personal brand.
(18:32):
So it's cool that you'refollowing that as well.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
It's interesting, and so when it comes to buying, do
you guys get to do the marketing?
Are you able to say like, hey,we don't have any Cuban links
and I've seen lots of trendsWe'd love to push that.
Could you like have aninfluence on the buying?
Do you guys go to trade shows,or is that not something that
(18:55):
you're usually involved in?
Speaker 4 (18:57):
Well, I'm going to my first trade show in July.
Oh which one?
I'm going to IGO.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
Oh, exciting.
Speaker 4 (19:05):
Shout out to Penny yeah, yep, so I'm looking
forward to that.
I haven't I want to say I'vehad too much influence in that
right now, usually like I'musually going through okay, what
do we have here already thatmeets with these trends, or that
I want to kind of showcase?
Yeah, we'll see.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
I say it's too much responsibility.
Even if a rep comes, I'm likeno, that's really nice.
But Gary's joke is if you pickit, you have to sell it.
So, that's just a little toomuch pressure for me, but I do
like I do watch these MetGallupevents like that and I do
mention it.
I do send the links to mygeneral manager who goes to the
(19:45):
trade show with Gary.
We have brought in a few thingsbut because our resources are
so easy to reach out to and do aspecial order for, we don't
usually keep anything kind ofoutrageous or kind of crazy in
stock.
We have our larger pieces,which is fantastic, and mostly
in color gemstones, which isgreat in lab, but we know that
(20:07):
we can get what that client'slooking for and be able to make
them happy within a couple days,that we don't really keep
anything too big like that instock.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
With marketing, I always wonder.
So everybody says, ok, you needto be taking more photos and
marketing more and things likethat.
I guess this is that is yourjob.
Is it just going around andpicking one or two pieces and
saying, hey, can I borrow you toput it on your wrist and take a
quick boomerang or a reel orsomething like that?
Or is it more thought out?
(20:39):
Because I've heard argumentsfor both, like the spontaneous
kind of approach versus the morekind of thought out, scheduled
approach.
Is there any value to one orthe other?
Speaker 4 (20:49):
both.
You gotta have both.
Yeah, I, I try to utilize bothand, depending because I do the,
I am that would get back here.
Come here, you don't play modeltoday.
We're doing this, we're gonnado this and I'll try and get as
much, you know, as many assets Ican right then, when I have
someone, because we're a busystore, I'll try and pull someone
and then next thing you knowit's an hour or two, they've
been busy, I've moved on tosomething else, so it's not
(21:12):
happening right then.
So I've got to have some sortof plan and action.
I try and schedule as much as Ican Now.
I'm out of the store right nowat this, so it's like okay, here
I I try to have a strategy withit, but still have that
flexibility to pull somethingtogether and just get what's
going on right now, because alot of people they want to see
that that was what's happeningright now.
(21:33):
Oh, I just saw this, I just sawyou on there Download, come
down and talk to you about it,and just having that immediacy
is great.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (21:40):
So, or like we just did, um, we've had a huge you
know the fake gold scam.
Um, I'm sure everyone'sprobably I don't know if
everyone's had that, but peopleare y'all selling fraudulent
gold chains, stuff down at thegas station, or they've come in
and they've got a sob story andnow people have bought this.
You know, what we're seeing nowis thousands of dollars worth
(22:01):
of you know junk jewelry, um,and coming into us to have it
tested, see what they can do,and we're having to tell them
this is, this is nothing.
Yeah, and we had two people inwithin the first 15 minutes of
opening one day that had gottenhit for one gentleman got hit
for $8,000 and another one for$10,000.
(22:21):
I hate, that and it, yeah, andit was.
It was terrible and these areone guy, you know, he's out in
the boonies, he's, you know, 20,30 miles outside of town and
they came knocking on his doorin the middle of the night with
a sob story and he, he wentahead and, you know, bought us
(22:46):
test it.
He's like 80, 90 years old, um,you know, and so right there,
like all right, we need to makea make a reel.
We're gonna talk about thisright now.
Don't do it, come and have ustest it.
We'll test it right there foryou.
We don't have to be involved,we just want to make sure, okay,
um, and so we just kind of acommunity psa, yeah, and we did
right there that morning andboom, got it out there and just
started, got pushed everywhere.
Um, actually, the news evencalled us to feature it and
interview Derek, our new owner,about it wow, that's a.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
That's a.
Really.
It's amazing how that thatcontent is um, what I would call
like fresh.
You know, it's very uh like notseen everywhere else, but
that's awesome that you'reinvolved in that.
I think that I bet there's waysthat you could do that with
even more stuff with likediamonds, for example.
If you have like a diamondtesting one and just doing like
a little bit of informationabout either what you can look
(23:30):
for or just get it tested beforeyou try to buy it, yeah, that's
awesome.
Speaker 4 (23:35):
Yeah, and we're always willing to do that.
Bring it in, we'll test it,we'll check it, we'll clear it,
give you an approximate value,and we just encourage expertise
and lend that authority to ourcommunities because we want to,
you know, help protect ourcommunity.
Speaker 1 (23:51):
Is that something you get oversight on from your, uh,
from management, or your, your,your owners, where it's like
what your, what content you'reputting out there?
Are you at all, uh need to runit by them?
Or because it's spontaneous,you're given that kind of
latitude to be able to makedecisions like that?
Speaker 4 (24:07):
Oh, that's my department.
That's awesome, that's me.
That one's all me.
I do tend to, you know, I liketo show it to people and review
it with them so they have someidea about it.
What's going on, um, but yeah,it's kind of.
If someone has something wrongwith it, they come tell me later
, and I think I've only had oneissue in the last three and a
half years.
Yeah, so, and now actuallystarted a little facebook
(24:29):
Facebook group with messages, soI just share it to our staff
group.
So they have, they know what'son there, they know what
products are being featured,they can see their reels that
they're being featured in andthey don't have to go looking
for it.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
Oh, that's so smart.
So when?
Speaker 4 (24:42):
customers are looking for it too it's right there and
they go through and easilyaccess it and that's been really
helpful.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
That's how that's amazing.
I love that.
I love that.
It's uh, you know, ties intothe store even more, but that's
great.
And I guess that kind of tiesinto a little bit more of like
projects.
So obviously a big one for youis, um, getting your
certification.
But when it comes to like yourstore or just even just doing
marketing, uh, do you have anyprojects that you guys are
(25:19):
working on?
Because the the true kind ofthrough line for retailer
roundtables that I've done inthe past is that there's always
a project being worked on.
There's always something thatyou're trying to even improve
for your store or get better at.
Is there anything that kind ofis in the works for you that you
like, whether it's like puttinga new cabinet or display cases
(25:40):
or, you know, upgrading a pieceof utility, anything like that?
Speaker 3 (25:44):
For us it's just.
We did a complete remodel ofour store on the first year that
I was there, so three years ago.
But now we're starting tonotice it's not as warm as we
thought it was.
So we're adding, we're tryingto figure.
Speaker 4 (25:58):
no, it just color, warm it doesn't it's?
Speaker 3 (25:59):
it's very inviting now, but it seems a little cold,
so we're trying to warm it up.
Um, so we're we're looking intoaccent walls and we can't
decide, um, and just kind ofjust adding a little bit of a
little bit of a change.
But projects outside of design,there's nothing really too much
(26:20):
going on right now, and whenwe're a small team so we all
wear multiple hats I mean, I'min marketing, but I'm also sales
and I'm admin and we all justkind of we all put everything in
, everyone helps everybody.
So it's right now, we're justwaiting for Christmas to come.
To be honest, you get to thatpoint of the year that that's
(26:40):
what we're kind of focused onright now.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
That's exciting.
Anything for you guys, anythingthat's in the works.
Speaker 4 (26:46):
Oh, so many things.
I have a long list of projects,anything you want to share, um,
well, right now, one of the bigones, too, is just you're
working on the website,redeveloping that.
It's just you utilizing it, soit's a better tool for us, yeah,
and there's so many things thatare there that we haven't been
utilizing, um, and things Ihaven't dove into, and so that's
(27:08):
really exciting to kind of lookat that and it's like, oh, I
can, I can do that now.
Oh wait, I can just do that.
Oh, I just got to go over hereand do that.
You know, cause there was justthat little disconnect.
Um, cause, when I started, Ijust I just jumped it and
started and just hit the groundrunning, and so a lot of things
that I'd been wanting to do, umare just now coming up to the
(27:28):
time to be able to do it.
We've had a big transition with,you know, ray, our owner,
retiring.
This is our also our 50th yearin business, wow, um, so we're
planning yeah, so we're.
We have our golden 50thanniversary coming up, and so
we're planning on that.
We're going to have a whole lotof rollouts for that.
That's that's exciting.
That's in development right nowand trying to finalize it.
But just, yeah, lots ofprojects, lots of events We've.
(27:52):
With the big retirement sale youknow we had, we had a huge sale
and we really saturated ourmarket and so it's been kind of
a recap.
What can we do now to recoverfrom that as well as build
business and rebuild thatmomentum we had, because we've
had a great several years.
Now we have this big sale andwe had a big backlash too with
(28:16):
that, because everyone's likeyou're closing, you're closing.
We're like, no, we're notclosing, ray's retiring, we're
not closing.
But still, that rumor mill wentout there and it's been really
hard to kind of recover fromthat Interesting Wow, yeah, it
was really.
I had people coming and going ohGod, you're closing, where am I
going to go?
People are having panic attacksbecause we're closing, okay.
(28:40):
So it's like, no, you're fine,you're good and it's just, it's
been a real, we're a veryvisible community.
We're really stepping up a lotof those efforts, kind of with
the new management team and thenew owner, to be maintain that
same value and show like, hey,we're still here, we're still
going to be here for another 50years.
Um, and yeah, you come see us.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
Yeah, come talk to us 50th year anniversary, um kind
of sale that will like kind oftie in and allow you to, you
know, kind of dispel that though, yeah.
Speaker 4 (29:08):
Yeah, we've been pulling all sorts of stuff in
for that.
It's probably like, hey, thisis our fifth year in business,
we're not going anywhere, we arestill here, and so I think it's
a lot of things that are goingto be coming up, a lot of things
.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
So you had mentioned that you had been working on the
website.
Have you used the new pagebuilding tool yet?
Speaker 4 (29:32):
It only rolled out a couple of days ago, gonna shit,
not yet.
I'm looking forward to that forsome of the stuff that I just
did and it's like, oh, thatwould have been great for this.
That would have made it so muchsimpler because, like some
things I just threw togetherreally fast, like, okay here,
how quickly can I get this doneto get it up there so that it's
there and not really utilize it?
Um, as well as it could be, andso I'm excited for that.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
It's like that'll make that so much faster well,
you guys seem like you're superbusy and working on like a
million things.
I'm so glad that you guys wereable to come here and, you know,
take part in a round table, butalso just take part in the
workshop, because there's alwayslike that's the one thing that
we've learned every year when wecome here is that there is
different technology everysingle year.
(30:07):
I remember I was just lookingback, I was searching for some
notes, and I went back and Ifound our notes for the first
workshop and it's so funny.
It was like still similartopics.
You know, hey, um man, I guessit was, um, it was all about
diamonds at the time.
Oh my gosh, lab grown diamonds.
Are you guys selling that labgrown diamonds?
Asking all these questions and,as a result, I feel like the
tie-in is that the trends change, but I feel like the hard work
(30:31):
and the marketing, the effortnever has to, it can never stop
and it has to be something thatyou tie in and continue pushing
forward.
So definitely, I appreciate youguys coming in and sharing your
story and being a part of that.
So thank you so much.
Thank you, yeah, thankseverybody.
I appreciate it.
We'll be back, uh, next weekwe'll have this episode out on
Tuesday and, if you'reinterested, again, like I
(30:52):
mentioned yesterday, theseepisodes come out every Tuesday
on Spotify, apple Podcastsanywhere you get your podcasts
and these episodes are alltailored specifically to retail
jewelry stores and we try ourbest to cover information that
would be helpful or interestingor something that you might want
to listen to while you'rebehind the bench working or on
(31:12):
your way to work or somethinglike that.
So if you're interested, pleasetune in or let me know and I
would love to talk with youabout it.
So in the meantime, thankseverybody.
I appreciate your time.
We'll be back next week,tuesday Cheers.
Thanks guys.
All right, everybody.
(31:32):
That's the end of the show.
Thanks so much for listening.
This week my guests were LisaMarie Delgado from Gary J Long
Jewelers and Aurora Simpson fromHoliday Jewelry.
They were my guests at thePunchmark Client Workshop.
We have it every year in May.
Maybe you'll join the next one.
This episode was brought to youby Punchmark and produced and
hosted by me, michael Burpo.
(31:52):
This episode was edited by PaulSuarez with music by Ross
Cocker.
Don't forget to rate thepodcast on Spotify and Apple
Podcasts and leave us feedbackon punchmarkcom slash loop.
That's L-U-P-E.
Thanks.
We'll be back next week,tuesday, with another episode.
Cheers, bye.
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