May 27, 2025 • 44 mins
Michael hosts a LIVE Vendor Roundtable at the 2025 Punchmark Client Workshop, featuring Jordan Peck from Brevani and Craig MacBean from Ostbye jewelry to discuss how they're navigating current market challenges and preparing for the upcoming buying season.
Ostbye: https://ostbye.com/
Brevani: https://brevani.com/
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Learn about Punchmark's website platform: punchmark.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Welcome to In the Loop for a vendor roundtable,
which is the first time I'mdoing this and I'm joined by an
all-star cast.
I'm joined by Jordan Peck, thehead of operations at Brevani
I've had him on In the Loop inthe past as well and Craig
McBean, president of Auspy, andwe're talking all about
(00:38):
everything that vendors arethinking about.
You know, how are tariffs andgold prices impacting their
business?
What are their plans for JCK?
We also talk about what makes agood retailer partnership, as
well as how they can betterservice their clients.
It's a really cool conversation.
They're both very transparentand they also tease some of
(00:59):
their upcoming releases ahead ofJCK and, I hope, if you carry
their lines you get a chance tokind of see what's coming up
soon.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Anyways, please enjoy .
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(02:02):
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Speaker 1 (02:09):
And now back to the show.
So to give you guys an idea, incase you don't know who I am,
my name is Michael Burpo.
I'm the director of userexperience at Punchmark and I'm
also the host.
There we go.
I'm the director of userexperience at Punchmark and I'm
also the host.
There we go.
I'm also the host of our weeklypodcast In the Loop.
(02:31):
In the Loop is tailoredspecifically to retail jewelers
like yourself, and I try myhardest to tailor this, so much
so that it would be the perfectpodcast for you all to listen to
when you're driving to work orif you're in the process of
working at the bench or whatever, and my whole goal is to
provide information that is whata jeweler kind of needs to know
(02:55):
that is going on in the jewelryindustry.
We created this podcast backduring 2020, in the middle of
the pandemic, under the name theJeweler's Survival Kit, and
that was all about how can younavigate having your online
storefront shut down, and wewere giving them tips on
e-commerce and things like that.
The one thing we learned veryquickly is that talking about
(03:17):
the pandemic was kind of abummer every week, so we pivoted
a little bit more and weswitched into specifically
talking about jewelry retail ande-commerce and marketing advice
.
Since then, we started to kindof adapt a little bit further
and now I have on what we callroundtables, and that's what
this is going to be.
So I'm joined by Jordan fromBrevani and Craig McBean from
(03:42):
OSPI.
How are you guys doing today?
Doing great, doing great.
So excited to get a chance tospeak with you, craig.
You were here last year and soI'm assuming we did well enough
to have you come back.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
Good enough, just good enough.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Okay, good, you know what?
Speaker 4 (03:54):
That's high praise for me.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
I was a B student for a while, so you know what it
got me, where I am today andJordan first time here.
Yep First time in Charlotte.
Speaker 4 (04:03):
No, not first time in Charlotte, first time here for
Punctuorm, very cool yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
So you guys are also, what you have in common
together is both next generationvendors, and I guess I kind of
quickly wanted to ask I actuallydid an original podcast with
Craig about two years ago atthis point and you were talking
about the process of workingwith I think it was your father
at the time and what thatnavigation was like.
(04:29):
Is that something that iscontinuing to develop along the
way, like working with yourfamily on this big family
business?
Speaker 3 (04:39):
Well, good question.
So my father retired in 2007and he did a sabbatical where he
was going to leave for a fewmonths and then come back in a
different role, so it was goingto allow me to kind of take over
the leadership of the company.
But I knew when he left that hewasn't coming back because he
was pretty checked out at thetime.
(04:59):
So when he retired in 2007,.
He's been gone.
He comes in for copy paper onoccasion and we still charge him
for that, but what's scary isthat I'm now getting to the
point where I need to startthinking about the next
generation, thinking about thenext one.
And I've got a 24-year-olddaughter who I don't think we
could work together.
I've got a 22-year-old sonwho's going into cybersecurity
(05:24):
and I've got a 17-year-old son.
So I'm still a ways from anyonefrom say, a fifth generation
being ready, but thankfullywe've got a good team in-house
that could run the business, andI've got to figure some things
out.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Hopefully you've got some time with that.
And Jordan, we actually did anepisode relatively recently a
couple of months ago and youwere talking about working with
your sister, but also navigatingwhat it's like working with
your parents.
Yeah, just in a summation.
You guys can go back and listento the episode, but what is it
like having to navigate, dealingwith family and sibling matters
(05:59):
as well as, you know, businessmatters?
Speaker 4 (06:01):
Yeah, I mean it's a challenge If there's anyone here
that works with family.
You know, you understand thatit's kind of difficult to
separate the two.
So you know, what we've triedto do is kind of create
boundaries and have family timebeing family time, business time
being business time, which Ithink helps a lot.
You know, our mom was gettingpretty angry when every dinner
(06:22):
we were just sitting and talkingabout work.
So we had to kind of find thatbalance.
I think my sister in my caseit's good, because things I'm
good at she's not necessarily asgood at, and vice versa.
She's great at design,marketing and, you know, brand
(06:44):
direction, whereas I'm much morefocused on back end and sales
operations, things like that.
So we have a really goodbalance and work well together
in that respect.
And then we share thecommonality of trying to
convince my father to take astep back and, you know, let go
of the reins a little bit.
But you know just the type ofperson he is.
I don't know if he's ever goingto be fully out and just come
in for paper.
I think that he's someone who'sprobably going to be there for
and just come in for paper.
(07:05):
I think that he's someone who'sprobably going to be there for
the long haul.
We are just kind of adapting tohow that looks and you know how
we're going to go about takingover and stepping into his role,
while he still maintains somesort of involvement there.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Yeah, so this is one of the topics that I've been
covering quite often is familydynamics and kind of, you know,
business relationships, becauseyou know businesses aren't like
this cold, heartless sort ofcorporate being.
For all of you, as independentjewelers, there's a lot more at
play sometimes.
(07:39):
You know we have to balancethose things, and I do want to
talk especially about currentevents, and so this is one of
the things that In the Loopespecially covers and focuses on
.
The one topic everybody has ontheir mind is the price of gold,
and just currently I had itpulled up right now it is at
$3,200, $3,231.
(08:00):
In case we're all interested, Iwanted to ask you guys how is
the price of gold being at anall-time high impacting your
businesses?
Is that something that you'refirst of all?
Is that something you're payingattention to, like I am?
I look at it like a, like astock, yeah, um, are you paying
attention every day or do youhave to just make jewelry no
matter what the price of gold is?
Speaker 3 (08:22):
well, I mean a couple things.
First, all we do look at itevery day, but we don't play it
like the stock market.
I'm not that smart, so if I was,then I probably wouldn't be
here, but no, we, so we don'tchange a lot based on where the
metal market's at.
You know, for us to really justimpacted on how well our
(08:44):
customers are doing, and ourcustomers continue to do well
right now, and so we continue tomanufacture a lot of jewelry.
I mean we do.
We have been developing acouple of platinum collections
and things like that that Iremember us doing, I don't know,
15, 18 years ago when gold kindof spiked, but I think in
general, I mean it's a littlebit like when the stock market's
doing well and everyone'stalking about it, people that
(09:05):
are investing more.
I think, even when gold is high, people are talking about a lot
, which I think is great for ourindustry, and so I think
because of that, it's bringinghopefully bringing traffic into
our stores, because we're all soplugged into to gold and
sometimes I talk to my friendsthat are not in the industry and
suddenly it's like, oh, theyhave no idea what's going on.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
I wanted to ask is that something you have to train
your, your jewelers on?
Is like, how do you convey thatno, gold is just expensive, no
matter what, and it's youshouldn't be like afraid to be
like bulking or stocking up, orhow can you can, how they can,
convey it to shoppers?
Is that something that youthink is part of your
(09:46):
responsibility to educateretailers, or is it they kind of
convey that themselves?
Speaker 4 (09:51):
I mean, I think I think most of the retailers, I
think most people in this roomkeep a pretty close eye on gold
as well, so they know what theimpact will be.
Right, you know, I think thatit's up to us to be transparent,
obviously, and how we go aboutpricing or how gold changes will
impact the way that theyreceive product, and so this way
then they're able to adjust itas needed for their customer and
(10:14):
communicate things properly.
But I think that it's reallyjust an open conversation.
It's one of the first thingsthat comes up in any
conversation that anyone'shaving right now is oh, price of
gold, how's it impacting?
And then I'm sure you're goingto go into tariffs too, but I
think that it's working as apartnership with the retailer to
find a way that makes the mostsense to bill that.
(10:35):
This way we don't lose money ongold as it rises, and vice
versa.
This way, everyone can stillmake the money that they need to
and be able to be transparentand offer the best product that
they can to customers.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
Yeah, do you have a with gold going up?
I always wonder does thatactually just a peek behind the
curtain?
Does that make your goldjewelry less popular and people
buy alternative metals?
Or do you find that it doesn'treally have an impact because
all metals are getting moreexpensive?
Speaker 4 (11:07):
I think I don't typically do anything in really
alternative metals.
I mean, there's definitely abit of a spike in general where
people are looking foralternative metals and different
materials in their jewelry, butI think that it takes a lot
longer for that trend to shiftin the consumer mindset of oh
well, gold is high, Now we needto shift to something else.
(11:29):
I think by that time it's kindof normalized and the consumer
is aware that the price is whatit is and they're either willing
to pay that or they're not.
They're going to go tosomething else.
That doesn't really impact theway that we go about our
production, because I'm notgoing to necessarily change
everything that I'm doingbecause that gold could drop all
(11:50):
the way back down tomorrow andthen everything I'm doing is not
Like Craig is talking aboutdoing some platinum and hedging
it.
That makes a lot of sense.
He's already done that andplatinum is still a popular
metal that people will buy, sothere's no real downside to that
.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
I see, and gold is up but diamonds are down and
you're going to see a lot morelab-grown diamonds.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
there's different things you can do to to control
costs or keep different pricepoints available to consumers
yeah, and I guess you know we'restill talking about money and
we do apologize, because that'snot what it's all about.
It's about the, the beautifuljewelry.
But the value yes, the value, um, I guess I kind of want to
bring up the this topic of ofterrace.
So terrace, um, actually it'skind of funny.
(12:31):
I've been trying to do anepisode about terrace for about
uh, three months now and everytime I schedule one, something
changes and then I have tocancel the episode.
I actually had one all set upwith, uh, michelle graff, who's
the editor-in-chief at NationalJeweler, and I was about to have
it and we had to cancel itbecause it was pushed back a
couple of months.
It is now scheduled, I believe,to resume at the end of next
(12:54):
month, which happens to beshortly after JCK.
Does the impending aspect ofthese looming tariffs, do they?
Are they weighing on your mind?
Do they alter what you are?
Do you have contingency plansif they were going to affect, or
is there?
You know, business as usual, wehave to steer through the storm
(13:16):
, kind of thing.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
Well, tariffs?
Now we do.
We do a lot of manufacturing inMinnesota, and even that,
though, is impacted by tariffs,because none of our diamonds are
coming from Minnesota or theUnited States.
And then we do somemanufacturing in India, and we
were doing some in China, butmost of that has moved over to
Thailand.
Now I wouldn't say that I am.
(13:43):
I was concerned when tariffsoriginally hit and they were
quite high, especially becausemy biggest concern was because,
again, we do a lot in-house andwe do a lot of and we can make
almost anything we do in-house.
My biggest concern over tariffswere the impact it was going to
(14:07):
have on our retail jewelers andtheir appetite to bring in
jewelry and consumers andwhatnot.
So I was quite relieved whenthe duties or the tariffs became
more reasonable.
I am cautiously optimistic.
We won't go back to that pointof where we were, but I have no
reason to say that.
But, again, it's hard to havecontingency, it's hard to have
(14:28):
contingency plans when even yourproduct that you manufacture
domestically, um, is impactedsignificantly.
So hopefully it doesn't go backto that.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Not a lot of uh diamond mines in Minnesota.
So I guess uh is that somethingthat you guys are looking at,
because, um, there's also like awhole like spreadsheet and flow
chart of like, uh this wasmined in this place but then it
was cut in this place and thenit was imported and then it was
uh put in set in a piece ofjewelry in this, this um country
(15:00):
.
Do you have a go-to source fornews when it comes to jewelry
news?
Is there something that iskeeping you up to date on, uh,
what you should be payingattention to?
Because sometimes I like feellike jewelry kind of gets lost
in the whole world.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
I don't think anyone knows, sometimes even like
because, like we manufacture ourdisplays in china and trying to
figure out how to get thoseover here, and yeah you, you
don't know really what thetariff's going to be until you
see the bill to some degree.
I mean, and everyone's gotthese things that they want to
try sending castings over orwhatnot, and I'm not sure anyone
(15:36):
really has the answers.
It changes everything so fast,so um and Jordan.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
You, uh, are very involved with, uh, responsibly
sourcing.
Uh, you know your jewelry andand and parts of your jewelry,
and one of the parts of tariffsthat I feel like is being really
slept on amidst the the focuson, like, the actual price of
the goods, is what mightactually happen to some of these
.
You know smaller nations that,uh, their main export is these
(16:04):
precious stones that areactually coming from them.
There's a lot of thought that,while there are not very many
diamond mines in Minnesota, theymight just forego certain you
know countries altogether,because you know some of these
places have tariffs that are inexcess of 60%.
Is that something that you andresponsibly sourcing gemstones
(16:27):
are focusing on or thinkingabout?
Speaker 4 (16:29):
Yeah, well, I think, like Craig said, it's a moving
target, so no one really knowskind of the right way to go
about it, I think.
On the responsible sourcing sideof things, though, I think the
tariffs are a big negativeimpact on that, because I think
that there's going to be plentyof people that are going to try
to get around and do things in away that obviously doesn't
(16:50):
stick within the chain ofcommand or the supply chain
right, so you don't necessarilyknow where it's going to be
coming from at this point or howit's going to be stamped,
because they want it to go undera lower tariff than maybe the
country of origin that it'sactually in or the country that
it's cut in.
So I think that it will create alittle bit of chaos on that
(17:12):
side in terms of, you know, Ithink the jewelry industry has
done a really good job of kindof taking steps forward and
having more traceability, more,you know, accountability and
more responsibly sourced product, and I think that this will
probably create a bit of abackslide in that, not that
people won't still sourceresponsibly and do things the
(17:32):
right way, but that I think thatthere will be some that will
try to just mark thingsdifferently and it'll kind of
negate the whole point of it.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
Yeah, I mean, when times are good and things are
cheap, it's easier to beresponsible, right, but when
things start pulling at yourpurse strings, well, suddenly
it's easier or it's.
I can see the rationale for,yeah, skirting the kind of
responsibility and the um youknow, I guess, being reasonable
(18:03):
about it all.
But you know, I guess beingreasonable about it all, but you
know to go into things we'reabout to go into, like the
biggest, the real buying seasonof the year, the second buying
stint.
So we have JCK coming up injust a couple of weeks.
This will air next on Tuesdayand that will be only about two
weeks before JCK.
And I guess I wanted to ask,going into this you guys are
(18:24):
with the plum club isdiscussions about how to
approach jck?
Is this something that you, uh,discuss as a group, or do you
discuss amongst yourselvesinternally and then kind of
approach it and it's like, hey,what did you bring?
What did you bring, or is thatlike a group?
approach in terms of, in termsof like the tariffs and things
or just, or just design likewhat are you going to bring to
(18:46):
to market?
Speaker 4 (18:47):
uh, no, I think every company is handling it.
You know themselves, everyone'strying to focus on what they
got to do.
To, you know, make sure thattheir customers have what they
need and that they're preparedfor their show.
I think that throughout theyear we do a lot of different
things collaboratively to, youknow, help make that show go
better.
You know we'll talk abouttomorrow.
You'll see, I'm talking about,like our Plum Club research
(19:08):
report and certain other thingsthat we do as a club.
But I think, when it comes downto like the product itself and
what everyone is going to bebringing, you know that's.
You know that's something thatyou got to keep kind of close to
the chest until you're in Vegasand make sure that you know
you're, you're there to.
You're there to sell and workwith your customers and make
sure that your product is isgoing to work for them.
Speaker 3 (19:29):
So yeah, yeah, no, I mean it's when it comes to the
actual show itself.
Speaker 4 (19:34):
We're all focusing on our own stuff, what makes us
good, and there's no benefit forus to trying to be developing
the same type of product well, Ididn't know, maybe, like you
say, like hey, I'm coming outwith a awesome line of whatever
drop earrings, I mean like wehave those conversations like
we're, we're friendlycompetitors, like we can have
open discussions about thingsthat we're doing, and you know,
(19:55):
neither of us are going to say,oh well, that's a great idea,
let me go do it better, right,you know, but uh, but still,
it's just like anyone where youknow you don't necessarily want
to let your competition in onexactly what it is that you're
doing.
Just, you got to focus on whatyour business is, not what
others are.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
Yeah, and I think for both of us too.
You know the JCK show isimportant, but IJO is just as
important for us and the type ofcustomer that we sell RJO I
mean.
So we've got a lot of big showsthis summer that we're working
towards yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
And I guess I'm a big fan of the fashion aspect of
jewelry and sometimes I feellike it's not talked about
enough.
I'm always very interestedbecause jewelers are buying
their jewelry now for in sixmonths, for the upcoming
Christmas season.
And I guess are you payingattention?
Do you guys pay attention tofashion, Is that?
(20:46):
Or are your people payingattention to fashion?
Like watching?
Oh like, when Cuban linksbecame had their big moment, oh
like, this is going to be thenext big thing.
Are you paying attention tothat?
Speaker 4 (20:59):
Me personally.
That's not something I'm verygood at doing.
I'm not the most fashionablehuman being, but my sister who,
like I said, does all of ourdesign and product direction
she's constantly on top of it.
I mean, she's watching thatlike a hawk and she's really
good at it.
That's again something she'svery good at that I'm terrible
(21:19):
at.
So, yeah, her and my productionteam are definitely watching it
, whereas she'll just kind ofbring me in the loop, be like,
hey, here's what, here's what'shot right now and here's the
direction we're going to go, andI just kind of say, okay, that
sounds good, let's, let's headin that direction, that's
awesome.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
We have the same thing.
We have a product developmentteam.
Yeah, a lot of good feedbackcomes from our customers too.
Um and uh, yeah, and I.
I get out and travel thecountry and I always chuckle
because it seems like wherever Igo, they always say they're two
years behind.
Even when I go to california ornew york, they say they're two
years behind.
So I'm so I'm not sure yetwhere in this country they're.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
Where is the current we're setting up?
Speaker 3 (21:58):
I don't know the deal , but um, yeah, we've got, we're
working on that stuff and Ithink we're trying to develop
product that has broad-basedconsumer appeal.
So we're not trying to be onthe bleeding edge per se of
product development, but we wantto be on the leading edge, for
sure.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
If a retailer was to say to you, hey, like a group of
retailers were to say to you,hey, you know, we need this from
you.
We need a um.
When halos were really popular,we need more halo options.
Or when, uh, cuban links werepopular, we need cuban link
options.
How long would that take of alead time before you're able to
(22:38):
actually produce something andoffer them that solution?
Is that that like six months,or is that like four years?
What is that?
Speaker 3 (22:48):
No, I'll tell you a funny story.
We develop a lot of collections.
I'm going to tell her to listento this Matika, who's got
conference jewelry, every yearshe comes to me in January with
an idea.
She's a very smart marketingperson super smart Like and we
learn a lot from her and shealways comes with ideas of a new
(23:10):
collection that she wants to dofor Valentine, and we've done
it every year for like 10 years.
So a few years ago she wasrunning late and we were I'm
telling you, we're only likethree weeks away from
Valentine's and I'm like Monica,I'm just going to be just gonna
be honest, I'm not sure we canpull this off.
And she said that she prayedabout it all night and she was
confident that I could pull itout.
That's great, and I told her Iknow what she prayed about, but
(23:33):
I also know what I think andgive her credit.
We pulled it off and we got, soI mean we we've done stuff in a
couple weeks and that's thebenefit of having
Minnesota-based manufacturing.
But we prefer a little moretime if possible.
Speaker 4 (23:50):
Yeah, it's similar.
For us it kind of depends onthe product type.
We do a good amount ofmanufacturing here too.
So if it's something that iswithin our wheelhouse, that we
can pretty easily just shift to,then yeah, we can produce it in
a couple weeks.
That we can pretty easily, likeyou know, just shift to, then
yeah, we can produce it in acouple of weeks.
But if it's something thatreally requires you know, okay,
we got to go back to the drawingboard and kind of reinvent then
it may take a little bit longer.
But yeah, I guess it's allproduct dependent.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
And I guess that it ties very nicely.
I was going to ask you aboutretailer partnerships and, just
before we even start, I want youto know that this is going to
be the exact same question I asktomorrow when we have the
retailer roundtable, like howcan they have better vendor
partnerships?
But when it comes to retailerpartnerships, what is it that
makes a good retailer for you?
So it's not just you know, oh,they sell like a million pieces
(24:38):
of our, of our collection allthe time, all the time.
What is it that actuallyestablishes them, as you know,
not just successful, but alsohelpful and help push your
respective?
Speaker 4 (24:49):
brands forward.
For me it's transparency andcollaboration.
I think you know, if you'reable to just have an open
conversation with me and say,hey, here's what's working,
here's what's not, here's, youknow the way that your sales rep
did it, here's the way that weexpect it, and allow me kind of
the grace to make the changesthat are needed, right, then
that's the most important thing,because we're here to support
(25:10):
you guys and we don't know ifsomething's working, not working
, or you know, if something'sgoing wrong unless, unless we're
told about it, necessarilyright.
So we want to, we just want topromote that transparency and
create a good, open conversation.
So this way, if there's room tofix, we can, or if things are
going great, we get thatfeedback as well.
(25:30):
I think that's, to me, the mostimportant thing, because we can
try a million different things.
We can offer marketingmaterials, we can offer displays
, you know, and that's what wethink will work.
But unless you're telling usthat's what's working, then we
don't know that for sure.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
Yeah, yeah.
So this is an important topicfor us and we've just had our
sales meeting a couple weeks ago, where we had our 12 reps and
we literally had a wholeconversation of retailer who's a
partner, what are thecharacteristics of a partner,
and there's a lot of things thatI think are important to us.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
And it's, and it's interesting.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
Tomorrow I'm going to talk a little bit about our
core values, which is who we are, and we found that our best
retailers have the same corevalues we do and value the same
things that are important to us.
Um, you know openness, um, um,being healthy with us.
(26:28):
You know we're very aggressivewhen it comes to, like, stock
balancing, for example.
So when someone makes it justabout stock balancing and not
about reordering fast sellers,that usually will be an
unhealthy relationship.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
So it's like a push and pull sort of thing.
Speaker 3 (26:43):
Yeah, I mean for us to have stock balancing really
work for us, you have to bereordering your best sellers.
I see that's just critical tous Open, sharing ideas, taking
advantage, you know, using ourresources to help move our
product.
You know we have our 12 repsthat are all employees of our
(27:06):
company, dedicated um lettingthem come in, train the staff um
work with the staff um makingsure they're up to speed on all
of our products.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
Um If there's a, if there's a retailer that is
successful, because I'm sure, ifyou're anything like us, we
look across all of our clientsand we can see that there are
some people that man, they justget it, they just know how to do
whatever it is.
Is that something?
Would you reach out to them andask like, hey, how are you
selling so much of this?
Is that like a question or isthat kind of?
(27:36):
It's not really my business.
I, like you know as long as youkeep on?
Speaker 3 (27:38):
No, all the time.
We're always trying to learn,and and I get out all the time
because that's where I learnedtoo, and I have learned over the
years that I don't know thatmuch.
But also I've learned thatthere's just a lot of different
ways to be successful too, andso it's successful for one
person, might not be successfulfor somebody else, but you know
(28:01):
I there's just so many differentthings.
But like I was at a store lastyear and it was.
It was during the fall, and Iasked him if he was buying
different because of theelection coming up, oh, and he
replied no, I don't participatein recessions.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
And I thought to myself.
Speaker 3 (28:25):
I'm like God, I got to write that down.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
I'm not participating ever again.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
And he's like well, I heard it from another store.
Another store said to them likeI don't.
And they thought, well, if theydon't participate in recessions
, why do I have to participatein recessions?
I do think sometimes in thisindustry we can make things a
kind of a self-fulfillingprophecy.
So, um, you know, whether it'sproduct or marketing or pain
that's going on.
You know we're learning all thetime from from different
(28:53):
successful retailers and we'reworking with, I think, arthur's
duelers came up and, um, youknow, we were, as, like, number
third or fourth supplier saidhey, I'd like to do an auto
reorder program with you, whichwe set up through the edge.
Wow, so we did it and now we'rehis number one supplier.
But again, that was something,again that we learned from a
successful retailer.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
Fascinating.
It's one of those things I lookquite a bit at what makes a
successful retailer.
Granted, my view is very narrowbecause I'm focusing on
e-commerce orders.
Every single month, in case youguys are all interested, I get
a report sent to me, uh, by oursystem, where I look at every
single e-commerce order thatcame through.
(29:35):
I also look at the the totalorders for each uh retailer as
well, and I see who's doing themost.
And there's two jewelers thatare running away with the most
sales I've ever seen, and theyare it's not even, it's not even
(29:56):
close.
And I reached out to them and Isaid like hey, how are you
selling so much jewelry?
Well, one of the things thatone of them said was we are not
selling.
You know 3000 differentengagement rings.
They're selling a lot of charmsand they're selling a lot of
you know very low price pointitems hoops and fashion jewelry
(30:19):
and stuff like that and what'sfascinating is there's still
sales.
But what I also notice and so Igo through, I'm looking through
every single one of their sales, trying to figure out how are
they making so many sales andwhy are they making so many
sales and why is their totalincreasingly going up.
Well, they go in and every like15th sale they make, they also
(30:40):
sell like a.
They also sell like a lab-growndiamond stud set of studs and
it's just like, oh, they alsothey sell the charm and then
they sell the studs.
And then it's because they arebundling things and they're
building up connections andpeople who, when you have your
(31:01):
credit card already saved, youcan buy a lot easier.
And it just had me thinking alot more about, like that
relationship in that, I guess,Feeling of trust for a store and
for a business, and I wasstarting to think about that a
lot more.
From reverse.
It's like why do I have certainretailers that I really trust?
(31:23):
And like, why do I value theiropinion more as opposed to
someone who is maybe juststarting out?
It's because, ah, they've doneit so many times that they
figured it out.
You know, I think it's really acool kind of thing to look into
and see why certain people arereally successful.
Speaker 3 (31:40):
I think they all do a good job, though, of taking
care of their customers.
Some might discount, some mightnot discount, some might be
focused on this collection orthat, but the successful ones
all just passionately take goodcare of their customers,
absolutely.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
So we always do this one, and then I'll open it up
for any questions that peoplemight have though you can always
just ask them because they'regoing to be around.
But I wanted to ask aboutleading up to JCK.
Is there anything that you guysare working on?
I always joke about it'sexclusive.
Give us the in-the-loopexclusive.
Craig, is there anything thatyou guys are working on ahead of
(32:18):
JCK that you're really excitedabout that retailers should be
excited about too?
Sure.
Speaker 3 (32:23):
So I was at that's putting you on the spot.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
I wasn't sure if I could share it yet, because
we're announcing it on Wednesdaybut I'll do it early.
Speaker 3 (32:31):
So I was at and, again, I always learn from our
customers and so I was at um theijo next gen and um tim l from
zarell.
So if you've had a chance tohear him speak, he's like a
marketing genius, very smart guy.
We all want to be like him, andhe was just talking about some
(32:51):
of the different marketingprograms that he does, and so,
um, one of the things that hehas had a great deal of success
with is trip promotions, and itwas interesting.
He just he was talking abouthow he was at a poker game and
right after Christmas and theBest Buy manager was talking
(33:13):
about how January was their bestmonth of the year and he was
like how in the heck is thatpossible?
January is my worst month ofthe year.
They always sell so many flatscreens for the Super Bowl, so
he went and bought all the flatscreens in town and started
giving them away for everydiamond that he sold.
And it was funny because he wasgetting the guys to get the gal
(33:36):
to pick out a bigger diamond sothey could get a bigger flat
screen.
it was really it was really afantastic deal.
So he was talking about thesetrip promotions that he does,
yeah, and so I said I'm gonnatry it because it works for him.
He always says do the thingsyou're not supposed to do when
it comes to marketing.
So at jck this year, whenpeople come by and write an
order with us, we're giving thema cruise.
A cruise, wow.
(33:56):
There's a minimum purchase notcrazy, and there are more
details, but you have to come bythe booth.
Does that apply to vendors?
Speaker 2 (34:04):
yeah, yeah minimum purchase.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
Yeah, so we're.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
We're giving away um and again, another thing we
learned from we were given acruise if you come by our booth
man, what a really novel idea,especially because I wonder if
it has something to do with likepsychology of it all, where if
it's a trip, then it's biggerthan an actual object.
It's more aspirational.
Jordan.
Speaker 2 (34:27):
Well we're not giving away a cruise.
Speaker 4 (34:30):
But no, we've got a lot of really cool new diamond
fashion product that we'reexcited about.
A lot of it's actuallymanufactured in house in New
York, so we're really excitedabout that, especially,
obviously, with everything goingon.
And, yeah, we're just we alwayshave new stuff coming out.
That's the thing in Vegas isalways like our our launch of
new collections and anyone inhere who knows us knows that.
(34:53):
You know we have thousands ofproduct and you can come to our
booth and find anything that youreally need.
So, yeah, we, we just kind ofpicked, picked a piece, picked
pieces out and added themthroughout.
So there's a lot of good newstuff coming up is.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
I always just from a personal matter, just because,
you know, with punch mark, a lotof times we we make something
and we're so excited for peopleto use it, like with Page
Builder 3, we launched it.
We didn't even really telleverybody that we were going to
launch it, because we were justso excited.
We really wanted people to tryit out.
And is that something that youguys are thinking about?
(35:30):
It's like oh, I want to keep ita surprise, like you were
saying, but also you want tobuild up some maybe like user
testing or something like that,and showing it to people.
Speaker 4 (35:46):
Is that?
Do you have people that youmight share different things
with, just to try it out?
Yeah, we have some retailersthat we work with that you know.
If they've been successful witha certain product and we have
something that maybe is a goodlike, you know, like sister
piece to that or something,we'll send it in and say, hey,
give us, you know, give us somefeedback on it, or things like
that.
But I think really it takestime in the market just to
(36:07):
really test it.
So what we want to do is justget it in their store, see how
it works and give us thefeedback on what is again isn't
working, and you know any anyone of our retailers is able to
give us that feedback.
We trust the opinions of prettymuch all of them in you know,
some way, shape or form.
So any feed.
So we're not like particularlylike, oh, this one has to get it
(36:27):
in order to test it.
Very cool yeah, we're.
Speaker 3 (36:31):
I mean, we're only making money when the store
sells it to some degree, becauseotherwise it's coming back at
some point.
So, um, yes, we bring productto shows to get feedback on
quickly, um, but at the sametime we won't know if it's
successful until we see the sellthrough, and that's why we
partner with edge retail to seesell through.
But that's all that reallymatters.
Speaker 4 (36:51):
Yeah, and also like not for nothing.
You can tell by how peoplereact when they walk up to your
booth, right, they see, if youhave a brand new piece and
you're showing it to everyoneand everyone and no one is
jumping at it, you're all sayingI don't think this is for my
customer, I don't really likethe way this built, then you
know that it's probably notgoing to be something that they
in their store then going to gotry to push to their customer,
(37:13):
right, so you can get thatreaction pretty, pretty quickly
man, I guess that is such aninteresting dynamic.
Speaker 1 (37:19):
Something I haven't thought about at all is, like
with what you just said, you'rereally only making money if they
are selling and then makingmoney, otherwise it's going to
be coming back I can onlyimagine sitting there.
Speaker 4 (37:30):
What that?
Speaker 1 (37:30):
must feel like you know, oh, I'm so excited about
this piece is going to be ashowstopper.
Speaker 3 (37:35):
And then you know, maybe it flops, but well, you do
this long enough, you learnthat usually the ones you're
most excited about tend to bethe ones that flop and then the
last piece you introduce youknow, that's the one that goes
crazy yeah, the one that's beenyour inventory for 20 years.
Speaker 4 (37:49):
It's time to scrap.
It's like, oh, all of a suddenthat's coming back ah yeah,
fascinating guys.
Speaker 1 (37:54):
I wanted to open it up for any questions you might
have for these vendors, bothmembers of the Plum Club.
Speaker 3 (38:01):
Yeah, boots are like 10 feet apart, so if you come to
Bay, you can see both of us.
You can see both at the sametime.
Speaker 1 (38:06):
And they have a purple carpet.
That's pretty cool.
Any questions that people mighthave, leave it open.
So when you come up with a newproduct.
Speaker 4 (38:14):
What's your turnaround?
So when you come up with a newproduct, what's your turnaround?
When you're coming up withdeveloping a new product, what's
the typical time from start tolaunch?
So for us we do typically twocollection releases.
We typically do.
(38:35):
Centurion is when we start atthe beginning of the year, so
typically we'll start aroundlike October, november on
developing that and then we'llrelease it at the end of January
at Centurion or you know theRJO and IJO shows really,
because those are typicallyright in line with each other.
So that's where we start with it.
And then in between that andbasically JCK is when we're
coming up with like our biggerreleases and kind of testing and
(38:58):
seeing what works and we'll getfeedback on that type of
product.
Then we'll either choose toexpand it or contract it.
And then basically Vegas iswhere we do like our big release
of like all new, of really allnew product, and then if
something like little comes upin the meantime, like afterwards
, we'll put it into the line.
Meantime, like afterwards,we'll we'll put it into the line
(39:19):
.
But really it's the first likesix months of the year is where
we're putting out producttesting and then wait and then
basically pushing for vegas, forthe, for the release of, like
our newest stuff very cool yeah,we do three releases a year
january one, may one, septemberone and our merchandise team's
usually working three months outbefore the release to really
get it finalized.
Speaker 3 (39:37):
I guess a follow-up question for you, craig, because
you guys have a lot ofcollections.
Speaker 4 (39:40):
Yep, and every so often there's a new one that
comes up.
How do you come up with a newcollection?
Speaker 3 (39:51):
Usually if it's from a store that tells us about an
idea and whatnot.
I mean, most of our ideas comefrom our good customers and we
come up with a few.
On occasion you take a littlecredit.
Yeah, not a lot, but yeah,usually it's feedback.
It could be market-driven.
You know, we recently came outwith a silver and like diamond
collection because we had had acouple customers tell us that
(40:12):
they were having a hard timehitting some certain price
points and they literallydeveloped the whole collection.
So it was by a retailer.
Yep, oh, wow, it was great.
We sent them sketches.
They picked from the sketcheswow and uh that's super cool,
yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:28):
Is it tempting to try to chase these, um, these
trends that are going on, forexample, permanent jewelry?
Is it just tempting to come outwith a line or to cater
directly to people who want tohave a starter kit for permanent
jewelry?
Is that something that it'slike you see these trends and
then you see how big they are.
Speaker 3 (40:46):
It's like, oh, we need to get on that, or do you
see, that is, and as a typicalvisionary, I tend to chase all
these things that mess up therest of the company.
So I'll talk a little bit aboutEOS tomorrow, which kind of
puts me in my place.
So we don't do those things.
But yeah, because we want tohave a broad offering.
But also you don't again Imentioned you don't want to.
(41:07):
You can't be everything toeverybody.
Yeah, you got to be.
Speaker 4 (41:11):
It's always very tempting, but if it's something
like that's within yourwheelhouse, then great.
It's something that isrelatively easy to go after, but
if it's something that'scompletely on the opposite
spectrum, you've got torecognize if the juice is worth
the squeeze and how long is thatgoing to last for, and is it
worth your time and effort tonot only produce it but promote
it, sell it and spend your timefocusing on that?
(41:33):
That may not work as well as,let's say, your core product.
Speaker 1 (41:37):
Yeah, more questions, any takers?
All right, everybody.
So to give you an idea, just towrap things up, I want to tell
you that our podcast In the Loopwe release one every Tuesday.
It's available on Spotify,apple Podcasts, wherever you get
your podcasts.
The whole goal, like I've saidbefore, is I want to make the
(41:59):
episodes that retailers want tolisten to.
There's a lot of podcasts outthere that might be more
tailored specifically to fashionor specifically towards just
like the nerding out aboutjewelry.
For me, it's like I wantexactly what you guys are
looking for and I think that sofar, we're 250 episodes in, or
(42:21):
265 at this point, and we'vebeen going for about five years
and I'm still excited.
I still enjoy speaking withpeople.
I feel like I've learned morefrom this podcast and learning,
uh, from speaking to people thanI have from a million books
combined.
So if you're interested, youhave ideas.
Like these guys have mentioned,I get all my best ideas from
the people I speak with.
(42:42):
So if you have any ideas forepisodes we could cover, or
trending topics or things likethat, or best practices, I'm
definitely all ears.
This episode will be releasedon next week, tuesday, and
that's the kind of stuff I'mgonna hopefully have more of, as
well as a vlog of this entireevent.
So maybe stop by, give it alisten.
I'd love to talk to you as well, and I think that's what we'll
(43:04):
call it.
Thanks everybody, I reallyappreciate your time.
Cheers, and thank you very much.
My guests Enjoying them.
I really appreciate you all.
You'll hear more from them, Ibelieve, tomorrow.
Thanks everybody, and yeah, Ithink we have like 10 minutes
until the next one, so cheers.
All right, everybody.
(43:31):
That's the end of the show.
Thanks so much for listening.
My guest this week was CraigMcBean, the president of OSPI,
and Jordan Peck, head ofoperations at Rivani.
Thanks so much.
This episode was brought to youby Punchmark and produced and
hosted by me, michael Burpo.
This episode was edited by PaulSuarez with music by Roz
(43:52):
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.
I'll be back next week, tuesday, with another episode.
Cheers, bye.
Welcome to In the Loop for a vendor roundtable,
which is the first time I'mdoing this and I'm joined by an
all-star cast.
I'm joined by Jordan Peck, thehead of operations at Brevani
I've had him on In the Loop inthe past as well and Craig
McBean, president of Auspy, andwe're talking all about
(00:38):
everything that vendors arethinking about.
You know, how are tariffs andgold prices impacting their
business?
What are their plans for JCK?
We also talk about what makes agood retailer partnership, as
well as how they can betterservice their clients.
It's a really cool conversation.
They're both very transparentand they also tease some of
(00:59):
their upcoming releases ahead ofJCK and, I hope, if you carry
their lines you get a chance tokind of see what's coming up
soon.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Anyways, please enjoy .
Platform and digital growthagency.
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
been friends way before becomingclients.
Punchmark's own success comesfrom the fact that we have a
(01:40):
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
stitch together your digital andphysical worlds in a way that
achieves tremendous growth andresults.
(02:02):
Schedule a guided demo today atpunchmarkcom.
Slash go.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
And now back to the show.
So to give you guys an idea, incase you don't know who I am,
my name is Michael Burpo.
I'm the director of userexperience at Punchmark and I'm
also the host.
There we go.
I'm the director of userexperience at Punchmark and I'm
also the host.
There we go.
I'm also the host of our weeklypodcast In the Loop.
(02:31):
In the Loop is tailoredspecifically to retail jewelers
like yourself, and I try myhardest to tailor this, so much
so that it would be the perfectpodcast for you all to listen to
when you're driving to work orif you're in the process of
working at the bench or whatever, and my whole goal is to
provide information that is whata jeweler kind of needs to know
(02:55):
that is going on in the jewelryindustry.
We created this podcast backduring 2020, in the middle of
the pandemic, under the name theJeweler's Survival Kit, and
that was all about how can younavigate having your online
storefront shut down, and wewere giving them tips on
e-commerce and things like that.
The one thing we learned veryquickly is that talking about
(03:17):
the pandemic was kind of abummer every week, so we pivoted
a little bit more and weswitched into specifically
talking about jewelry retail ande-commerce and marketing advice
.
Since then, we started to kindof adapt a little bit further
and now I have on what we callroundtables, and that's what
this is going to be.
So I'm joined by Jordan fromBrevani and Craig McBean from
(03:42):
OSPI.
How are you guys doing today?
Doing great, doing great.
So excited to get a chance tospeak with you, craig.
You were here last year and soI'm assuming we did well enough
to have you come back.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
Good enough, just good enough.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Okay, good, you know what?
Speaker 4 (03:54):
That's high praise for me.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
I was a B student for a while, so you know what it
got me, where I am today andJordan first time here.
Yep First time in Charlotte.
Speaker 4 (04:03):
No, not first time in Charlotte, first time here for
Punctuorm, very cool yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
So you guys are also, what you have in common
together is both next generationvendors, and I guess I kind of
quickly wanted to ask I actuallydid an original podcast with
Craig about two years ago atthis point and you were talking
about the process of workingwith I think it was your father
at the time and what thatnavigation was like.
(04:29):
Is that something that iscontinuing to develop along the
way, like working with yourfamily on this big family
business?
Speaker 3 (04:39):
Well, good question.
So my father retired in 2007and he did a sabbatical where he
was going to leave for a fewmonths and then come back in a
different role, so it was goingto allow me to kind of take over
the leadership of the company.
But I knew when he left that hewasn't coming back because he
was pretty checked out at thetime.
(04:59):
So when he retired in 2007,.
He's been gone.
He comes in for copy paper onoccasion and we still charge him
for that, but what's scary isthat I'm now getting to the
point where I need to startthinking about the next
generation, thinking about thenext one.
And I've got a 24-year-olddaughter who I don't think we
could work together.
I've got a 22-year-old sonwho's going into cybersecurity
(05:24):
and I've got a 17-year-old son.
So I'm still a ways from anyonefrom say, a fifth generation
being ready, but thankfullywe've got a good team in-house
that could run the business, andI've got to figure some things
out.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Hopefully you've got some time with that.
And Jordan, we actually did anepisode relatively recently a
couple of months ago and youwere talking about working with
your sister, but also navigatingwhat it's like working with
your parents.
Yeah, just in a summation.
You guys can go back and listento the episode, but what is it
like having to navigate, dealingwith family and sibling matters
(05:59):
as well as, you know, businessmatters?
Speaker 4 (06:01):
Yeah, I mean it's a challenge If there's anyone here
that works with family.
You know, you understand thatit's kind of difficult to
separate the two.
So you know, what we've triedto do is kind of create
boundaries and have family timebeing family time, business time
being business time, which Ithink helps a lot.
You know, our mom was gettingpretty angry when every dinner
(06:22):
we were just sitting and talkingabout work.
So we had to kind of find thatbalance.
I think my sister in my caseit's good, because things I'm
good at she's not necessarily asgood at, and vice versa.
She's great at design,marketing and, you know, brand
(06:44):
direction, whereas I'm much morefocused on back end and sales
operations, things like that.
So we have a really goodbalance and work well together
in that respect.
And then we share thecommonality of trying to
convince my father to take astep back and, you know, let go
of the reins a little bit.
But you know just the type ofperson he is.
I don't know if he's ever goingto be fully out and just come
in for paper.
I think that he's someone who'sprobably going to be there for
and just come in for paper.
(07:05):
I think that he's someone who'sprobably going to be there for
the long haul.
We are just kind of adapting tohow that looks and you know how
we're going to go about takingover and stepping into his role,
while he still maintains somesort of involvement there.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Yeah, so this is one of the topics that I've been
covering quite often is familydynamics and kind of, you know,
business relationships, becauseyou know businesses aren't like
this cold, heartless sort ofcorporate being.
For all of you, as independentjewelers, there's a lot more at
play sometimes.
(07:39):
You know we have to balancethose things, and I do want to
talk especially about currentevents, and so this is one of
the things that In the Loopespecially covers and focuses on
.
The one topic everybody has ontheir mind is the price of gold,
and just currently I had itpulled up right now it is at
$3,200, $3,231.
(08:00):
In case we're all interested, Iwanted to ask you guys how is
the price of gold being at anall-time high impacting your
businesses?
Is that something that you'refirst of all?
Is that something you're payingattention to, like I am?
I look at it like a, like astock, yeah, um, are you paying
attention every day or do youhave to just make jewelry no
matter what the price of gold is?
Speaker 3 (08:22):
well, I mean a couple things.
First, all we do look at itevery day, but we don't play it
like the stock market.
I'm not that smart, so if I was,then I probably wouldn't be
here, but no, we, so we don'tchange a lot based on where the
metal market's at.
You know, for us to really justimpacted on how well our
(08:44):
customers are doing, and ourcustomers continue to do well
right now, and so we continue tomanufacture a lot of jewelry.
I mean we do.
We have been developing acouple of platinum collections
and things like that that Iremember us doing, I don't know,
15, 18 years ago when gold kindof spiked, but I think in
general, I mean it's a littlebit like when the stock market's
doing well and everyone'stalking about it, people that
(09:05):
are investing more.
I think, even when gold is high, people are talking about a lot
, which I think is great for ourindustry, and so I think
because of that, it's bringinghopefully bringing traffic into
our stores, because we're all soplugged into to gold and
sometimes I talk to my friendsthat are not in the industry and
suddenly it's like, oh, theyhave no idea what's going on.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
I wanted to ask is that something you have to train
your, your jewelers on?
Is like, how do you convey thatno, gold is just expensive, no
matter what, and it's youshouldn't be like afraid to be
like bulking or stocking up, orhow can you can, how they can,
convey it to shoppers?
Is that something that youthink is part of your
(09:46):
responsibility to educateretailers, or is it they kind of
convey that themselves?
Speaker 4 (09:51):
I mean, I think I think most of the retailers, I
think most people in this roomkeep a pretty close eye on gold
as well, so they know what theimpact will be.
Right, you know, I think thatit's up to us to be transparent,
obviously, and how we go aboutpricing or how gold changes will
impact the way that theyreceive product, and so this way
then they're able to adjust itas needed for their customer and
(10:14):
communicate things properly.
But I think that it's reallyjust an open conversation.
It's one of the first thingsthat comes up in any
conversation that anyone'shaving right now is oh, price of
gold, how's it impacting?
And then I'm sure you're goingto go into tariffs too, but I
think that it's working as apartnership with the retailer to
find a way that makes the mostsense to bill that.
(10:35):
This way we don't lose money ongold as it rises, and vice
versa.
This way, everyone can stillmake the money that they need to
and be able to be transparentand offer the best product that
they can to customers.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
Yeah, do you have a with gold going up?
I always wonder does thatactually just a peek behind the
curtain?
Does that make your goldjewelry less popular and people
buy alternative metals?
Or do you find that it doesn'treally have an impact because
all metals are getting moreexpensive?
Speaker 4 (11:07):
I think I don't typically do anything in really
alternative metals.
I mean, there's definitely abit of a spike in general where
people are looking foralternative metals and different
materials in their jewelry, butI think that it takes a lot
longer for that trend to shiftin the consumer mindset of oh
well, gold is high, Now we needto shift to something else.
(11:29):
I think by that time it's kindof normalized and the consumer
is aware that the price is whatit is and they're either willing
to pay that or they're not.
They're going to go tosomething else.
That doesn't really impact theway that we go about our
production, because I'm notgoing to necessarily change
everything that I'm doingbecause that gold could drop all
(11:50):
the way back down tomorrow andthen everything I'm doing is not
Like Craig is talking aboutdoing some platinum and hedging
it.
That makes a lot of sense.
He's already done that andplatinum is still a popular
metal that people will buy, sothere's no real downside to that
.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
I see, and gold is up but diamonds are down and
you're going to see a lot morelab-grown diamonds.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
there's different things you can do to to control
costs or keep different pricepoints available to consumers
yeah, and I guess you know we'restill talking about money and
we do apologize, because that'snot what it's all about.
It's about the, the beautifuljewelry.
But the value yes, the value, um, I guess I kind of want to
bring up the this topic of ofterrace.
So terrace, um, actually it'skind of funny.
(12:31):
I've been trying to do anepisode about terrace for about
uh, three months now and everytime I schedule one, something
changes and then I have tocancel the episode.
I actually had one all set upwith, uh, michelle graff, who's
the editor-in-chief at NationalJeweler, and I was about to have
it and we had to cancel itbecause it was pushed back a
couple of months.
It is now scheduled, I believe,to resume at the end of next
(12:54):
month, which happens to beshortly after JCK.
Does the impending aspect ofthese looming tariffs, do they?
Are they weighing on your mind?
Do they alter what you are?
Do you have contingency plansif they were going to affect, or
is there?
You know, business as usual, wehave to steer through the storm
(13:16):
, kind of thing.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
Well, tariffs?
Now we do.
We do a lot of manufacturing inMinnesota, and even that,
though, is impacted by tariffs,because none of our diamonds are
coming from Minnesota or theUnited States.
And then we do somemanufacturing in India, and we
were doing some in China, butmost of that has moved over to
Thailand.
Now I wouldn't say that I am.
(13:43):
I was concerned when tariffsoriginally hit and they were
quite high, especially becausemy biggest concern was because,
again, we do a lot in-house andwe do a lot of and we can make
almost anything we do in-house.
My biggest concern over tariffswere the impact it was going to
(14:07):
have on our retail jewelers andtheir appetite to bring in
jewelry and consumers andwhatnot.
So I was quite relieved whenthe duties or the tariffs became
more reasonable.
I am cautiously optimistic.
We won't go back to that pointof where we were, but I have no
reason to say that.
But, again, it's hard to havecontingency, it's hard to have
(14:28):
contingency plans when even yourproduct that you manufacture
domestically, um, is impactedsignificantly.
So hopefully it doesn't go backto that.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Not a lot of uh diamond mines in Minnesota.
So I guess uh is that somethingthat you guys are looking at,
because, um, there's also like awhole like spreadsheet and flow
chart of like, uh this wasmined in this place but then it
was cut in this place and thenit was imported and then it was
uh put in set in a piece ofjewelry in this, this um country
(15:00):
.
Do you have a go-to source fornews when it comes to jewelry
news?
Is there something that iskeeping you up to date on, uh,
what you should be payingattention to?
Because sometimes I like feellike jewelry kind of gets lost
in the whole world.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
I don't think anyone knows, sometimes even like
because, like we manufacture ourdisplays in china and trying to
figure out how to get thoseover here, and yeah you, you
don't know really what thetariff's going to be until you
see the bill to some degree.
I mean, and everyone's gotthese things that they want to
try sending castings over orwhatnot, and I'm not sure anyone
(15:36):
really has the answers.
It changes everything so fast,so um and Jordan.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
You, uh, are very involved with, uh, responsibly
sourcing.
Uh, you know your jewelry andand and parts of your jewelry,
and one of the parts of tariffsthat I feel like is being really
slept on amidst the the focuson, like, the actual price of
the goods, is what mightactually happen to some of these
.
You know smaller nations that,uh, their main export is these
(16:04):
precious stones that areactually coming from them.
There's a lot of thought that,while there are not very many
diamond mines in Minnesota, theymight just forego certain you
know countries altogether,because you know some of these
places have tariffs that are inexcess of 60%.
Is that something that you andresponsibly sourcing gemstones
(16:27):
are focusing on or thinkingabout?
Speaker 4 (16:29):
Yeah, well, I think, like Craig said, it's a moving
target, so no one really knowskind of the right way to go
about it, I think.
On the responsible sourcing sideof things, though, I think the
tariffs are a big negativeimpact on that, because I think
that there's going to be plentyof people that are going to try
to get around and do things in away that obviously doesn't
(16:50):
stick within the chain ofcommand or the supply chain
right, so you don't necessarilyknow where it's going to be
coming from at this point or howit's going to be stamped,
because they want it to go undera lower tariff than maybe the
country of origin that it'sactually in or the country that
it's cut in.
So I think that it will create alittle bit of chaos on that
(17:12):
side in terms of, you know, Ithink the jewelry industry has
done a really good job of kindof taking steps forward and
having more traceability, more,you know, accountability and
more responsibly sourced product, and I think that this will
probably create a bit of abackslide in that, not that
people won't still sourceresponsibly and do things the
(17:32):
right way, but that I think thatthere will be some that will
try to just mark thingsdifferently and it'll kind of
negate the whole point of it.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
Yeah, I mean, when times are good and things are
cheap, it's easier to beresponsible, right, but when
things start pulling at yourpurse strings, well, suddenly
it's easier or it's.
I can see the rationale for,yeah, skirting the kind of
responsibility and the um youknow, I guess, being reasonable
(18:03):
about it all.
But you know, I guess beingreasonable about it all, but you
know to go into things we'reabout to go into, like the
biggest, the real buying seasonof the year, the second buying
stint.
So we have JCK coming up injust a couple of weeks.
This will air next on Tuesdayand that will be only about two
weeks before JCK.
And I guess I wanted to ask,going into this you guys are
(18:24):
with the plum club isdiscussions about how to
approach jck?
Is this something that you, uh,discuss as a group, or do you
discuss amongst yourselvesinternally and then kind of
approach it and it's like, hey,what did you bring?
What did you bring, or is thatlike a group?
approach in terms of, in termsof like the tariffs and things
or just, or just design likewhat are you going to bring to
(18:46):
to market?
Speaker 4 (18:47):
uh, no, I think every company is handling it.
You know themselves, everyone'strying to focus on what they
got to do.
To, you know, make sure thattheir customers have what they
need and that they're preparedfor their show.
I think that throughout theyear we do a lot of different
things collaboratively to, youknow, help make that show go
better.
You know we'll talk abouttomorrow.
You'll see, I'm talking about,like our Plum Club research
(19:08):
report and certain other thingsthat we do as a club.
But I think, when it comes downto like the product itself and
what everyone is going to bebringing, you know that's.
You know that's something thatyou got to keep kind of close to
the chest until you're in Vegasand make sure that you know
you're, you're there to.
You're there to sell and workwith your customers and make
sure that your product is isgoing to work for them.
Speaker 3 (19:29):
So yeah, yeah, no, I mean it's when it comes to the
actual show itself.
Speaker 4 (19:34):
We're all focusing on our own stuff, what makes us
good, and there's no benefit forus to trying to be developing
the same type of product well, Ididn't know, maybe, like you
say, like hey, I'm coming outwith a awesome line of whatever
drop earrings, I mean like wehave those conversations like
we're, we're friendlycompetitors, like we can have
open discussions about thingsthat we're doing, and you know,
(19:55):
neither of us are going to say,oh well, that's a great idea,
let me go do it better, right,you know, but uh, but still,
it's just like anyone where youknow you don't necessarily want
to let your competition in onexactly what it is that you're
doing.
Just, you got to focus on whatyour business is, not what
others are.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
Yeah, and I think for both of us too.
You know the JCK show isimportant, but IJO is just as
important for us and the type ofcustomer that we sell RJO I
mean.
So we've got a lot of big showsthis summer that we're working
towards yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
And I guess I'm a big fan of the fashion aspect of
jewelry and sometimes I feellike it's not talked about
enough.
I'm always very interestedbecause jewelers are buying
their jewelry now for in sixmonths, for the upcoming
Christmas season.
And I guess are you payingattention?
Do you guys pay attention tofashion, Is that?
(20:46):
Or are your people payingattention to fashion?
Like watching?
Oh like, when Cuban linksbecame had their big moment, oh
like, this is going to be thenext big thing.
Are you paying attention tothat?
Speaker 4 (20:59):
Me personally.
That's not something I'm verygood at doing.
I'm not the most fashionablehuman being, but my sister who,
like I said, does all of ourdesign and product direction
she's constantly on top of it.
I mean, she's watching thatlike a hawk and she's really
good at it.
That's again something she'svery good at that I'm terrible
(21:19):
at.
So, yeah, her and my productionteam are definitely watching it
, whereas she'll just kind ofbring me in the loop, be like,
hey, here's what, here's what'shot right now and here's the
direction we're going to go, andI just kind of say, okay, that
sounds good, let's, let's headin that direction, that's
awesome.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
We have the same thing.
We have a product developmentteam.
Yeah, a lot of good feedbackcomes from our customers too.
Um and uh, yeah, and I.
I get out and travel thecountry and I always chuckle
because it seems like wherever Igo, they always say they're two
years behind.
Even when I go to california ornew york, they say they're two
years behind.
So I'm so I'm not sure yetwhere in this country they're.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
Where is the current we're setting up?
Speaker 3 (21:58):
I don't know the deal , but um, yeah, we've got, we're
working on that stuff and Ithink we're trying to develop
product that has broad-basedconsumer appeal.
So we're not trying to be onthe bleeding edge per se of
product development, but we wantto be on the leading edge, for
sure.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
If a retailer was to say to you, hey, like a group of
retailers were to say to you,hey, you know, we need this from
you.
We need a um.
When halos were really popular,we need more halo options.
Or when, uh, cuban links werepopular, we need cuban link
options.
How long would that take of alead time before you're able to
(22:38):
actually produce something andoffer them that solution?
Is that that like six months,or is that like four years?
What is that?
Speaker 3 (22:48):
No, I'll tell you a funny story.
We develop a lot of collections.
I'm going to tell her to listento this Matika, who's got
conference jewelry, every yearshe comes to me in January with
an idea.
She's a very smart marketingperson super smart Like and we
learn a lot from her and shealways comes with ideas of a new
(23:10):
collection that she wants to dofor Valentine, and we've done
it every year for like 10 years.
So a few years ago she wasrunning late and we were I'm
telling you, we're only likethree weeks away from
Valentine's and I'm like Monica,I'm just going to be just gonna
be honest, I'm not sure we canpull this off.
And she said that she prayedabout it all night and she was
confident that I could pull itout.
That's great, and I told her Iknow what she prayed about, but
(23:33):
I also know what I think andgive her credit.
We pulled it off and we got, soI mean we we've done stuff in a
couple weeks and that's thebenefit of having
Minnesota-based manufacturing.
But we prefer a little moretime if possible.
Speaker 4 (23:50):
Yeah, it's similar.
For us it kind of depends onthe product type.
We do a good amount ofmanufacturing here too.
So if it's something that iswithin our wheelhouse, that we
can pretty easily just shift to,then yeah, we can produce it in
a couple weeks.
That we can pretty easily, likeyou know, just shift to, then
yeah, we can produce it in acouple of weeks.
But if it's something thatreally requires you know, okay,
we got to go back to the drawingboard and kind of reinvent then
it may take a little bit longer.
But yeah, I guess it's allproduct dependent.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
And I guess that it ties very nicely.
I was going to ask you aboutretailer partnerships and, just
before we even start, I want youto know that this is going to
be the exact same question I asktomorrow when we have the
retailer roundtable, like howcan they have better vendor
partnerships?
But when it comes to retailerpartnerships, what is it that
makes a good retailer for you?
So it's not just you know, oh,they sell like a million pieces
(24:38):
of our, of our collection allthe time, all the time.
What is it that actuallyestablishes them, as you know,
not just successful, but alsohelpful and help push your
respective?
Speaker 4 (24:49):
brands forward.
For me it's transparency andcollaboration.
I think you know, if you'reable to just have an open
conversation with me and say,hey, here's what's working,
here's what's not, here's, youknow the way that your sales rep
did it, here's the way that weexpect it, and allow me kind of
the grace to make the changesthat are needed, right, then
that's the most important thing,because we're here to support
(25:10):
you guys and we don't know ifsomething's working, not working
, or you know, if something'sgoing wrong unless, unless we're
told about it, necessarilyright.
So we want to, we just want topromote that transparency and
create a good, open conversation.
So this way, if there's room tofix, we can, or if things are
going great, we get thatfeedback as well.
(25:30):
I think that's, to me, the mostimportant thing, because we can
try a million different things.
We can offer marketingmaterials, we can offer displays
, you know, and that's what wethink will work.
But unless you're telling usthat's what's working, then we
don't know that for sure.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
Yeah, yeah.
So this is an important topicfor us and we've just had our
sales meeting a couple weeks ago, where we had our 12 reps and
we literally had a wholeconversation of retailer who's a
partner, what are thecharacteristics of a partner,
and there's a lot of things thatI think are important to us.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
And it's, and it's interesting.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
Tomorrow I'm going to talk a little bit about our
core values, which is who we are, and we found that our best
retailers have the same corevalues we do and value the same
things that are important to us.
Um, you know openness, um, um,being healthy with us.
(26:28):
You know we're very aggressivewhen it comes to, like, stock
balancing, for example.
So when someone makes it justabout stock balancing and not
about reordering fast sellers,that usually will be an
unhealthy relationship.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
So it's like a push and pull sort of thing.
Speaker 3 (26:43):
Yeah, I mean for us to have stock balancing really
work for us, you have to bereordering your best sellers.
I see that's just critical tous Open, sharing ideas, taking
advantage, you know, using ourresources to help move our
product.
You know we have our 12 repsthat are all employees of our
(27:06):
company, dedicated um lettingthem come in, train the staff um
work with the staff um makingsure they're up to speed on all
of our products.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
Um If there's a, if there's a retailer that is
successful, because I'm sure, ifyou're anything like us, we
look across all of our clientsand we can see that there are
some people that man, they justget it, they just know how to do
whatever it is.
Is that something?
Would you reach out to them andask like, hey, how are you
selling so much of this?
Is that like a question or isthat kind of?
(27:36):
It's not really my business.
I, like you know as long as youkeep on?
Speaker 3 (27:38):
No, all the time.
We're always trying to learn,and and I get out all the time
because that's where I learnedtoo, and I have learned over the
years that I don't know thatmuch.
But also I've learned thatthere's just a lot of different
ways to be successful too, andso it's successful for one
person, might not be successfulfor somebody else, but you know
(28:01):
I there's just so many differentthings.
But like I was at a store lastyear and it was.
It was during the fall, and Iasked him if he was buying
different because of theelection coming up, oh, and he
replied no, I don't participatein recessions.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
And I thought to myself.
Speaker 3 (28:25):
I'm like God, I got to write that down.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
I'm not participating ever again.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
And he's like well, I heard it from another store.
Another store said to them likeI don't.
And they thought, well, if theydon't participate in recessions
, why do I have to participatein recessions?
I do think sometimes in thisindustry we can make things a
kind of a self-fulfillingprophecy.
So, um, you know, whether it'sproduct or marketing or pain
that's going on.
You know we're learning all thetime from from different
(28:53):
successful retailers and we'reworking with, I think, arthur's
duelers came up and, um, youknow, we were, as, like, number
third or fourth supplier saidhey, I'd like to do an auto
reorder program with you, whichwe set up through the edge.
Wow, so we did it and now we'rehis number one supplier.
But again, that was something,again that we learned from a
successful retailer.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
Fascinating.
It's one of those things I lookquite a bit at what makes a
successful retailer.
Granted, my view is very narrowbecause I'm focusing on
e-commerce orders.
Every single month, in case youguys are all interested, I get
a report sent to me, uh, by oursystem, where I look at every
single e-commerce order thatcame through.
(29:35):
I also look at the the totalorders for each uh retailer as
well, and I see who's doing themost.
And there's two jewelers thatare running away with the most
sales I've ever seen, and theyare it's not even, it's not even
(29:56):
close.
And I reached out to them and Isaid like hey, how are you
selling so much jewelry?
Well, one of the things thatone of them said was we are not
selling.
You know 3000 differentengagement rings.
They're selling a lot of charmsand they're selling a lot of
you know very low price pointitems hoops and fashion jewelry
(30:19):
and stuff like that and what'sfascinating is there's still
sales.
But what I also notice and so Igo through, I'm looking through
every single one of their sales, trying to figure out how are
they making so many sales andwhy are they making so many
sales and why is their totalincreasingly going up.
Well, they go in and every like15th sale they make, they also
(30:40):
sell like a.
They also sell like a lab-growndiamond stud set of studs and
it's just like, oh, they alsothey sell the charm and then
they sell the studs.
And then it's because they arebundling things and they're
building up connections andpeople who, when you have your
(31:01):
credit card already saved, youcan buy a lot easier.
And it just had me thinking alot more about, like that
relationship in that, I guess,Feeling of trust for a store and
for a business, and I wasstarting to think about that a
lot more.
From reverse.
It's like why do I have certainretailers that I really trust?
(31:23):
And like, why do I value theiropinion more as opposed to
someone who is maybe juststarting out?
It's because, ah, they've doneit so many times that they
figured it out.
You know, I think it's really acool kind of thing to look into
and see why certain people arereally successful.
Speaker 3 (31:40):
I think they all do a good job, though, of taking
care of their customers.
Some might discount, some mightnot discount, some might be
focused on this collection orthat, but the successful ones
all just passionately take goodcare of their customers,
absolutely.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
So we always do this one, and then I'll open it up
for any questions that peoplemight have though you can always
just ask them because they'regoing to be around.
But I wanted to ask aboutleading up to JCK.
Is there anything that you guysare working on?
I always joke about it'sexclusive.
Give us the in-the-loopexclusive.
Craig, is there anything thatyou guys are working on ahead of
(32:18):
JCK that you're really excitedabout that retailers should be
excited about too?
Sure.
Speaker 3 (32:23):
So I was at that's putting you on the spot.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
I wasn't sure if I could share it yet, because
we're announcing it on Wednesdaybut I'll do it early.
Speaker 3 (32:31):
So I was at and, again, I always learn from our
customers and so I was at um theijo next gen and um tim l from
zarell.
So if you've had a chance tohear him speak, he's like a
marketing genius, very smart guy.
We all want to be like him, andhe was just talking about some
(32:51):
of the different marketingprograms that he does, and so,
um, one of the things that hehas had a great deal of success
with is trip promotions, and itwas interesting.
He just he was talking abouthow he was at a poker game and
right after Christmas and theBest Buy manager was talking
(33:13):
about how January was their bestmonth of the year and he was
like how in the heck is thatpossible?
January is my worst month ofthe year.
They always sell so many flatscreens for the Super Bowl, so
he went and bought all the flatscreens in town and started
giving them away for everydiamond that he sold.
And it was funny because he wasgetting the guys to get the gal
(33:36):
to pick out a bigger diamond sothey could get a bigger flat
screen.
it was really it was really afantastic deal.
So he was talking about thesetrip promotions that he does,
yeah, and so I said I'm gonnatry it because it works for him.
He always says do the thingsyou're not supposed to do when
it comes to marketing.
So at jck this year, whenpeople come by and write an
order with us, we're giving thema cruise.
A cruise, wow.
(33:56):
There's a minimum purchase notcrazy, and there are more
details, but you have to come bythe booth.
Does that apply to vendors?
Speaker 2 (34:04):
yeah, yeah minimum purchase.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
Yeah, so we're.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
We're giving away um and again, another thing we
learned from we were given acruise if you come by our booth
man, what a really novel idea,especially because I wonder if
it has something to do with likepsychology of it all, where if
it's a trip, then it's biggerthan an actual object.
It's more aspirational.
Jordan.
Speaker 2 (34:27):
Well we're not giving away a cruise.
Speaker 4 (34:30):
But no, we've got a lot of really cool new diamond
fashion product that we'reexcited about.
A lot of it's actuallymanufactured in house in New
York, so we're really excitedabout that, especially,
obviously, with everything goingon.
And, yeah, we're just we alwayshave new stuff coming out.
That's the thing in Vegas isalways like our our launch of
new collections and anyone inhere who knows us knows that.
(34:53):
You know we have thousands ofproduct and you can come to our
booth and find anything that youreally need.
So, yeah, we, we just kind ofpicked, picked a piece, picked
pieces out and added themthroughout.
So there's a lot of good newstuff coming up is.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
I always just from a personal matter, just because,
you know, with punch mark, a lotof times we we make something
and we're so excited for peopleto use it, like with Page
Builder 3, we launched it.
We didn't even really telleverybody that we were going to
launch it, because we were justso excited.
We really wanted people to tryit out.
And is that something that youguys are thinking about?
(35:30):
It's like oh, I want to keep ita surprise, like you were
saying, but also you want tobuild up some maybe like user
testing or something like that,and showing it to people.
Speaker 4 (35:46):
Is that?
Do you have people that youmight share different things
with, just to try it out?
Yeah, we have some retailersthat we work with that you know.
If they've been successful witha certain product and we have
something that maybe is a goodlike, you know, like sister
piece to that or something,we'll send it in and say, hey,
give us, you know, give us somefeedback on it, or things like
that.
But I think really it takestime in the market just to
(36:07):
really test it.
So what we want to do is justget it in their store, see how
it works and give us thefeedback on what is again isn't
working, and you know any anyone of our retailers is able to
give us that feedback.
We trust the opinions of prettymuch all of them in you know,
some way, shape or form.
So any feed.
So we're not like particularlylike, oh, this one has to get it
(36:27):
in order to test it.
Very cool yeah, we're.
Speaker 3 (36:31):
I mean, we're only making money when the store
sells it to some degree, becauseotherwise it's coming back at
some point.
So, um, yes, we bring productto shows to get feedback on
quickly, um, but at the sametime we won't know if it's
successful until we see the sellthrough, and that's why we
partner with edge retail to seesell through.
But that's all that reallymatters.
Speaker 4 (36:51):
Yeah, and also like not for nothing.
You can tell by how peoplereact when they walk up to your
booth, right, they see, if youhave a brand new piece and
you're showing it to everyoneand everyone and no one is
jumping at it, you're all sayingI don't think this is for my
customer, I don't really likethe way this built, then you
know that it's probably notgoing to be something that they
in their store then going to gotry to push to their customer,
(37:13):
right, so you can get thatreaction pretty, pretty quickly
man, I guess that is such aninteresting dynamic.
Speaker 1 (37:19):
Something I haven't thought about at all is, like
with what you just said, you'rereally only making money if they
are selling and then makingmoney, otherwise it's going to
be coming back I can onlyimagine sitting there.
Speaker 4 (37:30):
What that?
Speaker 1 (37:30):
must feel like you know, oh, I'm so excited about
this piece is going to be ashowstopper.
Speaker 3 (37:35):
And then you know, maybe it flops, but well, you do
this long enough, you learnthat usually the ones you're
most excited about tend to bethe ones that flop and then the
last piece you introduce youknow, that's the one that goes
crazy yeah, the one that's beenyour inventory for 20 years.
Speaker 4 (37:49):
It's time to scrap.
It's like, oh, all of a suddenthat's coming back ah yeah,
fascinating guys.
Speaker 1 (37:54):
I wanted to open it up for any questions you might
have for these vendors, bothmembers of the Plum Club.
Speaker 3 (38:01):
Yeah, boots are like 10 feet apart, so if you come to
Bay, you can see both of us.
You can see both at the sametime.
Speaker 1 (38:06):
And they have a purple carpet.
That's pretty cool.
Any questions that people mighthave, leave it open.
So when you come up with a newproduct.
Speaker 4 (38:14):
What's your turnaround?
So when you come up with a newproduct, what's your turnaround?
When you're coming up withdeveloping a new product, what's
the typical time from start tolaunch?
So for us we do typically twocollection releases.
We typically do.
(38:35):
Centurion is when we start atthe beginning of the year, so
typically we'll start aroundlike October, november on
developing that and then we'llrelease it at the end of January
at Centurion or you know theRJO and IJO shows really,
because those are typicallyright in line with each other.
So that's where we start with it.
And then in between that andbasically JCK is when we're
coming up with like our biggerreleases and kind of testing and
(38:58):
seeing what works and we'll getfeedback on that type of
product.
Then we'll either choose toexpand it or contract it.
And then basically Vegas iswhere we do like our big release
of like all new, of really allnew product, and then if
something like little comes upin the meantime, like afterwards
, we'll put it into the line.
Meantime, like afterwards,we'll we'll put it into the line
(39:19):
.
But really it's the first likesix months of the year is where
we're putting out producttesting and then wait and then
basically pushing for vegas, forthe, for the release of, like
our newest stuff very cool yeah,we do three releases a year
january one, may one, septemberone and our merchandise team's
usually working three months outbefore the release to really
get it finalized.
Speaker 3 (39:37):
I guess a follow-up question for you, craig, because
you guys have a lot ofcollections.
Speaker 4 (39:40):
Yep, and every so often there's a new one that
comes up.
How do you come up with a newcollection?
Speaker 3 (39:51):
Usually if it's from a store that tells us about an
idea and whatnot.
I mean, most of our ideas comefrom our good customers and we
come up with a few.
On occasion you take a littlecredit.
Yeah, not a lot, but yeah,usually it's feedback.
It could be market-driven.
You know, we recently came outwith a silver and like diamond
collection because we had had acouple customers tell us that
(40:12):
they were having a hard timehitting some certain price
points and they literallydeveloped the whole collection.
So it was by a retailer.
Yep, oh, wow, it was great.
We sent them sketches.
They picked from the sketcheswow and uh that's super cool,
yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:28):
Is it tempting to try to chase these, um, these
trends that are going on, forexample, permanent jewelry?
Is it just tempting to come outwith a line or to cater
directly to people who want tohave a starter kit for permanent
jewelry?
Is that something that it'slike you see these trends and
then you see how big they are.
Speaker 3 (40:46):
It's like, oh, we need to get on that, or do you
see, that is, and as a typicalvisionary, I tend to chase all
these things that mess up therest of the company.
So I'll talk a little bit aboutEOS tomorrow, which kind of
puts me in my place.
So we don't do those things.
But yeah, because we want tohave a broad offering.
But also you don't again Imentioned you don't want to.
(41:07):
You can't be everything toeverybody.
Yeah, you got to be.
Speaker 4 (41:11):
It's always very tempting, but if it's something
like that's within yourwheelhouse, then great.
It's something that isrelatively easy to go after, but
if it's something that'scompletely on the opposite
spectrum, you've got torecognize if the juice is worth
the squeeze and how long is thatgoing to last for, and is it
worth your time and effort tonot only produce it but promote
it, sell it and spend your timefocusing on that?
(41:33):
That may not work as well as,let's say, your core product.
Speaker 1 (41:37):
Yeah, more questions, any takers?
All right, everybody.
So to give you an idea, just towrap things up, I want to tell
you that our podcast In the Loopwe release one every Tuesday.
It's available on Spotify,apple Podcasts, wherever you get
your podcasts.
The whole goal, like I've saidbefore, is I want to make the
(41:59):
episodes that retailers want tolisten to.
There's a lot of podcasts outthere that might be more
tailored specifically to fashionor specifically towards just
like the nerding out aboutjewelry.
For me, it's like I wantexactly what you guys are
looking for and I think that sofar, we're 250 episodes in, or
(42:21):
265 at this point, and we'vebeen going for about five years
and I'm still excited.
I still enjoy speaking withpeople.
I feel like I've learned morefrom this podcast and learning,
uh, from speaking to people thanI have from a million books
combined.
So if you're interested, youhave ideas.
Like these guys have mentioned,I get all my best ideas from
the people I speak with.
(42:42):
So if you have any ideas forepisodes we could cover, or
trending topics or things likethat, or best practices, I'm
definitely all ears.
This episode will be releasedon next week, tuesday, and
that's the kind of stuff I'mgonna hopefully have more of, as
well as a vlog of this entireevent.
So maybe stop by, give it alisten.
I'd love to talk to you as well, and I think that's what we'll
(43:04):
call it.
Thanks everybody, I reallyappreciate your time.
Cheers, and thank you very much.
My guests Enjoying them.
I really appreciate you all.
You'll hear more from them, Ibelieve, tomorrow.
Thanks everybody, and yeah, Ithink we have like 10 minutes
until the next one, so cheers.
All right, everybody.
(43:31):
That's the end of the show.
Thanks so much for listening.
My guest this week was CraigMcBean, the president of OSPI,
and Jordan Peck, head ofoperations at Rivani.
Thanks so much.
This episode was brought to youby Punchmark and produced and
hosted by me, michael Burpo.
This episode was edited by PaulSuarez with music by Roz
(43:52):
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.
I'll be back next week, tuesday, with another episode.
Cheers, bye.
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