December 24, 2024 • 48 mins
It's the final episode of Season 5, which means Mike is giving you a tour of all of the best bits from this season.
This is the 50th episode from this season, and we've interviewed some impressive and distinguished members of the jewelry industry this year. We hope you'll enjoy a look back on some of our favorite moments from Season 5! We will be back January 7th with the first episode of Season 6!
Send feedback or learn more about the podcast: punchmark.com/loupe
Learn about Punchmark's website platform: punchmark.com
Inquire about sponsoring In the Loupe and showcase your business on our next episode: podcast@punchmark.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome back everybody to In the Loop.
What is up everybody?
My name is Michael Burpo and,for the final time of season
five, thank you so much forlistening to In the Loop.
This is the final episode forour season.
We're going to be taking aquick break between now and the
(00:22):
New Year's.
We're going to be returning onthe first Tuesday of January I
believe it's going to be the 6thor the 7th and I really want to
, at the end of every season,recap some of my favorite
moments.
These aren't necessarily theepisodes that get the most
downloads or track the mostclicks, though some of them are,
but it's some of theconversations that I most
(00:44):
enjoyed getting a chance to be apart of.
Some of them are solo, thoughsome of them are, but it's some
of the conversations that I mostenjoyed getting a chance to be
a part of.
Some of them are solo, some ofthem are with some esteemed
guests, some of them are with myco-workers or bosses, and I
always love getting a chance tolook back on the season and, you
know, see where we've coveredas well, as we're starting to
get prepared for season six,which is crazy to think about.
(01:06):
What we always do is we have acompilation episode and I hope
you stick around and enjoy someof the best bits of season five.
All right, enjoy.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
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
(01:41):
been friends way before becomingclients.
Punchmark's own success comesfrom the fact that we have a
much deeper need and obligationto help our friends succeed.
Whether you're looking forbetter e-commerce performance,
business growth or campaignsthat drive traffic and sales,
punchmark's website andmarketing services were made
just for you.
It's never too late totransform your business and
(02:02):
stitch together your digital andphysical worlds in a way that
achieves tremendous growth andresults.
Schedule a guided demo today atpunchmarkcom slash go.
And now back to the show.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Before we jump into all the clips, I just want to
say a quick thank you.
First of all, I want to saythank you for listening.
This is our 50th episode ofseason five, which is the most
we've ever produced in a singleseason.
I think that consistency comeswith, you know, time in there
and also some good planning,also just having a system that
(02:42):
works well.
And also I want to say thankyou.
We actually were just named In.
The Loop was just named in the45 best jewelry podcasts.
We were ranked number two,which is pretty exciting.
It was by Feedspot they compilepodcast lists and being number
(03:03):
two, I mean I'm quite proud ofourselves.
I think that there's someimpressive podcasts that we're
shoulder to shoulder with that Icertainly listen to and admire,
but I can't thank you all forbeing a part of us.
I mentioned it in episode 200earlier this season.
But genuinely, this is myfavorite part of my job.
I love getting a chance tospeak with some people who I am
(03:25):
so proud of and so admiring of,but also with some of my
coworkers, and also just theopportunity to share my
exploration of the jewelryindustry with you all these
episodes at the end of everyseason offer me the unique
opportunity to go back and sortof get a feel for the season I
(03:46):
think season five.
We really covered a lot ofground and we changed a few
things about ourselves.
We wanted to be a little bitmore topical, so, you'll notice,
when there was breaking news,we tried to be one of the first
people to be on that.
So, whether that wasinterviewing Craig McBean with
OSPI to talk about hisacquisition of Victor
(04:09):
Corporation and also getting thechance to speak with Alexis
Padas when she was named the newpresident of AGS, being on top
of that has allowed us to sortof fit ourselves into the
jewelry industry news cycle,which is something we previously
hadn't been attempting before.
But also I have started doingsome more solo episodes to sort
(04:33):
of share an unfiltered view intohow a soon to be 30 year old
experiences e-commerce in thejewelry industry and what is
standout to me.
I think that in the futurewe're going to take a lot of
these lessons and apply them tofuture episodes.
I want to do more in-personinterviews if possible.
(04:56):
But I also want to say thankyou so much for allowing us to
have some of this advertisementfor Punchmark on here as well.
I know that no one loveslistening to podcast
advertisements.
I'm sure some people areskipping through them, but
allowing Punchmark to use thisas a vessel to get our message
(05:16):
across as well is part of whatallows me to do this as part of
my job, and it allows us to kindof, you know, build a
connection with our clientsbeyond just through an email,
and for that I can't say thankyou enough.
That said, we have our 10favorite clips, or my favorite
clips, from season five, and Ihope you'll stick around for
(05:40):
season six, which will bestarting very early next season
on January 7th.
Until then, thanks everybody,enjoy.
Our first clip is from episodesix of season five, the
Brilliance of a DiamondMarketplace, featuring Novota,
and this was my interview with aco-founder of Novota, and we're
(06:03):
talking about how they changedthe prices on their diamond
marketplace to accuratelyreflect the changes and how
they're constantly adapting forthe price fluctuations of
lab-grown diamonds.
This is our best episode interms of performance.
It kind of weirdly went superviral.
We got about seven or eighttimes more listens on it than
(06:25):
what a normal episode does.
I think it's in part becausepeople are really excited by
what Novota is coming out with.
So please enjoy.
How do you guys kind of seethat?
Is it just about staying nimbleand updating your prices
frequently, or do you have adifferent approach to it that
allows you to kind of safeguardyourself from the changing price
(06:45):
?
Speaker 3 (06:46):
Right, so we update prices every 5 to 15 minutes.
Wow, depending on the level ofintegration that we have with
each of the suppliers.
And you're absolutely right,especially on LabGround, it's
been trending down, although Imust say that the last couple of
months it's been tapering off alittle bit.
(07:07):
So obviously impossible to tellif that's going to stay the
same into this year, but itseems that we are starting to
hit a little bit of a plateau,at least for some of the fast
selling categories.
But yeah, it's critical to makesure that the prices are
(07:28):
accurate, and this applies tonatural as well as a global
marketplace.
We have to make sure thatthings can change on a whim and
they have to be reflectedaccurately on the platform as
quickly as possible.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
I guess I'm always curious about that is we
obviously want to offer anyproduct that someone is looking
for.
I think that that's one of thekey things I've learned about
vendors is that if there's amarket for it, we need to have
it, because otherwise they'lljust go somewhere else.
Yeah, one of my favoriteinterviews from this season was
(08:05):
episode nine, behind the Sparkle, sarah Schoenling's journey in
high jewelry design at TiffanyCo.
And Sarah is a high jewelrydesigner, so she's the one
that's creating these piecesthat can be worth hundreds of
thousands of dollars and they'reone of a kind and they are
truly works of art.
And I got a chance to ask Saraha lot of questions I've always
(08:28):
had about Tiffany Co and aboutthe process of actual high
profile jewelry design and whatthat kind of process is like.
And it was so cool becauseSarah was remarkably transparent
talking about how she goesabout designing these pieces for
, especially for the Tiffian CoBlue Book every year which she
contributes to.
(08:48):
It was one of my favoriteconversations.
I hope to interview her againone day and I hope you'll enjoy.
I think this is one of thoseepisodes I'll go back and I'll
listen to again, I'm assumingbecause of the fact that there
is this really boutique and,like you know, customized
process, the process behind theactual design probably is a
(09:10):
little bit more all encompassing.
Do you start, you know, I guess, with concept images, or what
kind of how do you begin withthe design of your jewelry?
Is it, I guess, sketching?
Is it?
Do you jump right into into CAD, or how does that kind of begin
?
Speaker 4 (09:27):
Yeah, so well.
Firstly, I do start with a lotof research and I research for
inspiration.
I'll make a vision board and amood board and just to kind of
conceptualize and visualize myideas.
And then I go on to sketchingand I will sketch figurative
(09:50):
drawings, very rough, to try toexplore a concept.
And I'll typically start withthe necklace, because everything
for me derives from thenecklace.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Oh cool, I never knew that.
That's a really cool idea.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
Yeah, yeah, that's that's how I personally like to
go about it.
The necklace is the showstopper, so you want to put the most
work and attention to detailinto the necklace and get that
perfect so that you can thendelineate from there, yeah, to
the rest of the pieces, yeah, sothere is a lot of sketching and
(10:30):
there's a lot of refining, andthen you scan these pieces into
the computer and you're onphotoshop, uh, rendering and
drawing on there, and then youknow it's just more revisions,
more reflections and, if needed,we we will take it into CAD and
design it three-dimensionally,print it to understand how it's
(10:51):
working in the round.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Yeah, One of Punchmark's yearly events is we
have the client workshop.
It's usually at the end ofApril or in the beginning of May
and we have two days ofeducational training for our
clients.
It's in Charlotte every yearand we have our clients in and
we usually have events at therooftop bar after the end of day
(11:14):
one.
So this year I decided to giveout a couple of awards to
acknowledge some of our clientsthat were in attendance.
So this is me giving a speechfor some awards at Fahrenheit.
This is from episode 19 ofseason five.
I went to the third PunchmarkClient Workshop and all I got
was this podcast episode.
(11:34):
Be warned, the audio is alittle scuffed because it's from
a video recording and it was alittle windy up there, but I
still think it's fun.
Bear with me.
We have four awards for clients, four for Punchmark people, so
just bear with us.
It was important to us that werecognize some people that
travel here and also some of thepeople that help figure
(11:54):
websites not going down Right,right, right, I think I'm going
to call out we'll do theclient's birth because it's the
client workshop.
Speaker 7 (12:04):
So you guys are in the name.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
So we have two people that have come to every
workshop.
This is the third year, and sowe have these two workshop
warriors, and the first is Calebfrom Fall Jewelers.
Speaker 7 (12:23):
Oh, there you go.
Hi man You've been that longtime from Fall Jewelers oh there
you go.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
And then the other one is going to be Bob from Wear
Jewelers, hey.
Yeah, next up Wear jewelers.
Hey, in attendance we have thelongest standing client.
Punchbox has been around for 15years, so this person has been
(13:00):
with us for 13 years, I believe,and this is Kristen from Selman
Jewelers.
And then we're always lookingfor forward-looking indicators.
So, like what is it most likely?
To have a very successfulwebsite or be doing well or
(13:24):
whatever that means, and thenumber one thing we've seen is
logging in a lot is going tolead your website doing well.
So we have the most active andengaged for the most logins to
their site manager, and this iswith over a thousand logins.
Just last year is Liz withGeorgetown Jewelers At the
(13:54):
client workshop.
Every year I am very fortunateI get the opportunity to do a
live podcast recording in frontof an audience, which sort of
accentuates the episode a littlebit.
It kind of makes us, you know,even more enthusiastic and it's
something I really enjoy and Ialways record it and then we
create an episode out of it.
And this year I decided to do anext generation jewelry retail
(14:18):
roundtable.
I had on Falls Jewelers andKiefer Jewelers and we talked
all about what being a nextgeneration jeweler means to them
, some of the kind of currentprojects that they're working on
and how they are always kind ofimproving as a next generation
jeweler and what they're doingto stay kind of abreast of
current trends.
And I really enjoyed how thisone turned out.
(14:40):
You can have a much better flowor kind of rhythm to the
conversation when you're inperson.
You're able to nod along andsort of, you know, frame the
questions a little bit morenaturally because they can see
your facial expressions or youcan lean in to kind of get them
to finish an answer.
I just really enjoyed how thisone carried out.
(15:01):
This is from season five,episode 20,.
Enjoyed how this one carriedout.
This is from season five,episode 20, live next generation
jewelry retailer roundtablefeaturing Falls Jewelers and
Kiefer Jewelers.
I'm joined by Caleb and Alex andwe're going to be talking about
a couple of I don't want tocall them polarizing topics, but
topics that people seem to havesome strong opinions on when it
(15:23):
comes to the jewelry industry.
So things like e-commerce,things like lab grown versus
natural diamonds Not that it's Idon't want people to have to
take a stance too strong oneither side but it's more that I
want to have an idea fromretailers, because I'm not a
retailer.
I work for Punchmark and we dowebsites, but you guys are
(15:45):
having the on the groundexperience and understanding it
better than I do, so I want tocheck in with you guys as well.
So, alex and Caleb, I kind ofwant to start with jewelry
e-commerce, because we justspent, you know, the last day
and a half talking about how youguys can optimize your website
as best as possible, hopefullyto sell a little bit online.
I guess I want to start.
Alex, do you sell online?
Speaker 9 (16:06):
I do sell online.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
Yeah, and how is that going so far for you?
Speaker 9 (16:09):
It's going well.
I mean, I definitely feel likeit's never going to replace or
even try to compete with ourbrick and mortar business.
But you know there's lots offringe benefits from having your
inventory online.
I mean, almost multiple times aday now probably, people just
come in with their phone.
I want to see this item, youknow, and like the sales already
(16:31):
half made for you.
Um, we get a lot of the wherepeople buy online and then do
the in-store pickup makes ourlives super easy, especially
during the holidays.
But I do ship stuff to all 50States.
I've shipped to Puerto Rico.
It's, yeah, it's pretty amazingactually to where it's gotten
at this point.
It is a lot of work, though Iwill not downplay that.
(16:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
As In the Loop, has started to kind of establish
itself inside of the jewelryindustry.
One of the benefits has beenI've been able to start to
interview people as breakingnews is happening and I do my
best to pay attention toNational Jeweler and a few
different news sources so that Iam able to stay abreast of
(17:15):
what's important in the industry.
And sometimes when news breaksand someone is going to be
stepping into a leadership role,I try my best to reach out to
them as soon as I can to get aopportunity to interview them
for In the Loop and to kind ofshare their message early with
the rest of the industry.
And one of the cool interviewsI did this season was on episode
(17:37):
23,.
And I interviewed Alexis Pattisand it was for her first
exclusive interview as newpresident of AGS, the American
Gem Society, and Alexis sharedwhat her vision for AGS was and
kind of how she hopes to directthe group into, you know, the
next frontiers, whatever theymay be.
(17:58):
She's so well spoken and shewas very giving with her time.
I really appreciated her takingan interview with me.
It was super cool getting achance to speak with her and
definitely one that I'll befollowing her career and
hopefully we have a follow-uplater this upcoming year.
Welcome back everybody.
I'm joined by Alexis Pattis.
How are you doing today, alexis?
Speaker 7 (18:20):
I'm great, Michael.
Thank you so much for having me.
It's an honor to be here.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
Wow, an honor is all mine.
I'm so excited to be speakingwith you First interview as new
president of AGS.
Could you tell me a little bitabout your background and also
about being president of AGS?
Speaker 7 (18:36):
Oh, absolutely, but it's going to take a little bit.
I apologize, I'm here for it.
Pattis Jewelry we're based inSan Francisco.
We very much like a lot of thebusinesses in our industry, are
family owned and operated.
We're actually celebrating our50th year in business this year,
so we're very excited.
It's, you know, one of thosethings when your parents start
(18:58):
the company and you got to seevery early on what those steps
look like during that process,you have so much more respect
for all that went into gettingus to this 50 year mark.
Uh, so it's really a joy.
We are based in the SanFrancisco Bay area.
We have five locations, uh,three of which are in San
Francisco a location in WalnutCreek, which is a suburb of the
(19:21):
Bay area, kind of East of SanFrancisco, and then we have a
location in Napa, uh, which iswhere I call home, and it is a
combination of a jewelry storeand tasting room.
We also have Pattis Vineyard,our second family-owned and
operated business.
We deal in booze and bling.
It's a fantastic combination,and you know true to form, with
(19:43):
a lot of the next generationsthat have joined the business.
I joined it begrudgingly.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Following in the vein of getting a chance to
interview some individuals thatI definitely admire and find
very impressive in the industry.
I was very fortunate to get theopportunity to interview Podium
co-founder Dennis Steele, andit was so inspiring hearing
about how he and his friendstarted in their friend's garage
creating this solution for oneof their friend's father's tire
(20:14):
shop and how this eventually ledto the industry powerhouse that
is Podium.
But also he was incrediblycandid to talk about some of the
shortcomings and hurdles thatthey've come up against in
recent years and also how theyhave gone about rectifying those
situations and they're doublingdown on jewelry and focusing
(20:39):
back on this industry.
That really has been a key partfor their business.
He was very candid andtransparent about the steps that
they've taken and it wasdefinitely something I came away
with a much greater respect forthe company and also for Demis.
I think this is going to be onethat I'll look back on in future
(20:59):
years as Podium continues tomake waves in the industry, and
something I'll return to to seehow, you know, it's changed in
recent years.
So Podium always has had reallygreat products, but for the
past I don't know, maybe two,three years you guys have had
kind of like seemingly superlarge ambitions, changing it to
(21:21):
more, not just jewelry focused,and that's kind of what a lot of
jewelers really appreciated.
What has the last couple ofyears been like from like a
leadership and managementperspective and seeing the full
picture?
Speaker 5 (21:32):
Yeah, it really has for us been focusing on our core
customers.
That made us successful in thefirst place and that has made
such a difference.
And you know, I think anybusiness owner can relate to
this.
You know you have ups and downs, sometimes you lose your way a
little bit on some of your coreprinciples that made you
(21:53):
successful originally.
And we learned some lessons acouple of years ago when we
realized that, you know, withall of the funding and the
pressure to scale the businessrapidly, we started to go
broader and broader, becausePodium and the things that we
serve, the needs that we servefor local business, are
(22:14):
ubiquitous and they're verybroad and you can apply it to
almost any business out there.
And so, you know, like you said, ambitiously we were kind of
trying to attack the opportunityand we had.
We started to have more of abroad focus across all
industries and all localbusinesses.
And there was a key lesson thatwe learned in that and that was
(22:35):
I talked a little bit about therelationship that jewelers get
to have with their clientsbecause of the emotional
purchase and we kind of lostsight of how important it is for
us to have close relationshipswith our clients and our
customers at Podium and reallyunderstand their businesses and
their use cases, because the usecase for a jeweler can be so
(22:56):
different than the use case fora dog groomer or any other local
business that you can think of.
And so what we did about, youknow, 18 months, two years ago
to 18 months ago is we shiftedthe strategy to hone back in on
(23:16):
our core customers, and that'sonly a handful of verticals
where we are dedicating all ofour resources from a product
perspective, a customer servicelevel perspective, because we
had some degradation there.
We weren't serving the use casesas well as we had been from a
product perspective, designingthe product specifically for the
(23:37):
things that jeweler needs to do.
And from a service levelperspective, because they have
different needs from a support,training and onboarding
perspective.
And so I'm really proud of whatthe team has done with shifting
that strategy back into place,putting additional resources
into the jewelry industry,because it is one of those
handful of industries that wehave as our core strategy.
(23:58):
And then, on the product side,we've made huge advancements to
serving that specific use case,and a lot of that has come with
integrations with some of ourtop systems partners like the
edge, um, and now, as we moveinto AI, there's some really
exciting use cases that we canfocus on.
But focusing on the specificuse case of a jeweler, um it,
(24:21):
there is just a ton of valuefrom that, and so that's been,
you know, a huge learning for meas an entrepreneur and as
business owner.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
This season for In the Loop, I started to lean a
little bit more heavily on thesolo episode and I think I've
gotten a little bit better atmaking them.
I've started to slow down howquickly I speak but it allows me
kind of a lot of breathing roomto sort of dive really deep
into an experience that I findincredible.
(24:49):
So I did this with breakingdown the best and also trying
out vertical videos last season,but this season I used the
opportunity to talk aboutomni-channel experiences, and
one in particular that I hadwhen I went to Lowe's around
Memorial Day for buying theserailing planters, and the
(25:10):
experience was so seamless andprofound and so quality that I
felt like I needed to make anepisode to exemplify how well
done it was and this is, I mean,lowe's is not a small company
and the way that they had theirwebsite and their in-store
experiences and multiplein-store experiences working so
(25:31):
seamlessly that it was just, Imean, chef's kiss.
So this is from episode 25 ofseason five Omnichannel Examples
in Everyday Life.
This is probably more of anevergreen episode.
This is probably going to beone that we bookmark and we send
to people when they don'tunderstand Omnichannel
(25:52):
experiences, but I'm quite proudof it and I hope you go back
and check it out.
If we define Omnichannel, Ijust looked up a definition,
just because sometimes when Iexplain it it has to take a lot
of words.
So here's the explanation Ifound.
Online Omnichannel retail is abusiness model that integrates
multiple digital and physicalchannels to create a consistent
(26:14):
customer experience across alltouch points.
The goal is to provide aseamless transition between
online and offline shopping andto make it easy for customers to
move between channels.
So it's important to just kindof dial in on a couple points.
When they say channels, theymean marketing channels or just
like spaces that you cultivate.
(26:37):
So this could be your websiteand then your in-store presence
and maybe it could be yourmarketing and it could also be
your signage and things likethat.
So if you were to have a sale,it's important to have the sale
in all spots.
So maybe you're having adiscount or a sale on, you know,
pearl necklaces.
It's important that you havethe sale online on your signage.
(27:00):
So you're like you know youradvertisements.
Like maybe something you haveflyers or maybe you have an
advertisement in your localpaper.
It's important that you havethe sale there but also in your
store, so everything should betalking to itself Instead of
having it only marketed throughone channelichannel is for
product availability and alsofor just kind of ease of finding
(27:34):
your way around and explainingthings.
So I'm going to explain onesituation I had recently where I
had an incredible Omnichannelexperience and as I was going
through it I was like, wow, thisis so cool.
As I was going through it I waslike, wow, this is so cool.
One of my personal favoriteepisodes for this season was a
one-on-one episode I had with myboss, ross Cockrum, and what
(27:56):
was really cool about thisconversation it was season five,
episode 27, innovation andFamily Balance a conversation
with Punch Mark's Ross Cockrum.
We sat down and we talked aboutsome of the exciting things
that Punchmark's doing, buttowards the back half of the
episode we really talked aboutwhat Ross's kind of mantra for
(28:18):
you know work and why are weworking.
Why do why?
Is Punchmark even exist?
You know, how are we making theworld a better place?
Are we just, you know,shuffling money around from
person to person?
And Rostov is also very candidand talked about his upcoming
(28:39):
well now past paternity leaveand talking about you know why
he is working for his family andhow he balances.
You know his one baby, hisbusiness, you know that he
co-founded and a new baby, andit was really kind of a fun and
introspective episode that Ikind of want to do more of.
(28:59):
In on In the Loop, I felt likewe were talking about something
that isn't talked about enoughin a tangible setting.
A lot of times it's like, ohyeah, man, you gotta work, work,
work and grind and never stop.
But talking about why we'redoing what we're doing was a
really nice kind of conversationthat I would like to do more of
(29:23):
and I think needs to be talkingabout, maybe even at your own
business.
So definitely a good episode.
One thing that you postedrecently in the IGL exclusive
Facebook group it was this polland this kind of I mean harkens
back to what we were justtalking about.
About these topics that are,it's not just about sell, sell,
(29:44):
sell.
Sometimes you got to just ask aquestion or you got to just be
engaged, so you had thisquestion out there and to just
to to do a bad job.
Uh, summarizing it, it wasessentially you asking are you
annual sales milestone drivenLike?
Are you?
Is your goal with your businessto to meet a specific annual
(30:05):
sales milestone or are youputting, like, a lifestyle and
family in the forefront forrunning your business, or is it?
Are you trying to just setyourself up to retire and you
ask these questions?
Another one was like I'm tryingto, like I'm just trying to grow
my business in any way I can,and you kind of like left it at
(30:25):
that and I thought that that wasreally interesting because I
went to go check out the answersand the comment section was
fascinating because suddenlypeople were sharing their
mindset and ideas for balancing,for balancing, you know,
business, like why are we allhere?
It's because we are trying,hopefully trying to make a lot
(30:48):
of money and retire and live ourbest life and all those things
and hopefully make a differencein the world.
But I thought that the answerswere overwhelmingly I put
lifestyle and family abovebusiness growth.
So what, what is your currentmindset when it comes to that?
I mean, you've been CEO ofPunchmark for 15, almost 16
(31:09):
years 16 years actually, I thinkin May.
What's your view on that rightnow?
Speaker 2 (31:16):
Well, you know, here's the thing when you look
at why you start a business, youlook at why you start a family.
Those are two different things.
Right, there's this, you know,inherent drive that we all have,
that we want to be better, wewant to be the best version of
ourselves, we want to, you know,work out.
(31:36):
We want to run, we want to doother things outside of life,
but we also want to be smart, wewant to be competent, right, we
want, we want all these things.
And you know a few things thatI'm really trying to do.
Um, as my continue, as is,remind myself why I go to work
every day, and not only just inthe work field of I go to work
(32:01):
every day to help clientssucceed, but why I go to work
every day for me.
You know, I do it for my family, so that I can spend time with
my family.
But then I could say that, butthen I need to act on that and
not just say it.
So you know, it soundswhimsical, but my new mantra is
to spend it now, and by spend itI mean my time.
(32:22):
So I want to avoid bad wordsLike as soon as I get this done,
life will get so much easier,right, or?
Hey, I'll have plenty of timewhen I retire, right, like, like
, seriously like that's theAmerican dream, right?
Speaker 1 (32:39):
Yeah, that's that's what I always think about.
It's like why am I, why am Iworking so hard?
Oh, it's so that I can retirewhen I'm I'm, you know, 60.
And it's like, really, I'mgoing to work so hard for the
next 30 years just so I canretire, it's like, but what
about now?
What about what about when I'myoung?
(32:59):
Now that In the Loop has beenaround for well over 200
episodes, at this point I'veactually been able to develop a
couple of relationships and kindof points of contact in the
industry which have been verycool to experience.
And one of those people that Ireally look up to is Craig
McBean.
He's the president, fourthgeneration owner of OSPI, who is
a jewelry vendor and a realpowerhouse in the industry, and
(33:22):
I have a recurring interviewwith Craig and I had booked up
this interview and to go andhave him on in the loop just to
talk about what's been going onfor OSPI, and news came out like
one day later, after bookingthe interview, that Osby had
just acquired Victor Corporationand that is huge news.
(33:44):
In case you didn't know, VictorCorporation has been around in
the jewelry industry since like1945 or 46.
And Osby has also been aroundfor I mean well over 100 years.
At this point, and hearing thatthere was going to be a merger
between the two and that Craigwas going to be at the helm of
it all was really a big deal andalso so cool to kind of get a
(34:07):
chance to speak with Craig asthese events were unfolding.
It was something that I wasreally grateful to Craig for
allowing me into and alsosomething that kind of is a
milestone marker or sort of likea timestamp on the year,
because pretty much everybodyheard about the news.
So this is, from episode 28 ofseason five, an inside look at
(34:33):
OSPI's acquisition of VictorCorporation.
With Craig McBean I scheduledthis appointment to interview
you and then, like two dayslater, the big news came out.
I want to talk about this atfirst and right in the beginning
OSPI just acquired VictorCorporation, which is a huge
name in the jewelry industry.
(34:53):
Can you tell me a little bitabout what that means for OSPI
and what that means for you asan owner?
Speaker 8 (35:01):
Yeah, no, first of all, we're super excited about
it.
John and I go back a lot ofyears and I think that's one of
the cool things about thisindustry is just the
interactions that we all have.
Even on the vendor side, themanufacturing side.
We might compete against eachother, but there's still a
friendship and a respect thatgoes on there.
(35:22):
And I got to know John Euclid afew years ago.
We served on some boardstogether and just always admired
him, how he ran his company,the success that they had, and
you know, over the years we justkept talking.
And, um, you know, over theyears we just kept talking.
And then recently he, I think,had come to the decision that,
(35:43):
um, he'd reached that pointwhere, uh, you know, there's no
pockets in a coffin and maybeit's time to retire and go on to
that next chapter in his life,and he didn't have any family
members that were interested ingoing into it.
So we started talking and itreally turned out to be a great.
The more we talked, the more Irealized it was a great fit for
(36:03):
us for just so many reasons.
Their product line meshes withours really well.
They're strong in some areas ofthe country that were not as
strong.
When I ran our customer listsagainst each other, there really
was very little overlap,surprisingly little overlap.
So from that standpoint, itreally helps us open some
(36:23):
avenues into some new stores.
In addition, they do somethings really well from the
marketing side, product side,just like we do.
But the ability to combinethose product offerings, service
offerings and everything thatthey bring to the table with
what we bring to the table, Ireally think that it gives us a
really comprehensive program tosupport the independent jeweler.
(36:48):
And I think, most of all and youknow you've heard me talk about
it Core values are just superimportant to me and I really
have a good feeling about whatOSPI's DNA is, kind of who we
are, and it's funny becausethose stores that kind of have
that same DNA as us are our bestpartners and just getting to
(37:09):
know John and his team and allthey do, they really shared the
same core values that we did.
So from that standpoint, um,just everything about this
really made sense and um, it'sjust been, it's really been an
honor just to work with john andhis team over the last few
months to pull this thing offand um, what's fun about it is
(37:34):
you know, sometimes these thingscan be contentious or things
like that.
It just never was.
It really was two people withthe same goal in mind, and
that's for the legacy of Victorto continue and to be a part of
OSPI and to make us stronger, tobe able to support their
customers with the same qualityservice that they've always
received and their people thatwe're able to bring on board
(37:56):
with us received, and their andtheir people that we're able to
bring on board with us.
And, um, it's just and I feellike John's gone from a kind of
a colleague to a best friendover these last months and, um,
he's still going to help us herein the next few months as we
kind of finalize thisintegration.
So it's been great, it's superexciting for us and I'm really
happy for everyone involved.
Speaker 1 (38:18):
This year In the Loop hit a really exciting milestone
, which was 200 episodespublished, and for our 200th
episode I decided to do a littlekind of special episode and I
got a chance to recap first ofall how we started making In the
Loop under a different name,the Jewelers Survival Kit, and
(38:39):
also what it is now and whywe're still making it.
I also got a chance tointerview some people that are
very special to me and I reallyam proud of how this episode
came out A little peek behindthe curtain, I'll tell you,
these landmark episodes don'tactually perform as well in
terms of downloads, which Ithink is kind of funny.
(38:59):
But this episode was veryspecial to me because I really
am proud of what In the Loop hasbecome and what we've been able
to accomplish and you know,help some jewelers and I think
that getting a chance to recapit it made me like almost a
little bit emotional afterwards.
Getting a chance to recap it,it made me like almost a little
(39:21):
bit emotional.
Afterwards I finished it and Ipublished it and for once I
really did feel quite proud ofsomething I had made and you
know we don't have any plans tostop and I hope you enjoy.
So this clip is from episode 38of season five in the loop,
episode 200, transforming theJewelry Industry Through
Podcasting.
Hope you enjoy.
(39:41):
All right, everybody, welcome toepisode 200 of In the Loop.
This episode is going to be alittle bit longer, I expect, and
also more of like a mashup andcompilation and port of force,
even with a couple of differentinterviews.
I think I know that Ross isgoing to be on.
I think I might try tointerview my editor, paul, who
I've never spoken with before.
(40:01):
I've communicated with himevery single week, sometimes
multiple times a week for fiveyears at this point and I've
never once spoken to him and Idon't even know what he looks
like.
So I think I'm going to be ableto interview him, which would
be really cool.
And also I wanted to get achance to recap why we started
In the Loop, what the early dayswere like and also where it
(40:23):
stands now, because over thecourse of the last five seasons
and it's more like five and ahalf seasons we have changed and
redeveloped what In the Loop islike and I think I'd like to
kind of explain because maybeyou know you weren't listening
back then, a lot of you weren'twhen we started, this was a very
(40:43):
small podcast and we startedunder a different name.
If you scroll all the way backin our catalog on Spotify or
Apple Podcasts you scroll allthe way back you'll notice that
we have a different name.
We were, for the first sevenepisodes, the Jewelers Survival
Kit.
We had different branding,different audio and it had a
(41:05):
much more serious tone than whatI like to portray.
It was also produced as a groupeffort with a bunch of us.
For example, ross was doing alot of the editing and one of
our developers was doing a lotof the voiceover and was like
taking a different approach toit and I wasn't as involved.
(41:26):
It was actually while I was outon vacation before COVID
started.
I was actually in Breckenridge,colorado, at the time for a
wedding when the world shut downand I made it out on one of the
last flights out of Coloradoback to Charlotte, north
Carolina, and went immediatelyinto lockdown.
And the reason why we startedit is because a lot of our
(41:49):
jewelers were freaking out alittle bit.
A lot of the times when I pick aguest for who I'm going to be
interviewing, a lot of the timeswhen I pick a guest for who I'm
going to be interviewing, I amchoosing one that I think will
have like broad appeal or thatretailers will find really
interesting.
But sometimes I pick one that Iam really excited to speak with
(42:10):
and I can almost leverage myplatform of having a podcast to
get a chance to interviewsomeone that I would love to get
a chance to speak with, andthat was definitely the case for
episode 40 of season five, thestory behind Bad Art Nice Watch,
featuring Brian Braddy and ifyou haven't seen Bad Art Nice
Watch on Instagram, it's thisaccount that where Brian
(42:36):
illustrates these watches thatpeople send into him and he
tells the story that goes withthem, and sometimes they are
about milestone achievements oh,I got this watch upon my
graduation.
Or oh, I got my watch becauseit was my father's heirloom, but
sometimes they're more I don'tknow like special behind them.
Oh, this watch has been waslost at the bottom of the lake
(42:59):
for three years and then it gotfound again, and the stories
behind them are just delightful.
And I you know he used the namebad art nice watch, but
truthfully, the illustrationsare awesome too, and I've
mentioned a million times on Inthe Loop.
I'm a semi-professionalwatercolor painter in my free
(43:19):
time and finding someone whobridges the world of luxury
jewelry and watercolor was.
I don't know if there's anybodyelse out there that is bridging
that gap besides me and him.
So it was so cool getting achance to speak with him, and it
was definitely one that I'llprobably go back and listen to
in a year or so.
Hope you enjoy.
(43:40):
How did you kind of end up inthis position?
It's very, very unique one.
Speaker 6 (43:46):
Yeah, it is a unique one, and I kind of stumbled into
this by accident, completelyhonestly.
So I like to tell the story.
My daughter, my eldest daughter, is really the origin of this
whole thing.
Um, she was four at the time.
She's seven now, Uh, and wewere sitting at our dinner table
and she was just doing somecoloring at the table and she
(44:06):
said dad, would you color withme?
I was like, absolutely.
Um, she said color whatever youwant.
So I'm really big into watches.
I've unfortunately been bit bythat bug, and so I went ahead
and drew a watch and it reallyjust kind of kindled this
childlike memory that I had ofyou know how much I loved
drawing back as a kid, and so itwas really a lot of fun.
(44:27):
And so I had had a failedInstagram account.
Just like a lot of watchenthusiasts, you know, you want
to take photos, you want to beinvolved in the industry or just
kind of play in the community,and so I had done a photography
account and I was reallyfrustrated with the output that
I was getting.
I wasn't willing to invest in alot of money and, you know,
getting really nice equipment oranything like that, and so when
(44:49):
I drew this, I was like, oh,this might be fun.
You know, just a littlecreative outlet, Just go ahead
and throw up my drawings upthere.
I don't care if I get any likes, it's just something for me.
But when I started drawing, Iwanted to challenge myself and I
had always been interested indoing watercolor.
I'd never done anything otherthan those cheapy little school
kits.
You know, you got like anelementary school and so I was
(45:09):
like, okay, I guess I'm going togive this a shot.
And so I ordered somewatercolors off of Amazon and
really I mean I'm bad at it, butyou know it's, it's been a lot
of fun, it's a challenge.
I didn't realize that I waspicking one of the harder
mediums when I went ahead anddid this, but yeah, it's been a
lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (45:27):
All right, everybody.
That's the end of the show.
There's going to be a littlebit of a longer outro, so stick
with it.
I want to say a very specialthank you to all of our guests
on season five.
These include Justin fromNational Rarities, trevor from
Late Souls Jewelry, paige theJeweler Andre from Novota,
amanda Gizzi of Jewelers ofAmerica, sarah Schoenlink from
(45:51):
Tiffany Co, penny Palmer fromIJO, nakaya Levesque of Day's
Jewelers, chris Coe and AdamAntelek from Co-Group Jack
Custom Designs, caleb from FallsJewelers, joe Chavone from Z's
Fine Jewelry, joanna Grooverfrom Joe Co Jewelers, jason
(46:12):
Beatty from Gem Gallery, richardMcCarthy and Jesse Corby from
Jewelers Advantage, alexisPattis from AGS, dennis Steele
from Podium, cole Rowland fromWhere's Jewelers, craig McBean
from Ospy, william Jones IV fromSissy's Log Cabin, hunter
(46:33):
Taylor from Tailored Rings,stephen Barnes from IJO, marius
from Pickup Media, lee Elginfrom Elgin Fine Jewelry and
Vincent Spolaccio from ArezzoJewelers, my editor, paul Suarez
, candice Palamalu fromZachary's Fine Jewelry and
Birthright Foundry, brian fromBad Art, nice Watch, and also
(46:57):
all the Punchmark employees whogenerously give me their time
during the day to join me on mysilly little podcast.
I thank you enough.
This episode was brought to youby Punchmark and produced and
hosted by me, michael Burfo.
This episode was edited by PaulSuarez.
Thanks again, paul, for diggingthrough all these clips with me
(47:17):
and music by Ross Cockrum.
Don't forget to rate thepodcast on Spotify and Apple
Podcasts.
It is the best way to help usgrow and leave us feedback on
punchmarkcom slash loop.
That's L-O-U-P-E.
Thanks, and we'll be back nextseason on January 7th with a new
(47:38):
season of In the Loop.
Thanks everybody.
See you then.
Bye you.
Welcome back everybody to In the Loop.
What is up everybody?
My name is Michael Burpo and,for the final time of season
five, thank you so much forlistening to In the Loop.
This is the final episode forour season.
We're going to be taking aquick break between now and the
(00:22):
New Year's.
We're going to be returning onthe first Tuesday of January I
believe it's going to be the 6thor the 7th and I really want to
, at the end of every season,recap some of my favorite
moments.
These aren't necessarily theepisodes that get the most
downloads or track the mostclicks, though some of them are,
but it's some of theconversations that I most
(00:44):
enjoyed getting a chance to be apart of.
Some of them are solo, thoughsome of them are, but it's some
of the conversations that I mostenjoyed getting a chance to be
a part of.
Some of them are solo, some ofthem are with some esteemed
guests, some of them are with myco-workers or bosses, and I
always love getting a chance tolook back on the season and, you
know, see where we've coveredas well, as we're starting to
get prepared for season six,which is crazy to think about.
(01:06):
What we always do is we have acompilation episode and I hope
you stick around and enjoy someof the best bits of season five.
All right, enjoy.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
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
(01:41):
been friends way before becomingclients.
Punchmark's own success comesfrom the fact that we have a
much deeper need and obligationto help our friends succeed.
Whether you're looking forbetter e-commerce performance,
business growth or campaignsthat drive traffic and sales,
punchmark's website andmarketing services were made
just for you.
It's never too late totransform your business and
(02:02):
stitch together your digital andphysical worlds in a way that
achieves tremendous growth andresults.
Schedule a guided demo today atpunchmarkcom slash go.
And now back to the show.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Before we jump into all the clips, I just want to
say a quick thank you.
First of all, I want to saythank you for listening.
This is our 50th episode ofseason five, which is the most
we've ever produced in a singleseason.
I think that consistency comeswith, you know, time in there
and also some good planning,also just having a system that
(02:42):
works well.
And also I want to say thankyou.
We actually were just named In.
The Loop was just named in the45 best jewelry podcasts.
We were ranked number two,which is pretty exciting.
It was by Feedspot they compilepodcast lists and being number
(03:03):
two, I mean I'm quite proud ofourselves.
I think that there's someimpressive podcasts that we're
shoulder to shoulder with that Icertainly listen to and admire,
but I can't thank you all forbeing a part of us.
I mentioned it in episode 200earlier this season.
But genuinely, this is myfavorite part of my job.
I love getting a chance tospeak with some people who I am
(03:25):
so proud of and so admiring of,but also with some of my
coworkers, and also just theopportunity to share my
exploration of the jewelryindustry with you all these
episodes at the end of everyseason offer me the unique
opportunity to go back and sortof get a feel for the season I
(03:46):
think season five.
We really covered a lot ofground and we changed a few
things about ourselves.
We wanted to be a little bitmore topical, so, you'll notice,
when there was breaking news,we tried to be one of the first
people to be on that.
So, whether that wasinterviewing Craig McBean with
OSPI to talk about hisacquisition of Victor
(04:09):
Corporation and also getting thechance to speak with Alexis
Padas when she was named the newpresident of AGS, being on top
of that has allowed us to sortof fit ourselves into the
jewelry industry news cycle,which is something we previously
hadn't been attempting before.
But also I have started doingsome more solo episodes to sort
(04:33):
of share an unfiltered view intohow a soon to be 30 year old
experiences e-commerce in thejewelry industry and what is
standout to me.
I think that in the futurewe're going to take a lot of
these lessons and apply them tofuture episodes.
I want to do more in-personinterviews if possible.
(04:56):
But I also want to say thankyou so much for allowing us to
have some of this advertisementfor Punchmark on here as well.
I know that no one loveslistening to podcast
advertisements.
I'm sure some people areskipping through them, but
allowing Punchmark to use thisas a vessel to get our message
(05:16):
across as well is part of whatallows me to do this as part of
my job, and it allows us to kindof, you know, build a
connection with our clientsbeyond just through an email,
and for that I can't say thankyou enough.
That said, we have our 10favorite clips, or my favorite
clips, from season five, and Ihope you'll stick around for
(05:40):
season six, which will bestarting very early next season
on January 7th.
Until then, thanks everybody,enjoy.
Our first clip is from episodesix of season five, the
Brilliance of a DiamondMarketplace, featuring Novota,
and this was my interview with aco-founder of Novota, and we're
(06:03):
talking about how they changedthe prices on their diamond
marketplace to accuratelyreflect the changes and how
they're constantly adapting forthe price fluctuations of
lab-grown diamonds.
This is our best episode interms of performance.
It kind of weirdly went superviral.
We got about seven or eighttimes more listens on it than
(06:25):
what a normal episode does.
I think it's in part becausepeople are really excited by
what Novota is coming out with.
So please enjoy.
How do you guys kind of seethat?
Is it just about staying nimbleand updating your prices
frequently, or do you have adifferent approach to it that
allows you to kind of safeguardyourself from the changing price
(06:45):
?
Speaker 3 (06:46):
Right, so we update prices every 5 to 15 minutes.
Wow, depending on the level ofintegration that we have with
each of the suppliers.
And you're absolutely right,especially on LabGround, it's
been trending down, although Imust say that the last couple of
months it's been tapering off alittle bit.
(07:07):
So obviously impossible to tellif that's going to stay the
same into this year, but itseems that we are starting to
hit a little bit of a plateau,at least for some of the fast
selling categories.
But yeah, it's critical to makesure that the prices are
(07:28):
accurate, and this applies tonatural as well as a global
marketplace.
We have to make sure thatthings can change on a whim and
they have to be reflectedaccurately on the platform as
quickly as possible.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
I guess I'm always curious about that is we
obviously want to offer anyproduct that someone is looking
for.
I think that that's one of thekey things I've learned about
vendors is that if there's amarket for it, we need to have
it, because otherwise they'lljust go somewhere else.
Yeah, one of my favoriteinterviews from this season was
(08:05):
episode nine, behind the Sparkle, sarah Schoenling's journey in
high jewelry design at TiffanyCo.
And Sarah is a high jewelrydesigner, so she's the one
that's creating these piecesthat can be worth hundreds of
thousands of dollars and they'reone of a kind and they are
truly works of art.
And I got a chance to ask Saraha lot of questions I've always
(08:28):
had about Tiffany Co and aboutthe process of actual high
profile jewelry design and whatthat kind of process is like.
And it was so cool becauseSarah was remarkably transparent
talking about how she goesabout designing these pieces for
, especially for the Tiffian CoBlue Book every year which she
contributes to.
(08:48):
It was one of my favoriteconversations.
I hope to interview her againone day and I hope you'll enjoy.
I think this is one of thoseepisodes I'll go back and I'll
listen to again, I'm assumingbecause of the fact that there
is this really boutique and,like you know, customized
process, the process behind theactual design probably is a
(09:10):
little bit more all encompassing.
Do you start, you know, I guess, with concept images, or what
kind of how do you begin withthe design of your jewelry?
Is it, I guess, sketching?
Is it?
Do you jump right into into CAD, or how does that kind of begin
?
Speaker 4 (09:27):
Yeah, so well.
Firstly, I do start with a lotof research and I research for
inspiration.
I'll make a vision board and amood board and just to kind of
conceptualize and visualize myideas.
And then I go on to sketchingand I will sketch figurative
(09:50):
drawings, very rough, to try toexplore a concept.
And I'll typically start withthe necklace, because everything
for me derives from thenecklace.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Oh cool, I never knew that.
That's a really cool idea.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
Yeah, yeah, that's that's how I personally like to
go about it.
The necklace is the showstopper, so you want to put the most
work and attention to detailinto the necklace and get that
perfect so that you can thendelineate from there, yeah, to
the rest of the pieces, yeah, sothere is a lot of sketching and
(10:30):
there's a lot of refining, andthen you scan these pieces into
the computer and you're onphotoshop, uh, rendering and
drawing on there, and then youknow it's just more revisions,
more reflections and, if needed,we we will take it into CAD and
design it three-dimensionally,print it to understand how it's
(10:51):
working in the round.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Yeah, One of Punchmark's yearly events is we
have the client workshop.
It's usually at the end ofApril or in the beginning of May
and we have two days ofeducational training for our
clients.
It's in Charlotte every yearand we have our clients in and
we usually have events at therooftop bar after the end of day
(11:14):
one.
So this year I decided to giveout a couple of awards to
acknowledge some of our clientsthat were in attendance.
So this is me giving a speechfor some awards at Fahrenheit.
This is from episode 19 ofseason five.
I went to the third PunchmarkClient Workshop and all I got
was this podcast episode.
(11:34):
Be warned, the audio is alittle scuffed because it's from
a video recording and it was alittle windy up there, but I
still think it's fun.
Bear with me.
We have four awards for clients, four for Punchmark people, so
just bear with us.
It was important to us that werecognize some people that
travel here and also some of thepeople that help figure
(11:54):
websites not going down Right,right, right, I think I'm going
to call out we'll do theclient's birth because it's the
client workshop.
Speaker 7 (12:04):
So you guys are in the name.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
So we have two people that have come to every
workshop.
This is the third year, and sowe have these two workshop
warriors, and the first is Calebfrom Fall Jewelers.
Speaker 7 (12:23):
Oh, there you go.
Hi man You've been that longtime from Fall Jewelers oh there
you go.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
And then the other one is going to be Bob from Wear
Jewelers, hey.
Yeah, next up Wear jewelers.
Hey, in attendance we have thelongest standing client.
Punchbox has been around for 15years, so this person has been
(13:00):
with us for 13 years, I believe,and this is Kristen from Selman
Jewelers.
And then we're always lookingfor forward-looking indicators.
So, like what is it most likely?
To have a very successfulwebsite or be doing well or
(13:24):
whatever that means, and thenumber one thing we've seen is
logging in a lot is going tolead your website doing well.
So we have the most active andengaged for the most logins to
their site manager, and this iswith over a thousand logins.
Just last year is Liz withGeorgetown Jewelers At the
(13:54):
client workshop.
Every year I am very fortunateI get the opportunity to do a
live podcast recording in frontof an audience, which sort of
accentuates the episode a littlebit.
It kind of makes us, you know,even more enthusiastic and it's
something I really enjoy and Ialways record it and then we
create an episode out of it.
And this year I decided to do anext generation jewelry retail
(14:18):
roundtable.
I had on Falls Jewelers andKiefer Jewelers and we talked
all about what being a nextgeneration jeweler means to them
, some of the kind of currentprojects that they're working on
and how they are always kind ofimproving as a next generation
jeweler and what they're doingto stay kind of abreast of
current trends.
And I really enjoyed how thisone turned out.
(14:40):
You can have a much better flowor kind of rhythm to the
conversation when you're inperson.
You're able to nod along andsort of, you know, frame the
questions a little bit morenaturally because they can see
your facial expressions or youcan lean in to kind of get them
to finish an answer.
I just really enjoyed how thisone carried out.
(15:01):
This is from season five,episode 20,.
Enjoyed how this one carriedout.
This is from season five,episode 20, live next generation
jewelry retailer roundtablefeaturing Falls Jewelers and
Kiefer Jewelers.
I'm joined by Caleb and Alex andwe're going to be talking about
a couple of I don't want tocall them polarizing topics, but
topics that people seem to havesome strong opinions on when it
(15:23):
comes to the jewelry industry.
So things like e-commerce,things like lab grown versus
natural diamonds Not that it's Idon't want people to have to
take a stance too strong oneither side but it's more that I
want to have an idea fromretailers, because I'm not a
retailer.
I work for Punchmark and we dowebsites, but you guys are
(15:45):
having the on the groundexperience and understanding it
better than I do, so I want tocheck in with you guys as well.
So, alex and Caleb, I kind ofwant to start with jewelry
e-commerce, because we justspent, you know, the last day
and a half talking about how youguys can optimize your website
as best as possible, hopefullyto sell a little bit online.
I guess I want to start.
Alex, do you sell online?
Speaker 9 (16:06):
I do sell online.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
Yeah, and how is that going so far for you?
Speaker 9 (16:09):
It's going well.
I mean, I definitely feel likeit's never going to replace or
even try to compete with ourbrick and mortar business.
But you know there's lots offringe benefits from having your
inventory online.
I mean, almost multiple times aday now probably, people just
come in with their phone.
I want to see this item, youknow, and like the sales already
(16:31):
half made for you.
Um, we get a lot of the wherepeople buy online and then do
the in-store pickup makes ourlives super easy, especially
during the holidays.
But I do ship stuff to all 50States.
I've shipped to Puerto Rico.
It's, yeah, it's pretty amazingactually to where it's gotten
at this point.
It is a lot of work, though Iwill not downplay that.
(16:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
As In the Loop, has started to kind of establish
itself inside of the jewelryindustry.
One of the benefits has beenI've been able to start to
interview people as breakingnews is happening and I do my
best to pay attention toNational Jeweler and a few
different news sources so that Iam able to stay abreast of
(17:15):
what's important in the industry.
And sometimes when news breaksand someone is going to be
stepping into a leadership role,I try my best to reach out to
them as soon as I can to get aopportunity to interview them
for In the Loop and to kind ofshare their message early with
the rest of the industry.
And one of the cool interviewsI did this season was on episode
(17:37):
23,.
And I interviewed Alexis Pattisand it was for her first
exclusive interview as newpresident of AGS, the American
Gem Society, and Alexis sharedwhat her vision for AGS was and
kind of how she hopes to directthe group into, you know, the
next frontiers, whatever theymay be.
(17:58):
She's so well spoken and shewas very giving with her time.
I really appreciated her takingan interview with me.
It was super cool getting achance to speak with her and
definitely one that I'll befollowing her career and
hopefully we have a follow-uplater this upcoming year.
Welcome back everybody.
I'm joined by Alexis Pattis.
How are you doing today, alexis?
Speaker 7 (18:20):
I'm great, Michael.
Thank you so much for having me.
It's an honor to be here.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
Wow, an honor is all mine.
I'm so excited to be speakingwith you First interview as new
president of AGS.
Could you tell me a little bitabout your background and also
about being president of AGS?
Speaker 7 (18:36):
Oh, absolutely, but it's going to take a little bit.
I apologize, I'm here for it.
Pattis Jewelry we're based inSan Francisco.
We very much like a lot of thebusinesses in our industry, are
family owned and operated.
We're actually celebrating our50th year in business this year,
so we're very excited.
It's, you know, one of thosethings when your parents start
(18:58):
the company and you got to seevery early on what those steps
look like during that process,you have so much more respect
for all that went into gettingus to this 50 year mark.
Uh, so it's really a joy.
We are based in the SanFrancisco Bay area.
We have five locations, uh,three of which are in San
Francisco a location in WalnutCreek, which is a suburb of the
(19:21):
Bay area, kind of East of SanFrancisco, and then we have a
location in Napa, uh, which iswhere I call home, and it is a
combination of a jewelry storeand tasting room.
We also have Pattis Vineyard,our second family-owned and
operated business.
We deal in booze and bling.
It's a fantastic combination,and you know true to form, with
(19:43):
a lot of the next generationsthat have joined the business.
I joined it begrudgingly.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Following in the vein of getting a chance to
interview some individuals thatI definitely admire and find
very impressive in the industry.
I was very fortunate to get theopportunity to interview Podium
co-founder Dennis Steele, andit was so inspiring hearing
about how he and his friendstarted in their friend's garage
creating this solution for oneof their friend's father's tire
(20:14):
shop and how this eventually ledto the industry powerhouse that
is Podium.
But also he was incrediblycandid to talk about some of the
shortcomings and hurdles thatthey've come up against in
recent years and also how theyhave gone about rectifying those
situations and they're doublingdown on jewelry and focusing
(20:39):
back on this industry.
That really has been a key partfor their business.
He was very candid andtransparent about the steps that
they've taken and it wasdefinitely something I came away
with a much greater respect forthe company and also for Demis.
I think this is going to be onethat I'll look back on in future
(20:59):
years as Podium continues tomake waves in the industry, and
something I'll return to to seehow, you know, it's changed in
recent years.
So Podium always has had reallygreat products, but for the
past I don't know, maybe two,three years you guys have had
kind of like seemingly superlarge ambitions, changing it to
(21:21):
more, not just jewelry focused,and that's kind of what a lot of
jewelers really appreciated.
What has the last couple ofyears been like from like a
leadership and managementperspective and seeing the full
picture?
Speaker 5 (21:32):
Yeah, it really has for us been focusing on our core
customers.
That made us successful in thefirst place and that has made
such a difference.
And you know, I think anybusiness owner can relate to
this.
You know you have ups and downs, sometimes you lose your way a
little bit on some of your coreprinciples that made you
(21:53):
successful originally.
And we learned some lessons acouple of years ago when we
realized that, you know, withall of the funding and the
pressure to scale the businessrapidly, we started to go
broader and broader, becausePodium and the things that we
serve, the needs that we servefor local business, are
(22:14):
ubiquitous and they're verybroad and you can apply it to
almost any business out there.
And so, you know, like you said, ambitiously we were kind of
trying to attack the opportunityand we had.
We started to have more of abroad focus across all
industries and all localbusinesses.
And there was a key lesson thatwe learned in that and that was
(22:35):
I talked a little bit about therelationship that jewelers get
to have with their clientsbecause of the emotional
purchase and we kind of lostsight of how important it is for
us to have close relationshipswith our clients and our
customers at Podium and reallyunderstand their businesses and
their use cases, because the usecase for a jeweler can be so
(22:56):
different than the use case fora dog groomer or any other local
business that you can think of.
And so what we did about, youknow, 18 months, two years ago
to 18 months ago is we shiftedthe strategy to hone back in on
(23:16):
our core customers, and that'sonly a handful of verticals
where we are dedicating all ofour resources from a product
perspective, a customer servicelevel perspective, because we
had some degradation there.
We weren't serving the use casesas well as we had been from a
product perspective, designingthe product specifically for the
(23:37):
things that jeweler needs to do.
And from a service levelperspective, because they have
different needs from a support,training and onboarding
perspective.
And so I'm really proud of whatthe team has done with shifting
that strategy back into place,putting additional resources
into the jewelry industry,because it is one of those
handful of industries that wehave as our core strategy.
(23:58):
And then, on the product side,we've made huge advancements to
serving that specific use case,and a lot of that has come with
integrations with some of ourtop systems partners like the
edge, um, and now, as we moveinto AI, there's some really
exciting use cases that we canfocus on.
But focusing on the specificuse case of a jeweler, um it,
(24:21):
there is just a ton of valuefrom that, and so that's been,
you know, a huge learning for meas an entrepreneur and as
business owner.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
This season for In the Loop, I started to lean a
little bit more heavily on thesolo episode and I think I've
gotten a little bit better atmaking them.
I've started to slow down howquickly I speak but it allows me
kind of a lot of breathing roomto sort of dive really deep
into an experience that I findincredible.
(24:49):
So I did this with breakingdown the best and also trying
out vertical videos last season,but this season I used the
opportunity to talk aboutomni-channel experiences, and
one in particular that I hadwhen I went to Lowe's around
Memorial Day for buying theserailing planters, and the
(25:10):
experience was so seamless andprofound and so quality that I
felt like I needed to make anepisode to exemplify how well
done it was and this is, I mean,lowe's is not a small company
and the way that they had theirwebsite and their in-store
experiences and multiplein-store experiences working so
(25:31):
seamlessly that it was just, Imean, chef's kiss.
So this is from episode 25 ofseason five Omnichannel Examples
in Everyday Life.
This is probably more of anevergreen episode.
This is probably going to beone that we bookmark and we send
to people when they don'tunderstand Omnichannel
(25:52):
experiences, but I'm quite proudof it and I hope you go back
and check it out.
If we define Omnichannel, Ijust looked up a definition,
just because sometimes when Iexplain it it has to take a lot
of words.
So here's the explanation Ifound.
Online Omnichannel retail is abusiness model that integrates
multiple digital and physicalchannels to create a consistent
(26:14):
customer experience across alltouch points.
The goal is to provide aseamless transition between
online and offline shopping andto make it easy for customers to
move between channels.
So it's important to just kindof dial in on a couple points.
When they say channels, theymean marketing channels or just
like spaces that you cultivate.
(26:37):
So this could be your websiteand then your in-store presence
and maybe it could be yourmarketing and it could also be
your signage and things likethat.
So if you were to have a sale,it's important to have the sale
in all spots.
So maybe you're having adiscount or a sale on, you know,
pearl necklaces.
It's important that you havethe sale online on your signage.
(27:00):
So you're like you know youradvertisements.
Like maybe something you haveflyers or maybe you have an
advertisement in your localpaper.
It's important that you havethe sale there but also in your
store, so everything should betalking to itself Instead of
having it only marketed throughone channelichannel is for
product availability and alsofor just kind of ease of finding
(27:34):
your way around and explainingthings.
So I'm going to explain onesituation I had recently where I
had an incredible Omnichannelexperience and as I was going
through it I was like, wow, thisis so cool.
As I was going through it I waslike, wow, this is so cool.
One of my personal favoriteepisodes for this season was a
one-on-one episode I had with myboss, ross Cockrum, and what
(27:56):
was really cool about thisconversation it was season five,
episode 27, innovation andFamily Balance a conversation
with Punch Mark's Ross Cockrum.
We sat down and we talked aboutsome of the exciting things
that Punchmark's doing, buttowards the back half of the
episode we really talked aboutwhat Ross's kind of mantra for
(28:18):
you know work and why are weworking.
Why do why?
Is Punchmark even exist?
You know, how are we making theworld a better place?
Are we just, you know,shuffling money around from
person to person?
And Rostov is also very candidand talked about his upcoming
(28:39):
well now past paternity leaveand talking about you know why
he is working for his family andhow he balances.
You know his one baby, hisbusiness, you know that he
co-founded and a new baby, andit was really kind of a fun and
introspective episode that Ikind of want to do more of.
(28:59):
In on In the Loop, I felt likewe were talking about something
that isn't talked about enoughin a tangible setting.
A lot of times it's like, ohyeah, man, you gotta work, work,
work and grind and never stop.
But talking about why we'redoing what we're doing was a
really nice kind of conversationthat I would like to do more of
(29:23):
and I think needs to be talkingabout, maybe even at your own
business.
So definitely a good episode.
One thing that you postedrecently in the IGL exclusive
Facebook group it was this polland this kind of I mean harkens
back to what we were justtalking about.
About these topics that are,it's not just about sell, sell,
(29:44):
sell.
Sometimes you got to just ask aquestion or you got to just be
engaged, so you had thisquestion out there and to just
to to do a bad job.
Uh, summarizing it, it wasessentially you asking are you
annual sales milestone drivenLike?
Are you?
Is your goal with your businessto to meet a specific annual
(30:05):
sales milestone or are youputting, like, a lifestyle and
family in the forefront forrunning your business, or is it?
Are you trying to just setyourself up to retire and you
ask these questions?
Another one was like I'm tryingto, like I'm just trying to grow
my business in any way I can,and you kind of like left it at
(30:25):
that and I thought that that wasreally interesting because I
went to go check out the answersand the comment section was
fascinating because suddenlypeople were sharing their
mindset and ideas for balancing,for balancing, you know,
business, like why are we allhere?
It's because we are trying,hopefully trying to make a lot
(30:48):
of money and retire and live ourbest life and all those things
and hopefully make a differencein the world.
But I thought that the answerswere overwhelmingly I put
lifestyle and family abovebusiness growth.
So what, what is your currentmindset when it comes to that?
I mean, you've been CEO ofPunchmark for 15, almost 16
(31:09):
years 16 years actually, I thinkin May.
What's your view on that rightnow?
Speaker 2 (31:16):
Well, you know, here's the thing when you look
at why you start a business, youlook at why you start a family.
Those are two different things.
Right, there's this, you know,inherent drive that we all have,
that we want to be better, wewant to be the best version of
ourselves, we want to, you know,work out.
(31:36):
We want to run, we want to doother things outside of life,
but we also want to be smart, wewant to be competent, right, we
want, we want all these things.
And you know a few things thatI'm really trying to do.
Um, as my continue, as is,remind myself why I go to work
every day, and not only just inthe work field of I go to work
(32:01):
every day to help clientssucceed, but why I go to work
every day for me.
You know, I do it for my family, so that I can spend time with
my family.
But then I could say that, butthen I need to act on that and
not just say it.
So you know, it soundswhimsical, but my new mantra is
to spend it now, and by spend itI mean my time.
(32:22):
So I want to avoid bad wordsLike as soon as I get this done,
life will get so much easier,right, or?
Hey, I'll have plenty of timewhen I retire, right, like, like
, seriously like that's theAmerican dream, right?
Speaker 1 (32:39):
Yeah, that's that's what I always think about.
It's like why am I, why am Iworking so hard?
Oh, it's so that I can retirewhen I'm I'm, you know, 60.
And it's like, really, I'mgoing to work so hard for the
next 30 years just so I canretire, it's like, but what
about now?
What about what about when I'myoung?
(32:59):
Now that In the Loop has beenaround for well over 200
episodes, at this point I'veactually been able to develop a
couple of relationships and kindof points of contact in the
industry which have been verycool to experience.
And one of those people that Ireally look up to is Craig
McBean.
He's the president, fourthgeneration owner of OSPI, who is
a jewelry vendor and a realpowerhouse in the industry, and
(33:22):
I have a recurring interviewwith Craig and I had booked up
this interview and to go andhave him on in the loop just to
talk about what's been going onfor OSPI, and news came out like
one day later, after bookingthe interview, that Osby had
just acquired Victor Corporationand that is huge news.
(33:44):
In case you didn't know, VictorCorporation has been around in
the jewelry industry since like1945 or 46.
And Osby has also been aroundfor I mean well over 100 years.
At this point, and hearing thatthere was going to be a merger
between the two and that Craigwas going to be at the helm of
it all was really a big deal andalso so cool to kind of get a
(34:07):
chance to speak with Craig asthese events were unfolding.
It was something that I wasreally grateful to Craig for
allowing me into and alsosomething that kind of is a
milestone marker or sort of likea timestamp on the year,
because pretty much everybodyheard about the news.
So this is, from episode 28 ofseason five, an inside look at
(34:33):
OSPI's acquisition of VictorCorporation.
With Craig McBean I scheduledthis appointment to interview
you and then, like two dayslater, the big news came out.
I want to talk about this atfirst and right in the beginning
OSPI just acquired VictorCorporation, which is a huge
name in the jewelry industry.
(34:53):
Can you tell me a little bitabout what that means for OSPI
and what that means for you asan owner?
Speaker 8 (35:01):
Yeah, no, first of all, we're super excited about
it.
John and I go back a lot ofyears and I think that's one of
the cool things about thisindustry is just the
interactions that we all have.
Even on the vendor side, themanufacturing side.
We might compete against eachother, but there's still a
friendship and a respect thatgoes on there.
(35:22):
And I got to know John Euclid afew years ago.
We served on some boardstogether and just always admired
him, how he ran his company,the success that they had, and
you know, over the years we justkept talking.
And, um, you know, over theyears we just kept talking.
And then recently he, I think,had come to the decision that,
(35:43):
um, he'd reached that pointwhere, uh, you know, there's no
pockets in a coffin and maybeit's time to retire and go on to
that next chapter in his life,and he didn't have any family
members that were interested ingoing into it.
So we started talking and itreally turned out to be a great.
The more we talked, the more Irealized it was a great fit for
(36:03):
us for just so many reasons.
Their product line meshes withours really well.
They're strong in some areas ofthe country that were not as
strong.
When I ran our customer listsagainst each other, there really
was very little overlap,surprisingly little overlap.
So from that standpoint, itreally helps us open some
(36:23):
avenues into some new stores.
In addition, they do somethings really well from the
marketing side, product side,just like we do.
But the ability to combinethose product offerings, service
offerings and everything thatthey bring to the table with
what we bring to the table, Ireally think that it gives us a
really comprehensive program tosupport the independent jeweler.
(36:48):
And I think, most of all and youknow you've heard me talk about
it Core values are just superimportant to me and I really
have a good feeling about whatOSPI's DNA is, kind of who we
are, and it's funny becausethose stores that kind of have
that same DNA as us are our bestpartners and just getting to
(37:09):
know John and his team and allthey do, they really shared the
same core values that we did.
So from that standpoint, um,just everything about this
really made sense and um, it'sjust been, it's really been an
honor just to work with john andhis team over the last few
months to pull this thing offand um, what's fun about it is
(37:34):
you know, sometimes these thingscan be contentious or things
like that.
It just never was.
It really was two people withthe same goal in mind, and
that's for the legacy of Victorto continue and to be a part of
OSPI and to make us stronger, tobe able to support their
customers with the same qualityservice that they've always
received and their people thatwe're able to bring on board
(37:56):
with us received, and their andtheir people that we're able to
bring on board with us.
And, um, it's just and I feellike John's gone from a kind of
a colleague to a best friendover these last months and, um,
he's still going to help us herein the next few months as we
kind of finalize thisintegration.
So it's been great, it's superexciting for us and I'm really
happy for everyone involved.
Speaker 1 (38:18):
This year In the Loop hit a really exciting milestone
, which was 200 episodespublished, and for our 200th
episode I decided to do a littlekind of special episode and I
got a chance to recap first ofall how we started making In the
Loop under a different name,the Jewelers Survival Kit, and
(38:39):
also what it is now and whywe're still making it.
I also got a chance tointerview some people that are
very special to me and I reallyam proud of how this episode
came out A little peek behindthe curtain, I'll tell you,
these landmark episodes don'tactually perform as well in
terms of downloads, which Ithink is kind of funny.
(38:59):
But this episode was veryspecial to me because I really
am proud of what In the Loop hasbecome and what we've been able
to accomplish and you know,help some jewelers and I think
that getting a chance to recapit it made me like almost a
little bit emotional afterwards.
Getting a chance to recap it,it made me like almost a little
(39:21):
bit emotional.
Afterwards I finished it and Ipublished it and for once I
really did feel quite proud ofsomething I had made and you
know we don't have any plans tostop and I hope you enjoy.
So this clip is from episode 38of season five in the loop,
episode 200, transforming theJewelry Industry Through
Podcasting.
Hope you enjoy.
(39:41):
All right, everybody, welcome toepisode 200 of In the Loop.
This episode is going to be alittle bit longer, I expect, and
also more of like a mashup andcompilation and port of force,
even with a couple of differentinterviews.
I think I know that Ross isgoing to be on.
I think I might try tointerview my editor, paul, who
I've never spoken with before.
(40:01):
I've communicated with himevery single week, sometimes
multiple times a week for fiveyears at this point and I've
never once spoken to him and Idon't even know what he looks
like.
So I think I'm going to be ableto interview him, which would
be really cool.
And also I wanted to get achance to recap why we started
In the Loop, what the early dayswere like and also where it
(40:23):
stands now, because over thecourse of the last five seasons
and it's more like five and ahalf seasons we have changed and
redeveloped what In the Loop islike and I think I'd like to
kind of explain because maybeyou know you weren't listening
back then, a lot of you weren'twhen we started, this was a very
(40:43):
small podcast and we startedunder a different name.
If you scroll all the way backin our catalog on Spotify or
Apple Podcasts you scroll allthe way back you'll notice that
we have a different name.
We were, for the first sevenepisodes, the Jewelers Survival
Kit.
We had different branding,different audio and it had a
(41:05):
much more serious tone than whatI like to portray.
It was also produced as a groupeffort with a bunch of us.
For example, ross was doing alot of the editing and one of
our developers was doing a lotof the voiceover and was like
taking a different approach toit and I wasn't as involved.
(41:26):
It was actually while I was outon vacation before COVID
started.
I was actually in Breckenridge,colorado, at the time for a
wedding when the world shut downand I made it out on one of the
last flights out of Coloradoback to Charlotte, north
Carolina, and went immediatelyinto lockdown.
And the reason why we startedit is because a lot of our
(41:49):
jewelers were freaking out alittle bit.
A lot of the times when I pick aguest for who I'm going to be
interviewing, a lot of the timeswhen I pick a guest for who I'm
going to be interviewing, I amchoosing one that I think will
have like broad appeal or thatretailers will find really
interesting.
But sometimes I pick one that Iam really excited to speak with
(42:10):
and I can almost leverage myplatform of having a podcast to
get a chance to interviewsomeone that I would love to get
a chance to speak with, andthat was definitely the case for
episode 40 of season five, thestory behind Bad Art Nice Watch,
featuring Brian Braddy and ifyou haven't seen Bad Art Nice
Watch on Instagram, it's thisaccount that where Brian
(42:36):
illustrates these watches thatpeople send into him and he
tells the story that goes withthem, and sometimes they are
about milestone achievements oh,I got this watch upon my
graduation.
Or oh, I got my watch becauseit was my father's heirloom, but
sometimes they're more I don'tknow like special behind them.
Oh, this watch has been waslost at the bottom of the lake
(42:59):
for three years and then it gotfound again, and the stories
behind them are just delightful.
And I you know he used the namebad art nice watch, but
truthfully, the illustrationsare awesome too, and I've
mentioned a million times on Inthe Loop.
I'm a semi-professionalwatercolor painter in my free
(43:19):
time and finding someone whobridges the world of luxury
jewelry and watercolor was.
I don't know if there's anybodyelse out there that is bridging
that gap besides me and him.
So it was so cool getting achance to speak with him, and it
was definitely one that I'llprobably go back and listen to
in a year or so.
Hope you enjoy.
(43:40):
How did you kind of end up inthis position?
It's very, very unique one.
Speaker 6 (43:46):
Yeah, it is a unique one, and I kind of stumbled into
this by accident, completelyhonestly.
So I like to tell the story.
My daughter, my eldest daughter, is really the origin of this
whole thing.
Um, she was four at the time.
She's seven now, Uh, and wewere sitting at our dinner table
and she was just doing somecoloring at the table and she
(44:06):
said dad, would you color withme?
I was like, absolutely.
Um, she said color whatever youwant.
So I'm really big into watches.
I've unfortunately been bit bythat bug, and so I went ahead
and drew a watch and it reallyjust kind of kindled this
childlike memory that I had ofyou know how much I loved
drawing back as a kid, and so itwas really a lot of fun.
(44:27):
And so I had had a failedInstagram account.
Just like a lot of watchenthusiasts, you know, you want
to take photos, you want to beinvolved in the industry or just
kind of play in the community,and so I had done a photography
account and I was reallyfrustrated with the output that
I was getting.
I wasn't willing to invest in alot of money and, you know,
getting really nice equipment oranything like that, and so when
(44:49):
I drew this, I was like, oh,this might be fun.
You know, just a littlecreative outlet, Just go ahead
and throw up my drawings upthere.
I don't care if I get any likes, it's just something for me.
But when I started drawing, Iwanted to challenge myself and I
had always been interested indoing watercolor.
I'd never done anything otherthan those cheapy little school
kits.
You know, you got like anelementary school and so I was
(45:09):
like, okay, I guess I'm going togive this a shot.
And so I ordered somewatercolors off of Amazon and
really I mean I'm bad at it, butyou know it's, it's been a lot
of fun, it's a challenge.
I didn't realize that I waspicking one of the harder
mediums when I went ahead anddid this, but yeah, it's been a
lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (45:27):
All right, everybody.
That's the end of the show.
There's going to be a littlebit of a longer outro, so stick
with it.
I want to say a very specialthank you to all of our guests
on season five.
These include Justin fromNational Rarities, trevor from
Late Souls Jewelry, paige theJeweler Andre from Novota,
amanda Gizzi of Jewelers ofAmerica, sarah Schoenlink from
(45:51):
Tiffany Co, penny Palmer fromIJO, nakaya Levesque of Day's
Jewelers, chris Coe and AdamAntelek from Co-Group Jack
Custom Designs, caleb from FallsJewelers, joe Chavone from Z's
Fine Jewelry, joanna Grooverfrom Joe Co Jewelers, jason
(46:12):
Beatty from Gem Gallery, richardMcCarthy and Jesse Corby from
Jewelers Advantage, alexisPattis from AGS, dennis Steele
from Podium, cole Rowland fromWhere's Jewelers, craig McBean
from Ospy, william Jones IV fromSissy's Log Cabin, hunter
(46:33):
Taylor from Tailored Rings,stephen Barnes from IJO, marius
from Pickup Media, lee Elginfrom Elgin Fine Jewelry and
Vincent Spolaccio from ArezzoJewelers, my editor, paul Suarez
, candice Palamalu fromZachary's Fine Jewelry and
Birthright Foundry, brian fromBad Art, nice Watch, and also
(46:57):
all the Punchmark employees whogenerously give me their time
during the day to join me on mysilly little podcast.
I thank you enough.
This episode was brought to youby Punchmark and produced and
hosted by me, michael Burfo.
This episode was edited by PaulSuarez.
Thanks again, paul, for diggingthrough all these clips with me
(47:17):
and music by Ross Cockrum.
Don't forget to rate thepodcast on Spotify and Apple
Podcasts.
It is the best way to help usgrow and leave us feedback on
punchmarkcom slash loop.
That's L-O-U-P-E.
Thanks, and we'll be back nextseason on January 7th with a new
(47:38):
season of In the Loop.
Thanks everybody.
See you then.
Bye you.
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