Explicit

Shelley Sanders

Published Nov 24, 2020, 12:00 PM

Today on Work In Progress, Sophia is joined by Shelley Sanders (@thelastlinela). Shelley is a jewelry designer based in Los Angeles and the founder and creative director of The Last Line - one of my favorite brands! Shelley’s career began in New York where she studied Fine Arts at Parsons School of Design before returning home to California to train with Master Jewelers in San Francisco. Shelley eventually returned to Los Angeles to begin her career as a jewelry designer, a role that quickly evolved into her becoming the head designer and creative director for dozens of celebrity jewelry brands and high-end jewelry houses, working with everything from gold to diamonds to precious stones. After being in the “biz” for almost two decades, Shelley created The Last Line - a direct-to-consumer fine jewelry business that pairs accessible pricing with stunning designs offering customers a mix of high and low, vintage and modern, done-up but dressed-down one-of-a-kind pieces. On today’s episode of Work In Progress, Sophia and Shelley discuss Shelley’s childhood growing up in LA, her journey through the design world, the jewelry industry, the ins and outs of starting and running a business, the role of social media in entrepreneurship today, Shelley’s company The Last Line...and so, SO much more.

Hi everyone, Sophia Bush here, Welcome to work. I can't wait for you all to hear my careers. I talk to people who can inspire me about a woman that how they got, they are and still going. I'm just general bad acts missed. Shelly Sandbergs. Shelly is a jewey designer based Message and the founder and creative director of the Last Line, one of my favorite brands. Shelley's career began in New York, where she studied fine arts at Parsons School of Design before returning home to California to train with master Jewelers in San Francisco. Shelly eventually returned to Los Angeles to begin her career as a jewelry designer, a role that quickly evolved into her becoming the head designer and creative director for dozens of celebrity jewelry brands and high end jewelry houses, working with everything from gold diamonds to precious stones. After being in the business for almost two decades, Shelley decided to create The Last Line, a direct to consumer fine jewelry business that pairs accessible pricing with stunning designs, offering customers to mix high and low vintage and modern, done up but dressed down, one of a kind pieces. The idea is that it will be the last line you ever need to shop from. In my conversation with Shelley, we discussed her childhood growing up here in l A, her journey through the design world, the jewelry industry and how it works, how people learn to build jewelry by hand, ins and outs of starting and running a business, the role that social media plays in entrepreneurship today, her company, and oh so much more. Enjoy Hi, I'm so glad you're here. Um So, let's dive in because I really want to be able to share inspiring stories, especially about female founders and business with people. And when I first came into studio, it was so fun for me to hear your story. And obviously I think I interrupted you. I think it was like, wait a minute, I want you to come and tell this on my podcast. And so here we are. Um. So you created one of my favorite brands, the Last Line, which is this mix of sort of high and low and classic and playful for I think a modern woman who's less about that archaic idea that you know your lover is meant to adorn you and like we're the women who are like we will adorn ourselves, and so I want to I want to hear your story before we get into where it comes from and where you are now. I always like to ask people who were you as a kid, because now anyone who looks at your Instagram or who meets you meets a businesswoman who runs a company where you always you know, tinkering and styling and and creative, even as a kid. Yeah, ever since, I feel like the little girl version of me is just like a smaller sized version of who I am now. Um. I always dressed up in costumes, piled on anything sparkly that I could find made. You know, if I saw a girl at a store with a cool necklace, you know I didn't have something like that. I'd try to figure out a way to do my own interpretation of, you know, whatever style that I was into. So I've always loved jewelry, even ever since I was little. That's so cool. And where did you grow up? I grew up in Los Angeles, so born and raised. I went to school in New York. Then I sort of did a little US tour Colorado and San Francisco and then found my way back to Los Angeles. I'm an l A baby too. We're rare and I loved it. Yeah. It's funny, I think because so many people come here for business or industry, and so they assumed that the city is this breakneck, you know, working, intense environment. And I grew up in a neighborhood and went on walks and knew my neighbors and spent time at the beach and in the national forests, and l A was really quaint and and accessible and diverse and an interesting too, which I think is such a gift as a kid. Yeah, I love I love l A. You know, when I was younger, I always wanted to get out, and then I sort of explored the country and also the world and came back here almost reluctantly. But you know, it's an amazing city. It's a lot to offer. It's so cool. And what was your family like, you know, when you were the kid making her own jewelry and dressing up in costumes. What what's home life? Well, um, I come from a my I'm the only creative in my family of five and the oldest of three siblings. I have two younger brothers. Dad's a lawyer. My mom was a math teacher, so they were kind of like, who is this child, Um, so I was definitely you know, I think they always were really interested and excited by, you know, the things that I was interested in, but they were also there was also definitely a um confusion of like, you know what, this is your focus, Like this is going to be your your job. So but they're always really supportive and um it was. It was at times tough being the creative in a very you know type a household. But I also think that it it taught me a lot because I think that as I'm older, I see some of that structure and you know that a logical background really servicing you know, especially the business. Yeah, I imagine, because you understand the practical application to creative success. Yeah. So ultimately, at the time, I was like, this is the worst. I need to be only creative and I you know, I'm being restricted. But in the long run is the best. Isn't that hard too? And you have to call your parents and be like you're right, I don't need that still, but I like, hint at it, I hint. I definitely. Yeah. Yeah, there have been some some things that over the years, I've looked at my mom or my dad and had to say, you you knew, I get it now. This thing that was very that felt oppressive and annoying to me, was actually really good at you as as you grow up. You studied at the Parson School of Design, which I don't know what it is about saying that it's it's one of those places that feels so storied, you know, and I'm so curious about what's the experience, Like, what's it like to be a student there? What what do you study? Well? For me, I studied fine art at Parsons and I ended up leaving the program halfway through. I was a fine art major who wanted to make jewelry, so they didn't have a jewelry program at the time. Um so for me, for me, the experience was amazing because I love, you know, drawing and being able to learn how to craft that tool. And I think ultimately it was really helpful because from a sketching and design perspective, being able to learn, you know, correctly how to draw and to really look at things, because you know, the first two years of the program aren't very creative, they're very technical. So I think I sort of took the technical aspects of drawing and painting and then we're able to apply them to find joys. So then I left Parsons after two years and I went to San Francisco, where I learned and studied how to make and design find jewlry at the bench, and so I sort of fused the sketching and the drawing with the technical engineering and the manufacturing and jewelry. It's so cool, and people forget that jewelry because it's beautiful, and I think people look at jewelry and many other creative products like that more as art, but they forget that it really does require serious engineering skills. It's serious. It's very mathematical in fact. And that's the funniest part because as a daughter of a math teacher and I it was my most hated subject. And to say, my mom's always like, you know, the funniest thing is is the one of my children that uses geometry all day long, is you. All I do is math, and all the design for juries constantly math, and it's precise and it has to be exact, and um, it's very specific, and so it is an extremely weird just talking about this yesterday there's no room for air in jury. The materials are not forgiving. So it's the engineering aspect of it is a huge part. I mean you consider how delicate it all is, and it's delicate, it's expensive, it can be you know, you can ruin the materials if you're not working slowly and focused. It's challenging at times, it's very frustrating. What was it like when you left New York and you mentioned that you went to San Francisco. You you trained with this master jeweler. What happened? How do you show up? It's in my brain it's like the what's the what's the Disney movie Fantasia? When he shows up to be the apprentice, you know, and you have to just figure out how to how to learn this major trade. Yeah, I mean I was very bad at first. What do you mean? I was very bad at at making fine drewey physically by hand. Um. So it was real love hate relationship for me. And there was definitely moments where I was like, am I Am I in the right place here? You know? Do I need to learn the technical design in order to do Signed Joey? Because I think a lot of designers do and a lot of designers, don't you know. And I always was really focused on believing that I needed to learn every single aspect about something in order to do it fully and to do it to its complete potential. And so when you say that, just what you mean by jewelers who learned technical design and then the people who don't. I'm processing in real time here. Sorry, I keep pausing because I'm thinking about how to ask this question. But what you mean is there are some jewelers who design and then take things to the technical master and say, how can you make my design a reality? Yes, and you wanted to do both? Yeah, I believed, And it could be right or it could be wrong. Um. But I believe that in order to be able to design something extremely well, you have to be able to understand how to make it um. And I've actually experienced that firsthand. When I first started designing jewelry, I wasn't using my skills to create technical renderings. I was just drawing something that I thought would be pretty. And the problem is is that you run into these challenges of well, that can't be made like that, or it's not gonna function correctly, or won't last forever or the materials don't won't work like that, or it ends up not looking the way you had imationed it. And so for me, in order to be able to create something, I had to understand like how to make it from scratch by myself at a jewelry bench. And so I think that, you know, it's really helpful for me because now when I sketch, I draw the piece, I do a technical rendering, and the piece comes back, you know, exactly as I want it. And I think, for you know, that's like the goal. Yeah, I just love how mathematical it is. I love that. Actually you've picked a career in stem yes, you know, yes, and and people might not think of it that I was early to that trend. I love it. I love it. So where do you go from San Francisco? What happens next? So I went to San Francisco, and then I was always planning and so at this so I finished the jewelry program there and I'm twenty one years old. Um, I planned on immediately starting my own collection, which would have been a massive disaster because I was young and I didn't understand now that I know what I know, I didn't understand anything about business I understood nothing about the jewelry business, didn't know anything about money, hardly knew how to get myself onto schedule. So luckily I was offered by a family friend a job working for his parents jewelry licensing company. And of course in twenty one, I don't have any money, and I was like perfect, and it was in Los Angeles, So that was what brought me back to Los Angeles right after San Francisco, and I started working for a licensing company where I designed everything from fine jewelry, costume jewelry you know QVC every like, every single the most extremes of design, from the least expensive and most mass produced to the one off pieces at the highest price points. And I got to realize very quickly. Um, this was sort of like a next level of school. And now you know, I learned how to draw the jew designs correctly. I learned how to make jewelry by by hands, and now it's going to learn how to be in the business of manufacturing jewelry. And I learned how to be UM. I was in charge of the product development, so I worked with the factories and I had an in depth experience of every single piece of fine jewelry and costume jury. That's so cool. Can you tell us anything about what you were designing, who you were designing for. Is there is there something that stands out as one of your favorite things you ever got to make while you were in that licensing space. So I worked in two different I worked for two different licensing companies, and I, you know, then worked for a fine jewelry company, and then I worked out on my own, and I think I worked on everything from Playboy licensing jelry to Disney to House of Harlowe, and then I started working with Heidi Klum and a lot of different celebrities. And I love design and I love living through a process of creating a collection. And so for me, it wasn't one collection that was the most exciting. It was getting to know these different women and men and what they had a vision for and being able to translate what they were saying into actual designs that would resonate with me, because I always had to like them and think they were cool, but also that that person would like and think was cool, and so I just love and then also a piece that would be successful for sales and the brand. So I loved assuming these different roles. It's actually one of the things that I missed the most, and I kept it in the last line because the last line had to be a lot of different styles. It couldn't be just one style because that would be that would never be fulfilling for me. And that I love about jewelry and design that you can make so many different kinds of things and the possibilities are endless. So I loved working with all of them, even the brands that were the furthest away from my personal style. Who are some of my favorite ones? And I think that really good designers can do that, you know, I think about someone like a Christian Lubutans this the celebrity designer of the shoe world totally, and you know he makes giant platform stiletto Swarovski crystal encrusted like zany heels, and then also will do like a low kitten heel in you know, a flesh toned leather and one looks like it should be on Jackie Oh, and one looks like it was designed and probably was for like one of j Loo's Vegas shows. But he dresses or envisions these things to dress every kind of woman. Are you a rock star, Are you a politician? Are you whatever? And I think that's actually such a skill set to be able to sit at the helm of something and say whether or not this is for me. I know what kind of woman this is for. I know whose taste this matches up to. Yes, and for me, like I even like to pretend, you know, all develop fake people who are sort of the style ambassadors of the eight or so different styles that I design into, and I'll imagine them and what else they're wearing and where they're wearing it, and how they're going to wear it, and what they're doing physically that's gonna maybe affect the size of the piece that they're wearing or the color of the jewelry that they're wearing, depending on you know, their personalities or personality types would be similar. So that is so fascinating to me. It's almost yes, it's not like I feel like for me at least, design is a lot of imagination and becoming other people and becoming other things and trying to you kind of step out of yourself and then you step back into yourself and you try to make it all work. I like to try to make it all work for everyone. Which I feel like is a challenge but also very fulfilling. I can't I'm so obsessed with that idea of these these sort of eight women are there are there descriptors of any of them that you can give to us? Not really, I mean there's sort of you know, there's of course a woman who is and there's so many different factors. But there's a woman who's more modern, and there's a woman who likes a little bit more sparkle. There's somebody who's loves to accessorize. There's somebody who's more bohemian and more sentimental, and then there are people who have a little more edge, and I think within all of those styles, but then there's somebody who's a mom. And any of those women could be a mom, so then they need to have drewey that they don't have to be so careful with. And then there's within that there's women who are sixteen, and there's women who are thirty, and there's women who are fifty and women who are seventy, and all of these different life stages and experiences and styles play into creating all of these types within these styles. So you know, within like a modern collection that I'll do that lives within the classics. I'll make sure that there's pieces for the girl who's buying her first pair of earrings, and then I'll make sure that there's pieces within that style for the woman who doesn't ever want to take off her jewelry and wants to live in it, but also wants to pass it down, you know, to her child, and then for the person who's receiving it as a gift for a seventieth wedding anniverse arry or whatever. You know. I it's going to be a substantial piece to add to a very well versed collection. And it's funny. The reason why I say I can't speak to it, and I guess I can. I just don't usually because it's just this web that I that I see and I should. Now I want to write it all down while we're talking about this. Um, well, this will be recorded, so I'll just have perfect um. I see them and I know them so well, and they're so fluid as different types of people. But I I do love to design into what I think are these really different and amazing style apes and then see like who they are. Because it's funny, everyone ends up being everything the most fashion forward woman and then the most conservative always end up liking one of the same pieces too. So it's cool to try to find like what peace are you gonna love? Are you're gonna love, You're gonna love? What are we all gonna love? Even though we have very different spending powers, life stages, you know styles, you know function, but what can what can we create that speaks to everyone? And that's something really interesting when you talk about the differentiation of spending power, because finance is a big part of this, not only in what is accessible to us, but also in how you start a business totally, and we know that women founders get so much less funding than men. And so I am curious as as we're in the sort of creative and experiential face about what you do when you came back here when you were working for that licensing company, how do you make the decision to go out on your own and how do you start a business? Like, how do you yeah do it? How do you leap? So I didn't leap for a very long time, and for a long period of time I convinced myself that I was the creative and that I wasn't able to handle business. Decisions or structuring a company, and I wasn't able to responsibly handle a business because I'm a designer. I'm not trained in business, and I don't know necessarily why I thought that, but I always thought I needed somebody else to do that part for me, and I could just do the design. But as I got older, and as I worked for longer, and I became more educated in the space, and I saw things succeed and I saw things fail, and I saw different types of people run different types of businesses, and I gained more confidence to speak my own voice, win or lose, and so decided ultimately to take a risk. And throughout all of this I met my husband and we got married, and my husband is the co founder of a company, and he was extremely supportive. He understood finances and taught me about how I can how we can finance the business, and you know, he really helped me to launch the company by seeing, you know, I was working. I had a consulting business at the end where I was just selling I was selling hundreds of designs a year, and he was just like, just just do it like you have it. There's you you know what to do, because I would be like, you know, I don't understand why somebody doesn't start a fine jewelry business that's direct to consumer that has you know, accessible because jewel is expensive, so it's not really affordable, but as accessible as possible pricing with great design. You'll be like, why don't you do it? And then together we started the business and do you have to if you don't mind me asking? You know, you talk about direct to consumer, which for you know, anyone listening when you hear business people talk about D two C, that's what that means. So dtwo C means direct to consumer, which means you're taking out huge cost inflations of the sort of middleman of the location or the partnering with a store or whatever. And I'm curious. You look at a DTC model you say, Okay, I want to do this. I want to start a fine line that is much more accessible that doesn't have a three mark up like so many of the brands that we all know by name who I won't mention, And you want to make real quality pieces more accessible to the every day girl woman you know, seventy conservative, fashion forward, all the all the women we just talked about. Do you do you do a raise, do you take out a small business loan? Do you what? What are some of the sort of tips that you might have for women who might be listening thinking about starting their own business. Well, I think for us, we chose to bootstrap the company on our own, and we chose to not take investment initially, how that you could remain the own exact company got it at least in its early stages, so that I felt for me that it made the most sense to be able to remain income, fleet control of the vision of the company. That's not to say that this is the right way to do it, because I think that businesses are built differently and successfully all the time. For me as a creative and from my husband as a creative, I feel like it was the best path for us because initially, we in many areas, wanted to be able to do it exactly the way we saw because we believed in the end result. And I think that that's a great way to do It's also a very stressful way to do it. We were just on a call this morning talking about this how as an entrepreneur and as you know, somebody who's bootstrapping their own business over the course of an hour or one day, you know, should we take funding, should we should we sell the company? Like you know, there's so much emotional and obviously it always comes back to know, this is exactly how we wanted it to be, but it's it's for us. It's all on the line. But it's always all on the line. If it wasn't all on the line, I wouldn't be into it, Like, I would never work. People are like, well, how is it working with your husband? I would never work this. I couldn't work this hard for somebody who wasn't Like, it's all encompassing, and I think like the sharing of the goal and for and for us to work this hard and put this much into something hopefully to be able to enjoy the success of it together. And you know, this is not to say that that this is the only way to do it. And I think that for for somebody who's starting, who wants to start a design a geor design company or any design company, my advice would be two, plan out how you want to do it, and then figure out how you can get it done. And however that is, whether that's taking out a line of credit, whether that's getting an investor, whether it's bootstrap it on your own and putting your own money. Anyway, My biggest piece of advice is as long as you have a strong voice for what you want to do, and it's solving a problem or answering a question that that that hasn't, in your opinion, been done to the degree that should be. I think that it could be successful anyway you started. When we talk about the business. We've chucked on this a little bit. But one of the things I love you have such frank conversations with people about the cost of jewelry because it is something I think most of us don't understand. Why does it cost what it does and and how does all of this work? And can you educate us about that a little bit? Yeah? So you know, well, first and foremost in fine drewy um, gold is a commodity and it's expensive. There's no way around that. Um. Same with diamonds, you know, So so the materials were working with their expensive I think where the problem happens with people understanding, you know, why does it go from you know, this initial cost to this huge cost is I believe that the retail model in fine drewelry is prohibitive to customers in other industries, when they're selling something that has a very expensive cost. Sometimes oftentimes they adjust their margin, so you're you're taking a high margin may beyond something that costs five dollars to make. You're raising it up, but the number is digestible. When you're taking somebody that's something that costs five thousand dollars to apply the same markup, it exponentially raises the cost. And I think that's where things begin to fee. You'll very inflated UM. And there's always been find drewy stores that have better pricing UM and so I think that that's even further this disconnect between you know, this is at at this place, you can buy this for this and then at this place you can buy this, you know, for three times more. And in the past they haven't been It adds confusion, but it hasn't been sort of equal. The quality of the less expensive piece has always been a little bit less. So I think consumers were kind of confused, you know, well, do I go down there and do I spend less? Is that what it really cost? But it kind of looks a little worse, or you know, am I going to shell it out and and pay what I know is really a lot. But I think the design is there, and so I think that um too. You know, drew is really expensive. Gold is expensive. It's really expensive right now find Drewy. It's not affordable. You don't need it. It's a luxury. It's not it's never going to be you know something You're like, oh, no problem, you know, it's always an added plus. But with that all said, for us creating the the brand that was essentially a wholesale brand to everyone, I think that people um are becoming and definitely are becoming more confident in buying over you know, the Internet, and they don't they you know, they understand what a retail store, you know, what happens to like a markup, and what happens to a piece of jewelry. They're becoming more educated. Well, and I think something so cool, because I've learned so much from you, is is that essentially what you've created with the DTC of the last line is that it is pricing that would be considered whole sale. Like you, the jeweler would sell to the big department store for the cost that pieces are on your website, and then the department store would market up to make their margin. But now we the customer, can just buy directly from you and it it takes so much of that inflation out for us. And you're right, it's not to say it's not expensive. But when I think about how to be the whole woman that is my goal to be, I think about all the aspects of my life and how I want to feel and how I want to dress and what makes me feel good, and also what isn't causing collateral damage for my own sort of personal identity out there in the ripple effect of it in the world. And when I think about consuming less and investing smarter, even things like earrings, I think about them as an investment. Now I'm not going to buy the random thing that is like the fast fast in version anymore. I buy less and I invest better. So like it's funny, I'm grabbing my ears as though you guys can't see me. This is still but like all my earrings that I'm wearing today actually are yours. And I have collected these and some of them are sets, and some of them are individuals, and some of them have little charms that I can, you know, put on them and then take all of them, which I love because they're interchangeable. I have this sort of story and then I can play within it. But what I've realized is that even as a person, I thought they said this not queer. I recently and I like died laughing. Um. J Vin was like, oh, he's a quarter hoarder. Like he's a quarter of a hoarder, and I was like, oh, I'm a little bit of a quarter hoarder too, with stuff, especially, I think with fashion, because everything comes back around, so I get parent I did to get rid of anything. I'm much better the last two years. I've started doing regular cleanouts of things, and it's great. But um, I've realized that there's all these things that I sort of have and have held on too that I'm just not gonna wear because like now I have my vibe and it feels nice to have less, to have less, but better for it to be precious and one of the things. And to not feel I mean truly I would say this obviously without you around, but to not feel like I got screwed, to not feel like I went into a store and and somebody sold me something for three times what it should have cost. I know that I have this beautiful handmade jewelry. It's amazing. I like it's a little bit of an l a love story, and you know, it feels fair. It feels fair for the the the luxury of it, and and for the like, Yeah, I bought that for myself at me, I adorned myself. It's Johnny nineteen women. A lot of our customers feel that same way and feel, you know, happy and proud of the piece is that they collect for themselves. Obviously there's a gift element of fine jury UM, but the majority of our clients are buying for herself and she's you know, getting an earring or a ring or a bracelet and building a collection around it that she and she has plans because they tell us about these, which I really love, UM, plans to give it to her daughter. She's going to buy this because later she's going to pass it down. And I think that's a big thing for me that I wanted to create with The last line was pieces that can become your treasures, that have little charms that you can wear different ways, that you can begin to create memories with and around and then share them, you know, later on, and have something that lasts and I have come in and done quite a bit of gift shopping and one of the cooler things, um, you know, and obviously I know my girlfriends when I give them jewelry really love it. But one of the things that was so fun you make those um precious metal safety pin eerrings. And my best friend Kenny is like actually super punk rock um and has back from his punk band days where he had a mohawk and huge gauges in his ears, has gauge holes and he's worn a safety pin in one of his gauge holes for years, but like an actual safety pin from CBS. And so this year we are birthdays are two days apart, so we celebrate our birthday together every year because we're essentially siblings. And this year on our birthday, I gave Kenny a solid gold safety pin from you. And he was just like, oh my god, I'm so bad and bougie, what's happening? And I was like, look, we're adults. You need you need an elevated punk rock fine jewelry moment. Happy birthday, brother. And it's really cute because he's worn it every day since and everywhere we go, people are like, your earrings tight all cute. Yeah, it's you know, it's really it feels good to have something special and I had something of quality and that's fine. It's like, I love those stories. Those are the best because I feel like creating pieces that then create memories that you have forever. It's it's awesome to be able to be party. It's so fun. And you mentioned something and obviously, I mean I think obviously I talk a lot about transparency across industries and how I think it's so important, whether it's in you know, tech or investing, finance, politics, and the transparency aspect of the way that you allow your consumer into the conversation about how you make something, why it costs, what it does, um, what is accessible. All of that is really refreshing as a person who feels often like I look at things and go, I don't understand why this is the way it is, and then I get crazy and go like into an internet hole. And I'm curious because you you said something earlier about how consumers have so much more trust shopping online, and I'm wondering, in your years of expertise here, how you've seen the jewelry industry shift since online shopping has become such a big thing, but especially since brand identity and larger conversation have been able to establish themselves on social media, especially Instagram. You guys kill it the last line. Instagram is my favorite thing. I think. I'm sometimes I'm like, calm down. I don't need to leave all I don't need to always leave an emoji party about why I'm amazed by something. I just I need to rein it in a little. But I'm I'm I'm interested in that. You know. I think when I first started UM working professionally in jewelry, it was at the beginning of it was basically stores that had online you know, they had like their inventory shown online and it was super UM user unfriendly. You know, it was right at the beginning. So UM, I think that over you know, I've seen with there's been a lot of different jewelry websites UM created regarding diamond pricing UM and you know, sort of really bringing that process UM into like a level and equal playing field. You know, I actually learned a lot myself UM from some of these websites, and I think what's been really great for customers and I think what what luckily is something that's great. For the last line is that there are so many online resources now for people to be able to investigate find Drewelry and the materials and you can really price compare things UM and then it's a little and then you can look at the pictures. Then you have to like quality compare UM. And I think that there's so much education available for people now UM pre purchase and it's so accessible to them. You know, in a little deep dive on your laptop at night, you can learn. I mean, you can become a mini expert in something if you're reading them right websites. And I think with all of this information, you know, people now feel confident. And you know, I think with the really the popularity of some of these large DTC companies that have come up in the last you know, six or seven years, there's been you know, there's a lot of policies online that help people to feel comfortable UM buying and that you know, UM you can really provide a lot of information. And I think with our website, the one thing that I have noticed, you know, UM that was a big goal for us was that we really wanted to be able to make you even though we're direct to consumer online. We wanted to make you feel like you're I R L. You know, even though you're on your computer. Um, So we spent a lot of time figuring out if a woman goes into a drawry store and she's buying a piece of jewelry, you know, what are the things that she's looking at, what are the questions that she's asking, What are the ways that she wants to see it? You know, she probably wants to see it, you know, from all angles, and she wants to see it modeled, but then she also wants to see it on. And so we have extensive photography of different women wearing pieces different ways, mixed with things, not mixed with things to really try to give the user the experience of actually trying it on. And the photography is such a big deal because photo, and especially with jewelry video, being able to see how does it catch light and the sparkle? And and I do love how you guys show things styled in so many different ways, also because it's inspiring to me. Does does some of that from your relationship with Teddy? Because in the beginning, and Teddy's your husband, we talked about him earlier, but in the beginning, Um, you spoke about how you guys work together, and when you started out, he was doing all the photography. You're doing all the design, and you've also built this big business together. And I'm curious about how, you know, two heads are bread of the one, how how each of you has helped to craft that very visual experience even if the consumer is separated by a screen. So Teddy um is a was a theater major, but a theater major in UM College, and I think his experience in producing an event and his UM you know, he's also helps to that. He's a talented photographer as well. But the fusion of those two things are something that we focus on a lot. And we look at the website as an experience and as a production and as something that we have to orchestrate for the users from all angles. You know, what colors she's seeing on the side, the way the photos are taken, the way they're organized, the way their merchandise, the way we're talking, you know, is more of a more of a friend sort of like BFF marketing vibe, less of you know, technical overwhelming, but then we also need to have the technical information there to support it. Um. So I think our collaboration in creating the last line experience online is probably like the most important part of the entire brand because we translate that into in person events and then into you know, um marketing moments and creating this experience, and then into social media as well, and really focusing on this world and this brand identity that we would hope that people would want to be part of. You know, obviously the drawing needs to be on point, but aside from all of that, creating and putting energy into the experience as a whole um is something that's essential to the brand. So we are in arms on that one all the time and just like to get into it because I'm so curious, perhaps because I've done this the wrong way. It's an understatement. How do you guys managed to work together? Like do you keep personal stuff? Do you have some sort of separation hypothetically where at work you talk about work and at home you talk about home. They're always like to do you have like work free hours at home? What? Okay? So we we try to be structured, but we aren't so that fails. Um we try it. We we the goal is to you know, have work at the office, and then you know when we leave the office, like and actually it's more than just we're working on Like the second we get in the car, it's off. But you know, since we're we are investing in the business, we're working in the business, we're currently creating and evolving and growing the business, it definitely bleeds into UM. You know, it's kind of it's it's always around UM. And I think what's also we were one of those kind of annoying couples that I feel like spent a lot of time together anyways, and that's sort of how we ended up in this position because when we were dating and before we started the last line, I was, you know, designing jewelry, and he's not a jewelry designer, but you know, he's really creative and he has a really good eye. But I would involve him like I didn't care. I was like, what do you think about this ring? Like, let's talk about this concept that I'm working on, and I just pulled him into it, regardless of if you wanted to be involved. Well, then when you value someone's opinion and you love their taste, that's a natural extension how exactly what you do. So we ended up working together way before we ended up actually working together. You know. All of that said, we definitely have our moments where sometimes I'm like, oh, if we didn't work together, like we wouldn't have had that little fight, you know. But it's more like, you know, sometimes the when the ones you love the most, when you're stressed, you're like, you know, you're like a little snippy um. But I think that it's grown me a lot in our personal relationship um to really you know, like take a pause, to take an eat, breath, figure out what's going on in the moment. And actually, most of the time, sadly, it's me and I have to be like I'm feeling stressed or i haven't eaten in ten hours because I've been sitting at this computer, I'm you know, hungry. So I'm going to react to him emotionally because for some reason, that's how I finger is a real thing and we should respect it as such, work around it as such as a real thing. Exactly. I think it's so interesting that you say how some of those little blow ups, like those little guyser moments can come because of the overlap of personal in work. But isn't that interesting because what I'm also hearing is that you're saying in a way, being aware of them and in a way those things popping up have have forced you to be a better communicator, and that must I mean sure, but that must create a better relationship in a way, because you really are tinkering in there all the time. Yeah, And I think also sometimes I think about it, and you know, there's all different types of relationships and obviously I only know the one that I'm in, um, but sometimes I'm like, man, do I know him intimately? Like just every angle? And I feel like we it's really great because sometimes like I'll just look at him and like we will have had a ten minute conversation in one look and he'll be like I got you, and then he'll go and you know, he'll just know what needs to be done, or like I'll take a look at him and I'll be like, Okay, he's going to take a five minute situation here to regroup and I'm gonna go do whatever this is, or like it definitely like strengthens our relationship. I think that right now, Like I wish that we were able to take more vacations together, but like that's you know, I feel like we're so busy with the company that that is stressful. Um. And so finding ways to like vague ation from our work life while actually still being there is what we're focusing on right now. And actually we're figuring out some cool ways to be like, well, this is a we're going to take a six hour vacation right now, you know, we're like a two hour vacation right now, and it can be really helpful even thirty minutes or just just a departure from the pattern and from the norm and from the stress. And we also have three children, which adds a very crazy layer to everything. Um. So for Teddy and I, we really get to yeah, I mean it's definitely made our relationship stronger. We get to really focused on figuring out how to be together in like the best way with you know, like when things are busy and when we're doing things together, you know, when we have to agree and when other a lot of other people are around. Yeah. So yeah, when you talk about your kids and you look at all the experience that you're having and this thing that you are building both in your professional and personal life, you know, you and Teddy together, are there lessons that are standouts that you want to teach your kids. I feel like as a parent, you constantly feel guilty that you want to be doing this differently or this more. And I think though, one of the things that I really feel like Teddy and I are giving them is like the gift of a family business, whether like they probably will never work in the jewelry business, but like the gift of being able to see a husband and wife work together equally in a business, and to see like Mama goes to work, Papa goes to work, they worked together, bringing them into it sometimes and having this like very equal and powerful relationship going on around them, you know, for my son's you know, I love that they see this dynamic and then also from my daughter, I hope that it's inspiring for them in their relationships and then also you know, in their business relationships that they see the hard work and family life and equality can all co exist. That's so cool. So the title of the podcast, it's called work in progress. And I'm curious what feels like a work in progress in your life right now, Like, aside from the last line, anything that stands so like everything is a work in progress for me. The last line is a work in progress. Constantly I'm like, is this going to succeed or is this going to fail? You know, what are we going to do next? Am I going to retire to a beach somewhere soon, or am I gonna, you know, drive this ship for the next ten years? You know. So the business it's elf is um a work in progress, you know, as we're growing it and developing it and learning. I am definitely a work in progress. I love learning anything um, and so I love learning in this experience. I love I even like learning about the legal stuff and the financing portion, and I it's interesting to me. I like to eat all that stuff up. So I'm always a work in progress. I think, you know, figuring out how to have I figured out how to be a mother in general is definitely a work in progress for me. And as my kids get older and thinks somehow get harder, which I thought wasn't possible from baby dum, you know, but it is um. And you know, as a wife too, I've got nothing that's not a work in progress. I feel like when you realize that though, you're on the right track, Because any time I've thought something was sort of figured out I've ceased to pay attention to it for a moment, and then I turn around to a fire totally, you know, totally. I think. I think there's something really cool about evaluating what you're still working on in every arena of your life while figuring out how to celebrate what's worked so far exactly. And I think for that's for me, it probably until the day I die, everything will be a work in progress. I'm not the kind of person that's probably going to wrap things up and finish them. You know, they'll progress and they'll change and they'll be different focuses. Um. But I part of life for me is being able to grow and to change things and to see what they have, what happens. And I think that like during successes and during failures, which happened to me at the same time every day, um, being able to you know, like cry but also smile and enjoy, like this is a really exciting moment. The businesses in the play that I never thought that it could be in even when I was little, or even when I started it. Sometimes Teddy and I look at each other and we're like, is this real? This is happening? Like it's like it's working, you know, um, and you know then we're like it's failing, you know. And to be able to enjoy and experience all of that all the time. And Teddy and I are both so emotional, and I'm so emotional so even and like an impact. If someone in the room is feeling down, I'm going on that journey with them, and I'm you know, and so to be able through all the daily stress and the work, to be able and like all of the things that need to be completed, you know, I think being able to like love the progress and like love the journey is like silly as that sounds, is you know, like the only way like that. Thank you, Thank you. This show is executive produced by me, Sophia Bush and sim Sarna. Our associate producer is Kate Lonely, Our editor is Josh Wendish, and our music was written by Jack Garrett and produced by Mark Foster. This show is brought to you by then Brilliant Anatomy m

Work in Progress with Sophia Bush

Work in Progress with Sophia Bush features frank, funny, personal, professional, and sometimes even  
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