Good Neighbor Podcast: Auburn and Opelika

Ep #68: Whitney Lee's Journey to a Thriving Jewelry Business with Dear Southern Lady

• Susannah Hodges at Village Centre Press

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What if you could transform personal setbacks into the ultimate catalyst for success? On this episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast, we're joined by the talented Whitney Lee, the visionary behind Dear Southern Lady. Whitney's journey from the uncertainty of the 2009 economic downturn to creating a thriving jewelry business is nothing short of inspiring. She turned her passion for antique treasures into a unique venture, offering everything from exquisite estate pieces to bespoke designs. Whitney takes us behind the scenes, shedding light on the not-so-glamorous realities of the jewelry world and the boundless creativity that fuels it.

Speaker 1:

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Susanna Hodges.

Speaker 2:

Welcome, and with me is Whitney Lee, with Dear Southern Lady and Whitney, it's a pleasure having you with me today. I'm looking forward to this conversation. Yes, thank you for having me. So tell me a little bit about Dear Southern Lady.

Speaker 3:

Well, I started the business when I could not find a job. It was in 2009. I think there was a dip in the economy and I couldn't find a job, so I made a job for myself. I started buying and selling vintage pieces jewelry and my parents had purchased a house in the mountains in North Carolina and at that time I was living in Anderson, south Carolina and so I would go to auctions and estate sales with my mother to furnish the house that they purchased. But I quickly realized that I could not buy and sell armoires and sideboards and things like that, just because of the massive scale of things. So I narrowed down my I guess my interest to jewelry. I had an interest in old things, whether it be antiques in general or antique jewelry, so I thought, well, I can just keep going with a crossbody bag and sell it that way. It's just the scale of things were smaller.

Speaker 3:

So I started doing that back in 09. And then I ended up getting a job at a jewelry store and they taught me how to string pearls and I asked if I could borrow some books about jewelry. And a lot of these jewelers taught me a lot of things and what to look for and it happened really organically over the years. So I started buying and selling the old things and then I found many years later I found a diamond dealer, and then another diamond dealer, and then another one and a different CAD guy, and then different bench jewelers, and now I'm 15 years later still doing it?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, absolutely. And I saw your website so pretty and so unique things, unique items that you don't just find you know anywhere. So that's what I really love about about what you do is you go out and look for those things that are unique.

Speaker 3:

Thank you. I do still sell unique antique estate pieces. In addition to that I now kind of hone my. I guess the main part of my business is now doing custom design, which can still be very unique. I can do a lot of reproduction things because I do love old things. I just like when there's something, a piece is made brand new, I know the integrity of that piece is going to last because it was just made. It may be made to have looked old, which I think combines the best of both.

Speaker 2:

Really it does. You have the style, but you also have the quality that you're looking for. Yeah, so you can. You can go look for estate pieces and correct me if I'm wrong. You can look for estate pieces. You can create an original design for someone if they want that, and if they bring you a piece of jewelry, you can recreate it into something new yes, that's, that's probably one of my most favorite things to do.

Speaker 3:

I don't do it as often, but I actually was texting somebody this morning about their grandmother's old watch, and I just love being creative but still honoring the piece and not just chopping it all up for just chopping up reasons, you know. But I really love and I'm honored when people come to me with a very special piece. And you're exactly right, I do all of those things and in addition to that I can purchase already made goods from different manufacturers. So if somebody wanted a tennis bracelet that they didn't want custom, I can simply order that from a lot of the manufacturers that I have overseas and in the States as well.

Speaker 2:

Well, you've been doing this for a long time now, many years. I'm sure you've come across some misconceptions that people have about the jewelry world. I guess what are some of the things you've come across that you'd like to? You know, get straight for people.

Speaker 3:

That's an interesting kind of question. I do think that a lot of people think it is very glamorous and, of course, the end product is just remarkable. It's a luxury good. People don't need jewelry. It's a luxury good, but I find it is behind the scenes not as glamorous. Find it is behind the scenes not as glamorous. It's still fun, but many times I'm in you know, slippers, taking my children to school and then calling somebody on the way home. So it's, it's not all. You know shiny diamonds every single day, right, I love that, any job you know there's just there's what people see on Instagram or wherever. And then there's the real life behind it and I like to have fun with it and kind of make fun of myself sometimes and kind of showcase the behind the scenes like dead grass when I'm trying to show, showcase a diamond in sunlight, when I'm like need to call the guy. You know, I just kind of like that, yeah absolutely Well.

Speaker 2:

You know, part of the reason that I do this podcast is to help encourage people who are looking to get into their own business, and I think that the way people get like you were telling me you couldn't find a job, so you created a job, and oftentimes that job you create is a hundred times better than finding a job right, and so I like to encourage people, but it's not without its trials, it's not without its hardships. As you're trying to build something, tell us a little bit about, maybe a life challenge that you had, either in your business or personally, that helped you to become a better business person and helped your business, made your business stronger.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, well, I recently got divorced in June and that's obviously a very it was a very, very hard thing, but I am proud of myself to be able to stand on my own two feet and to have gone through that with, hopefully, some sort of dignity. And it was obviously a big challenge, but when you're at the end of it, I feel like I'm at a new beginning. I feel like I'm kind of just getting started. I feel like a new lease on my business and what do I want from it? Because I had a big life change and a big life shift. So I kind of thinking about all the other aspects of my life and my business and what do I want, and so I'm just really proud that I didn't die.

Speaker 1:

I lived through it and I knew.

Speaker 3:

I would. I lived through it and I knew.

Speaker 1:

I would.

Speaker 3:

But I, if you know, I hate to be so cliche, but if it doesn't kill you, you know you're going to be stronger. It will make you stronger, it will. And it's so, so cheesy and cliche, but I guess I wish somebody. I think my mom said well, Whitney, you're not going to die. So she said it in more of like a sassy way, but I'm saying it in more of an encouragement way.

Speaker 2:

You can get through it and it does make you stronger and your business is always there. It's kind of like your business is there, is that friend that's always there waiting for you, and the more attention you give it, the better it does. Yes.

Speaker 3:

And I, I'm thankful for it. I thank it. I'm so thankful for it all, all the time, I think about it daily. I'm so thankful that I had something like this for myself and that I get to pick up my children from school and I get to have lunch with friends, or I'm so thankful for it that it's mine.

Speaker 2:

So tell me, is there one thing that you wish listeners knew about your business? What is one thing that you'd like to get across that either makes you your business special or makes you stand apart?

Speaker 3:

Oh, that's a great question. Well, a lot of times, I think about me and how I'm portrayed in marketing and I realize that I have my strengths and weaknesses. And there are other people that do what I do and they do it well. We're all kind of doing the same thing. There's lots of us out there, but I realized that I love connecting with people. At the end of the day, yes, I sell jewelry, but I love connecting with people and I realized that people are calling me and wanting to work with me because they hopefully enjoy me and I think, at the end of the day, that I'm really selling me and not necessarily diamonds, and so I I mentioned this before I don't take myself very seriously, even though I'm selling a potentially a serious piece of jewelry. Um, I, I like that about me and and I've I've asked some of my friends from time to time I hope people think that I do take my job seriously, but at the same time, I have been known to say it's diamonds, it's not cancer, and I get to have fun with it.

Speaker 3:

Right, and I will do the best job that I can. And if there's a delay in the project from one of my bench jewelers, I often say it's diamonds, it's not cancer, and so that's kind of the outlook I have and I. It is a glamorous outcome, like I mentioned before, but the day to day life is just very, very unglamorous and very, dare I say, routine. I'm thankful for it, but it is just daily work life for me.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, so not to dissuade anyone from the process, but what you get in the end is a beautiful keepsake and it's not intimidating. I guess if you were to go with me as as your, your jeweler, uh, to source your project. It is I like that. It's not intimidating because and and and other businesses may have a little bit more of a posh uh showcase. I don't have a storefront on on purpose, so there it. There's so many avenues within this, this industry, uh, to get a beautiful piece of jewelry that's potentially something that you've designed with alongside with me. I.

Speaker 2:

I love the fact that it's you, that everybody that comes to you gets your personal attention. So it's different from a storefront. A storefront You're you. You really don't have that connection to the pieces. Is is in the way that you have the connection to a piece. That's what I like about your setup. Yeah, thank you. So tell me a little bit more about you personally. What do you do for fun when you're not creating a beautiful piece of jewelry for someone?

Speaker 3:

Well, I've taken up tennis in the last, I guess, five years and I really enjoy it. It's currently my only form of exercise, because I don't like to exercise, but I try to play when the weather's a bit warmer. I try to play about four days a week. We used to do our ladies Thursday lunch, which I love a lunch out one day a week. I've started traveling a bit more. Side note, I also sell a hunting lodge in Argentina, so I have plans to go back to Argentina soon and, to be funny, I'm trying to avoid playing Mahjong, because all my friends play Mahjong and I don't like it and I don't want to play and I want them to just talk to me. I love to visit with my friends. They all want to go walking and I want to sit and put on some music and have a glass of wine and visit.

Speaker 2:

That's what I want to do.

Speaker 3:

And so they all want me to go walking and play Mahjong, and I don't want to do that, because I want to. I like to sit and visit, like a lady.

Speaker 3:

Well, that's the Southern way, isn't it? Absolutely is. Well, tell me how can someone find you and bring their jewelry ideas to to help anyone? And I'm eager to share my cell phone number If anybody were to DM me on Instagram also. Dear southernlady, I often share my my phone number with when people reach out like that, because I really want that personal connection and and it's again cliche, but I do make friends when, when you're my client.

Speaker 2:

Good, yes, well, I appreciate you being with me today. Whitney, it's been a pleasure talking to you.

Speaker 3:

You as well. Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for listening to the good neighbor podcast Auburn. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpauburncom. That's gnpauburncom. That's gnpauburncom. Or call 334-429-7404.