#81: Part 2: Building a Jewelry Business That Evolves With You From Wholesale to Direct-to-Consumer, Brick & Mortar & Hard-Won Lessons

Building a Jewelry Business Without Losing Yourself: Resilience, Team, and Retail Growth with Stacey King

Courtney Gray hosts The Jewelers View and continues her conversation with Stacey King about what it takes to build and grow Lulu Designs while staying aligned with the work. 

Stacey links her “latchkey kid” upbringing to resilience, learning from tough moments, and putting art first while relying on a healthy support system and community. She shares hard business lessons from wholesale, including over-inventory, cash-flow strain, long corporate payment terms, and the risk of relying on single large accounts, including an unpaid $11,000 invoice.

 Stacey emphasizes incorporating early, using business borrowing/credit to reduce personal financial exposure, and investing in coaching. She discusses shifting toward more direct retail through a studio-plus-flagship store in Mill Valley, offering repairs and services, maintaining select wholesale partners, and valuing authentic in-person experiences amid AI-generated content. 

Stacey describes a word-of-mouth-built team of master bench jewelers and looks ahead to more custom and one-of-a-kind work, ending with advice to make friends with change.

We cover:
00:00 Podcast Welcome
00:35 Episode Focus Shift
01:21 Resilience And Art First
03:57 Community And Reps
05:48 Inventory And Wholesale Risks
07:34 Incorporation And Borrowing
09:10 Protecting The Artist
09:57 Learning From Coaches
10:41 Pivot From Wholesale
12:26 Retailer Storytelling Limits
13:07 Opening a Tiny Store
14:02 Studio-Backed Brick and Mortar
14:54 Repairs and Local Services
15:26 Authenticity in the AI Era
16:21 Building a Word-of-Mouth Team
17:45 Custom Work and One-of-a-Kinds
18:57 Make Friends With Change
20:38 Glasses and Closing Reflections
22:16 Sponsor and Final Sendoff

Transcript

#81 Building a Jewelry Business That Evolves With You

Courtney: [00:00:00] Welcome to The Jewelers View. I'm Courtney Gray. I've spent nearly 30 years in this industry, running schools, doing custom work, coaching, consulting, and working with makers at all stages. Over time, I've started to see the patterns, the things that actually move a creative career forward. And the things that can quietly hold it back.

I built this podcast to cut through the noise, less time in your head or down the research rabbit hole, and more time building something real. Let's get into it.

Courtney Gray: So let's talk today a little bit about what it really takes to build a jewelry business that can grow without losing yourself in the process or your mind. In part one with Stacey King, who's back here today with us, we dug into creativity. And process and what it means to stay in the magic and stay connected to the work In this conversation, I wanna shift a little bit into the business side 

Courtney Gray Stacey's [00:01:00] journey and talk about what it really did take to build Lulu designs and how that's continuing to even now. The real decisions behind the scenes, running a physical store, building a team and navigating growth in a way that still feels aligned to your, , original intention. So let's dig in. Welcome back, Stacy.

Thanks for joining us.

Stacy King: Thanks for having me again.

Courtney Gray: I love it. So we talked a little bit in episode one about your scrappy roots and you mentioned being a latchkey kid and having to figure things out.

How has that shaped the way that you built your business?

Stacy King: I think it's being resilient.

Resilience is a huge key to success I think just my upbringing of understanding where my support system was and using that as a resource for. Growing and making decisions and when you come at it not having a background in business or not having a background in a certain type of skillset, if you had to do it yourself as a kid [00:02:00] and you had to be comfortable with. I don't wanna say failure because it's always a learning experience, but you have to be really comfortable with like tough growth moments and realize that. You're gonna survive at the other end of this and if you're really true to your intention.

Really and truly, I think when you are an artist that is trying to make a living at something, the number one goal has to be the work. It has to be the art. That has to be the driving force. 

If it's any other force besides that, 

See.

And I'm not saying that people can't do jewelry business with the idea that they're going to come up with this novel idea and they're going to be able to scale it and make a bunch of money on it, that's not gonna be the reality. But from a real, true artisan perspective, which is I think that's the audience that. You and I are reaching in this moment. It's really putting the art first and then learning who your support system is

identifying key people in your life that 

certain tools, whether it's like business skill tools or just general resources for making you, you just have a keen ability [00:03:00] to read the room in any situation and find, looking through the eyes of there's always an opportunity  in  any situation to learn something, including becoming good at business. I think when, and, and you and it gets,  again, it comes back to that staying in the magic and staying connected

I'm so open-minded and I'm so inspired by other people in my own life, like Buddhist teachings and the teachers that came before, there's so much wisdom out

there and I wanna learn all of it and I think I'm just so open-minded.

I think that's a big part  of it

Courtney Gray: I think that that's dead on 

Courtney Gray:Resilience and tuning into your resources. Your community is, your resources, right? Sounds like the same for you, Stacy, without the people in my community and the people that, that were either drawn into the work I was doing or I drew in,

It's so imperative. We think we're supposed to put our heads down and do it ourselves. And every component needs to be touched by you. The reality of, growth and sustainability is to start letting some things go. Would you agree with that and bringing other voices into the room with yours?

Stacy King: definitely I think, when [00:04:00] I decided to go beyond the scope of my community where I was selling Lulu Designs and before I was doing the  I I was doing like., Just street fairs,. It really became a necessity that was either gonna have to, I went through a divorce, I was either gonna have to go back to work or figure out how I was gonna make this work.

So that's when I decided to to get a rep. And, 

I, sorry, we're just had someone leave really

quickly. okay.

Courtney Gray: You wanna say 

Stacy King: And I wanna go back to what I was saying before about understanding your community. And truly, you have to be surrounded with people, number one, that are super healthy. Are also connected to the

work and to the importance of the work. In this case, when I had worked with my first showroom, which was Christie Harris in Los Angeles, she's a pretty well known rep. Were still very good friends. She's amazing. I aligned myself with people that I looked up to, that I was inspired by, and that people that believed in me and believed what I was doing. You know, if you are  going into business with someone, which with Rep, it's a partnership who. Is telling you to change things or you know you could do this better or they don't really make you a priority. You're really in business with the wrong person. And I think the one thing that I [00:05:00] will say about working with Christie she's  really invested in each of the designers that she carries, and she was always very invested in her whole team. And she works with that was, a really 

and there's not a lot of negativity within the teamwork.

And I think

figuring

out how you're gonna assemble a team, whether that's a sales team or a team of other jewelers to help you make your work. There has to 

Courtney Gray: Yeah. 

You've been in business for a long time. 

Stacy King: In business since, I'm started making the collection probably seriously in 1997

where I was creating jewelry and selling it,

is, 

Courtney Gray: what are some of the harder lessons that had to learn? This doesn't just come to life smoothly, this doesn't just happen overnight, and it's a process and there's failures and there's learning curves, and stumbles, and there's big lessons.

I've had a few, I could not even gonna go there. Um, you can listen to the rest of the 

Stacy, what were some of the harder lessons that you've learned and that really formed how you operate now?

Stacy King: The lesson that I continue to learn, which is easier now because we are more successful and we have more revenue is over inventory.

Too much  inventory, not enough hands to make  work  and not enough revenue. And I think that from the  wholesale [00:06:00] perspective, the burden of a small business, having to pay for all the material.

When you first get really big and you get your first like catalog order, you know it's $10,000. That's, for some people, that's not a lot. And you are financing the whole end of the  deal. And then the corporate entity doesn't pay you for 60 days. So not only do you have to.

To fund the making of it. And if you're new and you're only doing small boutiques

on the spot, then you get what you think is I've arrived. I've, working with anthropology, I'm working with Sundance catalog.  it's  really and truly, like now I I don't wanna do

catalog. Myperspective has changed. So differently, Having  all your eggs in one basket is a very bad business decision. And you can, you can get lo, you can get caught holding the bill very easily because the corporate entities,

they have, you know, protocol in place  to  them them of responsibility

Courtney Gray: course.

Stacy King: and, Nobody cares. They're bankrupt, they're investors, they don't care. It's all business. And I think it's just really understanding, your comfort zone. You always have to know [00:07:00] how much money you can put in this kind of business and be comfortable losing it, especially when you're talking about accounts receivables,  because  I have had that happen a couple times I've lost, one time was $11,000 invoice. I wasn't paid by a big corporate entity. I don't really think I need to necessarily name me

but I think what I would say to that is,  that it was a huge learning experience. And so I think just  like being comfortable with understanding that, especially if you put your own capital, which I always have done, like I said, I refinanced my house

once bail me out of a cash crunch. That's when I really understood like where my limits were in terms of risk taking. 

Number one, I would always become incorporated from the beginning. And I think you should borrow money. 

 To  start a business. I did not do that at the beginning.

Courtney Gray: Can you dig into 

 Stacy King: That's just my,  at a certain point, if you put all your own money and your own resources

into your business, when you really a business loan.

when you really in 

Then you're just draining yourself. There's so much more on the line, like

you're draining your own personal resources.[00:08:00]

You're risking everything for a business and then the  pressure on  yourself just becomes that much higher. I think borrowing money takes a lot of the emotion and  a lot of the pressure out, and I think that was one of the great aha moments.  I had  with COVID, . So I do have a loan in my business. It's a very small amount., 

 But I am not. Personally invested in this business anymore. It's all Lulu and it's all,

Part of it is a business line of credit and it's incorporated. So here's the deal, like if there's another COVID or if God forbid, like my place burns down. 'cause I live in California,

Courtney Gray: Phew.

Stacy King: Not personally on the hook.

It really allows me to really look at this as a business  and not  like a  project that's  funded by me. and I pay myself. I think that's really important that you put those, 

Parameters in  place if the business  has a hiccup or there's a recession or whatever reason,  stiffs  you or whatever, it's happening to the business.

It's not happening to you. The artist, the one with the good intentions.

 Wish I would've done that sooner, honestly. I would've had a more mature  [00:09:00]perspective about it being a business when you start as an artist, where you're just doing things not necessarily at the beginning with the intention of turning it into a business, there's so much personally invested. Going back to what I was talking about in the last episode about being vulnerable. You are not only opening up your vulnerability to what can happen as an artist and whether or not your collections are successful or not, but now you're financially vulnerable.

So I think you have to sort of like limit your exposure and your

vulnerability. If you gotta protect your heart, 

Courtney Gray: it's too much. Yeah. It's too many things to  have to carry.

Stacy King: You do have to protect yourself

to a degree and you do. When you take all

Those serious steps, you really start becoming a big picture person. You have to

be

comfortable developing a business brain and it takes a long time 

Courtney Gray: We have to go through these lessons to really get them though.

I think, it's like I could tell you all day 

Stacy King: Grow through what you.

go through. 

Courtney Gray: but you have to go through, you can't go around it. We have to touch the hot thing to know that it's hot, 

Stacy King: I'm working with a business coach right now [00:10:00] on better marketing practice and helping us with our emails and I'm investing a lot in this wisdom. It's.

Stacy King: There are resources  out there, there are wise people, there are people that have done it before. And it's easier to access them now, especially, with the internet and social media and like your podcast

and they really make a difference in people's lives. Allocating time to learn how to become a business person once you start listening to people that have been there before and

no one's,

, Listen to what people are offering.

Courtney Gray: And stay 

Stacy King: that advice. 

Stacy King: Yes. 

Stacy King: You're still gonna have to go through hard things, but you don't need to go through all of it.

Courtney Gray: right. Let us 

Stacy King: is. Is not like really great. Like you should listen to people that know what they're talking

about and implement the advice

Courtney Gray: you're in the middle of a shift right now, is that right? And moving a little bit away from wholesale. Can we share this or not yet?

Stacy King: Talk about this. I think what I'm actually, I think what I'm doing, which is very much in alignment with my commitment to making our jewelry all in house. , the circumstances of business and jewelry making in general. Dictate how you navigate and how you change.

We have our [00:11:00] studio here and our flagship store, which is amazing right here in Mill Valley.

And

it's really and truly about having done business in a different way for 30 years. Really focused on wholesale, but wholesale is all about scalability. 

it really takes a lot of additional revenue to really see the results. From a profit margin perspective,

it's  at least in, in bridge collection jewelry, which is what we are

making. We don't really sell much of our fine jewelry to our wholesalers. And significant overhead, I'm very proud to say that , all of our jewelers 

Who are work for us full-time have 401k. Have full healthcare

and are paid at the top of the pay scale. we're able to, staff it and all of those things. Now from moving here to Mill Valley where we have, a dedicated clientele that keeps coming back

and we're able to, we do a lot of repairs. We offer services. That's what brings people back over and over

again. . I think that we are really just honing in and working with the wholesalers

who

have supported us and support our entire collection. [00:12:00] We work with the Silverado jewelry in Saratoga, the Silverado and Bend, new Twist in Oregon Casey from Biju, Katona, they carry our whole collections.

Because from a production standpoint, if we can work on, 40 pieces at one time instead of one Z twosie for the stores that really can only invest in

Lulu on a smaller scale 

Tell our story. Once you ship your items, you have no idea what  other  person on the other end is saying. You could include an artist card, include selling points, at the end of the day, when it gets into the boutique's hands, you have very limited control on how they're selling your work. 

I've been amazed at people calling me and say, they told me this was solid gold. I'm like, it's bronze,

You just don't have much control, but you do have more control about your storytelling

and like so many young people now, they can sell their stuff on TikTok and Instagram.

I mean, I don't I admire people that

have cracked the code on

that. There's so many more opportunities now I think for artists to sell direct, and it just makes from a financial perspective.

More sense we have an incredible [00:13:00] collection of amazing retailers that sell our work and we're gonna continue to work with them. But to get established is difficult.

Courtney Gray: So did you always have a physical store? When did you make that decision to open to the public?

Stacy King: I think I had seen a lot of my colleagues making that

change and seeing how successful they were at it. I think I've developed such a relationship with other artists

in the trade show world, . I just, and I love like walking the booths of the trade show and connecting with other artists.

I was like if I ever have a store someday I'll carry your work. So it's again, coming back to that connection piece. And so we opened up a tiny store, 300 square feet in Sausalito. 

The rent wasn't very much, and it was our work. So the margin was. Appreciatively better because we're selling direct and we're still selling the same  MSRP that we're suggesting to our galleries that support us.

It really slow. So I started with a 300 square foot gallery and a  great location. So I only bit off as much as I could chew.

that being said, , Sausalito is, is a tourist location. So the foot traffic on during the down season was, basically non-existent. So there was like a lot of zero [00:14:00] days.  was  like, crickets. The dream was always to be able to have a place where we could have the working jeweler studio, the old atelier style that they had, in Paris and 

Europe, Where you have the working people in the back where can see the magic happening and people feel connected

I think that's what our job is as artists, we're connected to the work it's contagious.

In this world where there's just so much illusion out there through media in your face 24 7, it's nice to be able to come back down to Earth and be connected to the work happening. That's what's been so rewarding is that. We can make the  work  here, people can come in, they can feel the energy of the work being

made, and then we can customize things.

And so that's where it just became very easy and natural to shift into this sphere of direct to

Courtney Gray: With a brick and mortar situation. 

Stacy King: Brick and mortar. And I think honestly I think brick and mortar, I think is a great choice. For jewelers if they want to do that with the studio in the background. My advice would be is offer services.

When I first started people would come in and say, do you repair jewelry? And I was like, [00:15:00] only our stuff. 

for so long. And now we repair  everything  and it is such a great add on, on,Sale , some days it's only people coming in to have their jewelry repair because, we're their, we become their neighborhood jeweler.

It's again, going back to that old relationship, you had your milkman, you had your personal tailor, 

it's  all  about connecting people in IRL in real

life.

Courtney Gray: real life. There you go. Yeah.

Stacy King doing this in real, in real life,

Courtney Gray: Yeah.

Stacy King: people are going to want more in real life experiences,, especially with AI and AI creating videos.

I don't know if you've dialed into this, and I've just sort of started learning about this, but there's so many AI videos now being made, showing things that aren't real. ,  A lot of those videos that you see on Instagram of someone making a piece It's totally AI

generated.

It's not  actually, it's not happening.  This is not a person doing

this, and it looks totally  real. It's mind blowing.

It's people, it that's, people will become desensitized to that. It's not gonna mean anything to them anymore. People [00:16:00] want the in real life experience. And so it's up to us as artists to be living

in that world and creating a space where people can actually be a part of it and

I think it will become more and more true going forward is that even real?

You're

damned if

Courtney Gray: gonna have to show some major imperfections in the videos. It's gotta be super authentic to be believable now. Yeah, and that's what I was just having this conversation,

hand fabricated and handmade is gonna become even more potent and important

that's a whole other episode, Stacy. Oh my gosh.

. Can you explain how do you work with your team? 

Stacy King: The thing about our team, and this is what's so interesting, is everybody that I've ever worked with has come to our team through somebody else that either a friend or another jeweler,

and I work with a lot of jewelers that from the Bay Area community be that have worked for other artists and it's always been the most synergistic working with people through word of mouth. And with the exception of a couple of our sales team, 

my managers are all master bench jewelers, so they're, grown from a bench jeweler into management.

My creative lead and co visionary went to RISD Christina. She's a master bench jeweler. [00:17:00] Francisco, he's really our lead main jeweler that is, is focused on the work. And then I have the jewelers that I've worked with for years that work And we'll send like our stone setting to Amy, she works in Petaluma from her house. And then our casting is done in New York actually.

So we work with a great team out there, and I, they're a family and so I love

I go to New York and I meet with them. I love connecting with them. He's a master mold maker from Argentina.

Um, so everybody's interconnected.

Everybody here comes from the jewelry world.

A lot of times it's  a coincidence, but it's  not a coincidence.  So everybody is the jack of all trades, master of nothing. I think that's the thing about a small business and everybody's willing to  Get up  and do whatever needs to be done.

. It's like you gotta be able to do a lot  things

and even as a manager I need you to hop on the bench and make the, make those 10 pairs  of earrings so that. 

We can get this order out.

Courtney Gray: Sure. Of course. Yeah. It takes a village.

So when you look ahead, what are you building toward now? What are you most excited about

Stacy King: More customs. Customs. I love working with people and couples or individuals about creating a piece of jewelry that creates a [00:18:00] milestone for them, or a breakthrough or a memory. It allows us to take the creativity that we're working with someone and let them be a part of owning the process and owning the design. I think that's. What my real joy is and just having more time for our fun day Fridays. More time to just make more one of a kind pieces because as I said, the gems that I have from the last 30 years, I could build pyramid. to give the i, I really want to give .

The raw materials that I have the opportunity to come to life and become jewelry.

And just my age in general, not  that I'm that old, but. Given the  materials that I have that I just, I really want to make more one of a kind or make more limited edition, it's much more fulfilling to me.

And that's getting back to the work be, giving the work center stage and

and

that's

what really fills our souls. And also just wanting my jewelers to be able to experiment and do different things and not 

With having to assemble the same thing.

Courtney Gray: To grow 

Stacy King: Day after day. 

Courtney Gray: Beyond their skill. 

Stacy King: Go, Go, beyond. Yeah.

Courtney Gray: I love that. Yeah. 

Courtney Gray: This is such a great look at what it takes to build something over time, and it's just the tip of the iceberg. I know Stacy, but so for someone who's in the middle, it's closed with this of, they're in the middle of, if you're in the middle of building something [00:19:00] or you're feeling stretched or uncertain, what would you want them to know?

Stacy King: Everything changes.

Courtney Gray: The one thing you can count on, 

Stacy King: one thing you can count on 

it's very difficult when you're in a situation where even like from a day, like we haven't had one person come in the whole day and it's maybe been a sequential week after week of just being low sales and you're like thinking, oh boy, like payroll's due. Everything changes, and I really and truly think that when you're aligned and you're clear, like being clear is really, , really important to being in business, that the universe will take care of you. And I know that sounds cliche, but there's always going to be a sign that. You're in the right place.

Even if the right  place is uncomfortable you can't hold on and you can't let go. You just gotta go with the flow, make friends with change, . Leaves don't cry when they're falling off, they're like, something better is coming. It's the cycle of the moon, like the moon is now. [00:20:00] Today, it's like at its  fullest  peak. And now is the process of letting go and the cycle happens again. So you'll have like a really great success moment. And so when things are really hard and you're in that hard, take yourself back to when things were really great and really wonderful. That moment changed and now you're just in an uncomfortable phase. 

 You have to  let grow and just allow the cycles to just flow and be what they are. Like. We are just part of nature. We aren't any  different. The way that they, that they go, the highs, the lows, the ups, the downs, the more prosperous times, none of it stays.

Courtney Gray: None of it's nothing stays the same. Yep.

Put. Oh my gosh. Absolutely true. Hard to embrace sometimes,.

Stacy King: Become best friends with change.

Courtney Gray: I love it. I love it. Anything else you wanna share before we close today? Stacy? Oh wait, we gotta show him our matching hippie glasses. I'm

Stacy King: We're bringing it back. 

Courtney Gray: Yeah. 

Stacy King The necklace readers. 

Courtney Gray: How I, and now I, if I didn't, if I didn't have them, I would just drop my glasses at this point.

I've been using them for so long, I wouldn't know how to live without them.

Stacy King: This is its own kind of layering. It becomes almost like an ear. It goes with your earrings and  it's much cooler  than the [00:21:00] croakies.

Courtney Gray: yeah. 

Courtney Gray: Oh yeah, definitely. I know,

Stacy King: things I wore in the Grateful Dead parking lot, those CROs.

Courtney Gray: You were selling 

Stacy King: If only if I  had these, then, I would've been a, made a million dollars

while I was selling T-shirts.

Yeah.

Courtney Gray: Oh, if only right? If only then I love this message so much, Stacy, that you shared with us today. Change is the one thing we can count on, so staying flexible, just keep going with the flow. There's gonna be ebbs flows. Everything must swing the pendulum must swing, right?

It's gonna go up and it's gonna go back.  And that is the one thing that we can count on as well. So it's.

Stacy King: can't have day without, 

without night. 

Courtney Gray: So it's handling it with grace and 

and just keep moving forward. Don't let it defeat you. Resilience., Get back to the gratitude when everything else feels  crappy. Focus on what's working. Look for the helpers. Look for the good, cause they are there. It's just 

Stacy King: journal a lot. 

 I think that is so important. That has helped me change so much. My perspective is I try to journal at least three, four times a week  because then  you can go back to it and don't just journal when you're upset, please.

Courtney Gray: I started my gratitude 

Stacy King: You ha you have to journal when you've had the best [00:22:00] day ever.

Courtney Gray: Alright. All right. Thank you so much for joining us.

I'm excited to hear what 

Stacy King: grateful for you.

Thank you for connecting with me, and I hope that whatever wisdom I could impart, it would lift someone up and maybe change the butterfly wing effect.

Maybe it would just change

Courtney Gray: I know it 

Stacy King: a really positive way. 

Courtney Gray: If they pay attention. 

Courtney Gray: This episode is supported by Bonny Doon Tools. Metal only moves well when pressure is applied correctly, controlled. From simple forming to engineered custom dies, Bonny Doon gives you consistency that you can rely on. Built for real studios and proven under real pressure. Tons of pressure. Learn more at bonnydoontools.com. 

Courtney Gray: I'm glad you're here. This path takes a lot, especially when you're building something of your own. If you wanna go deeper, I share key takeaways and additional teaching through my email list at courtneygrayarts.com. Keep going. This part matters. I'll see you next [00:23:00] week.