The winds of change are blowing through the corridors of family-owned jewelry businesses. Mike spoke with 3 members of the RJO Board about where RJO is headed and what topics are of greatest importance to them. Mike was joined by:
RJO Board of Directors
Joe Schiavone, Z’s Fine Jewelry (Peoria, AZ)
RJO Merchandise Review Committee
Joanna Gruver, Jo & Co Jewelers (Wirtz, VA)
RJO Next Gen Advisory Board
Jason Baide, Gem Gallery (Bozeman, MT)
Together with the RJO leadership team, they reveal the pivotal role of RJO's management training programs in cultivating the industry's emerging leaders. They share how RJO members work together to innovate, such as in 'brain gain' sessions, where industry veterans and newer members exchange blueprints for success, and share how collaborations with major vendors is pushing forward the retail jewelry experience.
Learn more about our sponsor Podium: https://www.podium.com/loupe/
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
The winds of change are blowing through the corridors of family-owned jewelry businesses. Mike spoke with 3 members of the RJO Board about where RJO is headed and what topics are of greatest importance to them. Mike was joined by:
RJO Board of Directors
Joe Schiavone, Z’s Fine Jewelry (Peoria, AZ)
RJO Merchandise Review Committee
Joanna Gruver, Jo & Co Jewelers (Wirtz, VA)
RJO Next Gen Advisory Board
Jason Baide, Gem Gallery (Bozeman, MT)
Together with the RJO leadership team, they reveal the pivotal role of RJO's management training programs in cultivating the industry's emerging leaders. They share how RJO members work together to innovate, such as in 'brain gain' sessions, where industry veterans and newer members exchange blueprints for success, and share how collaborations with major vendors is pushing forward the retail jewelry experience.
Learn more about our sponsor Podium: https://www.podium.com/loupe/
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
Welcome back everybody to In the Loop. What is up everybody? My name is Michael Burpo.
Speaker 1:Thanks again for listening to In the Loop this week, after about two years since my last interview with them, I'm interviewing the RJO leadership team, or some of them, and I'm interviewing Joe Schiavone with Z's Fine Jewelry, who's on the RJO Board of Directors, joanna Groover with Joe Co Jewelers, and she's on the RJO Merchandise Review Committee, and Jason Beatty with Gem Gallery, and he's on the RJO Next Generation Advisory Board, and we're talking all about what RJO has cooking up, what the next shows are like, but also how they're leaning on the next generation of jewelers and educating them in order to kind of build up the industry as much as possible. And also we talk about technology and how e-commerce and online presences are going to affect memberships in the future and if it's something that they should consider when it comes to exclusivity clauses. It's a really fun talk. I really enjoy hearing what it is that they're focused on, so that I can focus on it as well, and I think it turns out really well. I hope you enjoy listening, cheers.
Speaker 2:This episode is brought to you by Punchmark, the jewelry industry's favorite website platform and digital growth agency. Our mission reaches way beyond technology. With decades of experience and long-lasting industry relationships, punchmark enables jewelry businesses to flourish in any marketplace. We consider our clients our friends, as many of them have been friends way before becoming clients. Punchmark's own success comes from the fact that we have a much deeper need and obligation to help our friends succeed. Whether you're looking for better e-commerce performance, business growth or campaigns that drive traffic and sales, punchmark's website and marketing services were made just for you. It's never too late to transform your business and stitch together your digital and physical worlds in a way that achieves tremendous growth and results. Schedule a guided demo today at punchmarkcom. Slash go.
Speaker 1:And now back to the show. What is up everybody? My name is Michael Burpo. I'm joined by three members of the RGO leadership. In case you are tuning in and you haven't heard about RGO before, RGO is one of the major buying groups in the jewelry industry and they play a major part in keeping the important issues on the radar for a lot of our clients, but also just jewelers in general, and also they provide a lot of education and they are very collaborative. So it's definitely a really awesome idea to be involved in part of them and I kind of want to give them just a chance to introduce themselves. Joanne, do you maybe want to start us off?
Speaker 3:Sure. So I'm Joanna Gruver. I own Joe Co Jewelers Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia, and I am on the Merchandise Review Committee and a proud RJO member.
Speaker 1:Very exciting and Jason.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I'm Jason Beatty. I own the Gem Gallery in Bozeman Montana. I'm the new board chair for the NextGen Advisory Committee for RJO Nice.
Speaker 5:And Joe Great. My name is Joe Schivoni, my wife and I. I own Z's Fine Jewelry, which is a third generation jeweler out of Peoria, arizona. We've been part of RGO for almost actually a little over 20 years now, and so I sit on the board of directors, but I've also sat on the NextGen board.
Speaker 1:Oh, how cool is that. Do you find that that's common for people to be on one part of the leadership and then change it out and try to be a part of something else?
Speaker 5:Yeah, so when we first started the RJO Next Gen Board, the goal was to have younger people get into leadership through the Next Gen Board and then ultimately progress up to some of our larger boards or board of directors or MRC or whatnot. I love to hear that.
Speaker 1:Now just to kind of set things up. I'm always interested in the value proposition for these groups. It sounds like everybody speaks very highly of them, but I know that the reasons for getting involved and being a part of them initially can be very different. Especially you guys are from all different corners of the nation. Maybe I'll post this kind of broadly to the rest of you um, what was the reason initially for you to join rjo?
Speaker 5:so, um, we actually joined rjo and igio at the same exact time, went to two different um group buying shows, uh, ultimately decided that rjo was where we felt fit. Um, and that was a little over 20 years ago. I joined my family business 10 years ago and so, uh as uh, as I went to my very first RGO media or a show, maybe 17 years ago, um, as just a individual, as a guest, I felt like this was an amazing family, um, and so I. At that point we were still, you know, five to 600 strong, and now we're well over 1100 numbers, and so seeing it grow over the last, you know, decade and a half is huge. I think the biggest portion for my family was to have an organized group that we could lean on in order to be able to grow our businesses together and then have ability to be able to meet up, to be able to use our buying powers in order to compete with the big box stores.
Speaker 1:Nice, that's amazing. And Jason, what about yourself? What was your reason to get into RJO?
Speaker 4:Yeah. So my dad joined RJO I think about 27 years ago now, which was pretty early in him having a store. We're just turned 30 this year. So he joined.
Speaker 4:I think it was mostly for the dividends and the discounts and having better access to more vendors and more centralized place I think more the traditional business motivations for the group and it worked out really well for him.
Speaker 4:But when I started going before I took over than like uh kind of traditional business motivations for for the group Um, and it worked out really well for him. But when I started going uh before I took over the store I really enjoyed the more um, the peer support, the social elements, the brainstorming that happened amongst our peers at the show and I think that's what attracted me to get more involved in uh, in it formally and in the leadership. So I think my dad made some great decisions, got a really solid foundation but, especially as I was growing up in the industry and slowly taking on more, finding other peers to connect with that had taken over from family businesses or faced the same dramas of family's hard business is hard, family business is really hard sometimes. It was a huge support and allowed me to answer a lot of questions and just feel more comfortable moving into those roles.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's cool to hear that it started with one reason, you know, because your dad was involved, and then that it kind of took on a life of its own or a value proposition of its own and is now supporting. That's great. And what about you, joanna?
Speaker 3:So my story is not at all like that. I was in Antwerp and happened to be at the same hotel as the group there from RJO and I, like several jewelers, had gotten the mailers and different buying groups and I was like, yeah, I need to check into that. Oh, that sounds good. And that's about as far as it went, until I met this group of amazing jewelers and I came back and signed up right away and I wish that I had done it 10 years earlier. It was.
Speaker 1:It's been a business changing so I love hearing the how transparent I was. I've commented on this a million times at this podcast, so people are probably tired of me speaking about it, but I'm always so impressed by the collaborative nature of jewelers. It seems like there's something in, maybe because it's at its heart. It's very creative and it's very expressive. But I find that jewelers are very transparent when it comes to business practices, but also just efficiencies and things like that they're so willing to like. Oh yeah, this is how we draft a, you know, a contract. This is the percent that we give our salespeople, and I'm like man, I can't believe you're willing to tell people that, but it's like everyone's like, oh yeah, that's what we do.
Speaker 1:It's amazing, and so I guess maybe we can just jump into really quickly you guys individual roles at the, at the, at RJO, because you guys are taking the helm and leading the organization, like you said, over 1,100 jewelers. I'm sure that comes with a lot of responsibility. So maybe, joanna, can you talk me through the Merchandise Review Committee, because last I spoke with RJO leadership we had a member from the Merchandise Review Committee or that, is it that? The MRC? Is that what you?
Speaker 3:guys.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and they were talking about some of the specs and, like you know how stringent the application process is, can you talk me through that in 2024?
Speaker 3:Sure, so it's still stringent, but it is a group of I think it's seven of us. It is a group of I think it's seven of us I can count on my fingers real quick but it's a group and man, we're dedicated. We're really passionate about finding vendors who are good partner vendors. You know, kind of our focus now is looking at vendor saturation, like what areas are we heavy in? What areas do we need? Um, and even branching out like okay, you can have X number of diamond vendors but, um, what do we have for packaging? What do we have?
Speaker 3:Um, like business things that everybody uses but aren't specific to the jewelry industry, and we divide up as a committee Anybody who has applied we have a one-on-one conversation with before we go to the next level. But it's just really really important to us to find companies that are good fit to us. To find companies that are good fit, it is important for us to make sure that we are getting the financial end up benefit from the group. But I think we're, as a group, growing really well with the vendors that we have in place.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and what about like vendors that might be because Punchmark is a vendor for RJO what about you know vendors that might be not doing typical, what we might call merchandise, so people that are doing technology. Or maybe you know peripheral related things, for example, like light boxes and displays and packaging and things like that.
Speaker 3:Right, well, first of all, we are very excited to have Punchmark. You guys have been great, so but yeah, I think that's kind of as a committee, really the direction that we're looking, because we have a really good core group of traditional vendors but we have businesses who you know I know the jewelry business really really well, I know the jewelry business really really well. I don't know technology really really well and so companies that we can bring in to help our members grow in the areas you know you're really good at what you know, but the areas that you don't know you need help in and even looking at, we just brought in a group that it's like a direct media buy things like that that can help all of us in our business.
Speaker 3:But again, aren't traditional, just jewelry concentrated businesses.
Speaker 1:Very cool. I'm definitely always interested because it's not just, like you said, diamond vendors or just engagement ring vendors, it's everything we do websites but it's also people that do, yeah, like the edges point of sales. And then you have people that do reviews and clienteling and those are all, yeah, just as important, have booths just the same. So I can only imagine how difficult that would be, difficult but enjoyable Good.
Speaker 1:And Jason. So, with next-gen jewelers, this is definitely a big topic for me and Punchmark, especially in the loop, is really focused on trying to kind of do a focus on next-generation jewelers for this year and going forward, and going forward. Can you talk me through kind of what RJO is doing to support the next generation, meaning, like you know, allowing businesses to be passed?
Speaker 4:through families or just kind of preparing people for future leadership. Totally, Because I think that's really important, and especially right now in the jewelry industry, where the kind of traditional model of family businesses being passed down to kids uh, while it's still around I'm still one of them Um, I think that's much less significant than it used to be. Um, it's, a lot of kids aren't just going into the what the family wants them to do, or business is hard, yeah, yeah it is, and you see a lot more stores that are selling to maybe one of their staff members or selling to a different store. But I think I'm also seeing more businesses starting that someone just loves jewelry and wants to get into it, and I think it's a little bit more accessible than it used to be in that way. So the NextGen board is trying to support kind of all of those different avenues, whether it's someone that's growing up in it, maybe they're going to college and considering whether jewelry is a direction they want to go or whatnot.
Speaker 4:Um, as well as you know, internal transitions within a business or external um and new businesses by, uh, we have a couple of different kind of ways we support uh, that I think our biggest philosophy is let's bring people together.
Speaker 4:The more people share and talk, and we'll support each other better throughout that. But then we also have some very structured, tangible trainings and whatnot. So we host a event, our next gen event, which is like a long weekend in Chicago, as well as our succession event. It kind of alternates each year, although we're kind of restructuring some of that to be really leadership development, manager development. Some parts are very geared towards ownership tracks of transitions, but we're also doing more, I think, to support building up employees into leadership roles internally. So taking whether it's someone that's an experienced sales staff and that's interested in management, giving them some education and training on how to progress into that way and those events I just can't speak highly enough of. That was where I first got engaged with the NextGen group. It was in an event, I think in 2019, and just really enjoyed the event, Got to know Joe and a bunch of the other old school non uh next gen group.
Speaker 5:Um, did you just call me old school school?
Speaker 4:school. You're pretty old school I would not call you old Joe, um, but but kind of the first round of-gen leadership that really established this has been a huge support and resource for myself and trying to do that for kind of the upcoming generations too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just perpetuating that cycle. Because in the end, I think what's really interesting is I was just speaking with Lenny from the Edge and I was like, oh, I'm concerned. Like there are stores closing all the time. Our number one cause for a client leaving by a huge margin is always store closure and I'm like are you concerned about this at all? He's like, well, I do think that that is something to think about. But also for the people that are starting new stores they are more educated and they are more well-informed, or the ones that are taking the next generation that are picking it up, even if especially if it's not someone that's from the family they're so open to doing it the best way possible instead of just the way it's always been, that he's very encouraged. So that's what I've kind of been thinking about a lot more is that you know it's it doesn't have to be business as usual. You can be open to things.
Speaker 4:Totally, and I think that, uh, our events and the peer support that we have at the, the buying shows as well um is, it is really powerful that where someone that's up and coming in a store comes back to their business and says, hey, I think we need to start looking at, you know, whether it's e-commerce websites, whether it's in some stores, it's implementing a point of sale system instead of handwriting receipts like, or or just very specific pieces of technology or procedure, coming back to a store and saying, hey, I talked about it with this group and like five out of the six people I talked to are doing it this way. I think there's something here we need to look at, because family businesses and the jewelry industry can be stubborn, like, oh, we've always done it this way, why would we change when there might be a better method out there? So it gives people the tools to come back and say, hey, other people are doing it a different way and let's consider it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and Joe, with the board of directors, the jewelry industry. I feel like it's kind of always shaping itself and changing. I mean, just as recently as like two years ago, lab Grown Diamonds was like a huge pop, and then now and then last year, I mean, everybody was talking about, you know, permanent jewelry, and who knows what this year's kind of focus will be. What is it that's kind of on the top of mind for the board of directors at RJL? What are you guys kind of discussing, you know, about how to handle?
Speaker 5:Sure, obviously, as you said, our industry is constantly morphing. If we stay in the same path and do absolutely nothing, guess what their store's closing? I'll capitalize kind of on what Jason was saying is that if we get stuck in doing the things the same old way, we will, in turn, put ourselves out of business, and so one of the things that we're doing as a, as an organization, is constantly looking for that next step that's going to give our organization the leg up, and so, um, one of the greatest things that we see coming out of the woodworks right now is our management leadership program, and so it's in the baby stages, but it's in the works and we're super excited about it. And so what this is meant to do is basically take a individual from a store that's showing leadership kind of potential and ultimately getting them to a level where they could become management Not necessarily even have to be ownership at one point in time, but they could kind of go down that path. We have to remember that a lot of people in this industry started out with, just you know, I'm so-and-so's son and I grew up in the industry but never had any management training, and so this is going to allow even owners or current managers that have never really fully learned those proper skills to be able to run their stores, in order to take that to the next step. So we're not only looking at younger individuals coming up in the business, but we're looking at how do we progress store owners or store leaders right now in order to give them the tools to be able to grow their business, and so I'm just super excited about it store leaders right now in order to give them the tools to be able to grow their business, and so I'm just super excited about it.
Speaker 5:We just came off of a board meeting two weeks ago and it was one of our hot topics that we were discussing on how do we develop this in order to be able to grow our membership and then ultimately get these people to the next gen of our stores, because we're seeing so many more individuals not be a next generation in family, but they're the next group growing up within the store itself, and so we're seeing that stores employees taking over buying out the store versus it being a a son, daughter, niece, whatever the case might be, um, other things that we're constantly looking at like. We work directly with the MRC really closely, um in order to be able to make sure that our vendor partners and our members are both working towards growing our organization. Um, without each part, we're not growing Um, and so we are constantly growing our membership. But then we're also looking at how do we get more members to shows, how do we get more members buying from, you know, within the group itself, and that's huge. And so we're strategizing on how to incentivize, how to grow membership throughout the US.
Speaker 5:Our RGO team back at the main office does an amazing job at being able to do all the back-ending. They get no credit for it. It's crazy that half of us don't realize what they do on a day-to-day basis, and so we are constantly growing. We just added another staff member to our team back at the home office. Because we're growing, we need more individuals to be able to drive that growing force, and so we're super excited about adding some additional staff. We're looking forward to new up-and-coming shows. Next is St Louis and then, following up from there, phoenix, arizona. So we'll be in my home state, so we'll be here local, and so we're excited about that. But at the end of the day, our goal as a board of directors is to be able to grow our organization, but with doing that, we're growing our vendor partners and growing our membership.
Speaker 1:Man, you guys have so much going on. It's so exciting because all the things that you have all three of you have touched upon, are like to me, like the corners of what the jewelry industry is kind of resting on, which is, you know, staying on top of or ahead of trends, making sure that the next generation is kind of coming in and replacing people as they do age out or retire, and as well as just making sure that there is some type of structure and that you guys are banding together. Sure that there is some type of structure and that you guys are banding together. But the one question I always have, so this will you know, now that we're off the introductions and the easy part, I'm always curious about this one.
Speaker 1:So, like we just discussed, jewelry is constantly shifting. Like you know, permanent jewelry, while it didn't exist quite in the same essence two, three years ago. And, however, there are certain things that existed two, three years ago that do not have any kind of business or aren't doing hardly the numbers that they were before nowadays, A couple of brands I could definitely call out, but definitely won't. But how are you able to balance that, Joanna, for example, with the merchandise review committee making sure that vendors are staying on top of things. Is it so much as like, hey, if no one, if it's not selling jewelers aren't going to buy it and, as a result, you're just not going to sell anything and, like you know, tough cookies? Or is it um more of staying on top of them, to keep innovating and staying on top of trends, that they aren't left in the dust?
Speaker 3:I think it's a combination. They aren't left in the dust. I think it's a combination. I mean, I think some of it. It's kind of like what us with our businesses.
Speaker 3:If I want to keep selling and keep selling, I have to pay attention to what's the hot trend, what is selling, and our vendors have to do the same thing. One of the things that we do negotiate pretty heavily when we sit down and negotiate a contract, there's stock balancing to make sure that our members do have the ability to keep merchandise that is, you know, the hot, you know keep things turning effectively, you know. I also think that as a group, I think attending shows is so, so important to see what's hot and what's not. To talk to your vendor partners too. I may go to well, I go to a bunch of shows, but not everybody goes to as many shows as I do. But talking to your vendor partners, they see everything. They're at every show. They know whether it's what they're selling or not. But that's a great way to keep on top of it, just immersing yourself with other things in the industry and paying attention.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely agree. I think that the you know pressure from within, but also pressure from without. People. You know, hey, we need to, we need more innovation on this particular style of jewelry or things like that, because that's what we're, you know, people are fiending for and not so much this Definitely important, but everybody, I think we're going to take a quick break. We got to pay some bills and have a word from our sponsor, so stay with us. We're going to take a quick break. We got to pay some bills and have a word from our sponsor, so stay with us.
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Speaker 1:Thanks, and back to the show. And we're back. All right, everybody still speaking with the leadership team at RJL. So I want to talk about the education programs, because you have already mentioned that ensuring that people are learning from each other and also kind of deeply immersed in the jewelry industry is key to, like you know, the success of the success. Jason, maybe we can start with you, with next generation members. What are some of the key things that you're trying to ensure that the next generation are being educated on? And then we can kind of go from each group.
Speaker 4:Yeah Well, I think what Joe touched on earlier of like a lot of store owners or managers never had formal training, never had a business degree or formal management training, and because it's kind of homegrown leadership, um can can present a lot of challenges.
Speaker 4:So, um, at our last um uh next gen summit in uh Chicago last fall, um, we did a lot of just kind of the basics of management, um, a lot of the kind of strategies and techniques that people can use, and it was really interesting to see how many people in that room were really really engaged in a lot of those conversations of like you know, some of the basic things of like escalating accountability for staff members, that that are pretty universal tactics that people can use, but having them spelled out really clearly was so useful.
Speaker 4:I was fortunate to do a business degree and went through some of that myself, but having even just other peers learning that and applying it to our stores, so much of it kind of came through in a different light for myself than in a sterile classroom in a university a long time ago, and so some really basic stuff there is really valuable, but then some of the very industry specific elements like learning you know what are other stores, strategies for getting rid of old inventory and staying top of keeping inventory fresh and new, and strategies for negotiating with vendors for stock balancing. Rj does a great job of doing those negotiations for us so we can just show up to the show and stay focused. But a lot of if we're working outside of the group, we have to do that on our own. So it's a kind of a well-rounded mix of leadership, of inventory techniques, of interpersonal skills. How do you respond to a parent in the industry giving pushback about a new concept of what is this whole TikTok thing? Why should we be advertising there, baby? Just stuff like that.
Speaker 1:A good balance of formal training and some of those soft, um, peer-to-peer support elements definitely, and, joe with you know, I'm sure that someone has to be setting the curriculum. Um, is that coming from, uh, from the, from the leadership team, or um, how is that kind of decided upon? So we do a couple different things, um.
Speaker 5:So we're constantly asking what do you want next from our membership? So we take suggestions from our membership. We also look at attendance of previous seminars. Do we have one that's super jam packed and one that's super empty and kind of determine, okay, what are needs for the industry? Sabrina puts together a lot of our education aspect of it at our home office. She really takes the train with that and helps put together who's going to be speaking. What vendor partners are willing to kind of spread the wealth of some of their knowledge. We have people we bring people in specifically for a training seminar.
Speaker 5:One of the greatest things that I feel like I get the most out of are some of our brain games or some of our breakout sessions and whatnot, where our membership just gets to be able to vocalize what's working for them, and so I utilize that quite a bit. I know Joanne and I have both led some of those in the past. Um, we continue to do so. Um, each each uh show, Um. But it's a great way where, even as a, as a host, I'm learning from all of our membership, Um, and, it's amazing, the age group. I'm learning a lot from even our younger membership today.
Speaker 5:What, you're doing what and how does that working for your store, and so it's really cool.
Speaker 5:You know, I've been in this industry for 10 years my wife's been in it her lifetime but it's crazy how things have shifted and the utilization of technology in order to be able to grow our business.
Speaker 5:Obviously you guys are pretty keen on that um in in your world. Um, but uh, as we continue to look at future shows, um, for those that have that have never been to an RGO show we kick off our Saturday um kind of morning with our education and seminars and whatnot and then we roll into our show from there. Um, and so those shows, those seminars, tend to be some of our um kind of our learning points for our membership that come early, make sure they're prepared to be able to be there at the shows. They bring their staff in order to get that. They they kind of split up and divide and conquer so they can hit every single one of the seminars and then come back and discuss it over lunch um from there. And so, um, our training is really one of our things that we've grown a lot over the last few years, and so I give the compliments back to our home office of being able to bring in some amazing individuals to be able to speak and help educate the membership Interesting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I guess technology is also constantly adapting and the way that jewelry fits into it is like an amalgamation, like two puzzle pieces that are always changing in shape. But that's one of those things I, you know, I do want to bring up as well. So I know that RGO does have exclusivity involved in the membership, correct, I believe? Yes, ok, I just wanted to make sure, has some exclusivity. But with that I always wonder if that'll go by, if that'll one day need to go by the wayside, or the rules will need to adapt because as e-commerce and technology become more apparent what a boundary line is or what a line of exclusivity. I mean there is no exclusivity on the web, for example, I can purchase something from Los Angeles just as easily as I can from the store down the street from me. Do you think that you'll ever need to reconsider what exclusivity is or the bounds of competition is for an organization and potentially either let in more people or make it more restrictive?
Speaker 5:Yeah, we definitely have looked at that in the past and even current state of changing depending on how big a city is, but never really looked at it on the technology side of on a web-based situation. You're absolutely right. Someone can order from me two doors down and they could be ordering from Joanna across the country. And so when we look at boundaries, I think we have to have some boundaries for our organization for a matter of, even though we are very much a collaborative, we still try to keep it to where we don't have the same brands in a store a mile away, and so it's hard to go. Hey, yeah, you're part of our organization, but you can't buy that brand, that brand or that brand because someone else has it right down the street.
Speaker 5:I think that I'm in a big market. You know I'm in the Peoria Arizona, which is right outside of Phoenix, and within five miles of me there's 15 jewelry stores, and so when we look at who carries what within the area, I'll tell you I work directly with all of our independents that are in our area. You know the big box stores. They could care less who I am. It's funny when they need a repair done that they can't do they send it in our direction?
Speaker 5:Yeah, because it can be done. But when it comes to brands and whatnot, I specifically select some of my brands that aren't located in some of the other stores, just so that I have something different than the next jewelry store down the road. So boundaries, I mean, at the end of the day, I think that they're endless, but it is maybe something that we'll have to look at in the future. It's hard to gauge how to kind of set that, so I mean, just like everything else, it's forever changing. So definitely something to kind of keep in mind. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Wow, what a really great answer. That's super fascinating. But I'm sure you can probably see, you know our stance on it. It's something I would have a ton of sympathy for a independent who just by happenstance might be, for example, in my hometown there's only one jewelry store that services three towns and then imagine, you know, one place opens up, or it's their wish that they want to stay where they grew up and they open up, you know, within that bounds of competition and they wouldn't be able to get the fantastic education opportunities or collaborative nature of a jewelry organization, as yourself you know. Would that, you know, cut them out of being able to do that? Or is that something that would have to be looked at like a case by case basis?
Speaker 5:So so it truly is a case-by-case basis. So say, let's say someone um that opened up a new store down the road for me, um, first of all, they have to be open two years in order to be able to apply for rjo. Rjo looks at credit, they look at ratings and whatnot, and so we only because we are a guaranteed not, and so we only because we are a guaranteed pay to our vendors we have to look at um, new members coming in that are have a plus credit credit rating in order to be able to be allowed into rjo. Um, and so because it becomes a risk, right? So, if I let we let a brand new store come in with no credit history, um, and they go and rack up a bill for $200,000 and then go belly up. We all, as a cooperative, hold the bill for that, and so we definitely look at what it looks like having a new store come in. But let's say a store has been open for five years and they want to apply to RJO, and in my city I only get two miles around my store because we're a large market, and so let's say they're within a mile of me, they would, rjo Aaron would contact me and say, hey, there's a new store wanting to join RJO. How do you feel about it? I'm at the point where, in my life, the more the merrier, and so I have no issue with another store joining. Other stores may look at it differently, they may have some bad blood right and so they go. You know what? I don't want another competitor in my group that I utilize to strategize in order to be able to grow my business and give them the same exact tools that I've been around for 27 years or 30 years, you know, and I've grown with the, with the organization, and so um, I I look at it as there's. There's a lot of business out there for us all to be happy to have, um, and let's work together in order to grow it.
Speaker 5:I think our biggest competitor is is technology and electronics, um versus another jewelry store down the road. Um, if you look back 15 years, when the iPad was introduced into the market, who bought an iPad? How many iPads do you have in your home? How many have you bought? When we look at Apple's technology, we look at how much does each individual home have in Apple products today? Well, if you calculate it, most of the average individual has over $5,000 worth of Apple products in their home and they're constantly renewing it on a yearly basis.
Speaker 5:Look at an iPhone. It costs you $1,000, right? Every two years you get a brand-new iPhone, and it's automatic. I wish the jewelry industry was like that. Every two years, you get a brand-new $1,000 piece of jewelry right, it's an automatic. Well, it's our job to be able to compete with that. And so, as we look at growing, my goal is to grow and take from that venture instead of from other jewelry stores, and so, if we can work together, we have a bigger power to be able to incentivize and market and get individuals into our store.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, you got to start making worse jewelry, Joe, because the reason why I'm upgrading is because I want to Worst truly, joe, because the reason why I'm upgrading is because I want to. It's because my bracelet, in this instance, isn't working as fast as it once was.
Speaker 5:I'll pass on that one, but I like the strategy.
Speaker 1:Have you considered making a worse product, joe? I don't know, just to tie you guys in as well. So In the Loop actually started as trying to educate people on marketing techniques, specifically digital marketing techniques and e-commerce strategy. It still is a huge core value of Punchmark. In fact, I think on this episode we will have an ad related to digital marketing packages. But is RJO encouraging people to be involved in that? Because, as of recently, the awareness for digital marketing techniques was much meaning.
Speaker 1:Seo and pay-per-click and just landing pages in general and blog writing and product SEO, things like that has been so behind, not for RJO but in general for the industry, and it's something that I feel like I'm still trying to educate jewelers on, especially like when it comes to the simple question hey, do you have an Instagram for your store? Hey, do you have a TikTok for your store yet, or have you ever posted to it? Things like that? Have you ever sold a product online? Is that something maybe, jason, for like tying in next generation people is that going to be something that can be looked at for the future education, you know, encouraging people from the next generation to start taking the helm and tell them and getting these stores to start posting onto other platforms and considering buying a Google ad, and considering buying a Google ad.
Speaker 4:You know, I think RJO is already doing a pretty good job of trying to support and drive that. A lot of the educational seminars that happen on those Saturday mornings, there's almost always a digital marketing-focused one or an e-commerce-focused one. So I think the RJO group is pushing that. I think it's a little bit up to the individual jewelers to group is is pushing that? Um, I think it's a little bit up to the individual jewelers to pick up and run with that. I think some are, some aren't. Um, it's, it's a tricky thing to present at one of those because you'll have folks that are doing you know, google ads and um, seo and SEM and all that stuff, uh, in the same room with someone that maybe doesn't even have a computer in their store, doesn't know what the acronym is. So I think you have to kind of meet people where they are and say, okay, how do you progress to the next kind of level of this wherever you're at? And I think there's some really good vendors in the group that do some of that, that do really tailored campaigns and strategies and regular meetings with different jewelers.
Speaker 4:But it is somewhat up to the individual business to say you know, is that something I value? Am I wanting to push for growth? Cause there's also plenty of stores that the owners are in their sixties or seventies and they don't have someone lined up for the next generation and they're just, you know, kind of concluding their, their business. Yeah, exactly, and I think that's totally fine and fair to to for the. So it depends on what their priorities are.
Speaker 4:You know our store we we do focus a lot on digital marketing and e-commerce. We're a little bit of an oddball in that we focus so much on Montana Sapphires and Yogo Sapphires, so we sell all over the country through our website and we built an e-commerce website in 2005. And it's been a key part of our business for a very long time. So I definitely kind of champion and advocate for modernizing and embracing technology at events, but I think it's unfair to think that everyone needs to be doing that at the same degree all the time, because it depends on what your goals are and what kind of your timelines are too.
Speaker 1:That's fair. And, Joanna, I just saw you at the client workshop just recently in Charlotte, North Carolina. We just had an episode all about it today and it seems like it's something that is a focus for your store. I believe. Did you bring a couple of members from your staff?
Speaker 3:I did, I did and I mean I'll say I'll actually kind of go back to where I've mentioned going to shows and networking with other jewelers, and my team does a really, really good job with our social media and super interactive. You want to see a stupid video? Get on some of our social media.
Speaker 4:Love it.
Speaker 3:But we're just like we understand the importance of our website and SEO and all of these things, but we're like just diving in and just learning and we want to learn, but so I'm excited to learn those things and then go, you know, interact with other RJO members and tell them what I've learned.
Speaker 3:But, like the brain gain sessions that Joe mentioned earlier, we had one last time and there's a store I'd never met before, two young guys and we're talking about like what had been successful with their store and they were bringing in influencers and it was just so neat to talk to them. But it was also really interesting to see not just the other young people around the table go. Oh, that's really cool. They were older, you could tell much longer established members who were really listening and asking questions. I think some of them got their card and was like tell me what you're doing. And so I think the best way to push technology is to let people see success from technology and share with other members, and once you see the success, you want to be part of it.
Speaker 1:That's a really interesting way to look at it for sure. Can you guys tell me more about what this brain game?
Speaker 3:is. So it's a round table. We do it at every show and actually members of leadership divide up just to just kind of talk through it with people. But it really is a list of questions and you go through like what vendors are you doing? Well, Facilitate, that's the word. They facilitate the meetings.
Speaker 3:But just you know what vendors are you doing well with, what advertising campaigns are you doing well, what parts of your business are working and what parts of your business aren't, and just open discussion, learning from other people doing the same thing you're doing in a different area.
Speaker 1:Very cool. Now, everybody, we're going to take one last break and then we're going to be coming back, and then I want to hear about what you guys are currently working on for your own star. So stay with us. Hey, if you're attending JCK Las Vegas this May, be sure to visit the Punchmark booth in the essentials and tech section, right near the edge at booth 53 112. Come by and see a demo of punch mark's latest ai tools and learn about the new flexible digital marketing plans built specifically for retail jewelers. Also, exclusively at this jck, any edge user who signs up for a new website with punch mark will get their edge integration set of fees completely waived, which, which is a bunch of money. Make an appointment today to secure your preferred time at punchmarkcom slash JCK and learn what the Punchmark team has been cooking up. Again, that's booth 53112 in the essentials and tech section from May 31st through June 3rd. And now back to the show. And we back to the show. And we're back. All right, everybody Still talking with leadership at RJO, and I want to kind of put this to you all three of you.
Speaker 1:You know, Jason, maybe if you don't mind starting us off, what is it that your store is currently working on. It sounds like you guys are constantly tinkering with your own digital presence. Is there anything in-store, out-of-store that you guys are currently focused on?
Speaker 4:Yeah, the last couple of years we've really been focusing on building our own lines of jewelry that's pretty unique to our style and our kind of our regional aesthetic. So we have two collections now that we build fully in-house our Arm Collection and our Imper of our regional aesthetic. So, um, we have two collections now that we build fully in house our arm collection and our imperfectionist collection um, using a lot of rough uh Montana Sapphire crystals, a little heavier metal, really durable, low profile, fitting a Montana lifestyle. Um, we launched that in 2021, um, a couple of years after I bought the store from my dad, and last year that RM Collection was our fourth biggest vendor that our store tracks in our point of sale system. So it's really gone well, just doing something that kind of fits our identity and who we are and it's resonated well with clients.
Speaker 4:That's been one of the biggest things. I think. The other thing that we're doing really well with is a lot more in store events, um, a lot of fun kind of whimsical events that just get our clients engaged. So our most recent success was we've started doing our custom design speed dating event, um, where we have four different design teams uh to we partner up our staff and we bring in four clients and they rotate through all four designers and by the end of it they hopefully have some concept that they want us to build.
Speaker 4:Um, we're working on a pretty ridiculous bolo tie with a five carat diamond and that one modular thing that came out of that, so that's been a really fun one that our staff loves, our clients love, and it's driven some really good custom projects.
Speaker 1:So cool. You'll have to send me a, send me a picture. When that's uh, when that's done, I would love to see that. Joanna, what about your yourself? What is Joe and co working on?
Speaker 3:So we actually. So I, this is our 20th year in business, but a year ago I had the opportunity to buy out my business partner and so we rebranded. So we're just working on kind of it's kind of exciting with the rebrand, just kind of reinventing ourselves but still letting people know that it's us, it's the people they love working with. I can't say enough amazing things about my team. So we're also working on we've got some young members to our staff that just have so much potential. So we're working on really getting them involved in the day-to-day and connecting them to the business, thus connecting them to our customers, and it's really just growing the brand, our social media and our website.
Speaker 5:Punchmark has done such a good job for us.
Speaker 1:I appreciate that. And what about you, Joe? Anything going on at Aziz.
Speaker 5:Yeah, so one of our number one vendor in our store is our estate lineup and so we have an opportunity to be able to, where we're located, purchase quite a bit of jewelry from individuals, and so we see about 30% of our business come out of about four cases in our store, which is huge.
Speaker 5:And so a couple of years ago we actually partnered with Punchmark to be able to build our website, and one of the biggest key factors was being able to seamlessly take product that we've uploaded into the Edge and populate it to our website and have that constantly floating as we sell through our state product, and so my staff has been really working diligently and have that constantly floating as we sell through our state product, and so my staff has been really working diligently in order to be able to keep that up to date and because it turned so well for us it's a full-time job Photographing, uploading, describing and constantly getting it into our point of sale system with the edge.
Speaker 5:Obviously, the technology side of it, of the seamless connection between the two, is huge for us, so that we're not having to take, like we used to, upload it in the edge and from the edge to. You know, we used to use big commerce and so, as a lot of like point and click in adding, there was no seamless upload, and so now we have the back and forth, which is huge for us. Like Joanna, I have a pretty young staff and so being able to constantly develop and grow with them. I'll tell you, my biggest challenge is releasing responsibilities.
Speaker 5:And so they have really pushed me to that point where they want to do more and I have to be willing to go. Okay, I'm willing and help me with this, and so that's one of the largest things that we're working on in our store is transferring roles within the store itself in order to be able to give more responsibility to my staff that is hungry, and so by doing so, it's allowing us to be able to grow internally, which is amazing man.
Speaker 1:You guys have all really exciting things and very you know, very inspiring, very things that you can kind of look forward to and also iterate on. So major claps for you guys for doing that. Guys, I want to let you, let you all out of here. I know we have a have a time to jump out of here, but I just wanted to mention next RJO show will be August 3rd through August 5th and it's going to be in St Louis at the Marriott St Louis Grand. Very exciting. Any closing thoughts from you three before we get out of here?
Speaker 3:I would just I would encourage, because I, like I said, on a fluke, ended up meeting the RJO group in Antwerp and it has had such an impact on my business. Anyone who's considering the organization? Hey, I'm happy to talk to anybody it is, it's an amazing group.
Speaker 1:That's so exciting. Well, thank you guys all so much. I really appreciate your time. I know RGO is in good hands and getting a chance to speak with you all and hear that you guys are not just talking the talk but also doing the thing as well Very inspiring. Thank you all so much, everybody. We'll be back next week, tuesday. Very inspiring. Thank you all so much, everybody. We'll be back next week, tuesday, with another episode. Cheers Bye.
Speaker 1:All right, everybody. That's the end of the show. Thanks so much for listening. I want to give a very special thank you to Sarah Streb, who is the CEO of RGL, who put me in touch with these people and allowed me to interview them. It was very appreciated and she is a great leader. I want to say thank you to Joe Schiavone, joanna Groover and Jason Beatty for being interviewed and being my guest on this week's show. This episode was brought to you by Punchmark and produced and hosted by me, michael Burpo. This episode was edited by Paul Suarez with music by Ross Cockrum. Don't forget to rate the podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and leave us feedback on punchmarkcom slash loop. That's L-O-U-P-E. Thanks so much and we'll be back next week, tuesday, with another episode. Cheers Bye, thank you.