Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Talla Kuperman. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Talla, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

The story behind why I felt compelled to launch Love Talla is born out of great loss but also shows how someone can be forged in fire to create a vehicle to make this world a better place.

And that’s where my story begins…

For as long as I can remember, it was my brother Amir and me against the world. He was my big brother, my biggest challenger, and most importantly my best friend. Amir was my world.

Our deep bond was present in so many different times in our lives but was never stronger than the season when we were young adults making our way in Southern California. Little did I know, it would also be the most defining time of my entire life.

Unexpectedly my brother (the notoriously “healthy kid” in our family) began to experience stomach pains. Assuming Amir’s symptoms were a result of needing to grow up his diet from too many carne asada fries and cheez-its, we didn’t take the pain too seriously. But after a month of rapidly growing pain, it became glaringly clear that something was not right.

In 2010, I was given news that changed my life forever.

Amir’s stomach pain was so much worse than we could have imagined. His insides were riddled with cancerous tumors and we were told he only had two weeks to live.

I couldn’t believe it. I felt like I had been kicked in the head by a donkey. My entire world collapsed.

But even then, when I didn’t fully understand what or why this tragedy was happening, I knew I had a responsibility to be the person my brother always was to me. At that moment, I made the decision to try to love, inspire, and be present with my best friend, with whatever time we had together.

For the next one and half years, I watched my brother fight like a m*ther&@$%er. And though that time was deeply traumatic, there was also beauty in it, for which I’m forever grateful.

In the years following Amir’s passing, all I wanted was one more moment. One more laugh. One more hug. My heart was craving to feel my brother physically close to me, just one more time.

So when I was introduced to remembrance fingerprint jewelry, I knew it was the solution I needed. I needed that daily reminder to hold his hand again.

It was only through total emotional surrender that I found the key to my healing journey – feeling the proximity of those I love most close to me, every day. And I knew I couldn’t be the only grieving person who needed the same.

Love Talla was born. I dove headfirst in designing fingerprint jewelry that not only honors and celebrates life’s most precious people and moments, but also looks beautiful (no gaudy, boring, and depressing remember me jewelry here!)

Fingerprint jewelry is the beautiful connection between people that matter most. It’s a reminder, a celebration, and a way to heal.

Today, I proudly wear two fingerprint necklaces. One for my brother, Amir, who reminds me to be grateful for his legacy, and one for the little light of my life, my daughter Lexi, who reminds me to love hard and cherish every minute.

Now I’m on a mission to create meaningful and timeless fingerprint jewelry so you can forever feel the connection between you and the people you love.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I got into the fingerprint jewelry industry not because I had a highly successful background in jewelry design or incredible business acumen because let me assure you, I had neither. In retrospect I realized that I had a deep desire to make sense of the trauma and tragedy of losing my young, handsome brother to cancer and I also wanted to make sure that his legacy survived in a really beautiful and meaningful way. When I first started down the path of fingerprint jewelry, I never in a million years thought I was going to start a business. I just wanted a beautiful keepsake for myself, but I waited for almost a decade for someone to create something timeless and stylish…worthy of my brother’s legacy. It was when I couldn’t find anything in the marketplace that checked all those boxes that I realized that there is a real opportunity here for someone who has the drive and desire to create beautiful, modern fingerprint jewelry because what I came to find was that I had stumbled on to a highly antiquated niche of the jewelry world and it was begging for someone to give it renewed purpose.

Many people are shocked to realize that Love Talla was not the very first fingerprint jewelry brand. The concept of fingerprint jewelry, especially in the grief and remembrance world, has been around for multiple decades. I just found a way to a) make it more meaningful with modern designs and styles that can go from day to night and b) I put modern technology behind it to make the ordering and creation process seamless and easy for the customer. A stumbling block that I recognized when I was doing my market research. In reality, I was solving 2 problems that people may or may not have had but they were problems that I had. I did not like the readily available styles of fingerprint jewelry, and I found the process of ordering to be incredibly emotional as a bereaved person but also confusing and difficult as far as systems were concerned. What I sought out to do was to make the process super easy creating a system that I would love to use. Here is how it goes: Find the style you love, order it, receive an upload link on your phone, take a picture of the finger or fingerprint with your phone, and the rest is all done for you. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

A lesson or more of a mindset that I had to unlearn was over-preparing and perfectionism. I quickly realized that these 2 things do not create successful businesses. Let me take you back to the beginning of Love Talla’s creation to illustrate what I mean…

One of the most important business lessons I’ve learned was not from a coach or other business owners. Or the countless blogs, books and podcasts I have devoured over the last few years. It was from my husband. The moment I told Zach about my dream and my mission to use my brother’s legacy to spread joy throughout the world, he immediately sprang into action. He hadn’t even heard of fingerprint jewelry or seen any of my designs I had noodled out in my head. He didn’t need to. He was ready to start step 1 of his due diligence: Telling The World. He picked up the phone and started making calls to our friends and family and pitching my business idea to them to get their feedback. You would think that I would be happy and appreciative for his help but instead I WAS MORTIFIED. I sat on the couch dumbfounded as he spoke my dreams into reality. As my face flushed red and I started to perspire I had one of those mind blowing “AHA” moments. You know what Zach never thinks about?

Perfectionism
Imposter Syndrome
Fear of Failure

I mean the guy has failed so many times I am not sure if he even recognizes the event. I watched as Zach continued to poll, make connections, ask for advice, look for help, and organically practice my 30 second elevator pitch. Every time I heard him tell someone else about my dream I heard him refine how he delivered the message to have the greatest impact. I watched as my dream was being manifested into reality.

I am really grateful to Zach for showing me what a real entrepreneur looks like. He took messy action and he didn’t care that it wasn’t perfectly buttoned up with a beautiful business plan and a 5 year strategy. Of course all that came later BUT the one line he said to me when I told him to stop telling the world about my idea because I wasn’t ready was “Are you gonna think about it for another 10 years or are you gonna do something about it?” And that was a major wake up call for me. It reminded me that life is way too short and way too fragile to wait on your dreams no matter what fear or what mindset you have to unlearn or let go of.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Resilience is absolutely key when you are budling something from the ground up but it’s in my founder story that I show my greatest battle and most intense example of resilience. In order for me to be able to create meaningful and beautiful fingerprint jewelry to give other people a tool for remembrance, celebration, healing and joy, I had to revisit some of the darkest corners of my life and basically re-lived the loss of my brother. It was this journey that I had to take myself on to better understand the needs of the other people who would be walking in my same shoes when they came to me to create a keepsake of their loved ones. It was hard, sad, depressing and riddled with tears but it was necessary because now I can be of service to others and hold their hand through the entire process. I needed to remember and feel those dark days again so that I could help others step into the light. Being able to go to those dark corners of your life and come out a second time with a positivity and light is a grand example of my resilience. And trust me…if I can do it, then so can you.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.lovetalla.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lovetalla/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lovetalla123/

Image Credits
Karla Hernz at Kollective Luv Photography in Austin, TX