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

Lisa, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Crazy stuff happening is almost as certain as death and taxes – it’s technically “unexpected” but something unexpected happening is to be expected and so can you share a crazy story with our readers

This interesting little story takes us back to almost the beginnings of our company… We had been thrilled to stumble upon (and then research!) the wonders of Portuguese cork, it’s renewability and the beautiful and wondrous things that could be made with it. We followed the trail to Portugal, and began our quest for more knowledge and discovery in Lisbon. Thinking we had found a fountain of “cute” cork things that people in the US would love to learn about and own, we set out one day on the purely touristy venture of climbing the hill to Castelo de São Jorge – St. George’s Castle – to, well, see a castle, and the city of Lisbon from above. Tired and out of breath at the top, I noticed a little old lady with a cart, selling her wares to tourists – cork, of course. With a closer look, I notice that a lot of what she is offering is very much like a great deal of what we had found. I take the challenge and begin a conversation with her in Portuguese. She says: “I’ll tell you a secret. This is all “B” cork that is sent to China to be sewn.” I tell my husband, and we just want to cry. NOT the standard of quality or sourcing we wanted to set for our business! After a lovely time at the castle, we climbed back down and sat on a wall in Lisbon, Portugal, in silence – despondent, disillusioned, depressed, somewhat angry. Now what? After several long minutes, my husband turns to me and says “I feel like God just said “I’ve got this!”” OK! So with MORE research, traveling the country, spending time in the cork forests with those who care for them and harvest these incredible renewable trees, keeping eyes wide open, we learn the difference between “A” premium cork and “B” cork, and find ourselves three incredible families that hand-sew all our product to our specifications right there in Portugal, and only from the top grade cork fabric.

Lisa, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

We are BriLi Joi – Brian and Lisa Joy, a TN born company resulting from a not-yet-over-the-hill retired couple with years, (Lord willing), energy, creativity and desire left in them. Always self employed, mostly in the field of music, I (Lisa) found myself wanting to move on to a new season of life and start my own company. Searching and finding the wonderful world of sustainable cork, we did our due diligence in research, travel for hands on learning, seeking out those with knowledge, artistry and craftsmanship, and began to get our feet wet in this wonderful business! Having learned that the premium, top grade cork is well worth the cost, (see our fun little castle story), we now carry beautiful, soft, and light, purses, bags, sling bags, backpacks, wallets (men and women), baseball caps, phone bags, concealed carry bags, man bags, Dopp kits, and more! I design many of the bags, work with and adapt designs from our Portuguese families, and love working with new colors and patterns on the cork every season. We have developed our own brand, and love the versatility that gives us! Our Portuguese “families”, (two of the three are literally families, and all three are small, independent companies), hand sew these beautiful pieces of art to my specifications. I love that we get to work with them in such a personal way!

I am very proud of the fact that our product just gets better and better, that our folks in Portugal work so hard to please us and the US clientele, and that we have earned our customers’ trust and carry a very high customer service rating. We want our customers to be happy and to love this incredible, eco-friendly product that can be turned into such unexpectedly beautiful pieces!

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

This is an interesting question… I think so many businesses any more are looking to cut corners, to give less and get more, to undercut… While we obviously look to cut overhead where we can, (shipping from Portugal is a huge one for us), our customers are our priority. If they contact us, we answer. If they have an issue, we do whatever we have to do to make it right for THEM. We go over and above. We are often stepping out of our own return policy to be sure that when someone thinks of BriLi Joi they are positive thoughts.
When we do trade shows, we follow the policy. We are never late, we never leave early. We abide by the guidelines. We are grateful to the organizers.
When we sell in a boutique, we keep it stocked, neat, and interesting.
They are all things that USED to be the norm. Common courtesy. Making the other person more important. Seems odd to even be writing this, or like it’s self aggrandizement, but it’s just caring about your customers, without whom you’d have no business. Seems pretty simple. May not have been exactly how the question was meant, but it’s what leapt to mind.

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

This part of our business, (the Portuguese cork), was really getting going well and gaining traction as we headed into spring of 2020… That lovely COVID shut-down year! And yet we’re still here. Business is not for the fainthearted. Or even the inspired or motivated. It’s for the disciplined. You “do it anyway”. We had our product in 8 boutiques when COVID hit. Four of them shut down for good, another never recovered in sales for us. We hit the road hard after that, doing many more trade and road shows than we really had energy for, but our name and reputation built. These are the events that actually gain us the most loyal customers, the most social media followers, the most repeat buyers, the most requests to be in other places, so this was a GOOD thing for us. We are now re-evaluating yet again as the market and mode of consuming seems to be shifting in another direction. Resiliency in business seems to be “sticking to your guns” when it comes to your quality, customer service and integrity, but being totally flexible and ever-learning as markets, buying habits and cultures change.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://BriLiJoi.com
• Instagram: @brili_joi
• Facebook: https://Facebook.com/BriLiJoi

Image Credits

Photos by Lucas Grimaud