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

Alright, Lisa thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

At the beginning, it was never about business. I found out that I lost my sister and best friend Ellen on my ascent to climb Kilimanjaro in celebration of my fifth year in remission. The last thing that she ever said to me was, “Go get it you beautiful woman.” After her loss, I felt the sorrow of each of her should-have-been significant days, especially the birthdays she never got to celebrate. As her 30th birthday approached, I was determined to turn her day into something joyous again. I thought I would attempt to climb Kilimanjaro again to summit in celebration of her life instead of mine. But COVID had other plans. It grounded me in a way that gave me space and time to dream. A dream bigger than climbing a mountain to honor her.

I used the time to teach myself how to design jewelry on computer aided design (CAD) software to 3D print a ring. I sent my file off to a manufacturer with my fingers crossed that something resembling a ring would come back. I’ll never forget opening my first design, a classic 14k gold band, which resembled the stacking rings my sister used to wear that I intended to name after her. It was July and only two months ahead of her 30th birthday. I finally had clarity on the big thing that I would do to honor her: Launch a jewelry line where each design is named after and honors our stories.

I didn’t tell anyone that I was planning to launch a fine jewelry business on her birthday. I wanted to surprise those my sister loved the most with a ring designed and named after them in their honor. I loved the way their designs came to life. When I thought of their stories, their designs popped out of my head and into reality. Everything about the endeavor was personal – from the name of the ring to the description – it told their stories.

Sister Sister Jewelry launch day was one of the most poignant days of my life and I’d like to tell you why. When I lost my sister, I feared that the world would forget her story; that I would forget her details. Etching her story in gold was a coping mechanism. Someday people will forget her story, but that day isn’t today.
It was easy for me to name my initial collection of stacking rings, each piece was inspired by women that I knew. That’s when I ran into my first challenge. How was I going to find others that wanted to share intimate details of their lives with me to inspire my designs?

So I turned to my audience and posed a simple question. Do you know someone that you’d like to honor by designing a ring after them? The response was overwhelming. People shared pictures of their loved ones and pieces of their stories. I learned favorite songs, passions, and how they helped one another. In turn, I designed and named jewelry after them as part of the Sister Sister Jewelry collection.

It’s an amazing thing to trust someone with stories of those you love the most. And although I’ve never met some of the women honored in my collection, I feel as if I have; proof that connection is found everywhere.

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?

I started designing 14k gold jewelry for women who want to feel seen and cherished. It grew out of the devastating loss of my sister and the need to honor her memory.

On my 30th birthday, my sister Ellen gifted me real gold – the forever kind – and I made a mental note to outdo her on hers. I lost my sister before I could bring my thought to reality. Determined to turn my sister’s should-have-been birthdays into something meaningful, I started to design jewelry named after women she loved as a reminder of their connection.

I launched the initial designs on my sister’s should-have-been 30th birthday. Ever since, I’ve designed fine jewelry that honors women by telling their stories. I offer timeless rings, earrings, and necklaces to pass from generation to generation – and if it doesn’t already exist, I can create a custom piece that tells a story precious to you.

I am inspired to make jewelry because it’s my favorite way to say I love you. I design the perfect pieces to represent meaningful people and life moments in my customer’s lives: a trip they once took, someone they love, or an experience they want to mark. I believe that jewelry isn’t valuable because of gold or gemstones. Its value comes from who gave it to you, the story it tells, and the milestone it celebrates.

All my designs are named after women. My customers tell me about who the jewelry is for and then I design the piece to write their story in 14k gold. Each design carries a woman’s name, a product description, and an accompanying blog that tells her story. The purpose of telling stories through jewelry is to honor our loved ones in the here and now because tomorrow isn’t promised. I designed jewelry to celebrate some of life’s most significant milestones from a mother’s birth of her rainbow baby to a granddaughter celebrating her grandmother’s 90th birthday. My customer’s testimonials are what motivates me to continue to build Sister Sister Jewelry every day:

“Lisa designed this ring for my Grandmother and it has been the most perfect way to honor her. Ann is ever-humble and never wants people to fuss over her, so finding a way to recognize all she’s done for our family was hard. This ring did that and so much more! It’s now an item our immediate, and extended, family members wear daily with pride.” -Heather C.

I am focused on scaling Sister Sister Jewelry, a direct-to-consumer e-commerce business, using 3D printing technology. Each design is made in CAD and printed with various 3D manufacturers. My dream is to turn Sister Sister Jewelry into a household name that people use to honor one another through meaningful gifts.

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

I had lymphoma when I was 26 and from that time I remember receiving a lot of heartfelt messages emphasizing something along the lines of: If you can get through this, you can do anything. I used it as armor and it worked. Up until that point, facing down my own demise was the hardest thing I had ever done. Then the loss of my sister clobbered me. She was a big source of strength through my hardest moments and I couldn’t help her in hers. I had to unlearn that age-old message that once provided me with armor. I’ve learned that in life we don’t have a punchcard of hardships with a maximum allowed and that surviving one isn’t a guarantee to overcome the next. My new armor is to enjoy the moments in between life’s hardships to the fullest.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

No one should go it alone, especially when starting a business. There is nothing worse than having a brainstorm with yourself to determine your next move in building a business from scratch. I knew I needed a community to bounce good (and a lot of bad) ideas off of and I found it in the most unexpected of places: a mastermind tailored to agricultural businesses. It sounds absurd for a wanna-be jeweler like myself to join a mastermind in a different industry, but it made complete sense to me. I joined the M5 Entrepreneurs Mastermind hosted by Mary Heffernan of Five Mary’s Farms during my first year in business. Mary is a self-made entrepreneur from Silicon Valley who remade herself and started a farm in rural Northern California with her family. Her story spoke to me. I spent my career as a business consultant and wanted to plunge headfirst into designing and 3D printing jewelry. It required a complete leap of faith, just like Mary. Plus, I couldn’t think of an industry with a harder work ethic that requires a constant need for creativity to survive and thrive. The mastermind not only taught me the essentials to run a product-based business, but provided me with a community that I still lean on today.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://sistersister.us
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sistersister.jewelry/
• Other: Newsletter (10% off first purchase with signup): https://sistersister.us/email-list/