We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Amanda Kozlowski a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Amanda , thanks for joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?
In 2020, during the Covid 19 lockdown, I was having a really hard time. I am an extreme extrovert and my job involved me meeting with people every day. When being with people had to stop because of the lockdown I started becoming depressed. It was one of the darkest times in my life and I needed something to change. I am a woman of faith, so I was praying that God would show me how to change my situation to make me feel that I had purpose again. One day, an idea popped into my mind to make jewelry and attach it to encouraging messages. I knew this idea was from God because I had never made jewelry in my life, nor was I ever interested in doing that. The idea was way out of my wheel house, but I decided to give it try….because…. why not? I feel very attached to the jewelry I wear, and it would be so amazing to create jewelry that could be special for someone and has meaning behind it. This idea was exactly what I needed because it engaged every part of my mind. Rather than focusing on feeling lonely and stuck at home, I focused on learning several new skills needed to start a successful business (such as graphic design and marketing.) Since I decided to center my business on fidget rings, I had to learn how to make those all by myself too. I also knew that many women were feeling the same way as me. So instead of just making jewelry, I wanted to make jewelry that had meaningful encouraging words. I thought of the encouraging words I wanted to share with people and I learned how to design the cards that I would attach the rings to. I had help learning how to build a website and setting it up so I could take online orders. I learned all about using social media to promote and grow my business. Nothing was more exciting than when I started getting orders. It was so awesome to watch the idea God gave me come to life.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I am married with 3 kids all under age 12. My business partner/co-owner is my sister, Shannon. We make a great team and I wouldn’t be able to do this without her. The rings we make are not only beautiful, but they are fidget rings. The purpose of a fidget rings is to give you something to “fidget” with instead of doing other habits caused by anxiety like biting your nails. The rings we make come in a set of 2 with one being made from semi-precious gem stones and the other from crystals. You can stack them or wear them on separate fingers. Each ring set is attached to a different card that has a meaningful word and quote on it such as “Strong” or “Beautiful”. Our hope is that when people see them, the word on the card reminds them of someone in their lives (including themselves) that need some encouragement.
We are a give-back company and donate to organizations who are helping fight human trafficking, teaching child suicide awareness and providing a home for children deemed “un-adoptable”. Not only do we donate to these amazing organizations, but we are volunteers/mentors at some of them.
We are also intentional about who we hire to make our rings. We hire women who come from tough situations and usually need to work from their homes. We have an amazing team here in the United States and last year we added team members from Nepal! We had the opportunity to travel to Nepal and work with an organization called Our Daughters International. They rescue girls/women from traffickers, provide them with a safe place to live and heal and offer them skill training/development so they can provide for themselves. We spent 2 weeks doing life with them and training them to make our rings. We had the experience of hearing someone recount the worst moments of abuse and terror in their life and then sit side by side later on laughing and working with them. It was hard to focus on the task when all we wanted to do was hug them and cry. These young women are so strong and so vulnerable at the same time. The abuse they had to endure day after day for months or for some, even years, could break anyone. We were able to see them on the other side of being rescued and what we saw was hope, courage and determination. They are a vibrant group of girls, giggling one minute-seemingly living out the childhood that was stolen from them, the next minute very seriously focused on learning a new skill or trade that will help them be provided for in the future. As our business grows, we can hire more of these amazing women and continue spreading hope! We actually created “Ring of the Month” which is a monthly subscription where we send a new ring each month made by one of these women. It comes with a card that they hand signed, thanking you for supporting them. It’s only $20 a month and it goes into the fund we use to pay them. The more people who sign up, the more women we can hire!
We are so humbled and honored that God is using the idea He gave me to impact so many people. That is the best part of our business. We can’t believe what He has already done and we can’t wait to see what He’s going to do in the future!
What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?
We have discovered that being involved in our community is the best source of new customers. We are able to tell them the story of our business and the amazing women we work with/employ. When they hear why we chose the words/quotes on our packaging, they relate it to someone they know or themselves. They connect with our product and choose to buy from us because they believe in our mission/want to make an impact with how they spend their money. Also, they want to support a local women owned small business and love the product we have created. Not only does being involved in the community help us meet new customers, but we have made so many amazing business connections. We have met other business women who want us to do events with them. We have met boutique owners who buy bulk product from us on the spot. We have met women who have great nonprofits who want to partner with us because we will donate part of our sales to them and promote them on our social media. We are always blown away about the people who God brings into our lives when we put ourselves out there.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
We are a small business and most of our very first customers were our friends and family. They loved our product and believed in what we were doing, so they were excited to spread the word for us. I think starting out with such a strong and loyal customer base helped build our reputation. We also strive to have excellent customer service. We ship our products as fast as possible, answer emails/DMs in a timely manner and try to accommodate our customers the best we can.
Contact Info:
- Website: ringtrueco.com
- Instagram: @ringtrue_co
- Facebook: ringtrue_co
Image Credits
The product only images are by Maddie Eickhoff Instagram: @maddie.eickhoff Any photo with a person in it does not need photo credit