We were lucky to catch up with Catherine Guindon recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Catherine , thanks for joining us today. Being a business owner can be really hard sometimes. It’s rewarding, but most business owners we’ve spoken sometimes think about what it would have been like to have had a regular job instead. Have you ever wondered that yourself? Maybe you can talk to us about a time when you felt this way?

I started this business out of being fired without a reason from my previous job. I decided it was time that I worked on my own although I knew I had basically no experience growing a business. I knew the basics and I knew what I wanted to do but I also knew that taking the risk of not getting a job after being fired was gonna force me to push my limits further. I had listened to a lot of audiobooks about entrepreneurs and how to make business in the couple of years prior to that so I knew my mindset was strong but girl was I unprepared for the emotional rush that comes from raising a business from the ground up. I had zéro sales on my website, only a few on my Etsy, a list of email of under 100 but a lot of will and determination. You see, I know I perform better under pressure and this is why I put myself through that hurdle. The loneliness, the fear, the stress, the anxiety, the challenges, … all the while healing from my relationship with my previous who I thought was my friend. I knew that facing myself through the most difficult times would only lead to a better version of myself. I’m a do or die kinda chick. I have reached a point in my business now where I really need to step out of my comfort zone and it scares the fuck out of me. But again, I know that growth doesn’t happen in the comfort zone and that facing my fears is the only way to go. And in those moments, yes, I do question ma capacity of dealing with the pressure. I think about getting a part time job. Or a full time job and make my business a side hustle again. But when I have those thoughts, the badass voice in my heads says “that’s all you’ve got?” and I remember why I do what I do. You see, freedom is the value at the top of my value system and going through fear and doubt is a small price to pay to experience the level of freedom that I have making my business come alive.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I started learning classic silversmithing around 18 years ago when I was 22. Back then, I wasn’t sure why I was doing that but looking back at old pictures, I use to make little threaded bracelets and necklaces of all colours and wear many of them at the time when I was a kid. It’s clear that fabricating something with my hands and wearing as part of my outfit was something that was attractive to me and also, I was really into fashion magazines so that made sense to me go that route. My style developed later in my adult life as even after graduation, I didn’t work in that field right away and when I did, I worked several years for other jewellers, not really focussing on what I wanted to do. When I lost my job in 2024, I decided to take coaching program to help me with my business because I had no clue how to do it. One of the first things they make you do is clarify the product you wanna make and who you want to sell it to, like refine your idea. My brand’s name was already Horny Cat and I was already evolving in the alternative scene so it just came out naturally that I oriented my jewelry brand towards the fetichist world. I find that a lot of jewelry is reflective of a certain type of women that would be more delicate, gentle and while this is all good, I never myself identified as such. I was angry, belligerent, confrontational and wild. I liked to express myself through my outfits which I liked to be sexy and provocative. And usually, those traits are mostly repressed and shunned, specially in women. But my mind said fuck it, I need to find a way to express that because here I am, I feel like that and nobody’s gonna tell me to shut up. And I feel like that, other women feel that too so here I am channelling my dark and sexual energies into objects of beauty and refinement.

How’d you think through whether to sell directly on your own site or through a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc.

I do sell on Etsy and on Spicerack and while these 3rd party platforms are great, the ideal is to create your own customer base through your own website and email list. 3rd party platforms have a lot of rules that they control and they can decide to shut down a business if they judge that it’s appropriate and any client that buys from you there, they “belong” to the platform, not you. Also, Etsy has an offsite ad program that unrolls basically all the vendors in and takes a huge cut out of the sale and you can’t opt out of it. Bottom line, you need to own your marketing and your client as much as possible and 3rd party platforms should be used for visibility and not be the main focus.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Be yourself and show up. Authenticity shows a lot even through a screen and building a brand means trust. And trust is build with time, so be consistent and mostly, do not listen to trends and stuff like that because that’s what they are: trends. Trends come and go and sometimes really fast while having a brand personality lasts.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://hornycatjewellery.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/hornycatjewellery
• Facebook: Horny Cat Jewellery
• Linkedin: Catherine Guindon

Image Credits

Johnny, Greg, Patrick