Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Emma Halstead. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Emma, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?
I wanted my business to have meaning and impact behind it. I was intentional with the name of my business. I wanted the message to inspire others. My business, Cloaked in Confidence, is about connecting with early childhood memories and the innate confidence of our younger selves.
I thought of my business name a year before I even started making jewelry. I was playing around with the idea of starting a business and one night I decided to spend hours thinking of a name for it. I flipped through different books picking out phrases and specific words. At the end of the night I had three full pages, front and back, of meaningless random words. I tried lots of different combinations before I came to a name that just felt right to me, Cloaked in Confidence.
Over the years I have been able to hone the meaning behind the name I chose for my business, Cloaked in Confidence. My business has grown with me and I have grown with it. It’s a symbiotic relationship, we push each other to grow past our limits and beyond our potential. I am continuously re-framing myself and my business with what feels right to me at the moment.
The name, Cloaked in Confidence, has inspired me to create jewelry that can act as an elevated form of dress-up offering reconnection with the confidence that came naturally to our younger selves.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
As a young girl I could be found singing, drawing, painting, crafting, playing guitar, playing piano, and playing dress-up. I have always been connected to my creativity. My mom was an artist and my dad owned a small business. I grew up with parents praising and encouraging my love of creative outlets.
I started Cloaked in Confidence in 2020 during my sophomore year of college with the intention of selling crystal candles. I made a few candles and created an Etsy shop. Ultimately, I decided making candles was not the passion I wanted to pursue. In 2021, I started making jewelry for my family and friends as a hobby. I decided I would upload some of my handmade jewelry to my Etsy shop I had created a year ago and I actually made a sale. I couldn’t believe it.
After founding Cloaked in Confidence I started to rediscover my sense of self and what it really meant to feel confident in who I am. The jewelry I design and create is my art form and I continue to discover more about myself with every jewelry piece I make.
I have continued to define and develop my brand over time. I am constantly changing and recreating different aspects of my business. I find it increasingly important to revisit and assess whether the mission behind my business needs adjusting. I am always listening to my customers either through reviews, social media, or in-person and gaining feedback on what I can do better for my customers and the improvements I can make to Cloaked in Confidence as a whole. As Cloaked in Confidence continues to grow, I have grown with it. With every step along the way I have never known the right approach to take. I just continue to take one small step forward.
One of the hardest things about existing in the jewelry industry is how to differentiate yourself. I didn’t start my business knowing anything about the jewelry industry. It started as a hobby and I never thought I would eventually turn jewelry making into my business. At the time, I was never able to find the jewelry I was craving. I wanted pieces that would embody femininity and imagination within the design. Jewelry that would elevate my style without demanding attention. I now create handmade jewelry that offers a reconnection to the innate confidence within our younger selves. There is always an underserved market within every industry. You just have to search for it.
How did you build your audience on social media?
I began pursuing my social media presence in 2021. I started to post TikTok videos about my handmade jewelry I was selling on Etsy at the time. I soon lost interest in creating this content. Once I graduated I started posting on a personal TikTok page. I would post makeup and hair tutorials as well as outfit of the day videos. I gained 6,000 followers after five months of consistently posting three TikToks a day. I continued to grow my following and my content started to go viral. I was enjoying the content I was creating. It became a release for me. I was posting content about things I liked to do and people loved it and they were even asking for more. I now have over 76,000 followers on TikTok, my primary platform for creating personal content.
I started to post some jewelry content again but I was much more dedicated to my personal page at the time. In November of 2023, I posted my first viral video of my handmade jewelry. I had designed and created my wire-bent bow earrings and decided to post a 7 second video showing them off. I picked a trending audio, posted it, went to sleep, and thought nothing of it. I had posted multiple try-on videos like this before and they had never gone viral. On TikTok, the views on my video continued to grow. It began to surpass anything I ever thought possible. I never thought my bow earrings would become the viral sensation they have. The sales started to pour in. I decided to repost the video on Instagram. The reel of my wire bow earrings had amassed 800,000 views overnight. The orders continued to pile up and I was completely unprepared. It was an amazing feeling. My post now has over 2 million views on TikTok and over 13 million views on Instagram. I now have over 34,000 followers on Instagram, my primary platform for Cloaked in Confidence.
My advice is to post. Post as much as you can. You never know what post might go viral. The probability of getting more views and the possibility of going viral continues to grow the more you post.
Don’t get discouraged. I took a break from posting Cloaked in Confidence content for far too long because I was discouraged by the number of views. Don’t pay attention to the number of views when you are first growing your social media presence, just keep posting. Constantly posting and shifting your content in the beginning stages of your social media presence will equip you with more knowledge about your brand and your identity. Consistently posting helped me hone the kind of content I wanted to continue pursuing.
Take a break from posting if you need it. I shifted to solely posting personal content during a break from Cloaked in Confidence content. If you are taking a break try involving yourself in different forms of content. I still take breaks from posting. If I don’t feel like I have the energy to post I won’t. In my experience, a week or possibly even a month break can be re-energizing for your content and your creativity. Sometimes this break can even incite more views when you start posting again.
Don’t have a content day, have a content hour. What has been difficult for me lately is making the space and time to create content. Most creators have a content day – an entire day planned in advance dedicated to filming content. Recently, every time I try to schedule a content day I don’t feel like recording any content. Lately, I have been making space to create content for thirty minutes to an hour two to three days a week. It helps break up my day and re-energize my creative process.
We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.
I design, create, and manufacture all my jewelry pieces. I had no experience making jewelry when I first started my business. I started small. As my business has grown I have continued to learn more techniques and gain experience along the way. I consistently experiment with creating jewelry outside my comfort zone in an effort to learn different techniques.
I started buying my materials online, mostly on Etsy. I purchased my materials through other small businesses because it is a priority for me to support other small businesses as much as I can. I still buy all my materials (wire, chain, clasps, jump rings) through family owned small businesses.
I have learned a lot of lessons along the way having to manufacture and make every single product I sell. You will not have the energy to do everything all the time. Every jewelry piece I sell is a made to order product. Meaning that once someone buys something and places an order on my website or Etsy shop I still need to make it. I don’t have any finished inventory on hand because it would be too expensive and time-consuming for me as a small business. I love being able to individually hand-make every order. It makes the process of placing an order much more meaningful for me and my customers knowing that every product is custom made for them.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.cloakedinconfidence.co/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cloakedinconfidence/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emma-halstead-161518196/
- Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@cloakedinconfidence?lang=en Etsy Shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/CloakedinConfidence?ref=shop_sugg Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/cloakedinconfidence/_created
Image Credits
I took all the pictures I provided!