We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jacqueline Preisendorfer. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jacqueline below.

Jacqueline , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today The more we talk about good leadership the more we think good leadership practices will spread and so we’d love for you to tell us a story about the best boss you’ve had and what they were like or what they did that was so great?

“Leadership is about making others better as a result of your presence and making sure that impact lasts in your absence.” Great leaders are rare and invaluable. Amazing leaders recognize that it’s about the people they are leading, who they are as whole people and not just what they can do for the organization. Getting to experience one who challenged and encouraged me and others in little and big ways was life changing. Knowing that the team I was working with was well cared for and was being heard on the small every day details helped propel change and develop a more positive culture. Watching to see the person leading be involved in the lives of those being served, showed me and others around me, that really seeing and caring for others changes lives. In turn I’ve been able to apply those lessons modeled, to my own business in caring for the customer and what each custom piece means to the individual purchasing as well as the recipient. It’s not just a bracelet or bookmark, it’s a piece of sentiment and encouragement spoken to their heart that I’ve been able to be a small part of. Those words and impact will last far longer than the gift ever will.

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’m Jackie. Stampin Stitchin began in 2017 as an opportunity for me, as a mother of four, to be creative and have my own space. What this business has become is something so much bigger and inspiring than I could’ve imagined. Over the past nearly 9 years of stamping, creating, and growing, I’ve had the pleasure to make hundreds of thousands of pieces for customers and businesses alike. I have the ability to create many different types of jewelry and accessories including mother’s jewelry, bookmarks, cuff bracelets, necklaces, and leather pieces that have words stamped on them that speak to the heart.

Words have the ability to encourage, uplift, inspire and empower. We exist to give everyone hope through the power of a message, to empower others to know they have the ability to succeed, to encourage one who needs a pick-me up to keep going, to inspire yet another who needs to understand that they have a unique gift that has value, and to uplift the friend who just needs to hear that “you matter”.

Each piece is stamped one letter at a time, is hand polished and assembled on site. There are no two pieces the same, making each order as unique as the customer. Hand stamped jewelry is incomparable as it allows an intimate collaboration between the customer and creator.

We can currently be found on Etsy as well as in local artisan stores around Northeast Ohio.

Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.

In early 2015 I had ordered an inexpensive set of stamps and the cheapest metal I could find. My goal was to make a keychain. I knew absolutely nothing about hand stamped jewelry except that I liked the look of it, I loved the idea of creating, and wanted a hobby that could possibly produce some sort of income. It wouldn’t be until two years later that I pulled the original stamps out of storage and tried stamping for the first time. I quickly realized that I needed to upgrade my stamps and research processes and metals to learn what I was getting involved in. Hours upon hours of reading later, I invested the first $200 into the newfound hobby and a week later was spending hours a day trying to stamp a straight line on a bracelet blank. My first listing was uploaded to Etsy a few weeks later and within a month I had a bulk order for 150 pieces. The growth was quick and I was extremely unprepared. The first 150 piece order took two weeks to complete. Over the two years that followed, I began refining processes, learning what materials were quality, investing in precise stamps, and building my customer base through Etsy, local artisan stores, as well as in person vendor events. There has been much trial and error to find the best materials for my customers and to learn what demographic I serve best. I’ve learned over the years that finding other small businesses, normally on Etsy, to work with as suppliers provides the best materials, supports other families, and builds relationships with other businesses. Today, nearly nine years later, I’ve been able to complete bulk orders of 750 pieces in less than a week on top of regular orders to bring efficiency and quality to the customer and still enjoy getting to work with other small businesses to provide pieces that touch the heart and last through every day life.

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

Stampin Stitchin was meant to be a creative outlet and hobby that might help contribute in some small way to my families finances. It became clear very quickly that there was much more potential with custom jewelry and accessories than I had imagined. The first artisan show I did, was an absolute disaster. There was no advertising and no customers, but the lessons learned were invaluable and gave me an opportunity to learn and grow for the next show. By 2019, I was doing nearly 30 vendor shows a year to network and build my customer base, which proved successful and the business had turned into a full time career. Then 2020 and the Covid shutdown hit. Many small businesses didn’t know if they would make it through, but I was blessed to not only make it through, but grow and thrive due to the online portion of my business. That year the business saw exponential growth and sales took off to such an extent I could barely keep up. Over the following few years, sales stabilized to more normal and manageable levels. After going through divorce, the business became my sole source of income and has continued to provide for my kids and I for the past four years. Today, we are learning to change, grow and introduce new products to the market all while still offering the same quality and unique products we always have. The opportunities are unlimited, but the impact on the lives on both sides of the business is invaluable.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.stampinstitchin.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stampin_stitchin/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stampinstitchin
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackie-anderson-preisendorfer-648b2159/

Image Credits

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