We were lucky to catch up with Jessica Lawson recently and have shared our conversation below.

Jessica, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?

I’m a self-taught person and I haven’t had to rely on any sort of outside funding. I bootstrapped my business from the very beginning. I did have to borrow a thousand dollars from a family member once to help me pay for a series of booth fees that I couldn’t afford at the time, and I paid them back right away, and ever since then I’ve been able to run my business and bring in money and put it back into the business to grow it. One of the biggest moments in recent memory was applying to a trade show that I had been rejected from many times before. I was waitlisted again, which I was very upset about. A little time passed and they ended up inviting me to exhibit and as a result of that show I got a really nice, big wholesale order from Free People. I’ve written big orders before with some big companies, but that was the best one and it included not just my fashion jewelry but my new fine jewelry as well. It felt validating. It could be the beginning of something significant, like a new direction for my business, but I don’t know yet, it’s still really early to tell.

Jessica, 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 never planned to become a jewelry designer, I just started doing it one day. I’m a doer and if something feels right, I tend to go for it without overthinking. For me, jewelry was a creative outlet and a hobby and something I just wanted to try for some sort of creative fulfillment. I studied journalism in New York City and I couldn’t get a job in my field, so I was working odd jobs. One of these jobs was selling jewelry for somebody at an artist’s market, and that’s how I fell into it. From selling someone else’s work, I taught myself how to make jewelry by just buying some very basic supplies like pliers, chain, wire, raw brass and crystals and I just started assembling those components into unique pieces of design. I would wear those creations around, and people would notice and compliment them. Since I was also working at an artists’ market I was able to put my work out and get real-time feedback from customers. It was kind of an instant thing for me. I fell in love with making jewelry and it was popular, there was demand for my perspective, so I decided to try to make a go of it as a company. It wasn’t a full-time job right away. It took about a year and a half of learning and doing other side work before I was able to devote myself fully to Dea Dia. I quit a couple of unfulfilling jobs in late 2012 and devoted myself to jewelry one holiday season and had a successful run which enabled me to invest in my first trade show which turned Dea Dia into my full-time job.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Comparing myself to others is something that I’ve been trying to unlearn. For a long time I was very obsessed with Instagram and my follower count, how many likes did my post get, and comparing myself to other people that had faster growth and engagement. I’ve come to understand that that is not a metric of success. More followers and more likes does not necessarily lead to more sales or a more solid business, and that ultimately comparing yourself to others is useless. It’s a great way to destroy your self esteem. It’s also a great way to get stuck in the scarcity mindset, which can lead you to being a less authentic version of yourself. Ultimately you can’t compare yourself to anybody else because you don’t know their story, and they don’t know your story, and your story is your journey and that’s what makes you unique. That’s what makes you, you. I’m not really a fan of Teddy Roosevelt but he is credited with a quote that resonates with me: “Comparison is the thief of joy.”

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I was very, very intent on opening a store when I moved to Portland, Oregon from New York City. It was on my bucket list. I thought opening a store would make me complete as a designer, that I needed a physical storefront to represent my brand. So I was pretty single minded in that goal. I had my first baby, and then within 6 months of having the baby I found a store and signed a lease and got to work on it. I think I opened the store when my daughter was only eleven months old. The store was beautiful and I loved building it out, but people just didn’t come to it. It was in a bad location, and I didn’t really know at the time that I should have been spending money on advertising to bring people in. I just thought that if I posted on Instagram that people would show up. But not enough people showed up to justify paying the rent, paying staff and buying all the stuff that went into it, because it wasn’t just jewelry, it was a lifestyle boutique. My husband ended up getting a job offer in Los Angeles so I had to close the store about a year and a half into it. It created a severe financial impact on my personal finances and it altered the way that I ran my business, it meant that I could no longer put anything on credit and I had to pay for everything with cash in the bank, which I ultimately think is good for business because you have to be smarter with your spending and not being beholden to anybody is really my kind of freedom.

I could have given up and taken it as a sign that I was doing the wrong thing with my life but I continued on with my business, doin what I do best: designing and making jewelry. I just decided that I didn’t need a physical storefront, and from there my business became better and I became more successful after that. I refined my voice as a designer and as a creative director. I really came into myself after surviving the failure of the store.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://deadiajewelry.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/deadia/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/deadiajewelry
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/dea-dia-jewelry/
• Other: https://www.pinterest.com/deadiajewelry/

Image Credits

Dea Dia