Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Samantha Lynch. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Samantha, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you tell us a story about a time you failed?

When I first started my jewelry brand I thought the best and fastest way to success was through wholesale. Get as many stores to carry my jewelry across the world as possible. We did that, selling in over 200 retail stores but I think the excitement of it all overshadowed the work I should have been doing on the back end to make sure our margins and prices were in a place where we could be profitable. Unfortunately, they were not and we did not learn that for several years and lots and lots of money lost but we do owe a lot of our quick growth and wide customer base to the many stores that carried us!!

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.

My name is sam! I am a self taught jewelry designer and metalsmith. I have always been a creative person, started off young super into fashion design + clothing. Really big fan of architecture and building design and forever DIY-ing some sort of project. When I was 23 I was going to school for graphic design and advertising while working as the social media director for a big surf brand. I started making jewelry randomly and selling it at markets, found out I was pregnant with my then husband and was subsequently let go from my job. I decided I was going to ride out the rest of my pregnancy trying to sell jewelry at markets around town and next thing you know I was working full time at this little side hustle and hired my first production assistant to help scale! My business has evolved from simple trendy pieces to intricate, high quality heirloom jewelry. I am forever learning in my craft, trying new things and following my creative path in whatever direction it takes me and I think that is truly the best part of my job.

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

Since day one, I have always been as real and transparent as possible. I’ve never been the brand or person who shares only the highlights or the good parts. I have always shared the parts that are a little ugly, little scary and sometimes hard. I think that has allowed my customers and audience to grow more intimately with me and instead of seeing me as just a product, hopefully they see me as art with a story to tell.

Can you open up about a time when you had a really close call with the business?

Ohhhh yes, I remember vividly one time I was driving to Atlanta with my production assistant on our way to our first tradeshow to vend in hopes of picking up big retailers. We stopped to get gas and my card declined. I panicked looked at my bank account and saw that the state of Florida basically had seized my funds due to not paying my sales tax. I thought I was supposed to pay them yearly like normal taxes?? Learned real quick that I was supposed to be submitting my sales tax monthly :)

Contact Info:

• Website: shiftdjewelry.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/shiftdjewelry
• Facebook: facebook.com/shiftdjewelry