We were lucky to catch up with Stephanie Gabrus recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Stephanie, thanks for joining us today. Would you say you are more focused on growing revenue or cutting costs? We’d love to hear what you think about these two critical drivers.

Grow revenue while thinking outside the box.

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 background and context?

In 2018, I was working as a budtender in the cannabis industry. A year after working on my feet my lower back began to get worse and I ended up having a 2nd lower back surgery.

I started making unique jewelry from hemp and started to sell it to help supplement my lost income from anticipated time being out of work. However the surgery didn’t go as planned and I suffer from severe nerve damage. I suddenly could no longer work on my feet for extended periods of time. I made the decision to leave my job and sell what jewelry I could at different street fairs around town with the help of a friend. I even had people online messaging me about my jewelry.
Fast forward two months and a Covid lockdown. Finding a job I could do during lockdown was impossible. Life was getting pretty depressing

I focused more on online marketing, launched my website on my own (which I still use to this day), and just kept going. Soon I had a couple people purchasing my jewelry to do online giveaways. They did this just to help me with marketing and help me launch my business. And they told me they believed in me; which pushed me harder.

For the next year my business grew to a customer base in every state and 6 countries.

With the success, and vending starting up again we’ve hired a couple brand ambassadors, inventory manager, outside sales reps and studio help.

All of our jewelry is hand made from recycled hemp and definitely has a vibe, The biggest compliment I received is when someone tells me what a “conversation piece” it is.

We took home the 2022 Phoenix cannabis award for best female entrapenuer and last month took home an award for 2022 Best of Phoenix New Times for cannabis jewelry.

With all the growth we have had; we now have over two dozen partnering retail locations across the nation, with the biggest being Planet 13, holdings in Las Vegas, NV.

As we continue to try to spread good vibes and quality affordable unique stoner jewelry, we are excited for our future.

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

Social media can be tricky. We always make sure to post relevant post pertaining to our jewelry or our growth. We keep it professional and do not post anything potentially even borderline offensive. No political, religion or personal beliefs are shared. For anyone building a social media presence give aways and positive posts always help.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

I’ve been in management most of my adult life. Everyone is motivated differently. Some money, incentives, or even just being told they are appreciated.

Find out what motivates each person and incentivize them. Happy people is a happy team and that is most definitely relayed through our jewelry and accessories. We treat each other like family.

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.Nugjewelz.com
• Instagram: @nugjewelz
• Facebook: Nug Jewelz
• Linkedin: Stephanie Gabrus

Image Credits
Parker long