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Good morning. It is April the something fifth or fourth. It's like the beginning of April.

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My very first guest is a dear friend and someone that I really want everyone to get to meet because

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she's special in many ways and we have a really kind of a nice connection that goes way back but

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I'll let her kind of talk about that and this is the podcast Jewelry as your side hustle

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with Sugar Gay Isbur and I'm Sugar Gay Isbur and now we're going to introduce our first guest.

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So take it away and your company name and give us a little bit of background information.

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The world is your oyster. You can just have the floor.

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Thank you Gay. Thank you so much for inviting me. This is super meaningful. I always enjoy hearing

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what you're up to because you are always up to so many different things and it's amazing.

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Maybe I'm a woman after your own heart.

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If you're challenging about me, this is about you but thank you for that. I do try hard.

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So yeah, absolutely. I've definitely had a lot of great overlap.

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For sure. Yeah. So I think I met you through Nest which is an artist and guild that we're both a

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part of and I think I won't speak for you but I can't say enough nice things about it.

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And I mean because I'm talking about a nest I think it's just the power of community and

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I think it's one thing you're probably doing with this podcast is building some community and

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putting it out there for other maybe jewelers or small business owners or starters

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to for that to resonate with them. So anyway, I'm Katie Heiselberg and I own,

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I guess two businesses. I think of it as one but I started Katie Kismet in 2018 and really

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fairly quickly on the heels of getting into glass. So I work in kiln-fired glass. Sometimes

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it's called Fused Glass and I was just a creative explorer my whole life and would just get into

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anything. My curiosity would take me everywhere and I worked, my career was in advertising

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but more the media side and then I did about 10 years of that and stopped and went back to

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school for graphic design and that was a good move. I needed to be doing something visually

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creative. So I was freelancing and traveling and took a random workshop in glass because I'd never

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done it before and I wanted to see what it was about and I walked out, sorry my voice today,

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I walked out just energized and alive with excitement. I wanted to do more Fused Glass

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and I wanted to make jewelry and I wanted it to be a business and it felt like it just kind of

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came to me fully formed which I'd never experienced before. So I came home from that trip and found

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a 101 class in Austin and I was off to the races and I was making everything in open studio hours

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for a long time at Helios which I consider my home studio even though I've worked and

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patronized a few glass places in Austin and they're all amazing. But yeah so then the pandemic hit

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I didn't have my own kill so that was a unique predicament but it was also my pandemic silver

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lining. One of them was I just had a lot of quiet and a lot of time and I ended up finding a kiln,

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a gently used kiln and then had the space to learn how to use it and I brought all my production

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in-house. So anyway a couple years ago I launched Austin Bolo because I specialized in Bolo ties

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and statement rings and I was seeing who was buying the Bolo's and it felt like a more masculine

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audience even though I think Bolo's are for everyone. That's right that's right I mean

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Beyonce is doing for Bolo's. I don't know fill in the analogy there or the metaphor whatever.

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Yeah so Austin Bolo also exists and I like to frame it like Katie Kismet carries Austin Bolo.

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So Austin Bolo is only Bolo ties and slightly western leaning accessories and then Katie Kismet

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is anything that comes out of my brain so more modern art. My angle is sort of modern minimalist

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maximalist so I like simple and bold and I'm just having a grand time but that's me. I live in Austin

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Texas. What else? I saw that on your on your gram that which is Katie Kismet at Katie Kismet. Do you

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also have a Bolo, Austin Bolo do? Yeah at Austin Bolo. So you're doing both of those on social media.

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Go girl and that you're doing some gold. I saw the 22 karat gold so now you're infusing your

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glass even and they were really interesting pieces so that was like really like that's great.

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Like I know that's a big jump like good tell me more. Yeah it's um sorry pause for cough. Okay.

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It is so fun and I find that with other artists and entrepreneurs this is a common thread often

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that we have lots of ideas and the the the the zing comes from the pursuit of a new idea.

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Um so can't stop won't stop but yeah I have been using um because I started in glass and I did not

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have any formal metal working experience or formal jewelry training um I I have just sort of benefited

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from the beginner's mindset and the curiosity piece because then this day and age there's

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so much available to you through the internet through through YouTube and Google and all that

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there's a lot of learning at your fingertips and so I would run up a I would run up against say

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wanting a Bolo back that did something that the prefabricated Bolo backs don't do and I couldn't

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find it and so sort of out of necessity of pursuing an idea I'll sort of go into like well

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I can make I mean let me see if I can figure it out and so if I found someone who you know

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I feel like the the theme of me is um learning just enough to uh to get where I want to go

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and then there's always another thing right um so and I'm naturally curious so that's how

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the that's how it works you're like you learn something move on move on move on get better

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get better get better like every time you're doing something you're learning still right yeah yeah

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sometimes to the detriment of uh sticking with a good idea or it's like oh I should be I have a

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business I should be marketing these other things that are lovely and fine but um but you know that's

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where the joy for me that's where the joy comes from and um and I just feel so grateful that I'm

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able to do this right now and yeah so the trying to get old if you you've had so much success

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Katie like I know I know it's hard to talk sometimes about our successes but you should this is a

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safe place I mean you definitely have had like a really good really good role with your business

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like things are really growing and that's why you're able to keep exploring and keep getting

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better and better and better because you know you've got the wind underneath your wings you've

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got a good customer base so you know like tell us about some of that like some of the things

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that you've done in the past that you're really proud of and I know where you want to go next

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because yeah well fire to something yeah so thank thank you for um seeing it that way I think

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I think it always feels different on the creator's end the the business owner's end I

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I can now five years in five plus years in um when I take a moment and reflect I think oh wow yeah

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I've come a long way like almost none of the products or designs that I had on the website

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in the beginning are still there um and I was proud enough of them then to go which I think

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is important you just need to go um and I also I also think I remember a lot and still have a

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lot of impatience where I my Instagram following which I don't think I'm the best at the consistency

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with Instagram but it stalled out at 249 followers for a very long time and I was just like what

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does a girl need to do um so we're we're beyond that but you know it's sometimes I have to stop

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and look back and think and appreciate the growth and the progress and the successes because it's

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too easy to look around and say well that person started three years after me and look at their

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following and blah blah blah and it's just poisonous it's so poisonous so I I think um a couple of

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things have been key um well one just keep going um and it sounds trite and simplistic but it's true

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so many businesses don't make it to five years right and um just one foot in front of the other

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and um the other one of the other things is um oh hold up I lost my spot your successes things

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that you've done that have been successful that's what we're talking about like the 80d rate oh um

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yes so fortunately I have the graphic design background so that has been an asset and um

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um it's easy it's been an asset for me and also there are lots of tools out there to make that

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an asset for anyone else like canva right now AI can be helpful in fact tools like canva are

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integrating AI so that can be really helpful for folks who don't have a training in graphic design

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um and I mean it's also been the bane of my existence but like good photography has made

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a big deal um I I found I usually try to um work with women and support women businesses but

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way back in the very beginning I went on Austin freelance gigs on Facebook and was looking for

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someone sort of last minute and I found my photographer who I love and he's awesome and I just

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were a kindred spirit and I feel kind of loyal so um you didn't give him a shout out that's Dave

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Dave Creny Dave Creny is a super guy he does a lot of music uh music industry sort of angled stuff

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and um and I just I love the results we get and he's a how does that process work does he like

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come and pick him up or shoot him at your house or take him or y'all so how's that work for you excuse

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me yeah that's a really good question um in jewelry two things are important the product shot and the

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on-body shot right so yeah so just to make it um you know sort of double the photography needs

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but it's it's crucial um I think you need a really good close-up of what the thing is um and then

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um how it looks on a person for scale and to exhibit how it can be worn and I actually think

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that's one thing with the bolos that I just I could probably never do enough of showing it on people

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because I feel like particularly styling it with women who women don't normally think of wearing

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a bolo tie and and I'm always just kind of like it's just another necklace you can wear it like a

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joker you can wear it further down so it behaves like a pendant so like that's a unique sort of I

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mean I think people get rings we get rings we get earrings but like for the bolo tie that's a unique

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need for me is that the photography is really powerful and um I like his style so he does my

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on-body shots and um the brief in the past has been let's get the full body and if they're high

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enough resolution that then I can really get in if I need a tighter shot on body of the product

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um and I think that's served me up until you know I think it serves me I think I could also

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do with some more really tight just on product specific shots and then I had a little photography

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experience from graphic design days and um so I have a you know honestly you can do it with an

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iPhone nowadays I happen to have I've got a used uh camera with a good macro lens I really only use

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the macro lens for you know and I've tried a million different lighting setups but you cannot

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beat sitting next to a window with natural light you just can't so that's that's kind of it.

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It's that shine for glass which is really important right? Yeah and not getting reflections when you

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don't want to you know so if it's a broad- It's a sunny day shots. Absolutely yeah so um there's a

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lot of figuring out but um I use tools that are like I use Photoshop but like honestly and I know

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you use like Pixar gay and I actually also use Pixar so there's there's all the tools out there

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for whatever level you're at it just has you gotta want to figure it out so yeah have you tried

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using an AI image and putting your jewelry on top because that's what I do in Pixar that way

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models yeah I am sort of in process with that I used a tool called Firefly recently which I think

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is a web-based thing um to create a scene so I wanted like a modern product photography scene

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but without I tried it with I said you know put a ring on an organic shaped prop with a blah blah

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blah I told it what kind of background what color the prop should be da da and it did a great job

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obviously it wasn't my ring so then I was like well the next step is just like remove the ring

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and now I'm gonna go and remove the background from one of my product shots and see if I can

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integrate it um that's how I do it I just take the jewelry without the background have my image

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and I just put it on top it's like takes yeah yeah and I think um you know sometimes it looks

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like that's what you did I'm not talking about you gay I'm serious sometimes the end result looks

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like oh that's what that person did and sometimes it looks almost indistinguishable and I think it's

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just a matter of um what you're going for because there's all different styles of photography so

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don't think that a person has to only do what Kendra Scott is doing or whatever you know

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I think that if you if you lower the if you lower the transparency so it's just not like so and then

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it kind of blends in more it looks more real something like that but that's a good point that's

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a good point definitely retaining shadows if it's possible yeah yeah that's that's always a tricky

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part because you gotta go in and like in after you move the background kind of like erase them back

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in you know restore them something like that yeah yeah for sure now it's almost time to be signing

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it for the armadillo again or it is time or it's past time I'm not sure because I'm not on that

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list but are you gonna do the armadillo again in December because I know you this year tell me

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about that journey because a lot of people don't know about the armadillo but it's big here in Austin

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yeah absolutely armadillo is uh well I think we're we it's not my market but I participate

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I think they're going into their 49th year this year so it's a true Austin institution which I

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I love about that um and I um the story of getting into armadillo was um interesting I kind of wanted

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backing up a little bit my I grew up with my mom had her own jewelry business and she didn't make

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most of it she would buy wholesale retail but she did markets and so we were in Houston and she

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did I mean everything's from teeny church bazaars to nutcracker market and um one called like really

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big 20,000 30,000 visitor markets um so I I kind of grew up doing my homework behind behind her

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tables and you know helping with move in and move out and um honestly never thought I would I would

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be doing it myself it's hard work yeah and it is hard work and I started this business and then with

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like I you know created or made got the website up to crickets because if nobody knows about it

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other than your family and friends um you're you're not gonna sell much so it became clear that the

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most immediate um way to get the ball rolling was to be out in front of the people in the town I live

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in and um and build awareness and um get out in the community and there are so many benefits to

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doing the markets I also knew I had some peers that were out there every weekend and I also knew

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that wasn't for me so kind of early on and having had the background um with my mom I thought you

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know I'm I started with a couple like medium-sized markets and some of the smaller ones that like

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breweries and stuff like that and then just went for it and applied for some of the two two of the

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largest in Austin and um which this the other one all the uh McComstreet was that okay well

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McComstreet is big I haven't done that one I also have an allergy to outdoor shows outdoors what was

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glass jewelry oh yeah glass and it's all done and it happened I'm a little high maintenance so the

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the elements are not my jam but um but uh the junior league has a Christmas bazaar so that

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that's a big one and McComstreet's also big but I haven't done it um yeah so Armadillo I submitted

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an application and I thought oh I'm sure it's too late I don't know I forget what year it was it might

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have been 22 or 23 I can't remember it's all a blur not 23 21 or 22 and they were doing their first

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event normally it was I think it had become like a 14 day show right in the Palmer event center

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which is Austin one of Austin's big event centers downtown and um then forced COVID so

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they were coming back and doing their first market after sort of post COVID ish and they

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were doing it outside of the event center so it was all outside and I think so the Armadillo is

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right like not for two weeks right no no no it was a three day weekend so they just they made it short

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they put it outside and invited all that they're very loyal to the folks that do it multiple years

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and each year they try to bring in a little bit of new blood and all that but I think my suspicion

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I don't know this for a fact is that a lot of the the artists particularly ones with fine art and

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expensive art and fragile art were thinking they know three days outside in December in Texas

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not for me or for health reasons or whatever so there were some openings and I was doing another

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and I was doing another market Renegade which is a popular one that travels and they came by to see

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my booth and chat with me and then asked me if I'd like to participate and so I got my tent set up

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and and I really again I don't like outdoor markets but I figured this is my foot in the door I

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would like to get to know the Armadillo folks and that is exactly how it played out thankfully so

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so now the market is back inside and they went from seven days to nine days last year and I think

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it'll be 10 days this year um is it bulldozed what are they gonna do is it being torn down

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the convention center will be remodeled but not the event center not Palmer so the right

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right on like second street or something or first and then Palmer is over by the long

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there on the other side of the lake yeah yeah so um and it's a it's an artist market so you have to

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make what you sell which I find my stuff is a um I always say I say this it's a little left to center

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so it's it's not classic gold and silver dainty jewelry and I think that um they were excited

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about my bull ties and um and I do well at artist centric in artist centric context where it's people

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looking for something new and different so yeah for sure not resellers you know like actually meet

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the artist talk to the artist you know maybe design something for themselves have something designed

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specifically for themselves did you find any of those people there that wanted like any custom

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work afterwards absolutely in a good following from those shows absolutely um true to Austin roots

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the armadillo has music every day um that's the right music live music it's absolutely yeah yeah

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it's a real scene um yeah it's I feel like it's almost equal parts concert and market and there's

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food and beverages and all that so it's it's a really great scene and so there's four bands or acts

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every day and the market goes into the night because they want it to be sort of like a night scene and

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um one of the fellows in one of the bands and I forgot the name of it um he circled back

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months later and said hey I'm about to get married and I really liked your bull ties but I was like

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in another zone when we were at the armadillo but could you make one for me and so he was tall so we

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made a longer cord and he came over to my house which I do by appointment if you want to like

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shop the pieces and sort of put them together yourself and that was a real honor so that was a

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good time to be part of their wedding did you get a wedding picture is it afterwards all over

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you know what he said he was going to and I haven't I feel like I saved a reel or something

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where I like pause it I was like there's the bow you gotta circle back and get that I know

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you've got a picture take that down yeah for sure I mean that's that's a great story and maybe you

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know uh if he ever has another reason he'll reach out to you because album covers are really great

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to have jewelry on that's right yeah I've put bolo's on are you applying for the shows coming

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up because it's that time like spring it's like six months or nine months out right yeah yeah I um

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well it's a lot of work number one we should back up a minute were you exhausted at the end of all

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that because you know going until late at night over the Christmas holidays when all the family is

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home going yeah she's not here but she'll be here at like midnight yeah yeah no kidding very hard

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we close at 9 30 on the 23rd and in my family we do sort of a hybrid we do some of the traditions

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on the 24th and then some of them on the 25th so um you know at 1 a.m. I'm I'm pulling the

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the cargo van into the front of my house on the 23rd and then we get up on the morning on the 24th

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and we take all the stuff to storage and return the van and then then we get to start family

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Christmas so um I'm sorry um was it I mean like that's hard on the family I do know that I understand

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yeah and I've had to hire help I mean so I hire people to come you know I have some great trusted

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well the employees sounds weird I do pay them you pay I have some great teammates that I recruit

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for the long markets particularly so I can like you know go home at six one day and wrap presents

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and see my daughter you know stuff like that so it's um it's a big booth fee and it's a it's a

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lot to think about it's a big setup it was it was a big investment and I feel like um compensates

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accordingly so um yeah but yeah I'm I'm actually I'm doing there's another market in Austin called

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Blue Genie which is another sort of long running um artist focused market and they do a May market

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so I'll be doing their May market and then hopefully I'll get to do the holiday market and I think

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that might be it for me this year I've I'm in a season of pulling back a little from markets and

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there's so much work like seriously I get it it's a lot of work and I I'm curious about the other

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ways I can build my business so um dipping my toes into wholesale and pursuing some accounts that I

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think are good fits um and spending a little more time on building direct to consumer um which is

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just like people finding my website or hearing about Austin below and coming and buying from my

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website which I think is um I mean that's the that's the pie in the sky when I um when I can

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make it ship it from my house and you know so I'm actually doing a class next week with LinkedIn

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about doing the LinkedIn ads because that's kind of where I kind of see my jewelry kind of going

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but have you run any ads like Google ads or Facebook ads meta paying Mark Zuckerberg money to

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let us be seen no it's a short answer I tried one October or like into September I had a

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Halloween specific style and I thought you know what we're gonna do it we're gonna try if they say

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it's easy to so I cannot tell you how many hours I try and I'm I think I'm pretty good at this stuff

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and I have the patience to try to figure it out there is something with meta where I mean sometimes

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there's just a thing that is not working and I I can't I'll spend hours and I can't figure it out

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and then I just have to stop and say this is not a good use of my time and so then it got to a

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certain date in October where I was like well if somebody is it I can't ship it and yeah um so

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I had the same problem with the clip story I'm like uh yeah I'm kind of late on this yeah yeah

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yeah always that like I feel like I'm always racing the clock because there's always something but

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no the short answer is no and I think that's something that I should be doing if I want to

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build direct and consumer um the other thing with Austin Bolo is the um and Bolo ties in general

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is they're so specific that they can rise an SEO so I had a lady who was visiting from Minnesota

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and they were riding their bikes from the east side over anyway she googled Bolo tie because she's

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always wanted a Bolo tie I asked her how she found me and she said Google and I could come up I think

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if you Google well clearly she googled Bolo tie Austin and Katie Kismet which has been around for

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five and a half years didn't come up in the results so SEO is so important and I'm also I just feel

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like I'm late to all the games but I've been putting up some blog posts and um it matters on Etsy

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like on Etsy almost all my sales are Bolo ties because out of the millions of listings

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that pool is small enough that if somebody searches Bolo tie I have a couple listings that will

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come to the first page so it's something to think about um when you're naming things when you're

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choosing your um your maybe angle or niche or what makes you unique because there's enough people on

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this planet that you know they'll find you and your rings are great too I love your rings I think

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they're so they're pop you know they're they're really a great look for I would even say millennials

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Gen Z like even like earlier like you know they have a great age span anybody could wear them and

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they're a very noticeable jewelry they really have a you have a great signature look on those

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thank you yeah I um I have come to uh realize as a woman in her 40s that I have a playful

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side to me that I hope you guys like yeah so I I mean it goes to my it's not a you know manifesto

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or mission statement or anything but I think fashion should be fun and I think you think that too gay

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if I could guess um and so I just want to be playful with it so I don't have a necklace on is that a

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Bolo you're wearing this is a Bolo and this is a it's a Bolo a Bolo a Bolo if that's perfect for a

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bride I could see a bride wearing that yeah it's perfect for a bachelorette party you know and

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bows are kind of having a thing and I mean the other thing with fashion is like things move at a

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million miles an hour now that it kind of feels like anything's in if you will it just you got to

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style it and there's nothing there's no better style than you being you so okay and tell me about

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what colors those are available in because they are really cute if somebody's interested they're

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adorable so the bows are available in black and white and then I have um I this is in my pop

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collection so okay fired by like pop art and they're just bold shapes there's star squiggle heart

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flower and um you know like the flower will be about not two inches wide but over one inch so

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like they're they are statement and I always like to say with the Bolo or the or the large statement

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rings like you throw on a white t-shirt and jeans and a boot and that ring and you're done you're

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like ready for selfies it's selfie time right yeah you don't right yeah super instagramable great for

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stylists you can see they pop on camera so yeah by the way your videos are really good I saw the

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one of course the one about where you're applying the gold and your studio is beautiful you did a

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great job on your videos like I'm always so happy I'm like cheering you on behind yay good job because

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I do think that you really like you really have a great aesthetic I mean it comes across all the

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way across um your your IG so are you also posting on Facebook too people people could find you on

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Facebook or just well I was having my Instagram post feed directly to Facebook um and I don't think

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this is another meta thing I don't think they're doing that right now and I couldn't figure it out

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I spent a lot of hours trying you know going into business center and da da da da and linking and

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unlinking da da da and um I couldn't figure it out and so it's interesting though because I have

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recently had a couple people that were like well I messaged you on Facebook and I don't think about

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Facebook a lot I think about Instagram first and then I think about Pinterest because I'm like well I

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should be more active on Pinterest because of how visual and graphic my photography and product and

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everything is um I haven't and I have a a little bit of friction with social media it's been a weird

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relationship and um it feels like so yeah right it's time consuming because I'm me and I care about

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not saying other people I I white knuckle the visuals to the detriment of um quantity and

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consistency so I I get a little caught up in having it look amazing and I think I I meet my

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expectation a lot but it also means I'm not posting every day and and I you know so there's

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it's a trade-off like and I think also um you know there's a movement back to authenticity so I need

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to just like I have a you know I think we all I won't speak for everybody else I don't love being

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on camera I think I do it okay but thinking about posting um uh even just a story of me chatting about

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what I'm doing that day that just doesn't really like really cross my mind and I my mind's on other

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things so I it's um it's sort of been a weird ride but I think I'm letting go a little bit

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lately and just it should be enjoyable I think you know this isn't a therapy class but I am on

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top of that with you like I think it's I think we overthink it we overrun ourselves with more

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extra work and who cares if there's one more real who cares if there's one more picture if they can't

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see all the other content you know I I'm kind of like right now where it seems like I I miss a lot

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on Instagram because everybody uses it instead of any other way to communicate now so if you're not

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checking your Instagram chats or communications then you can miss something I was like just looked

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at it the other day and I was like oh my god like look at all this I'm I just don't think to always

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check that because I don't know I don't know how same it's not like they can text me because

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people don't really do that that are just like in the ether but definitely it's hard to keep up with

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it all it's a real it's ragged yeah it I feel like I'm fighting for focus time all the time

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so I turn off notifications I turn you know and then there's a price to that which is somebody

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messages me on Facebook and I don't know about it until they then go to my website and contact me

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there and then it comes into my email and then I know you know so it's um but also I'm or and also

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so as a one-person business doing all the things I cannot be available at all times so

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and I also think there's a it's a mental health aspect to it like not to get to in the weeds but

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like I had wondered for many many years but then recently was diagnosed with ADD so it's real and

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I and I know you know we're all a little ADD whatever I hate saying that but with this day and age

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with like everything swirling around us and you just I have to set up the boundaries that I need

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and then cut myself some slack and just do my best so it's my balance like seriously it is it's

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really important part because it gives us space to be creative again when you think back of when

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we had nobody during COVID and we could just concentrate on our work what we wanted to create

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what we wanted to create you know we weren't thinking about that customer out there that client

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out there we were just thinking about what would make me happy today that's a nice space to be in

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it's hard to get back there when there's hustle and bustle and so I totally understand and you

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know you got a family you got things going on like it's a beautiful day today like we should all be

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outside and yet you know we're doing a part yeah but it is hard so I totally understand that like

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yeah well if you were a new if you were going to tell somebody that was maybe new to the jewelry

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industry if you were to give them like two tips and I know that's a little tiny bit but you can

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go more if you wanted to but like if you were to look back at your beginner self and you were

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looking at somebody else that's a beginner what would you tell them um well one of it's a rerun

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but um just keep going you know and don't fuss it yourself so much because um bit by bit it adds up

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over time and and the other piece would be um find some community I I forget I think I found Nest

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and the women's jewelry association both during the pandemic um and joined up and you know so once

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we started coming out of our pandemic holes or whatever um I was like the first time I met any

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of these folks in person but it it meant a lot even before the in-person things um to just be in

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community with people doing what you're doing and very close to what you're doing and um yeah I think

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that's really important and this is coming from an introvert who is a pig in mud when she's just in

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her studio alone all day and like I need that also so I think it's really key yeah I I just saw

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something it was mostly in a real but it was talking about like I like being at home and it

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was showing all the you know we do we we build these little bubbles around ourselves and I don't

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want to go into another job like I want to be able to be here and working like definitely tell me

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about the woman's jewelry association I have not joined that but I know great things about it tell

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me have they have they helped you in any ways is that something you would tell other people to

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to join I I do recommend it um it's it's a national organization and there's chapters

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in different cities and so I think like anything that's set up that way it kind of depends on

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your chapter so you you should sniff it out for yourself but um I don't even remember how I got

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linked up probably post on Instagram or something and the Austin crowd is just really great at just

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just really down to earth folks there we have people that specialize in pearls that broker

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find gyms that um have major find jewelry jewelry store and then we have people like me who are

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sitting in a room in her house you know um working with our hands and um so it's all over the board

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it we have men in the group like it's it's come one come all and um most of our events are well

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I have a lot of our events are free and you can come and then there's always usually if it if there's

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a price to come it's and there's a non-member price and stuff like that so just to build community

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and I think the the resources have been great there have been some grants um I won one of our

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local grants which was you know not do that multi multi figures but it enabled me to buy some

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um equipment that I had been pining for you know so um I didn't know that so congratulations

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and thank you I'm glad that you shared that because that was yeah it's a brags on you girl

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and I'm on I'm on the board so I mean I should like that's how much I appreciate that organization

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as I'm oddly enough I'm communications chair well invite me because I'll come because I'm

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looking for my local tribe because you know that's why I loved meeting you and the other people that

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we got to know in this because that was definitely a really big part of it because you sit here by

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yourself and it's nice to have you never have to cry alone if you have a community behind you that

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has liked interest so please invite me I would love to be right we would love to have you and and

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the Austin group which is what I can speak to um it's a lot of lifting each other up um I don't

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feel that there's any sort of weird competition it's just very supportive and um I think when you

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get enough folks that feel that way then that becomes the culture of the group and so um we share

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sources as far as we're comfortable like it's just I've learned and I've learned so much I can just

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send a question out you know and uh and see what people think even just stuff like I don't know

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what to do with you know this is what they asked for the wholesale terms and what does that mean

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and so it's just uh these these groups are great for that and um and it's good when it's so specific

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and I think we should have broader networks of course but um yeah there's a lot of benefit to

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resource rich I think that there's some other nest people are I think in that group I can I think so

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yeah um people that we know now I'm gonna be on the spot but uh it's okay don't you'll have to name

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them because I'll hope I'll have them on their show and also that's another thing if you have a newsletter

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please tell them you've got the link and just say sign up um and be on sugar's new podcast because

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it's specific to anybody that makes jewelry like I really want this to grow because if you well it's

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started because I looked for other podcasts that I could be a guest on just to get my SEO and my brand

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out there and there really isn't anything and they were all like five years old they only had like three

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seasons or three things it was like okay really I got this I can do this so yeah I'd love to have

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some of your people on there all of them all of them this is going to go on you know for years

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hopefully because it's easy to do I just have to put makeup on it's the worst part I know I love it

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thank you for doing it sugar it's this is a really super thank you I feel like and and this is a great

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place to kind of if you want to say anything last because we should definitely say your website one

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more time so that people and know that and your Instagram one more time we'll put it up on as a

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banner but um and anything else that you would like to share opening the floor to you to end the

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show um well my website katiekismet.com at katiekismet on Instagram and then austinbolo.com at austinbolo

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I would say this this would have this meant something to me every time I heard it is that

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maybe it took me a minute to believe it but there's a place for you um jewelry can be feel

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very saturated um but if you have a vision and it's your joy and you know follow that um so I

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think a there's a place for you and be authenticity or there's no order but they work together um so

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that's it okay it's a three hundred and thirty three billion dollar a year industry absolutely

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I glory all the time people like to adore themselves they have from alinia in the beginning of time

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the beginning of time the beginning of time we adorn ourselves to set ourselves apart

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and I think that's what makes it just so much more fun like you know people aren't wearing crowns

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but they were wearing jewelry back then like for sure well thank you very much katie I love you

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and you know I do and I'm always there to support you and please know that I'm true to that and I

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look forward to seeing you in person next time I come to one of your events or come see you and

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we'll keep supporting each other and all the rest of our friends that we know to in common

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and keep going you're making beautiful things and if there's anything I can ever do to help you

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you know I'm just a what's that call away and thank you for being my very first guest on my podcast

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this has been jewelry as your side hustle and I know we work hard it's not really a side hustle

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it's like our full-time jobs but you know it it is part of what we do so thank you again katie and

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I hope you have a great rest of your day