Welcome to the GuiltTrips podcast. I'm your host, Kendra Lockhart. As a goldsmith and
gemologist, I'll be speaking 24 carat on all things jewelry, metals, and gems. Join
me plus a few friends to demystify both materials and designs as your private jeweler. Let's
tune in on these topics and get golden. In today's episode, I'm going to talk about time. And
that's a very interesting concept, not only in the jewelry world, but also in business
ownership, employee management, and making sure a project is properly booked so that
it isn't rushed and client expectations are met. Now, I've had time anxiety. I've had
time collapse. I've had time magic because time is a lot more plastic than we estimate.
The reason I decided to speak about both time and timing is because they mean different
things to me when I have that internal dialogue. Is it time? Meaning, have I outgrown something?
Has it run its course? Most of our opportunities to learn do have an expiration date on them,
much like my stay here in New York. It's coming to a close. Timing, on the other hand, seems
to be more of a space, a strange and potentially divine or magical moment or opportunity where
you are supposed to intersect either with a place, a person, or a proposition. So today
I'm going to walk through the arc in my career of where both time and timing pulled me out
of something, pushed me into an unfamiliar place. But ultimately, echoed that wonderful
loop that I've seen in my life, a beautiful pattern of who I was being and whom I was
becoming. My first awareness of time regarding my career was the fact that I did grow up
near the Chicago border. There was a program called After School Matters down at the Art
Institute of Chicago. It led me to taking art classes where I was a kid paired with
probably a teaching assistant. It satisfied my parents' need of filling up my schedule
so it would sync up with the end of their workday. But also, it planted that seed of
the joy of creating. And most importantly, is it showed me what it was like to finish
a work. Before, my drawings were just pieces of paper and crayons until I got bored or
felt like doing something else or, I don't know, was called to the dinner table. This
was an actual structuring of my efforts in a specific period of time. Week one, we met
our TAs. Week two, we came up with a concept. Week three, we were taken to go and get the
supplies. Week four, we began executing. Week five, we finished it up. And week six, was
the presentation to the parent. This definitely planted a seed for me taking art classes throughout
my life, long past my academic career. The one in high school that would become most
significant would be introduction to jewelry making. As far as timing, I was now off to
college, had enrolled in the major of architecture, and found out my parents' vicious divorce
was really starting to heat up. There was an open house at the arts and design building
where one of my classmates had invited me. And it was also the location where I would
have to take future architecture classes. It seemed very faded with what I was seeing,
and I decided I've got to transfer out of architecture and into art history and studio
arts. This would serve me well because not only did it change what I was learning, but
it completely reshuffled the professors I had. And that would also alter my trajectory.
So now I'm thriving in my new major. I've got the confidence. I've got a professor
who's sharing wonderful resources. And it gets suggested to me that why not take a studio
art class outside of drawing or illustration. And so I do and find myself thinking, I'll
get an easy A, do a jewelry class. And it was time for me to let go of my preference
and probably dependency on pen or pencil to paper and really start to use my hands with
tools in them and start producing ideas in three dimensions that weren't so easy. It
was in this class that I would also experience timing. The professor whose name was Billie
Jean Thighdy happened to be a master silversmith to the degree that she was the president
of national silversmithing in America. It would be the second time a jewelry teacher
would take note that I was beyond what I was being taught that I was a natural at this
and that I definitely needed to pursue this or at least push the curiosity and see what
else is there other than completing a course. The timing that happened upon finishing my
undergrad and needing a job was the simple fact that not far from where I was staying,
I had moved back in with my dad temporarily to pay off a small amount of debt for my
tuition was the fact that he had a client who was working at a store that specialized
in jewelry replicas. He asked her if there was any part time work. This was right before
the holidays and it just so happened that they were interested. This would begin my
experience in retail jewelry sales. Simultaneously, I was working for my dad's boss and I would
get my first jewelry commission. It was time to do business with my skills that I had acquired
down at university. Now was I great at it? No. In fact, I ended up really failing on
my first professional contract. Why? One, I didn't have a contract. Two, I didn't take
a deposit. I was 21 years old and one of the employees found out I had done some metal
work and asked if I would make her ring. And I said I don't work in gold and her response
was gold schmold. I'm sure the techniques are the same. I really want some rings and
we're on a small budget. Do you want to continue this conversation? And I said yeah, I will.
So we sketched it out and I went and got all of the supplies only to have her say, you
know, we really, really on a budget, we're not going to go with custom rings. We're going
to borrow some family pieces and then when we're a little better off, we'll revisit this.
How did I know how important that setback would be? So the timing of my commission falling
through would lead me to my business sponsor. My dad came down with some cold or flu or
whatnot and was going to miss going to a dinner. That was a fundraiser with a ticket he had
purchased. He said you'll go. And I said, I'm really not interested in sitting in a
room full of suits. And he said go or I'm going to charge you for this ticket. I need
to reclaim the value one way or another. So I attend. And lo and behold, I am seated next
to my business sponsor who wanted to know what do I do? And I said, I'm not sure I was
about to make some rings and I didn't get a contract or a deposit. And now I've got
college debt and now I've got to pay this off. And he said, what do the rings look like?
Famously as the story goes, I sketched him out on a cocktail napkin. He gave me his business
card. I went down to see him in the Diamond District in Chicago. He set me on a path to
complete the rings. He introduced me to my wax carver from the model and my jewelry caster.
From that, the rings went to a competition and won my first award. I owe being here to
the timing of that while I was attempting to say it's time to outgrow making things
in non-precious metals and step up into gold. Now it's time to get a job in fine jewelry.
Back in that day, employment ads were in newspapers. I showed up and was immediately put into a
drawing audition. Now you know that drawing was my first love, so naturally I got the
job. The owner wanted me to be a designer, but more importantly, he couldn't sketch.
And so I solved the problem of me almost capturing like a courtroom artist whatever conversation
he was having with a client in real time. It was a great run. It gave me the confidence
to sell my ideas even at a young age to run custom work projects and continue my education
of the industry as well as earn a few more jewelry awards with my personal designs and
creations. However, the manager's spite was something that I was quickly outgrowing and
it was time to leave. Another example of timing is I went looking for an apprenticeship. I
grabbed all that I had created up until then, of course my sketchbook and the first resume
I ever wrote for myself and went around my hometown, which was known for having a lot
of studio showroom hybrids. I went to the four companies that had that business model
and was accepted by one of them. During that time, I was exposed to gemology equipment
and books. I ended up reaching out to the GIA, which is the educational body for the
jewelry industry for information and I enrolled in a course. While I was working under that
company, I got to use the studio equipment to study. During all of this, I got a call
from my original business mentor to design earrings for his mother-in-law. She had gone
through a few other creatives and wasn't satisfied with their interpretations of her
loose emeralds as a finished jewelry piece. My current boss was very envious of my ambition.
Not only was I taking gemology courses, but I was positioning myself to collect or at
least compete for yet another design award. During my work with my original business mentor,
I discussed with him what it would take to become self-employed. Naturally, it was time
to outgrow working for people who wanted to keep me small. While I was laying the groundwork
for my own company, I got myself a job in the fitness industry so that I could fund
this idea and have liquid assets to make speculative pieces as well as hire contracts for any commissions
I was making so that somebody else could be doing the work while I was at my day job.
As far as timing, I was freelancing for a woman named Bobby and she was someone who
was an independent sales representative for ad space in magazines. And one of her accounts
was a mixed media gallery. It was her suggestion that I go and meet the owner of this gallery
and show that I make jewelry. So I threw together what was a lookbook at the time, made the
appointment, brought my sketchbook and during that conversation I showed samples, discussed
what I had done so far and what I thought I could offer as well as where I was looking
to grow. I'll never forget, she asked me, where have you been? And I immediately heard
it through the lens of, uh oh, I'm seeming too green or not enough and I said, oh well
let me tell you about what I learned at university. She cut me off and she said, no, no, no, where
have you been? You're exactly what we need for us to grow. Let's do this. My time with
that owner and her gallery was very prosperous and not just financially. Under her wing,
I expanded into philanthropic events, donated a piece for a charity auction and had an appointment-based
design and collaboration calendar. She had amazing public relations skills and even got
me a feature article in the newspaper, which was a big deal. This was pre-internet. There
were open house shows, there were a chamber of commerce meetings, there were rotating
featured artists, there were neighborhood pairings. This would prepare me for a future of producing
my own events. As far as timing, there was an invitation to be the headliner of a show.
I pulled together a gem dealer, some vintage ring models and molds and I made a color fusion
replica collection. It absolutely bombed. And I have always wondered why until I recently
had a conversation with the founder of Cirque du Joule's. We talked about the notion of
greed in the form of wanting praise and how it can obscure your clarity. And at that time,
I was really looking to break away from the fact that my designs were progressive. I was
really hoping for the reputation of being innovative and avant-garde. And I thought,
well, this is it. I'll do bold color combinations in the metal techniques of the turn of the
century. Would that have failed today? I don't know. But the timing of that flop would end
up being perfect because it made me exactly the person who would be so good at selling
what would come out in two years, a line called Takori, which specialized in vintage revival
and it would flood the market. As that gallery owner was getting tired and burnt out, I knew
the pattern. It was time to seek something else. And I was introduced to the owner of
an estate franchise. This would be a natural outgrowth of my vintage collection, the one
that did terribly, but set me up to be an excellent salesperson for the vintage bridal
line that would come out two years later and be everywhere. And now to go back and instead
of it being a replica, these were the actual objects from all different times and periods
in our history. She ended up making me a manager and allowing me to contribute ideas and open
up different revenue streams. While I was looking for a reputable person to help us with some
of the restorations of the vintage items and estate pieces that she was buying, I came
across a company called Casting House. I was very much in need of someone as a contractor
who had more new school techniques than old school. And as we passed through 2008 recession
and I watched the estate company close up, as well as the mixed media gallery I used
to be a part of, it worked its way into my career arc. And before I knew it, there would
be a position available. And it was here I started as a project manager for stores across
the country submitting their ideas and their models to be turned into castings or full
finished jewelry. Because of all these steps that were leading up to this perfect moment,
it wasn't long before I got recognized as somebody who not only was one of the most
successful project managers they'd had, but also was showing potential to become a director
of the retail division, which would merge all of my history of making jewelry, all of
my experience as far as retail sales, and that third component, familiarity with the
steps in between having been in and out of so many different responsibilities.
The next example of timing was that it was the recession and we were all looking for
any extra dollars we could get. My photographer friend Brian was dropping out of an art show
and he asked me to fill in. So I brought whatever jewelry I had left and took his place. It
was a faded opportunity because the person producing the art show named Liz would become
a co-producer with me and I would be her featured creative. Not only would I meet other artistic
colleagues in a variety of media, but Liz and I would go on to create a solid umbrella
of connecting venues, causes, creatives, and audiences in the form of a series of art shows
and fundraisers. Now the life of a producer isn't always instantly profitable. It's a
lot of front loading the labor and taking chances. Sometimes you have to corral a bunch
of independent creatives who don't really understand what's going on. Naturally, I
had to stabilize that. I wound up answering an ad for freelance fitness. Little did I
know the account would be teaching mind body wellness for the staff of the Field Museum
of Natural History in Chicago. And this was fantastic because while I was there, they
were renovating their Hall of Gems. And now it sparked the idea of one day I'd love to
have a project that would be featured in their museum store. Well, lo and behold, that eventually
manifested as the podcast you're listening to right now.
And as for my last example of timing, I had an absolutely horrible boss at my last job.
And the reason why this podcast came to be, I was pressured into training the staff for
no extra compensation. So I said the only way that I'm going to give my knowledge up
on top of my job, on top of counterbalancing a manager who's making my life a living hell
is if I have some sort of asset after I'm training people. But more importantly, the
tension at work was so high that I made myself available for a bigger, better opportunity.
On LinkedIn, a recruiter found me and we began a dialogue of would you like to continue your
adventure in the secondary market? I was valuations manager for luxury consignment. And I finally
began to understand that this was it. This was what I was looking for, not just in responsibilities,
but in a mature culture, a collection of colleagues with different backgrounds that were all at
the same level of talent and execution. And I gave up trying to convert the culture with
my former management. I white flagged in September of this year. And by October, I was being
brought to Manhattan for a three month training. And my biggest takeaway that there is some
type of invisible thread weaving through our lives. And it just so happens that I plant
the seeds most consistently and recognize the patterns most instantly and consistently
in my career. To sum it all up, it's really challenging to be in jewelry if you're a linear
mind or if everything is seen through the world of black and white. For me, there's
just way too much magic in the materials I use, the creations I make, and the people's
lives that I touch. It's an infinite loop, much like time and timing.
Thank you for listening and learning with me. I would love you to share this project
with people finding rare beauty in today's world and throughout our times. Until the
next episode, keep your own story sparkling.