My First 2 Businesses Failed—Here's How I Turned It Around
"There isn’t a single path to finding your way to success."
Photo: Courtesy of Jonne Amaya
Growing up, I was told that everything is possible. I remember having a conversation with my dad when I was about seven years old. He would ask me to name what I’d like to be when I grew up, and then he would respond with, “How is that a career option?” I told him that I loved plants, and he said, “You’ll own a winery.” When I was young, I was not attached to the idea of a college experience or a common career path. And since my parents encouraged me to follow my passion, I felt free to experiment and explore.
I became intrigued by jewelry when I was just eight years old. My mom would allow me to order pieces from the Jewelry Channel on TV and then return them after I saw the pieces in person. When I was ten, my parents got me a 0.05-carat diamond ring for Christmas. I was always obsessed with jewelry, but it became a career prospect when I started creating pieces myself at bench jewelry classes in Barcelona. Deep down, I always knew that I would have my own company at one point in my life.
I launched my first brand when I was twenty-one years old. It was a Renaissance-inspired, edgy jewelry line. I was working for a young L.A.-based jewelry designer at the time, and her marketing strategy was to take photos of local, It girls wearing her pieces. She was very successful, and I naively assumed that I could emulate this business model and achieve the same kind of success. But in eight months, I sold three pieces and received zero interest from stores or showrooms. I was so confused. I had cool designs, great imagery, and all the right assets.
I started my second company when I was twenty-five while working for Vrai & Oro (now known as Vrai). I was really impressed with their timeless design aesthetic, direct-to-consumer business model, and transparent pricing. I was convinced that the reason Walk the Chapel failed was due to my wholesale approach and the fact that the jewelry was not for “every day.” So this time, I went the D2C route and created modern, unisex pieces.
A year into this venture, I was still not finding success. I was really frustrated. Around this time, I started taking custom orders from clients. When I would pick up the finished pieces from my jewelers in Downtown L.A., I saw all of their other work: it was an endless stream of generic jewelry, largely “replicas” of other designers’ pieces, produced in mass.
When I saw the amount of production the other brands had in comparison to the single, custom-designed pieces I was making, I realized that I didn’t want to contribute to this waste. When I was just starting out in the industry, I equated huge wholesale orders with success. Now, I have started to see mass production as the problem.
Not only did the artistic process of jewelry design get lost through mass production, but it was also extremely unsustainable. I pivoted my brand strategy to demonstrate the value of repurposing and really dove deep into why it was important for consumers to change their buying behavior when it comes to jewelry.
When I found my purpose, that's when I started seeing my luck turn around. Sharing my message and brand became my main priority. I understand now that when starting a business, it’s important to create a foundation around a core vision and purpose. Once you establish that and remain consistent, it all lines up from there.
When I was younger, I undervalued the message behind my brand and overvalued the product itself. I see a lot of start-ups making the same mistakes, and they’re missing the most important part of the puzzle. It’s very clear to me now that there isn’t a single path to finding your way to success. Now, I mainly focus on getting my message heard by the right consumers who share my values.
“When I found my purpose, that's when I started seeing my luck turn around.”
—Jonne Amaya, Fine Jeweler and Founder of Jonne
About the Author: Jonne Amaya is an emerging fine jeweler who hyper-focused on sustainability. Born in Mexico and based in L.A., Jonne creates custom fine jewelry with intention and never designing in bulk. Through a personal, intimate process, she works with her clients, one-on-one, to create new designs or transform existing pieces into the jewelry of their dreams. Jonne began her jewelry design career by learning benchwork and then studying gemology in her native Mexico. She created her first piece by repurposing a family heirloom with sentimental value that had gone unworn. By giving the piece new life, she discovered her love of sustainable, intentional jewelry design.
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The Power of Personalizing Your Brand in 4 Steps
Cultivating brand loyalty 101.
Photo: Anna Shvets from Pexels
Take some time right now to step back and reflect on all the brands that you love. What is it that makes you love them? Is it the product quality? Customer service? The branding? The company’s mission statement?
While product quality and customer service are crucial in getting repeat customers, the personality of a brand is what really sets it apart from its competitors in the digital age. A next-level brand has its own personality and is much more than just a company you buy a product or service from. You also want to follow them on social media, subscribe to their newsletter, and engage with them beyond the point of purchase.
By focusing on personalizing your brand, not only will you be able to produce more sales, but you’ll also develop strong brand loyalty that will generate more longterm leads. The four tips below will start you off on the right foot by adding more character to your brand and making your customers and audience feel more connected with your brand.
1. Nail down your brand voice.
Who is your brand? If you had to put a face to your brand, who would that person be? How would they talk? Are they chill and relaxed? Fun and upbeat? Mellow and more serious?
Nail down the tone, and make sure that this voice stays consistent on all your marketing, both online and offline. The goal is to make your brand more personable rather than a company. This is what adds true character to your brand and can give your brand a leg up on the competition who still is trying to nail down how they should sound like to be more relevant to their audience.
You know who you are, so make sure you not only know what your brand is but who it is as well.
2. Invest in some humor/cheekiness.
Unless you’re in the business of funeral homes and mortuaries, there is always a way to add humor to your marketing strategy. Not only does it attract more customers, but it also helps build great communication that not only will help your followers and customers be more engaged with you and it can help with having your community refer you to their networks as well.
We will say this: ditch the knock-knock jokes. Investing in humor is much more effective when it’s smart, witty, and timely. And in today’s digital age, it’s time to push aside the “professional” image that many brands are trying to stick to. As stated in an article by INC., focusing on “establishing a professional image means making it look like what’s expected, which often results in boring and forgettable websites, PowerPoint, and videos.”
The key is to always do the unexpected. Don't be so predictable.
3. Mirror your customers and be relatable.
Just as your voice relates to the voice of your consumers, so should the content that you’re creating for your brand. Mirroring your customers and creating content that they can relate to increases your content’s shareability and strengthens brand loyalty as well. Take some time to really analyze your audience: their likes, dislikes, habits, goals, struggles, etc.. Integrate those into your own brand’s content and show your audience how you come from a place of understanding and relate to them.
However, be very careful to not take away from their experiences without TRULY understanding who they are. It’s easy to sense when your grandparents are trying too hard to be cool, and even easier to sense when a brand is trying too hard to be relatable. (Point and case: please refrain from using bae, YASSS, on fleek, or any Drake lyric that can consequently cause some serious eye rolls and unfollows.)
4. Be transparent.
If there is one thing that reeks more than grandparents trying to be cool, it’s a phony. And if there’s one thing that you need to invest in the most more than reliability, it’s trustworthiness.
In today’s digital age people can find out EVERYTHING about your brand with one Google search, so be aware of how this can affect your brand positively or negatively. Whatever it is, be real and upfront with your audience. Don’t cut through any business shortcuts, don’t be shady, and watch how you can have a leg up on the competition that chooses to keep things behind closed doors. That simple.
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This story was originally published on March 24, 2016, and has since been updated.
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How to Build a Brand Through Storytelling on Social Media
Every brand has a voice. Have you found yours?
Photo: Smith House Photography
Storytelling is an art. It’s all about authenticity, relevancy, and transparency. In building Stylebymalvika, my personal platform dedicated to providing style inspiration to the driven dreamers of the world, I’ve noticed that I owe much of my success thus far to being vulnerable, speaking without too many qualms, and delivering on what it is exactly that my audience responds best to that I can provide consistently. Surprisingly, being a bit of a spontaneous creative at heart has worked towards my benefit. In hopes of helping you build your brand on social media, I’m going to share a bit about how I’ve navigated telling my story online.
When I started my platform almost two years ago, I had absolutely no direction, and in many ways, I’m thankful I didn’t. It allowed me to experiment, speak about everything, and understand what worked best for both me and my audience. Everyone told me to “niche myself,” but I couldn’t understand what that meant. I’m a human, after all, and all humans are multifaceted and complex. Naturally, and as a result of merely creating, I slowly began to understand that perhaps a photo of Louboutins with a heart caption wasn’t doing anything for me or my audience.
Get real
Let’s face it: Today, everyone can post a photo of their favorite items, foods, etc. But not everyone is you. Understanding that there’s a very distinct, unique person behind all you put out is what’s most important when trying to find your voice on social media. Whether you’re an individual or a brand trying to craft an image, free yourself of any bounds so that you can slowly discover your value to others based on feedback.
Personally, I have found that my distinct value is in my perspective on fashion. I’m an Indian born and bred in America who is still deeply immersed in the Indian culture and values of quality and craftsmanship, which feed my love for high-end designers. My upbringing has taught me to strive to achieve great things, and thus the “driven” aspect of my value proposition was born. Being real about who you are and where you’re coming from will slowly but surely ensure your value becomes evident as well.
Be transparent
Combining my love for luxury fashion and my drive naturally helped me understand that I was a driven dreamer, and that what I put out there appealed to others who were the same. Still, I’m writing my narrative, and finding what more I can share about myself that will continue to provide value to my audience. I’m sure that in a year’s time, I’ll have a bit of a different value. I firmly believe that being transparent about new dynamics or changes that arise, either in action or perspective, can only strengthen a narrative—that is, if you share the whole process.
Learn from your audience
The thing about social media and building any type of brand image online is being true to who you are, and not overthinking it, especially in the beginning. There will be several learning curves, and you must remember that the journey quite literally is the destination. A huge part of your storytelling journey will be not having too narrow of a scope of communication with your audience—not “over-niching” yourself.
Allow yourself the grace of time and experience, and let your audience play a role in building your brand’s unique image. People enjoy being included in a conversation rather than being spoken at. Don’t just start by telling a story to your viewers and listeners: allow them to have a stake in your story by being the very people who shape it.
About the Author: Malvika Sheth is the founder of popular fashion platform Stylebymalvika, which has appeared on BuzzFeed and in Bella New York Magazine. She has previously collaborated with brands such as Clarins, Reebok, Jimmy Choo, and Lancôme in her journey as a content creator. Check her out on her Instagram and read more about her on her blog.
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This post was originally published on April 27, 2019, and has since been updated.
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3 Entrepreneurs Share Their Secrets of Building a Smart Brand
Your audience is always watching.
We're ever curious about what makes a brand successful-- and if there are certain tenets that will always remain important, especially in the face of shifting technology.
So we asked three of our upcoming Create & Cultivate DTLA panelists to share.
Ask for help and to let people help you whenever possible because you can’t do it all yourself. Also, find people that are better at you to handle the things that you don’t have time to do.
Work hard, be persistent, and don't be afraid to put yourself out there.
Don’t try to imitate the success of others. Instead let their success inspire you to find success in your own way.
Carly de Castro, Co-Founder, Pressed Juicery
Defining a brand mission and building every facet of your brand with this in mind. Also learning from your mistakes. No brand is perfect and I would be lying if I said that we made some choices that we maybe thought were good for our company but in the end were not. What we learned is that it’s not only about the good choices you make, but how you learn from the not so great ones - this learning process has truly helped create and strengthen the Pressed Juicery brand DNA. I also think it’s extremely important to stop and just be grateful every once in a while. As a growing and rapidly expanding brand sometimes it can feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done. We’re always thinking about the next step and striving to be better – but once in a while it’s necessary to just be thankful for what we’ve accomplished in these short 5 years, it’s a great boost of energy for me as we move forward.
"It’s not only about the good choices you make, but how you learn from the not so great ones."
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Emily Henderson: Founder, Style By Emily Henderson
1. Steer away from anything generic. I’m not saying be controversial, I’m saying be interesting and if you feel strongly about something but are scared of the outcome - just do it. It’s fine. Most of the time you aren’t alone and your audience will respond to that opinion and if not, you’ll still get traffic.
Obviously if you are a big companyyou have to be a little more careful, but I’m much more attracted to brands that have more of a personality, make a statement ,and stay away from cliche social sayings or really bland expressions.
2. Trust is EXTREMELY important. There are times when you’ll be tempted to sell out, there are times when you will sell out (I have) but man, just know that your audience is watching and while it may not be the death of you it can be hard to recover if you endorse something that you know people think is cheesy.
3. Think about your end goal for each new project. Is it money? Exposure? To broaden your network? New portfolio work? Fun? Ideally it's a combination of those things. Then cater how you handle that project based on your end goal.
Arianna Schioldager is Create & Cultivate's editorial director. You can find her on IG @ariannawrotethis and more about her on this site she never updates www.ariannawrotethis.com