THIS MONTH, WE ARE excited to introduce a brand new podcast: The Business of Jewelry Podcast, featuring Jimmy DeGroot (Train Retail) and Peter Smith (The Retail Smiths). In this inaugural episode, Jimmy and Peter take on one of the most pressing issues in our industry today: hiring salespeople.

In a no-holds-barred conversation, the two industry vets revisit Smith’s book, Hiring Squirrels, to see what has changed in recent years. They discuss some of the most important questions to ask experienced and inexperienced salespeople, and Jimmy asks, “How do retailers get candidates to show up for interviews?” They also discuss why retailers need to be okay hiring candidates who are less than perfect, and why a structured interview process is critical.

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THIS MONTH, THE TRAIN RETAIL PODCAST (formerly JimmyCast) covers a topic with timeless importance: how to have passion in your business. In this episode, host Jimmy DeGroot and co-host Doug Meadows of David Douglas Diamonds in Marietta, GA discuss how crucial passion is to success and why it’s also necessary to instill that passion in one’s employees.

Jimmy remarks that everyone he’s known who is happy and successful in business started from a passion for what they were setting out to do. Doug shares how he was able to discover his passion even though he grew up in the business as a third-generation jeweler. At 23, Doug was invited to move from Detroit to Georgia in order to open a retail jewelry business with a friend, and he found his love for jewelry retail in his relationships with his customers.

Doug raises a critical question, though: How do you convey and create that passion in your staff? He and Jimmy then talk about practical ways to do that, including a quality that many may not immediately connect with passion — vulnerability.

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A QUESTION WE frequently get is “Are Facebook users declining? The short answer is yes. In particular those under 25 who only represent about 15% of active users. But before you pull the fire alarm, it’s still the most used social media platform out there. So, let’s look at some exciting developments and how they could impact the next evolution of digital marketing.

As vice-president of Fruchtman Marketing, Shane O’Neill oversees the company’s digital and web efforts. He is a frequent speaker and writer about digital strategy and insight on proper methods to successfully build an online presence. His quality-over-quantity approach often highlights the pitfalls of non-strategic digital marketing efforts.

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With Meta (formally Facebook) unveiling its “all in” approach to the Metaverse, it’s time to start preparing for what’s next. As many were, and some still are, late to the digital marketing game, we’ll dive into what the Metaverse is and how new personal ad experiences could become commonplace in the next 3-5 years.

As vice-president of Fruchtman Marketing, Shane O’Neill oversees the company’s digital and web efforts. He is a frequent speaker and writer about digital strategy and insight on proper methods to successfully build an online presence. His quality-over-quantity approach often highlights the pitfalls of non-strategic digital marketing efforts.

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THIS MONTH, JIMMYCAST dives into a timely topic: trade shows. In this episode, host Jimmy DeGroot and co-host Doug Meadows of David Douglas Diamonds in Marietta, GA share a fun and lively conversation about why shows are important, what retailers can get out of them and how to make the most of your time there.

As Doug says, it’s not about just going to buy. It’s about going to learn and meet people as well. “I pray for those divine appointments and connections,” he says.

Jimmy talks about best practices he learned over the years and how much that helped him make the most of his time at the shows. Doug reminisces about his first time going to the Vegas shows and how much he learned from a fellow retailer’s buyer. And both discuss how being at shows can make you feel like part of the larger retail community.

Several fun stories are shared, including the time Doug brought friends as a “babysitting service” for his wife so that she could have fun while he was at the show, as well as the time that Jimmy and Doug bunked together at a certain trade show that used to take place in Chicago.

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Just about every business is in the social media game now and most are failing to use their social media channels even in a moderately successful way. Instagram is one of the top social channels you can incorporate into your marketing mix. Yet, it’s much different than Facebook, so stop treating it that way. It’s time to throw away the excuses and re-energize your staff and your perspective. It’s time to unlock your Instagram Lifestyle!

As vice-president of Fruchtman Marketing, Shane O’Neill oversees the company’s digital and web efforts. He is a frequent speaker and writer about digital strategy and insight on proper methods to successfully build an online presence. His quality-over-quantity approach often highlights the pitfalls of non-strategic digital marketing efforts.

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IN THE DEBUT EPISODE of his new podcast, “Keepin’ It Real”, Shane O’Neill of Fruchtman Marketing asks one of the most important, and overlooked, questions about digital marketing for jewelry stores.

For the past decade, jewelers have been talking about how digital marketing and the move to online has changed how businesses market themselves … but what about how this technology should be changing how the jewelry salesperson works?

Marketing, specifically digital marketing, is very sophisticated and unless you have in-house people who are well trained, even certified, in things like paid search, SEO, Facebook advertising, etc., you will likely be better off leaving those efforts to professionals. However, any agency you work with should or will need various assets to help them do their job more effectively and the people on your team should be the go-to source.

As vice-president of Fruchtman Marketing, Shane O’Neill oversees the company’s digital and web efforts. He is a frequent speaker and writer about digital strategy and insight on proper methods to successfully build an online presence. His quality-over-quantity approach often highlights the pitfalls of non-strategic digital marketing efforts.

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IN THE SECOND EPISODE of his “Keepin’ It Real” podcast, Shane O’Neill of Fruchtman Marketing is joined by Daniel Gordon, one of independent jewelry retail’s biggest, and longest-running, proponents of digital marketing.

The discussion: Social and digital marketing has changed more than just how retail jewelers market themselves, it’s changed how we communicate. So, why then are so many salespeople still selling the way they always have? Gordon’s passion for digital and social marketing changed not only how he marketed as a jeweler, but how he connects to his customers.

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THIS MONTH, Jeffrey Samuels, owner of William Jeffrey’s Jewelers near Richmond, VA, joins host Jimmy DeGroot and co-host Doug Meadows of David Douglas Diamonds in Marietta, GA to talk about how a jewelry store owner can build a business that supports their lifestyle.

Samuels started in the industry as a loose diamond sales rep covering nine states. He decided to open a retail jewelry store in his hometown of Mechanicsville when his oldest son was born in 1990.

At that time, store hours were six days a week from 10 until 8. Today, the store is open Tuesday through Friday until 6 and Saturday until 3. And this year, Samuels will only work four days a week in the store.

He discusses how a store owner needs to train their team to take ownership, but more importantly, how the owner has to train himself not to micro-manage and how to ignore that “little gremlin” that says you could have done something better than your employee did it.

One impressive feature of Samuels’ operation is that his average inventory turn is 6 — whereas most jewelers have an average turn of about 1. “It’s not about how much you sell,” Samuels says, “but about how much you make in profit.”

Samuels goes on to discuss his aversion to traditional advertising and insistence on ROI, and how he’s found reliability in Podium and Google Reviews. He also talks about why he doesn’t sell lab-grown diamonds, gives his thoughts on CRM (customer relationship management) software, and shares his preliminary exit plans.

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What kind of a thing is the Zing platform? It’s the whole jewelry industry right at your fingertips. In this 20-minute podcast, INSTORE’s Barbara Moss talks to Jewelers Mutual Group’s Adam Gerety, vice president of platform operations and Craig Danforth, vice president of client solutions about the development of the Zing platform. They’ll also discuss how this vital and super-intuitive platform will make any jeweler’s business life easier to manage — and a lot more productive. And they’ll delve into the many ways the platform brings the best in global sourcing to Main Street, from diamond trading with IDEX to the Jewelry Appraisal Solution, leveraging the incomparable experience of Gemworld.

Have 20-minutes to spare? Use it wisely. Learn more about the Zing platform and how it will take your business to an entirely new level of knowledge and productivity.

It’s free to register. It’s easy to use. And it’s designed to help you do business better. It’s the Zing platform from Jewelers Mutual Group.

Register for the Zing platform at JewelersMutual.com/Zing

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