#326 Perceived Value is an Inside Job with Interview with Allyson Hayes

6:20AM Nov 23, 2021

Speakers:

Tracy Matthews

Allyson Hayes

Keywords:

people

prices

business

jewelry

allyson

mindset

felt

buy

raised

customers

brand

jewelers

valuing

thrive

doubling

tags

booth

share

flourish

artist

My mindset of perceived value was where, you know, the problem was with my brand. You know, my dream clients and my non dream clients, they valued my work more than I was. And so it took the validation of doubling my prices, having people respond, like very hardest to it helped me realize that I was undervaluing myself, my jewelry, my business, and even my life, because if I'm not making enough income, to have a life beyond driving up and down the road, just running shows going into the studio, tap, tap, tap, tap, and run back out. You know, that's it. That's not valuing, you know, having a valuable life or the lifestyle that I wanted. So once I raised my prices, it really raised, you know, my whole thinking, my whole my whole self worth my Yeah, it was, it was really, it was really transformative.

Welcome to thrive by design, the podcast for ambitious independent jewelry brands, looking to profit from their products, get ready to make more and sell more doing what you love, without spending every single waking minute doing it. Okay, and if you're a creative fashion or product based business, I want to welcome you to the show. I'll be dropping big tips on launching, growing and scaling your business. So you can spend more of your precious time using your creativity to make money. You ready? All right, let's do this. Welcome to the thrive by design podcast. Hey there, I'm Tracy Matthews, chief visionary officer of flourish and thrive Academy and the host of the thrive by design Podcast. I'm also the author of the desire brand effect how to stand out in a saturated market with a timeless jewelry brand. I would be so honored if you would pick up a copy of the book, it just came out in November. And I am beyond thrilled that this work in progress that I've been working on for so many years is now an open. One of my favorite things in the world to do is to interview people who have taken our programs and taken action on what we tell them to do, and had amazing success. It is beyond fun for me. And just more exciting because like, honestly, if our students were getting results, I wouldn't be working so hard over here. And that's the thing that I love the most is to really witness people as they, as they come to come into their own, I guess is the best way to put it. And so today is no exception. I'm interviewing one of our students. Her name is Alison Hayes. She is a graduate of our laying the foundation program and our T yc. Program, train your customers to buy from you online. And we had an event here in I think at the end of August or early September, or early September, I guess for our momentum program. And momentum is our coaching program. It's a year long program. And we gave an invite to our TYT members to join. And we have a contest every single time where we give cash prizes for people to share something awesome that they did in their business either made or save them $1,000. And I know that as artists and as creators that sometimes we don't necessarily value the work that we're doing. And what I mean by that is that we do things like undercharged ourselves operate out of fear. Not feel confident in the work that we're putting out there. And meaning that we're like, oh, well, like it's okay. Don't, you know, we don't want to be pushy, like trying to get people to buy. And there's so many other things that manifest in in this vein, and we're doing a lot of episodes on mental health and mental wealth and also confidence in just showing up and owning what it is that you do. And that's exactly why I wanted to have Allyson on the show, she is a frickin Rockstar and you're gonna see why in this interview. So she in the reason why I asked her to come on is because she shared she won the Super share contest. She was I think, second place. And the first place winner I am going to have on the podcast, we've just had a little bit of trouble scheduling because she travels while she's working. And it's just been a blast to watch her grow. So we'll dive into that in just a moment. I'll do a quick intro of Allyson. But before I do, it's an interesting time, right we're in the middle of we're about to launch into the new year, which is extremely exciting. We have I've done so much this year. It's been honestly one of the best years of my life but also one of the most challenging and as we're kind of winding in to are winding up November and rolling into December and before we know it, it's going to be January. I wanted to come in here and say number one, thank you. Thank you thank you to anyone who has purchased the desire brand effect. It became live and available for purchase on Amazon and through our website, the desire brand effect.com on November 9, and I'm beyond thrilled because I've worked on this. I'm gonna call it a masterpiece. This book masterpiece for many, many years now, and it was literally took a village to get it off the ground. And if you listen to the behind the scenes episodes and the book launch episode of the podcast, you've been hearing me talk about it a lot. So if you need some guests for the holidays, I would love to invite you to purchase the book and share it with your favorite jewelry designer friend, or if you have a business bestie buy it and give it to them as a gift, or just share it. That's good enough,

you know, show the link, it'd be awesome. Anyway, it's been fun to create this. And I'm hoping that you're getting value out of reading it and just consuming everything that we stand for over here at flourish and thrive because my goal is to help you reach your vision of success. Otherwise, why would I be here, right. So that's all for now. And Allyson's going to be talking about a program that we have over here called train your customers to buy from you online. At the end, it's called the TYT. It is part of our momentum program. And it's perfect for people who have already taken our laying the foundation course and want to take their business to the next level, or for people who are really trying to leverage online sales and get things going in their business. I know that a lot of people, including Allyson, which she'll share with you were hit super hard during the pandemic, when their shows were shut down. And they and Alison even shares on this episode, how she didn't lean in to online sales, and she felt left behind. And that's part of the reason why she joined the program. So this is part of our momentum program and is basically the 12 week kickoff workshop that we do in the cohorts to help people build momentum and really get some growth. So if you're interested in learning more about that, I'd love to invite you to just jump on strategy audit with Natasha and head on over to flourishthriveacademy.com/strategy, fill out an application, and we'll chat with you and see if you're a good fit to work with us in the GYC and our momentum accelerate program. Now Allyson is an amazing designer and maker. And she is the founder of precious elements designs. She built her business on in person shows and she's working on growing her online sales. She's about to release a new website. So I'd really love for you to go give her some love and lean into this episode, because I think you're going to get a lot out of it. I am here today with Allyson Hayes. And she's a very special guest for a very special reason. And I think her story is really going to resonate with all of you listening to the podcast today. So Allyson, thank you so much for being here.

Oh, thank you, Tracy, it's my pleasure to be here.

Well, I asked you to be on this because you were in a program that we have over here called the T yc. Train your customers to buy from you online. It's a 12 week workshop that is part of our momentum program. And then you came to our retreat, you want a super share Contest, which is something that we do in our at our retreats where we have students come up and share something awesome that they did help them make some money or save the money and everyone was blown away. Because you won, you won one of the prizes of the super short contest, so I'm not gonna spill the beans gonna have you share what you shared there. But I'm just really excited to have you on the show today. So thank you for being here. I know this is like probably, you know, big step or something.

Because it was almost like, you know, the way it came out. So naturally, I didn't even expect to say what I said,

is amazing. So just to give everyone a little bit of a background want you share a little bit about your business and your history and to jewelry design.

Um, well I originally come from the south. So I'm very rich culture and history from there and I moved to New York City. And over 20 years, I graduated from the Fashion Institute of Technology, getting my jewelry design and silver smithing degree. Before that, I kind of skipped ahead. I just fell in love with jewelry period, I was a customer. And I always wanted like more unusual jewelry than I could find. So I said why don't I start making my own. So I took a little short class at a community center. And I fell in love with fire and metal and gemstones. Yes, and, and as I began to build my brand, I really was attracted to the elements and the preciousness of the stones, which became the name of my business, those two, you know, precious elements designs. And my work is it's very bold, very organic, very earthy. The way I approach my jewelry is that i i do design sometimes ahead of time, you know, just some sketches. But a lot of time I just sit with the materials, the stones, the metals, I'll think about the different techniques that I've taught myself, many self taught and just kind of let it come together. Let my hands touch it and kind of it manifests itself into its own pieces. And then when I look at it, when it's finished, I say, Who are you gonna go home with. And every time it's like the perfect person, you know, that particular ring or that particular cuff, someone walks in, and I'm like, wow, that's that person I was thinking about while I was sitting at my bench, you know, wondering who it's gonna go home with. So I am very tied to energy and energy with my clients. And when they buy my pieces, they're very much like statement pieces that I had customers come back through so many times, they're like, I wear this ring every day. This is part of my, you know, personal style, and a way that they can express themselves through my work.

Which is awesome, which kind of leads me to this, the whole lead into this story. So as I mentioned earlier, you you came to our momentum retreat, you participated in this shoot, super share competition, you got voted in as into as one of the finalists to compete for the grand prize, which was like 500 bucks. And then we had a second prize and a third prize. And I was so blown away by your story, and everyone else was, too. So how, tell us a little bit about how you're selling jewelry. For the most part. Now I know you came to us to be selling more online as well. So tell us a little bit about how you meet your customers and sell to them?

Well, that's exactly why I did come to TYC. Because I was predominantly or pretty much exclusively selling only at in person shows. I did not take the time, because I was so busy running up and down the road, to really, really build my email list really, really work on my website. Although for years and years and years, I have been following through flourish and thrive. I have been I've taken many workshops, I've bought some of the great bundles that you've offered, and I would still run up and down the road. And what I needed done. So once the in person shows pretty much shut down immediately, I was left in a lurch I was not prepared to be selling online, I spent 10 years at a particular market, very high end market. And although I did capture a lot of emails, I could have captured a lot more and also, you know, been prepared for what happened. So right now, my business is basically stopped dead in its tracks. But I looked at it as an opportunity, you know, kind of it was it allowed me to step back from my business, first of all, and look at the things that I know I needed to do and the tools that I had gotten from places like flourish and thrive. And I said, wow, look at all this that I haven't been implementing. So I said, I will, you know, relaunch. And I feel like online sales, even before the pandemic were growing every year. Yeah, and I was missing out. And when people knocked it out of the park last season, I just said, Allyson, you just missed the whole season because you weren't ready. So now I'm basically relaunching my business, this fall and holiday season, and I'm putting to work, you know, all the tools that I've learned are purchased with flourish and thrive. And I hired a marketing assistant because I finally realized I cannot do everything myself. And so yeah, I'm looking forward to using what I've learned in T yc. And what I will learn in future programs to relaunch my business. And I'm very excited to relaunch in the right way, which is part of the subject we'll be talking about more.

Yeah. So tell us what happened. You know, you tell us what you did, like you, you came on, and you had people coming into your booth and like picking up pieces and walking out. And that must have been like super discouraging. But I want you to kind of share the backstory behind that because I don't I don't want to give it all away. So why don't you share with us like what was happening when people were shopping at your booth or experiencing your brand.

People were very drawn into my booth, and I was very, you know, interactive with people. And I would see them trying on all these pieces, and I could see that connection happening. And I'm like, Oh my gosh, this ring is just perfect for her, you know, and then they would walk out and not buy it. And they would keep looking and looking and sometimes I would have people come back a second time and keep looking and looking and it was very frustrating because I'm like you love this ring? Why aren't you buying it you know, using all my sales skills. And you know, customer after customer was passing me by either because, you know, my dream clients, they were like, This is priced too low, and they would honestly not buy it and tell me to raise my prices and leave. And then people who are not my dream clients and were looking for a much lower price point. They would also tell me to raise my prices, or they wanted it at an even cheaper price. Believing that it was not silver. It couldn't be real gemstones. So I was, you know, knocking myself out of the market on both ends. And finally, you know, also my peers were coming after me hard, like, so you need to raise your prices, their jewelers, they know what they're talking about. And you know, some of them are my personal friends. So they cared about, you know, me and my life and, you know, seeing me run up and down the road and not really making enough profit.

Okay, awesome. So you, you came to this realization, I'm guessing that you're really pricing yourself out of the market, but in a different way than most people think. Because I think most people think they're pricing themselves out of the market, because they're charging too much, you guys yourself out of the market, because you weren't charging enough. So what did you do?

Um, well, it's actually really funny. I, you know, after this, it was like, months and months, and it was our busiest months at the market, seasonally, and I still had these low prices, and people were just killing it around me. And my jeweler friends would literally leave their busy booth and come over to me and say, Alison, raise your prices, please. They were just yeah, it just kept coming at me from so many directions. And my mindset just kept holding me back as I was afraid, you know, if I raise my prices, I'm not going to get sales, or, you know, my mindset was saying, Oh, this piece, you know, is it worth the price, you know, that I know, I need to put it on, put on it. And finally, between all these voices, you know, coming to me externally, and my own voices in my head that were holding me back, I felt so like, pressed between the two, I kind of just said, Hey, screw it, I'm just gonna double everything. You know, I kept trying to, you know, mess with formulas and like, okay, I can raise a $10 or I can raise it $25. And then I just got so frustrated, I said, Screw it, I'm doubling everything, I just ripped off all the tags, I must have looked like a madwoman in my booth, ripping all the tags off running around with a Sharpie, and new tags, you know, just doubling everything I was, I was almost like, in this frenzy, and just like this release of like, Screw it, I'm just gonna do it. And I could not believe what happened. I cannot believe what happened was that day, I sold half my inventory. Oh my god. And not only that, it wasn't just it was a lot of multiple pieces in the sales. So not only did I raise my prices, and they were more eager to buy, they're also more eager to buy multiple pieces, and said to myself, Wow, you could have been making this much all along. And you know, look at how my life would have been different. And my business would have been different. And, you know, realizing that all these people who were saying these things to me, not only cared about me, but they were valuing my work more than I was. And that hit deep. I was like, Okay, what is going on with my mindset that I'm not valuing my work as much as my dream clients can see and even not my dream clients can see. And I looked into, you know, myself, my background, you know, mindsets may have gotten culturally, even, you know, where I grew up, or the fact that a lot of jewelers didn't do not look like me. And in my community and family, I remember being asked many times, like, Oh, can you really make a living with jewelry? Or? And I was just like, yeah, what's that wedding ring on your finger? Look at that watch on your wrist. You know, look at the three necklaces you have on? Who do you think makes those Of course I can make a living with jewelry. And thinking back on that early, you know, kind of challenge. Still, once I got to a point of making such high quality work, you know, spending decades, building my skills. I got to that into my career. And all of a sudden, I was underpricing myself by 50%, not 10, not 20 50%. And I really changed my mindset. And it really gave me a lot of confidence. When people responded greatly to my price increase. They liked it.

I love that I love it so much. So you said so much in that in everything that you said. So I want to kind of unpack some of this, you know, you mentioned your own internal mindset you mentioned like and I'm just gonna, like change the words a little bit confirmation bias of like how you grew up and like your experience in life. And then you also mentioned cultural biases or you know, what's going on in the industry like obviously, there aren't as many people of color as if that's not an obvious thing. I shouldn't say obviously because there are amazing people of color or artists but it wasn't necessarily maybe a traditional path for a woman like you to go down to become a jewelry jewelry designer and a jeweler and an artist in this particular fields. which I feel like so, I'd love to just unpack that a little bit, do you want to share a little bit more about your experience? I can let you guided, I can ask you questions, you tell me what feels the most.

Um, well, I was always kind of the outsider in my family. And I don't mean like, not close to them emotionally or anything like that. But, you know, from the very beginning, when I started growing up, I had so much creativity, you know, and my mom, she also did a lot of different home crafts. So she encouraged my creativity throughout my life. And as I got older and into high school, you know, I went to, you know, definitely took art class, I spent about six months in high school in France, which was very enlightening. And so basically, I've always kind of been the outlier. You know, I remember when I told you in my high school friends that, hey, I'm going to France, you know, for the whole, you know, part of a semester as well as the whole summer. And they were just like, Huh, what are black people go to France, you know, like, it was at a time where people in my, you know, immediate kind of community, you know, traveling to Europe wasn't a normal thing, unless you were in the military, of being an artist wasn't a normal thing. Unless you were the type of artists, you know, like a music artist, or something like that, you know, or an actor, or actress. And those were the places where I saw artists that looked like me. And I never even thought about it, when I got into jewelry, that you know, this, this backlash kind of would happen of, well, you know, the traditional, you're supposed to just go to college and get a degree and get a job and, you know, stop messing with this being an artist thing. And I was just like, No, this is me, this is what I'm going to do, regardless of what I see or don't see, you know, in the industry. And the other thing I would say is that there was definitely that was a challenge to me. I was like, oh, okay, you don't think I can be an artist watch me. And that's exactly what I did. And I have continued throughout my whole career to, you know, keep learning and getting more experience. But there was an interesting experience I had, I finally got to go to a snag conference. And it was in San Francisco. And when I got to the conference, I was so excited, you know, to meet all these different jewelers all over the country all over the world. And when I got there, there literally were two people of color. Wow. I was like, Oh my gosh, snag. Like what is going on here? Because even if you know all the people who just don't attend per year, regardless, I was just shocked. I mean, I didn't even see a lot of Asian designers. I didn't see, you know, Latino designers. I didn't see lb TGQ designers. I mean, it was very homogenized. And I still didn't let that, you know, get me down. I totally, you know, went out, I talked to people, we did gallery tours. And I said to myself, you know, I'm just gonna be here, doesn't matter if this is not the quote unquote, norm. And my being here is going to make it the norm. Because when other people see me doing this, they know that yes, people of color can be jewelers, and artists of different types.

I love that. And I love that you shared all have that experience, because I do think you know, it's interesting for me, you know, obviously, I'm a white woman. So, you know, it's a totally different experience. I don't know if it's a different experience coming into the jewelry world. And I think like, what your experience, I don't think is uncommon for anyone who just feels like an outlier for any other reason for any reason, whether you're a person of color or not a person of color, just, you know, feeling like like, Where do I belong, and I was at this out in New York City jewelry week, a couple of years ago. And I was invited to the we're here now exhibit and I met Lorraine. Last for the first time, and it was so great. She walked up to me and she just like walked over and gave me a big hug. I didn't know who she was, she had taken some of our programs and she she's like, it's you and I was like hi it's so great to meet you especially yours like I've taken some of your programs and all this stuff. And she was interviewed after it broke my heart to hear that she's like there's just not a place for for us, meaning like all the people of color there but I'm like yes there is like I'm we're right here. I might not look like you but we're here to support you. So I'm so happy that you share that candidate experience because I think sometimes It's important to think like, or it's important to, I don't know, be inviting or something for people of all types, like, I don't think it should be just a type. And I think it's weird because like stereotypes in a way gets so deeply ingrained that people just feel like they don't belong, when they when there is a place for them, maybe, but they just, it doesn't maybe it's just people don't look like them or whatever. So I know that's like, kind of maybe kind of awkward for me to say, but also at the same time, I appreciate you sharing that, because it helps me learn, you know, a little bit more about how we can, you know, show people like, we're here for everyone.

That's actually a very good point, Tracy. And it's well put, because I think part of my, you know, pricing mindset was this, like, okay, you know, I'm coming into this market that doesn't have a lot of people who look like me, and this is also, you know, kind of goes across a lot of bipoc. Community is that, Oh, okay. Well, I'm in, you know, I'm up to par, I've got my education or my designs, and everything's going well. But then because of these old mindsets, your prices are too low. Yeah, it's almost like the, okay, I got in the door. But now you're not valuing yourself, you know, as to the level that the industry, you know, or whatever setting you're in, because of those past mindsets. So that's a very, very good point.

Well, I'm curious to like, you know, now that you've doubled your prices, and things are going really well. And people are buying all the things like how has that been to kind of like adapt to this new mindset of like valuing your work, because I know that raising prices really is more than anything in internal game. And in the book, in my book, the desire brand effect, I use a case study from Tim Caulkins did this study at Kellogg School of Management where he had a pair of earrings. And he just told the focus group like these earrings, you know, are at Walmart, what would you pay for it? These earrings are from Tiffany, what would you pay for it? These earrings are, you know, just a regular pair of earrings with a no no brand. And like I said the materials, and it was interesting to see how the Walmart ones they valued it as, like 80 bucks, Tiffany $800, and then the regular 18 karat gold earrings like no brand. $500. So you know, it's just like, it's really like an internal game of perspective exception. So how are you like raising your vibration, to trust that you're on the right, right path, to charge what you're worth.

Um, I think that once I saw this beautiful ring that I had previously had a $65 price on, and that I remember every step of making that ring, I remember the unique, you know, metal nugget I used with a gemstone within I remember all that. And it sat there for $65 for so long. And when I raised it, I think it was to like 140, like even more than 50%. And immediately this woman's eyes lit up and she bought it and she had no problem paying 140 for it. And something in my mind was just like, Yeah, I'm worth it. You know, I'm worth at 140. And she wanted to pay that 140 You know how many people walk past that same rain, and it was $65. And they loved it, they tried it on, but they would still walk away. And I think you know very much the internal valuing of yourself is that, you know, something like, Okay, I'm in this, this industry now, but I'm different. So I'm not as valuable as the rest of the industry. And that was a mindset, I think that had to be overcome is like, just because you're different in a new realm doesn't mean you need to undersell yourself to participate in that realm. You know, in fact, you need to, you know, be at the level of the rest of your peers so that our whole industry gets raised up by, you know, pricing fairly with the great example you just gave of, you know, if it's Walmart, or if it's a no brand, how different you know, customers will respond to pricing. So, once I raise that price, it raised my value, like my self worth my self value.

Yeah. And you know, the cool thing too, is that there are a lot of people, like there's people who like to buy cheap stuff, but there are a lot of people who like actually won't buy things if they're too inexpensive. I hate to actually admit this publicly, but I'm one of those people. Like sometimes I'll see something cute. I'm like, Where'd you get that and someone's like, forever 21 My immediately what comes to my mind is number one, that's for teenagers number two, like it's cheap fabric and it's not going to like hold that or what you know what I mean? Like I'm like, give me the thing that's 10 times more at the store that I like to shop at, like intersects or something like that, and like I will gladly pay 10 times more for something that perception is that it's better quality. Yeah, and the thing that's so crazy is that perceived value is an internal game, don't you agree?

Yes, definitely. And the perceived my mindset of perceived value was where, you know, the problem was with my brand. You know, my dream clients and my non dream clients, they valued my work more than I was. And so it took the validation of doubling my prices, having people respond, like, very wholeheartedly to it helped me realize that I was undervaluing myself, my jewelry, my business, and even my life, because if I'm not making enough income, to have a life beyond driving up and down the road, just running to shows going into the studio, tap, tap, tap, tap, and run back out. You know, that's it. That's not valuing, you know, having a valuable life or the lifestyle that I wanted. So once I raised my prices, it really raised, you know, my whole thinking, my whole my whole self worth my Yeah, it was, it was really, it was really transformative.

I love this story. And this is not the first time I've heard the same kind of situation happening. It's like, I doubled my prices, and like my business took off. Like, it's, it's crazy. So, if you if you were to give some advice to someone who is really struggling with doing that, that thing, you know, like just going for it and raising their prices and doing the next thing, what would you say to them?

I would say, just what you said, go for it, just do it, you know, I it took me so long to just do it, that I realized that I should have just experimented, you know, even if I was scared of oh my gosh, I might have a weekend where I sell nothing, because I raised my prices. You know, hey, that's only one weekend, I can come back the next week. You know, there's other shows, and just like with, you know, moving online and learning with T yc. What I'm going to need to do with analytics, it was kind of the same thing. You know, in my in my booth, it's like, this is analytics being fed to you, Allyson, your peers, your customers, everybody's giving you analytics. So why aren't you listening to those analytics men? Oh, you know, I just had to keep, you know, chomping away at it till like I said, I had this kind of I'm not sure if this is the right word, but like this cathartic moment, where, like I said, I was the Sharpie wielding madwoman in my booth, just slashing and burning, you know, like getting all the old tags off and all the new tags on. And, you know, proceeded to have a fantastic day, I felt like I was like walking on air. After I was I mean, I was exhausted but packing up my booth, I felt like I was still walking on air. After that experience.

I wish there was a hidden camera on the wall, because I can just imagine like tearing and tearing and hearing it like I know exactly what you're talking about. I know the tags, you're talking about the kind of tag, you know, like those little clamshell or like Stringtown

Yeah, they'll rip off fast.

Get them out there do tag?

Well, and honestly, yeah, I should add, the other thing I used to do, because I got so to such a point of desperation and frustration is I literally started changing my prices weekly. Like if I looked at the type, you know, as a tourist based market I was in. So you know, seasonally and every week, we would get different types of tourists according to what was going on in Santa Fe, or New Mexico in general. And if I saw, excuse me, if I saw a certain type of main customer coming through, I go, Well, they're gonna not want to pay you. So let me lower all these. And then the next week, I'd see a lot of, you know, very, you know, more, you know, higher price point customers coming in, and I would run and start changing my prices again. But still, even in all that I never raised them high enough. So even with all that changing, you know, I still never raised them high enough. And it was very much yeah, tied to you know, I kind of got in the weekly grind. That's the other problem that I found out with only, you know, doing live shows, I pigeon holed myself. So I was thinking week to week, like I need to make this much to cover the bills and expenses and inventory for next weekend. So I got like a horse with blinders on. All I was looking at was week to week, I wasn't making long term plans for my business, I wasn't able to have stability for my business because I didn't have enough profit. And so this was affecting, like all these different areas of my business and my life. So I would say go for it. Just do it. Try it even if it's one show. Even if you go on your website and just bam change all the prices, you can change them back the next day. Why not experiment? You know and really think about those mental hurdles. Think about your past. Think about the things that that happened to you in your life. You know, your first memories with with value and money and how you learned about it, how you handled it, you know, and You started growing up as a teenager, like, did you have a job? Did you buy a car, you know, just how you had these perception of money and value all your life. I actually recently took a great workshop through a small business, nonprofit, that focus on that. And it was so funny that that came up, after you know, this, this pricing, kind of, you know, the the pricing discussion that I had during the Super share. So I felt that that was very, very amazing that those two coincided.

Yeah, it's interesting. I was at a mastermind a couple of years ago, and one of the people there that I consider a mentor who's Lee Richter, she was telling her experience about how when she got into finance, and she's an entrepreneur now, but she worked for, I don't know, some famous finance person at some point. And she was saying, like, the first thing that we had to do before we could even start working was clear all of our money stories, like anything that was a negative story, like, you know, the things that you learn on in childhood, like money doesn't grow on trees, or, or if you learn that money was, you know, abundantly coming to you, like, you just identify what all those things are, so that you can clear the ones that aren't serving you, which I think is super important, and always a constant work.

Yeah, honestly, I think that should have been a class when I took my first jewelry degree.

In school, that's why we're here.

Because, you know, you're still developing, but I just basically what I mean by that is, I wish I had learned it a lot and dealt with it a lot earlier. Because I can look back to you know, I had previous careers in the music industry, and the restaurant bar industry in New York City, which, you know, worked at a very high level. And it was, you know, I look back on all the stages of my life and the ways that I've handled or thought about money. And yeah, I wish I had that, that before, a long time ago, to really break it down and unpack it. You know, like you say, those money stories are those things that are working, you know, in your subconscious that you're not even aware of. And I think those are the things that that really hold you back from getting out that Sharpie and getting out those tags, and Dublin, those Brexit, get

out the Sharpies and the tags and double your prices, or just paint prices on your website. I love it. That's a great takeaway. So Alison where can everyone find you?

I'm online at preciouselementsdesigns.com. And also, I am on Instagram and Facebook under the same handle. And I look forward to being back at him in person shows. As soon as that it's, it's safe. And that shows are available again. And the great thing that has also come out of this kind of relaunch and you know, this this realization about pricing is I am so excited to relaunch my business at the level of value that it needs to be at. And I am excited to be back in person with my customers and not have that feeling of desperation. Not have that frustration, or, or yeah, it's just going to be very freeing, and I look forward to a whole different type of business and lifestyle.

I look forward to watching you grow. It's so awesome. You are just such a bright light. Thank you for being here.

Oh, thank you so much, Tracy. It's my pleasure.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much for listening to the show today. This is Tracy Matthews. And I'm going to be signing off in just a minute. If you haven't done so yet. Make sure that you go say hi to Alison give her some love. Find her on social media. We have all of her links in the show notes as well. And once again, if you haven't picked up the desire Bran effect, I would be so honored you can head on over to desire brand effect calm. There's links on where you can purchase right there. And yeah, enjoy it and I can't wait to see your business flourish and thrive. This is Tracy Matthews signing off. Until next time. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode. It's my mission to help 1000s of creative businesses inside and outside the jewelry space use their creativity to make money. Make sure that you're subscribed to thrive by design on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and wherever podcasts are played. And we'd love to hear what you think. Please rate and review the show and if you're inspired please share this with your friends. Cheers to seeing you flourish and thrive.