JimmyCast SmartWork Media

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.

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.

This month, Jeffrey Samuels, owner of William Jeffrey’s Jewelers near Richmond, Virginia, 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.

This month, JimmyCast brings you a story of hope — of a business person who fell so hard for metals and gemstones that he felt he needed to open his own jewelry business, even in the face of a historic health crisis.
In the episode, host Jimmy DeGroot and co-host Doug Meadows chat with Wilson Lin, a 33-year-old whose family immigrated from China to Nebraska when he was in his teens.
After graduating school, Wilson, a non-smoker and non-drinker, decided he had little interest in the family business of liquor and spirits. Instead, he found his passion in working with metals and gemstones.
With no history in the jewelry business, getting his foot in the door was difficult for Wilson. He applied and was rejected 13 times for jewelry store positions, before finally getting a job as a bench jeweler’s apprentice at the 14th location — A.T. Thomas in Lincoln, NE. He later worked as a manager at a Zale’s location.
Now, however, Wilson taking the biggest step of all — launching his own business, with an opening target of September 1.
He talks with Jimmy and Doug about how and why he decided to launch right now, his intended product and service range, as well as other details on how he financed his business and selected a location.
Plus, Wilson also discusses the Facebook group he formed for jewelers in a similar position to his, called “First Generation Jewelers”, which now has close to 900 members. (Sign up for the group here.)
 

This month, JimmyCast welcomes Larry Rickert, owner of Jim Kryshak Jewelers in Wausau, WI.
The two know each other well, as Jimmy was the general manager at Rickert's business from 1996-2007, before leaving to begin his jewelry consultancy business.
Amongst other useful business advice, Larry offers timely guidance to jewelry business owners on how to adjust to working from home. In fact, Larry is something of an expert on the matter -- having worked off-site with Jim Kryshak Jewelers since 2005.
Larry's most important lesson? Stop micro-managing and trust your people. Since 2005, "the store has continued to grow. Because of the people at the store. Not because of me. It actually was in spite of me. Because I wasn't there. I couldn't micro-manage. I broke my micro-managing tendencies and ... everybody did just fine."
Hear more wisdom from Larry, Jimmy and co-host Doug Meadows in the latest episode of JimmyCast.

This month, Jimmy DeGroot welcomes a guest he knows quite well. In fact, they know each other so well that they can complete each other’s …
“… sandwiches?” suggests Jason Druxman, co-owner of Avenue Jewelers in Appleton, WI.
Druxman has been in the jewelry business for over 30 years — “which is impossible,” he jokes, “because I’m only 36.” Before taking over Avenue Jewelers (where he worked with DeGroot), the fourth-generation jeweler spent much of his early career in corporate settings — working for Sterling Jewelers’ sub-brands.
In the podcast (11:50), he discusses pros and cons of working in a corporate jewelry environment versus an independent one.  Druxman describes the corporate business as “very cutthroat, very push-push” but admits he enjoyed it, especially as a young man with an instinct for competitiveness. “It was awesome for me,” says the jeweler, “because I could measure myself against these other thousand stores.”
How does independent life compare? As his current business title on his LinkedIn profile and business card (“The Diamond Stud”) indicates, Druxman’s working life is definitely not as stiff and regimented as it use to be.
Hear more pros and cons in the latest JimmyCast.