040: Building a Permanent Jewelry Powerhouse with Sarah from Linked

Jen Thryion: Hey there. I'm Jen Thyrion. I'm so glad you're here. I'm a former nine to fiver that dove into entrepreneurship eight years ago with zero business experience. I'm a wife, mama of two young girls, boutique owner, jewelry designer, and now the proud owner and coach leading Goldie Links Permanent Jewelry. I have a passion to empower fellow business days.

This podcast is made to equip you with everything you need to succeed from actionable marketing steps to digging deep on your mindset. I know firsthand the heart. Let's be real at times of struggle that makes up this amazing journey. You want to know what has enabled me to shine the brightest coaching plus community here at Goldie links.

We share openly educate and lift each other up, expect to get links with fellow PJ owners that will do just that sprinkled with plenty of fun along the way. Competition is an old school thought and connection is the way get ready to feel inspired. Welcome to the Goldie links podcast. Hey there.

Did you know that we offer handmade permanent jewelry supplies? Go to GoldieLinkSupplies. com to view our beautiful chains, connectors, bangles, and more, including our non permanent stretchy bracelets that are available to you for wholesale. Everything is created by our tribe of mama makers. What is a mama maker?

Stay at home moms that create on their own time between raising their children, serving as a self care creative outlet and supporting their families. Your items come with signage on how these supplies are made, along with gemstone property info, as each gemstone has a special meaning. If you want to level up your business with handmade supplies, not made by a machine, but made by hand with love, then check it out at goldilynxsupplies.

com. Now onto the show. Today, we are chatting with Sarah from Linked Permanent Jewelry Training. We talk about it all, but especially if you're thinking about entering a partnership, this is the one to listen to. Enjoy this amazing chat with Sarah. Hey Sarah, I'm so happy you're here today. This has been a long time in the making, actually.

Um, so if you want to start us off and just tell us who you are and kind of what you want us to know about you.

Sarah: Yeah, so, uh, first of all, thank you so much for having me. I'm super, like, so, what an honor and a privilege to even be asked to speak with you on this platform and be able to talk to other people in the industry.

I love that. Uh, I love the industry. My name is Sarah. I, uh, am the founder of Linked Permanent Jewelry Training. I have a background in aesthetics. I've been an entrepreneur for well over 10 years. I kind of knew from a very young age that I was going to be an entrepreneur, that I wasn't, not necessarily didn't work well with others, but just that I want to kind of blaze my own path and work on my own terms and understand that there wasn't a ceiling or just always like, how far can I go?

What can I touch? Right. And working in a nine to five or a regular office or for someone else, I felt very confined in that. So I started, and I tell people this all the time that I'm an entrepreneur before I'm a jewelry girl or an aesthetics girl or, you know, anything else. So, yeah, I, uh, Like I said, come from aesthetics and then fell into permanent jewelry and now I'm here talking to you and it's amazing and it's been a wild ride and so

Jen Thryion: tell me how it evolved from aesthetics to permanent jewelry.

And then of course, if, if anyone's not aware, you are the owner, could I say, or CEO of Linked Permanent Jewelry Training. So how did that all evolve?

Sarah: So I dropped out of college to start an aesthetics company and I'm mostly was doing microblading and as that business grew, I added other services and. I come from a farm and cattle community, so there's not a whole lot going on out here.

In school, we learned how to weld. We work with animals. I mean, that's what everyone's livelihood looks at. Right now I'm looking out the window and it's 7, 000 acres of cows and hay. Um, that's my family. We have to know how to make that business operate. So that's kind of the culture we live and what we're taught in schools because that's what makes sense here in my community.

So I decide that I'm going to move away from all of this, and I don't want anything to do with it, and I start this aesthetics company, and I move, go to Houston, and I do the thing. Well, as I'm adding services, I come across permanent jewelry on TikTok, and I'm like, that's cool. I know how to weld. That's tungsten, like argon, CO2, et cetera, et cetera.

How hard can it be? So I start doing a little research, and I've always been the type of person I want to take a training. Any service that I ever added for microblading or for my aesthetics company, I took a training. I took several microblading trainings, you name it, because to me, time is money and I didn't have time to recreate the will, nor why, why would I, especially when you're talking about aesthetics.

So I could not find a training company. I was like, whatever. I know how to weld. It can't be that hard. Practiced a couple of times, put it in front of my clientele, didn't really market it at all. It just kind of sat at my checkout booth and that's where my customers would figure out about it. And at that point in time, I was getting bored.

With my aesthetics company, I kind of had met, not, it didn't meet its potential, but I had capped out my SOPs were documented, I had employees, I was just kind of going through the motions, and I really wanted to create an online program, and in my head, I thought I wanted to create something that was going to be passive, and I was like, you Well, there's no training for permanent jewelry.

I have a great background in welding. I know what's going on. I've been doing it for a while. I know how to integrate it into an existing business to make it a revenue powerhouse. So I created a training plot twist. It was not passive. It's been anything but, but that's fine. It's amazing. And I'm having so much fun.

But yeah, and that kind of goes back to saying like, before I'm, you know, an aesthetics girl or a jewelry girl, I'm an entrepreneur. And when you asked me about what is my role in linked, am I the CEO? I'm a founder. I kind of, as we've established and again, documented our SOPs and what does length look like and getting our heads above water.

Cause it was so crazy when we released it. I have found that I'm act more as a chief revenue officer within my business or all of my businesses. Um, because that's kind of who I am as an entrepreneur is again, what is that ceiling look like? And how can I touch it? And if I touch it, can I go beyond it is a driving revenue, looking at the data, moving the needle, how far can I push the pencil?

That kind of thing. And I find myself when I talk to other people about their businesses. And it could be a restaurant, it could be ultrasound tech, it could be car salesman, it can be real estate. Any person in my friend group, in my family, the conversation, if I'm talking to someone who's a like minded individual and it's about business, always ends up in my ideas about how are we going to push revenue.

Even if they're not asking for it. And sometimes I get a little self conscious about that, but that's just naturally who I am. That's what I like within myself. And I think that's where my career is going, whether I, you know, sell an exit linked or whatever it is. But even with students, it's talking about revenue.

So I feel like. Yeah, like I said, before anything else, I'm a, I'm an entrepreneur.

Jen Thryion: Right. So creating the training, did you have experience training prior? Like with even with aesthetics or whatnot?

Sarah: Yeah, so I had been training one on one in persons and I would take small group because aesthetics is not something that you just learn overnight.

So I would take small groups for that. So I'd been doing training for a couple years before, but never anything online. So that was completely new to me. Ecom in its entirety. I mean. And I'm from the generation of like, we had barely learned how to send mail through the postal service. So, uh, that was a huge learning curve when I did create the training.

But over, overall, I had an understanding and I come from a long line of educators. So, not just how to do the skill, but how to teach it and in several different colors and numbers, and whether it be written or imagery or hands on, and how to get that information across to the person that I'm, I'm giving it to, right?

Regurgitating.

Jen Thryion: But tell us a little bit about linked training. So when did that start and what does it entail for anyone listening who, and also too, this has come up, actually, what prompted me to reach out to you? I'll just tell this to be honest, this story, okay? So I was, you know, just perusing Facebook and came across a group, right, that we, you know, a lot of us belong.

to there's a lot of different permanent jewelry groups out there on Facebook and you had posted about the importance of training and I did comment on it and I said something along the lines which I've said in this podcast before with also interviewing another trainer who has a program of her own is that again we are in this permanent jewelry of course place where It's not really required, right?

There's no licensing. There's no, but this is the thing. It's just kind of like anything in life. If you want to, and I always use the example of like getting in shape or something, right? It depends. Like you can do a bunch of research and then you can try and do it on your own. I shouldn't say try. You can, you can, right?

Or you can turn to a like trainer or a health coach to kind of guide you along the way. Maybe like. I feel like get to where you want faster, smarter, not make as many mistakes, keeping accountable. Like there's so many things that come into play when you have like someone on your side or teaching you, guiding you, holding your hand through it, right?

So it's not to say you need training. But I am a true believer, just like you said earlier, I'm also that girl. Like, I want to go right to someone who knows what they're doing when I try to, like, start something. And again, yes, do I YouTube a lot or look up little things here and there, but if I'm going to do something big and I'm serious about something, and I learned my lesson through having my boutique business.

That's why I say this a lot too is that that business changed once I turned to business masterminds and coaches and got some assistance with it because honestly, I went in blind didn't know a thing about retail about having a business at that point. And honestly, I was ready to close my doors. And that's when I always and that's why I'm such a believer.

And, and that's why I love podcasting. I love like all this stuff to help people on the way because it changed my business and my life and how I see business because You can get so inside your head, too. It can be a very lonely place, as you know. So when it comes to the guidance and everything, so again, going back to my story, I come across this post, I see her, and then I message Sarah on Facebook, and I'm like, hey, do you have like a training?

I had no idea

Sarah: she was linked to permanent jewelry training. Most people didn't. This is what happens when I get bored. I take to Facebook, and I start conversations. And I'm not mad that I did it, but there's a part of me, it's like, I spent so much time talking to people, which is fine. I liked it, but. Yeah.

So that's

Jen Thryion: how that started. So I was like, Oh, and then when I actually, because someone had commented like, Oh, about her being, having her own training program and starting that conversation and it almost being like intentional that you did take it as

Sarah: propaganda or marketing.

Jen Thryion: And I was like, Oh wait, who is she?

And I'm like, Oh my God, I feel like such a, you know, pardon my, I felt like a dumbass. I was like, Oh my God, I should know I guess. Cause I knew what linked permanent jewelry training. And I, I knew that it was. you know, a partnership and there was a Sarah, I just didn't realize it was you. So anyway, that's how we started talking because I was like, yeah, I really do love that conversation of putting it out there because as permanent jewelry grows, this is what's scary.

People are just like doing, and I can't tell you, there was actually a local girl here who went to, I convinced her to go to PJX and she actually taught herself and she thought, she felt confident what she was doing. When she went to PJX, she was like, Oh my gosh, Jen, I was doing so many things wrong. Like, I learned so much.

I'm so grateful that you told me about PJX. So, anyway, so I want to let you just speak a little bit on that whole subject of training and just kind of, like, your thoughts on all that, I guess.

Sarah: If you're listening to this and you're self taught and you're one of those people who, like, have gone to PJX, you're like, holy shit, I've been doing it wrong this whole time.

What you don't know what you don't know when that's not your fault. And I, am I a trainer? Yes. Do I monetarily benefit from having a training? Yes. Do I want to make more sales? Absolutely. I'm an entrepreneur. Driving revenue, CRO, that's what I just, everything that I just told you in introduction. So I can potentially be biased in my thinking on this, but if you're the, Time is money.

End of story. There's two things to take away from it. Time is money. I, you can argue that. I will die on that hill. Time is money. Number two is the people who win are the people who act fast. That I believe, and that is just a personal and professional for both of those things, right? And I try to apply those principles to everything that I think about.

k record to like we have over: 3000

Who have had success time, over time, over time. So why would you, if you're looking at point A and point B and saying, I want to do this and I want to be successful at it, why not choose the proven track record? You're just making it harder on yourself. And that's my personal belief, but I also understand at the same time, not everyone has a ton of money to throw at this.

Maybe all you do have is your time and that's fine, learn on your own. And that doesn't mean that because you're self taught you can't later on become a part of a community like mine or someone else's. I know that, uh, Kat is one of the girls that you recently interviewed. She's a trainer. She was one of my students.

Same thing. Like, it doesn't have to be with me and I think that's where the misconception, especially with that post came, is like, I'm not talking about just my education. Because maybe I'm not the trainer for you. You could be listening to me right now, and your ears are screeching, and I might have all be the wealth of knowledge, but if you can't stand me as a person, then you should go to the person, the next option.

Right, so when I made that post, it wasn't just me as a trainer, it's education in general, and And that understanding of being a CRO, a chief revenue officer, an entrepreneur, that time is money and people that move fast win.

Jen Thryion: Right. And this is the thing. And that's what's hard about, you know, when you are in the industry and you are an educator, but also too, you're just passionate about the industry.

And I have to say that too. And a lot of times, because again, you don't, you know, even when it comes down to, we have these conversations about pricing or, and again, training, because I feel, I feel very similar to how you feel. I do. I think that there has to be a standard. When it comes to this industry and granted, I could have my, my husband's a welder.

And so, and I had been making jewelry already existing and had a business existing for eight years prior to starting this. So because of that, did I, did I do a training program? So here I hate to, you know, be a hypocrite, but I did not. But also having said that I had a very, I had a lot of experience with jewelry and with business.

And so I think that if it was me 10 years ago, and it was my first business, Just like the boutique business I speak of that I didn't know what the heck I was doing. And then when I got help, it then, then I understood and it helped me, it helped me survive and actually profit and be successful. If it was me then, I'd be like signing up, no problem.

Like, yes, I need help. I want someone to help me. Like, because not only is just learning how to weld, like this, everyone's like, Oh, it's so easy. That's what I want to make clear. I think is that. It's never one size fits all for everybody, you know, because even with people be like, why even go to training?

Like, just go on YouTube. That's what I did. Okay, cool. But we don't know what that person's coming from, their experience, their time. Do they have a, do they have a ton of kids and they don't have the time to spend? Do they, or, you know, again, it's just, it depends on everybody's lifestyle, right? Where do they get their knowledge from?

Exactly. It's definitely substantial. So it's just, it's just, I think with those blanket statements is really where it gets me a little bit because it's not. For that this even what would help like what works for me for marketing or whatnot might not work for you. So that's why too it's helpful to like you said here like someone might not align with you per se and be you being a trainer having a training program and that's okay.

It's really trying to see what works best for you and just because it works for someone else doesn't mean it's going to work for you trying to like. understand that it's not, you know, again, one size fits all for everybody. What do you feel like is the biggest challenge that they face with growing a business?

Putting one,

Sarah: one foot in front of the other, a lot of the people. So I have two types of demographics. When I initially launched linked, I put it in front of existing business owners before I ran ads to the general public, because I wanted to create a community that they weren't relying on. Students weren't relying just on me and my information and not because it's incorrect or not good enough, but because my perspective is my perspective.

You as a business owner have a different one and i'm sure that we could sit down for an entire day over margaritas And I would be like, holy shit She knows so much right and then i'm gonna go to the next person and i'm gonna learn even more from a different perspective So when I created linked I put it in front of seasoned entrepreneurs that I knew could take it Could drive it and make it successful and then I put them into a community So when I marketed to the general public people who've never ran a business in their entire life I'm going to talk about a couple of things that came into this community of women who have that come from all walks of life.

They've ran boutiques, they've ran salons, they've ran coffee shops, they've ran ice cream to go things for weddings, like just any sort of type of business you can imagine they exist in that community. So it made it one valuable, but it also took the load off me where I didn't feel the pressure to be perfect all the time, that I could give my advice as an entrepreneur, but know that if you post this in the community group, all of these girls got you and they're going going, someone is going to have advice that makes sense for you, because again, it's circumstantial to each person.

And then just the knowledge of running a business in general, that's hard. So it was really important to me that the community was a lot of the value of the training.

Jen Thryion: Yes, for sure. I feel that, and I say this too, when I, even the masterminds I belong to, and of course it was ran by a certain business professional, and that's valuable, but really it was the community that I got so much from.

Really was the other girls in the mastermind and who I met through that, like, and just a collaboration and their knowledge, you know, was actually, I just picture it like if I were just to have a one on one with that particular coach versus the value I got from the whole group, like what a difference, you know?

So yeah, I agree with that. So tell us a little bit about like what Linked offers, because I feel like you guys are expanding a little bit and having different offerings. Am I, am I wrong or you tell me kind of like where you're, where you're at.

Sarah: No, you were definitely right. So when we started, we were initially just a training and supply company.

So you could learn how to do the jewelry from us. And then if you wanted to, you could buy the jewelry from us after with a lifetime discount code. Um, people rave all the time about how linked is so expensive. We are, but we're running a 10 person team. Um, that's a salary that I have to pay. Uh, we're sourcing based on California proposition to make sure that the medal is correct and of standard.

And then our students get that discount code. So it's not as expensive as to the general public. So initially when we started, it was just training and just supplies. Now we've moved to offering, I'm trying to not cater to just my students because I've built the business where my students are solid, they sign up, they need us, they can, they can contact us, but otherwise they have every tool they need in their toolbox to be successful.

So I'm like, okay, how can I help anyone that's self taught or has trained somewhere else and has been burned and can't afford to take another training or did take another training, doesn't necessarily want another one, but just kind of wants to be a part of what LinkedIn has going on. So we have the marketing subscriptions, which is.

done for you content, uh, reels and photos. It's like eight reels and 50, 50 plus photos a month. We're about to shoot Valentine's tomorrow, so I'm super pumped about that. Uh, and then we also have released Hat Bar, uh, which I think is gonna be super hot next summer. The Hat Bar training. Yeah, um, and then Charm Bar, which we kind of are seeing that have an uptick right now in popularity.

So the Charm Bar training is released. We're kind of pre selling it, dabbling around, adding students, letting students, uh, test it out. Um, give us feedback on what we need to add to the training, et cetera, et cetera. Sourcing, obviously, is a big part of that. And then our big project, which I have not spoken this out to anyone, is that we're releasing a CRM in the coming months.

I actually just got off a meeting. That was one of my impromptus this afternoon. When we had to push the podcast, I was texting the media company like, Hey, I need to get on the phone with you right now so we can talk about the CRM. I have these couple ideas. Um, so I think that's another tool that will help not just my students, which they'll get.

You know, a special, uh, price on that and access, et cetera, et cetera, but for the general public is a CRM and I'm looking at it from the standpoint of instead of a trainer and instead of a training company, I'm looking at it as if I was just a jewelry artist and what I would want built out in my CRM. Um, so I'm super pumped about that.

I have not named it yet, but I kind of have an idea of what that will be and surprise. I guess when I officially drop it, I can reference this podcast for a little bit of information, but. Yeah, well, okay, for anyone listening that's not familiar, because a lot of people are being brand new, what is a CRM and why do you need it?

Linked is a multi million dollar business, and we have, you can imagine, millions of dollars in jewelry gold. But arguably, our most valuable asset is our customer data. So, if you were to buy something from me right now, your information goes into my CRM, where I can later follow up and say, hey, thank you so much for purchasing.

If you need anything, reach out, let me know. And then. On Valentine's, if I run a special, I can retarget you, reach back out to you, Hey, and you have, and usually what I do with my CRM is make sure that those people get access to sales first before the general public does. But it's how I create a repeat customer, how I foster my relationships with my customers, make sure that everything's funneled in there.

Funnels are a huge one. So right now, for example, I can make a great one if you don't really understand what a CRM is. So we have, like I mentioned a moment ago, we have our new done for you marketing reels and photos. That's a product that I just released. And the way that I'm building the momentum on how I'm driving revenue within Linked based on that product is I'm giving away free photos and reels to people who are interested so they can get like a taste, a sample of what I'm offering.

When they do that, it's an exchange, right? You're getting that, those photos and reels, but I'm giving them to you, but you're gonna give me your contact information. And so after you've had a week or two to post those photos and reels, I'm going to reach out and say, Hey, I hope that you loved it. If you had any problems, let me know.

And I just wanted to offer you a discount on next month's subscription. Otherwise, if I had just, if you had been a passing customer and I hadn't funneled your data into a CRM, I would have lost it and not had a way to reach out to her. I would have, and it probably wouldn't have been very organized where I could specifically, if I just want to reach out to the people that have bought photos and reels versus every person that's ever bought a training from me, which is.

Thousands of people, right? I can reach out to the specific group and foster them for a specific reason. So it's not generalized. Everyone's getting what they need and the attention that they need based on how the CRM is filled out.

Jen Thryion: That's actually one of the things like even in my membership I think that what people struggle with is it's like everyone wants to market and get more people in the door, right?

We always want like, you know to Keep it going, get more people in, but we're not really again, yeah, like communicating with our past customers. Only thing we can is really as if they're following on Instagram, sure, but not actually intentionally reaching out. I found that that's seriously one of the things that people like most, I feel like 99 percent of the people do not do.

And so how is the CRM that you'd be developing? Because currently right now everyone's listening, probably using Square. Right. And their customers information is going in there, right? So how would your CRM system work? Or if they have an, like a website, which I think is also a little bit more rare. I think more people are just on social media and maybe they're collecting it through like a email platform or something, right?

Where they're collecting emails in a pop up or a newsletter sign up, right? So how would it work if you're say, say I, me being a, I don't have a website. I use Square. And I'm just doing pop ups and parties and things like that. Like, how would your CRM system, like, work?

Sarah: So

Jen Thryion: there would be two

Sarah: options. You can either continue to use Square and tie it into the CRM system.

Okay. Or you can use the CRM system as your point of sale. Okay. And knock on wood, hopefully, that's a function that I'm working on. But I'm hoping that I

Jen Thryion: wanted to be That's what I just wanted to see. Because I'm like, I'm going through what people are, like, trying to sit people's, you know, seat right here, the listening, who's listening, and being like, how would I, how would that serve me?

How would that work? You know what I mean? Like thinking about different types of businesses that are out there.

Sarah: Yeah, for sure. If you're using Square already or Shopify or whatever it is and you love it and you don't want to change it, fine. That's perfectly fine because it just ties in to your CRM and that data dumps automatically.

And you tell that CRM how to file that data. So if a customer, let's say, um, you have two pop ups on Valentine's weekend. You have one on Saturday and one on Sunday. Um, one's at a coffee shop, one's at the winery. So you do your Friday coffee shop pop up and you collect all this customer information from your checkout, your point of sale, your square, and it funnels into your CRM.

Your CRM is going to know to trigger and you can text or you can email, however you want to campaign to these people. And that campaign would be two types of things. I would think, and this is probably how I would build it out, is, Hey, thank you so much for buying a piece from me. I really appreciate you in supporting my small business.

I hope you have a great Valentine's. That's just a generic off the top of my head, but you Text one would say or email one then a couple days later. It would be text two and you could say something along the lines of again following up. I want to make sure that you know how to get in contact with me. If you could save this number and in there somewhere, you would say like, hi, this is Sarah or this is Goldie links and You know, iPhone will pop up and say Goldie Links, and you can add contact.

So anytime that we text, they know. But the follow up to that would be, I just wanted to let you know that I do offer private parties, and here's my calendar of what I have available next month, or throughout the year. It could say something along the lines of, I do offer private parties, and I offer commission if you want to refer me.

There's so many things that you could do in that follow up of when you just visited that person on Friday. Now you go to your pop up on Saturday and you have that information following into your CRM, it's following a different workflow and it's following up with them tailored based on the event that they saw you at.

So it feels more personalized. And not only are you, you're creating that customer reputation, that rapport of like, you're not just another number, you're a person to me, a valuable person, a valuable customer. You're following up with them a second time on how they can, like, maybe they didn't know that you offer private parties, or maybe they didn't know that you were going to be at this market on XYZ date.

Maybe they didn't know that you offer discounts on bulk, whatever it is, whatever it is about your business or your brand or your product that you want them to know, you can communicate that based on the time that they saw you. And that's just one example of thousands that you can do with a CRM.

Jen Thryion: I love that.

And the, I've obviously, even just as a boutique owner buying so many products, you know, wholesale lines and whatnot. And a lot of times are from more small business. I, I have to say that people, and that was very, very rare. That's what happened. But even if I haven't purchased in a while and like once they would reach out and kind of say like, Hey, how'd your products do like, you know, and kind of actually check in.

And then it would remind me and be like, Oh yeah, I'm gonna place another order. You know what I mean? And just, and just the thought of like this business, especially, and I can't say this enough is about relationships and every business about relationships, but this is an in person service. It's a lot of connection.

It's there's a lot of meaning that it's a permanent jewelry. So I think the fact of like reaching out and really kind of treating your customers like friends. Really, you know, is what is gonna make someone come back and tell people and feel just the warm and fuzzies. Because again, we all like go back to places that we feel good, right?

Sarah: And I think about it. I try to everything that I do, whether it's about linked or when I'm trying to develop a product for our students, I try to put my feet in the shoes of the consumer. And so like for me personally, I throw tons of events at my house and I threw two last minute events. of 30 plus people over the Christmas break.

And so I had a bounce house. I had a balloon lady. I had, you know, all of these other things. And so, specifically when I think about those companies and how I remember to even book them or how to get a hold of them, it's because they're fostering me as a customer. They're sending those texts. They're sending those emails.

They're thanking me for my, for sending them my hard earned dollars so their small business can run. And I stay loyal. I mean, my balloon lady, doesn't even have to knock on the door anymore. She knows to come in. She knows where she's setting up, other than I've told her what colors. Same thing with the bounce house.

You're like, can we bring it a day, a day early and come up a day late? And I'm like, yeah, for sure. You know where it goes. Like, it's not even a thing anymore because we've built such a relationship over the past years of what their business has done to foster me as a customer. So I try to think about it.

from a consumer point of view all the time, whether, like I said, it's with linked or I'm trying to create a new product for a student because

Jen Thryion: I think it's so easy to, and when we're inside of our business, it's hard to see things that way, but it's like just being aware of how you see, even when it comes to your brand, you know, and brand is more than just colors and a logo, right?

It's like, how do you want to make people feel? What do you want to offer? So just notice, like, how do you feel stepping into a Walmart versus stepping into anthropology? You know what I mean? These are things that I bring up where I'm like, this is something that. even with when you go into a business and say you just leave feeling icky or you're just like had a bad experience like what happened what why did you feel that way or say you love a place you know when you go in there you're gonna feel good it's like what about that place makes you feel good why do you go back to places you go back to right really being aware of that is only going to serve your own business because like you said yeah it's like Why?

Why are you going back to that balloon lady? Why? Most likely she's treating you good. And she's also very, you know, you feel a connection with her, right? And it's just, it's a balloon lady, right? But it's like, there is something there that makes you coming back. If she was rude, you wouldn't be going back to her, right?

On a person, on a number. Yeah. So not only are you going back to her, but obviously if anyone asks you about a balloon lady, you're like, Oh my God, she's the best ever, you know? So yeah, it's definitely something to just foster that relationship. So I'm glad you brought up CRM because I feel like It's very overlooked.

I feel like it's not

Sarah: people's top priority. I think it goes back again to you don't know what you don't know. And it's mind boggling sometimes when I talk to people and they're like, what? And I'm like, yeah, have you just been like manually texting everyone? How exhausting is that for you? I'm so sorry.

Jen Thryion: So, um, Well, people even doing that, I think in general, like, you know, even just even taking that step and doing it.

I think that we are so social media minded that we think that takes care of a lot of things, right? We're like, well, as long as we're posting our stories and posting, you know, regularly on our feed, it's actually I don't want to say it's not enough. I mean, that's great. And that's very important. But I think that in order to, like, keep that relationship going, I think, again, the CRM and kind of reaching out to customers in that way, like text, email is so important.

And

Sarah: I think too, it's important to know, especially if you don't know a lot about a CRM, and this just sounds like another application that is plug and play. It's not. You can. foster and uniquely fine tune your CRM to be so in line with your brand that it's almost scary. Um, because mine is going to look different than what yours does versus what the person down the street does.

And that all comes with making sure that you have a good agency that understands brand alignment and brand awareness. And understanding who you are, what your brand awareness is, and how can you communicate that.

Jen Thryion: Okay, that's a little bit off subject, but I'm so glad we brought that up, because I actually didn't even know you were developing that, so that's super exciting.

Sarah: Um, I wasn't prepared to talk about that at all. I know, right?

Jen Thryion: It's like, let's dive into that more. But what is your, I want to know, like, day in the life of Sarah. So, do you actually do permanent jewelry, or did you, like, tell me a little bit about, like, Do you have a brick and mortar? Do you have an office?

Like, how do Like, tell me about your life. How does that look? Okay.

Sarah: So, I still have an aesthetics company. It's in LaGrange, Texas, which is about two and a half hours from where I'm located currently. And it, uh, works and operates It's mostly word of mouth. It's in a very small, sleepy retirement town. And we do offer permanent jewelry out of it.

We don't do We don't do pop ups or private events there. That's not a linked business, right? That's Be A Dare. It's its own business. We have linked and we do offer the service. We go to conferences of 500 to 30, 000 to 60, 000 plus people. And then I will do if, if someone passes away or there's a benefit for some reason, typically we'll go to that.

Um, we'll donate ourselves and we'll match it with a donation and that written off in your 501c or marketing, et cetera, et cetera. Uh, so we do offer this service, but, and I feel bad, but at the same time, I don't because my students win from this. People reach out all the time, like, hey, can I book a party?

I'm like, let me post your information here and in five minutes, 30 people will contact you. Um, where are you located? So I don't, I don't really do unless it's like my sister in law recently had a baby shower. So I obviously pulled my girls and we did the the jewelry there or um, teacher appreciation for my mom.

She's a principal. We'll go to the school and do that. But Day to day, typically, we do not do pop ups and such, unless it's for those big conferences where we're selling the training. And our way to do that is to do the service on the person and say, in 15 minutes, you could have just made X, Y, and Z. You want to learn, yes or no?

And they're just blown away. So yes, in short, we do off the service. A long answer, we don't really cater to pop ups.

Jen Thryion: So

Sarah: you

Jen Thryion: do have a team that works with Linked, though, correct?

Sarah: Uh, I mentioned earlier, we live on a farm. It's my husband's family. He's a seventh generation farmer. Wow. St. Stephen's Generation.

Uh, so, there's multiple homes on the land that we live on, and it's kind of a homestead. My other house is three minutes down the road. It's 5, 500 square foot, and that is where Linked operates. Okay. Okay. Um, I walk away when I have meetings like this, or podcasts, because I can have some silence, um, and you don't hear the hustle and bustle in the background.

We are currently building a 8, 300 square foot warehouse in my backyard right now. Wow. It will be like Silicon Valley open concept and then packing room and a training room and a content space. I'm pumped for that to be finished. But yeah, so we do operate out of a 70 year old farmhouse currently, which is not what people think about when they think about the linked brand.

Right. That's so interesting. I like want to tour. Well, when I finish this warehouse, I'm actually gonna do a before and after, like, started from the bottom, now we're here, so I'll, I'll have a vlog of that released, not a whole lot of people have been in, inside of my old home, the OGs kinda know from photos and me videoing and, Zooming with them and stuff, but yeah, a full walkthrough of like what it looks like to work out of a 70 year old farmhouse with a multi million dollar business and then move to like what we should have been working out of for the past couple years.

Jen Thryion: Wow. That's pretty cool. Okay. So let's go a little bit into Linked. So is Linked solely you right now? Because let's talk about how Linked started. There was a partnership, correct?

Sarah: Yeah. There still is in technicality. Okay. There is still a partnership. Yes. There still is. So I want to start by saying Linked is not me.

I'm a very small drop in the bucket of what Linked is. Linked is ten people and ten families and two virtual assistants and their families hustling and grinding every single day, treating it as if it was their business. It would not be and could not be what it is without them. I would not be where I'm at.

I wouldn't be allowed the freedom to be creative as an entrepreneur or the ability to do the things that I do and I mean, I could cry talking about it. Um, so that, that is who Linked is. It

Jen Thryion: is not just me. Okay, so Linked did start though, obviously, just you and a partner, correct? And then it grew into having all these amazing people involved, correct?

Sarah: And that's a great story, too, to how we got our first couple employees. Oh, I'd love to hear it. Linked started, and again, I, I told you I thought it was gonna be passive, like, oh, I'll record this class, and like, we'll send out the trainings in the mail once a day, and I can go on, like, it'll take me like, what, two hours?

And then I can go on about the rest of my day, and it'll be Mary. And it wasn't. It was insanity, and I spent my, what, how old did I turn? 28, maybe? 27 or 28, I can't remember. Um, I spent my entire birthday, I test welded 70 machines, got welders burned, took those 70 machines on my birthday to the post office.

Did not understand about printing out a manifest because I had never done Econ before. So I spent three hours in there trying to strip those out. Um, got in my car, got a to go margarita, drove down the road, got in a tractor, and finished raking hay until the dew set into the ground for my, for my 28th birthday.

One of them, I don't remember. So, fast forward, it's still crazy. I'm texting my babysitter, like, you have got to come get my daughter and just keep her for a couple hours. Well, she comes to bring her home and she leaves and gets a little bit down the road. And I text her, I'm like, hey, do you want to make some extra cash?

Like, could you just help me come put the wrap this jewelry on the spool and put it in a bag, put a sticker, it's going in the mail. So she comes. And we work for 14 days straight. And I'm like, hey, do you have a friend that maybe wants to make a little bit of extra cash? And that girl comes. And then we work for another 14 days straight.

And I kind of hit a wall where I'm like, okay, I have to like actually hire people and pay them a salary. And that was a huge conversation. I got some pushback on that, but ultimately it was like, I'm, I'm gonna, I'm gonna crash. Like, I can't stay up until 2 a. m. anymore. I have welders burn. I couldn't see anything.

I was just pushing through, like. Coffee after coffee, and I don't, I'm not even a coffee drinker. So, the first couple employees I had weren't traditional interviews. Uh, there was no pay that was talked about, like, insanity. And they stuck with me, and I still kind of keep up with those girls to this day.

But, yeah, so it went from informally hiring two people to now I have the staff attend. I'm not even in charge of the hiring process anymore, which is great, because I don't have to fire anyone either. Insanity, like, and my leadership skills, and that's another thing that I didn't know that I was interested in prior to Lang, to his leadership.

And, It's so much I've learned about myself. So yeah, that again, crazy story on just like the origins of linked.

Jen Thryion: That is crazy. And honestly, though, even though it happened so organically with the first two, but it is someone you trusted, which I think is so important because I think a lot of a lot of people listening to are wanting to hire or kind of, there's a lot of question marks around that.

I see that a lot with people asking, How do you find the right person or so do you have anything actually now I know you're not a part of that hiring process anymore, but you have any advice when it comes to it? Because I'm sure you've had some hires and fires. I'm assuming since this, you know, growing so much,

Sarah: I again, I live in the armpit of Texas, very small farm and cattle.

When I say Houston, it's an hour down the road. So no one people drive to Houston, go to work. People don't drive outside of Houston to get a job. So it's not easy finding people to work for you here. My success And I have tried all the things, so don't judge me when I say this, is I post a position open on Facebook, and I have great friends and family that share that.

And I, from that, usually we'll funnel in, we'll get 50 plus emails once I post, and we'll start going through those resumes. Uh, obviously kind of filtering out, I look at written English and kind of background, kind of not, and more look at like the extra stuff that they're willing to provide in that resume.

I have, sometimes I'll get them on the phone, other times I'll mostly have them come interview in person. Which might result in a second interview, more so now, as of late, there's a second interview and sometimes I am, I know I'm not a part of the hiring process, but for certain positions, I'll set in for that second interview.

I make sure that I, that they understand what I do, that they've done their research about my business, that I'm not just another person that they are trying to get a job with, because they applied to 50 other too, like I want to make sure that they really understand, uh, what LinkedIn is. I talk to them about their career.

the culture of the business and cultures that they worked in before and kind of what their long term expectations are and what how they want to advance in their career. Are they someone that wants to kind of go through the motions and cut a paycheck or do they have like this kind of fire inside of them?

They just don't know how they need someone to help guide them, right? And I always make sure I always end interviews asking if they have any questions for me. Um, because I think that's one thing that people forget a lot in the hiring process is like, We're sitting here grilling this person. I've decided sometimes to hire someone based on those questions that they've asked me.

Jen Thryion: No, I love that. That is a great because it shows like you said, the passion and interest they have for your company and you, which is going to speak a lot to, like you said, a drop in the pan, like just want to get a job, work somewhere, whatever, and move on. Right? So someone who's a little bit more invested, that's great.

Everyone you hire, are there certain roles or is everyone know how to weld? Or is there a certain people that are just fulfilling orders and kind of thing?

Sarah: My team probably hates this, but it's a requirement that everyone has worked on a welder, um, and understands it to some extent in case we are, like, for instance, we're going to Mexico this weekend, we had to be very selective about who we brought based on our sales team and our event team, and those people are going to have to double as welders too, whereas if we're going, when we're going to Dallas, the end of this month, our entire team's coming, or we'll pull from our student base, so So it is important to me that everyone knows how to weld and because that's what makes up our business, right?

Like if you don't know what's going on, how can you speak to it? But we do have very established roles. We have an event team. Um, that's of two people. We have two managers. We have a CFO. We have a head of troubleshooting. We had a head of inventory. I have a executive assistant who, bless her heart, is a woman of many talents.

She kind of makes up as an assistant for everyone on the team. We have a head of packing. So there's different, there's different, uh, departments within the business where there might just be one person in there and there might be a multitude of people. But at the end of the day, one of the big things that my team understands is if you finished your job, that's great, but make sure that your team doesn't need anything.

Because if we can't operate together, if you're not checking on the person next to you and you're only worried about yourself and the person next to you is only worried about their self, we can't like make this chain reaction of, of the well oiled machine that we want it to be. Um, and that's something that's really important about our culture too.

So, we do, with the unbranded, we test weld those machines. They go through a three point inspection before we mill them out. If we just had a surge of orders come through and we my packer needs help testing machines so we can meet our quota for the day, everyone's gonna take their ass into the packing room and we're testing some fucking machines.

Jen Thryion: That's awesome. No, I love what you said. It's, there's a lot of good advice packed in there. It's almost like also just setting the tone of the culture. I think, you know, letting them know this is, you know, we are a team and this is what we do and the expectations, the fact that you have all these different roles and the expectations of that role.

This is what you do. Cause I think a lot of times we hire someone and especially if it's your first hire and you're not used to it, it's like, we kind of like almost think they should be mind readers because I think that was my, one of my downfalls when I had hired people in the past when I had the boutique business.

I was like. I didn't have clear expectations for them, too. So when they did something where I felt was, you know, out of line or wasn't what they're supposed to be doing, I'm like, honestly, in the end, that's my fault because I wasn't clear about what their role was, what they should be doing, you know, and playing into just the productivity of everything.

Sarah: One really important thing that we do, and we try to do this daily, is it's called a brick meeting, um, and this is because like, if you're the CFO, and you're the event coordinator, and you're the packer, it's still important that all of us understand what page the other person's on, just so we know what's going on within the business, and so if you, if I'm done with my job and you need help, I kind of understand what your brick of the day is.

And your BRIC is what you're doing within your department head to move the needle and all of that data gets funneled down to me. So every day we do a BRIC meeting and it can take like 15 minutes, but each person we go around the room, what's your BRIC? What are you doing to push the needle? And so like for packing, for instance, it's making sure that these specific slips are put into the packing material that tells our customer about the, um, marketing subscription discount.

So like you can buy into the discount and it's like a hundred bucks a month and you get 30 percent off for all your orders. So that's what they're doing in their department to move needle. Now for event, that's different. For inventory, that's different, but we're all listening to it. And the other two questions that get asked in that meeting is what is a personal win and a professional win?

And it can be for the day, for the week, et cetera, et cetera. So we're all not just worried about work. We also know what's going on in other people's lives too. So like, for instance, we have someone on our team that it's been really important to them in the past couple of months that they keep up with their fitness journey.

And so we're able to hold that person accountable. And it not just be about work, right? Because we care about you as a person. We care about your, your physical health and that you're meeting your goals, that you're not just pushing the needle in your apartment, but you're pushing the needle in your life.

And I think that makes for a really great team.

Jen Thryion: Hey, busy entrepreneur. As you know, being a business owner, you have to wear all the hats. You're a social media manager, marketer, graphic designer, accountant, photographer, videographer, web designer, business coach, scheduler, and the list goes on. I know how overwhelming it can be, and this is why I created the Golden Link Society.

It's our monthly permanent jewelry membership. We have a weekly call to talk about all the things, but not only that, including monthly photography and video to use for your social media and marketing, Canva templates, monthly business access. monthly training, support group, discount, and first dibs on Goldilinks supplies, and more.

My intention is to create a beautiful community of permanent jewelers that want to level up their businesses together while creating lasting friendships and having fun. This is what I wish existed when I started my business almost 10 years ago. If you want to know more, check it out at goldilinkssociety.

com or at allthethingspermanentjewelery. com. I hope to see you there. I mean, we can think back to any traditional job we've had because, I mean, there's been plenty of managers and people that are, you know, you're supposed to be looking up to and working hard for and they have no interest in kind of you or you don't feel it is a team.

Or it's, you're kind of on your own. So the fact that people are in this kind of together, the accountability, which goes back to why community is so important, honestly, I think that is where you just get stronger. And you also are just, in the end, people want to do good when they feel good and they're feeling respected and they're feeling like honored and, you know, and appreciated.

So I think that you're covering a lot of those bases and I think that's amazing.

Sarah: Yeah, 100%. It's, it's huge. I mean, we all understand we're there, we're there to work and we're there to run and operate a business, but like at what expense, right? And I don't look at that just for myself as, as the owner. Uh, I want to make sure that my, my employees aren't looking at their, sitting at their desks, like, is this worth it?

So, I mean, for example, we do even, I forced them for 15 minutes a day, you go outside and you fill the grass and let the sun, I mean, not days like today when it's 20 degrees outside, but you're going to take 15 minutes. I don't want you just sitting here all day and all you're worried about besides your lunch break.

Um, so I am forced and they are free to take breaks whenever they want, but it's a non negotiable, like we're going to get in the golf cart and go into the pasture and play with the cows or look at the new baby chickens that were born. Take a mental, a mental beat from what's been going on. So, and that's just a little bit of the things that I try to enforce and make sure.

And I, I wouldn't have known these things if I hadn't started hiring people and had to learn about leadership to make the business function as a whole. And so that's, what's amazing is like stepping into new roles and to new avenues of real life. And like, I would have never in a million years imagined.

When I had my sex business that these are the kinds of things that I'd be worried about or even interested in learning and am so it's really awesome and I'm happy because honestly

Jen Thryion: it's like once you dive into one little thing like hiring okay you know what you think it's simple hiring an employee but when you get down to it and especially if you're not hire a decent team eventually right there is so many facets of it and there's so many things you learn within that that you never thought you would learn you know just like I say a business ownership it's not as a business.

You know, it's just not about where your profit margin, literally, there's so many things that go into it challenges your self worth and your money mindset and all these things. And it really just challenges you as a person makes you a better person if you let it, right. And same with like hiring. I mean, it really, you tend to look at yourself in the mirror more and more when you do these things, right.

Even just having a business, hiring. Um, like being a leader. So yeah, it's really, it's really amazing because like we go back to the beginning of our conversation when you say time is money. These employees are making money by, you know, working but at the same time, they want to spend their time how they enjoy.

Like we all want to. So if you're working a job where you're like, you don't feel appreciated, you're sitting there, this sucks. She's putting me to the, you know, she's not letting me have a break, said I can't do this and no one's going to want to work hard first of all for you. And also there are going to be people that are just, there's going to be like constant rotation in your business and hiring and firing like constantly because no one's wanting to be there.

So it's like, they're not going to do good work if they don't want to be there. And

Sarah: I want them to leave if they need to leave for any reason to, like they've grown their resume or whatever it is. And they know this, like it's an open door policy. If you have a complaint or a suggestion, come to me, I want to talk, I want to chat about it.

I might not always agree with you, but I'm willing to listen. But I want, they really understand that I want them to grow, not just as individuals, but in their career. Because Linked might not be it for all of these girls, and I have a man on my team, but they might want to run down to Houston and really join corporate America.

And guess what? They just worked with this multi million dollar startup in the trenches. And this is the SOPs that they documented. And these are the things that they created. And this is the needle that they moved. And this is the brick that they had quarterly, or daily, or weekly. They can talk about these things.

I think there's just a lot of value and that's a responsibility that I don't take lightly is one for my own, like, I will die still learning, I will be on my deathbed still learning things and it's, I have, I feel a huge responsibility, not just to my students, but to my staff to make sure that if I learn something, I'm sharing the knowledge.

Jen Thryion: I love that. And that's great to have as a leader, knowing that someone is always an open minded like that, kind of coming from a beginner's mindset always. And I believe in that too, because when you feel like you're done, you know, and you're, and also too, like being that, I have having that egotistical almost view of like, Oh no, I know everything.

Yep. I'm good. We don't all know everything. And there's always something to learn. There's always something to improve and having a leader like that, who's aware of that is only going to obviously push you further too. And so that's, that's really cool. I love that. When you went into LinkedIn and obviously starting off as a partner, what is your advice for someone who's considering going into a partnership?

And what advice would you give that person in that journey?

Sarah: A partnership is no different than a marriage and divorces are hard and they're expensive. A partnership is no different than a marriage. You are arguably going to spend more time with that person or talking to that person and just as much time arguing with them.

Whether that, and this is the deal too, I feel the same way about personal relationships is that you're going to fight, you're delusional if you think that there are not going to be arguments in your, with your spouse, with your friends, or with your family, that's going to happen, and I have this motto, and a lot of the things that I talk about, again, apply personally and professionally for me, I'm going to fight healthy with you, or I'm not going to fucking fight with you at all.

Ball's in your court, so you decide, because I can have that open ended conversation, and I might not agree, but I'm willing to listen, and not necessarily debate, but I'm Let's view the grass from both sides of the fence kind of situation. So my advice with a partnership is negotiate 51%, if not more. Make sure that an attorney is looking over your operating agreement and understand that it is this, it's the same type of commitment as a marriage.

And people get divorced all the time. I've never, um, I might have heard if you had to call it a good amicable divorce once or twice within my 30 years of life, most of them, and really nasty and really gnarly. And the same goes for partnerships.

Jen Thryion: Yeah. So what do you think is important to like set, like even going back to even having employees and like the expectations, like, you know, what a part, what this partnership is going to look like?

Like, what do you feel is the number one thing that I guess you should be doing when considering a partner. And it's tricky because it could be a partnership of someone maybe you're not really, I don't know if you had an existing relationship with a partner that you went into linked with, or it could be your bestie.

And it's like, you don't want to like, you know, don't want to get to a point where that relationship is going to crumble, especially if it's someone who's already really important to you. Right. So what do you say that would be the questions you need to ask yourself if this is the right decision? When you're considering that.

Sarah: The deal is, and it goes back to the same thing, like you don't know what you don't know and Right. People do not get married with the intent of getting a divorce. Sure. What happens, and I'll compare it to a marriage because that's how I feel about it, is people sign prenups. My husband signed a prenup.

And that's not because, hey, I'm making you sign this because we're going to get a divorce. I had him sign it because it's a protection clause, essentially. And the sting should go for a partnership. An attorney should be looking over it. You should be treating it like, almost like a prenup. And then documenting what the expectations are of each partner.

And I, I don't want to put this dark looming cloud over partnerships. The same I wouldn't over marriages. I got in a partnership not with the expectation of it ending anything other than well. And the same with my marriage. I did not get married because I think I'm gonna get a divorce. You don't know what you don't know.

You learn things about people along the way. Uh, sometimes it's amazing, and it's great, and it's beautiful, and sometimes it's not. And that is just life. Making sure that you're putting your head down, and you're talking with an attorney, and doing the things that you can do to protect yourself. And your partner should be doing the same thing.

You, if you are a good partner, you're gonna be encouraging your business partner or your spouse to be doing the same thing. When I did a prenup, I made sure that my spouse knew about it. I made sure that my spouse was comfortable with it. I made sure that he has trust in 7, 000 acres of land that I We were to get a divorce who do not have access to and I'm fine with that because I wanted him to be able to protect himself too.

And the same goes if you really are genuine about getting into a partnership and you feel like you're going to be a good partner, you're educating your partner and making sure they're working with attorney

Jen Thryion: and protecting themselves as well. So. Okay. That's great advice because I think a lot of us don't go there, you know, especially say we're just like, Oh, let's, let's start this really cute, permanent Tory business with my best friend.

You know what I mean? You don't. Think about adding in lawyers or any, you have no idea where that business is going to lead. Right? So say you grow it, grow it, grow it. And who knows, you get a brick and mortar and then you decide to franchise it and then you get to a point where, Oh my gosh, we actually, we're not seeing eye to eye anymore.

This is something that's going on or just someone wants out because of personal reasons or whatever. And then you're like, what do we do? Cause we had nothing legally. put in place, right? And that's probably when it would get messy, correct? If you had nothing kind of set in, you know, legally. I wouldn't even know how that would work, honestly.

And I know it's going back to the whole blanket comment, you know, from before. It's like, oh, saying like, no, this is the way and how everyone is different. Cause I actually did have someone on the podcast who now owns a Hotworks over here. And she actually did a partnership with a friend prior and I asked her about it in the pocket.

She's like, nope, never, never do partnership. Never, never. And I'm like, never? I mean, you can't just because she had a bad experience. But I think that it's kind of like, again, like even like speak of a marriage, like once you, my marriage dissolves, like no one ever get married. You know what I mean? Well, obviously every situation is different, right?

So like, what would you, would you personally get in another partnership with someone? Would you ever do that in the future with another business? Yes, you would. Would there be anything that you learned in your partnership already that you would do differently when partnering with someone in the future?

And would it be those things, like putting those things in place? Yeah.

Sarah: With my current partnership, Jake and I, we do have an operating agreement. It is a legal one, and it was done on, I think, Rocket something or another, uh, and ideally just like for my marriage, I wouldn't have written my prenup. I had an attorney do it.

I didn't know what I didn't know at the time, and not that anything is wrong with our operating agreement, and If I were to get in a partnership again, I would not use just a standard one. I would have it done very specific to the business and what the expectations are of each partner. Making sure there's an attorney involved when you sign the dotted line.

Okay.

Jen Thryion: Perfect. I love that because I mean, again, I don't think a lot of people go there. And when we, a lot of people that I'm assuming because when I say a lot, I'm speaking from a place of where I've been there. You know, that's why I say that. It's like I'm putting myself in people's shoes who are like, I just want to start a permanent jewelry business, you know, and then you don't realize again, even insurance and all the things that come into play when you have a business, right?

You know, insurance is, again, we don't. think those things are going to happen, but when they do insurance, right, a waiver, things like that, that we talk about, that it's like, sure, you don't, I guess you don't have to have a waiver, but if something were to happen, you're going to be really glad that you did.

Right. So it's like almost the same thing as a partnership or anything's like setting things up so correctly from the beginning so that if something happens, you're not like, man, I wish I would have done that because now it's super messy and now, you know. Whether it's more money you're spending and, you know, legal things or whatever it ends up being, right?

It's just setting it up correctly from the beginning.

Sarah: The big takeaway I think is you're responsible for yourself and making sure that you do your due diligence and whether that's in waivers when you're offering a service or uh making sure that you have a prenup in your marriage or if it is having a More than just a regular standard operating procedure and a partner agreement.

You're doing your due diligence to protect yourself and make sure that you're communicating to your partner or your spouse or whoever it is you're working with, or in a relationship with, that they're protecting themselves as well because you ultimately care about that person. You want the best for them too.

If you didn't, why are you getting in the damn partnership? Or relationship or whatever it could be, so.

Jen Thryion: Right. And honestly, a lot of people, like, listening, if you, you know, I mean, I'm assuming you had a, I don't know what your history is, but I may have had failed relationships before my husband, right? And you look back and there were so many red flags that you chose not to, you chose not to honor.

You're just like, no, but you justify things, right? I, so I just want to like put that in there because I have to say the more you're in business, the more you get to know yourself and like you said, you don't know what you don't know. And it's so true. But I think that trusting your gut is huge. And I think that there's any red flags, it's something that you need to address and not just try and talk yourself out of it.

That's what I would have to say. I never had a big partnership, but when I first started my boutique and we were in a merchant market, again, it's not a huge, you know, where we had our own brick and mortar and we were like, you know, it wasn't as, as big of a deal as that. It was one of my really, really good friends, and it didn't end well, and it was only after a few months.

But looking back, I'm so glad it ended. It also ended soon. But I, even in those few months, I learned so many things with how she backed out, I stayed in, and it ended up being my boutique space. We had it together in the beginning, and I was like, oh, you know, just because we were such good friends, I thought it would just work out.

You know what I mean? And then it just, expectations weren't set, we didn't talk about it, there was no really communication, it was just kind of we just did it. And then when it got to be all these little problems, like, well, I thought you were going to do this. Oh, I, you know, and, and then it just ended. And unfortunately, our friendship didn't survive it.

So I think a communication, like you said, expectations, that was never set. And also too, if I looked back, I'm like, my gut was telling me it probably just because we were so similar in certain ways that I think we would have butt heads. And that's what happened, you know, so, um, you're like having a baby together.

Pretty much. We kept waiting

Sarah: for a marriage and then not only was getting in this marriage, but we immediately had a baby. So, and marriages fail all the time because of parenting and differences in parenting and one parent not. You know, they, they talk about when you're a mom, sometimes you're like the default parent and that gets super annoying.

And that can be discussed in relationships and the other parent can kind of understand that you're automatically default for the child. How can I step in and kind of fill that role a little bit? And then there's other situations that are like, I really like it that you're the default parent. I'm not going to do anything about it.

Jen Thryion: Then there's situations where it's like, obviously, when you compare it to a marriage, where like, there maybe is no red flags, and it was beautiful for a very long time, but then things change, you know? And that's why, though, going back to what you said of setting up, you know, correctly in the beginning of, you know, legal, and so that way when, if it, if and when things turn, that there's no question marks, and it's a little, the process would be a little easier to separate, essentially, right?

Like I said, I did not

Sarah: get married. Recently, with the ex husband getting a divorce, but I did make sure that I did my due diligence in the event that that happens, whether I want it to or he wants it to, I'm protected. Yeah,

Jen Thryion: yeah. That's so, it's really smart. It's very, it's very forward thinking, especially, especially when you're speaking about a marriage, you know, people are not really thinking that, like you said, it's, it's, it's more rare for people to do that because you're not thinking about the what ifs.

And even though you, in this union, right? Like you didn't go in that thinking you'd get a divorce, obviously, right? Or expecting to get a divorce. So, but partnership, especially in business. Yeah, it's so important to set things up correctly from the beginning. And, and even having said that, like we touched on like insurance waivers, like all these things that you could consider because it might be a pain and might not be enjoyable to set things, things up like that in the beginning, but it's going to be worth it if something were to happen, right?

Yeah. Yeah.

Sarah: Once you start doing it, it's, it's like, uh, walking. You don't even think it just is part of your, of the

Jen Thryion: operation. You're just moving forward. So I think those things aren't talked about enough. It's like, you know, we talk about business, everyone's like marketing and social media and all like maybe the fun stuff.

Right. But no one wants to talk about the stuff, right. Like the prenups and the, you know, and like the people

Sarah: don't like to talk about uncomfortable stuff. And that's just human nature. I think it is important that it is spoken about because. There's people who Whether it's uncomfortable or not, people feel this way and they're isolated in it because it's not spoken about openly.

That's so interesting.

Jen Thryion: Okay, so where do you see, I mean, you kind of shared a little bit, but where do you see Linked going in the next, you know, foreseeable future, the next few years?

Sarah: People keep asking me this. Uh, my intention since the conception was to create a monster and sell it. My intention with Linked eventually is to sell it.

Right now I'm having way too much fun to hand it over. I don't think I've I'm not bored yet. So when I get bored is probably when that conversation will happen. I have been approached about it, but I'm not in the place where I want to. I don't want to leave my staff yet. We're having so much fun. They're still learning.

I'm learning with them. Um, so what it will probably happen is that in some point I'll cap out and I'll think that I've Contributed everything that I can contribute to it. And it just really genuinely creates revenue on its own without me That's the goal and when it does that then I will likely sell and

Jen Thryion: then move on So, where do you see I mean I I tell you're obviously a passionate person and like you said you're an entrepreneur Before you were, you know aesthetician all these other things So do you have other where do your other passions lie?

Like say you were to sell this, you know And where where do you think imagine where you would go next a lot of investing?

Sarah: And then just because that is the safe way to play, right? Uh, so that's what I've spent a lot of the past two years learning about, or year and a half, is smart investing, money management, money IQ, money awareness, how does it make me feel, doing all the things, the therapy, et cetera, et cetera.

Uh, but in reality, where I see myself and what my end career will likely be here in this small, sleepy cattle town is, like I mentioned several times in this interview, I, I feel like my role within my business or all my businesses is a CRO. Chief Revenue Officer. So most likely what I'll end up doing, and kind of what I already naturally am, and this is where the idea came from, is people come to me all the time.

And I do not charge, but I, it doesn't matter what type of business it is, people come to me, we sit down, we have cocktails, or they'll meet at my house, or whatever it is, we'll, we'll chat about how they can So I think that we've seen this, um, kind of change things up, build more revenue within their business and go on about themselves.

So probably and what I want to do is create that into a sustainable business and do mentorship come in and act as a chief revenue officer for a month or a certain period of time and then have check ins after that so fractional basically.

Jen Thryion: I love that. I could totally see that in you. So, actually someone listening to you when you say chief revenue officer, what does that mean?

Sarah: Chief financial officer there. Their main priority and goal is to handle the finances within the business. The executive officer is the executive of the business. Right? Revenue officer, my job is to worry about revenue. How do we build more? How do we build it and make it sustainable? And once we do that, what's next?

How would I build more with the next project? So looking at all the data Has that always

Jen Thryion: been your role from the very beginning? Or you have found that that's where you, you love to be? Or has that been your, your role from the beginning?

Sarah: It was my role without me knowing it and understanding it. Uh, it was just kind of

Jen Thryion: what was happening.

Sarah: And that's how my head has been

year and kind of planning my: 2025

It's a last roll that I choose or love to dive into. I'm a creative. I have the ideas. I love to just take an idea and go with it. I love leadership as well, community, but I have to say numbers, like not a fan, but what I want, this is what kept coming to my mind when you're talking and I feel like obviously with.

business is not surviving, it is the number one reason why people are not surviving, right? Is the revenue, is your numbers. And within that, not even just the revenue, yeah, the numbers you're bringing in, but dissecting those numbers, correct? Where are they going? Yeah,

Sarah: so do not get it mistaken because we have a CFO and I do not want his job.

I've never in my entire existence been interested in numbers on that level. I don't want to do what a CFO does. I want to have the CFO bring me, and he does, we have Performa meetings once a week. And the BRIC meetings, remember, because in each department, their BRIC is how are they moving the needle. And that is, comes down to revenue.

So all that data gets funneled to me, and we make decisions based on that. That is what is fun about being a CRO, is you're not necessarily compiling the numbers, you're receiving the data. This is what happened. This is what the projections could potentially be. What move do you want to make? So almost like a coach on a team.

Of like, this is, you're gonna do this, this, this, and go.

Jen Thryion: Okay. I love it. So it's like, how can I

Sarah: grow? You are acting as a creative almost. When people think about creatives, it's like, let's style this, this way for this shoe. And that's not necessarily that you're a creative in the grand scheme of like, these are the projects, this is how we're gonna market it.

On a, a very finite scale, you hand that over to someone else. It's, it, it really is like, I'm trying to think of like the best way to explain it really is like, You're. At the end of the game and the timer is running out and what is the next shot that needs to be made so we can get the most amount of points.

It's a game and that is really how I feel about entrepreneurship and I've said that to people for a very long time is like I know what I need to live Substantially once a month and I don't need to be doing linked to make that dollar amount and it's not a very high dollar amount I'm not a big shopper.

I buy my clothes on Amazon The only thing I spend money on is skincare Money to me is a game and like my heart rinses right now even thinking about it Like it's not about how much I need or how much I want It's how much can I make? What is the, is there an, is there a cap? I'm gonna push the limits.

Jen Thryion: I love that because yeah, so going into, because it's so funny how people go into things with different reasons.

For me, of course, going into permanent jewelry is because I already was existing love. I'm a jewelry lover. Like, you know, everyone sees someone like a hairstylist might notice your hair or, you know, esthetician, you might notice someone's brows or right. Like, I'm always like, I always remember what people are wearing of their jewelry.

And customers are always shocked by when they come back after me after months. I'm like, oh yeah, you got this because of this. And I'll remember specifically jewelry with them, right? So it sounds like for you, did you get into, you just, did you just see the opportunity of permanent jewelry, but it wasn't really like you were already existing jewelry lover?

Sarah: Um, no, I saw the opportunity. COVID had happened already and people were really privy to online learning. So I knew that I wanted to capitalize. And again, I would have taken the training if there was one, there wasn't. And I saw that gap. I saw the gap in the industry, and that's a lot of what I do almost every day for Linked is assess the gaps and how can I fill it, and how can I be the industry leader in it.

So, I saw the gap. There was no training. COVID had happened. People were privy to online learning. It soared drastically. Everyone got more comfortable with it. And I, I just, I played the game.

Jen Thryion: That's so cool. I love it. I feel like you're hired. You're going to come and be my revenue partner.

Sarah: And that ultimately is what I want.

Again, I'm still having fun at LingQ. There's a lot of things I want to do, a lot of projects in the pipeline. But, uh, it is something that I'm teasing, I've been teasing my team with about potentially releasing for students specifically, coming in and acting as a CRO for them, a fractional CRO. Um, I don't know what that would look like and how much time I have to give to it.

And that's something I need to assess before I even offer it. But. That would help me gear up. So when I do exit length, I have this portfolio that I can offer to people in my community because I do live in a, in a poor community and I want to help these businesses and I see gaps in them that they could, they're not reaching their potential, um, because they don't know what they don't know.

So I can come in and I can fix that. And I only make money if they make money is kind of the, the concept I think of how I want to do it. Like, if I can get you to this percentage, this is percentage you'll give me.

Jen Thryion: So what do you feel like the biggest mistake people are making speaking of all this like numbers and stuff because it actually really is interesting to me and I want to dive more into it this year for myself, um, with the moves I'm making in my business is I feel like I'm almost forced to, um, but also to what I'm realizing is like just the being intentional, right?

So when you talk about the CFO bringing you the numbers and like, and that's your thing, it's like there is a creative portion of it, right? And that's also to a misconception, I should say, because, like I said, I'm like, I'm always a number of person. But if you put a spin on something, you can make it creative.

You can make it fun. Right. And so so what is what do you feel? I think people doing this and there may be not being intentional or aware of where their money. is coming from, what is doing well, capitalizing on that without spraying themselves too thin and trying to add things on, or, I don't know, what do you feel is people's biggest mistakes with numbers, I guess, and the revenue?

Sarah: In permanent jewelry, or like in general? Yeah, I'd say permanent jewelry. Okay, I'm gonna say this, and it is a super polarizing opinion and topic. It's, It's like one of those touchy things. You don't talk about like religion and politics or argon. Oh

Jen Thryion: my god, we should totally

Sarah: talk about argon.

Jen Thryion: Okay You

Sarah: should use I mean I teach it I use argon when i'm welding on a big rig

Jen Thryion: anyways Okay.

Um, so wait, let's talk touch on that super quick because I have been told i'm gonna be totally honest that linked Was when you train you're saying that argon is not required. Is that true?

Sarah: No, I have a 90 page manual and the longest chapter of my manual is about argon

Jen Thryion: Okay, um, was that the beginning of your training and it's changed over time realizing the importance of argon or, or has that always been just kind of something I've heard?

It's always been a part of the training.

Sarah: Oh. Um, I've always been honest in the sense that I use argon and a CO2 mixture when I'm using my big grid welders. Argon tanks that are taller than I am, and then when I'm doing permanent jewelry, I view it because of where I come from and what I've been learned, and it might have been ghetto the way I was taught in my school and living on a farm and cattle community, but for a tack weld, you don't necessarily need it.

I have a lot of point of views and differing opinions. I personally don't use it, and I think it limits you to the places that you can travel when you have to lug an argon tank around. But then on the same token, my training is very comprehensive on what is Argonne, what is it used for, how do you use it, how do you source it, how do you plug it into your machine, how do you use your regulator, all of those things.

So I do teach it, and I tell people that they're, it is, they're, get to choose, they're the CEO of their business, and they get to decide how they're gonna

Jen Thryion: conduct business. Okay, so let's go back to the revenue question. So yeah, for numbers, going back to what I was saying and what I, so what do you feel is the biggest mistake?

people are making when it comes to their numbers in their permanent jewelry business.

Sarah: And permanent jewelry is that, again, kind of a polarizing topic. Not really. I teach my students that you price by the inch because it's disrespectful to your ROI not to. Okay. And I know that some people it's just easier to bulk price.

It's easier to tier things out. I personally think that one cent missed is a cent lost and that adds up over time. So I, I think, um, assessing the pricing and people are, it's like this slow rolling train wreck that we're seeing right now and a lot of conversations that are going on on the groups about, uh, so and so is at the same event at me and she's priced 20 less than I am.

Should I lower my price? It's like, girl, no, you shouldn't. What, is she providing the same experience? Because the last time I checked, we're not just selling gold and silver, we're selling an experience. And you get to decide what your worth is. So i'm not looking around anyone else Around me and saying well, they're they're pricing like this and that's how i'm gonna price because we're the same We're not the same.

I don't offer the same service I offer a way different experience and that is what I charge for and I feel like that's a huge gap That's being missed in the permanent jewelry community Especially as we see like sterling silver roll out and people are using plated items now unbeknownstly or purposely Um, and they're pricing accordingly to that, and then these people that are offering 14 karat solid gold and gold filled and sterling silver and these luxury metals are trying to run in a race that they're not supposed to be in.

So, uh, and I, again, we're, I, I feel wholeheartedly, we're not just selling a product, we're selling an experience, or at least that's what you should be selling. Um, and I hope that that's like the standard that we're creating for the industry or what I want to see for the industry. It's not like, let me, you're another number, I'm going to pop this bracelet on you real fast, get out of the way so I can get to the next person.

Like, I want to sit here and talk to you and make sure that you understand who I am and where I come from and I want to know who you are and where you come from and I want to make sure that we do business together in the future and do you have a wedding and what is going on in your wedding and how can I best assist you?

be at service of you and um, so on and so forth. So yeah, that's what you're charging for is the experience. And I think people are losing touch with that. And then again, back to, um, I think it's really disrespectful to your ROI, not priced by the foot. A lot of, a lot of money is missed there.

Jen Thryion: Well, I love what you said about, cause it's like, it'd be different if you imagine everyone just lined up and looks the same and they have the, you know, same chains and they all have different prices.

That's one thing, right? Going back to there's so many facets of a business. It's not just the chains you're offering. It's how you're offering them, how you talk about them, the experience you're offering, the feeling you're giving your customers, just even with your brand alone. So I love that you said that because you know, and I get it.

We, we obviously. We want to do our best and I think that comparing though and looking at like the person next to you, it's more or less like, no, how can I be better is like always going back to yourself, right? Like, how can I be better? And I, I think that gets

Sarah: lost in translation a lot too. Like, and you can take linked, for example, people think we're really expensive and we are, and I have a multitude of reasons.

And one is that I have a staff of 10 that I refuse to pay minimum wage to. Uh, I'm going to pay them a living. And so that is a part of my cogs, right? So, and with that, my price inflates. And that just is what it is. You want to shop with us or you don't. And that's not really what it is, right? And I say this to my girls all the time when they're packing, especially when they're new, is like, for instance, if someone buys my lowest training package, my cheapest training package, to me, that's the equivalent of a Louis Vuitton.

What is the experience you're getting with Louis Vuitton from the moment that purse arrives in the mail to unboxing it to reading all the material inside? Like, what does that experience feel like? That's the same amount of money and that's how I want my, that experience is what I want linked to and for my students to feel in the community that they're part of.

That it wasn't just this video content and this machine they paid for. It's not just the product, it's the entire experience.

Jen Thryion: Yes. It's so true. I mean, I feel like that's what gets lost, I think, a little bit in just the, again, having a business and knowing that also, too, when we speak about numbers, and that's why it's hard.

Granted, I do feel like there's an industry standard, okay? Having said that, I do think there's an industry standard to be in a range ish, right, of what the lowest should be ish for permanent jewelry, right? I'm not gonna go say like, oh, well, if you're comfortable doing 10 a bracelet, then go for it. No, I think there is an industry standard, and that it's really unfortunate.

If you're going to go below that standard, it's actually hurting the industry as a whole. Okay, with saying that, just like you said a couple times and comes into play for me too with offering my own handmade supplies, there are definitely people that are offering handmade chains that are cheaper than mine.

But having said that, I have, you know, I have a team of 20 something women at this point. Making jewelry, the inventory involved, the special orders I'm doing and special shapes I'm having made just for goalie links is not, you know, and again, same, I don't want to be these girls to be making an hour, making chain and making 10 an hour.

Like that is not, I want them to feel good and they are, they're in a great place and, um, and that's what I want because so far not one maker has been like, yup, this isn't worth it, Jen. I'm going to turn my things in right now. No, it is actually, I feel, I feel good about all. What my price is or what it reflects and what I'm able to actually give these other women.

So having said that, you have no idea, especially like what's behind the business. Everyone has different overhead. Everyone has different numbers. So you can't compare. Also too, when it comes to chain, where people purchasing their chain, if they're purchasing off Etsy, their, their margins are looking way different than if you're purchasing from a reputable supplier and also too, if you're buying a major bulk.

from location to location. A: 1000

Okay, so that's where you have to also keep in mind is that It's not one size fits all again, everybody has a different business, different numbers, and that's why it's so important to go within and not look so much around you and compare because you have to get clear with your numbers, what you feel comfortable with, what your overhead is, what, you know, if you're in paying employees, cause that's going to change.

I have people coming to me and I do like, I'm purely mobile right now, but I've already announced so I can say it now, I am opening a brick and mortar. Okay. And people have come to me that they come, they come down from Denver and they're like, Oh my gosh, your prices are so great because I went to this place in Denver and it was like, so expensive.

First of all, rent in Denver is insane and they have a brick and mortar and they have employees and they have a lot of things going on. So I actually tell my customers that I'm not like, Oh yeah, I'm the best at cheap prices. Like, yeah, they're just crazy. They're totally like screwing you. No, they're not.

They are, they are businesses that have to run. And I, I make that clear. I'm like, Hey, well, I'm, I'm purely mobile. So guaranteed me opening a brick and mortar and, um, and hiring some employees. Do you think my prices are going to go up? Yes. So for someone to be comparing your prices to me, who also may be a mobile like person in my area, that's going to be like, Oh yeah, wow.

Like her prices are really high. Well, I have a lot more to pay for. So you know what I mean? So it's like, that is what, so when you talk about LinkedIn being, people are saying it's expensive. There's other training programs out there if it's more your speed and it's like more in, it's more inexpensive, but they don't have all the things running like you do and really providing this livelihood for 10, 10 families, right?

Sarah: And I, I think that is one of the most ironic things and I don't want to say this because I have so much gratitude in my heart and I'm so thankful to all of my customers and all of my students, whether, I mean, people buy from me that aren't. That aren't students, right? So when I say this, I'm not trying to be hypocritical or judgmental or whatever it is.

I just, I assess, that's what I do all day, is assess data, assess people, assess things, assess my relationship, assess my family. And I'm assessing, you know, all of these people who, who are permanent jewelry artists, they're, they're, they're small businesses. And a lot of times you'll, you'll see on their public Facebook pages, their Instagrams, it's like, support local, support local, support small business.

Like, thank you so much for supporting my small business. But then we turn around, and this is directly in our industry that I'm speaking about. We turn around, and it's so easy to look at LinkedIn, right? To look at LinkedIn and think, they're setting high on their pile of cash. We're making a living, we're a business, but we are sustaining 10 families here in America.

Two VAs and their families. And then all of our contract employees, there's hundreds of those. We're turning around and instead of looking at these vendors that we have or these other businesses that we work, work with or can potentially work with as also small businesses built in America, we're putting our money into a fortune 500 that we can't even name the CEO of.

Jen Thryion: No, it's insane. And that's why even going back to when we, I did say that when you're inside your business, it's so hard to see. And that's why it's like being aware of how you feel around our businesses or other things because it's just a reflection of you and what you'd want to offer your customers.

But when we're inside of our business, it's hard for us to think that way. And it goes the same with just what you're saying. Exactly. It's like when, you know, someone were to say, oh, wow, her chains are so expensive. It's like, well, how, you know, you're doing permanent jewelry. We know the markup in permanent jewelry.

If someone comes up to you and was like, whoa, these are way too expensive. You know what I mean? And of course you're going to feel like, no, they're not. Because you know what goes into running a business. And so. It is just so easy to do when it's outside of you, but to understand that, yeah, we're also small businesses.

We're also providing income for other others. And, and really it's. It's, it's a beautiful thing. You know what I mean? It's, it's so hard. One, because again, you are, you're also buying things to, for you to be successful. So you're seeing it from the opposite side, right? They're still in your boat too. You're still in their boat.

So we're all in the same boat basically is what I'm trying to say.

Sarah: And again, I don't say it to be like to sound ungrateful or anything. It's just very curious to me to assess that. See how the mindset works of like, support local, support my small business, but I'm not going to, I don't turn around and look at it at the same viewpoint when I'm searching for a vendor or a way to sustain my small business.

Jen Thryion: Mm hmm. Yeah, it's true. It's like, I mean, going back to the quote, I always say, it's like, what you put out is what you get back, right? So even just the way you communicate with your customers and everything, it's kind of like really stepping inside your own business and treating yourself like you're your own customer, you know?

Sarah: Right. And there's a lot to it and it's hard and that is business is that it is hard and there's a lot of decisions to be made and we don't know what we don't know and the best thing that we can do is keep putting one foot in front of the other and making sure that we continually educate ourselves.

Jen Thryion: Yeah. I don't know. How would you, I feel like summing up this conversation, cause we did touch on some things that can be controversial. It's unfortunate that, you know, it's hard sometimes to. talk about because you're not sure you don't want to upset people but at the same time we all have our own views and I think in the end is what this whole summing up this conversation is just safeguarding yourself when it comes to things being smart from the beginning and just knowing that because again you don't know what you don't know and I feel like that came kept coming up also being open minded And realizing it's not one size fits all and also just being continuously in a beginner mindset.

I feel like it's so important to when we talk about continuing to learn and like this journey of entrepreneurship is such a beautiful thing because again, we're constantly learning and just being really intentional. I don't know. Was there anything else you want to add to that? Like anything you want to end with and kind of share before we wrap up?

Yeah, I think touching through

Sarah: like when you speak about controversial topics and I, and this is the theme for me. In personal and professional, the things that I feel true and tried about apply to both aspects of my life, whenever I'm talking to someone about something controversial, obviously assess the situation and fulfill safe and I can safely have this conversation.

I will. I think it's really important is being able to be open minded and receive. You don't have to agree. Exactly. As long as you can talk about it and have a conversation about it, I think is what's important because in the end of the day you might find that you change your mind and he might not and that's okay.

But. Um, I think it's for really intelligent individuals to be able to have an open ended conversation about something that they might not necessarily agree with, but have a desire to see it from a different point of view if they potentially can.

Jen Thryion: And that's honestly also just gonna force you to be in that open minded, like, It's going to force you to be a better business owner.

It really is. And a better person. You know, if we were always just like stuck in our ways thinking we were, we were right, we were right. I can't tell you how many times that I even had conversations with my husband. I'm like, no, I'm never going to do that. And then here I am, like months later, you were right.

You know? And I feel like if I was so stubborn to stick with that and just, you know, it wouldn't have made me evolve the way I did. I had to like, even though in the beginning I might fight it, it plants a seed and I think about it and I'm like, Maybe, okay, that's maybe a good decision. And then finally I accept it.

And like, man, you know, it's like, sometimes I can be stubborn too in the way that I, you know, And so I think it's important to, like, stay open minded and, um, just hear people out, right? And, and consider the other side, even just consider it, right? It was amazing. This was the, one of the

Sarah: fastest hour and a half's of my life.

Jen Thryion: I know! It was so good. It's crazy. Um, okay. So where can we find you if we want to know more? And where are you at so we can stalk you?

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Sometimes I'll have employees texting to me, and I'm like, hey, what are you doing right now? Go to bed. That's so petty. On Instagram, at permanent. jewelry. training, we have our ampersand kind of linked symbol right there in gold. And then on Facebook, I believe we're just permanent jewelry training on there.

I have a TikTok, and I probably should plug it, but I don't know what the handle is. I despise TikTok, but I know it's a necessity. But yeah, the best way to get a hold of us is to text us or call us. Uh, we love talking to people, um, over the phone. I think that's one of our more favored ways of communication in the office rather than social media.

But, call me whether you want to start a training or you've already done training and you want to know more, or you want me to help you act as a fractional CRO before I actually start charging for it, uh, or you want to know information. Thanks so much. I

Jen Thryion: will be your guinea pig. I will just travel to Colorado.

I'm here for you. Well, thank you so much. Is there anything else you want anyone to know about you before we say goodbye? Until next time?

Sarah: About me, no, but I think, I think the main thing that I want people to take away from this is like that you really have to Look internally and believe in yourself and trust in yourself, trust in your gut, and make sure that, that you're putting one foot in front of the other.

Um, and don't stop, don't take the leap just because you're scared. Like, the worst thing that can happen is that you don't act and then there is no result because you chose not to act. Fail. Fail over and over and over again, uh, so you can win. Because if you don't try, then the answer is always It only makes you a super

Jen Thryion: interesting

Sarah: person,

Jen Thryion: let me tell ya.

It humbles you really fast. Totally! And honestly, I love that you say that because honestly, even I get into after doing this for so long. That's why I say even I, but it's like after I've been doing this for 10 years, right? Really being an entrepreneur of some level, I still in my moments where I feel so overwhelmed and I feel like I don't want to do something because of the fear of it.

When really, just like you said, it's little steps. I will literally just write down, okay, I'm not going to think about the whole picture. I'm just going to think about what's the next step, right? Um, because anything, learning something new, um, your mind goes to crazy places. Like, you know, you're going from zero to a hundred in your mind and you're not going to get to a hundred.

You know, that's why you can't compare yourself to the person next to you because they might have been doing this for a very long time and they also had to take those steps, right? So I love that you said that and you said that a few times throughout our talk today because it's, it's easy to forget that, that it's one step in front of the other, right?

Sarah: This life is only so long. I mean, I don't want. Yeah. I don't want to die next year or tomorrow or in 30 years from now and have not tried. No, it's like, it's so funny. It

Jen Thryion: comes down to very simple things, like I know, and especially when you do deal with things like Um, you know, tragic deaths are things that happen around you that were unexpected.

You have those moments where you realize that, but it's so easy to go out with your life and forget it. And I think that I always think back to this. I went to this, um, you know, Jen Sincero, she wrote the book, How to Be a Badass, I think, right? Okay. Yeah. You know what I'm talking about? I went to a talk, um, years ago and she was, um, a book signing.

And someone stood up and they had this whole story and they're like, how do I get over this fear of writing and blah, blah. And they had this whole crazy story. And Jen literally just said, you're going to die one day. And the girl's like, OK, she's like, so just freaking do it. Like, it's it's kind of ridiculous when we think about all the things and like how we make these little things complicated.

Yeah, it's like we're going to die one day and you don't know when that is. So you might as well just freaking do it. And like just. Get over these little fears. And I know it's easier said than done, but when you put it in that perspective of like, say you had a year left, what would you do? You know, kind of thing, you know, it's like, it's really just, you'd never know.

And you want to live your life to the fullest, right? So, I mean, it sounds like such a huge concept talking about permanent jewelry, but really, it's like, how do you want to live your life,

Sarah: right? In Destination, we are gonna die. What do you want to do with the life that you have? Like, like you're saying, like, you're just get out of your own way and you will be fine.

All right, cool. Let's stop

Jen Thryion: it now because we could talk forever.

Sarah: Okay,

Jen Thryion: thank you so much for chatting today. We'll talk to you soon. Alrighty, bye bye. Bye. Well, how do you feel? I hope you found value in today's episode and you walk away feeling inspired. I would love to hear from you. Let's link up. You can find me on Instagram at goldielinkssociety.

You can find out more about our permanent jewelry membership at goldielinkssociety. com Our handmade permanent jewelry supplies of connectors chain and more at goldielinksupplies. com Okay, I will see you next time. Have a golden day