041: From Grit to Growth - Lyndi's Journey From Permanent Jewelry Bestie

Jen Thyrion: 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, hard work, and 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, Lindy from the Permanent Jewelry Bestie is back. She's here to talk about her personal journey into the permanent jewelry world.

Along with that, we touch on training shaming. And as she prepares to open her own brick and mortar biz, we talk openly about business evolution and clarity. How it is not a one size fits all answer to how you start, how you run, and what your next steps are in your own business. This is an amazing convo.

Let's get to it. All right. I'm so excited to sit down with Lindy again, but solo all by herself. So we can hear all about just Lindy. Cause I want to learn more about you for sure. So let's start off by just telling everybody who you are and what we need to know. We need to know the basics.

Lyndi: Okay, we'll start with the basics.

I'm Lindy Love and I am the founder of Permanent Jewelry Bestie, the training and coaching company. I also have tools and supplies for permanent jewelry. Um, I have a permanent jewelry community and I'm just, I've been trying to create this one stop shop for business growth and continually trying to elevate the industry because The more we elevate the industry, the more we all charge and the more we all make.

So, I mean, at the end of the day, we're in business to make money, right? So I, I like to see people grow sustainable businesses. And that is a big part of why I do what I do.

Jen Thyrion: I love it. Well, tell us how you got here. Like, when did you come into permanent jewelry? I know it's like, that's a long, that's a long winded.

I was born on a stormy night. No, tell us about your life. Where did permanent jewelry and what brought you into the permanent jewelry space? Sure.

Lyndi: So, I know we touched a little bit about, uh, touched on it a little bit when we were on the podcast before, but really, I had, I had like the roughest childhood.

You, you would probably read about my childhood in a book or every social service you could think of. could have benefited from as a kid. And so coincidentally, uh, luckily or unluckily, a lot of childhood trauma makes people super either messed up or really driven secretly messed up. I mean, that's right.

Grit. If you asked anyone from the time I was young, like eight years old on, everyone would say, well, you know, when I think of Lindy, I think of grit. Like, I just don't, I don't know how she keeps going. So that grit, wherever all odds were stacked against me, and I really should have been failing. Like as an example, when I was 18, I took custody of my eight year old sister and we lived in an apartment with no furniture.

And I had intended to be Pre law, I wanted to go to Berkeley. I had these whole plans all the way up to like, I'm going to do this. I'm going to be a judge. I'm going to be a Supreme Court justice. Like I had this whole track laid out and then got the curve ball of, hey, you're 18 and now you have an eight year old.

And so I quit school and immediately I was working a restaurant job. And it was, it was convenient because I could work certain hours where I could have someone watch her. And it was all about, I just needed to make enough money. And I remember the first year that I made 36, 000 and I was like, this is amazing.

I just made 36, 000, but Really, 36, 000 with an eight year old does not go very far. There was, I was getting no support in any sort of way. So I worked that restaurant job and that job I met one of our regulars. Oh, I worked, goodness, I worked that job through management. I met one of our regulars and he started to talk to me about What he did in civil engineering and land surveying and this, this big company, and I knew I needed more, but I had no, I had no education.

I had my high school diploma at that point and. I knew that money had to come first because I had someone that I had to feed in addition to myself. So anyhow, I started chatting with that guy and he said, why don't you just interview at my company? Because I feel like the owner puts a lot of stock in experience in life experience, and you have quite a bit.

So come on over and interview interviewed for that company. Long story short. The restaurant offered me my own store and I said, listen, I don't know what I want to do, but I know it's not this. I don't want to go home at 2 a. m. anymore. And I feel like sometimes in the restaurant industry, when you make it, you sign the dotted line, you become a lifer in the restaurant industry.

And I just didn't want to do it. So anyway, I sat down in that interview at the civil engineering firm and I said, I'm applying as a receptionist because I've done nothing but restaurant work and I have no degree. And we, he interviewed me and we chatted for a while and he said, I'm not hiring you for a receptionist.

And I got really sad and I thought, okay, he goes. I don't know what I'm hiring you for, but I want you to work here. So they literally created a space. They didn't even have a desk for me. They like set up a pop up desk and he said, we're going to figure it out because you're going to be in my company.

Long story short, I ended up as a director of a. At a civil engineering firm, and I was traveling all over, um, met my husband, and it became clear, like, I don't want to do all this traveling anymore. Maybe I want a little bit more home base. Raised my sister to adulthood, left that company, started working for a luxury wine company, and that's where I met my first and probably most powerful mentor, who continually told me, like, you are at, you're meant for more.

You're not really meant to work for someone. You are meant for more. But I had this thought in the back of my head from such a traumatic childhood that anything that equated to security was what I had to have. Like, that was number one for me. And working for a Big billion dollar company and getting out of, out of girls all the time and promotions and being, you know, being at the executive seats.

That was my sense of security and safety. If we go back to the restaurant industry, I used to get home at 2 a. m. and watch the home shopping network and it was all about jewelry, the gem shows. And I had this, I feel like that's when the seed was planted that I really wanted to do something with jewelry, but immediately put it like, that's not, that doesn't feel safe.

Right? That's not your safe. That's not your tech, your doctor, your lawyer. So anyhow, I'm at this company, this direct to consumer, this luxury wine company, and they pay for me to get my bachelor's degree and I'm trucking along getting the promotion, doing the thing. They introduced this idea of intrapreneurship.

Which is being an entrepreneur in somebody else's company. And everyone drank the Kool Aid. It was a really good initiative. But I had this thing in the back of my head that said, If I can be an intrapreneur for someone else, why am I building somebody else's dream? Why don't I just go be an entrepreneur and build my own?

But again, back to that safety and security. And so there's this little thing in the back of my head telling me to do this thing, but it's too scary. Fast forward and I'm in this big program management tech role managing this 400 million project, managing the buildings, everything from the asphalt to hiring the employees, getting all the employees trained.

And I also at that time had my, had my son, who we did not think we could have after 10 years, we randomly, a doctor was like, I can get you pregnant. And then I was one little pill and the pill happened to work. So anyway, here I am in this big girl job traveling back and forth to South Carolina. Pregnant, proud, this little entrepreneur thing in the back of my head.

And then at the same time, um, long story short, my dad, who was, who in my adult life became my best friend, got diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and that I had the baby and then seven weeks later, my dad passed away. And it was in that moment, there's the, I mean, there's a lot of stories around how they called me back to work early.

It didn't matter that I just had a baby. It didn't matter that my dad had just passed away. It was like, we need you on this big project right now. When are you coming back? And I came back earlier than I should have. And there was a moment I was sitting in a boardroom with seven guys and I was nursing and they were supposed to work nursing breaks into the agenda and they didn't.

And I remember just sitting there not being able to focus. And there's just milk pouring down my stomach and in my pants down to my knees. I'm wearing all black so that they don't know. And at the end of the day, I just went into the bathroom and I just cried and cried and cried. And I thought, there's got to be something different for me.

I need an outlet. And so I started to think, what, where's my outlet? Where's my creative outlet? And during that time, I happened to see, I don't even know where exactly I saw it somewhere on the internet. I'm sure that Catbird was doing this permanent jewelry in New York and I couldn't fly all of us to New York.

So I thought I'm just going to buy all this stuff and I either am going to have fabulous jewelry and that's it. Or I'm going to start a business. I got all the stuff. I remember swiping my credit card. No one was really doing permanent jewelry then. It wasn't something you heard of. And I remember sitting in that moment cause I'm very frugal and my husband going, do it.

You've never done any, anything you do is going to be successful. So just do it. Who cares? Just spend the money. Um, and that was a lot of money for me to spend in that moment. And I put the credit card in and I just. I just hit send and I was like, okay, I'm doing it. It arrived. I started doing permanent jewelry secretly.

I was, uh, really bad at it. Even though I had a welding background, my husband was a welder. I had a really deep business background. I had built. 1, 000, 000 brands for this billion dollar company. And the more I did it, the more it made me cry a lot. Cause I wasn't good at it at first. And I was used to being just good at things.

Um, luckily my husband's really patient. I started to get good and I couldn't stop thinking about it. I'd be in meetings and we'd be talking about like million dollar decisions and they'd come to me. And I was usually on zoom and I'm like, Oh, what did they just say? I was literally thinking about jewelry and that moment.

And I knew, so I actually operated my permanent jewelry business secretly, um, for quite a while. The first PJ X I was supposed, I was working remote. I flew to Vegas. No, it didn't float a flight to Vegas. We drove to Vegas the night before because I got. So much FOMO and I took, I just kind of snuck into meetings and then not meetings to, um, classes and caught little bits and pieces because I also had developed this huge trading program that I hadn't shown anyone.

Okay. Um, so it was like an encyclopedia of training and I just wanted to be in this industry. So I'd step out and I would find a white background and I would take calls for my corporate job, them thinking that I was home and not in Vegas. I did that for a year. I built. Permanent Jewelry Bestie. I built my permanent jewelry business.

I worked non stop. I hired a VA in Australia and another company in the UK so I could start working with the UK at 2am, catch my day job. Then my Australian VA got off at 3pm my time and then I could work with them. And I just worked non stop like that on multiple businesses for a year until I brought in a consultant and said, I'm terrified to leave my corporate job.

This is my business plan. This is what I've done, what I want to do. And he said, Lindy, I probably could have confidently told you this at least six months ago, it's time for you to leave somebody else's company. Go build your own.

Jen Thyrion: You just needed someone to tell you and give you the validation. Yes. And it couldn't be

Lyndi: my husband and it couldn't be my best friend, right?

Like, cause I'm like, okay, you guys say I'm great, but you guys are, you guys are lying.

Jen Thyrion: Love me and stuff.

Lyndi: It had to be someone that didn't love me and had no, had no, no financial tie or anything to me. And I said, okay, told my company I needed to go part time and I tried it for a month and I was like, no.

Either I do something a hundred percent or I don't do it at all. And I told them, I'm so sorry. I can't put a hundred percent here right now. So then January of 24 I left and I just went full on into permanent jewelry. When I was secretly doing it, I made six figures. And then when I was. Loudly and proudly doing it.

I made multiple six figures and the majority of it was at, as a mobile artist until I moved into a salon suite and now I'm moving into a brick and mortar, but it's a very, very long story, but I think it tells how I got into permanent jewelry. It's like it was the stars aligned and I realized life is short, go do what you want.

And so I did. So there we go.

Jen Thyrion: Speaking to people like who's just starting or, you know, kind of struggling to find events since you were mobile, how were you connecting and kind of booking those events? And what was your main, were you doing markets? Were you kind of popping up in location? Like what was your main bread and butter?

I guess you could say everything I would

Lyndi: be. everywhere. It took me about six months to figure out where my people were. So in my area, I had to do a lot of events, a lot of pop ups, a lot of popping up at businesses, markets to figure out, you know, where's the winners, where's the losers. And then I started to figure out, okay, this is what works for me.

But luckily, since I was the director of a civil engineering and land planning firm, me. Back before there was like a Facebook. Yes. Um, I was running, I was running a sales team. I was running a marketing team and I was rep and I was also head of our PR and actually legal when we had to fire our lawyer. I knew.

Relationships is where business is made and there was a minute in my business where I was really focused on permanent jewelry bestie and I probably didn't post. I'm not suggesting anyone do this. I probably didn't post for like three months and I was just as busy and it's because the power of networking and in person and going to chamber events and going to, you know, women in business meetups.

And not only thinking about what people can do for me, but what I can do for them, like connecting to people that I thought should work together and I benefit, I don't benefit from it, or, you know, re sharing other people's posts or pumping other business owners up that were doing the scary thing. So networking is really what has helped me, helped me then as a mobile artist.

Stay extremely booked and busy. And I took the guesswork out of it from people. I said, hey, I'd love to pop up. I did my whole breadcrumb networking, but at the end of it, I made it seem like a no brainer. Sometimes I'd make it seem like it was their idea, even though I had planted the seed. I'd go as far as I would I would create a flyer.

I'd grab their logo, my logo, create a flyer and send it to them. We'd be like, Hey, this is what it could look like. And they're like, go for a girl. Just made it seem so no

Jen Thyrion: brainer. So easy. Yes. How can you say no to that?

Lyndi: No, no. If someone, if I'm coming into your business and you already know about me, you already either know.

Someone that likes me or you're like, oh, they didn't approach me with some script of hello. My name is lindy and I do permanent jewelry and permanent jewelry is classless Like i've never approached anyone that way Like could you imagine if you met someone in a bar and they talked to you like that?

You're like weird. No What is happening, it's not a vibe I mean, I think that's also what always got me so Far in the corporate world as well as I didn't care if you were the CEO, I didn't care if you were an admin. I was talking to you like a person and people, people just like that. Like, let's just talk as people

Jen Thyrion: kind of like that.

Well, yeah. I mean, always what comes to mind when you're talking and I say this all the time, it's like what you put out is what you get back. So it's the whole thing to like how you said combining two people that like you benefit nothing from, but you just made a connection knowing this person would be good for this person.

And it's like, wouldn't you want the same for you? Right? Like think about these things, right? Like tagging someone when she wants, don't you get so excited when someone randomly tags you? I was like, today, like, it's amazing. Right? So it's like putting out what you want back, you know, it's like the business strategy.

I feel one on one. It

Lyndi: really is. It's like law of reciprocity. When you do something kind for me, I kill, I mean, right? Like, and it doesn't, it doesn't even have to be a big, crazy, grandiose gesture.

Jen Thyrion: Not at all. But even like you putting that together and like making it easy for them, wouldn't that be when it's not beautiful when someone would do that for you and the thought it goes into, they're like, wow, okay, gosh, I'm going to make this.

Like. Yes, please. Like very that rather than like you said that standard. Hello. My name is yes. Yes. 100%. Go the extra mile, extra step even right? Like go the extra mile. Yes. So, okay. With you doing mobile and then when did you open, did you open a studio space right away or how did that work out?

Lyndi: No, I was mobile for a very long time.

I started in: 2022

And I, it was great because it was really close to home. There was zero foot traffic. No one would have ever found it. So it was a hundred percent appointment only. It worked. I had grown my reputation using other methods than just social media. And it was great. It always paid for itself. It always made money, but the vibes just weren't very good there.

And people started to leave and I was one of the only ones left. And then I mean, random things would happen. Like the power would go out and I'm like, Hmm, did they pay the bill? My husband works for PG and E and he says, there is not. I have a problem right now on this block. So if you bring your own flashlight, I had my, thank gosh, I, I roll with the Jackery.

Like I roll deep with a Jackery and a Duracell. So I was doing an appointment when the power went out once and I brought it with me. Um, and I just was in my suite in the, in, in the dark using my Jackery. But anyway, a lot of other weird stories made me go. You know, I got to get out of here because I've always kind of been, you know, it doesn't matter what you do.

It matters who you do it with or who doesn't matter what you do for work. It matters who you work for. I like to surround myself with people that are just good vibes. So I left and that was hard because all of a sudden it felt like, and I actually chatted with another local business owner who's, she's like a badass.

She has so many businesses. I don't know how she does it. I told her I feel so irrelevant right now. I feel so irrelevant that, and I feel like I've gone backwards. I feel like for some reason, it was just a weird day I was having, I remember this conversation with her. I said, now I don't get to tell people they have a place to come for repairs or to bring friends and I've been telling people that.

So I feel like people are going to think X, Y, Z about me. And so I had to really. A moment with her and my best friend who said, Lindy, what are you making it mean? You are making it mean that you failed, but you're the one who chose to leave. You had choice. And it was a good choice. And the girl I was chatting with said, Lindy, I don't know why she said, no one feels like you're irrelevant.

No one has that feeling about you. As a matter of fact, we all kind of wonder how you, how you do all that. And we're jealous that you've been able to do it with no overhead. And I realized it doesn't, it doesn't what my business isn't tied to my worth, like my brick and mortar, my salon suite, my business, my success.

It's not tied to my worth as a human. And I had that conversation because I almost signed a lease that would have been very bad for me. It would have put me in the hole. It was way more expensive. There really wasn't foot traffic. And it was just like, I was coming off this. I'm leaving one space. I better get right into another because I don't feel a certain way.

Um, and thank goodness I had those conversations because I, I backed out of the lease. And I said, you know what, when the right spot comes, it's going to come. And December this year, last year, I saw someone saying how they were leaving their space. They're a little space they'd been in for six years and they loved it.

And I thought that would be perfect. And so I messaged who she was leasing it from. And I said, I just saw this story. You crazy. You're not even advertising this yet. And she goes, uh, it was Thanksgiving actually. So it wasn't, it was Thanksgiving. And she goes, uh, I want a really big Thanksgiving people. So you want to come over tomorrow?

I said, sure. Um, went and checked it out. And my husband went with me and I kind of walked, I was like, okay, thank you. I'll think about it. And we walked out to the car. He goes, what are you doing? Just say yes. And I was like, okay, you're right. This is perfect. And I turned around, I went right back in. I said, I'm so sorry.

I don't know what I was trying to do there. Can I just pay you a deposit? Can we just do this? And she started laughing. She goes, Yeah, that's great. That's good for me. And so we've spent all of January getting it ready. It's almost ready. I'm taking appointments in there. I haven't done a grand opening, but I am happy to say that I randomly opened my appointments, even though the bill is not technically open.

I have so much to do and I'm a perfectionist, so I probably would have like messed around with it for another month. Someone booked me. On February 1st, and my first appointment in the space was a thousand dollar appointment.

Jen Thyrion: Amazing, congrats. That is like, that just speaks volumes, right? Like, yes, it was awesome.

That's amazing. I know. It's like, we always feel like, cause I'm the same way, you know, I'm opening a brick and mortar too. And I'm doing the sneak peek little, I won't have everything ready, but I'm like, okay, it's going to be the 15th. And I'm already so nervous. I'm like, Oh my God, maybe I should push it back another week.

Like maybe I should open, you know, like, it's just like, nothing's ever going to be completely perfect in your mind. You know, you can give yourself all the time in the world, you know, but it's just like, just do it kind of thing. Yeah. I had

Lyndi: to, yeah, I had to think about it. Like my wedding, I feel like. Yes.

There was so many things not done, but 80 percent was done and everyone was there and I needed to walk down the freaking aisle. It didn't matter that the decor wasn't quite right or the candle over here wasn't lit or this didn't happen. I just needed to walk down the aisle and we had the best time ever.

And so that's, that's how I felt is. You know, I was supposed to have this grand opening on the first, it didn't happen, but whatever. Who cares?

Jen Thyrion: No one knows about you. No one knows about you. It's like, it's almost like, I always think of this when like my friends post, you know, when you do like the monthly photos of your, your baby, you know, when they're like six months old and they're always like, Five days too late, but here, and I'm like, no one knows, no one knows, no, don't have to say it.

How does this, what is this a brick and mortar in the sense of like you have foot traffic and like, how is this different from your studio space?

Lyndi: Yeah. The studio space definitely was, you walk by. inside and you went down a hall and you went to a little room and there was no foot traffic whatsoever. This, this spot is not a shared space.

It's its own little building and there is foot traffic, especially during seasonal travel. So I'm going to do appointment only. Although I have on my booking app open 24 seven. So anyone can request appointment anytime. And it's so close to home. If I'm not busy, I'm going to run down there and take it.

And then during busy high traffic foot times, high foot traffic times, I'm going to go sit down there and probably do permanent jewelry bestie work. And when someone walks in, I'm going to do my PJ business work, and then I'm going to. staff it with one of my employees. I have two, I have one market I do all year long, and then I just got approved for another market.

That's 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, every Wednesday for five months. So I need to make sure I give my employees hours. And this is just another avenue to make sure I've got a place to give employees hours so I can keep good people. There you go. So yeah, how did you find your good people? Oh boy. Um, hiring people is tough. I mean, luckily I've, I might sound ungrateful to my corporate life, but I'm not.

I mourned that part of me, I feel like, but there were so many amazing things that I learned. And I actually think that's a great way to get into entrepreneurship sometimes is go learn as much as you can from someone else and then take the leap. Uh, so I was trained on how to look for good people, hire good people, develop people early on.

Probably since I was 20, I had been in some sort of formal corporate training on how to hire and develop others. So it's even down to The background, the interview questions you ask, the format in which you ask the interview questions. I like to use tar, it's called targeted selection and try to get people to answer in their situation, task, action, result, and see if I can find someone that can be a self starter and think through a process.

And they, I always say attitude. And aptitude is what I look for. Like, I don't care if you have any experience whatsoever. Um, if you have a good attitude and you have the aptitude to learn, you're my person.

Jen Thyrion: Like she goes to show the person that was like, I want you to work for my company. I don't know what it is back in the day.

Right. It's like, he obviously saw something in you. And so, yeah, it's almost like he saw again, the grit possibly, you know, just the potential like eagerness, you know? And, um, so yeah, I think that's. I love that you said that because a lot of times people want this, which, which is hard to do. Obviously it's permanent jewelers.

You're not going to get someone with permanent jewelry experience, maybe person, right? So it's like, that's why I think it is a little, I think the hiring thing is a little tough. I think for, especially service based, you're not, you're not having a boutique where you're just bringing up sales and helping someone.

You're literally teaching them how to do a service. So in the face of your company, which I know can be. You know, it is very

Lyndi: difficult, especially being like, I have, I have OCD, real OCD, not like, oh, joking as an OCD. So really to have, I'm such a perfectionist when it comes to my welds. Like everyone knows I, It's kind of my thing in my training company.

I am a, well, I'm a little bit of a welt snob. I guess I could admit that, but it's really hard, especially when I give a hundred percent weld warranty to hire someone and know they're, they may not be as good at. As me for quite some time and that took real self work to say it's okay. We're just doing jewelry.

We're not saving lives. If a piece of jewelry comes off, just put it back on. Cost you nothing. Just put it back on. And I've had very luckily, very few pieces that other, my girls have done that have come back. My pieces haven't come back. The weld hasn't broke, but bracelets break. It's jewelry, right?

Occasionally. I can count on my hands how many pieces of jewelry have come back and they know, like I'll talk to them about it and they'll say, you know what, I know exactly when that was. I was super stressed. I had a big line. I didn't do the QA checks. I know I'm supposed to do, I was just trying to get to the next person and I'm really sorry.

So it is hard to find someone to represent your company, but then it's all about training because if you don't, you can never grow and you can never scale. You'll be stagnant and you'll stop your own growth if you can't get out of your own way. You Luckily, I also love to develop others. So that's really an exciting part of employing others as being able to develop them.

A lot of times it's their first, maybe it's either their first job or they're still kind of at that entry level stage. I feel like cause I'm in a college town and I have. College aged employees and you need to be a pivotal part in their career. They can work for you and think, I never want to be that, or I want to emulate that, and I try to be the one they want to emulate.

They do tend to like my husband better because he's, he's like all play all the time. And that's great. And they know when I come around, they have to like, okay, we have to kind of, we got to work. It's not, you know, Dustin will let us get away with anything, but it's, it's really, it, it's an important role to be someone's boss and develop, develop others.

Jen Thyrion: Completely. I think, Oh my gosh, it's such a skill. I mean, there's no doubt because I mean, even though I can think back to managers I've had or that I would most of them, I'm like, I would never be like, there's, it's a very little, and there's actually one that I can think of when I worked in Vegas and I was a massage therapist and we went through many, many, cause it was kind of where I was at, uh, the, this particular spot on the strip, it was like kind of a stomping, like kind of a building block, you know what I mean?

They would go there and then move up, you know? So it wasn't like. They want to stay very long. So I experienced a lot of different managers. And one in particular was like, I think the biggest thing is you want to feel respected, you know, when you're working for someone. And so I felt like, but it was also, it was like, you felt you could talk to her.

You felt like she was kind of a friend, but you knew she wasn't your BFF where you could like take advantage of her. Right. You still, I still respected her. I wanted to do good work for her because she respected me. And I felt seen and heard and like, so it's like, it's like that little, and I, I've struggled with that in the past with hiring because I tend to kind of like put the friend role too much like where they think, Oh, we're besties now.

And where they don't respect and realize, no, you're still an employee. Like, right, there's that, there's a boundary there. So I think it's, it's a really, it's a skill to like, you know, and like to develop people and, um, guide them and, and kind of have that boundary set in place in that, you know, it's, it's a gray area sometimes, you know,

Lyndi: Absolutely.

I mean, you can be a leader and make people do things because they have to, but making people do things because they want to, yes, is. Yeah, it's a fine line to toe sometimes and I never, I've had so many different types of managers in my life that I can definitely say, well, I don't want to do that, but there were pieces I could take from each of them and say, okay, this is who I want to be as a leader.

And then when I was working for my mentor, which is funny when I actually applied for her, I applied to be her executive assistant and she had said, She asked me in the interview, what are you doing applying to be my executive assistant? You've never done admin work a day in your life, and now you want to be an admin to a vice president of a giant company?

I said, listen, I haven't, but I'll tell you what, there's nothing I can't figure out. And I have been at my last company, I was an executive and I had an executive assistant. So I figure I know what an executive needs and, and she's like, let's do it. And I ended up being more of a project manager for her, but she taught me just even in that moment where she looked at me and hired me for a role that I was technically overqualified for.

And super underqualified for, um, just so many things now in my leadership style, I emulate from her and I've, it's been fantastic, but so many other leaders, they just, you know, I feel like people get in management positions sometimes because they're good at what they do. But no one doesn't mean they're good at managing people, so they're good at the tactical thing, but they do not have the soft emotional quotient people skills.

So it's really important, I think, to have that as, as a, as a boss. I know a lot of permanent jewelry artists are looking to hire people that have never been a boss themselves. So there's all this talk about, oh, how should I? Yeah, you shoved. SOPs, right? Your standard, standard operating procedures and training them and all the things.

But if you've never managed someone, you probably need to take some training yourself. Yes,

Jen Thyrion: I know. Yeah. And speaking of which when you're talking, you know, it's like the fact that you have, it makes so much sense that you have a permanent jewelry training program because it's like, obviously this is, you know, you're not new to training people in general and having that role.

Right. It wasn't something you're just like, your choice sounds fun. And now I'm going to just Have a training. 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 Goldilocks 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 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 by 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 allthethingspermanentjewelry. com. I hope to see you there. Let's speak about that a little bit when it comes to your training, because I would love to touch on that because I do get approached by a lot of people asking about if they should take training, what trainings, you know, and so what is your thoughts on training and is it necessary for permanent jewelers or wannabe jewelers to take a training?

Lyndi: You know, I think the big thing is it depends if we were all cookie cutter people and we were the same and we thought the same and we acted the same, it would be a very boring world, frankly. And, um, what works for me might not work for you. And in my life, I have never done a training or had a mentor or gone to a retreat or something that I didn't walk up, take a nugget.

And walk away, even frankly a bad training, bad training, I've been able to take something and apply it and grow and I've seen so much growth. I mean, I have my associate's degree. I have a bachelor's degree. I'm I'm thankful for all of the education I have. So I know there's a bit of like training shaming out there.

If you don't need to do training, you just need to get on YouTube, but coming from someone who actually had to plan the training for 400 adult learners from, you know, warehouse worker to executive level, everybody learns different. Everyone has different learning styles. Some people need videos. Some people need written.

Some people need one on one. Some people you can go put in a room and then they come out of the room and all of a sudden they're like, your best employee. But everyone's, everyone's different. Like if I had hired all those people and stuck them in front of a computer and said, Google how to do your job.

I'll be back in six months, three months, whatever. Or I'll be back tomorrow. They would not be doing as good of a job. Maybe a couple would. So I think that's where it goes back to. It depends. Like, do you want to fast track your success? Do you, have you never run a business? Do you have no business experience?

Do you know how to do social? Do you know how to network? Do you know how to get, even how to navigate your state's website? How to get a business license. If these are things you don't know, it doesn't mean you're not worthy of having a business. It just means either you go figure them out and it takes a while or you're like, no, I want to start now.

Give me the information packaged in a pretty bow so that I don't bobble around, find misinformation, bad information, good information, get frustrated, maybe quit. I want to start, I want to start my business. On the right foot and learn from someone who's frankly really sucked at the beginning. So had to do a lot of different things to figure out how to be good, has a deep business background.

It's interesting to me, people will train shame and say, you don't need to work with someone like, Oh, I did X, Y, and Z. I just started working the next day, um, with my permanent jewelry business. Uh, because experience is what matters. Well, if experience is what matters, what about a mentor or a trainer's super deep experience and they can pour into you?

That's, that's something that can't really be discounted and we don't look down on trade school and we don't look down on college and all of those things. So, if I'm gonna pay, I don't know, 80 grand for a bachelor's degree to get out of school and make 75, 000, you're telling me it's not worth it to learn from someone and not waste all the money they wasted to get started for what, like, 1, 500 to potentially make six figures?

So I don't get it.

Jen Thyrion: I think the misconception, there's a couple of things. I think that like anything, there are, you know, I don't want to say bad trainings, but you know what I mean? Like, and that's unfortunately that can put a bad taste in someone's mouth if they take a training where they're like, Oh, that was such a waste of money.

But there's trainings out there like yours that are also like there. It's more than just teaching someone how to weld a jump ring. That's what I'm trying to say. That is more than just, that's more than what you're learning. You know what I mean? Like, or, you know, there's. Like you said, like you mentioned, like Google, like, or it's like ads and social media and all the things of just running a business.

And you know that as you get into it, because again, yes, once you learn the simple things of just getting the supplies and the machine and welding, okay, that's one thing. But as you know, entrepreneurship can be a lonely road, right? So that's why I think. So training, and that's why it's almost like most likely a training has some kind of support even after anything I've experienced.

It's like someone again, almost like a built in mentor where you can ask and have people you can bounce things off of. And don't get me wrong. There's like the free groups out there, which are amazing too, but to have that really focused help is like, I mean, there's nothing like it. So. Yeah, no, I

Lyndi: agree. If it, if it had existed when I started, I would have done it.

I, if training, good training had existed when I started, I would have definitely put that into my consideration. Like, is this going to get me started faster? Because then it's just a math problem, right? Let me just bumble around for four months and make zero dollars, or let me pay and in two weeks start making money.

So it's the cost of, the cost of inaction. And there's, it used to be there was no information. Now there's so much information. That is so incorrect.

It's frustrating.

Jen Thyrion: I know. And that's why, like in the end, like I said, those groups are great, but in the end, it's like, you know how it is when there's like too many cooks in the kitchen kind of thing, it's like asking a thousand people what their opinions are about, you know, when people line up their logos, they're like, what do you like one, two, or three, and then you have a thousand people giving you your opinion versus 10 people, right?

It's like, there's just. It's, and that's what comes actually, we can talk about this too. Cause I feel like that's been, um, a little, as people are expanding things, like adding piercing and adding like maybe half bars or charm bars has become obviously very trendy last year. It's like, when we see these things, we feel like, Oh, we have to do that.

Right. So it's almost like the same concept is like, Oh, if this person's like, Oh my gosh, you don't need training. It's like, then you all of a sudden your mind just shifts and you're like, okay, well, I guess I don't. And then you read this one and you're like. No, I love training and I'm like, ah, like it just gets so confusing where in the end you just have to, again, it's not one size fits all.

It's like, what do you need? Okay. It's like getting clear, just like in the clarity of your business and what you want to do next, what your next step is in your business. Is it opening a brick and mortar? Is it having a studio space? Is it just staying mobile? Because that's comfortable and successful for you.

And you don't, It doesn't mean you have to scale. If you don't want to scale, you don't have to, just because someone next to you is doing it doesn't mean you have to, right? So it's like, really, what do you want out of this business? How do you want it to run? How do you want to feel like that? And like, just like you had mentioned before about like feeling like you were stepping back.

It's like, we're in our minds and we think like, okay, that equals success. See, success is what it is to you, right? So it doesn't mean brick and mortar doesn't mean success. There are plenty of brick and mortars that are literally. Scraping by and they're one month away from closing. Okay. So that does not mean you're successful.

You know, so it's the same thing with this, like one size fits all that, that this is what you should do. Shouldn't do all the shoulds like shitting on everybody. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. Do you do your research though? Like look into. Permanent jewelry, but look into all these trainings are out there and listen to that person.

See if you vibe with them. Cause also to, you know, different people you listen to, you just, you just relate to more, or you might just, you say things in a different way that you interpret, like, because they're speaking your language versus maybe someone else where you're like, man, like, you know, it's just.

That's how it is. Like someone might be listening to me and be like, God, her voice is so annoying. And that's okay because I know it's not for everybody and that's okay. It's like the same thing is like, you got to find out what works for you. And that's what I encourage people to do because I think so, so many times all these different opinions can really get to us and we don't know what the right answer is.

Lyndi: Yeah, absolutely. You know, anyone can run a Facebook ad. Anyone can run a really cheap Facebook ad with in your face marketing that says, look, you're going to make a gazillion dollars for this thing. Click now. And you click and you're really interested. And they've, they don't actually have any standards of education whatsoever.

And you feel alone. People will get duped into that. And then all of a sudden it's, Oh, all training is bad. But to your point, I always tell people, who do you vibe? Like, who are you, who do you vibe with? If you and I are chatting and you're like, I don't, I don't vibe with you, definitely. I'm not ever, I would be probably really rich if I convinced people to work with me.

I mean, I have a very deep sales background, but I don't want to sell someone on training with me. Because if they don't really want to or they don't really vibe with me, then we're not going to have a great training experience anyway. Like I want people in my program. I used to only take a certain number of people per month because I wanted to give as much as I could for the people that were in the program.

And I would vet them first. Like, are we gonna get, are we gonna get along? Are you gonna get what you want from working with me? And if the answer was no, or if I felt like maybe they were just not gonna be good at permanent jewelry, I would tell them, maybe this isn't, maybe this isn't necessarily right for you.

Once we got into a conversation. I mean, I've spent three hours talking to a gal and at the end we realized she should know I'm doing permanent jewelry. That was three hours of my life. However, I was happy to give it because I would rather help a woman looking to start a business go in a direction that was, that mattered to her versus just what, Oh, she was like, well, it seems like this is popping up a lot.

So I guess maybe this is something I could try. Cause I've always wanted to run a business. And I think if you don't like what you're doing, if you're just doing something to do it, you're, you can't be successful about it because you live your business. You live and breathe. I don't care who you are. And the work.

Life balance, all the things you're thinking about your business all the time. So if you don't like your business and you don't, you don't want to think about something you don't like 24 seven. Yeah. So figure out who's your vibe. Who do you want to spend time with? Who do you want on your journey? If it's a YouTube video,

Jen Thyrion: yeah, do it.

Right. Yeah. And I think getting clear about like what you want this to be, you know, like if you truly want it to be just for funsies and you're making a little bit of money here and there, that's one thing. Right. Right. But if you want to actually. Develop a business and you want it to be successful and you have this goal of either replacing your income or providing for your family, then you make the decisions that are aligned with that.

Okay. So it's like, it makes sense to have the discipline and the strategy and the clarity and the, and the help behind, if you have these big goals, it almost doesn't even make sense. Sense really, when you think about it, if you were like, Oh yeah, I'm going to have like five locations one day. And we were like, I'm going to do it by myself.

Like I'm going to train myself and like, where I'm not even like, I've never done this before. I've never owned a business before. I don't even know how to open a jump ring. Okay, cool. Yeah. That's sure enough. I'm not saying you can't get there, but could you get there way faster or smarter with someone who's been through it and made all the mistakes for you?

Lyndi: So many mistakes, the amount of chain that I ordered and it arrived. And I was like, is this chain for ants? Like, from the, from the Zoolander scene, right, that, just even understanding chain sizing, like, I wasted so much money on buying really tiny chain that I don't even know where it is now. Now I would make earrings with it if I had it again, but.

Just little things like that that you don't necessarily know, or if someone says, Hey, I want to buy this chain. Guess what? I carried it for seven months and I can tell you every single one came back broken because it's not appropriate for permanent jewelry. Put a clasp on it. You don't know that when you're first starting.

People say, well, why don't you carry these couple of chains? Well, they break. I don't, I don't like to carry stuff that breaks. I give a warranty, so I don't want things that break. But back to your point of doing what works for you, I know we were chatting and I had mentioned I worry about these permanent jewelry artists that think, think the next logical step is brick and mortar.

I foresee in like the end of: 2025

And so. I should do it. You got to check in with yourself. If you don't want a brick and mortar, don't jump into a brick and mortar. And for me, like I did not want a big brick and mortar where I was held to a lease, where I was held to certain hours. I got out of corporate to be, to do what I want, when I want.

So I, I'm not going to be forced. And a lot of leases that people are signing because it's, you know, in a shopping mall, it's common. They're forced to be there. 9 a. m. to 7 p. m. or whatever it is, and they're gonna do that for six months and maybe they'll love it. But what if they don't? And then, and then they've signed a five year lease.

So just because someone else is doing something, it doesn't mean it's right for you. And a lot, this is a lot of people's first business. This is their first business, and maybe they don't have someone necessarily to turn to, maybe their parents don't own businesses, or they haven't been in the corporate world, run other people's businesses, or run their own, and it's a dangerous game to play to just jump into retail without having your eyes wide open.

Because if you, If you do, uh, do a Google search, since we're all loving YouTube and Google, look how many people get rich off retail. So if your, if your goal is to have freedom, and you want to travel, and you want to do x, y, and z, and then the other. And you want to do it within the next 18 months and you also want to open a 5, 000 square foot brick and mortar space and you've never even hired people before.

Just take a pause, take a, take a pause and think, is that actually what you want to do? Is that letting you live the life that you're wanting to live? I was talking to a gal and she, she was like, yeah, I think the next move is to open a brick and mortar. And she was talking to me about the lease. And I was like, girl, those are some terrible terms.

Terrible terms. And she's like, I know, but it's a really good spot. And then I, we went back to, why did you start doing this? And it was, well, I don't, I don't really want to keep hours. Well, you can't sign a lease that has guaranteed hours then. That's not for you. So, yeah, as people are listening and we're talking about opening brick and mortars, I'm saying maybe it is for you, but maybe it isn't.

And that's okay. It does not make you, it does not make you any less of a successful permanent jewelry artist.

Jen Thyrion: Completely. Like, I mean, the comparison, even in like the whole everything with training, that's why I'm like, it's so important to get clear on what you want this business to be again, your why, your intentions behind it, what you want your life to look like.

I think sometimes We have these big dreams and we just think, we think about the fluffy part, right? Even starting a business for like, Oh, how fun. We're going to be just doing jewelry and like, but again, there's a lot of things that go into running a business that are not bright and shiny. Okay.

Bookkeeping for me, no, not fun. Okay. There's certain things that like. You know, you, when you really, you really have to step into the role and really sit down. And I always advise, like, I'm a big person that loves to write things out because I feel like just the therapy of almost just writing it out, honestly, even versus typing.

I don't know. There's something about it, but at least just getting it out of what you, what you're getting, you were, why. What you want this to look like, what you want your life to look like. Cause like you said, if you want all that freedom and you don't want to manage people and you want to just be you, what's wrong with keeping it mobile?

Your overhead is nothing and you just continue on. You know what I mean? So it's like looking why you choose. Cause even for me, it's like almost the whole thing of not comparing your day one to someone's a hundred and whatever, you know, a million day, because it's like, in the end, I've been an entrepreneur for almost 11 years.

Like, almost signed, like in: 2019

And looking back, like, I'm like that would have been such a terrible, that would've took me out. You know what I mean? At least we were going to sign, would have to, my responsibilities, I was pregnant with my second, like, what was I thinking? Right. What was I thinking? But I think it was almost like, I felt that was the next step.

And it's like, no, it's okay. And then in the end, even last year, I almost signed a studio space and another space, two spaces in one year, I almost signed, like literally had it in front of me. And I was like, God, there's something about this. Like my gut's telling me this isn't the right timing. This is the right location.

You know, I know I get it. I get FOMO cause I'm like, Oh my God, but what if, what if it doesn't come up and what if I'm letting go of something, you know, But in the end, I had to like really think about what this was going to bring to my life and what I was doing currently. And this is a line, this is a line with what I want to do and how I want to feel and what this is going to look like.

Speaking of that, not even brick and mortar, but again, adding services and all these things that I, a lot of permanent jewelers are doing, which are wonderful. But don't feel you need. To do it just because someone else is doing it. You know, if that's not truly what you want to do, what's the point, you

Lyndi: know?

Yeah. What it don't do it because someone else told you to do it. You got to be all in it. I mean, entrepreneurship is consuming and you, if you like, like I said before, if you don't like what you're doing and you're thinking about it 24 seven, that's a miserable, that's a miserable life. When I had that lease in my hand that would have been so bad for me, when I wrote the email and hit send that I was backing out, the immediate release and my shoulder drop, I was like, that was the right, that was the right move.

And when I drive by it now, I'm like, well, that would have been cute, but I have no something so much better that I wasn't even looking for landed on my plate just a few months later. And I would, I'm just so I'm, it's just so much better for me. And just, I'm, I'm excited about the space where before I was like in knots about it.

I shouldn't be in knots about something. I should be excited about it. Which we were, it leads me to my word for the year. You had asked me. In January, and I hadn't come up with one yet because I, I do really want to take it seriously. You know, people will throw out a word like, oh, here's this fun word that chat GPT told me or whatever.

And they don't do anything to hold themselves accountable to it. Me being, I just like to do a million things at once. And if there is a squirrel, I'm chasing it and I have to be very, very careful. So my word this year is focus and I have, it's on my, on my background when I, something comes up because I'll even the whole, I posted this morning in the group about, has everyone seen this porch goose trend where people are getting porch Gooses, geese, Portuguese and dressing them up.

My mind's like, okay, well that could be a business. What if you did wholesale clothes for people's and I'm like, what are you doing? You don't have any, that's just where my brain goes. When people I do business strategy talks locally, when people want to have business strategy sessions about, Hey, this is what my talent is, what could I do?

nt places. I have to focus in: 2025

I'm going to let it go. If something's not working, I'm going to let it go. And I am. In that, I'm going to nurture and not chase because I have so many opportunities around me. I'm doing so many different things. It's time for me to nurture them and not just chase more, to put in my basket of things to do.

And in focusing, I'm going to protect my energy. I didn't even go into it, but like I was Diagnosed with a chronic illness. I was supposed to be in a wheelchair in the dark with glasses on and the doctors told me I was irresponsible for having a kid Because it could put me into a place where like was bedridden and then like this december I was really I had over committed myself And I ended up missing a bunch of deadlines like a website deadline all kinds of deadlines because my body Shut down my joints wouldn't move I had to go to the, I had to go to the doctor.

oving. I couldn't move. So in: 2025

And then back to where we're talking about alignment, I'm not doing things that are out of alignment with me. Every single yes, instead of giving an immediate yes, I'm checking in. It, it, does it align with my focus? I also was burned by, by some business partners last year in a couple different ways. And I'm going to check in with myself this year and I'm going to say, okay, am I protecting my energy?

And if the answer's no, Even if it gives me FOMO in that moment,

Jen Thyrion: I'm just going to say no, and that's okay. And that's amazing. We're so on the same, like, cause actually my word is aligned because, you know, I know there's seasons for everything. Just like I would say, you know, in the beginning of a permanent jewelry, you know, business or any business, right?

There's like a hustle period, right? Where are you like? And I feel like that is, you know, I know the word hustle can be very, you know, but it's like, in the end, I do believe there's seasons. I don't think, yes, it's like hustle culture, like all the time, all the time. But when you're growing something and you're just trying to get out there hustle, I'm sorry, but yes, I think that's required.

And then you get to a point where you're like, okay, now that I hustled, I kind of know. What I like, what I don't, what events I like to do, how I want to do this business kind of, you settle into your, your brand more and what you want to be and who you want to be. And, and that's part of this journey. And so I think same for me last year, I kind of, I did a lot and I'm really proud of my, I mean, my word of the year last year was epic.

Lyndi: I love it.

Jen Thyrion: I was like, Epic, dude, I know I'm going to do a bunch of things I've haven't done before and I want to grow in ways I haven't, you know, and, and I did. And I think that's amazing. But now it's like, all right, you know, I, I think that I need to just, like you said, settle into the things that I really love and say no to things that don't serve me and also to, you know, even just your personal life.

My girls are getting older and I feel like I don't want to spend every weekend doing events. And I think that, you know, I'm just, I'm trying, you know, life changes too. And that as we evolve. And our life changes and we have our own issue. We have our own, you know, personal things and family and that, that changes and that's okay.

And that's why I think it's so important again, going back to that one size fits all. That's why it's like my word might not be your word because you're in a different stage of your business. You're in a different stage of your life, you know? And so it's like always so important. That's why I love the word of the year.

And that's why I love made that workbook where it's like, let get clarity. It's always good, especially that time of year. It just seems fitting, you know, to do it. But I think. You could do that obviously anytime and you should do it all the time asking yourself, what do I want? What do I want this to look like?

This doesn't bring me joy anymore. And that's okay to switch gears to like, it's okay. You know, like just always knowing what, what I, what you want and what your intentions are and your why, you know, like you're zeroing in on your why with this focus. Right. So yeah,

Lyndi: having clarity, having clarity in what you want is super, super important with you mentioning hustle.

I always laugh at like, there's these coaches out there that say, start a business without any hustle. And I don't do the hot blah, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, you know what, you know, who those people are. They're the people that hustle their ass off, business got a bunch of followers and then are going to tell them not to hustle.

But I don't care who you are. You're hustling your first year in business.

Jen Thyrion: And I hate to say it. I don't want to sound so again, because I'm all about like, you know, you got to ask what's right for you. But in the end, I, this is going to be a black, very black and white statement, but it's like people like that, that, that are selling that are people that are selling that concept of like get rich fast, quick or whatever, where it's like, no, I'm sorry.

I'm going to be real with you. If I'm your coach and be like, it's going to take some work. Okay. But I will guide you along the way and you know, we can develop strategies, but there is work involved. I'm sorry. There's also period. And I'm not, I'm not going to blow smoke and say, no, it's going to be so easy and peaceful.

And you're just going to like, yeah, it's like, it's like living on a cloud. Like,

Lyndi: no, it could be living on a cloud in a few years after, you know, go through your hustle period.

Jen Thyrion: There's moments where it's miserable. Okay. But we're like, we're literally growing a baby. Yes. Yes. But

Lyndi: it can be miserable. A hundred percent.

And then it goes back to that clarity of, okay, you need to be clear with yourself. What season are you in? What do you want right now? What are you willing to, what are you willing to, I don't want to say give up. It's more like, what is more important to you in this moment? That's one thing I'm really excited about to loom.

So we're going to the retreat. Right? The Unchained Retreat, which I think it's like 20 days left to secure your spot, um, before we have to turn all the final headcount in. Even to go there. To gain clarity or to re energize if you've been in your business for a while and you're like, I am on that verge of, I almost want to quit because I need to be re energized with a, with a group of really cool down to earth people.

I'm super excited for that. Or if you're like, I'm in my hustle period and I want to be around people that have already done their hustle period, or maybe they're also in their hustle period and tell me all the things, tell me about hiring employees, tell me the nitty gritty, surround yourself. And it's, it's, it's a smaller group of us.

And we purposefully planned it that way so that you could have some one on one time or small group time. Because I know you can take all the, you know, you can take all the, the trainings that aren't one on one or you can go to this or go to that. But having, you know, just sitting in a circle around really driven women that have done what you want to do or doing what you're doing and talking about it, it's, it's going to be quite epic.

So I'm

Jen Thyrion: very excited for it. I'm excited you're going. I'm so excited. It's like, I know we talked about in the last, like, if you haven't listened, we have another podcast with Shari as well. Um, when we talk about the retreat most of the time, but it's like, like I said, I can't speak highly enough about retreats and going back to like, even the whole training talk.

That's I'm saying, like, Yeah. I did start a business not knowing a thing about business. And I almost literally was like, I'm done. I'm not, this isn't working. And that's when I turned to and found business retreats and masterminds. And I found, you know, a local networking groups and women that have been there, done that.

And that's when I learned about what I needed to do. It had a strategy and like learned everything. I realized I couldn't do it myself, so otherwise I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing now. So, um, but anyway, those business retreats, they stretch you in ways you don't imagine they will. After my last call, like my last retreat I went to, I was like bawling my eyes out, like in a beautiful way, by the way.

ess mastermind I belong to in: 2018

What's a funnel? I'm like, what do you mean a funnel? Like, I just, I didn't know anything, but that was probably the smartest thing I've ever done. It was to commit to that when, and honestly at a time where I felt like I actually couldn't afford it, but I did it. I was I mean, I learned just to be around and see what's possible with those women.

Yes. The art of

Lyndi: possible. Oh my

Jen Thyrion: gosh. And like, and honestly, not only the person that, of course, the person that put on the retreat, I was, I admired and was, you know, self appointed mentor. She wasn't mine, but it's like, it was the women that were in the group though, is where I felt like I just really.

Gained so much from it's not only just the person leading it, it's the people you're going to meet and connect with and they, and they're going to understand you like no one else does. And so like, it's just, I'm still friends with those women and good friends to this day. And there's nothing like the online is amazing, but in person is like beats anything.

Like it's different. It's

Lyndi: so, it's so It's different. And it's like, you know, walking into the room when you're like, I know everyone in this room has done more or knows more than me. It reminds me of, they say, don't be the nicest house on the block. Okay. It's good to go into rooms where people have done things you haven't done yet.

And let them pour into you and ask questions. And when you're also in a retreat, you're kind of just in that free flowing mood of just Yes, let me let me crack my book open and tell you how I did this and the the really great things and let me tell you the really shitty things and you can decide if you want to do those things or if you want to do them in a different way because These, you know, 5 things almost broke me in entrepreneurship.

So watch out, you know, like to get that experience, it's really difficult to do in any other environment.

Jen Thyrion: And just the action of going alone says a lot about like, you know, getting out of your comfort zone. And if you're going, if you're going alone, I mean, that's the stuff that stretches you. And I just think that's the stuff that you learn, the people you connect with, it's just the action of going, honestly, is like, It's pretty, it's pretty ballsy.

You know what I mean? It is. It shows that

Lyndi: you're serious, you know? My husband was going to go and I was like, that's just too much with the kids. I'm, I'm going to go alone and it's fine. I traveled alone quite a bit for business anyway. So. I'm not really a good use case for that. So, but I can imagine if you've never traveled alone, that's fricking scary.

But to your point, that action alone is entrepreneurship. You do a lot of things alone. I mean, you find your community and that's amazing, but you're going to have to do big, scary things sometimes. And every entrepreneur has taken a risk. If it feels risky, if you never. Do anything that feels risky. How will you ever grow?

Jen Thyrion: Oh my gosh. So true. And I just feel like everything is always, and that's why if, even if it's for the action of that, just seems so out of your comfort zone, then I urge you to sign up right now because I just feel like that action alone. Is going to serve you and your business so much. I mean, if I think back to even what gear like, Oh, you know, cause I've traveled alone so many times.

I mean, I actually prefer it now over

Lyndi: so much easier, but no kids running around, you don't

Jen Thyrion: have to feed everyone. But in the end it was like, man, I always wanted someone with me. You know, it's like, it's just that, you know, strengthening that muscle of like, whatever you want to call it, bravery, courage, like just getting out of your comfort zone.

Like something unfamiliar is. you know, only going to serve you and everything else for sure. That's how I feel like, yeah, just connecting with people, which is so important in permanent jewelry, as we know, um, connecting with your community. I mean, that can be very uncomfortable. So if you can do this, then you could do that, you know, a hundred percent.

Lyndi: Yeah. So I mean, anyone that's on the fence and I know, cause I've talked to several people that are still teetering on the fence and it's all inclusive from the moment you get off the plane. You are taken care of. Every moment is taken care of. Your accommodations, your food, your snacks, your experiences.

I mean, just the fact that we are all going to travel to a grand cenote and jump in together. And even if you're not comfortable and you just want to dangle your feet off the side, just that experience, you're not getting anywhere else.

Jen Thyrion: So if you're

Lyndi: on

Jen Thyrion: the fence, jump in, I know, I can't wait to do a follow up and let's talk about the experience.

Actually. I think that's gonna be so fun to share.

Lyndi: No, wait, I definitely follow up podcast for what it's like, cause I know what's going to happen. Talk about FOMO, the pictures and the. The chat we're going to have after and then we're all going to see each other at PJX and be talking about it. All right.

Yeah. You think you got FOMO now? Well,

Jen Thyrion: it has been so amazing chatting with you. Well, if you want to leave us with one thing, like what advice would you give? Cause I always, I feel like this is a common, what advice would you give to someone who's either thinking about starting permanent jewelry or maybe in their, in their first year and they're kind of struggling, you know, like, I guess maybe that could be two different sets of advice.

Lyndi: I would say from a newbie perspective, you wouldn't, you would not have the thought to do this. If you couldn't do it, if you're thinking about it, try it. And I know a lot of people, I talked to so many women that want to start businesses and they're so afraid of failure. And I'm like, what is, what really actually is failure?

You're not, you're just Even if you start the business and you're like, what, what could happen? I suck at it. Okay. Sell your stuff. And you learned something. You didn't fail. You learned something. What if you're really good and you make a ton of money? Awesome. What if you just dabble in it? And it's just so fun.

And it gives you the reprieve that you've been wanting from your, from your day job. And now you have this hobby that you absolutely love. If you don't take the risk, you can never feel the reward. So failure isn't really, it's not really a thing. It would only be a failure if you did it. And then you just like, I don't know, packed it up, put it in the closet, never thought about it again.

And it didn't impact your life in any way ever. But that's not, that can't happen. That it just physically won't happen. That won't be the human experience. And you even thinking about starting a business. It's more than the person that has got their head down and they're going to their nine to five every day and they're building somebody else's dream.

If you have that inkling, just try it. It's actually one of the most low cost businesses to try. So even if you want to try owning a business, this is a, it's a, it's a good one to try. Yes, you can spend, I don't know, you're probably going to do it right. You probably spend about 5, 000 to jump in, but you can go make that back and then quit if you want.

And you've learned so much, even learning how to go, I don't know, go get a business license. Things that you didn't know before, you will, you will know. So you have nothing to lose. You really, there's nothing to lose. Money

Jen Thyrion: can always be made. So much of it for me is always like a perspective switch because honestly it's like failure.

Like you said, what does that mean? I mean, to me over the years, what I've discovered is failure is not even just not trying. You know what I mean? That's failure. Yeah. If I have something on my mind in my heart and I don't, I don't go for it, or I'm going to be as somebody who going my nine to five and complaining about every day and wishing I was doing something different, but don't do it.

Does that make you succeed because you didn't try and possibly quote unquote fail or decide it's not for you? No, it's not even doing it. Like don't even be like perspective switch on all these things. It's like, what does that really mean? You know, what is actually failure? And in the end, like you said, because I can't, I've done a few different things in the past, but I've never ever regretted anything because even if I didn't continue with, I mean, I'm doing something different now than I did four years ago.

So it's like, but I would have never gotten to where I am now if I didn't do what I did prior. You know what I mean? So it's like, there's, it always, it could, it could evolve into something else. And that's also an amazing, you would have never got there if you didn't try this. So I agree with you completely.

So, and what would you tell somebody who is like, in it, but they're kind of struggling and they're like, this isn't working for me.

Lyndi: I think check in with yourself and figure out what's not working for you. Do you just not like permanent jewelry anymore? And are you hanging on to something that you don't want to do because you are worried about what other people will think about you?

For doing something different. It doesn't matter there. It's your truth is your truth. And if you try something and you don't love it and you're burnt out you don't want to do it anymore You're not a failure. You just you're a success because you tried it and maybe you do love it But you're like, I just don't know how to differentiate myself or the or I feel like the market's saturated I've tried i've done everything.

I encourage you actually to sit down take a pen out pencil If you want and write it don't type it write down Everything you've done. And when you start writing it out, you're going to realize I haven't, I haven't actually done everything. I'll ask people that are, are say I've done everything. Okay. Are you posting consistently?

Are you networking consistently? Are you learning new things consistently? Are you doing X, Y, and Z? Did you go, did you go pin your business card to the coffee shop board about permanent? I mean, have you actually tried everything? And a hundred percent of those conversations end with, I really have not really tried everything.

I've tried a percent of everything. So, right. It's those, it's those two things. If you, if you don't have the passion for it anymore, that's okay. Maybe come to Tulum and see if you can get reignited. Or you might decide it's not for me and that's okay. Or go do the things you haven't done yet to set yourself apart in your permanent jewelry business and quit thinking that saturation is the only thing that's in front of your face and so you need to drop your prices.

Like,

Jen Thyrion: no,

Lyndi: don't do it. Don't do it.

Jen Thyrion: You know, it's so easy to kind of go outside of ourselves and say like, Oh, it's, it's a saturation. It's, you know, I did try everything. And then again, when you really dig deep and humble yourself and really, really get down to what you've done and what you, you know, what your brand says and all the things that you're doing, it's not about these outside things, right?

It's like, what are you, you know, the focus, the discipline, the hustle, I hate to say it, but in the beginning it's the hustle, right? Like. Doing the things you need to do in order to market your business, which is also goes into, again, more than just welding. It's like marketing. Marketing is a big, huge, I feel like the biggest thing people struggle with, honestly, is marketing.

So I think, you know, again, permanent jewelry training is more than just learning how to weld a jump ring, right? It's getting yourself out there and learning all the aspects of business. But anyway, I fully agree with you. So yeah. Well, thank you so much. I love chatting with you all the time. Um, I can't wait to see you in a few months in, on the beach and, oh, all right.

Well, so in case nobody, you know, where, where can we find you? Cause in case nobody, nobody knows.

Lyndi: You can find me at permanent jewelry, bestie. com. I'm perm. at Permanent Jewelry Bestie on Instagram and Facebook. I also run the Permanent Jewelry Newbies Facebook group, which has been rebranded to the Permanent Jewelry Hub.

Per the members have picked the name and they've picked the logo and I'm getting ready to change the group name. So for now you can look for Permanent Jewelry Newbies probably by next week. It'll be Permanent Jewelry Hub. Uh, so find me any of those places. And I hope you can also find me on the beach in Tulum or at PJX where I will be teaching, speaking, sponsoring all the things.

Jen Thyrion: Love it so much! Okay, thank you so much. We will, I'm sure, talk to you very soon. 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