072: From Restaurant Owner to Silversmith: The Story Behind Desert Darlings Silver

Ep 72 DesertDarlings_GLP_FINAL

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Jen Thyrion: [: 00:00:00

So if you're building a business that shines as bright as your stacks, you're in the right place. Let's link up and make some magic.

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

r items come with signage on [: 00:01:00

If you wanna level up your business with handmade supplies, not made by a machine, but made by hand with love, then check it

out@goldielinksupplies.com. Now onto the show,

I know I say you're infra a treat with every episode 'cause I truly love every chat, but truly, you are in for a treat. I'm sitting down with harvest from Desert Darlings and she is the definition of authentic and real.

From owning a pizza restaurant to moving to a new state, diving headfirst into metalsmithing and building a wildly successful business in a matter of months. Her journey is nothing short of inspiring. Harvest is a true creative force who leads with her instinct, my kind of girl, and she shares what it really looks like to trust your gut and go all in.

We talk about the pivots, the risks, the mindset, and the magic behind building something from scratch. You're gonna wanna listen to this one. Enjoy. Okay. I am so excited you're here today.

I'm so excited to be here. Thank you for asking me.

another jeweler. I love it. [: 00:02:00

rsmithing only since January,: 2023

Harvest: Are you serious?

Jen Thyrion: Yeah. So,

Harvest: oh my God, I thought you've been doing, I totally assumed you've been doing this for like 20 years.

I'm not

Jen Thyrion: kidding. No. So I was a restaurant owner before this, like I had two restaurants and two food trucks and I just was like, I don't wanna raise my kids in a restaurant again. And so I have was having my daughter and so I sold my restaurants and like literally this guy walked in and was like, would you ever sell this place?

And I'd been like wanting, my dad said a week before that, I wish someone would walk in and offer to buy the restaurant. And I was

Harvest: like, up.

Jen Thyrion: It was so weird and they've had it, um, four years now and they're killing it. And so we sold our other restaurant. We own the property, and then we had two food trucks too.

So sold those and moved to Arizona. From Oregon.

Harvest: What?

ke, my daughter was only six [: 00:03:00

I didn't wanna. Like try to learn over the internet. And so there was like this lady on the Nextdoor app, like mentioned something about a silversmithing class. I was like, oh, I wonder if I could like do that. And so the college is right down the street and I took a whole semester with her and then I've taken a ton of eight lead classes after that.

So I've taken 48 classes from this lady and it just, my husband had to quit his job to help me. So now he's a silversmith too. And that's all we do is we're just silversmiths. Like just, that's it. We don't have jobs. That

Harvest: is such a cool story. That is so inspiring. Thank you. Like I love, I love seeing those things.

It's like you can start at any time. 'cause I hate how Yeah. It's like even you're, you're well into your thirties or whatever it is. Even if late twenties, people think, okay, we're, it's over. Like what? You know?

Jen Thyrion: No, I feel like I've lived so many different lives and I'm still gonna live so many more lives, you know, like doing.

is so cool. So what kind of [: 00:04:00

Jen Thyrion: Pizza. I'm a pizza girl through and through. So yes.

Harvest: That's amazing.

Jen Thyrion: I had a pizza restaurant and then my second restaurant was like our pizzas from that restaurant. 'cause we were in different towns and then we added like diner type food.

It was cute. It was like a old little diner type place with a drive through in like a smaller community where I lived. And so my dad grew up there, so I'm a, I was a Rogers and so everybody you know, supported us and loved us. And then our food trucks were Woodfire pizza trucks. Okay. Those are really fun too.

We take 'em over the mountain to my cousin's brewery and do that and. I love working with. It's the same thing, just working with your hands. Like

Harvest: making, I was gonna say, I feel like there's something about that. That's why I wanted to ask. Like it makes sense, like, you know, I think that there's a level of art to it, right?

Yeah. Like even like cooking, you know?

Jen Thyrion: Oh yeah.

Harvest: That's not my art person,

Jen Thyrion: but me neither. Just pizza. I know.

restaurant industry, did you [: 00:05:00

Jen Thyrion: I did. Yeah. So I used to, when I was. In my twenties, I used to buy like hardware from Lowe's or whatever and make like these KY crystal, like washer like nut rings or whatever. It was in like a little magazine in Reno. And like I just kind of go through what I get obsessed with. I get

Harvest: like

Jen Thyrion: obsessed with one kind of thing.

Harvest: Yep.

Jen Thyrion: But never silversmithing so, and I fell in love with it right away and my teacher was so, she's so cool. She's my friend now and she's just so impressed with what we're doing and stuff too. And she's just really, really neat. Like I feel like I take the classes now not 'cause I necessarily need to learn anything new.

'cause there's some different kind of thing every time. Like I've done enameling, I've done lost wax casting, I've done sand casting, I've done the beginner stuff. But it's all the same women every time pretty much. That take the classes. Yeah. And so it's really fun. We all just like look forward to seeing each other and like can't wait to visit and learn something new together.

Harvest: That's so cool.

Jen Thyrion: It's super fun.

ou ever think about teaching [: 00:06:00

Jen Thyrion: Not really. I'm not, I don't feel like I'm like, I'm probably a good teacher. I just, I feel like, what if I teach them wrong or something, you know?

Harvest: Yeah.

Jen Thyrion: And I really love my teacher too, so I don't wanna like ever like offer classes and then like have them there.

It's kind of hard sometimes for them to fill their classes too. Yeah. Especially probably now with medal prices, I imagine.

Harvest: Oh my gosh. I know.

Jen Thyrion: So I haven't thought about that. But we, well, I mean, I kind of, I did think about it for a minute. We thought about, before we did this, we looked at a property, we fell in love with it.

There's this street here called Mount Vernon, and it's like the oldest historical homes in town. It's like, oh, fun. It's amazing. And this house was there and it had been gutted into like this big, almost like a warehouse. And we wanted to open up a storefront for silversmithing supplies because there's so many silversmiths in this town.

ke go in and physically like [: 00:07:00

We wanted to have like rolling mills and hydraulic presses and all the tools to where they paid like a monthly fee and like came in. 'cause so many people in the classes. You can use the workshop on the weekends and there's something like 20 desks and like 45 people show up because everybody wants to use the tools.

And we were like, man, maybe we could do that. But, you know, things, things changed and here we are in this place. So

Harvest: I know, I mean, who knows what the future holds for sure. But yeah,

Jen Thyrion: I'm kind of glad we didn't end up doing that because how would I be buying all the metal supplies right now to keep a store stocked with like the volatile ness of all of it.

So I'm glad that we, we didn't do that.

Harvest: So when you started, I mean obviously you've been pretty present in the permanent jewelry world. Like what was your thoughts in going that route? And obviously you are currently doing permanent jewelry yourself, so how did that all evolve?

jewelry was a girl was going [: 00:08:00

And I'm like, I don't know what that is. Send me a picture. So I never even heard of her ajo. And she like sent me a picture of some and so I made like a whole batch of em and then I like bring 'em to her and she's like, oh my god, I love 'em so much. But I'm in a contract with plunder so I can only, I can only like buy one for myself.

And I was like, but I just like made all these, you know. So literally I went on Facebook and I was like permanent jewelry group and like found a group which. I'm sure is the one that one of the big companies runs that ended up blocking me because I shared my stuff.

Harvest: Oh yeah.

Jen Thyrion: But before they blocked me, I had like literally like probably, probably 65 messages, private messages from people.

Wow. Because they were little turquoise ones and they were like, I want these. And I sold all of 'em like within hours. And so I was like, oh my gosh, maybe like this is something to do.

Harvest: Mm-hmm.

Jen Thyrion: And that's how it all started.

Harvest: That's amazing.

Jen Thyrion: Isn't that funny?

Harvest: So when did you actually start permanent jewelry yourself?

Jen Thyrion: [: 00:09:00

Harvest: Oh wow. Just November.

Jen Thyrion: Recently? Yeah, we just this November and I started making the connectors, it was July year before last is when I started making them. So I never really thought that we would actually do the permanent jewelry.

But I looked at this spot, this retail spot a year ago, and we were just like, man, it's just, there's something, no, not right, not right. And then my sister came to town in September and we were downstairs eating at a restaurant and I was like looking up at it again. And I was like, we should just see how much that is.

You know?

Harvest: Yeah.

Jen Thyrion: And so here we are really impulsive. Okay, let's just do it. I'm just like a very, like, I'm not scared of many things. I'm just like, I'll figure it out. You know? Yes. Like my best friend moved here last March to help me with everything. 'cause she used to scale businesses and so we've been best friends for 26 years and it just was like perfect timing in her life to move and I needed somebody.

And so she moved here last March and I feel like I can conquer the world with her, so That's

Harvest: amazing.

You know, she just literally [: 00:10:00

Harvest: amazing.

Jen Thyrion: I walk in and she's like, acts like I'm Oprah. She's like, here's the owner. She makes all of these. She goes, she doesn't like it when I say that. She's shy. I'm like, thanks. You know,

Harvest: we all need someone like that. I love that.

Jen Thyrion: She's my height girl, man. She's amazing.

Harvest: I love that. Oh my gosh, that's amazing.

Jen Thyrion: So she jumped in with me and we both just started, my husband welded for a living a long time ago.

So

Harvest: yeah,

Jen Thyrion: he's had a welder in the garage for his jewelry, and so he's like, I'll just teach you girls. And so we bought four welders. And so he just taught us, and here we are. We figured it

out.

Harvest: Wow. No, I love that you said that because I, I feel like me and you are very much alike in that way. Like even when I signed on for my lease and brick and mortar and I have two small girls and, and I just so much going on and my husband's like, how are you gonna do this?

other. It's just, yeah, kind [: 00:11:00

Jen Thyrion: exactly it. One step in front of the other, you know, like you just, okay, well we'll figure this out and then we'll figure this out. Exactly. And

Harvest: exactly.

Jen Thyrion: With two small kids, it's like, I'm thinking our kids are pretty similar in age.

My daughter's four and my son's nine, and so Oh

Harvest: yeah. Yeah.

Jen Thyrion: You know, she's like at home with us all the time. El least my. Assistant best friend. She had her own office in our house, like right next to my studio. We just bought a new house finally. 'cause we were in this tiny little two bedroom house when we moved here.

So we just finally got like a big five bedroom house that we can like, have studios and everything. And so my daughter like loved her, like being there. She's like, hang out with Auntie Dewe all day. And you know, so it's like she's here now and we totally miss her. But she's, she's been so great in like helping everything go quickly.

I can tell her, Hey, can you do this? Can you do that? Yeah. And she's just like, gets it done so fast. You know? She's so many things. Like, I was joking with her yesterday that we know so many older artists in town 'cause we were in this like artist complex and they make all these gorgeous things and then they're like social media, like how do you do that?

eel bad for them. Like being [: 00:12:00

Harvest: media coming out. You're mad. I know. Trust me. Yeah.

Jen Thyrion: And like having to figure it out, you know. And so I joked with Elise yesterday though. I was like, I feel like I'm the old person and like you are the young one that knows all these things and I don't.

So like, I'm so glad you're here.

Harvest: I love that. That makes a great team. You guys are like a good yin and yang, I feel like. Yes.

Jen Thyrion: We're totally like opposites. Like she's very, yes. Like the things that she is like say the jewelry she likes is not my type of jewelry or anything. And I finally, I've, I don't wanna say I'm like controlling, but I usually feel like, okay, I know like what I'm going for, like what I'm looking for, like what'll sell.

And I'm finally like, just like releasing that. And I said yesterday to her, she was here and I was, she's like, what do you want for this or that? And I was like, you can decide. And I was like, oh my God, I'm finally letting somebody else do something. Like, and she's like, really? And I So do you mind that I'm like kind of putting that on you to just figure it out?

thing that I like, maybe the [: 00:13:00

Harvest: So who is like, I mean, honestly to you talking and knowing how I feel, I'm assuming how busy you are with your supplies.

The fact that you opened to brick and mortar too is kind of like, I'm thinking in my head like, whoa. Like that's a lot. Right? It's, so who's creating, who is creating the supplies right now? Is it just you and your husband?

Jen Thyrion: So my husband only does beating. Okay. Like he does not like all of the connectors that we hand make.

Like all of the little things that we solder and make and everything.

Harvest: Yes.

Jen Thyrion: Like these little guys. I make every single one of those myself by hand.

Harvest: Okay.

Jen Thyrion: So I have my studio still, and it's been really hard the last, since we opened, because I am here now, Thur, Wednesdays, Thursdays. And I like really make a point of not stepping in my studio on those days.

I don't wanna get home and like not spend time with my kids.

Harvest: Yep.

ike change a little bit how, [: 00:14:00

Harvest: Yeah,

Jen Thyrion: it's crazy like having to hand make every single little piece and then also at the same time we have the store and I'm like, oh my God, we made like the same amount between the two businesses this week. And I didn't have to make it by hand like

Harvest: Right.

Jen Thyrion: I'm like, huh, I need to figure that I need a balance better.

Harvest: I think the elusive balance that we're all trying to, trying to figure

Jen Thyrion: out. Right. It's so hard. Hard. Yeah, I know. And I just wanna like spend more time with my family this year. I feel like I overdid it last year. I feel like I said yes to every single person last year. Yes, sure, I'll change that. Yes, sure.

I'll get this out in 24 hours. Yes, sure. We'll, we'll special order that for you and this year. I'm not doing it. Yeah. I just can't, you know,

Harvest: I think that's a natural evolution. Like whether or not you're doing handmade supplies like we are, or you're just a business in general. Like Yeah. Even if you're just doing permanent jewelry, I think there's a period where it's like, you are like, yes, yes, yes, yes.

'cause you just, it's almost like

Jen Thyrion: you wanna grow and you wanna like

works for you though. Yeah. [: 00:15:00

absolutely.

Harvest: Yeah. So I just think that's part of the process and I think that's normally, you know, even if we do every market and then you realize, okay, I'm kind of done with markets, I wanna hone in on this, or, you know, like you just kind of have to, it's kind of part of the process, I feel.

There's no way, I don't think there's a way around that.

Jen Thyrion: Yeah. You're like figuring out like what works best for you or like,

Harvest: yeah.

Jen Thyrion: Like where you're gonna make the most bang for your buck, basically, you know? Exactly. Yeah. And like this year it's just, we're gonna figure that out and change things a little bit and yeah, it'll all work out.

Harvest: I know, I mean, I think especially being a mother and a business owner to, you know, I can speak to this, I've been saying that myself too, is like, I really wanna go deeper into like, pouring into myself this year. Same thing. Yes. You know, but again, it's, it was necessary last year and the year before was necessary to kind of build, build and get to where I'm at.

But now I'm like, okay, like. We gotta systemize some things, you know?

Jen Thyrion: Oh, definitely. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. That's where we're at too. I totally, I know that you get that with the kids and then the shop and the handmaid and everything. It's like, so just, it's a lot.

Harvest: I know. I know. And then, of course, will lead to burnout.

So [: 00:16:00

Jen Thyrion: yeah. I've been like, I don't think I've ever experienced this much burnout ever.

Harvest: Yep. Yep.

Jen Thyrion: And this year has just been like so bad to where I'm like, I haven't even been like posting really on Desert Darling Silver.

Harvest: Mm-hmm.

Jen Thyrion: I haven't been doing much.

'cause I, I need like

Harvest: a break.

Jen Thyrion: I need to like decompress a little bit.

Harvest: Yes, I hear you. And I think this, yeah, usually this is the time of year to do it.

Jen Thyrion: Yeah, it is. January is definitely like slow. So.

Harvest: So being that you opened your brick and mortar, you're saying, was it two months ago then? Yeah, November. Yes.

Okay. So, well, we opened

Jen Thyrion: November. So we had November, December, January. Yeah. Three months in.

Harvest: And tell us a little bit about the structure. 'cause I know you mentioned you like, you know, you, so you were like in a mall, correct.

Jen Thyrion: So we're in a, yeah, it's in a mall. We're in downtown Prescott. It's called The Square.

Like Whiskey Row is like all the bars and it's the courthouse. It's like a giant square with all the businesses around it. It's like the biggest tourist place. So the building we're in is over a hundred years old. It has these old, beautiful like tin tiles on the roof and

Harvest: so cool.

Jen Thyrion: It's so [: 00:17:00

And then it's all open in the center so we can all like see each other. And you can look down, like we had a band play one night downstairs and everyone had like their doors open for this thing called Crony. It was like a fundraiser. And so we love the women next door to us. They've been there seven years and they were clothing store.

And I feel really lucky 'cause the lady that owns it, anything she tells me, I like, I'm like, oh my God, you're such a wealth of knowledge. Like, 'cause I've never really, I've never had like a storefront, you know? Yeah. Like I don't know how to like really merchandise stuff. And so like she'll come in and I'm like, what do you think about this?

And she'll be like, well I think if you turn this a little bit or do this. And I'm like. Oh my gosh. Thank you. You know,

Harvest: that's amazing.

Jen Thyrion: And all the girls that work there are amazing. Like nie Lease, love them all so much. We're like, oh my God, it's this day I get to work with this person. And we don't even work in the same business, but we're like, oh cool, we're next door to each other.

Harvest: Yes.

little store. But it's like [: 00:18:00

Harvest: so cute.

Jen Thyrion: It's like little, but

Harvest: it's nice and open. It's like perfect

Jen Thyrion: for us. We are, we just edit our charm bar.

Harvest: How's that going?

Jen Thyrion: It's good. It's been super fun. And people are like, even if they're not getting a charm like necklace, I've had so many people that are gonna get a bracelet and they grab a couple charms and they don't want 'em on their bracelet, which I'm glad.

'cause they're just, I don't, I don't really like the charm on the bracelets. I like the connectors and they're just PVD stainless steel. I don't wanna slap that on a beautiful Goldfield grace light, you know?

Harvest: Yes.

Jen Thyrion: So they're like, oh, I just wanna get these separate so I can take 'em home. And I'm like, great.

Add on, add on, add

Harvest: on. Yes.

Jen Thyrion: You know?

Harvest: No, I was surprised by that too. I feel like a lot of people do just get charms, like on their, on their own.

Jen Thyrion: Yeah. So that's awesome. And so that's been fun. We wanna add like a little bit more stuff in here. I have all my husband's handmade jewelry and then we have like a case over here that has a lot of my handmade jewelry in it.

specially with the tourists. [: 00:19:00

Harvest: yeah.

Jen Thyrion: And it's really cool. People do come in and they do think that it's really neat that we make.

Stuff. They're like, oh, that's so cool. And then I go, oh yeah, so we make these by hand. I have some connectors that I don't even have on my site. So we're like, oh, these ones are like one of a kind, you know? And then two, it's been really fun being in a tourist spot because we're meeting people from all over the country.

And I posted a while ago, I was like, Hey, like can, if you, you guys like gimme your info because I'm working with all these tourists and I wanna be able to like reassure them when they leave, if they have to take their bracelet off or they break it, that I can refer them to somebody. So yes, I have the whole list and then I had someone's bracelet broke and then I asked her where she lived.

And I literally had a girl that buys for me. In her town. And so I messaged her and was like, Hey, I have this customer, she's gonna reach out to you. And she got her in right away. And then on top of it, the girl wanted to buy more bracelets from the girl that buys from me. That was my product. So it's like win-win all around.

Harvest: That's amazing.

ool. So, and then the girl's [: 00:20:00

Harvest: Yeah, that's such a great idea. I need to be on that list. I need to be on that list.

Jen Thyrion: I know.

Yeah. So I need to just keep adding to it and adding to it, and then I, I'm gonna try to put it somewhere where it's available for anybody.

Harvest: Yes.

Jen Thyrion: Because I'm like always seeing people on the groups asking, does somebody know somebody in this town? And it's like, if someone doesn't see that, they're not gonna like know.

So yes, I'd love to be able to tell customers that. And they go, oh, like when they leave, I'm like, oh, if you need anything, just message me and I'll find the perfect person for you to re rebuild it, you know?

Harvest: No, I love that you did that. It doesn't happen too often. Yes, we get tourists 'cause we are like not a super touristy, I would say.

But definitely people come visit. I mean, we're in a beautiful place in Colorado, so that actually happened somewhat recently. Um, something happened to her bracelet and we did find someone in that location that was able to fix it for her. But yeah, we do some searching and digging, but, and then I had one girl who was actually my membership.

e you said though, that when [: 00:21:00

What do I do? Right. But she actually offered if the, if the person had a re-weld fee that she would actually pay for it. Yeah. Within so many months if like something happened.

Jen Thyrion: Yeah. So I told that girl too. I said that, I was like, I'll pay for it. And because it had just like she was just in, yeah. And I was just like, well, and they bought like four bracelets, so I was like, I'll just pay for it.

And she was like, well, I'm not gonna charge her if she gets something else. And then she got other stuff, so it was perfect.

Harvest: Yes. Well, actually, speaking of that, and we didn't plan on talking about this, but do you charge for rew welds? Like how do you work, or how do you work that?

Jen Thyrion: I don't usually charge for reels.

Like if they've, if it was one of our people, I think I maybe had one person come back that was like, oh, I needed it rewelded. Like, I'm not gonna charge for it. And even girls that I've had come in that are like, oh, well I'm here to get a bracelet, but can you put this back on? And I'm like, yeah, sure. I mean, it takes two seconds.

And I feel like it just builds like so much. Like people love it and they're like, oh wow, this place is great. You know? Like they're not gonna, I'm not, I feel kind of petty charging over like 10 bucks or something.

Harvest: Yes.

Jen Thyrion: When I feel like they're just gonna come back or they're just gonna buy another one.

Or they're [: 00:22:00

Harvest: Yes. And I know it can add up like, I mean there's two, there're two different sides. There's no wrong and right or answer to this, but I am the same as you. So I do, I do free rear welds. I've never charged for one, to be honest, in over three years.

But I have a permanent jewelry friend who had a brick and mortar and she, they would keep track though, even though they did free, they would actually ring it up and like, so they knew how ma many oh it up in a sense or put in their system so they knew how many they were doing. So they actually changed their policy like late last year because she's like, I looked at how many we did just even like in a quarter and she's like, if we were to charge $10, like how much money that is or just time taking away from.

And it's like I get that mentality, but at the same time, just for me, I don't know, I'm not there yet. I just feel like it creates business in a different way. It might not be the monetary right then, but I do feel like it's that reputation or that feeling is totally exceeds the $10. You know what what I mean?

Jen Thyrion: Absolutely.

a slow market. It's like you [: 00:23:00

Yeah. Whether you talk to your vendors, set fellow vendors, whether you know, who knows.

Jen Thyrion: And it's funny too, I had like one of my biggest buyers for me, she is. An animal, all she does is huge music festivals. That's all she does. She just travels the country. Like that's all she does. And she buys so much from me.

She was what a badass, just her was over 10% of my sales last year. And she's crazy. She's, she's, yeah, she's amazing. And so she's come to see me twice now and she was in Missouri and then she moved to Texas. And I asked her, I'm like, Hey, Steph, like, do you wanna come? And this was last year. I'm like, do you wanna come do the Prescott Rodeo with us?

welry that he was gonna sell [: 00:24:00

That's like, I just need these like right away to be able to do this. You know? And she ended up doing the rodeo. So I've had people come in and they're like, oh yeah, I got this one. And I was like. Oh, yeah, I made that. Oh yeah, Stephanie, she's like one of my great friends, you

Harvest: know? Yes.

Jen Thyrion: Or they're like, oh, I need a rew on this.

And I look at it and it's one that Stephanie put on them, so I for sure always do a rewild on it because Stephanie, because it's like one of my pieces is already on it.

Harvest: Well, yeah, I, yes, exactly. Like, and I, I love that you said that though. You're like, oh, that one's mine. Like talking about handmade, and we were talking about a little bit about this before we started recording, but isn't that so cool to know that really what you made is so one of a kind, and even like if someone were to come in for me too, that if someone bought my chain and they came in or something, I'd be like, oh my God, that's mine.

like, or even your supplies? [: 00:25:00

Jen Thyrion: this made us Yeah, so Elise and I mostly, like if I'm here with Elise, she's usually like the, the talky one with people.

'cause I'm usually doing something, you know, and she's telling people I'm Oprah, but she's like, she made all these, you know, she makes all these by hand. And so we do, I do tell people, I go, oh, I'm gonna seller Smith. You know, I do make all these by hand. They're all handmade. And people are just like, what?

And I'm like, yeah, we, you know, I I, the connectors, I sold 8,000 connectors last year, so I made like 8,000 tiny little pieces by hand last year.

Harvest: Crazy.

Jen Thyrion: You know, which,

Harvest: yes.

Jen Thyrion: So many of them. 'cause I always tell 'em, oh yeah, well we sell the girls all over the whole country. You know, like, I have had people from wherever and I'm like, oh, that is one of my pieces.

Like,

Harvest: yeah.

st going back and forth with [: 00:26:00

I just never expected to grow the way that we grew.

Harvest: Yes.

Jen Thyrion: And like the first year we started in July and then the following year I was like talking to my rep at Rio and she's like, I'm not supposed to tell you this, but you are my number one person that buys from us or from me and my like sales customers or whatever.

And you grew by 300% last year, you know, and then with Elise last year we grew another 45 person and did over a half a million last year and. Made pieces.

Harvest: That's amazing.

Jen Thyrion: Which is so crazy. So now this year I'm trying to redo the website, like I just finally did a photo shoot. I'm doing branding right now with the most amazing couple.

The wife does photography and the husband does videography. So we do once a month we do like a whole shoot. So last month we did with the charm bar. So they shot all my new charmer content for me and then the month before we did in my actual studio and they like did this whole shoot of me making like a whole entire piece with all my different tools so, and everything.

ually gonna rebrand my whole [: 00:27:00

Harvest: amazing.

Jen Thyrion: Really wanna like push that in. I tr I don't wanna like take it personal when people just act like, oh, why isn't it, why don't I have it right away? Or whatever.

And I'm just like, okay, well it's handmade. Yeah. I don't just crank these out overnight. They're not last produced. I don't get them made in India, you

Harvest: know? I know, I know. It's hard. I think we're just in this like I get it. 'cause I mean, I'll literally purchase certain things on Amazon 'cause I get it faster.

Jen Thyrion: Yeah. Oh I know.

Harvest: I just purchased this morning, you know, having to make it to a certain amount to do same day. I'm like, okay, so do we need vitamins or anything else? 'cause I wanna get this today.

Jen Thyrion: Elise is like always in my cart and she goes, I see you ordered this. And I was like, well, we need it, you know?

Right. It's crazy funny.

Harvest: So I get the immediate, I get the immediate like, everyone wants it tomorrow. Yeah. Which I'm, I can be the same way I've been there. I've, I've, I've text suppliers and been like, so can you ship today? You know, I mean, I've met that person, but Yeah, handmade definitely is a different beast.

Right. So

to get to this point where I [: 00:28:00

I have over a hundred designs, some connectors, like that's just like,

Harvest: yes

Jen Thyrion: a lot.

Harvest: I know I have some in my cart and I have to like check out 'cause I'm, I, I, so you know, everyone has. A vibe. Right. And obviously you definitely have a look, right?

Jen Thyrion: Oh

Harvest: yeah. You have a look. I feel we have a look. Right? And they're very different looks right.

You're very different customers. Not to say you couldn't stock both, but you definitely have, like you said, that person's going to music festivals and the rodeo, like that's your jam, right? Desert darling. Different than Goldie links, right? Oh totally.

Jen Thyrion: Yeah.

Harvest: So, but I am so like I, I can't wait to just like kind of dip in, you know?

Yeah. Did you, do you ever think about like working more with gold or No.

Jen Thyrion: I would love to work more with gold. The problem with the gold field actually. '

y one of my favorite stones. [: 00:29:00

Jen Thyrion: oh yeah. I love the golden turquoise too.

Like a lot of regular jewelry I've been messing around with, with gold and turquoise together, like the gold filled. But I have three or four new gold filled connectors coming out today. I did the golden opal chain anchors. Finally because people have been asking and asking and asking for themselves. So the

Harvest: chain anchor?

Jen Thyrion: Yeah, the gold chain anchors. But then I made these gold opal ones that are just sideways bars, so they're gold filled with the Aurora opals in them.

Harvest: Amazing.

Jen Thyrion: There's some of my stories right now, so I'm, I literally just have to get them posted today.

Harvest: Okay. Posted 'em today. 'cause I mean, I'm an opal girl. We, we are big on opal over here, so that would be amazing.

I love that. Yeah.

Jen Thyrion: I love the aurora opals and the bellow opal. So the anchors are bellow opals, and then the other bars are the aurora opals. So what's the

Harvest: difference? Tell me what's the difference between the two?

Jen Thyrion: So the bellows are more like a speckly like type opal, and then the auroras are more like a traditional opal where there's like waves Yes.

the color in 'em. I love the [: 00:30:00

Harvest: I know it's wild. And the, the opals do in the, in the sun or like

Jen Thyrion: Yeah,

Harvest: it's amazing.

Jen Thyrion: And it's so hard to like get a good picture. Like Oh, I know they're so cool.

And like I'm constantly, we don't have a window throughout the day. I'm like, do I want sunshine for this photo or just light? And I run back and forth to my two neighbors windows. Oh, there's my light. They're here, there, so funny. I'm like, we really gotta get that fixed. She was pranking me the other day 'cause the power got shut off with all this, um, construction.

Someone flipped the breaker and turned it back on and I'm like, what the hell? And then's then it's still flickering just to light and she's like, it's just me. Anyways. Yeah. I need to work with more gold this year. I'd love to work with more gold. I just want the metal prices to come down a little bit.

Harvest: Uh, yeah, I mean, how do you feel about that?

Speaking of someone, obviously you're working with so much metal.

Jen Thyrion: I know we spent last year on, on like between Rio and one other chain company, we spent $170,000 on metal last year.

Harvest: Yes. Yes.

Thyrion: So when people are [: 00:31:00

And so luckily I do have like a super awesome rep at Rio that I'll message her and be like, Hey, what if I buy this much of this one, even though they already have tier pricing and pro pricing, you'll get me a better price still.

Harvest: Okay, good to know. Because it's so funny, I purchased a lot on Rio too, and you're making me wanna look to see how much I spent last year.

Jen Thyrion: Yeah, yeah.

Harvest: I'm actually really curious.

Jen Thyrion: Like you get to the pro price and it's like great, you get like even more like discounts and stuff, but you should have a rep now that

Harvest: like, well it's funny, I do think people have contacted me, but it's one of those things where I'm like, okay, like I never really follow up.

Jen Thyrion: They're not like cushy or anything. They're literally there. Like if you need something, which is so nice. Okay. And usually, so when metal drop like 40 bucks the other day,

Harvest: yes.

[: 00:32:00

So like the price wasn't like equating. And so I messaged my rep and I'm like, Hey, what's up with this? And she's like, oh, I'll just put your order in for you real quick. Puts the order in for me. And then she gives me free overnight shipping every time too.

Harvest: Nice. Which

Jen Thyrion: is awesome. Love it. So that one's like really nice to be able to just, I just email her and go, Hey, can you do.

So it's really, I feel like it's worth it to build a relationship with whatever company you're working with. You know, they'll like do things for you. And then I literally think Rocky Designs just called me right now. I had another New York number. Like he straight calls people.

Harvest: Oh yeah, he calls, yeah.

Jen Thyrion: I'm like weird.

Like

Harvest: I, I, I know it's so funny. I'll text him and he'll call me and like, don't call me.

Jen Thyrion: I know I'm not a phone talker either, so. Yeah. I just sit in New York and, 'cause he's at the Gem Show.

Harvest: Yes, he is. So how far are you from that? I was actually supposed to go this past weekend and I missed my flight.

Jen Thyrion: Oh no.

t. It's still quite a drive. [: 00:33:00

Harvest: Yeah.

Jen Thyrion: And then we got some beads like for my husband, like. Then I do get a lot of my castings from a company that's there too, so I could finally shop 'em in person.

And the lady's like, my husband's looking for, she's like, you better go get your wife. She's just got an insane amount of stuff right now. 'cause I'm just like grabbing 'em by the handfuls and like throwing 'em and things, you know, because I'm like, we're here, let's just,

Harvest: it's so hard. And like in the end I'm like, maybe it was best I didn't go.

'cause I have a panic attack every time because I'm like, I know I'm going way over budget, but I'm so excited to see all the things. Yeah. It's just like, it's so hard to contain yourself,

Jen Thyrion: so, and I'm such a like firm believer in and I'm so glad that I did this in like buying the best, like the most amount that you can get to get the best price break on it.

Yes,

Harvest: for

stone in the beginning. And [: 00:34:00

And we go personally to the Kingman Mine and buy all of our turquoise there. We know the family really well, like we privately shop with them and stuff. And that's like another nice selling point here is like when the tours come in, we're like, oh, we buy directly from the mine. We go buy everything, you know?

But when we open here, I was just like, you know, like I'm just gonna buy the most chain that I can get for the best price. And I'm so glad that I did because it was like right before everything went like really, really crazy. And I don't have to replace any of my chains for a long time. The majority of them I probably have at least 25 feet, if not 50 feet of them.

I'm like really a stickler about getting as much as you can get. Within reason. I mean, some things on Rio are like, buy 50 bags. I'm like, I don't need that much. I know, I know. But it's, it's just, you make so much more money in the long run.

Harvest: Okay. Real talk for a second. Running a business can feel overwhelming.

ted GoldLink Society. It's a [: 00:35:00

If you are craving clarity, confidence, and community, Goldie Link Society is built for you. You can join us anytime. Go to goldie link society.com. I can't wait to get to know you and your business. See you soon. Well, okay, so actually speaking of, 'cause I know you mentioned your stuff isn't ready to ship, so how long does it typically take so people know?

Jen Thyrion: So in the summer, I'm usually about 14 days. In the winter, I'm usually seven days. So I usually do seven to 14 days. 'cause that gives me usually enough window to like go to work, do my things on the weekends and still like have one day of like solid, working like 12 hours in the studio. And then like then, and I'll usually tumble everything.

And then the next day I'll even bring a whole bunch of stuff here and set all my stones.

Harvest: Okay.

Jen Thyrion: And then go ship everything like on Fridays.

op, right? So you have like. [: 00:36:00

we

Jen Thyrion: were just freaking out. So Mondays, like Mondays are usually like, okay, beginning of the week I'll usually come down here and we're kind of like talk about, okay, what are we gonna do for the week?

And then I try to like go print out all of our orders, see where we're at, like who needs to be rushed out, what orders I have to go take over to my husband for him to do for us. And then like what products I really, with my products that I offer, I specifically offer products that I know that I can get the supplies within a week.

Like I designed them with, if not sooner than that. Because if, because it is made to order, I don't like, that's why I have that window of seven to 14 days because if I do have to order something, but I generally like all the supplies that I use. Make sure that I can get them really quickly. And so Mondays we like do ordering, do all that and then set up for the week.

ain ones I have to like, um, [: 00:37:00

So there's like a ton of actual prep work other than the actual soldering part. So I like to like be able to like, prep, prep, prep, prep, prep. Solder, solder, solder, solder pickle, pickle pickle. It's like,

Harvest: yes, yes, exactly.

Jen Thyrion: You come on the pickle and then you gotta clean it. You gotta neutralize them and then you gotta clean them

Harvest: and you to

Jen Thyrion: post more videos of like full.

Harvest: I know, it's so interesting. Um,

Jen Thyrion: I haven't posted one in a long time. I have one that I'll try to repost today 'cause it's a really good one that from the very beginning to the very end of what it takes to make one little tiny connector and what you have to do with it.

Harvest: I mean, yeah. Like, 'cause how many, like, it probably depends on, obviously, like you said, that, you know, not every connector is created equal, but it's like on average, like how many pieces do you think you make in a day?

we, that just message us and [: 00:38:00

And then that, so that doesn't track, you know? So I had like $70,000 of that last year that I'm like, whoa.

Harvest: Because that's funny you say that. 'cause I actually had that same situation last year, whether it be supplies or brick and mortar where we were manually putting things in because we, which transferred orders from Square to Shopify, even in our brick and mortar.

And so we were like trying to tag things and kind of, you know, go, you know, it was a lot, it was a lot to do. And so we were manually putting things in. And here I'm looking at my report from December and I really wanna know where money goes. Like I wanna know how much was merchandise, how much was permanent jewelry, like, and I was like, shoot, I have all these manual entries and I don't know what those are.

And like, so I'm like trying really hard to be very diligent about where like, 'cause like you said, how you said you had 8,000 connectors last year. I'm like, Ooh, that's so interesting. I wonder how many connectors for me. But I don't know if I can track it that way with the way I did things last year.

three packs. It's mostly the [: 00:39:00

And then I think we did like: 1900

And like my body is just physically hurts after last year. I keep, I have to go to the chiropractor once a week and get these like ultrasonic treatments on my shoulders. And so that's why I'm like, okay, we really need to raise things this year.

Harvest: I know it's a labor of love, man. Yeah, it's, it's a lot. It's a lot.

Jen Thyrion: But yeah, so like Monday we kind of prep Tuesday. I definitely do silversmithing for sure. And then Wednesday, Thursday I am here. And then Friday I usually do more silversmithing. And then Saturday I do all a ton of my mailing. And then Sunday I try to not do anything.

Harvest: So what do you feel like adding a brick and mortar has added to your business?

'cause again, I mean you [: 00:40:00

Jen Thyrion: I am just way too much of a go-getter. It was the same thing with my restaurants. Like my restaurant was killing it and then I'm like, keep driving by this empty property every day.

And I'm like, oh, I wonder how much that is. And like walked in was like, I need to buy this and open another restaurant. Like, I'm just like a,

Harvest: I

Jen Thyrion: know. I'm never like satisfied I think with how much money I'm making. I just don't, I've never been someone that has like a salary or anything. I've always was like a server before even owning a restaurants and a bartender for nine years, you know?

And so I'm kind of like addicted to trying to like, make money and I just, I just don't ever, at the end of the day wanna have to be like, Nope, sorry bud. Can't buy that for my kids. I don't wanna like go to sleep at night and like worry that I can't pay my mortgage. And so I'd rather like work myself to the bone than like worry about those kinds of things.

at's always like my drive is [: 00:41:00

So it was just like, well this seems like a good window. With metal prices being crazy. We wanted to switch to retail too, as like a backup. 'cause I was like, at what point, how high does the metal get that I can't make my handmade connectors anymore? Like sure I can make them, but no one's gonna buy them at that price for what I have to charge for 'em.

You

Harvest: know,

Jen Thyrion: like some things, right. I've taken a couple things off recently 'cause I was like, yeah sure I can still go get that, but I'm not gonna go you. Well

Harvest: also too, I mean like, and now things are constantly evolving and you do, it's like we were talking about before we started recording about just exploring stainless steel more and I never thought I would say that just because of metal prices and whatnot and just, you know, it's like, never say never.

think that, like, obviously [: 00:42:00

Jen Thyrion: it's crazy to be like, oh my God, that took five minutes and my number one seller here is the mixed metal and we sell those for 130 and so.

I'm like, oh man, that was five minutes and we made 130 bucks or a hundred bucks, you know, basically. Actually probably more than that, but it's like, what do

Harvest: you wholesale it for?

Jen Thyrion: I don't wholesale the mixed metals. We just, it's just Oh, you don't a chain Uhuh.

Harvest: Oh, oh, okay. Okay.

Jen Thyrion: The only chain that I actually wholesale right now is stainless steel.

I don't even have any sterling silver on there anymore. It's just all stainless steel for desert darlings. But for here, all the chains that I have, I just, I feel like, I mean, I'm not buying like a crazy, crazy amount. Like I buy like $10,000 worth of stainless steel chain at a time, you know? And like the gold ones or the mixed metal ones, like I'm not buying enough to where I'm making that much of a profit on it if I was reselling it.

r people out there doing it. [: 00:43:00

Harvest: But even wholesaling and your con, your own handmade connectors versus retail, right? I mean, obviously

Jen Thyrion: Yeah, like, you know, and that's what like I think people don't think about at the end of the day is like, okay, cool, I'm selling you a connector for $20.

And you can go resell it for a minimum of 40. The most people I know like double them or triple them because there's something to be said about the western world. They will pay for turquoise. They love sterling, silver, and turquoise.

Harvest: If you understand the value, I, I nail this in so much 'cause obviously I'm very passionate about handmade.

When you, when you hammer in, if you just were have it on a little display and you put $60 on that connector and then they see your other connectors that are mass produced or whatever are 20, they're gonna be like, oh what? But if you don't communicate what that is, and then the fact that what kind of stone is behind it, the fact that it's handmade in Arizona and then it makes a whole different, it perceived value of that is obviously way higher than this thing that's cut out of a machine.

display. And she has like a [: 00:44:00

You gotta just act like you know what you're doing and no one will question you. They just don't. If you act like you're the expert, even if you're bluffing a little bit, they're not gonna question you. They don't, you know? And so I know for some people, like, yeah, stuff doesn't, my connectors are definitely specialty like type things, you know?

Harvest: I mean, there's people that even come into my shop. There was actually a lady recently, and I, I thought of you because she was wearing a million pieces of turquoise and they had that, you know, it was all silver and turquoise. You could tell it was handmade. So of course I had to ask her. And she had a story about every piece.

turquoise she was aware of. [: 00:45:00

Jen Thyrion: right? Oh, they don't. I know. 'cause we, we have so many different ones. And Elise is like telling, oh, this one's Gold Hills and this is Sonoran and this is this, you know, and they're like, oh, I didn't know that.

You know, like, so yeah, it's about educating. You really gotta be able to like talk to people and I need to be better as a seller about like sending something. That like either has my picture, like I have a really cool picture, like at my anvil that's really fun. Or the pictures from my studio the other day that's like that people can literally put on their table and go, these are handmade.

I agree. Yes, for sure. 'cause they literally will last your lifetime. They will. They're like, they're not, they cheapy. They won't break.

Harvest: They're like pieces that you wanna like you hand on to the next. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah, totally. Like ly, they're just such special, I mean, especially tur like turquoise I feel like is such a collector thing.

It is. It's so cool. Like people just have this, I mean, even if you just display it, it's beautiful, you know?

Jen Thyrion: Yeah, exactly. It is so pretty. My husband's displays are so pretty with all his stuff and

Harvest: Yes.

People like, I've always say [: 00:46:00

Harvest: Yes.

Jen Thyrion: They just, they do.

They'll spend it. They'll go for it. The town we were in in Oregon was like very western rodeo, you know, and they don't even question it. They're just like, yes.

Harvest: Do you wholesale ready to wear jewelry as well?

Jen Thyrion: Some stuff I do. Like last year we did just like a simple little cross necklace with a little handmade turquoise piece that went on it.

And I think we sold like: 3000

Harvest: know Candace.

She's like, I was gonna mention her.

Jen Thyrion: She's my fa I love her so much.

Harvest: I love her too. I actually just saw her, we did a holiday market together and she, I was actually there with charm bar and she was there doing rum joy, but she had all her turquoise jewelry and I, of course I was like. Where's your gold with turquoise?

I am all for supporting her. [: 00:47:00

Jen Thyrion: She's so sweet. She is funny. The other day Elise was like, I'm trying to separate between, because like the, most of the groups won't let you tag your business.

So like people tag me personally and I'm really trying to have some separation from that this year because I dread my found dinging because it's just nonstop. And now that Elise is not in the same building as me, I can't just be like, Hey, can you go write that person back? Like, and that's what I hired her for, is to talk to the customers and do all that stuff so I can solder.

Every time I have to stop, it takes me longer to do my orders. So I like posted that the other day. I was like, Hey, could you guys please, you know, do that? And Elise was like, don't worry, I got all of 'em. But, um, I know that you'll still talk to Candace and Stephanie and Kristen, like when they message, and I was like, you know,

Harvest: I mean, I have my VIPs.

Yes,

Jen Thyrion: I know. It's so funny. She, she's funny. I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah, you're right. You're right. Because Candice and I just send each other like funny memes and like nice memes all day, you know?

. Oh my God. Yeah. No, she's [: 00:48:00

But it's really hard, like when you have, it's a lot, it's hard when you have, especially you add the brick and mortar. Being a mom, your handmade supplies and then all the other things that you know you have as well. But it's like, I just feel like, ah, that's, it's just so hard to get to, you know?

Jen Thyrion: It's a, and it's a lot.

And I just feel like I just want to, like this year, take a step out of the groups. I might not even, I might even like take myself out of the groups. I just feel like there's just too much going on and too many opinions that I don't, I don't need to hear.

Harvest: No. It's funny you say that. I, it's crazy we're talking about that.

'cause I, it's granted I'm not as probably active. I think you're probably more active than I've ever been, but I feel the same way. I'm a little bit more and more as you get into business and you, I think you pile more on, I think it's just smart for burnout. And going back to what we were talking about before, it's protecting your piece.

It's hard sometimes, you know,

Jen Thyrion: it's, yeah. 'cause there was like a while ago there was a post and everybody was in a big uproar about it, you know, and like, I feel like I'm not allowed to say what I wanna say and then, and then I get blocked from it.

Harvest: I know.

Jen Thyrion: So how am I even allowed to like, say anything back?

It's [: 00:49:00

Harvest: Agreed.

Jen Thyrion: But even when I like can't get in it or something, people are screenshotting it to me and I'm like, I don't need to see that.

'cause I can't even say anything back. And personally I don't want to be in that kind of community. For me, it's just not, I, I can't do that.

Harvest: I think it goes back to competition too. Like, and that's kind of how I see, not to say the groups are competition in that sense, but the sense of inundating yourself with like these things.

If you wanna, like, you're so focused, like let's say you are so preoccupied with who's around you doing permanent jewelry, for example. And if you're spending so much time seeing what they're doing and like what is, how is it affecting you and your mindset and your own business? It doesn't serve me. And so I always go back to that.

It's like, how is this, this isn't feeling good. I need to, you know, it's even like what's going on in the world?

Jen Thyrion: Oh, I know.

Harvest: I don't wanna be unaware of it, but at the same time, like I am, like, if I am constantly looking for that, it's not gonna do anything good for me, you

No. And it's so heavy and it [: 00:50:00

And like I'm sensitive. I'm the first person to say it. Like, all I'm trying to do is support my family and have a good life. Like, I don't, I'm gonna be on the chopping block. I don't, I don't care. Like, and at the end of the day, I don't have to do permanent, do, like, I have all these other options, so I don't owe anybody anything.

You know, like, you just gotta do what, like, makes you like the happiest at the end of the

Harvest: day. I know, I agree. Because I'm like, if you're, you're letting this, all this stuff bother you, whether it be the groups, whether it be the negativity of the world, whether it be competition, it's like how is that helping my business and my family?

And like you said, that's all I want. Yeah. I wanna have a business that makes people feel good. I wanna create pretty things that also make people feel good. And that's all it's about. And I wanna serve my family. And it's like, so if this is affecting it, I'm not gonna do it. You know, I'm out.

Jen Thyrion: Yeah. I just can't be a part of it.

We unfortunately have a bunch of protesters every weekend down here too, and I always think something better to do with your

ent protesting. Okay. But at [: 00:51:00

Jen Thyrion: You're not. Thank you. Thank you. I'm the same. I'm just like, you are not gonna change anything. Like why don't you spend your day with your family or something, you know? Like I always think that, I go, what are people doing out here? Like, don't you have something better to do with your time right now? You know, like,

Harvest: yeah.

I

Jen Thyrion: don't know. I just find so much joy in like making things with my hands every day. And I. Love being here with Elise. Like,

Harvest: yes.

Jen Thyrion: We still act like we're 14 and 15, unfortunately, sometimes. And you know, like,

Harvest: I think like there should be said about something about that. It's like so funny because again, I don't wanna be that person like that's like, oh no, yeah, you shouldn't do any of that.

Like, you can't change the world. But at the same time, the things that we can do and focus on how we can serve, let's change the world. You know what I mean? Exactly. Like, you know what I mean? I don't wanna downplay that. Like, I think, like I did post a post on Friday 'cause a lot of businesses were closing and I'm sure maybe you're aware of that this past Friday.

my intention behind that was [: 00:52:00

Yeah. Come and create something pretty, make some memories because I know there's a lot of things in life we can't control. And that was my whole point in posting that. And still that created some not great messages, which is crazy to me. But it's like

Jen Thyrion: there's always gotta be somebody. It's

Harvest: always, yeah. So it's, it is what it is, but like, it's just, that is how I feel.

What can I control right now in this world and in my life, and how can I serve? And I'll focus on that. Anything that, that's such a good

Jen Thyrion: way to think about it. Yeah.

Harvest: Like anything that's threatening that it's like, I'm done. I'm not gonna like, I'm not gonna subscribe to, you know, so

Jen Thyrion: I know like my favorite, like when you were saying sayings in the email or whatever.

My thing that I always try to remind myself if I'm upset about something, I'm like, is this gonna matter a year from now?

Harvest: Yes. No.

Jen Thyrion: It's not like when I had the restaurants and you got a bad review out of nowhere and it's just someone that's clearly a jerk and it's like, is this gonna matter a year from now?

use it's been so satisfying, [: 00:53:00

Harvest: I know.

Jen Thyrion: It's so like, this is what I wanna do with my life is like sentimental. I love sentimental and so.

Like even we had a local realtor pass away. She like wrecked her car and nobody knows what happened. She like went over like the side of a cliff and it was like really tragic for our community. And my friend was friends with her and she was like, could you make a connector of her car? A nineties pathfinder?

And I was like, hell yeah, I can get it laser cut from my friend. So like her mom, her sister, and my friend came in and we did like that for them. And then I made like a custom K for the girl's name and like that's what I live for. Yeah. Is this fundamental stuff, you know? And it's just like. How you make people feel with that.

You know? I love it. And at end

Harvest: of day, like, yeah, even we were talking earlier, it's funny you were like, well, I'm always someone who keeps going. And I'm like, I wanna, I don't wanna be worried about paying my mortgage. But I see when I, when you said that, I'm like, yes, of course we all need money to survive and we wanna do things that like, you know, are enrich our lives with money.

aid is like, I feel like you [: 00:54:00

Jen Thyrion: Yeah.

Harvest: I wanna do something.

Jen Thyrion: I like, I love the restaurants because I love to feed people. Like

Harvest: exactly like you're doing things that you love, like,

Jen Thyrion: yeah.

Charities and things like that that we've like been a part of with our restaurants and stuff like that at the end. 'cause I always feel like that just comes back like tenfold to you when you're like putting out that like amazing energy. It just like comes back to you. So I never have been someone that could work a job and be miserable.

I won't do it. I'll find a new job. Like I'll find a new career. Like I could never be the town that we were from in Oregon, everybody worked the mill and they worked there their whole life and then they retired from there. And I'm like, how do you do that? I could not, there's like no way.

Harvest: When you talk, it's like, I can just see you as same as me.

Like I was an employee for a while. I mean, I was, I worked for someone else until like for, until 12 years ago. Until I started being a business owner. But I was a terrible employee to be honest. I mean,

Jen Thyrion: I was too, I was a just, I was a bartender then. I was like a jackass. I wanted to call in sick 'cause I was hung over all the time.

You know, [: 00:55:00

Harvest: like I was just like, I'm not gonna abide by these rules. Like you're

Jen Thyrion: No, me too. I'm such a rebel. It's terrible.

Harvest: I know. I'm like, I'm gonna live my my own rules. And that's why I'm just meant to be do this because me too, I can make my own rules. I can set, I mean, you're not gonna tell me, again, going back to how you can feel, you can kind of, you know, you can kind of guide that when you're control of your own time and life and business.

Right? Like versus like working for someone who your boss is gonna make you feel like crap and you have no other choice, but just stay there, you know, like, no thanks. Yeah.

Jen Thyrion: Do, yeah. I have to enjoy what I'm doing in life. I feel like it's so, so like soul sucking people that go to a job that they hate every day.

Yeah. I used to tell the kids when they'd walk in. I called every employee. My kids when they'd come in, they'd have to walk by my office. And I was like, if you're in a shit mood, turn back around and go. 'cause like you're gonna like poison everybody else for the day. And I'm really sensitive to people's energy like I just am

Harvest: completely.

iew someone, hire someone, I [: 00:56:00

We're not doing it. We have to, we have to figure this out because I don't want that energy in here.

Jen Thyrion: You people pick up on it instantly. I only had that like literally once in my restaurant, which was shocking. These two girls that were so bad and they both worked for me for so long and were just like hating each other.

And I was like, I'm about to put both of you in a big old t-shirt together and you're gonna figure it out or you're both gonna leave like big old

Harvest: t-shirt. I'm like, I

Jen Thyrion: can't. And I think that's why Elise and I like we. Are a vibe. We joke, we're like, we are a vibe together in here. Because we like tell everybody, oh yeah, we've been friends for 26 years.

And they're like, what? You know? And we just, it's a vibe and it creates. When we open this, there are other permanent jewelry girls in town, but they're like, one's doing it outta her tanning salon and one's doing it. They're all like, kind of like a side thing or they're doing popups or whatever. And like, I don't even think twice about it 'cause I'm like, we have a space, like we created a space.

a service. Like we create a [: 00:57:00

Yeah. Like it's so hard not to, and if you're just trying to like make a little bit of money here and there, but I'm such a like, do as much upstream as you can.

Harvest: I know I'm

Jen Thyrion: gonna

Harvest: ball the wall kind of girl.

Jen Thyrion: Yes. I'm bored if I'm not like over. I know.

Harvest: Same. Same.

Jen Thyrion: I get way bored with it, but I don't know. We're thinking about actually like doing some coaching this year maybe too, because.

the right person and I don't [: 00:58:00

Harvest: well, yeah, and I think that, you mean obviously you were in business prior, which I didn't even know.

Like I said, in my mind I was like, oh, you've been making jewelry for like 30 years, you know? I don't know. Since you were a baby. No. Yeah, I have no idea. But like, the fact that you owned also different types of business, so, but obviously both were successful. There's so, so there's something that we said about that.

Like you were, you know, able to, it wasn't just the business, like you caught onto this jewelry making right? When the beginning of permanent jewelry and you flew with it. It's like you had a previous business that was successful. So there's a lot to be said about that. And even when you're talking, I feel like you're just someone who.

So, I don't know if you agree with this, but I feel like so many people overthink things, right?

Jen Thyrion: They do.

Harvest: Yeah.

Jen Thyrion: They overthink it and like I, I'm not a overthinker, I'm just a figure it outer, you know? Yeah. Like, it's not as, I've had this poor, really sweet girl has been in my inbox this week and my personal page, and I don't care.

about she's moving and she's [: 00:59:00

I'm like, here's, let me calm you down a little bit. You know, like I don't have time to help a ton of people, but like

Harvest: Sure.

Jen Thyrion: Sometimes you can just say one little thing and I'll like put it in perspective for somebody.

Harvest: Well, let's talk numbers about brick and mortar. So how have you, I know you just opened, you're literally, what, two months?

Not even three full months. And

Jen Thyrion: we just finished three months. Yeah, three

Harvest: months.

Jen Thyrion: Yeah. So

Harvest: how has it been so far?

Jen Thyrion: So first month we did like 14,000.

Harvest: Okay.

Jen Thyrion: The second month we did like 16,000, and then last month we did 15 five. I mean, I'm happy with that, with the, it's averages out to about 500 bucks a day and for being.

As slow as it is downtown. And like when I moved here too, I didn't know a soul and I still don't know a ton of people because I've been at at home with my business this whole time. Sure,

Harvest: sure.

Jen Thyrion: So I'm happy with that for as slow as it is downtown right now. 'cause I can't even imagine what it'll be like in the summer for us,

Harvest: you know?

I know. It'll be really interesting to see

Jen Thyrion: how, yeah.

Harvest: Yeah.

Jen Thyrion: And so we have, [: 01:00:00

I met this really nice lady that runs it. She moves all over the country and just keeps adding people to it. She's doing a whole event here this weekend, a private event. And then we have like our gallant henes thing too. So it should be really fun. And then once the restaurant's open, you can hear them doing construction all day, which is annoying.

But get it done, let's go. I know, right? I'm like, y'all need some help. Like I have some experience like what can I do for you? You know?

ect or your goals are for the: 2026

ple were like getting it and [: 01:01:00

And I totally stood out because I had these connectors, you know, that this other girl didn't have. And like that's still like really what I want for my business at the end of the year. But being able to go smaller with who I'm selling to and still be able to make a living off of it, that's what I have to figure out.

Is that possible? 'cause I love the people that I do work with and I do feel like

Harvest: there's just some randoms on my site lately that I'm like, this is

Jen Thyrion: not what I intended here. I don't think people are buying my connectors and going to someone's place and being like, can you put this on? I really don't think that's happening at the end of the day.

But I also have, like on Desert Darlings, it's half permanent jewelry people that follow me and half Western jewelry people that follow me.

Harvest: Okay.

Jen Thyrion: So I really need to find like. I thought, do I do two separate Instagrams? Like

Harvest: I

Jen Thyrion: don't

Harvest: know. Well I know 'cause you're wholesaling in general. So Yeah, that actually brings up a good point.

'cause of course my mind goes right to permanent jewelry, but are there some jewelers just buying your findings and making jewelry and selling the jewelry with them?

at's been buying from me for [: 01:02:00

So, you know, I do tag like findings and charms and stuff like that in there, but I'm trying to do more jewelry just with my husband. 'cause he hand makes beads and he trademarked the term Arizona Pearl instead of Desert Pearl.

Harvest: Oh

Jen Thyrion: wow. And so he like. That's his big thing. And so we're doing drops. We're doing, um, charm, build your own charm, necklaces with his beads.

And then I'm hand making charms too. Oh,

Harvest: cool.

Jen Thyrion: So, you know, I'm trying to like, either change the whole website to be all wholesale, no regular jewelry. But honestly, when I finally get a chance to like make a ring or a necklace, I pop it on my story and I sell it in like 20 minutes to one of my country followers or whatever, you know?

Harvest: Yes.

ng to make something fun, be [: 01:03:00

'cause I do have a lot of jewelry in here and it's selling and it's good to like, have it sitting in here. And my sweet old neighbors keep buying it from me down here. Have one neighbor that just, or two of 'em actually that every time they're,

Harvest: oh, you have something new this week. And I wanna talk about, so your name is so amazing.

Is it like,

Jen Thyrion: yeah.

Harvest: What did, what's the story behind that?

Jen Thyrion: So my mom knew somebody named Harvest, like she met someone named Harvest. And so she went with that. And then my uncle lived with my mom and dad, and he was like such a free spirit. Like he traveled Europe and picked up every hitchhiker there was.

Love it. And so he picked a hitchhiker named Trea. That's my middle name. No way. Yeah, he came home, he was like, oh, I just picked your little jacket. It was trea. And my mom was pregnant with me and she was like, oh, that's cool. So harvest trea, you know.

Harvest: I was gonna say, your mom, your mom must be cool because like with naming child,

ther funny, I'm trying to be [: 01:04:00

So I have actually been estranged from my mom for four years.

Harvest: Oh, I'm sorry.

Jen Thyrion: It's okay. But it's funny because I get so many requests on my Facebook for friend requests. Like in one, there's 79 pending this morning on my thing from like people. And I don't wanna like offend people that I like, don't let 'em on my Facebook, but I'm like kind of private with it because I don't talk to her.

And so not talking to her caused me to not talk to 80% of her family too. And so like I'm just kind of a private person. So if you are my pending friend request, that's why like, I dunno if you know my crazy mom, you know like, I dunno. No, my mom's whole family is like hippie. Like I have 16 cousins and we all have like crazy names.

, yeah. And my kids, I stuck [: 01:05:00

Like Maple Tree.

Harvest: Yep.

Jen Thyrion: And my son's timber, so

Harvest: Oh my God. I love that. They're

Jen Thyrion: so sweet. And then I'm like, and then this is my husband Dave. Sorry. You're like, it's like our comedy show. Every time we meet people I'm like, oh, harvest. This is Maple Timber. There's Dave.

Harvest: There's Dave.

Jen Thyrion: And he's such a, like, tries to be so serious and stuff all the time.

He is just like this giant of a man, you know? And he is just, I'm just Dave,

Harvest: like, oh my gosh. He needs an alter ego name. We need to give him up. I know.

Jen Thyrion: And he was a tree trimer forever. Like that was his life. And then,

Harvest: yes,

Jen Thyrion: and then I made him quit his job to help me when Bengals first started. And I was like, like crying on the back porch.

You have to quit your job. Like

Harvest: I would love to talk about this. Actually, I, I, I have another podcast coming out, the Sweetest, um, Heather from Silver 72, I think it's called. Oh yeah, yeah. She's amazing. But yeah, when she was opening her brick and mortar too, it was like, boom, like husband quit the job. And I'm like, oh, I love that.

really hesitant. So what was [: 01:06:00

You know what I'm saying? I did.

Jen Thyrion: So when I sold our restaurants, the people that walked in and just wanted to buy it. We had no idea what we even wanted to sell it for. And we were just like, how about this number? And we didn't own the building, so they just literally bought my brand and my recipes.

Harvest: Wow.

Jen Thyrion: And they gave us money upfront and then they gave us payments every 10 months. And it was like right after I moved here. And so like Dave was working as doing trees on the side and then he ended up being like a maintenance guy for a private school here, and then ended up being their dean of discipline.

But we were just, I got so busy with the Bengal part of it. Yeah. That I was like probably making way more than he was even making at the school. And so I was like, you have to quit and you have to go take the class at the college that I took. So he took the class from the husband of the wife that taught me and who teach so differently.

o Dave learned way different [: 01:07:00

Okay. And that was before we even like decided, like before I even started silversmith. And we were like, okay, I get to be stay home mom. Finally, like, our mortgage is only 900 bucks. Like, it was so cheap. It was awesome. And then we were getting those payments. So the, we bought the house and then we did one whole year of mortgage payments also to like make sure we could get settled and like, not worry about it.

Like I'm not, I, we don't have like a bunch of debt or credit card debt or anything. I try to be like really good about those kinds of things, I guess. I feel like you're never winning at the end of the day when you just have a ton of debt. Who cares what your sales are, you know?

Harvest: Agreed.

Jen Thyrion: And so, yeah, we were just like strategic with those payments.

Harvest: Good.

he first year that we didn't [: 01:08:00

And then last year we did, um, over half a million last year. And so it was just a, the second year we didn't think we were gonna be that busy, so we were like just one account, not paying ourselves.

Harvest: Yeah.

Jen Thyrion: We were, you know, and so at the end of the year, I screwed myself with taxes. 'cause when they're like, oh, you sold these restaurants, you got these payments, you sold another property, you moved and you made all this money.

We were like, oh my God. And so. We're like, we gotta get on payroll. So this year we're on payroll.

Harvest: It's funny, I'm doing that for myself for the first time this year as well. 'cause I have never been on payroll myself. And so yeah, that's something to talk about because I feel like that's also just part of the process.

as definitely grown the last [: 01:09:00

I have not been great with my numbers forever. I've been doing my own spreadsheets forever. Oh, totally. Like I'm finally outsourcing it. I'm finally paying myself as you. As you level up, you definitely get smarter and you just kind of have to

Jen Thyrion: Yeah, figure it out Some, you just realize what's worth your time.

Like I just did all my QuickBooks the other day and I'm like, why am I doing this?

only had four months to do in: 2025

Jen Thyrion: long. Yeah.

Harvest: I'm just

Jen Thyrion: like, you know, I have like a killer accountant, but he's in Oregon and so the.

In Oregon, you don't have tax, you don't have a sales license. You like, you don't pay tax. Like they, you know, when I did my food orders it was like straightforward, like this is what you're paying for your food. There's no tax on it, like, you know. And so here there's a thing called A TPT license, the Tax Privilege License.

you reach out to me and get [: 01:10:00

So I was like, man, we really have to like get on top of doing that. And I don't know like if he's really familiar with that at all, being in Oregon. So I'm trying to find a new accountant here and it's just been like impossible. I'm like, I just did. So I was like, I'm just gonna stay on top of it, do all my QuickBooks, like the last two years my accountant hasn't gotten my taxes done until November.

Harvest: I mean, you say accountant, do you have like a book? 'cause I have an accountant that does my, you know, taxes at the end of the year, but then I actually just hired a bookkeeper who's gonna actually like, so difference, right? Yeah. So do you have that person or are you literally just doing your own QuickBooks?

Like,

Jen Thyrion: so I do all my own bookkeeping right now, but I, I am like back and forth with someone right now that wasn't sure if she'd take us or not. And I'm hoping that today she'll be like, okay. But she said, she's like, yeah, I can't do your accounting stuff unless I'm doing your books. And I was like, that's fine.

Take it.

Harvest: Yeah, do it. Do it. I

never worked in a restaurant [: 01:11:00

He is the most amazing man. And yeah, so he was like, I don't wanna do paperwork, I don't wanna, I don't wanna do any of shit. So I like had to learn how to do it. When we opened the restaurants, it just was like forced to learn and you know, but really you can't do everything. At the end of the day.

Harvest: You cannot, I mean, you're never, another thing.

Some people might be number of people out there that they're like, no, they wanna do that. And that was never my thing and that's why Yeah. I never wanna say I have any regrets 'cause I don't, I learned so much through things that like, you know, my, my, all my journeys, right?

Jen Thyrion: Yeah.

Harvest: But it's like that's the one thing that I would've outsourced way earlier.

Jen Thyrion: I know I need to, it's just like I'm just, I don't have time for it. I try to, like on Wednesday, Thursdays when I'm here, I'm like, okay, I am gonna save all a whole bunch of paperwork garbage for me to do the first like two hours that I'm here. And it's like, I don't wanna do that anymore. Like I just wanna

Harvest: I

Jen Thyrion: hear you.

You gotta figure out what's worth it at the end of the day to like pay for and what not to pay for, you

Harvest: know? Exactly. Yep. Perfectly said

Jen Thyrion: too. [: 01:12:00

There's just little things. And I love to like share things like that with people, you know, be like, well this is why we do this for this reason. Like there was a lot of really cool things that we learned with the restaurants or that we did in the community that made a huge difference, you know? So it'd be fun to share with people those things.

I

Harvest: know. And also too, just like showing there's different ways to do things too, because again, it's not all one size fits all.

Jen Thyrion: It is, and like I feel like that's a big part of like why I don't wanna like be in like a lot of group conversations anymore either is because like I feel like the new people think that there's only one way to do it because this group said this or this group said this, and it's like, you can do it how you wanna do it.

t of content that I wanna do [: 01:13:00

We'll figure out what works for you. 'cause we did a whole video yesterday about why we did the charm bar this way and why it works for us. It's been weird with the per jewelry community that I feel like, yes, it's so great that there's like experts that like know these things or whatever, but like in the like pizza world, so we had the same thing.

We Pizza expo every year that like everybody wants.

Harvest: There's a pizza expo.

Jen Thyrion: Yeah. And this guy, this guy Tony, he's like the most amazing pizza guy. He's got like pizza rock and like all this stuff. Of

Harvest: course his name is Tony.

Jen Thyrion: I know. Yeah. And he's like the coolest, but he never once will tell you, don't use that product, only use this, blah, blah, blah.

Like, it's very, like, there's just, there's more than one way to do things. I wasn't, I literally put Pizza Hut out of business down the street from me and my billboard. You pulled off the freeway. There's Pizza Hut on the right. My billboards up there that says local pizza with our pizza on it. Pointing this way.

t everybody can do things. I [: 01:14:00

You can figure it out. Everything's figureoutable. That's one of my favorite.

Harvest: I know, I agree with you. And that's like, have you read that book? Do you know who that's from? Like,

Jen Thyrion: no, but I love that thing.

Harvest: Marie Forlio, I dunno if you've heard of her, but I feel like that she's always said that. And there's a book literally called that, like everything's figure figureoutable.

I can't say it. Um, but Marie's great. She's got, she's got this thing called B School she's had for years and like, anyway, so she's awesome. But I agree with you. I mean, it's like you said, and I think that it's why, it's like, I feel like when you live in this place of you, I know you get it. Like when you're starting off, you don't know anything.

So you're, you're kind of trying to get from everybody else. I've always said this too, because I've had that, this experience, like with business coaching or. Type of person that's a mentor. If they're telling you like, you need to do this way, or that's not gonna work. Run far away. Because

Jen Thyrion: Exactly.

Harvest: If you truly wanna do something, you gotta figure it out how it works for you, what worked for me.

I also can go through where [: 01:15:00

Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, I want it to be good for you.

Jen Thyrion: My, like, somebody's sales that are down the street could be like amazing for them and supporting their household and their business and what they wanna accomplished. And mine could be like totally not enough for somebody, you know? Like it's, I was trying out that with my branding people, like everyone's perspective is just.

Totally different.

Harvest: I think it's so powerful. That's why I talk about like sharing numbers. I think it is powerful to share 'em because, but also for the reason of just show that, not to let it get to you. Be like, oh yeah, well she made 50 and you only made 10 or something. You know what I mean? But it's really, again, what, like you said, fits into what your version of.

Success is, it depends on what you're offering. How big, like a big number can look really fancy. But if you've ever watched Shark Tank, I've said this before, people are like, I brought in 5 million last year, but I paid myself $5. Like, you know.

Jen Thyrion: Yeah. Where they're like, I'm negative. Are you profitable yet?

No.

No. They're not even paying [: 01:16:00

Jen Thyrion: like not have like a lot to do too with like the products that we're carrying this year. It's like, do we wanna carry something that we're only making like this much on just to make our sales look like they were higher at the end of the year? I don't, you know, like I was really tempted to not do the Navajo Pearls anymore a couple weeks ago when they were 89 cents a bead for four millimeters and at our cost, you know?

And so it's like, do we even, you know, 'cause those are a huge amount of our sales numbers that are like, sure, really high, but like profit margin wise.

Harvest: We don't make that much on them.

Jen Thyrion: We were like really, really debated with that for a couple weeks. We were like, okay, well we're only gonna do 'em if we put 'em at this price.

And then if people don't buy 'em, they don't buy 'em and that's okay. I feel like a lot of people like lower themselves just to have the business and then it's like, well, you're just spinning in circles. Then at that point you're not like actually making money. Yeah, so the numbers don't matter at the end of the year.

I mean, we spent how much on metals and then we spent how much on this and that and salary using,

Harvest: well, we completely, and that's the thing, the gross number. That's, it's so funny. It, it can be gross, like

Jen Thyrion: Yeah, totally. [: 01:17:00

Harvest: You know what I mean? Like it's, it's, that's what I've learned over time. 'cause I mean, I've listened to business podcasts and stuff like that for years and sometimes you can get really stars in your eyes when someone says, oh, we brought in 2 million last year.

But it's like, really though, how much did you net? It doesn't even matter to me. I don't even care how much you grow. Like the net is what matters. You know what I mean? You can be bringing in just as much as you're putting out and then you have nothing. So it doesn't really matter. You can be bringing in 10,000 a month, but your costs are low and you're profiting more than someone bringing in 50 a month.

Jen Thyrion: Yeah. You don't know what someone's overhead is. You know, none of that stuff you just, you don't know at the end of the day. And so it's funny when people think that, I'm like, no, you,

Harvest: no. And that's why Yeah. It's such an, it's such an inner thing and that's why if something, to have someone help you figure that out.

Yeah. And because. It's so personal. It's not.

Jen Thyrion: Yeah. And there could be something that you could, someone can help you figure out that you could tweak and then be making like so much more. Because I, I remember like the second year I was doing per jewelry was in Navajo pearls, and I remember like, I had like a really slow month on them, but then I was like figuring out, yeah, I did like.

pearls, but like I only made [: 01:18:00

We do at home kits for semi-permanent jewelry because I sell the chain already and because like I spent $5,800 on a photo shoot of three different locations to show like this is what bees are for like bachelorette party at the casino and we're doing them on the patio and we're all dressed as bachelorettes.

And then like we did another one at my house for like a girl's night with like photo shoot and everything. And so that's how we like promote them. I'm not trying to like have people start a business with them or whatever, but we sell a ton of them in the store and they're like 129 bucks and I just have pliers in them jump rings that are stainless steel and we tell everybody they just closed, they're stainless steel, like they're semi-permanent.

at they're not interested in [: 01:19:00

You know, I feel like I'm able to capture a customer with everybody. They're like, oh, I would never wanna do like the actual permanent, but for some reason they're like, oh, well these would be fine. So I think a lot of people, it's hard to figure out like what other products you could be doing. Like we're trying to figure out some more products too.

Like I think, I don't know if I looked at a video of your store, if you sent me a picture of your cool like merchandise section and stuff, like we've had a hard time like figuring out who exactly our customer base is here because. Like it's, yes, it's women that are like local between 20 to 45 probably.

But then also any event, like we do a tree lighting and parades and tons of stuff here and it's all tourists and it's just the most random people and we're like, well gosh, who are we target? Who are we targeting? What do I buy? But even selling like one extra thing a day, can at the end of the year bring you this much more money?

do kind of have to listen to [: 01:20:00

Like maybe just having a little bit of something, a collection and like seeing how that does, it's really, it's a lot of trial and error, you know? But it's a lot of being mindful and listening because I have to say, there was many years in my boutique business where I would try to push stuff and no one would ever buy it.

But I wanted people, I wanted it to work so bad 'cause I liked it, but I was like, in the end my customers aren't for that. Like I used to sell clothing like crazy. Now in the space I'm at, maybe it's different 'cause I have the experience boutique and maybe like obviously. Retail has evolved in 10 years as well.

People are more into fast fashion. There's more places to buy from than there was 10 years ago. But I actually just recently made the decision that I'm downsizing my clothing. 'cause I was like, you know what? It's just not going. People are more interested in the gifty stuff and like the more unique stuff.

I think they're coming to me for more like local handmade different, that you can't just buy an Amazon, which is what I really want anyway, you know?

Jen Thyrion: Oh, totally. Words getting out that like people know now or they've come in once and like bought it and gone, oh my God, I'm gonna go back there to buy a birthday present for Sue, or whatever.

know they can find something [: 01:21:00

Right. Like, again, my business has evolved, so that's probably it too. But again. It's just things are shifting and changing so fast. You know, when it comes to the clothing, it's such a different world than it was when I started. So, but if that's your niche, like for you like the Western look, whatever, like if that's something though where people can't, you know, they wanna be able to see that.

And maybe, I don't know about your area, maybe you have a lot of that, but I'm just saying like maybe it's somewhere where that's your customer. That makes sense.

Jen Thyrion: It's weird here 'cause it's like a retirement town, so there's not like a ton of young people. There's not really like many places to go do girl things.

Like really, you know, unless you just go to a bar or something. 'cause I thought that too, I was like, oh, should I bring in some like westerny stuff? 'cause like all of our posters too are like cowgirls.

Harvest: Yes. I noticed that. Yeah.

Jen Thyrion: Oh my God. I have to tell you really quick, because I've never really shared this with any of the permanent drawing c it just hit me looking at my sign.

[: 01:22:00

Like I will reno be will be my heart for the rest of my life.

Harvest: I lived in Vegas for nine years.

Jen Thyrion: Oh yes. Okay. So the brothels. So the brothels?

Harvest: Yes.

Jen Thyrion: The darlings of the desert. So,

Harvest: oh my God, I'm putting, I never, I never would've thought that.

Jen Thyrion: Yeah, I know. Nobody does. And so that's where the name actually came from.

That was before I even started doing permanent jewelry stuff because I was just like, oh, this is so funny. And like that was my thing. My first thing I did was make jewelry out of those tokens. And I was just like, oh, Nevada girl. And like the madam follows me from one of the brothels, like she loves me, she's bought stuff from me.

Like, it's just so funny.

Harvest: The broth

Jen Thyrion: home. The darlings of the desert. Yeah.

t's amazing. I feel like you [: 01:23:00

Jen Thyrion: Well, people do come in all the time with our logo and they're like, this is so cute.

We're like, maybe we should do some merch. Even my candles, my friend makes all of our candles and she did our logos on 'em, and then all of our charm bar stuff has our logo on it too with our QR codes on the back. Even the necklace holders have 'em just. Because I'm trying

Harvest: to, I don't know. I'm just such a fan.

I think like most people listening to obviously are doing permanent jewelry and maybe like getting into adding more experiences and whether you have a brick and mortar. I think that's what plays into what selling too, is that knowing that it just plays into the experience. Like, and if I can sit there and communicate of like these candles are made by actually local, disabled adults, which we have.

It's called Hunter's Hope. They're amazing once they know these things or know the things behind even the gemstones of things that we create, or the fact that all this jewelry is made by my team of mama makers. Like once they know that, they're like, oh my God. You see it in a totally different way versus just buying a candle at Walmart.

You know?

Jen Thyrion: It's like a feel good thing. People are like, oh, this is cool. Like I'm supporting this person, and like,

Harvest: yeah, yeah,

Jen Thyrion: yeah. [: 01:24:00

And she does, and there's not, they're not like half the price of like, what you retail 'em for, but I don't care. It's a local person and it's handmade, you know? I think there's like a big like false, like conception, I guess it is, of like you buy something and you're gonna triple it, you know, three, 300% or something and make money on it.

And it's like, sometimes that's not true. Sometimes with certain products, that's not the case. But maybe because you have that product, someone came in and bought something else, you know?

Harvest: Well, it's funny because I think if, if you did start off in the permit jewelry world and say that you are expanding your business where you are adding merchandise that we're talking, being that I was from that first and a reselling kind of just buying and selling other than, you know, just selling my handmade jewelry, it wasn't service-based at all.

have to understand, you buy [: 01:25:00

But it adds to the environment and your inexperience and why the customer's coming to you. You know what I mean? So, and that's gonna only help your sales in the future. So you gotta, again, look at the big picture.

Jen Thyrion: I try to explain that to people 'cause I'm sure people ask you all the time, well, what do I charge for this?

Harvest: Yeah. And

Jen Thyrion: I tell people, well, some people triple it. It depends what, it depends what event you're at too. Are you at a, are you at NFR triple that shit, or like a, a local girl that she got out a permanent jewelry, but when I made that first post on Facebook, she was the one that messaged me and bought like a huge amount of 'em.

ave them. And I'm just like, [: 01:26:00

People wouldn't just stop to buy it because, so I've heard, explain that to people. I feel like so many people get it stuck in their head that it's like it has to be, again, it has to only be this way and it's like it doesn't

Harvest: happen.

Jen Thyrion: Right?

Harvest: Or Yeah. Or like all the profit merchants have to be the same and it's not.

And that's why I do choose my, my products. I offer like merchandise, like with intention. Because also too, although I offer a lot of experiences, I know some people might be like, whoa, that's too many. But this is the thing, uh, we even say it when we give the spiel when people walk through the door, it's like, this is our permanent jewelry.

That's kinda what we're known for, dah, dah, dah. You know what I mean? We kind of show everybody everything because in the end, like that's our high ticket, right? That's why I actually want you to come in the door and if you wanna make a cool charm necklace, because it's a gift and that's only 40 something, 50 bucks, cool.

Yeah. If you wanna grab a candle, hell yeah. You know what I mean? Like, yeah. So it's just, and it's an added thing. And knowing that that's there, but that's not our main reason. You know, our main reason's permanent jewelry and custom jewelry,

one of your server and like. [: 01:27:00

The manager at Applebee's yells at you. Exactly. Unless you offer an appetizer first. You know, because it adds up at the end of it. It love all adds up at the end.

Harvest: We could talk, we could talk forever. I'm trying to convince,

Jen Thyrion: I know,

Harvest: I'm trying to convince her to go to PJ X, so if you guys listen to this, please DM her.

Jen Thyrion: I know. I'm

Harvest: trying to convince

Jen Thyrion: Herj and this, who was it? Alyssa too. Alyssa's so sweet man. She's so dang sweet. She messages me like all the time and she, she is such a caring, wonderful person. And she, same thing. She's like, oh, I wrote this whole thing about you and I suggested you and like she shows me.

And I was like, you were so nice. Like, I'm like, you don't really know how to make someone feel good about themselves. Like,

Harvest: oh no, don't you have those people, it's the best. Like, you know, just like they really are your cheerleaders. I love it.

Jen Thyrion: I know always someone that's just like me, like modest or whatever, you know?

And so whenever anyone's super nice to me, I'm like,

Harvest: it's the best. Emphasize those, right? Like yeah. Yeah. You gotta, yeah, hopefully. I mean that's, that's like my dream is to see you at PJX. I'd like to hang out. I think we'd have fun.

Jen Thyrion: I

: know. But besides that, is [: 01:28:00

I

Jen Thyrion: dunno. I feel like we covered so much, but I just, I know. Like want people to know that like we're here and when we're changing things, just bear with us. You know? Like we're in another business at the end of the day just trying to figure out what works best for us. And I'm not saying no, 'cause I don't want to do it for you.

It's just sometimes I don't have time. Or, it's funny, in that video I was like posting about. Hey, I need to have more time with my family. My daughter walks up outta nowhere and is like, I love you, mommy. And I was like, I'm like, this is what I'm trying to have more time doing. You know, like I want my kids to see that we're like crazy hard workers and all that, but at the end of the day, you wanna be able to like just smother, I'm a smother my kids with love kind of person.

Like I, yes, I agree. Store. They're the coolest little people I've ever met in my life. Like, yeah, just want to spend every second with them. My son's gonna come and get a bracelet today after school.

Harvest: I love it.

Jen Thyrion: Yeah,

Harvest: I love, he's when normal boys get bracelets and do

ute. He, he made one for his [: 01:29:00

And Maple thinks that Elly owns. Store. And I just let her think that because she's always like, can we go see auntie? And she like runs down the corridor, you know? And she's like, auntie, because she gets like a free bracelet every time. And so she just thinks, can we play Auntie's store? I'm like, yes, she, well, is that cool?

Harvest: Like the memories you're creating? 'cause you can always think back to your childhood and whatever. And my girls, they grew up obviously with me having a business, you know, with the brick and mortar, it's been a little under a year. But it's funny 'cause people always ask me like, aren't they so excited to come in?

I'm like, you know what? No, they actually, well first of all, they wanna make something. Every time I'm like, we have a million lip glosses and we can't make another charm necklace. Like, it's fine. But in the end it's like, I don't think they realize, they just grew up with it. They don't realize. But I think that's obviously, looking back, hopefully, you know, especially when they get a little older and appreciate it more, that they'll be like, wow, that's so cool that mom had a store.

You know what I mean? Like

Jen Thyrion: Oh, totally.

Harvest: Hopefully. Hopefully they appreciate it.

or whatever he needed. Yeah. [: 01:30:00

And so like the kids, they, they love being down here, like timber will come down and, and the restaurant timber was on my billboard. He was like, oh

Harvest: my

Jen Thyrion: gosh, billboard going. They had to make an extender off of it for his arm. And then my second restaurant was called Timber's. So like,

Harvest: oh my gosh. That's amazing.

That's

Jen Thyrion: so funny. You, there was like a cartoon lady next to him on the billboard next to him and he always goes, who's that lady?

Harvest: Oh my gosh, they're

Jen Thyrion: so cute. That's so cool. It's

Harvest: so funny. Cool. Because like, I mean, really when you think, I think back to like my, both my parents were working. Parents and, but it wasn't a type of thing where I knew what they did.

You know what I mean? Like, you know when you're a kid and you're like, yeah, my dad does this, but I don't really know what he does. You know?

Jen Thyrion: Exactly.

Harvest: That's so cool that you know, your kids have been able to really know what you do and been able to step inside of that, like that's really cool, you know?

Yeah.

Jen Thyrion: It's really fun to like show them everything and I can't wait till the day that timber can make jewelry with me. Gosh. Like he loves to make Dory At Christmas we make copper ornaments together and he knows how to use my rolling mill like

Harvest: heck Yeah.

: It's like my dream to like [: 01:31:00

Timber knows, like he can sell stuff, you know, and make money. He's got his own little credit card that I put money on for him, you know, like, love it. He knows. We've like been very like adamant about being like, you can we go to Target? You're, you gonna buy your own toy? You know, and he like pays for it and stuff and so I think it's all at the end of the day really good thing for your kids to teach him that.

Harvest: I know. So my daughter who's seven, so she like, she a couple times have come to the shop and she'll just color and draw. She loves to draw. She's actually pretty good. She has this kitty corn that's her best seller.

Jen Thyrion: How cute.

Harvest: Anyway, so she'll like sit there and have her drawings and put like 10 cents on 'em and like, you know, sell 'em and it's so sweet.

But yeah, that's what's nice about being a business owner is that honestly Harper's also getting to the point, you know, she's like, can I sell different things? Am I making these pinch pots at school? I'm like, yes. We'll have a little corner and have like your picture and like sell like little things that you make.

I think that's amazing, you know? Oh, that's so cool. So, yeah, it's, it's definitely enriching them. I feel so.

hey're like, yeah. You know, [: 01:32:00

I'm like, oh, let's leave auntie alone. Like,

Harvest: who's this wild child in here? Where's your mom?

Jen Thyrion: Usually I'm like trying to like, just pop in really quick, looking like a bum silversmithing gear. You know? It's like two, like such like different things. I'm so dirty. Silversmithing. My nails are so dirty. My clothes are dirty.

I can't wait to wash my face as soon as I'm done every day. And then I come here and I'm like, oh, I gotta curl my hair and actually put some makeup on and,

Harvest: okay, where can people find you? All the places. Where can we stalk you?

Jen Thyrion: So we are Desert darlings, silver Darlings with an s, silver.com. On Instagram and Facebook, all on the same exact name.

So you can check our website out. If there's something you're looking for, you can always message me. And if I, sometimes I pull things off the website because I only have like one or two left, and then I'll end up still having it or something like that. So that's okay. And then, yeah, follow my Instagram because I'm a big story poster, not like a real poster.

I like to post [: 01:33:00

Harvest: Can't

Jen Thyrion: wait. So follow us on there. For sure. So I had, when it was really slow last year, I had a piece of jewelry, like these necklaces kind of like go virally and they're not permanent jewelry.

And so it's shifted my whole following to non-permanent jewelry people. So I'd love to be able to do some advertising, but I can't do for my like followers. And there's no like permanent jewelry section to select of interests.

Harvest: I know I wish there was.

Jen Thyrion: Yeah, I'm trying to get more like permanent jewelry people like filtered back into our Instagram so that I can do stuff like that.

Harvest: I mean, yeah, that's why I had that question 'cause I thought about it mean you're just obviously wholesale findings. People can use 'em how they want. Again, my mind goes right to permanent jewelry with you, but again, I mean the things you offer someone just making and selling jewelry can also. Would obviously find great value.

art making like Navajo pearl [: 01:34:00

Harvest: Yes. Yes.

Jen Thyrion: And they're like great, uh, stuff. The one that's like my big huge buyer, like she will buy tons of connectors from me and then she makes her own necklaces with chain.

Like that's a big thing that people, you have all these things at your fingertips.

Harvest: I know. I think that's like thinking outside the box because of course I'm, I, before me doing permanent, obviously I've made my own jewelry, but it's like once you have, yeah, you have the skills of welding and you're buying these connectors, like really you can offer, you know, a little ready to wear and or show what you can make custom that is kinda with a cla on or whatever.

I mean, it's so endless.

Jen Thyrion: Yeah, that's what Steph does. She does. She probably half the stuff that she buys from me, she puts on chains and like designs, necklaces. So her whole booth is like ready-made, ready-made, ready-made jewelry with permanent jewelry like in the back and she kills it with that stuff, you know?

So

Harvest: Amazing.

l permanent, but would maybe [: 01:35:00

Harvest: So another, back to the coaching thing, you know, so I know.

Jen Thyrion: Let's, let's do some coaching together. We

Harvest: could. We should. I would be down. I think that would Me

Jen Thyrion: too.

That

Harvest: would be super

Jen Thyrion: fun.

Harvest: That would be really fun. We could have like come to PJ X and we'll talk about it. Just kidding.

Jen Thyrion: Okay. Pjx is like the weekend of my birthday too.

Is it? Yeah. Oh my gosh.

Harvest: My

Jen Thyrion: birthday's the fifth. So,

Harvest: okay. Yes. That will be so fun.

Jen Thyrion: I mean, I might just end up just having to come just really quick by myself.

Harvest: Really,

Jen Thyrion: Vegas is only four hours drive from me and I have a ton of friends in Vegas that I could just like stay with

Harvest: or whatever.

Jen Thyrion: I'd love to see anyways.

But

Harvest: yeah,

Jen Thyrion: because we wanted, when we we're gonna go that one year, my husband was gonna come, I got an Airbnb with a pool and my dad was coming and my aunt and everything, and I'm like, maybe I just need to go by myself. I really want Elise to be able to come though. She's so fun. And like people are really getting to know her well now too, you know?

So,

now, by then maybe you could [: 01:36:00

Jen Thyrion: you two. We definitely by then will have somebody in the shop.

'cause that's gonna be at a dead of summer. Like we're gonna be hopping in here.

Harvest: Oh yeah, that's true. You did mention that's like your tour, like your busy

Jen Thyrion: time. So yeah, that's like rodeo season, that's tourist season here. So I'm hoping to have two people. Hired by then, even to where I don't have to come in on Wednesdays, Thursdays anymore.

Like I enjoy being here, but I wanna be able to, like yesterday I just came in for like four hours just to like hang with Elis and figure some things out and

Harvest: yeah,

Jen Thyrion: instead of talking on FaceTime all day, you know,

Harvest: but whatever you make, you're gonna sell out of. So just know that, you know,

Jen Thyrion: if I could just mask reduce, I just don't have enough pro like.

Room wise, profit margin wise to hire somebody to make these with me.

Harvest: Well, that's what's funny you say that. So this is gonna go on a whole, like I said, we could talk for hours because obviously I have makers. Okay. I don't hand make everything. I don't, there's no way I could, there's no way. So when, you know, when people talk about pricing, and I mean maybe not so much for you because what I do is more wire wrapping.

l, you know, the way we make [: 01:37:00

Jen Thyrion: Yeah,

Harvest: okay. It's hard, man. It's hard because it's like, well, there's a lot that goes into it beyond just making the piece.

And I do pay makers and I, I want to pay them like I'm not paying them pennies. Okay? They aren't slaves. When you are outsourcing, you have to understand to run a business. And these, it's so funny when people say that, 'cause they are, are themselves business owners, you know, but you know, you might not understand what goes into all of it.

And even for myself being strictly mobile versus brick and mortar, totally different business. Okay? Totally different business. Way more overhead. You, you know, you have to factor that in to what your prices are. Bottom line, talk about profit margin. That's a lesson in that there's a lot that has to keep it going and that people don't really obviously understand, which is fine, we did it.

But, but yeah, like you said, because once I thought of that as a lot while you're talking, I'm like, God, are you ever gonna outsource and like, and be able to train someone to do this? But yes, you would have to raise your prices, right?

five type thing is like, if [: 01:38:00

But if I'm doing one of this one, one of this one, one of this one, like it takes me longer. It's not, you know, something. So I did, my teacher did refer me to another girl. She's like, oh, she was just like you. She was like a natural, she's like, she would totally come work for you. And I did meet her and she probably would come silversmith for me.

But like the silversmith thing is not something that you can just like do anywhere. Like I have like the torch, the exhaust? Yes. The pickle pods, the rolling mills, the like all the hydraulic presses with all the pancake D Like my studio was so expensive to make and like get everything in there. And I really invested in that a lot last year because I don't wanna go saw out your thing.

I'm gonna pop it out with my pancake dye because time's money say you can always make more money, but you can't make more time.

Harvest: Exactly.

Jen Thyrion: But, and it's just gonna get to that point this year where if it doesn't, if it doesn't fit into your budget for you to be able to sell it, then we're just not a perfect match, you know?

But I can't just like [: 01:39:00

Like, I'm not, I don't wanna do that. Well, you're just the best. This is some stuff you're the I'm talking to. No, you're this.

Harvest: So fun. This was fun. Okay, we'll end here. Um, it was been such a fun conversation and um, it would be fun to even like follow up. I feel like with you just opening your brick and mortar, I would love to like chat like even the end of the year or, yeah.

And so kind of what your year brought, because I think that absolutely. My, I just feel like there's, you're gonna keep evolving and just gonna be really fun stuff happening. So

Jen Thyrion: Yeah. It's always a pivot. You just pivot. If COVID taught me anything, it was pivot, you know, we went through COVID and the restaurants and we pivoted and we survived and you just.

You know, like on Friends Pivot, you know, like Pivot. Yeah, exactly. That's why I always say pivot. You know,

ich I actually do wanna talk [: 01:40:00

Even speaking of COVID with having a restaurant, you could have easily let that take you down. You could have been like, because you would've been almost valid in, in doing it. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Oh,

Jen Thyrion: totally.

Harvest: Yeah. Because holy crap, the worst people that I had to deal with was probably restaurants, to be honest, you know?

But you obviously looked at what you can do using and, and choosing the perspective of, of it rather than, you know, I mean,

Jen Thyrion: take home Kit. You know?

Harvest: Yes, yes.

Jen Thyrion: And get videos on how to do it and like

Harvest: Right.

Jen Thyrion: It works. You gotta just figure

Harvest: it

Jen Thyrion: out. Gotta go with it. And I was able to keep every single one of my employees working the whole entire time.

People literally loved us so much in our community that we emptied the restaurant out and just pushed everything aside. And the kids also came to work and did everything to go and ran all their food out to them in the parking lots and still gotta see all their regulars. And we were just packed and we moved the food truck in the parking lot.

Yeah. Stop table during COVID, you know?

Harvest: Yep.

ing different from somewhere [: 01:41:00

Harvest: Exactly.

Jen Thyrion: There's no, just, we're done,

Harvest: you know? No. Okay. Thank you so much for your time. You're welcome. We'll, good luck again, I'm sure.

Yeah. And um, have a good day.

Jen Thyrion: Thank you, you too. Thank you so much. Alright, we'll see you later. Bye.

Harvest: 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 Goldie Link Society. You can find out more about our permanent jewelry membership@goldielinksociety.com, our handmade permanent jewelry, supplies of connectors, chain, and more@goldielinksupplies.com.

Okay, I will see you next time. Have a golden day.