Victoria Wieck - Million dollar hobbies

12/04/21 • 28 min

In today's episode, our guest is Victoria Wieck, world-renowned jewelry designer and aspiring author. She has been on HSN selling her products and has 20 years in this realm and she brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the jewelry industry. She has done stuff around jewelry and design.

[5:43] Why should I listen to you?

I hope to be able to prove that my time was worth our time was worked together. I have a very interesting story, a different story, and it's my story, so I'm going to own it.

[8:52] Back in 1989 or when I started my company, we were the first generation of females. I'm going to work outside the home in a manager position before mostly secretaries, restaurants, and whatnot. So basically, we were working like crazy, and I left my kids. I was going to leave my kids at home the same way my parents left me. They did it involuntarily, but I had a choice. I pretty much started my company in search of freedom, emotional freedom, more than money.

[10:37] The journey to build a $500 million business.

Two very distinctive parts work together emotionally. When I started my business, I was surrounded by naysayers, including my parents, basically telling me you're going to fail unless you have some loads of money. Today, you have social media; you have the same sort of all the pundits and experts that have never been in business before telling you why you're going to fail.

[12:02] I'm a jewelry designer. There's no business more competitive than jewelry design. Every corner, there was a jeweler. It doesn't take a lot of money to get into the business. It takes money to succeed. I've taken this business, conduct to this very saturated business, and somehow find a niche. Grow it, elevate it, innovated it, and then eventually dominated the industry.

[14:44] The emotional part is being disciplined, be consistent, believe in yourself, do something. And remember what I said it, we are also inundated with people who want to motivate you, inspire you, encourage you to do all of this. All those words are words. They don't do anything for you. Actions result in something.

[20:25] I created a job in line for women, those women, working women outside the home who needed to look polished, who needed to have some femininity around her who craved it, who was willing to pay for it. She was making money on her own, and she required jewelry to wear every day.

[21:38] And you better love your customer because that's who you're going to hang out with. That is who's going to pay all your bills.

[26:50] Failure

I've planned my Failure. When I finally got the first samples, I didn't go to New York or the big markets where my buyers were. I went to the small market in Dallas, where I could afford to make some mistakes. If my vendor screwed up and the hinges don't work, and it was not seven inches, it was four and a half. I was going to find out a smaller market. I kind of cast strove with real customers, smaller-scale customers.

[27:51] Failure is not a bad thing. It's not how many times you fail. It's how you get up each time. You better get up differently each time.

[28:21] What promise did God make to the world when he created you?

God made the promise that no matter what comes my way, that I was not going to start, I was not going to suffer. And that there was a purpose in my life as long as I'm breathing. No matter what happens, there was a purpose, and I need to find that purpose.

Key Quotes

[12:51- 12:55] “Every single thing that you believe in yourself, you'll have to tune out people.”

[14:59-15:05] “All those words are words, they don't do anything for you. Actions result in something.”

[15:30-15:36] “Things are possible if you allow it to be in your world, if you want it bad enough.”

[16:42-16:48] ‘You can't be changing your future self all the time, because then you're just going to be forever in the romance.”

[17:24-17:35] “You have to understand when you own a business, it's not about you, it's about your customer and you have to constantly understand the difference between the two.”

Learn more about Victoria Wieck.

Website: https://victoriawieck.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/victoriawieck

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/victoriawieckjewelry/

[5:43] Why should I listen to you?

I hope to be able to prove that my time was worth our time was worked together. I have a very interesting story, a different story, and it's my story, so I'm going to own it.

[10:37] The journey to build a $500 million business.

[21:38] And you better love your customer because that's who you're going to hang out with. That is who's going to pay all your bills.

[26:50] Failure

[27:51] Failure is not a bad thing. It's not how many times you fail. It's how you get up each time. You better get up differently each time.

[28:21] What promise did God make to the world when he created you?

Key Quotes

[12:51- 12:55] “Every single thing that you believe in yourself, you'll have to tune out people.”

[14:59-15:05] “All those words are words, they don't do anything for you. Actions result in something.”

[15:30-15:36] “Things are possible if you allow it to be in your world, if you want it bad enough.”

[16:42-16:48] ‘You can't be changing your future self all the time, because then you're just going to be forever in the romance.”

[17:24-17:35] “You have to understand when you own a business, it's not about you, it's about your customer and you have to constantly understand the difference between the two.”

Learn more about Victoria Wieck.

Website: https://victoriawieck.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/victoriawieck

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/victoriawieckjewelry/

Previous Episode

Katie Irving - The future is amazing

In today's episode, our guest is Katie Irving. A leading expert on youth culture and the founder of Moonshot, an insight agency that propels youth brands by uncovering the culture, trend and mindset of Gen Z + Gen Alpha consumers. She uncovers the ideas of fashion and the center of youth culture that drive 8-figure growth for the world’s leading brands.

[3:09] Why should I listen to you?

I think everybody has an interesting story. I'm a trend forecaster. That's what I've done for so many years. And what I love about that is just people are fascinating. I think it's interesting to understand what people gravitate towards what they love and what they don't love. And I've done a lot of focus groups and a lot of one-on-one interviewing as part of my job over the years. And everybody has an incredible story to tell. I think that's what it is for me is. I'm happy to ask anybody about their story and hear about their journey cause it's always interesting.

[4:22] Trend Forecasting & Futurist

On my website, I call myself a fashion futurist. I feel like I'm always dwelling on the future and trying to think five years ahead. But that's a good way to describe it.

[4:50] What do you do that helps you be credible in terms of what you do like to forecast the future?

I love talking to people. I love traveling, getting connected with customers in different ways like that. So that's been a little bit trickier. I've had to find ways to do that digitally and through social media. I read constantly. I carve out time in my week to do a lot of research every week and keep in touch with what's happening, but also a big part of it is the fact that I've been doing this for almost 20 years. And once you've been in an industry that long and you've tracked trends and customer behavior over that amount of time, it starts to become not easy, but more innate that you can see changes coming way far ahead.

[6:18] The realm of Gen Z and Gen alpha

I've spent most of my career working with youth brands. That has changed over time because obviously, generations are moving in and out of that youth space as they grow.

[6:52] So gen Z's are born 1995 to 2009. And then next, we have gen alpha. These are the youngest guys born from 2010 to 2025. We have a whole new generation coming into the teen market, super disruptive. They're going to bring a lot of positive, amazing changes with them.

[8:05] How do we in the rest of the world prepare for this?

The biggest thing is that the youth customers are increasingly values driven. So that's one of the big changes. Ten years ago, that was not even a conversation for team brands. It was all about fast fashion, and it was all about who could get to the trend first and who could get it into the store the fastest. That was not a lot of fun to design into. It's much more challenging and more fun to develop more responsive trends to the customer, responding to what they need to build their identities and what they need to show their identities to the world. Values-driven is the biggest thing, and just embracing sustainability and circularity, more ethical ways of operating.

[9:55] Moments that allowed you to jump into new realm of work.

I spent about 17 years climbing the corporate ladder, working for different teen retailers, and that was honestly for a lot of my career. It was important to me to get the next promotion in that world, growing my team, growing my title, making it a few levels, and got to a leadership position and just realized that I was really unhappy, and I didn't enjoy it.

[11:09] I left that cushy, steady corporate salary and jumped out on my own and took a few months off to hang out with my daughter, which I had never had the opportunity to do. And then I jumped back in, and that was a huge identity shift, which honestly, I didn't anticipate. I didn't expect the fact that it would change the dynamic of my marriage and me as a mother and as a professional and creative and all these different hats that I wear.

[12:03] Battle with new space

I questioned who I was and kind of how to craft that new identity. It was a big process of learning about myself, but I just had to get comfortable with doubling down on my abilities and trusting myself and doing that at the end of the day.

[16:44] How do you make a living doing that?

Consultancy is probably a great way to describe what our agency does. I was a solo consultant for about a year after I left the full-time corporate world. And then I grew it into more of an agency model, which was all about positioning for bigger projects. And also, because I love working with a team.

[17:17] One of the things with the agency is pulling in people from my network that I've built over 20 years and people who are experts at just great niche topics, and we can tailor to different projects. We can kind of like shapeshift...

Next Episode

Jen Lucas - Yang Yin Health

In today’s episode, our guest is Jen Lucas. Through research and innovation, Jen has made her own food and skincare made out of Matcha powder. She's a big advocate for the importance of knowing what goes into one person's body.

[5:49] Why should we listen to you?

Jen takes life experiences as they come and dwell with them as they occur. Some of them are successful and stick. Some are not. She's not afraid of mistakes, learn a lesson, and move on.

[6:40] How do you just do that?

Fear is a huge factor that many people have, and it's hard to let go of that for sure. Overcoming fear is the first big step we need to take, but it doesn't happen overnight. Take each hardship as an opportunity to grow, explore, and learn a lesson that will feed your soul. For Jen, it took a little while to acknowledge the undesirable feelings and fears that come from challenges and eventually embrace them. Those fears, challenges, and tribulations are part of your journey. Heal from them, let them go, and move on.

[8:33] Yang and Yin Health

Jen has been consciously watching her health in every aspect. That includes quitting drinking coffee, doing yoga, religiously investing on skincare, oral care, cleaning products, et cetera. These small little changes to Jen on this incredible journey helped help her heal and overcome the adversities and insecurities that she was facing then.

[10:09] Jen was introduced to drinking Matcha through her friend. She has always been a tea drinker and loves drinking green tea.

[11:36] Does the ceremony, the process, the ownership of that segment of your data, is that holding power that you believe helps.

Jen had a hard time balancing her career and taking care of her small children. But she commits to doing her best at work so she could provide for her children

[12:41] Jen commits to allocating some "Me Time" by doing a little workout, answering emails, taking a break, and making her tea.

[14:31] What are the great valuable benefits for our health for green tea?

There are so many great benefits that green tea provides to our bodies. Matcha comes from the same plant as green tea but is just grown and processed differently. Matcha has a wealth of antioxidants contained in matcha, including polyphenols, EGCG, and all of those collectively really boost our body's immune defense.

[15:21] Matcha interestingly enhances your mood with the caffeine, but because of all of the antioxidants and the polyphenols and stuff that it contains, it releases caffeine differently. But in coffee, you're experiencing high, and when you're low. Matcha sustains your energy and focus all day, but at the same time, it promotes a state of relaxation. So it's very interesting the way that that dynamic works.

[16:17] How do you bring this to the world?

Jen has always known that she is meant to have her own business, but it took a while for that process to unfold. She keeps reminding herself that whatever it is, it's going to come to her when it's time

[17:53] Jen had a cloudy vision of where she needs to start. But she knew she wanted it to be with Matcha. Jen found a supplier and began selling Matcha online. While offering her option, Jen wants to develop some creative and innovative ways to use Matcha outside of just drinking as a tea. Through exploration, Jen has created an actual skin cream made with Matcha powder. All those antioxidants are extremely good for your skin. For anti-aging, for redness, reducing oil, acne-prone skin.

[19:36] Jen ended up using green tea extract. She has everything research like all the ingredients to make sure everything's spot on and beneficial.

[26:17] What promise did God make to the world when he created you?

God will provide the support that Jen needed as long as we do the work, stay open, and let it in.

Key Quotes

[22:01-22:18] “I listen to podcasts. I attend webinars and I love to absorb this information. However, I think that it's important and for me, especially to take all that with a grain of salt and keep what resonates with me.”