Welcome one and all jewelry industry professionals. My name is Jesse Korby. I'm the co-founder and creative director here at jewelers advantage. And today we have a very special and important lesson for you. We are going to demystify a topic in the jewelry industry that confuses some, that anger.

Some. Of course we are talking about the celebrity jeweler. And what makes them successful? The truth is that the celebrity jeweler has a secret and you are about to learn that secret. In this lesson and it is not what you think it is.

So today, the topic that we will cover in depth is how to sell customs Liberty. Jeweler. My name is Jesse Corby. And once again, I'm the creative director and co-founder here at jewelers advantage. I'm sure you are curious as to why I am qualified to talk about this topic. You'll find out more about that in a second. . If you feel like you need my entire story, there is a video on YouTube and our websites about section title to Empresario my journey from a recording studio in the music industry to a once in a lifetime experience in the diamond district. And then transitioning into consulting, especially when it comes to AI powered brand and business development for e-commerce luxury and jewelry brands.

So there's a whole video all about me. This video is all about you. Let's get a little bit of context as to what we're talking about and why this is so important. A lot of, you may know that I got my start in the diamond district. This. Has max AGA Johnny, the founder of Trax MYC. He is a polarizing and controversial figure in our industry, but he's also a great guy and has built an awesome jewelry business.

He probably does. Anywhere between one to 200 custom projects per month. Out of his operation in the diamond district. So many thanks to max. He really elevated me in my career, gave me my first shot as a consultant later on during COVID. And I went on to do another 168 consulting engagements. After this, many of these were focused on custom project funnels for people that book appointments through our calendar and then sell a custom project and so on.

So keep in mind that everything you see here is heavily influenced by multiple celebrity jeweler, backend operations at this point. And you're going to get to see exactly what I'm talking about in a bit. So if you want to see what we are going to discuss in action, I highly recommend that you check out tracks and YC on YouTube.

They've got this great series called the district where max is very transparent about everything that you can see in how a jewelry business operates behind the scenes. So he's here to educate the public, and that is very much what I. I am here to do. As well today. So that's enough about me. This is all about you.

Who is this lesson for? Well it's for a couple of people. If you're a jewelry industry, newcomer, maybe you're coming from white collar work after AI disrupted your role, and you need to figure out what you're going to do. If you're a jewelry industry, newcomer, this is going to really get you up to speed on how you can use AI for e-commerce.

And especially for ramping up custom jewelry sales, which is mission. Critical. If you want to have a successful jewelry business, 80% of jewelry, retail has some type of custom labor requirement. That's a polygon statistic, not mine. So if you're a jewelry industry, newcomer, you need to know how to sell customs. And this video is for you. If you're a business owner, that's training, new sales reps, you know how big of a problem this is, and throwing somebody into deep water and telling them how to sell customs or telling them that they need to sell customs. Is not easy to do.

Somebody is going to make some expensive mistakes. If you do that. But after this video, if you are the new employee pay attention, this is going to really, really help you understand what custom jewelry, sales, and production and delivery is all about. . The order is not done until the customer says they are happy and they are keeping it.

So whether you're the business owner or the new employee, this video is for you, this is going to really help you. Streamline your custom sales process. And delivery process and make sure that everything in the business is running smoothly and the customers are happy. If you are a private Juul or trying to scale, you probably get stuck between seven to 10 customers per month. And that's tricky because there's a lot of noise in the market about how you're supposed to scale as a private jeweler, or if you should even scale as a private Juul or selling only one-to-one customs.

This is going to show you how you can use customs to also get people into a VIP club, which is really your mailing list. And also how you can pivot to upselling cross-selling downselling with an e-comm store. That's how you're really going to reduce some stress in your life and also scale your income as a private jeweler.

And then of course, maybe you are here because you think that celebrity jewelers are cool and you would like to be one. So if you're an aspiring celebrity jeweler, you are going to need to know what's in this video because it's not just about being cool and famous and having flashy social media and taking pictures with famous people.

You have to actually know how to build the business behind that marketing. Okay. So the big secret here that all of you will need to know is that celebrity jewelers win because of systems and processes. Let's say that again. Really take this to heart celebrity jewelers win because of systems. And processes. Not just the fame and the followers. They're great at getting attention. That's why they have big businesses is because they have a lot of customers that know about them. But they would never actually be able to make money and build a real business if they didn't have the system backing that up.

That's the not so glamorous, not so sexy part. That is absolutely mission critical. If you want to have any type of real scalable business that you can hopefully one day exit and live on a beach somewhere. So from here, pay close attention because there is money in this lesson for you. This is literally going to be how you make money as a custom jeweler. So let's jump over to the diagram. If you're watching this video on jewelers, advantage.com. This is readily available and you are going to want to be aware that we have an AI copilot prepared for you that can help you with this process.

So if you don't have it already paused the video, you can use this QR code right here to download our free AI. And that is going to unlock the fullest potential of your custom jewelry business. Here today, I am going to leave no stone unturned. About what you were looking at and why it's important to your business when you do sign up with that QR code, I'm going to send you this. This is our launch links for our four free AI tools. The flagship model is jeweler's advantage. We call this white label internally. This will be the AI that you want to use for this process. This is very important because it's going to demystify quite a bit for you. . If you have seen people designing jewelry with AI. It's because they are using an AI image generator and have the proper prompts to use for design. So we have everything that you need to get started with jewelry design for AI, with a prompt library here across six different style segments.

And then also do not forget that you can use AI for business development. So whether it's your founder strategy, product creation, doing brand development with our brand prism, sales and service production and delivery, finance content. Content creation and storage as well as e-commerce and social media support. All of that is in the prompt library below that you will find in blue text.

So if you know how to copy and paste. You can simply. Copy the blue text. And drop it into our AI here. It is that easy. That is how you can either design jewelry or figure out how your business is being developed, what you will do in order to use this diagram with our AI. Is very simple. You will click this button for custom project. That is all you will have to do.

I've tested this thoroughly. You'll end up with a conversation started like this, and then the way that you would use our AI to interact with the tool is simply call out the codes that you see in the diagram. So here you'll see that we have H two casting. So in the AI, I said, I'm looking at the diagram.

Tell me about H two. Obviously the AI here knows what I'm talking about and it says the casting process, and this will educate you on whatever you need to know about this particular part of the process. It's going to be very, very good for a beginner . Because you could be anywhere in that process. And you also need to know how these different areas are going to relate to one another.

So if we were talking about casting, which is typically not the easiest thing for a sales person to jump right into, we would need a little bit of context about what we're doing. We were talking about casting, I would say, how does that relate to G one G one here is the pre production meeting with the designer.

So if we scroll up.

Before we start a custom project. We're talking to our team about how we're going to do that project. The AI here is saying how they relate to one another and , why it would be important to talk with your team about production before going into something like casting. From there, we can tie three concepts together. How does that relate to Well, if we look at E one. That's going to be very important because we're using AI images to sell a project to a customer. So we're going to want to know that we can create AI images using a tool like jewelers advantage and drop them into Canva.

And then we would be giving three choices to the customer for them to choose from. And you can make it look very professional by dropping in a watermark. And all of a sudden, when the customer receives these images, it's going to feel like you've worked some kind of magic for them, and you can focus on that sales process to get the deposit in the door so that you can actually do the project. So bear in mind that the AI knows everything we are going to be talking about today.

Which is going to allow me to keep it pretty simple here when I'm explaining the process, just know that anything that you see within this diagram, you can take a deep dive on with our AI in the context of the specific order that you're working on. So you could share reference images. You could share text messages from the customer, with the AI, and it will support you in this process, which is a beautiful thing.

So let's start at the top. And let me take you on a tour of how the jewelers of the future are going to win with AI. When it comes to selling custom projects and scaling into other areas of e-commerce. It all starts with this. This is the customer. We can't have a business without a customer, and we need to get the customer in the door a particular way.

I'm not going to take a deep dive now on the e-commerce and social formal, . Because this is an extensive topic. We do have resources on this. I will talk about in a bit, but just know that you're either bringing the customer in through some type of organic method, maybe an influencer engagement, or like any business you would be advertising at a certain point.

You need to be aware that your customer is finding you on social media. Millennials and gen Z, the overwhelming majority of your customer of tomorrow is finding out about a brand that they buy from for the first time. On social media. So you absolutely positively will need to construct an e-commerce and social funnel.

At some point when you're just getting off the ground. Instagram can be enough. As long as you understand the rest of the process. So the customer would be coming in through the funnel. Maybe they go to an e-commerce landing page and end up on your e-commerce store. And through there, they're communicating with you through a live chat, or maybe the customer is just engaging with the content that you've put up on social media. And through the form of DMS or likes or comments, they are signaling that they are potentially a qualified buyer. This is the first step of qualifying and finding out if there is even a customer to sell to, because you have to know they exist. And they are going to come into your sphere and into your world some way we have a technology strategy video that is also available for free, that talks about all of the underpinning tools that you need for an online jewelry business.

One of those tools is an inbox management system to consolidate all of the messaging from social media and email and so on, because you need to know that customers are trying to talk to you. This would also be where your calendar form is occurring. If you do ask the AI about a one. You will get all of the proper guidance you need about how you can get engagement and how you can turn that into some type of sales opportunity.

This lesson is all about sales. Of course, there's a ton of marketing and marketing goes hand in hand with sales and being a celebrity jeweler. If that is what you aspire to be. But when it comes to sales, 99% of it is just mechanics, making sure that there's an actual real process in place. So that way, if you do have a dynamite salesperson, they can use that process.

And that system as a tool. In order to actually bring revenue into the business. It's paramount. You have to know this. , if you're going to make money in a business, you have to know that. So through the communication is where we would be qualifying and confirming the info of the customer and leading to a pre-call text.

Once it looks like somebody that you do have a real appointment with at a three for everything, a one through a. Three. This is basically pre-sales call. Preparation to get you ready. If somebody is disqualified at any of these stages, you're still going to have an opportunity to turn them into a member of your VIP club at F one. Which is your mailing list.

If you don't get the sale, maybe you can at least get a token from the customer, get some type of communication and contact information from the customer. That will allow you to sell to them later. We have a saying at Juul is advantage that you don't want to set the table twice. That means that you want to capitalize on every opportunity you have and come away with even a small win, if you can, because it could become a big win for you later. So even if you don't get the sales call, see if somebody wants to join your VIP club.

Where we're really trying to get the customer is to be one. We want them on a sales call. Now, at this point, you would be asking them for reference images may be something from their Pinterest. If they're trying to get an engagement ring, usually you can ask the guy to find out a link to the Pinterest boards of the girl.

He's going to ask to Mariam and you can get a lot of reference material that way. Of course, people also bring in pictures of celebrities and stuff like that. So you would want to be getting any type of reference material and use that in the endless amount of ways that you can turn that conversation into a deposit. Now what you were going to want to consider is the viability of a full e-com store that will allow you to upsell, cross sell and down, sell to a customer because sometimes the customer is a bad fit for customs. There are different stages in the process, by the way, where you might determine that a customer is a bad fit for a custom project. And we'll get to that in a second.

But if you were to encounter that, it is ideal to be able to have an e-commerce store where you can then bump the customer over to something that they can see that, you know, you can produce. And that won't be a ton of headaches for you or them. So you can think of the e-comm store as. A visual aid for upselling cross-selling and down selling to the customer.

And basically just having a couple of extra plays in your playbook. If the sales call. Goes favorably. Of course we would be taking the funds. If it doesn't work out, this is one more opportunity to say, Hey, not today. No problem, but I would love to work with you in the future. How about you join our VIP club.

We have some exclusive offers coming out. Sometimes we have some items that we don't even post on the site or social media that we just offer as a special item to our VIP club members. Does that sound good to you? Oh, yeah. Great. Yeah. I'd love to do that. And then you just take their email and phone number and name and all of that.

Get into the VIP club at F1. So again, we're trying to get tokens from the customer, even if we don't get to take funds today, if it does go your way, you'd be shooting for some type of deposit on the call. There's a lot of debate about what amount this should be. And it's probably going to depend on the project.

In that case, ask our AI and reference It's on the diagram. You would just ask about deposits. There's lots of different ways that you can take a deposit. You're either taking a debit or credit card over the phone, right. Then. Maybe you would be sending an invoice so you could ask and say that you need help with a normal invoice that you would probably be sending from Shopify. Which is the industry standard for e-commerce. So we like Shopify at jeweler's advantage. It is a scalable platform. It has more data than anybody on e-commerce and that's good in the world of AI. So just keep that in mind for the future. Normal invoice. You can send them through email. Maybe they're at work. Maybe they can't do the payment right now. Maybe they get paid at the end of the week. Then you do the invoice and then, you know, you, that you need to follow up and contact that customer again, most likely because you're not closing them right there with real cash right now in the business.

The second. So then at maybe they want to finance option. There are finance options, like affirm or Klarna, and there would be ways to get this into an invoice format as well. If they want to do a finance and pay over time. Then also be aware that you could also potentially be sending a full customs agreement. If you reference B two, a four, we typically recommend that you send a proper agreement. If it's over $7,500 again, there's a lot of debates that we can have over pricing for customs. It's an ocean. The conversation of pricing is an ocean for customs. So that is why you'd want to reference AI. Given the specific situation that you're in and do whatever you can to take the funds from the customer and start providing service for them. Let's fast forward and assume that you've either taken the funds into the system, or you're trying to plant a seed in the customer's mind for working with you in the future, which is why they would pay the invoice.

There's gotta be a reason for them to pay the invoice or they won't pay it. So that's why on the call, after transitioning out of the conversation about taking the money we get in, we get out, we don't hang out in this conversation longer than we need to because it makes the customer start really thinking about it.

And. And we don't want preemptive buyer's remorse. So in order to overcome that at C1, we're doing a future frame of the project. They're talking to you for a reason. They want custom jewelry. You are the one that they are talking to and they feel like they're in your care. So you need to show a beautiful future to the customer and make them feel like if they go down the road with you, they're going to be safe.

You're going to do what you said. You're going to do. This person can be trusted. I can work with them. That is what you're doing at C1. you'd be confirming contact info because that signals to the customer. We're getting off the phone now and I'm going to contact you and I'm going to do everything I said I would do.

So that's at D one. And then at D two, you gracefully end the call. It's kind of like in gymnastics, in the Olympics where the gymnast do a long sequence of tumbles and then do a big flip and then land and nailed the dismount. At D two, when you're ending the call, you have to consider this as nailing the dismount. From there that gives you a little bit of time when you're ending the call, you can say something like, okay, I've got all of your ideas. I got everything that you texted me. I'm going to meet with my design team. And then we're going to get some concept images back to you, and then we can choose between those.

Does that sound good to you? And then the customer is going to say something like, oh yeah, great. Wow. You seem like a real pro I feel really good about this. That's the kind of thing that there'll be saying to you. So at E one. We are going to create some AI images for jewelry based on what the customer said that they wanted or were using their own reference images in order to put together some type of package. This is very, very easy to do in the jewelers advantage AI tool. You simply click product. And this is going to start a conversation about how to design the jewelry and what the jewelry is supposed to be. And from there, you just say, create an image. Or of course, again, remember that there is a prompt library that you can reference and you can customize these prompts in order to get really, really good imagery like this. These would be the images that you text the customer and then set up a followup call in order to take a proper deposit if this step is not successful, you could redo with few rounds that is going to be normal. You need to be prepared to iterate and dance with the customer and say, oh, okay, no problem. What did you like? What did you not like? What type of prongs do you want? Do you like the prongs on the Asher? Cut.

Do you like the prongs on the oval? Cut. And do you like the sat and finish on the side of this ring? Or do you want to go more high Polish? It's giving them a visual aid. That they can understand, rather than having to do a napkin sketch. Now I've closed many accustom on a napkin sketch with a terrible drawing. But that requires Supreme levels of confidence and certainty in the moment. And you might want to just make your life a little bit easier. I much prefer selling with a visual aid like this. So this is where you would be doing that. Potentially getting iteration with the customer, getting their feedback and maintaining rapport at all times.

You can't close the deal. If it becomes an argument, you have to maintain that positive feeling of Goodwill between one another. The whole time. And you're showing the different ways that you could do this. Maybe you would bounce back another three to the customer and figure it out as you go. It's an ocean.

Sales is an ocean. You need to be formless. You need to be adaptable, but that is the basis of what you'd be doing. You'd be using a visual aid to get to the point where the customer approves the design and says that they like it. You also need to future frame their expectations at this point, because the image is never going to be exactly like what the final product is.

So you have to prepare the customer to understand, Hey. These are reference images. Of course, I'm going to have the specs for the ring and we're going to have the actual true cost of this project. Once we get down the road and do the CAD, but for now I need to take a deposit. So that way we can do the CAD and then once I have that, I'll be able to put together a couple of different options on price, a couple of different options on what the design would look like. And you'll get a really realistic 3d model of what that item is going to be. Just keep in mind that when this ring is really small in your hand, it's going to look a little bit different than what we're looking at when it's really, really zoomed in up close.

Does that make sense? Okay, great. That's how you maintain rapport with the customer and that little script that I just used is going to save you a lot of problems. It doesn't have to be a really complex conversation. , you just need to hit the broad strokes of the areas where most people have an issue. If this really is not working out. This is where e-commerce comes in.

Some customers are not a good fit for customs. You can't Ram a project down someone's throat and make them want to do it. They might not understand really what the creative process is, and that they're going to have to deal with a certain level of discomfort. As they venture into the unknown with you.

Some people don't have that level of appetite for risk, and if they don't, that's why you need an e-comm store. So that way you can upsell, cross sell and down, sell, and potentially just show them something that they could buy today and be happy with and get within the next two to three weeks, even if it's a made to order item.

So if you've got made to orders and you've kind of tapped into the idea of doing a made to order collection, you can do that on the e-comm store and , that's sort of like a warmup for customs for some clients. . And then also you could be working with a supplier for more conservative, traditional items, like cluster earrings, tennis chains, and that type of thing.

Sometimes people really have no imagination and they don't want a custom project, even though they thought they wanted a custom project. And in that case, they might even be happier in the future. And you have the opportunity to make their day with cluster diamond earrings or a tennis chain or a solitaire pendant or something like that. We have a phrase that we say here at jeweler's advantage called sell the customer, what they want. And that does require you to step out of your own shoes and into theirs for a moment. But that's what profitable jewelry brands do they sell the customer, what they want. So of course, we're here to focus on if that customer wants customs. So let's assume this is all gone, according to plan. And you're now at you would most likely be taking the deposit over the phone and it would need to be a substantial amount in order to cover production. At this point, if you do ask JA about , it will help you figure out exactly what you need to do. Depending on the price. You may do a formal agreement. , what you would always do on any custom is put into the notes of the order so that it lands on their receipt. All of the details that you discussed, so that the way the customer can't move the flag on you later on, they love to do that. It's almost a guarantee that they will try to do that to you unless you create some type of paper trail moving forward with text messages . And you're taking screenshots of everything they say. Whenever they approve the next step in the process. Any of these red and green diamonds are going to be a time where you need customer approval.

And as you can see, we do have that mapped out in the process. Most customs are going to require no less than four key interactions with the customer. If you want a five star review. And the five star review is going to be the reason why you're able to sell. Hundreds and hundreds of thousand dollar happy meals up here in the e-com store.

So it's going to feel like a lot of work, but that's the reason you're doing it is because this is what's going to unlock scale in the business. So make sure that you keep the customer honest once you've taken their money and of course that will be going into a CRM or ERP. At the very beginning. You could just be using Shopify and Klaviyo to manage your customers, but be aware that we have a technology strategy video also for free. Up for everybody, that's going to demystify exactly what kind of technology you need to have for an e-commerce jewelry brand. Something that is very important at this stage is anti-fraud with your verification department. Because we sell gold and diamonds over the internet that attracts a certain amount of bad actors.

So verification and anti-fraud with solutions like I, for fraud or Signifyd, or even the built-in minimum viable anti-fraud in Shopify is going to be a key process for you before you take anybody's money, because you don't want any problems later. With people who identify as scammers. Scammers are proud of being scammers. It's crazy. So verification is very important. Let's assume that everything has gone according to plan, and you have a nice customer that just wants a good custom from you. You'd be moving onto your pre production meeting with the designer. This is going to be a key step where you would want to reference the AI, because this is going to make sure that the entire process unfolds. Smoothly. Because this is the bridge between the actual sales process and production. You're basically taking a quick huddle with the team and going, okay, we got the money in house. We're going to do this order. This is the project. What do we need to know before we go down the road of even putting any money towards CAD in order to create the actual piece at the end, a lot could go wrong.

If we don't plan it. So we're planning it at G one. Make sure you use the AI here. Most of your customs are going to fall under the standard metal and melee stones type project. This is at G2 a that would be pendant, ring, earrings, anything that's just a basic CAD model. That's going to produce 3d printed wax later. Your basic custom is falling under G two a and in G. you're collaborating with a CAD specialist. Of course you can get all the enablement here in the prompt library. If you don't feel super comfortable working with a 3d CAD specialist yet be aware that the prompt library does have language in it that is going to help you. Correspond with a CAD specialist. Find your way to the prompts for product creation. We're production and delivery, and that is going to help you get up to speed and understand what types of questions you need to ask. As a business owner. You don't actually need to be an expert at CAD. You don't need to know how to make the model. That's why you're working with somebody that can do the model.

You're just going to want to be aware that once this is done, this does create an asset for you that you want to save on your Google drive. This is the CAD file saved step. So when you get the actual STL file, you want to put that up on. Your drive and be able to use it in the future because customs could seed content for the e-comm store that you can actually sell on. Or maybe you even do limited runs that you bump out to your VIP club. So be aware that this whole model. Is cohesive. Each step can help other steps later on and actually create value for you. So if there is something that you need to save like a CAD file, be aware that it is going to open up opportunity for you in other areas.

What you need to know about special processes. Maybe it's just a standard engagement ring and you need to make sure that the ring is sized properly. , you can get support at that on G three. And then also with an engagement ring, you need to Centerstone. So you would need to get the customer to approve that at So all of these extra steps that are in green do correspond to the customer. So be aware that if you see this color, this is a place where you do need to. Have some type of correspondence with the customer for their approval. And the AI will help you do that. Of course, photo pendants are very easy. You just get them to the project manager. And then if you're doing something special, like a dental kit for a hip hop grill, or it's some type of special item to be plated maybe, or you're doing something in the realm of Memorial jewelry, there is probably some type of special process involving a kit that would be shipped to the customer.

The customer would complete the kit. You would receive the kit back into shipping and then maybe with something like. , grill, you would be applying the wax manually, or there's other processes that you would need to complete because I can't account for how you will innovate within the jewelry industry.

This is just covered by through G 3d. so be aware that you may have your own process of something that you do that only you do that you need to account for as a custom. And this is where we would fit that into the model.

Now the most likely scenario is that you're doing some type of 3d CAD and maybe one of these other processes. So this is very modular. Hence why you would want to use the AI to get a really, really good read with pre production meeting at Q1 and just know that these are kind of your anchor points to make sense of what could be happening. And when based on the unique requirements of the custom that you're making for your client. Let's assume everything has gone. According to plan, you need to get the customer to approve the CAD. What I like to do is show the actual size of the cat on the screen and hold up a dollar bill like a $20 bill and send that to the customer that is kind of the minimum viable. Requirement to get them to see. . Oh, okay. I see what they're saying. It is the size we said it would be, and this looks good. I trust them still. That is basically the outcome that you're trying to achieve. Maybe you'll have to do some type of redo and iteration here at this step. Again, that's perfectly fine. That's perfectly normal. One to two to three. Rounds be ready for something like that, just to get it right. If it starts getting beyond that, use the AI at G three, to find some way to resolve the step and move it forward. Let's assume everything has gone.

According to plan, you've showed maybe even an e-commerce level CAD of the product. If you want to get really advanced something really, really beautiful and lifelike, and then you reminded the customer that at a different size, this ring is going to have a different feel for you when you see it in its lifelike state, rather than zoomed. And you always want to remind the customer of that. Even on the screen, you can see how powerful that visual is because these rings do look different. When they're zoomed in really close. As opposed to when they're at more of a lifelike stage. So. Let's assume everything is going according to plan and the customer approved. And has paid the remainder of the balance on the project. Now you may have circumstances where you have a remaining balance later on just before shipping. That can happen. You have to be flexible. You can't necessarily paint every customer into a corner, but ideally you want to take the rest of the balance before you start producing it. Typically you are going to then be at G five for 3d printing. You can outsource this. If you don't have a 3d printer yourself, and a lot of casting houses nowadays can cover manufacturing from 3d printing all the way through diamond setting. There are people that offer that service.

That is what you would want to be looking for. If you're brand new. To the industry. You can always start with stellar, they can do custom projects for you. Just be aware that you're going to get more competitive pricing. If you shop the market now at the 3d printing stage, if you are doing this in house, you need to know that on average, you typically have 24 hours to get that cast.

So this is a time sensitive step where once you get the customer to approve. You have some things that you really got to do right now because you need to move the timeline of the project forward as much as can be done, because there could be delays later on in other steps. So you don't want to waste several business days on 3d printing. Of course in a scaled business, this would be the responsibility of the project manager to approve the 3d print and get it on to where it needs to be for creating a mold. And producing the piece. Just be aware that if you are a private jeweler, this is you. If you're a one person show running your business, of course, you're the project manager for the entire process. So of course G six is going to give you some help. If you ask a J a. It can consolidate all of these steps depending on whatever your situation is, whatever project is going on. Think of G one. as anchor points that you can use to make sense of what is unique about your project and get good clarity on what you're going to need to expect before you even do anything.

So needless to say, this is very, very helpful, and this is probably the only way that you can scale a project manager. Into doing tens of custom projects per month. From here, I'm going to go pretty rapid fire because the requirements of any custom could be almost anything. When we're talking about casting and diamond setting and finishes, this is basically jewelry school, everything that you learned in bench school on how to make jewelry lives in here.

Of course, there's going to be lots of different offshoots of what you could expect to have happen. With any particular piece of jewelry, but you want to be aware that starting at H one you're kicking off production, that's where you're creating a mold. . And if you were doing this in house and it is at all possible, you want to save the rubber or Silicon master that would allow you to produce that piece several times over.

You would need that in house, if you were ever going to do made to orders in an e-comm store. So if you want to be able to control everything and to end. It is ideal for you to own the master because that also will prevent people from pirating, your designs. Let's assume that that is all gone. According to plan, of course, the piece is getting cast at H two.

You can ask how to do casting internally, or you can outsource. So if you're a one person show and you're a newcomer to the jewelry industry, you probably don't want to waste time learning how to cast metals. You are a sales jeweler, not a bench jeweler, and you need to wear it proudly. Another big secret of celebrity jewelers is they are sales jewelers. There is this weird cultural phenomenon in our industry where it's almost like there's a rivalry between bench jewelers and sales jewelers.

And with all due respect, it's a very one-sided rivalry because the sales jewelers are the ones making the money because they're the business owners, they're the ones conducting the orchestra. . So I would highly recommend that you use the codes from H one. To In order to conduct the orchestra with production and get control over the situation in QC. After casting at age three, you have cleaning resizing and pre Polish. If you're doing a ring, sometimes the master of the ring is a different size than the ring that is going to be going to the customer. So if it was a made to order, perhaps. Or if for some reason, the CAD was a different size than what the customer has requested. The resizing would need to happen before any stones are put in that ring, because we could unfortunately compromise the structural integrity of the ring. If it's resized after stones are set. So that is one of the biggest ways that a beginner can prevent mistakes is by knowing this simple idea. That any resizing needs to be done before any stones are set, because there is a lot of engineering in jewelry, it's an art and a science. You hear people say, Art and the science, that's where the engineering comes in.

That's where the structural integrity comes in, . Which is very important. If you want to have jewelry that the customer is happy with long-term so we won't get so, so into H four. through H foresee. This is covering gemstone settings, enamel and applying a photo or other special process for whatever particular reason before the final detailing and finish. Of course, there might be situations where enamel should happen before gemstone setting. So all of that is where we start getting into the weeds. But if you ask the AI about age 40, For a or H four B or when an animal should be applied or when gemstones should be set. That will all track back to the pre-production planning at G one. So there shouldn't be surprises. when you get down here, that's a good thing.

You don't want surprises in production. That's why you have the pre production planning. I just know that this is very customizable. Juul remaking is an ocean. Which is why you want to conduct the orchestra, use AI to fill in your knowledge gaps, make sure that you really really know what you're doing.

And then fact check that with whoever's covering your manufacturing. And in all likelihood, they're going to say you're extremely well-prepared and you're their dream client. That's what we want. We want to make it so easy for the people that you are working with on the manufacturing end, that they feel like you're a clear communicator and that they feel. Like, you know exactly how this project is supposed to go. And that feeling of you being a good project manager. Is going to carry out through the whole project.

No matter what custom processes have occurred. It's likely that after those have concluded at age five, you are going to probably need some type of detailing or final finish. Again, this is very modular and customizable because with custom jewelry, the processes that create that jewelry are going to be custom processes. But remember the AI is there to help you stay calm, use the AI and have a good plan. . What you can often do back at the sales stage is offer a free engraving at age six that would most likely be happening right before QC at so at I one, you're going to get all of the necessary quality inspection, quality control steps that you are going to need to know for that given project. If the processes for the particular custom design are custom. Then the QC should also be customized to the needs of that project and that I won based on whatever you're working on. You're going to get real clarity on what you should be looking for. If it's a piece with lots of Pavi set stones, of course, part of QC would be making sure that all of the stones are secure and that you're not going to have a little tiny diamond fallout and ruin the customer's day after potentially three weeks of work. And a lot of money spent.

So I can't stress this enough. We have AI , use it for QC, make sure that you know exactly what you're going to need to double check on the piece based on its unique requirements. This has never been possible before. So you're living in a golden age of custom jewelry. At that point. Let's assume that everything went perfect.

All of the stones are secure. The enamel hasn't cracked. The finish looks great. The piece is exactly what the customer wanted and we feel confident in it. We know that we're about to basically throw ourselves in alley. Oop. What that would look like is that is we send a photo and video of the finished piece. To the customer. We take some time, really make sure that the content looks good and that it looks like a piece of jewelry that we would want to buy. Remember customer's shoes. Let's think about what the customer wants. . So what type of photo or video would you want to see? Go do your best to make that video? The AI can help you figure that out. If you referenced Our main goal would be to future frame the customer. To imagine themselves hopping on Google and typing in a positive five star review for you and your jewelry business. That's what we want them thinking about. So we're actually going to plant the seeds in their mind for them to be doing that based on the beautiful piece of jewelry that you just sent them. In the beginning, the five star review is going to be worth more than the jewelry that you sold them, because that is going to be how you unlock the e-com store and a scalable VIP club filled with happy customers that buy only from you. , you need to give people good experiences if you're going to expect that. So let's assume that everything has gone according to plan. If anything at this stage goes off reference J to be in our AI. Again, if you haven't gotten our AI, pause the video, download this right now.

Let's say they're happy. You're going to be moving it on to shipping and packaging and getting the item to wherever the customer is. And of course we need to remember do not ship. If there is a balance. Do not ship. If there is a balance. I don't do it. It has to be zero balance. So you would call the customer and complete the final payment. At this stage if necessary. It could come up.

I can't tell you that you're never going to have a custom where you're not taking funds right before you ship. It's not optimal. We would want to get all of the funds earlier up here. But. If need be, you need to be flexible. You have to be adaptable as a custom jeweler. So be aware that that's where that would happen at K one, you can get all of the instructions that you need for shipping. We would want to ideally include some type of warranty on the piece. The industry standard is one year. So be ready to consider that we would want to have some type of solution for an appraisal.

There are options here. There are solutions where you can work with a third party to generate an appraisal, or you can create your own and then try to get the customer insurance with a solution like jewelers mutual, and then your appraisal at your brand can over time become industry recognized because you're doing things by the book.

You're putting good prices on the appraisal that the insurance company is actually backing up, and that can create a perception of trust in your brand. That's a really advanced way to do it. What I would recommend is if you're first starting out, Go with something like zing from jewelers mutual, figure out the insurance, figure out the appraisals that you can get from a third party. , and then you box the item. However, it needs to be boxed based on the requirements of that project. And then you would be generating the tracking number at the time of shipping customers will sometimes ask you back in the sales process. Of okay. Well, when am I going to get my tracking number? That's another thing that you would be future framing to the customer. At C1. Just be ready for these types of questions to come up.

They would be getting their tracking number at the end when there's a box, and then you'd be texting the customer and making sure that they get it because you've probably spent a lot of time on this project. By the time you've actually done the piece, it's probably not going to feel like it was worth it given the amount of work.

But what you're really trying to do is get five star reviews that you can put on an e-commerce store, because if you have five star reviews on an e-comm store and you have an entire process that can enable a team, that is how you can scale a business. Even if you're a private jeweler doing one-to-one customs right now.

And that is all that you do eventually, you're going to get tired. Eventually you're going to want to probably scale the business. And have the option to be able to sell the business. In order to have some type of retirement plan. So that's really what we're here to do. Is build real scalable businesses. And customs is such an important process for that because again. 80% of retail jewelry sales will require some type of custom labor and you need to be able to win with this basic playbook. This is the way that you maximize your sales opportunity.

So finally at , we're calling the customer after we know that the item has arrived. So we would be keeping an eye on the tracking number and knowing that, Hey, we probably either overnighted this piece or it went two day shipping with FedEx and we want to make sure that we call them as soon as we see it signed for. If you use the code at L one, it'll help you put together a script that you can use to contact the customer. And based on whatever personal information they brought in, you can call back memories from earlier in the process, when you were selling to them, talk about who this gift was for or why they wanted the piece, make them remember why they wanted the piece in the first place.

Really call back to, Hey again, it would really help me out if you. You could leave us a five star review. I could send you a link if that makes it easier, but I just really want to make sure that you're happy with the piece because we put our heart and soul into this. And it's really important to me to know that we got you what you want. And if you did your job, they're going to be over the moon. If you've been talking to them like that with respect and showing that you really care about them having a great experience, they're going to run through walls to write you that five star review . And that's what you really need for the longterm recurring revenue in the business is trust in the business and a mechanism to sell to them like an e-comm store.

So just know that L. One is not to be slept on any of the steps in this diagram that have this golden color. Our critical steps of the process. So you probably see custom jewelry completely different now.

There is money in this diagram for you. So remember we take the customer in at the top. We're going through a sales process. We're trying to use our e-comm store. We're trying to get them on a VIP club. We're dismounting the call. We're making sure that we get the customer, some options of whatever we think that they are going to want. All while future framing, realistic expectations on the piece. We are taking the money in house. We're doing a great job planning production. We're doing whatever needs to happen in production. And then we have some great QC and we're getting a five star review from the customer. This may sound overwhelming at first, but we've got you. So we recommend that you watch this video a few times to get your head around the process. Absolutely experiment with the AI. Absolutely experiment with the prompt library for jewelry design and business development. Again, you can reference the codes in the diagram and it will tell you exactly what you need to do. At all stages of the custom jewelry sales process. And if you like what you see, there's more where this came from.

We have already prepared a way for you to take a deep dive beyond just custom jewelry. . If you do like the idea of a fully branded e-commerce jewelry store, and you want to know how to unlock AI into that opportunity, how could you sell using AI agents on an e-commerce store with the jewelry brand of the future?

We have a program called Excalibur. It's a paradigm shift in how luxury jewelry brands will lead our industry into the future. So if you think that this was cool, this is nothing compared to what we have in Excalibur. AI as an amplifier of human intelligence. So everything that we've been talking about today has been a combination of both artistic and strategic ideas, our AI that you'll be using in order to navigate the custom sales process. Beyond that is a CEO and a creative director in your pocket at all times.

This is the future of business leadership in the jewelry industry. And it's available to you for [email protected]. So you would just go to jewelers advantage.com. Look for the red button that says, get the free AI copilot. We're going to send you the launch links and everything that you need with all of the prompts. So that even if you don't feel like you're good at AI right now, or you feel like you've gotten left behind by the people that got so excited about it at the beginning. This is how you could quickly quickly catch up.

You are early, you are not late to the party. You are early to the party. There's plenty of time for you to capitalize, but you got to get in the game now because AI moves very fast. Every month is like a year of development in the old way of how things worked. So go to jewelers, advantage.com. If you're not already there, make sure that you have our AI copilot. If you do not already have it. Because as you've seen today, it can help you navigate this process and develop a fabulous jewelry business.

If you like what you saw today and you want to learn more, then I invite you personally to our Excalibur program. I will provide links below for a way for you to get on a call with me or my co-founder Richard McCarthy.

We're here to help you scale your jewelry business, and there's a predictable path for you to do so. So I won't get into it any further. I will leave it at that and provide a link below for you to find out more about Excalibur. If you feel like that is right. For you. So again, my name is Jesse Korby. I'm the co-founder and creative director here at jewelers advantage. I hope that you enjoyed this lesson. Absolutely deploy this into your team. There is money in this lesson for you. Here at jeweler's advantage. We believe that this is the new jewelry industry. This is going to be what shapes your future and shapes the future of the industry for years to come. And right now is a very exciting opportunity for you to be a part of it. So I thank you once again, my name is Jesse Korby and we will see you in the next one