Welcome to the second season of our podcast. Help- I started a business, now what? At the beginning, there are so many decisions to make and so many things to do. It can feel like everyone else has their business figured out. It’s also really easy to compare your brand new starter business to others that are well established. In this podcast, we will talk about all those hairy first big steps that come with starting a business. For this episode, we’ve brought on Doug Napier to share more about Jewelry Monk and Jewelry by DeCory.
Check out the show on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts or read the transcript below. We’ve even included timestamps in case you want to zero in on one part of the show.
Our show sponsor this season is goimagine! They are a great partner and sponsor, so make sure to check them out!
Episode Transcription
00:00.00
Amber Christian
Hello everyone and welcome to today’s edition of the Now What Show I’m your host Amber Christian. Today I am pleased to welcome Doug from Jewelry Monk and we’ll get into his story in just a minute. But first I would like to say a huge thank you to our season sponsor goimagine. Goimagine is focused on building the maker community through a handmade marketplace, maker business education, custom websites, and a social app for artisans called Maker Circle. The goimagine community includes thousands of handmade business owners throughout the United States. These owners are passionate about growing a handmade platform dedicated to quality handmade items while focusing on social good that’s helping children in need. Check them out at goamagine.com and so without further ado I would like to welcome Doug from Jewelry Monk. Welcome to the show Doug – can you please tell our audience a little bit about yourself?
00:57.66
Doug Napier
Well thank you Amber – a little bit about me I’ve been a jewelry maker for 40 years. I started pretty much right out of high school. I got a job in a jewelry factory in the Black Hills of South Dakota making Black Hills Gold of course.
If you’re not familiar with it, it’s kind of the grapes and leaves and things like that. Well the owner of the company kind of saw something in me. He really liked me, so he took me under his wing and showed me every facet and in the operation of jewelry making so I moved around quite a bit. And eventually landed in what they call model making. So I was a professional model maker for a jewelry company and then word got around when I got real good at it. So I was always offered jobs all over the place. So I’ve lived everywhere from Seattle and New York City to the Dominican Republic and China. Working with different factories helping them fine-tune their production and they’re sort of doing training and stuff like that. But it was probably seven years ago I stepped away from that. I’m still a traveling consultant from time to time and I was doing that.
And then decided to focus more on the training end of it for myself. So I started my web page and a Youtube channel under Jewelrymonk.com and just focused on training jewelry. So I come up with video lessons and things like that and started promoting that. And I was doing this all out of my house and my garage and my extra basement and you know all over the place. So I I said you know what I need a building to do that. So I opened up this shop seven years ago downtown Rapid City and called it The Jewelry Monk studio and training center. So that was kind of the focus- I was doing classes and workshops on everything from soldering and stone setting to casting and CAD work and 3D printing and all that stuff. Then about the time COVID hit nobody was flying in anymore for you know for workshops or anything like that. So it’s like okay I’ve got to pivot a little bit so at that time I’ve always wanted to do a line of jewelry.
So we created a line of jewelry and marketed under the name Jewelry by DeCory and the first line was called the Lakota Legacy Line. So there’s a number of pieces there I think there’s 60 or 70 pieces in the line.
You know you got pendants and earrings and rings and things like that. So but they’re all like buffaloes and hummingbirds and butterflies and things like that and every piece has a video story that ties that piece and tells why that’s significant to the Lakota culture. So it’s a neat program and it’s again, it’s you know teaching has always been in my DNA. So I can use jewelry as a vehicle to teach other people about culture. And the reason we call it Jewelry by DeCory was DeCory is my mother’s Maiden name who outside of the family is originally from the Rosebud Indian Tribe. They grew up on their Rosebud reservation and I’m an enrolled member in the reservation. So I just took these designs and they’re not necessarily native American looking designs. They’re streamlined simple designs on purpose because I didn’t want to make them look like traditional native American jewelry because there’s a lot of people in this area doing that and doing it well. I don’t want to take anything away from them. So I just want to take some really neat designs that will sell by themselves. But use them as a vehicle to teach other people about the culture of the Lakota people. So that’s kind of where that went you know right? After the pandemic so that’s been our focus for the past few years.
05:04.25
Amber Christian
Sure and then we’ll unpack that a little bit. So I think this is an important thing when you’re in an early stage business right? So you’ve got Jewelry Monk, you’ve got the training school. You’ve got people literally flying in from other countries or dedicating time to come and learn this craft of jewelry making a lot of which is being lost but to learn that actual craft side of it then we have this little thing called a pandemic and there it goes all of a sudden nobody’s traveling. Borders are closed. A lot of people can’t come in. All the kinds of things you were doing so you had to say okay well that’s still there so were you still producing Youtube videos then even during the pandemic because you’ve built quite a following on Youtube with Jewelry Monk haven’t you?
05:51.40
Doug Napier
Yeah, yeah, I have and that’s was kind of the focus is like okay now what? What can we continue to do so like so I’ve got one 3 or 4 different video series that I sell you know I haven’t been focusing on that in a while since the production jewelry came in. But yeah it was then okay, how can I create content for people without them showing up at my door? You know so like said on the the Youtube channel which is I think it’s called a doug napier jewelry monk and there’s like there’s one hundred and twenty hundred and thirty free videos on there. https://www.youtube.com/c/DougNapierJewelryMonk
And they’re all simple videos. You know I try to keep them 3 to 5 to to 8 minutes long you know just because I’ve been on Youtube channels before where you watch a 20 minute video and there’s a minute and a half of content that you could really use you know? So I try to get it and give you the content. Maybe you have a little fun with it and then get out you know So so a lot of them are in chewable pieces and stuff. But it’s all you know, a lot of the basic things like you know this is how to properly solder a thick piece to a thin piece because people have problems with that you know, understanding that.
You know you don’t melt solder with the flame, you melt it with the heat type of thing. So it’s all basic things like that are being lost. You know you said with the technology that’s coming in you.
You’ve got 3D printing and casting and all that stuff and and there’s a place for that but still, you’ve got hammers and saws and chisels and things like that that you can make things as well. And we don’t want to get that lost while we’re bringing in the new technology.
And there’s a place for both of them and it’s fun when you can sit down with both technologies and marry them together and to create neat pieces of jewelry.
07:41.98
Amber Christian
Absolutely and then we also had this little thing called the supply chain that blew up for most of us during a pandemic as well And so I think to your point of even if you preserve and keep the skills Even you don’t actually use them all of the time.
Are situations like that where having those skills you can revert back to them to fill gaps or to build experiments with jewelry or to do things that maybe you don’t want to use ah other materials for so there’s ah, a whole time in place for building that skill and that and that craft and so speak a little. But more to what has happened that a lot of the underlying craft part was lost. Can you can you talk a little bit about the dynamics for those that might not be familiar with what’s happened in the jewelry industry.
08:29.57
Doug Napier
Um, yeah, you know Um, so when I was working with different companies. It was about 19197 that these companies really started looking at you know, computer design. And saying you know there’s a place for this. It. It cuts down on time. It gives you a more precise piece and then you got at that time. There wasn’t a lot of 3 d printing going on. It was all milling so you had 3 axis 4 axis milling machines that you would create something on a computer mill it out in wax and then cast it and and now.
You know the the technology has come so far that that I can sit at a bench and create something and spend you know 20 hours working on something to get it fine tuned or I can sit in front of a computer and in three or four hours have it finished send it to my printer that prints it in an hour so in you know, half a day I could have a piece ready to go to cas you know? So you can balance that stuff and say you know that is a great tool. But if you say that is your only tool then you’re missing out on so much more because there’s certain things that doesn’t you know.
Attend to so you really got to you know, kind of work on both skills. You know work on the technology of the metal, how it works, how it flows, can you cast it, can you melt it, you know things like that and it all kind of. Fits in together. So.
10:03.10
Amber Christian
And it’s also a piece of the you know sharpening the creativity saw so to speak in especially when you’re working on craft as well. You’re right? and there’s the production aspects especially for those first things that you create.
10:05.62
Doug Napier
Yeah.
10:17.16
Amber Christian
But at a certain point in time you can find yourself either getting stuck or stagnant if you’re missing some of that underlying the underlying fundamentals around how you can make that and so to me, it’s interesting seeing that it’s like no if you actually go back to some of those underlying fundamentals that it seems like to me can enhance your creativity because you’re like. Oh but if we did this sort of like this now I could create something very new, very different. Um from that and without that without really understanding sort of the underlying tech whether it’s material tech product. Technically you know of how all that works at a certain point you could get stuck in your creative cycle in that there’s like a ceiling where there’s a lot less of a ceiling when you understand the fundamentals of how all the stuff works. It’s endless creativity at that point because now you have so many more things that you can work with like the world opens in whole new ways. Um, when you do that. So now.
11:13.83
Amber Christian
Ah, then this pandemic comes along. You have to put a lot of that on hold you’re still kind of doing your Youtube videos and then you launch this jewelry by DeCory. Let’s go into a little more what I thought was very interesting about this is you were making sure that you’re not infringing on what other people are already doing so you’re kind of looking for. Okay.
I don’t want to become one more entering in a crowded market which is great. Talk a little more about the thought process around both product and marketing and how you kind of pulled all that together in the launch of it to make sure you weren’t competing with some of those existing products.
11:51.18
Doug Napier
Yeah, okay and I think a lot of that has to do with if you look at the history of what I’ve done. There’s in the DNA of everything I do is kind of teaching so I think that I’m created in that.
11:51.27
Amber Christian
Speak about that a little more.
12:07.92
Doug Napier
That mindset of teaching. So Even when I make Jewelry you know like I tell people I can sit at my bench and file on a piece and using the light to reflect my file marks and stuff like that. It’s very meditative to me. It’s my happy Place. You know. So it’s like you know so when I can show that to somebody else. It brings joy to me. So Then when I come into creating a jewelry line I’m not saying I want to make jewelry for jewelry sake.If that’s the whole purpose I’m out I’ll go find something different to do.
You know I don’t want to make jewelry just to make money I want to make jewelry as a vehicle to do something else. So this line that we come out with the first line the Lakota legacy line really what it is. It’s a vehicle to teach other people about culture and storytelling. You know so.
So All of the pieces have video stories that go with them that tell the significance of the buffalo to the Lakota people. Why why? That’s so important or the hummingbird. Why? That’s important you know so I’m using the pieces and it’s still a fun process to make the pieces and produce the pieces. But my end goal is really Education. So the next line of Jewelry. We came out with was called our nature series and there’s a dozen pieces of things that you would find out in Nature. You know we got cattails and sunflowers and acorns and mushrooms but still.
We attach story to those as well saying did you know that you could make um, bread out of cattails. You know So it’s like things like that. Yeah yeah, so you can take it you can pound it into a mash mix it turn it into flour and stuff like that. So you know so it’s again, using that.
13:47.72
Amber Christian
I didn’t know that.
13:59.85
Doug Napier
That jewelry is a vehicle to teach other people. This year we launched another piece called or another line called our ancient faith series. They all look like ancient Roman Coins but they’ve got Christian symbols on with story that tell the significance of that symbol. Why it’s important to the faith. You know so. So again, everything that I do is under coded with education. You know. So if you look at the website and the Youtube channel and all that really it is just a way for me to educate others about you know, jewelry making and culture and storytelling and life.
14:36.10
Amber Christian
And it sounds like what part of your thought process as you’re ideating and coming up with these different lines is you’re You’re really looking at it a little more holistically which I think you know in the early stages when when someone’s launching a business they’re thinking about I’m just. Mastering the production of the thing I like to make and all of that where you’re asking a slightly different question about okay and what we’re trying to really do here is to educate people about these parts of our culture their significance. It’s a different Question. You’re asking when you’re creating the line at the beginning. Which is leading you to different answers in terms of I should be creating video that go along with the story I need the right educational materials that support that craft and what I’m creating So What strikes me as interesting about your process is you’re asking a different question at the beginning.
As you’re ideating and developing the product line and then you’re putting the supporting materials around it because so often people will see I’m going to produce a thing now. How am I going to market it? What audience am I going to sell it to you’re talking about if I wanted to teach an honor and embrace this. What are the vehicles for doing that through that product and then what other materials have to exist as part of that to create the full experience for that Customer. That’s buying that piece of jewelry and to me that feels fundamentally unique in terms of what I hear and so it’s not just the well somebody else figure out.
15:56.66
Doug Napier
Exactly.
16:06.68
Amber Christian
You know how we’re going to market and sell it. They oh no, no no, we’re thinking about the marketing so that we can start identifying the audiences upfront and that’s got to make the process a little easier of getting through those stages to launch.
16:20.69
Doug Napier
Um, yeah,and I think you know a lot of that comes into when before I even design the jewelry I’ve already got my market in mind. Okay, you know this is who I’m trying to reach So let’s.
16:20.93
Amber Christian
Um, because it just sort of flows out because you’re answering a different question.
16:38.74
Doug Napier
Create something for them and even in the designs you know- I don’t design things so that they look cool even though you know some of them do but they’ve all got to have purpose. You know if I’m going to put a curl here. It’s got to be there for a reason you know so something’s got to be leading it up to it. It’s not just a curl.
In the middle of a piece because it’s there, but it’s got to be there for purpose. You know? So all of these things kind of fit together. You know the jewelry is there for a purpose because I’m educating other people about certain aspects of life and the designs kind of lead into that as Well. So. There’s some designs that work, some of them that yeah we kind of missed it on that one but that’s that’s all part of life and and even when I’m teaching one of the most important things that I teach is being having the ability to Adapt. So I tell. Okay, I’ve got a project that I want to do.
I’ve got these tools in front of me that I’ve got to be able to do them with so how am I going to manage that how am I going to get this done with that that that you know so so if I’m sitting there and I’ll create a piece of jewelry and if I’ve got to do the the same piece of jewelry again. I’ll use different tools to do it. You know I won’t say. This worked last time so I’m going to do it again. I’m going to say that worked last time but I want to figure out a way that I can use different tools and get the same process you know and and you can have the 2 pieces and look at them and say they’re identical But yeah, but I use 2 different processes to get there because I’m teaching myself how to be adaptable. Not only at the bench in jewelry making but in life as well because things come at us all the time. So when I started out, you know as my training center things were going well until you know this little thing called covid came in so it’s like now. I’ve got to learn how to adapt and still get to where I want to go but I might have to take a different trail so now so now I’m taking all of the production lines that we do and we’re still doing some of them but that is going to be less of my emphasis because I’m trying to put all my energy back into the training center again because my long term goal is to have a regional trade school that teaches jewelry making.
18:47.62
Amber Christian
Well wonderful. This is fantastic. I think they think your journey in the keep the one thing going and alive until the conditions change again right? because we knew that eventually it would change back but it was some matter you had to ride out what this was going to look like and when were what was people’s. Appetite to travel going to be again to to really bring back that craft so I’m launching the interim jewelry line with an entirely different thing going on and then now coming back to it as well and they can coexist right? So you can. You can still be producing the jewelry line just deemphasizing it. But it’s still there now, you’ve got.
19:18.43
Doug Napier
Yeah, exactly.
19:25.45
Amber Christian
More revenue streams is ultimately which helps stabilize the business overall as well. So tell our listeners watchers where they can find out more information about you and how they can learn more about you.
19:37.61
Doug Napier
But you can about me, you can like so um, got my Youtube channel which is Doug Napier Jewelry Monk I’ve got a Jewelrymonk.com which is the the training side of it and then the production in the jewelry side is jewelry by Decori.com and then I’m also on all the social media as you know the Facebook and Instagram and and I’m on all of those as well. So you can look under jewelry monk or jewelry by Decori and and I’m constantly you know, got stuff going on. We also in our shop we service the community through custom jewelry and repairs as well. So you’ll see stuff like that that flash up and and and that’s that’s another joy that I like you know, especially when people bring in something that’s broken or that doesn’t fit or it was their grandmothers and it’s really not their style and stuff so we can take all of that.
Repurpose it into something that they can either enjoy again or enjoy for the first time and still knowing that this metal that’s in this new design was my great grandmother’s and these stones were as well. You know so you still carry on that tradition but it’s not going to sit in a sock drawer anymore. You know so so. So I enjoyed doing that as well. The local area is you know we we service them through custom jewelry and repairs all the time.
20:53.18
Amber Christian
Wonderful. Well thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you everyone listening in and a special. Thank you to our sponsor goimagine.com until next time.
21:03.49
Doug Napier
Well thanks! Thanks Amber.
We hope you enjoyed this episode on a financial management system you won’t hate.
Want more of the Now What Show? Check out these previous episodes:
Episode 8: A financial management system for your business you won’t hate
Episode 7: How I’m iterating and learning to refine my target market with Megha Mundandishe
Episode 6: Creating marketing strategy through brand collaborations with Elaine Kinney
Episode 5: Getting Ready for your first craft fair with Nicole Stevenson
Episode 4: How my first wholesale order happened with Livvy Ramos of Fera Fox
Episode 3: Getting your first PR with Stephanie Blanchard
Episode 2: Establishing a web presence with Erica Martin
Episode 1: How I got my first large custom order with Lindy of apothecary 19
