S4-03: Sarah Sides, Permanent Entrepreneur

Sarah Sides, CEO and owner of Love Weld and Permanent Jewelry Solutions (PJS) has experienced exponential growth since 2020. Her national Love Weld brand, currently in eight different locations across the United States, anticipates nearly doubling its storefronts by the end of 2023. Its sister-company PJS teaches welding safety and permanent jewelry best practices. By offering high-quality chain and charms, and using the right technology, Sarah’s storytelling business model creates personal meaning for every one of her customers. “That’s the brand right there. That’s the concept. That’s where it needs to go,” Sarah shares. Learn what inspired Sarah’s successful entrepreneurship (hint: it may have been a hip-hop icon) in this For the Love of Jewelers podcast episode dedicated to community and connections.

Transcript

Courtney Gray: 

Welcome to For the Love of Jewelers, a podcast brought to you by Rio Grande Jewelry Supply and hosted by yours truly, Courtney Gray. As we dive into season four and 2023, we recognize the relevance and resilience of the jewelry industry through stories of inspiration. We celebrate the pivots we’ve taken and the passion that drives our unconditional strength. Our journey, although uncharted, is one we are on together. Join me as we discover the variety of silver linings in each story of innovation and determination. 

Courtney Gray:

Sarah Sides is the founder and CEO of Love Weld and Permanent Jewelry Solutions. She started making jewelry back in 2010 and has been obsessed ever since! Sarah has since been fortunate to have the opportunity to travel the globe designing and learning from master craftsmen in the industry. It was in her explorations that she was inspired to start her forever bound jewelry business, Love Weld, the first permanent jewelry retailer in Austin, TX in 2020. 

Courtney Gray:

Hey, guys. Welcome back to For the Love of Jewelers, a very appropriate guest for For the Love of Jewelers today, Miss Sarah Sides of Love Weld and Permanent Jewelry Solutions. Hi, Sarah.

Sarah Sides:

Hi, Courtney. I'm so excited to be with you today and kind of reconnect in a way.

Courtney Gray:

Yeah, I know. It's been a minute. Well, you started studying in 2012, right?

Sarah Sides:

Yeah. It was fun for Courtney to reach out to do this podcast with me because it turns out that I learned to metal smith at her school in Austin over a decade ago. It's been fun to circle back and reconnect in this way.

Courtney Gray:

I love it. 6,000 students a year, I mentioned. I was like, "Oh, I know the face, but what's the ..." There she is and look at what she's doing. So gratifying for all of us, I think, who teach is it's so wonderful to see this success of the students. Ronda Coryell used to say, "Your success is our success." And so, yeah, which makes a lot of sense to me. I'm so excited to share with the community here all the things that you're doing and creating. Let's start with a little history on Sarah Sides. Tell us how, why jewelry?

Sarah Sides:

Why jewelry? That is a great question. Man, I actually started my interest in jewelry in college as a side thing. I wanted to do some traveling, so I taught myself to wire wrap and pedaled jewelry to my friends. It's probably more of a pity purchase at that point in time of them being like, "Man, she tried so hard," in buying my first pieces. That was the early interest of jewelry. I had been a lifetime creative, painted ... It started in architecture school, didn't quite finish as I found that that wasn't me.

Creativity had always been in my background, but jewelry, fell in love with it in college, started my first jewelry business from my 400 square foot apartment post-college. At that point in time, the Portlandia Show, (singing: She’s making jewelry now…). They had a whole spoof on that.

Courtney Gray:

I remember that.

Sarah Sides:

That was me. And so, definitely felt all kinds of insecurity being that girl in Austin in my 400 square foot, just popping up all over South Congress on Thursdays and wherever I could just get my foot in the door. That's where I started and then very quickly wanted to grow beyond that as I found it was a passion. And then that's where your school came in. I did the metal smithing and found out from there, as much as I wanted to be this master craftsman, it is not how I am bent, and so after that, stepped into designing jewelry. That's where I really have found my passion is in jewelry design and curation and really getting to work with those talented artists that I wanted to be, but unfortunately do not have that bent.

Courtney Gray:

Well, we've all got our skillset set. I think it's a bold and brave thing to acknowledge where our strengths are and where our weaknesses are. We can't do it all and it's fine. Yeah,

Sarah Sides:

No, we can't. We can't. I think I felt a lot of insecurity about that for a long time. This is going to seem so random and you're going to be like, "How does this connect?" But I promise it does connect.

Courtney Gray:

I can't wait.

Sarah Sides:

Dr. Dre's documentary was actually life changing to me. I felt a parallel to him because he started out as a rapper writer and that was his early days. But then he found that he got more inspired by the talents of others, and so then he moved into producing music. It's been a hot minute, he articulated it way better, and it was over a series of a lot of episodes. But what I took away from it is that he's like, "I see talent, I see greatness, and I want to make that happen." Like, "I want to make my career about putting these people forward." He ended up being behind some of the greatest talent in our generation. Now, I don't think I'm there, but it made me feel better about not being the best artist and it made me feel better about more so being good at curation and bringing the story together into life. And so I was like, "Okay, that is also I'm a producer of jewelry."

Courtney Gray:

Yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense. That's an important part. There's a lot of makers out there who really need people like you, Sarah, because they don't have that skillset. That might be their weakness as the curation and marketing and the research that you're able to do to see what's sustainable, which I'm so fascinated. We're going to go off down the rabbit hole, I know already. We're going to be geeking out on all the things business. But yeah, I want to hear more. But you were doing porcelain combined with PMC and kind of creating the master model?

Sarah Sides:

Yeah. I can definitely make my [inaudible 00:05:54]. I did design for a long time and then for a really an amazing company. Then just different reasons, a lot of it is just where I was in my journey. Design has been the largest portion of my career, but I've always dabbled in making and the beginning of Love Weld it, there was also traditional jewelry involved with that and that was porcelain and creating master models through the clay that you fired, the PMC that you fire into metal and creating masters and from there. I can do it. I also think there's a level of I know enough that I'm not to the level that I like my jewelry to be.

Courtney Gray:

We're never there, though. You know?

Sarah Sides:

That is being a creative. I feel like you always look at what's missing and it's hard to celebrate what's there at times.

Courtney Gray:

Yeah.

Sarah Sides:

It's the beauty and curse of a creative.

Courtney Gray:

Giving yourself a lot of grace through the learning curve.

Sarah Sides:

Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely.

Courtney Gray:

I feel like that becomes harder as an adult for some reason. We kind of close off to that playful, "Let's make mistakes and mess it up and then move on." I mean, you have two young children, so you can relate to that play zone.

Sarah Sides:

I do. Oh yeah, they're always playing. Always. And what's crazy as a parent, you're like, "Gosh, that silly little thing that you did that no one would care about, it's the most amazing thing." It's so easy to celebrate the process in others and I think it's just really hard to extend that to yourself and celebrate the process of yourself and what you're creating. But I just think creativity and it's in just the practice just is worthy of celebration.

Courtney Gray:

Yeah, absolutely. Even the failures.

Sarah Sides:

Absolutely. Absolutely.

Courtney Gray:

The mistakes are part of the process. It's like we don't really know what we're doing without a couple of mistakes.

Sarah Sides:

Being in the design process actually really freed that up for me as a creative in that usually when you process design there is built into the process in the calendar and the cadence, failure. That was really huge for me to see that when designing, because I used to design and lead the design of a 200-piece product line. Some of that would roll over, but there was quite a bit of newness each season. It was really freeing that you would explore a lot of avenues and it would take a lot of time to narrow down to that end product. I don't think pre-design I gave myself that freedom and space to really explore, mess up, try ideas that seemed good in paper and in my head but in execution maybe weren't quite what I imagined. That I love about design is that oftentimes there is that part of the process to mess up and for it to not be there. That has been really freeing for me.

Courtney Gray:

I love that you're saying you put it in the calendar. It's like this is part of the ...

Sarah Sides:

It's in the calendar. Even we would have a percentage of over design, so it wasn't even put in the calendar. It was budgeted and a known thing that for you to land at 50 pieces, you're going to be designing 150. That was exhausting, but also really cool.

Courtney Gray:

Yeah, once you embrace that.

Sarah Sides:

Yeah. Once you embrace it and then you plan to it, right??

Courtney Gray:

Right.

Sarah Sides:

That's a large-scale product line, so it's a much more maintainable and fun process, in my opinion, when you're going to do a capsule collection or you're aiming for 10. We were aiming for 90 new styles each season.

Courtney Gray:

We're talking about your time at Noonday right now, right Sarah?

Sarah Sides:

Yeah. Yeah. I was the lead designer at Noonday. I started out as, I went from the girl (singing) at home in my apartment.

Courtney Gray:

(Singing).

Sarah Sides:

Yeah, exactly. That's a much more, what is it, mellow, melody way of saying it, melodic? I don't know.

Courtney Gray:

Melodic?

Sarah Sides:

It's a much more melodic way of the kind of spoof on that.

Courtney Gray:

That is hilarious you brought that up, because I had totally forgotten about that whole Portlandia.

Sarah Sides:

Well, my favorite part of it was they're kind of making fun of it the whole video, and then the guy's like, "Well, how much do you sell this necklace for?" And she's like, "$90". And then it turned and it was like, (singing). It was just like ...

Courtney Gray:

It's a little contagious. Yeah. It is contagious.

Sarah Sides:

It is. It is. It was so funny.

Courtney Gray:

Awesome. Yeah, talk to us about your time at Noonday. I feel like you learned so much.

Sarah Sides:

I learned so much. It's easy to have 2020 vision looking back, but I would have not been able to have the success that I've had today in Love Weld and Permanent Jewelry Solutions without that experience. In so many ways it was a fast-growing startup, which is where I am today with my company. I was under the leadership of two amazing CEOs, Jessica and Travis, who founded Noonday Collection, which was an innovative brand in its time, and is still innovative. But when it launched, oh gosh.

I know I want to say they're 15 years old now. They were still a baby when I started. And gosh, timelines get a little fuzzy. But I would say it was 2006 and I think they were maybe five years old at the time, maybe three. They had experienced super rapid growth. But it was a fair trade, artisan made jewelry brand. At that time, fair trade was still like, "What is this thing?" Like, "Fair trade coffee, what's that?" And, "Fair trade products, what's that?" They were on the beginning side of product development and impact really being a focus within the industry, and they were pioneers of that. And so, to be underneath that, to design under that, to be in a business where it was more of a 360 view on impact of the employees, the people selling, the makers, was really, really cool and has forever changed me and how I operate in my roles or work. Yeah.

Courtney Gray:

Yeah, what you're going to put your energy towards moving forward.

Sarah Sides:

Definitely. Definitely. We developed and designed in 13 different countries with 40-plus artisan groups. Really fun, because you were working in different mediums with master craftsmen all over the world. I got to sit alongside brass casters in Kenya and see their process. I mean, I couldn't help but think, "Gosh, this isn't actually too different than probably what they were doing in the medieval times," but still really beautiful and cool what they they can make with sand casting, and how each piece, it wasn't this bulk scientific, let's just crank it out. Each piece was intentionally made by hand. Golly, it was so cool.

And then another one of my favorites was going to Vietnam. What's cool about Vietnam, and also India where we worked, actually a lot of the places we worked, were still very traditionally artisan and artisan craft was a big part of the economy. In Vietnam, a lot of the villages are still organized around craft. One of my favorite villages that I went to was where we did our horn jewelry production. It was cool to walk into this village that's geared around this artistry and to see them wield from horn these amazingly intricate pieces and styles. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Courtney Gray:

What an experience.

Sarah Sides:

Yeah, I mean it almost looked like they were casting things with horn. That would be how intricately it would carve it.

Courtney Gray:

Sculptural patterns on the surface?

Sarah Sides:

Yeah, yeah. They had pulled out this spoon that they were making for a Atolea in France, and it was a teaspoon that looked vintage with all the intricately carved patterns on the handle. It looked as if it was the horn version of what would've been casted in metal. It was just really cool to see that.

Courtney Gray:

But you can't cast horns, so they were carving these.

Sarah Sides:

They were carving it. They were carving it.

Courtney Gray:

They weren't molding and then pouring material, right? Cool.

Sarah Sides:

It was a very, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Courtney Gray:

I think people would pay to have the job that you had just to go and learn.

Sarah Sides:

It was a lot of this, "Pinch me. Is this my life?" There was definitely moments where you'd step back and feel that way. It was also a very stressful job. I mean, one of the core values of Noonday Collection, and it's an amazing core value, is sustainable work for the people that they're producing with. Which is really like, "Yeah, let's do that." But then when you actually get down to the actuality of that, you're talking about customer response to a product that you can't control. You're talking about operating in countries where tsunamis and earthquakes and civil war are still regularly disrupting the supply chain. And it's artisan, it's scale. Some of these artisans, this was a side hobby that they wanted to do something good in their communities and Noonday came alongside. It's hard to scale that and scale it and make it sustainable.

It was a really cool job. It was a very serious job, and so that brought on stress at times, but I wouldn't trade it for the world. I mean, I did it for almost seven years. And wasn't looking to leave when I did, it was just kind of the Love Weld happened and the idea for Love Weld happened. I'm a big believer in following the spark. My career's actually very spiritual for me, so I just was doing the next big leap of faith that I felt my spirituality was asking me to do. It was a hard job to leave, especially for the unknowns and entering into where I am today, so yeah.

Courtney Gray:

Yeah. Transition in general is scary.

Sarah Sides:

Oh, absolutely. Yeah.

Courtney Gray:

No matter if it's hugely positive or negative, it's just scary stuff. It's unknown, you know?

Sarah Sides:

It is. It is. It is.

Courtney Gray:

I love how you say you followed the spark literally and figuratively, right?

Sarah Sides:

Yes. Yes. I don't know if that is what I would've probably said three years ago. I don't know if that's my new business lingo. I don't know if I've used that in marketing enough for my business, but it's now part of how I talk about things.

Courtney Gray:

It's natural.

Sarah Sides:

But yeah, it truly was a spark moment that led me into Love Weld and Permanent Choice Solutions.

Courtney Gray:

Yeah. I love hearing about Noonday and we could talk all day about the work that and what you learned there. I do want to talk about Love Weld and how this was born. Like many of us, was born in your garage, right? Tell us about that, Sarah.

Sarah Sides:

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the whole Steve Jobs effect, right? But I mean, it makes sense. Right? It's the wasted space that you could explore something, right?

Courtney Gray:

Low overhead, no overhead yet. Yeah.

Sarah Sides:

No overhead. Yeah, so Love Weld.

In my old job, Noonday, a big part of my role was looking into this crystal ball and doing trend research and saying, "Hey, this is going to be the new thing." In that process, originally the concept for what is Permanent Jewelry today. The first thing I came across was a gal in LA was blow torching bangles on people, which was super cool.

At that point, I will say the risk did not spark a business idea for me. I was like, "That's cool. I want to do that." But it wasn't at that time where I was thinking of a business, but then came across the concept again. At that point in time, it wasn't called anything. It wasn't called Permanent Jewelry. There was no sort of phenomenon around that. But there were two places, a place in Paris, a jewelry store, and then also Catbird in Brooklyn, which is I think if not the first, one of the first to even play around with the idea. They were welding using more so the technology that we see today in Permanent Jewelry clients. It was definitely a kind of side thing. I think if I had blinked, I would've missed it.

But as you kind of understand my background from Noonday, I'm always thinking supply chain, I'm thinking the end experience for customer. Noonday was an amazing storytelling brand, so that was something. And their story was the amazing artisan hands and technique that went into the jewelry. But that was always a focus is what story is this jewelry telling. And so, I came across the concept. I was like, "Oh my goodness. Supply chain? Cool. Inventory planning? Cool, because you're making the piece right then and there." And then the maker point. It's how cool that you're making something custom with your client right there, and what could that mean, what could that look like, what could that be? Then the storytelling component, I'm like, "Gosh, you're creating with your client a story." That's the brand right there. That's the concept. That's where it needs to go.

It was one of those things, I wasn't looking to start a business at that point in time, but obsessed over this concept, and from there was birthed a brand. To me, it's like this doesn't need to be something ancillary to a traditional jewelry store, that this needs to be it. What would it look like to create a brand that was solely built upon with their product that was about Permanent Jewelry, which is what it's called today.

Then what if not only was the jewelry built around that, but the team and the experience in the retail space.

Courtney Gray:

The ambiance, right?

Sarah Sides:

The ambiance was just all about that spark, that forever-bound jewelry piece. Outside of one of my passions for jewelry, another passion of mine is connection and communities. In my 400-square foot apartment, we were having parties with 30 people. And in my 1100-foot home, my first home, we were having parties with 75 people. It was one of those things, like, "How do we make it work and how do we just make people fit?" To me it was a really exciting way to make both of those things collide. A good party and jewelry? Come on, I'm here for it.

Courtney Gray:

Right?

Sarah Sides:

Then that was the garage moment. Right? I bought this first machine. I actually bought a few different machines. Because as y'all know, I've dabbled in jewelry making, but I imagine a good number of you here listening to this podcast could walk laps around me as far as creating jewelry and making jewelry. I can do a simple bezel set, but if you start talking casting and all that, I'm like, "Oh, show me. I'd like to see what you do."

It was a lot of I bought a few machines, I went through a lot of product, beta testing. Like, "What is this?" A lot of trial and error. That was in 2019. I was ready. I felt ready. I ordered some special invitations to hand write notes to my friends to invite them to this Galantines' event in my garage. And was so nervous. These are my best friends, so they're like, "Whatever, Sarah." They probably didn't care. It probably wasn't a big deal to them. But to me it was like everything. And so I wrote these handwritten, probably super cheesy, goofy notes and mailed it to them and invited them to my first Galantine's event. Which was in my garage, but I put down a cute rug and had candles and champagne, so it was glamorous,

Courtney Gray:

Not rough. Not on the cement.

Sarah Sides:

I mean, it was on cement.

Courtney Gray:

Already thinking ambience, though. I love it.

Sarah Sides:

I tried. I tried. You make work what you have. It was a magical night. It kind of took me back to those fun middle school slumber parties, like, "Let's make friendship bracelets and hold hands and kumbaya and we're in it together," kind of like was it the Ya-Ya Sisterhood sort of moment?

Courtney Gray:

Yeah.

Sarah Sides:

Yeah. Yeah. It was like, gosh, in your adult life being to have a Ya-Ya Sisterhood moment with your best friends in the garage with beautiful jewelry, it was just really, really fun. Now, full disclosure, they lost all their bracelets a week later.

Courtney Gray:

Not quite. It was a test. This was beta testing.

Sarah Sides:

[inaudible 00:25:23] was not quite there, but the concept was, I think, locked in at that time. I'm like this, "This is so fun."

Courtney Gray:

This is worthy. This is worthy work.

Sarah Sides:

Yeah, yeah. I'm going to go after this. And we did nail it down. We actually are really proud about how long our pieces do last. A lot of it is the technique and the materials and supply and all of that. And I learned you can't cheap out on your 14 karat-gold chains, unfortunately.

Courtney Gray:

Or the jump rings.

Sarah Sides:

Or the jump rings. Or the technology. I wish, and I do think that's something people entering to the Permanent Jewelry space, the technology, it's not as expensive as some things you can get in the jewelry industry, but it is a pretty penny. I will say I have tried to cut the corners and save the money, but it really is about the technology and the machines that really help you.

Courtney Gray:

And then training people how to use the machines?

Sarah Sides:

Training people how to use the machine.

Courtney Gray:

Properly, safely.

Sarah Sides:

Yeah. That's where Permanent Jewelry Solutions came in. I feel like we're jumping around. But Love Weld happened. But yes, we do the training. The training's a big part of it, learning the technique, learning what is a solid and not solid weld. I was lucky thanks to my schooling and background to understand metal and how metal is built, and not all metal's the same, but I think a lot of people entering into this industry are probably surprised by the nuances that are in metal and how they work and move. Each has a mind of its own.

Courtney Gray:

Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah, I love hearing about the startup and where you began. And the honesty of these fell off a week later. That's where the mistakes, you know, calendar them in. They're going to happen.

Sarah Sides:

Yeah. The bracelets fell off and COVID hit, all within a month. It was a lot of like, "Oh shoot, what am I doing?" A lot of questioning oneself.

Courtney Gray:

Well, talk to us a little bit about, I mean, you did the research, though. You didn't just dive in blindly.

Sarah Sides:

I put a lot of research, I put a lot of money and resources at the early end. I am. In the early concepting of a business, I mean, it was a lot of research, trial and error and work. I would say before I fully, fully launched to the public in a big way, and I think COVID slowed it down a little, I did a lot of friends and family and neighbors. I actually am ungrateful to have had that space, which I probably wouldn't have granted myself that space in another season of life. I probably would've expedited things a little more and pushed myself to finalize the full brand. I just got to live in it.

Courtney Gray:

Let's get this going?

Sarah Sides:

Yeah, let's get this going, this pressure, right?

Courtney Gray:

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Sarah Sides:

Because I quit a job, and my husband was getting his MBA, and was a nurse, and we had two, a baby and a son. That responsibility and that pressure to be responsible to support my family in that way, COVID gave me the permission to the space to [inaudible 00:29:03].

Courtney Gray:

The space, yeah.

Sarah Sides:

Yeah, the space to be a little less responsible than I normally would've been. And be a little more creative.

Courtney Gray:

And pace. Pace is huge. I feel like when we're serial entrepreneurs, which I think you and I can relate on. What are we going to do? What are we doing next? What are we doing next?

Sarah Sides:

Yeah. Yeah. What's the next adventure?

Courtney Gray:

And constantly adding to keep ourselves engaged and keep our people engaged. You have to really catch yourself and be like, "Okay, but I need to take this time." I used to have students come in, and I still coach individual makers who are trying to build the business, trying to get it going. One of the common things that comes up is how much time do I need. "I've done my financials and I'm here. Can I do this in six months?" I think that's where a question for someone like you, Sarah, who you took the time, you had that opportunity to take the time. I never say yes because it's really depends on what you're trying to do. You know?

Sarah Sides:

Yeah. And it's ongoing. There's no point of arrival. I'll probably reveal a little bit of my woo here, because I am woo-woo.

Courtney Gray:

Woo it up, girl. Me too.

Sarah Sides:

Cool. I'm in good company, then. Is a prayer and meditation is a big part of my practice and journey, and I have people in my life that also engage in that with me, which is super cool. And in a prayer session kind of got this picture or this visual of, they're popular right now, those chandeliers that have the wooden beads, and they kind of intricately inner lace. In that picture, I felt like that is what building a business is, is that one strand of those wooden beads, that's the beginning of building that chandelier. That's what you can accomplish in your time. That's beautiful, that one strand of beads, but then over time you're able to layer more strands, one on top of the other. I really do feel like in that picture it was giving myself the permission to, "Yes, I know what I want that chandelier to be. I know what I want that in product."

But it's going to take time to build those strands. I'm proud of those early days of Love Weld and exploring Permanent Jewelry, but it didn't look like what it does today and it's not going to look like what it's going to look in three years. I think as designers and creatives, we're always focused on what we want the end product to be. I think sometimes we allow perfection or the pressure of the end product to either stall us out or take the joy of the process. I'm constantly having to remind myself of that picture. I think I got it because I needed to hear it and I'm constantly having to remind myself it's okay.

Courtney Gray:

Right? Laying. We're just going to add one bead.

Sarah Sides:

We're just layering. One bead at a time. One bead at a time.

Courtney Gray:

Yeah. Yeah. Some days it's a whole strand. Some days it's time to rest.

Sarah Sides:

Yeah. And sometimes the strand breaks and you have to go back.

Courtney Gray:

That's the truth.

Sarah Sides:

Or sometimes you're like, "Actually, this isn't the chandelier I'm wanting to build anyway."

Courtney Gray:

Right? "We're going to move this or we're taking it all apart." Patience and grace. Patience and grace.

Sarah Sides:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, we could butcher that. There's probably tapestries, there's better ways to do that analogy.

Courtney Gray:

I like that analogy. I think it's very visual, and we all need that visual aid to help our brains operate and remember it does take time. I really love talking to you, Sarah, because you're smart about this. You're not diving in headfirst without the research and discovering is this scalable. Can you give us some tips on that piece of, I think to many of us, that's like a foreign concept. How do we decide? How do we do that research? That's a broad question, but maybe just one little tip?

Sarah Sides:

Yeah. I think this is attention designers feel, creatives feel, and I think this is something you have to really know why you're doing what you're doing. Because I have for scalability or your customer and designing jewelry as an artist where it is a really unique idea in design, like a piece of art, you're probably not going to have the same audience as a very simple, easy to digest, I don't even say want to say more mass, but probably a more mass audience piece. Those are two different directions on what you could do with your craft. I think there's some in between, and I do think there are designers and craftsmen that have been really able to find that in between. You don't want to just look like everyone else and you want your creativity and your own personality to kind of show through your jewelry or your brand.

I think for me, currently what I have is a very simple product. It's a lot of raw materials assembled, and so I would say the product is a little more mass, but the brand is where a lot of my creative energy and storytelling comes in. Because I actually want the product to be simple so that the customer can tell their own story. I'm not trying to tell it for them, and so really giving them the tools to do that. Going back to scale, I think it's, one, you have to and identify what does scaling mean for you? Does scaling mean for you being able to pocket extra money so that you can do this remodel in your home or buy a new car or have fun money? That's a great goal and a really fun way to do jewelry. I've been there, done that.

Or are you wanting to be a national brand, which is a very big goal? That's a big scale that you're looking at and you're wanting to do. Noonday was a national brand. Love Weld is an emerging national brand. We are in lots of different states. Those are two different things. I'd say first define what does scale look like for you and what are you wanting to do. I would say probably a lot of people listening to this podcast are looking to be able to supplement, or not supplement their income, have their full income come through their craft and potentially have employees that they're also supporting through their craft. Right?

Courtney Gray:

Mm-hmm.

Sarah Sides:

I would say for scalability, it's looking at a lot of different things. It's looking at cost. And what is the cost of time and material to create this end product? That is the bottom line, and then you look at from that cost and material in that process, then you look into your retail. What are you going to retail it at in order to make that worth it or scalable for you? So for someone who is a master craftsman doing intricate pieces that takes a lot of time, their retail has to match the effort in the cost of doing that. If you're not properly costing out your time, that's not sustainable. I've definitely underpriced my time as an entrepreneur because you have to do that to get to the beginning, but you can't sustain that. Right?

Courtney Gray:

Right.

Sarah Sides:

That can only be a season in time.

Courtney Gray:

So it needs to be included from the beginning?

Sarah Sides:

Mm-hmm. Then this one, the thing that I learned in design, and this is what I love and where I geek out is then perceived value. If you can make the cost of goods and the time that puts in, and then the retail that you need to price that at, and then are able to with your design in your end product match the perceived value for your customer, and there is that sort of triangulation?

Courtney Gray:

It's got to work.

Sarah Sides:

Then to me that's a scalable thing. That's a scalable thing. If you have one of those off, it's going to be hard to scale.

Courtney Gray:

It's not going to work. Yeah.

Sarah Sides:

Because if you don't, if the cost in labor is something you're battling, then you're going to burn out. If the retail is too low or too high and when it's too high is when it's going over the perceived value of the customer, then you're not going to have a customer. I think also the other thing on scale is have you figured out who your customer is, and really understanding your customer and your client and what is it that they're wanting? So knowing what your bestsellers are and why they're selling so well. Usually that's because there's a customer connection to your piece.

Courtney Gray:

I love the storytelling piece of what you do, too. It seems like that it comes up a lot in a lot of these interviews, but we can have a lot of fun with that. You know?

Sarah Sides:

Oh, it's so fun. It's so fun. What's fun about Love Weld and Permanent Jewelry is that it flips. The metal smith behind the bench is often telling a creative story with what they're doing and that's so cool. But what's fun about this and what I'm having so much fun with is it allows sort of the client to step into the shoes of the craftsmen and put together a piece. Now, I will say a well curated piece that had a lot of thought in merchandising and we're giving them good choices to work with, but to put together their own piece to tell their own story. That's really fun. The fun part of it is I get to hear those stories and so do my Love Welders. I have at this point in time over 30 Love Welders around the nation, and they're regularly sharing these amazing stories of why people are getting Love Welded. It's really cool. It's really cool.

Courtney Gray:

I can't believe how many locations, and you just started. It feels like it's a new brand and a new business.

Sarah Sides:

It is a new brand. Yeah.

Courtney Gray:

Yeah. I always think of it in relation to my children. It's like, "Well, when you're five, when you're one, you still need a lot of love." And you always need love, but then two, you're walking on your own, you're talking, and then five, and so on. I've always compared the scale of a business to the growth of a child. Some children, maybe not all. But I'm so impressed. So eight locations currently around the United States.

Sarah Sides:

Eight and we're launching six in the next six months.

Courtney Gray:

Oh my goodness. Talk about scaling. Yeah.

Sarah Sides:

Yeah. That is a whole nother podcast, but I will say Love Weld is not the Sarah Show. That was the beauty of working at Noonday Collection and working in a fast-growing startup is Jessica and Travis, the CEOs there, they brought in A-team people to help them grow. It was really cool to see how they were able to structure an organization that really let people thrive in their skills. I'm a visionary, and so I have surrounded myself with tons of people that are amazing at executing and creating structure. My first hires were very operationally focused, the people that are like, "Sarah, wait a minute." There's a lot of this walking and chewing gum at the same time for the fast-growing brand, but we focus a lot on the operations. I live a lot in the operations in order to scale.

Courtney Gray:

Yeah, to make it work. All these different locations, I would think you need the manual, operations manual, all kinds of processes. Anything you do more than once, you needs a process.

Sarah Sides:

Right, yeah. And Noonday Collection was a direct sales or MLM. I think when I was working there, there was a time where they had 2000 salespeople or sales reps, so essentially 2000 people independently running a business using their product and their stories. I got a front row seat on what it's like to teach and build people up to do this sort of sales operations. And also, one of my executives, I worked with him at Noonday and so he came on the beginning of this year, has been consulting for a while to help me bring that part of the old business to this business.

Courtney Gray:

You're at about 40 employees. Is that right?

Sarah Sides:

Yeah. We just made some hires this week. We're launching in LA next week. Yeah.

Courtney Gray:

Are you flying all over?

Sarah Sides:

I am. I am. I am. Which is fun. Yeah.

Courtney Gray:

Yeah, it can be fun, unless it's too much. How fun. Super exciting. You guys, check it out what Sarah has initiated here. I love that you say it's not the Sarah Show, it's a team of people.

Sarah Sides:

It's a team of people. One of my first, Hannah, she is in early, she's also my sister.

Courtney Gray:

Aww. Perfect.

Sarah Sides:

She's perfect. We've been working together her whole lives. She's my sister and she came on early on and was like, "Sarah, this is a mess. You can't treat every client like it's a tea party. You can't recreate what you're doing." Not everyone can run an appointment. People need guidelines. People need rules. People need just a training. She built very early on, a location two, we were building a training manual, knowing that this was our goal, was to scale. She spent a lot of time doing curriculum. We actually brought in someone who specialized in building curriculum to really help us create a scalable training. It became very clear if we were going to grow this fast, we couldn't train beginning to end and make it up every time.

We very quickly created a formula, had our first welding summit in Austin, which was super fun, where it was in a big growth place of Love Weld. We flew people in from Albuquerque and Denver and then trained welders for our San Antonio location and Austin. They all came together and we did a training for all for I think we trained five welders at once. And we're like, "Okay, this is it. This is some magic." Actually at that time, Permanent Jewelry was still becoming known. I actually don't think it really came out mainstream until about a year ago. I had tons and tons of people reaching out, like, "How do you do this?" That was hard, because one, I've always been a very open person and an open creative.

It was hard to be like, "I don't have time to really tell you." And there's really not a good direction I can give. It's just we did these things. This is the machine I suggest, but there's also other machines, and it's nuanced. The machine that works for me isn't necessarily the machine that works for you. I went in knowing this was going to be big for me. This wasn't like a side hustle. This was like, "This is it. This is all. We're going hard." But that might not be what you want to do, and so it's a different answer. There's so many nuances. I really tried to kind of answer and there was a few people where I worked alongside and helped, but I was like, "I'm saying I can't help more people than I want to."

And then also people were asking to start Love Weld. To me, it was really important to protect the magic of Love Weld, that Galentine's sort of moment, which meant it's about the people that I hire and it's about the places that I'm in. That's a really hard thing to find, so I was turning away people wanting to partner, because it's like, "I think your business is amazing and I think what you're doing is amazing, but it doesn't fit that Galentine's garage moment, and so I'm going to have to say no." And that sucked. It was just like, "This is not fun." From that, really talked to a lot of people, and what do I do with this? Even having suppliers and the technology people seeing our early growth and success, they're like, "How do you do this?" From that, that is all a very long-winded way of going about. That's where Permanent Jewelry Solutions came from, and that's where PJS was.

And so, I partnered with my sister Hannah and we worked out a curriculum that took it out of Love Weld and made it more broad, but brought in the same safety, and technical, and techniques, and key business practices that my background from merchandising and design and retail, Hannah and I both have retail in our blood, our parents owned retail stores, so retail and kind of just put it in this package. They're also in a new industry. It's like the wild west of Permanent Jewelry, which is a freaking blast. But also, there's weird stuff out there.

Courtney Gray:

Yeah. Well, it's taking off. Something has begun here for sure.

Sarah Sides:

It's taking off. Yeah, and I've seen people doing training courses with maybe not so much background in jewelry or things. Which is great. But what's not great in my mind is the big price tag they'll put on it. We give our training free with the purchase of a machine or with we have a starter kit that we actually partner with Rio to supply. We have this starter kit, that the training's free.

Courtney Gray:

Okay. It's included. You're basically handing out all the work that you've done.

Sarah Sides:

Yes. There is some selfishness to this. It's kind of wanting to protect the industry too. It's safe when you do it right, but it can be not safe, and so just really wanting to make accessible how you do this safely and correctly. People who have a bad experience with Permanent Jewelry might then be turned off to the fad, and that doesn't help. And I don't even think it's a fad. I think it's here to stay. But it'll turn them away. And I don't want that. I also don't want a ton of litigation around Permanent Jewelry, so let's do best practices, guys. Let's be safe. Let's be smart.

Courtney Gray:

Let's be smart with this.

Sarah Sides:

Yeah, we don't want people hurt. You know?

Courtney Gray:

Yeah, of course. Well, and I love what you said about, it kind of comes back to the idea of collaborate. Let's work together instead of compete. We can fuel each other in this endeavor, and having a standardized process out there is amazing. You know?

Sarah Sides:

Yeah. I will say going back to Noonday Collection, I mean that was the heart of the founders of Noonday. I learned that from them. Because that's not your natural human instinct. I think the natural human instinct, and this comes up in me as well, I think it's more of a learned behavior to actually be collaborative. But the natural instinct is to protect. To say, "There's not enough, and I am not telling you what I labored in my garage and spent thousands and thousands of dollars to figure out. I'm not going to tell you that." But my mentors showed otherwise. They were the beginnings of fair trade and I saw what collaboration did. I saw what came out of being collaborative. To me, what came out of it was amazing relationships and new knowledge and growth. It's a slogan that's said a lot, but we're better together. And we truly are. It's a lot more fun. And it's like, "How many people can we get on this party bus?"

Courtney Gray:

Right. Yeah. I love it. I had a lot of people come through the school and when I was running that and they would ask can I ask you these questions? What are you doing? How are you modeling this? I would just share it. It's like, "Let's do this. If we're going to do it, let's be consistent around the country with it." I don't know, I feel like it's an education, too, like what you're doing with the business to business. It's important to somewhat be on the same page, which is difficult when there's so many techniques under the umbrella of jewelry. That's a whole other topic.

Oh my God, this could be a three-hour podcast.

Sarah Sides:

It could be a 50-hour podcast. I am a believer of there's many ways to skin a cat. Right? It is a horrible analogy.

Courtney Gray:

Well, it suits your background, so tell us a little.

Sarah Sides:

The agricultural farm background.

Courtney Gray:

That's right.

Sarah Sides:

My parents owned feed animal stores. Courtney and I chatted about it a little bit in the pre, just to give y'all context. I am a country girl through and through, and yeah.

Courtney Gray:

Tell us about growing up at your dinner table and being in that entrepreneur space with your parents. I think it's crucial. It explains a lot about you, Sarah.

Sarah Sides:

Yeah. Well, I think I'm a little bit of an enigma, in that Courtney and I were talking about just how for creatives it's hard to run a business. I was telling her in talking about that, I totally see that. I agree. I am a natural-born creative, born to entrepreneurs who were CPAs and business owners. So I think there have been a level with a nature versus nurture, and I think my nurturing was very counter to my nature.

I as a creative was mothered by a accountant, CPA, a very loving woman. There was always just a level of practicality and science. What's cool and when I maybe didn't see then but I really appreciate now, and I know Noonday, my upbringing is so core and key to my current success, is that we lived and breathed retail business. I mean, it was everything. My parents at the dinner table, I say that I got my MBA at the dinner table. It was a conversation about supply, loans, personnel trouble, customer trouble, lawsuits. I mean, just all the things. It's like I got front row seats to case studies. And I was part of the business. I was in the nursery planting flowers at 10 years old, and sweeping the floors, and counting inventory. That was my Christmas break was counting tons and tons of in inventory.

Yeah. Yeah. I do feel like my nature and nurture, even within my head, is sometimes I feel a little like the two people talking, I have my nature, which is super creative on one shoulder, and then my nurture, which is very practical and pragmatic. They're always at war.

Courtney Gray:

Yeah, yeah. We can all relate to that.

Sarah Sides:

Yeah. I'm sure you could totally relate, Courtney, with the number of businesses that you've done.

Courtney Gray:

No, I think it's all an evolution. Like you said, it's adding the strand to the chandelier, which I love that. I might borrow that, Sarah. That's a really great image.

Sarah Sides:

Yeah. Please, please. [inaudible 00:55:14].

Courtney Gray:

I love those beaded chandeliers.

Sarah Sides:

It came to me. It came to me, so I give it freely. Yeah.

Courtney Gray:

Yeah. You're layering and layering, and we're learning as we go, and following intuition and following that spark, like you said earlier, which I love. You're very fortunate to have grown up in that situation. It sounds like your mom was a pretty big influence.

Sarah Sides:

She was, and my dad. I do think probably what's really cool about that is I see so many parallels of my life now raising two kids. My mom raised four, which that is another world. And it was a different time. Right?

Courtney Gray:

Sure.

Sarah Sides:

I do think there's an intensity to parenting these days that maybe wasn't when I was growing up. It never felt like it was like my parents were running this business, and they had six locations, so it wasn't a small mom and pop operation. It was a difficult business. A lot of factors go into agriculture and feed. There's a lot of non-controlled variables that affect whether or not the business is successful. I'm glad I'm not in that sort of retail business. But they brought us along. It was like a family endeavor. My mother, I had a working mom, but I didn't feel that way. I think it's because they did a really good job including us in on the journey. That is something that my husband and I, he works with me full-time, and we have our six-year-old and our three-year-old. We're like, "How do we this as a family? How do we come along?" I am grateful. I think COVID has given us a little more room to explore and do that as well.

Courtney Gray:

Silver linings.

Sarah Sides:

Oh, I know I know.

Courtney Gray:

You've got to find them.

Sarah Sides:

You've got to find them.

Courtney Gray:

Yeah, absolutely. I love it's a family affair, and you were brought up that way, and now you're continuing that legacy of your husband's and now the COO, your sister Hannah's involved. Watch, your kids are going to be welding jewelry by age 10.

Sarah Sides:

Yeah.

Courtney Gray:

Yeah. Maybe 11. Maybe 11.

Sarah Sides:

Maybe 11. We'll see. We'll see. What's so funny is they're really not into, I still cannot get them to sit and get a bracelet. I've tried.

Courtney Gray:

Not. Yeah. Yeah.

Sarah Sides:

I've tried. We'll see. We'll see what happens.

Courtney Gray:

That's cute.

Sarah Sides:

But they're so cute and sweet. It's fun. My son actually really likes the numbers. I'm like, "Who are you?" I feel like I've birthed an accountant, so the table has turned.

Courtney Gray:

There you go. Full circle. Oh, that's so cool, when you can start identifying at that age, too, like, "What are they into?" And it shifts and changes, for sure.

Sarah Sides:

It does. It does.

Courtney Gray:

Well, we could talk forever

Sarah Sides:

We'll have to get a happy hour next time I'm in Austin, because it's really fun.

Courtney Gray:

Yes, please.

Sarah Sides:

Courtney, I just think it's so cool what you have done and what you represent in the industry, and obviously you're a big part of my start.

Courtney Gray:

Thank you so much, Sarah. That means a lot. You make my day with that, for sure. Make my year with that. It encourages us to keep going when we get that kind of feedback, so thank you. It's like, "Oh yeah, I am providing something. How can I serve next?"

Sarah Sides:

Yeah. I love that.

Courtney Gray:

I think it is about service and how we can take care of each other and educate each other and be resources for each other. I've got to come up with a better word than resource. I looked it up and I was like, "I don't want to feel like an asset. I don't want to feel like a ..." Do you know what I mean?

Sarah Sides:

Yeah.

Courtney Gray:

We need to come up with a different word for resources.

Sarah Sides:

Resource. I mean, resource is a good one, though, I mean.

Courtney Gray:

It kind of makes it. Yeah.

Sarah Sides:

It makes it, but I think it's even just a mentor. I feel like from hearing, from knowing what you did at the school and then you sharing what you're up to now, is just this passionate, creative mentor.

Courtney Gray:

Oh, well thanks Sarah. I'm definitely buying you a margarita when you come to town. I would say same to you. I'm inspired by this, and hearing that your parents had six locations, and then now seeing you make it kind of sound simple and scalable and sustainable to have, what, it's going to be eight plus six. Where's your son? We need math.

Sarah Sides:

Yeah, I know. We have very high hopes for this year and our exciting location expansion. I make it sound simple. There are lots and lots of conversations about how do we do this, especially how do we scale and not lose the magic? That is something that probably is the majority of my focus outside of product development and supply chain. Yeah.

Courtney Gray:

Anything else you want to share with everyone while we have you?

Sarah Sides:

I guess one thing I would share is I think the most important thing about what we do, and I think this is also how I'm bent, is how are we connecting to our community and to others? I think this podcast is cool because I feel like that's what it resembles is connecting through this podcast a community of makers. But if you're feeling stuck, if you're feeling like you have a big question mark or maybe feeling a little lackluster in what you're doing, I would really encourage you to seek out and to connect and connect with others, whether it's someone in the industry or just someone who's an encourager on your side. It's not fun doing it without it and it can be we're our own worst enemy most of the time. And so, connecting community.

Courtney Gray:

Those voices, right?

Sarah Sides:

All those dumb voices.

Courtney Gray:

Oh, those voices.

Sarah Sides:

Yeah, the mean girl.

Courtney Gray:

Yeah. Push you. I see you. I see you. I hear you. But you can't sit over there now. Yeah.

Sarah Sides:

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And that voice does push us to be better, but it can't be the only voice.

Courtney Gray:

For sure, yeah. Yeah. Perseverance, and we always say just keep swimming and calendar in the mistakes. I love that. I just really love that.

Sarah Sides:

Keep swimming, but get a margarita, damn it.

Courtney Gray:

Yeah. Take breaks. Take breaks. Yeah.

Sarah Sides:

Take breaks. Have a fun. Let loose.

Courtney Gray:

Pull up at the pool bar and take a little minute then keep going.

Sarah Sides:

Exactly, exactly.

Courtney Gray:

I love that. I think we're all about that, Sarah. We are both on that same page of if you don't have the answer, somebody else out there does and has been through the same thing that you're going through. I'm a coach for jewelers, but coaches even need coaches. I don't have it all. Constantly learning from people like you and people out there who are doing things that I would've never imagined.

Sarah Sides:

One last piece of advice is if someone turns you down, like says, "No, I can't meet you." It's not because your question's dumb. And it's not because they're a mean person. I mean, just life is so complicated. I've been the asker and I've been the person asked. I think even with my openness and wanting to share, just life gets in the way. Sometimes I miss an email or a text or a call. And so, don't get in your head on the ask if maybe the first door you knock on doesn't open, just knock on another. It's not that your question's bad. It's not that what you're doing is not worth the time. It's not that the person that you asked is bad or malicious or anything like that. I think the nature of it is you have to keep exploring and being willing to continue to knock on different doors. If you could just free yourself and others up in that process, it's going to make it a lot less painful and a lot more fun.

Courtney Gray:

I love that. Yeah. I'm kind of like a don't take no for an answer kind of girl.

Sarah Sides:

I love that. I love that. I am a little more timid. I think when I ask, I'm like, "Oh, I'm wasting this person's time." But I think it's more of something I've had to coach myself in as a complete people pleaser is that like, "Okay, I'm not this dumb little girl asking questions." It's more so there's a lot of factors into it. I wish. I'm trying to be more of that take no for an answer.

Courtney Gray:

Well, and sometimes it may not be the right fit and it may not be the right person. And that's okay, too.

Sarah Sides:

Yeah, and I think that's what I'm trying to say is if the door doesn't open, don't think about that too much. Just look for a different door.

Courtney Gray:

Just look for the other door. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

Sarah Sides:

Yeah. Yeah. Don't get yourself in a psychoanalytical tailspin.

Courtney Gray:

I love that. It makes a lot of sense. I always say plant seeds, because you never know.

Sarah Sides:

Yes. You would be so surprised. You just never know when you're going to circle back to the person that helped you out in the beginning of your journey and be in a different place. Yeah, just plant seeds.

Courtney Gray:

Plant seeds, and some of them will grow, and then they grow at different speeds. Sometimes you'll get a response two years down the road, somebody will be, "Now I'm ready." I consider just plant seeds and eventually you'll start to see them develop. And some won't grow, but that's okay, too. If you don't plant them, you don't know.

Sarah Sides:

In my early career, I was in crossroads, and do I keep up with my own thing or do I go and work for someone else. I would find out two years cleaning out my spam folder or something, like the response to an application that I thought I just got a no answer to. But I think that was the universe. I think that wasn't the time. It felt like an easy answer, but my journey was a little less direct than that. You just never know.

Courtney Gray:

Yeah. The more you can trust that process and the things that don't work at the time may not be the right thing, and so just keep moving. Like you said, don't take it too personally if you can help it. Just keep swimming and throwing seeds out, because you never know where you're going to land. It's pretty interesting. Well, I'm so proud of you, Sarah, and so excited to hear about this amazing life that you've manifested in this amazing brand of Permanent Jewelry. What do we want to Google to find you, Sarah, and to get connected?

Sarah Sides:

Yeah, if you look up Permanent Jewelry Solutions, that's where I think you can kind of get the technical side of me and what I do, which I think makes sense for you guys. And then also Love Weld. Loveweld.com, Loveweld on Instagram. It's a fun brand. You can kind of see what we're doing and up to there. Please feel free to give us a shout-out on social. I see you guys when you do that, so that would be super fun.

Courtney Gray:

Awesome, Sarah. Thank you so much and thanks for being with us today. I will say onward and upward to you.

Sarah Sides:

Onward and upward to you, Courtney. It was such a pleasure getting to hang out with you on this podcast, and the preparation, it's just been a highlight, so thank you for taking the time.

Courtney Gray:

Thank you. Thank you for your kind words. You guys, definitely let's keep in touch with Sarah. She's growing this brand and support each other however we can. We'll see you next time.

Courtney Gray:

Thanks for tuning in you guys. I hope you have enjoyed this episode of For the Love of Jewelers. Thank you, John. Alright onward and upward. Thanks for tuning in you guys. I hope you have enjoyed this episode of For the Love of Jewelers. Stayed tuned for the next episode by subscribing though Spotify, iTunes or by searching podcast at RioGrande.com. I encourage you to rate us, write a review and share with friends and colleagues. I hope you’re all finding ways to stay inspired. I’m your host Courtney Gray. Until we meet again, onward and upward.