Jason Diehl – The Ritzy Rose
Welcome to this episode of Cosmos and Commerce, where we explore the fascinating journey of Jason Diehl, co-founder of Ritzy Rose. In a world where creativity meets commerce, Jason’s story is a testament to how passion can transform into a thriving business. From crafting unique brooch bouquets that caught the eye of country music star Miranda Lambert to navigating the challenges of evolving market trends, Jason shares invaluable insights on entrepreneurship, resilience, and the art of pivoting in business. Join us as we dive into the sparkling world of Ritzy Rose and uncover the secrets behind its success!
Based on the provided transcript, I can summarize the key points of Jason Diehl’s journey with Ritzy Rose:
Origins of Ritzy Rose
- Jason and his then-wife Jen started Ritzy Rose in 2009 after their wedding
- They launched an Etsy shop with two items: a brooch bouquet and flags for the ring bearer
- Their initial vision was simply to work for themselves and create things, without a specific “why”
Rise to Fame
- In 2011, Miranda Lambert purchased a brooch bouquet for her wedding
- This celebrity connection led to significant exposure and business growth
- The couple quit their day jobs in July 2011 to focus on Ritzy Rose full-time
Brooch Bouquets
- A brooch bouquet is made by wiring brooches, pins, or earrings together
- Jason and Jen created two styles: a round, fashion-focused design and a more traditional bouquet shape
- They estimate making 600-700 bouquets over about 5 years
Challenges and Evolution
- Faced legal issues over the term “brooch bouquet”
- Formed the International Association of Brooch Bouquet Designers to protect their right to use the term
- Realized brooch bouquets were a trend and began pivoting away from them around 2015
Business Transition
- Moved from handmade brooch bouquets to focusing on paper products and signs
- Transitioned to Amazon sales around 2015-2017
- This shift allowed them to scale the business and build a team
Growth Strategies for Ritzy Rose
- Initially relied heavily on social media and word-of-mouth marketing
- Adapted as social media became less effective for their business
- Now focus on paper-related products that can be produced by a team and sold through Amazon Prime
Jason’s story illustrates the evolution of a small handmade business into a scalable operation, adapting to market trends and leveraging e-commerce platforms for growth.
Top 3 Takeaways
From the podcast featuring Jason Diehl of Ritzy Rose, here are the top three takeaways:
- Embrace Change and Adaptability: Jason highlights the importance of recognizing when a business trend is shifting. After achieving initial success with brooch bouquets, he and his partner Jen realized that the market was evolving away from their original product. They pivoted to focus on paper products and signs, which allowed them to scale their business effectively and transition from handmade items to a more sustainable model.
- Leverage Social Media Wisely: In the early days, social media played a crucial role in Ritzy Rose’s growth. Jason emphasizes that during the initial stages, social media was a powerful tool for word-of-mouth marketing and community engagement. However, as the landscape changed, they learned to focus on what truly drove sales rather than getting distracted by social media trends, ultimately shifting their strategy towards marketplace selling on platforms like Amazon.
- Collaboration and Teamwork: The partnership between Jason and Jen showcases the value of collaboration in entrepreneurship. They combined their strengths—Jen’s creative design skills and Jason’s operational focus—to build a successful brand. Their ability to work together effectively, even after personal changes in their relationship, illustrates how strong partnerships can lead to sustained business success.
Links
The Ritzy Rose
Traction by Gino Wickman
Emerging Entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurs Organization
The E Myth by Michael Gerber
Transcript
[00:00:00]
Michele: Welcome back to another episode of Cosmos and Commerce. I’m Michelle and with me as always is the charming and ever curious Janice Francis. How are you doing today, Janice?
Janis: I’m doing okay. Oh, you know, just trying to keep up with you, Michelle. Did you finally recover from that trip to Dallas?
Michele: Yeah, let’s just say I don’t think I brought home any bedbugs.
Janis: Oh God.
Michele: So that’s good. The hotel was pretty dumpy.
Janis: that’s fantastic. Was your hotel dumpy?
Michele: It was.
Janis: Oh crap. I told you it’s the Omni.
Michele: opened the sliding glass door and it almost fell.
Janis: Oh my God. At least you had Joe with you.
Michele: yeah,
Janis: He’d make you feel a little better.
Michele: maintenance man. And he’s, we said, can we change rooms? Because it doesn’t seem like it’s going to get cool in here now. And the maintenance man said, [00:01:00] trust me, you don’t want to switch rooms.
Janis: Oh, no kidding. Oh crap.
Michele: Okay, the clash Joe and I took was really fantastic. I can’t wait to tell you more about that. So, later.
Janis: Well, good. Well, I can’t wait to hear about it. Well, speaking of bedbugs, I’m itching to talk to our guest, Jason Deal of Ritzy Rose, who is joining us. You know, the man behind the brooch bouquet that made Miranda Lambert’s wedding even more dazzling.
Michele: Oh yes, the bouquet that sparked a viral sensation. I wonder if he ever imagined his creations would become the stuff of celebrity weddings and social media frenzy.
Janis: Probably not, but that’s a testament to how a little sparkle can go a long way. By the way, do you think he gets as many marriage proposals as his brooch bouquets do?
Michele: Who knows? Maybe we’ll find out. [00:02:00] But seriously, I’m excited to dive into his journey, his business strategies and how he navigates the crazy world of Amazon sales.
Janis: Absolutely. And maybe we can get some tips on how to run a successful business without losing our sanity. I mean, look at us. We can barely manage our coffee and podcast schedules.
Michele: Speak for yourself. My coffee routine is a well oiled machine now. Thanks very much. But yes, a few tips from Jason would be great. So without further ado, let’s welcome the man himself, Jason
Janis: welcome Jason.
Jason: Thank you. Thanks for having me.
Janis: Oh, absolutely. Been looking forward to this.
Michele: Yeah.
Janis: Can you tell us, tell us the story of how Ritzy Rose got started?
Jason: So, Jen and I as we were preparing to get married in 2008, 2009, we had a long time, we were engaged for like a year, and we basically did everything for the wedding. We made all kinds of [00:03:00] stuff, we bought vintage things for the wedding we did everything, and it was a blast, we enjoyed doing it. I think we realized we were going to be bored after, we were bored.
And neither of us wanted to keep working for a corporation. So we got the idea of let’s take some of the things we did and see if other people want them. So in, we got married in May disclaimer, we got divorced in 10 years later, but we’re still working together. We probably put more into the business than we did into the marriage, but it is we are still married in the business and it is going great.
So we we got started, we got married in May. And in. August we launched our Etsy shop. We launched it with two things in it. We launched it with the bouquet made out of brooches that Jen had created and then some Flags that we had which actually failed the ring bearer did not carry it down the aisle But we made it and somehow got a few pictures of it in their hands it was to say here comes the bride before Jen walked down the aisle And so we launched those two things on Etsy And that’s [00:04:00] what really started us going was those things.
Michele: Awesome. What was your initial vision for Ritzy Rose and how has it changed?
Jason: Goodness, has it changed? So the initial vision was generally just didn’t want to work for anyone. We wanted to work for ourselves. We wanted to work together. We wanted to create and make stuff and not work for anyone. There was no real why, which. We now have in it. It was really really to just not work for anyone to create our own thing.
And We started we got I can’t recall when it was fairly quickly that we got our first order like geez, okay This this bouquet thing could work. And it it picked up steam in 2010 and we did more than we expected. And then we’ll get into what happened in 2011. That kind of went, Oh, okay, we’re doing this.
So, but yeah, our, our initial vision was just to make stuff. Jen was a creator. She’s the creative mind behind it all. She’s the one that [00:05:00] drives the brand and I, I try to aim it and implement as much as I can, and that’s how we’ve worked together throughout the years. We thought we were a good blend between the two of us.
And that continues to remain.
Janis: So Jason, how did Miranda Lambert’s purchase of your brooch bouquet impact your business?
Jason: So it impacted it greatly. We, and to tell you kind of how it happened, it all happened on Twitter. We had, we had a lot of people following us that were just friends and family. A woman that I kind of worked with in hotels stuff, followed me in Oklahoma. We were, I don’t even know if we knew who Miranda Lambert was.
We had no real ties or interest in country music at that time. But this woman basically tweeted to a pair of sisters named junk gypsies who is
Janis: I know
Jason: getting her wedding was designing her wedding. Everything tweeted to her. You should check this out. They started tweeting [00:06:00] with us and they’re like, Miranda’s actually interested in this.
We’ll pass your information along and literally the next morning, Miranda’s mom called Jen and it all kind of went and it was quick and she sent us the brooches and we put it together and sent it back. We didn’t, we, it was crazy. We had to sign a contract, basically like a 100, 000 liability contract to not say it.
Thing about the wedding. And so we we said it, we didn’t hear a thing. We had no idea if she even used it. It was like, I’m not using this. We didn’t know at all. And so it was really cool. The first time we so the first images were coming out on entertainment tonight back when I don’t even know if that show is still on, but we tuned into entertainment tonight.
We’re like, we’ll see what happens. And like the third picture and there she was with the bouquet and we’re like, Okay, here we go. Our name got out there a little bit, but it definitely was us doing a lot of social media was really young. We were out there basically gorilla, like posting, like, it [00:07:00] was so cool making it when somebody posted something about it and they’d be like, Oh, you made it.
And so, and just the word brooch bouquet skyrocketed on Etsy at that point in time. And so, yeah, from there it just launched. So that happened in May. By July we had enough in the books that it’s like, why are we working our day jobs? Let’s quit. I had already come home to do a hotel thing But more and more I was doing the ritzy rose and then Jen came home in july So we had a five year plan to get home and it Made it basically a less than one year plan and we’re both home working for the Ritzy Rose full time.
Michele: Wow. I, I have two follow up questions to that.
Jason: All right, go for
Michele: One, one, why don’t you explain what a brooch bouquet actually is because some people might not know. And two, how many of these things did you end up selling?
Jason: So first, it’s funny to even be talking about it because it feels like a lifetime ago now. We are now completely out of brooch bouquets. We made our last bouquets [00:08:00] in about 2015 2016. It was definitely a trend. We followed the trend and then the trend went into a direction that wasn’t us. And we really felt like it was time we, so to make it, you literally, and you basically took brooches, which are pins or earrings, and we would wire it with floral wire, which is like a 18 inch long wire.
There’s a couple of different gauges and. My hands hurt just thinking about it because you would literally hand wire all these things and I did a lot of the wiring and then Jen did the arranging and we did it two ways there was like a round one where it was like really more of a fashion piece where it was like very much round and you saw each one it was perfectly placed and then there was one that kind of looked more like an actual bouquet of flowers but the bottom wasn’t as, Glamorous and so those were the two ways and so the one was literally we were like feeding it through a Structure [00:09:00] that kept it in that ball form and the other one was just feeding it together and then tying it together and I to this day.
I don’t know how she made him so strong so good she really jen really and so we did it for about five years. I don’t know how many we did. We probably did six or 700, I would say throughout the time. We were probably a couple hundred, maybe a year at the height. Maybe I’m wrong with those numbers.
I’ve never, it’s something I should have stopped and gone. How many did we end up making? But I never did that
Janis: I’ve got a follow up question too. So are you currently a Country Western fan or did you become one?
Jason: during, during that time period when a lot of our, but we had so many Texas brides, so many tenants, we had a lot of country music brides and we
were, we were dipped our toe a lot and kind of went. a lot into country music. Now I’ve kind of like backed off. Whenever Miranda comes out with something new, [00:10:00] I’m going to listen to it.
You know, there’s a few, there’s a few groups that kept with it. But certainly we, our height of our country music fandom was that 2011 to 2013.
Janis: I love it.
Michele: So tell me about that moment when you realized that brooch bouquets were not it anymore. And then tell me like what you decided to do to pivot. Yeah.
Jason: Sure, we, so we did go through some struggles with the word brooch bouquet. There was one woman who, she claims to be the one that initiated it. It’s putting brooches together and people have come up with button bouquets and a million different bouquets. She claimed to have come up with it. Well, she was not happy when all of us started doing it.
So she tried to actually trademark the word brooch bouquet and got us all kicked off of Etsy to, or not kicked off, but we couldn’t use the word brooch bouquet anymore. We ended up a group of us got together and we formed the IABBD, the International Association of Brooch [00:11:00] Bouquet Designers. And we literally are bouquet designers from all over the world.
We got together. We basically fought and won, and got bouquets back so very Early on in like 2012 bouquets were getting tarnished because I just didn’t want to hear the word brooch bouquet ever again after that battle and but we so we had that and it was A few years in you know, jen I think was tiring and we always jen was a designer.
Before You Starting this business. She was a designer for companies. She always worked for someone designing what they wanted to and she really Was excited to design for herself. Kay’s left her designing for other people still. And I think she was kind of getting to the point where she was getting tired of that.
And then I remember, I will say there was, Jen was starting to be like, we were making jewelry. Signs were picking up a little bit. And The wedding signs had done better in about 2014, 15. And I remember there was one day though, I looked on Google and it Googled brooch bouquet. And I was like, I hate
everything I see here.
We’re out. That was the final [00:12:00] straw was I, the trend had gone in a direction that we didn’t buy into or enjoy or like. And it was like, this is no longer us and we can’t do this. So, we, we, we enjoyed it for what it was. And then we started to pivot and try to figure out what was next.
Janis: So what challenges did you face in the early days and how did you overcome them?
Jason: Early days, one of the biggest challenges was the legal battle that we, we, we were thrown into. We also faced all kinds of different things just with kind of growing a business and figuring out where to invest and where to, how to grow. I think we realized we were not going to be doing brooch bouquets forever.
Early on, we felt like it was going to be a trend and not maybe something that was going to be sustainable forever. And so we we were constantly trying to figure out what is next. We did do we had a store for a while, an actual brick and mortar store in 2013 to 2015. And we were very into, We’re out shopping or one, one funny thing to throw in there.
There was, so we bought [00:13:00] most of our brooches literally in fields and yard sales, because we love the style of vintage. We didn’t want to in, and the trend did turn into kind of a made in China brooches, and we just hated those. We didn’t like that look. We liked the classic missing rhinestones. We just liked that look was us.
And, but one year we used 10, 000 brooches that we had been like trapping through. Fields and buying and you know Scouring eBay for we watch we watch the price of brooches go from like 25 cents to five dollars. It was like we literally Influence an entire vintage market of brooches. It was pretty cool to see but We we had all this jewelry and we were out there buying sweet.
We started doing vintage sales and nothing was really And that was really where we wanted to go. We were trying to figure out how are we going to scale the business and not literally make every single thing ourselves with our [00:14:00] hands. And so in 2015, we, we finally made the pivot to focusing more on our signs.
That’s when Amazon came in. And really that just started to slowly pull us into that direction until about 2017 we’re all in on paper and we’re out of everything
Michele: Is that where you’re at today?
Jason: yes That is where we are at today paper is life. Every single thing that we make is paper related. And everything that we make now is is created by us. But we have a team now that can make it which we were able to scale we were able to send things to amazon prime. I’m sure we’ll get into that but it it It really turned it into the business that we kind of dreamed of, of being more of a business and less of Jen and I doing every single thing.
Creating every product.
Michele: So did you have any like specific strategies that you use to grow?
Jason: Absolutely not Now we we really, we really didn’t in the beginning. You know, [00:15:00] and it’s I, I will say, you know, getting into all of that, it was very much in the beginning, social media was very new. We’re talking 2010 here, almost. 14, 15 years ago, it was just beginning where it was more of a show and tell and not a needing to provide content.
It could be like you could show people your cool stuff and they’d be like, Oh, this is amazing. And that’s all you needed to do. And so social media was really big for us in the beginning. People sharing it was also a time when people were sharing more and more and more. Not just influence or anything.
It was just people sharing with other people. And so word of mouth and stuff was, was much bigger than it is now. And, and so it was, it was just that time that social media worked perfectly until it didn’t at one point, social media, we realized became a distraction for us and wasn’t feeding what was actually making us money.
And so in and around the time where the store closed, we kind of went dark almost, and we were just like, we’re [00:16:00] not going to focus on that. We’re just going to focus on getting products to Etsy. And then we added an Amazon. We’re like, we’re just going to focus on being marketplace sellers and get our products there and see what happens.
And that really, that strategy of kind of getting away from something that wasn’t working and focusing on what was. this scale.
Janis: So how do you and Jen approach product development and innovation at Ritzy Rose?
Jason: So we have, I always say we have very few products. We have a lot of SKUs. So we we develop a product and then we, we basically take that product deep. So it’s that whole thing, like a foot wide, a mile deep. That’s how our products are. Meaning we have you know, we have our cards, we have our beer labels, we have wine labels, we have our eight by 10 prints, we have our decks, we have our signs. And that’s about it, but we have over 2, 500 SKUs total that we can sell out of those. So it’s different content, different designs, different things that can go on [00:17:00] those. So, so I’ll talk a little bit about it individually. Our, our product itself is we, we try out different things and then we talk about how we could utilize this.
Like currently we have these decks, which just. 18 to different sizes of decks of cards that have they’re four by six and they’re rounded corners. So we have Jewish prayer cards for one of them and birth affirmations for another. Those two have made into our top 20. And those are the only decks we have.
So we just started coming out with more affirmation decks. And so this is our first product launch since. probably 2020 that we’re going into more of a new product. And, and we have some new machinery that is, is allowing us to get into those things. So we are slow to develop a product, but we’re quick to develop a SKU is how we look at it.
And the SKUs, We developed those by a lot of what’s driving Jen. What’s interesting, Jen, what Jen finds passion behind, but also what she sees people needing [00:18:00] or gaps in the marketplace. We are very focused on our long tail keywords. So we are off. Everything is very much. We’re never going to win on Christmas cards, but skeleton, Christmas cards, pickleball, Christmas cards, that kind of stuff we will win on.
So it’s always has a kind of a niche that we’re going after.
Michele: Nice. I just played my first game of pickleball last night.
Janis: you?
Michele: you’re speaking to me.
Janis: That’s way big right now. Pickleball.
Michele: Okay. So has, tell me more about how you do your marketing. Is it more like you talked about long tail keywords. So I’m guessing it’s like search engine optimization now over social media. Like tell me, tell me more about the marketing.
Jason: Sure, sure. So we are we are, are basically the majority of ourselves are Etsy and Amazon. We’re on Walmart, we’re on Michaels. We have our own website where we’ve tried eBay. We we’ve gone and done a lot of things, but. Amazon and Etsy make up a [00:19:00] majority of our sales. So our marketing is really around understanding the algorithms within those two marketplaces.
And, and that comes down to understanding keywords, understanding how to place those keywords inside the title, inside the description, inside the keywords. So it definitely comes down to search engine optimization with that. All of our marketing dollars, literally 99 percent of our marketing dollars go to either Etsy or Amazon.
And it’s all keyword based and it’s coming back in searches. It’s coming back on, on different SKUs. So as you’re scrolling through Amazon and you’re like, Oh, I’m looking at this and wait, that’s what I want down below. That’s what we’re paying for. And that’s, that’s where we put a lot of our marketing dollars.
But when it comes to marketing it’s, it’s, it’s, to me, it’s all about the kind of process you go through. So I talk about eyes and buys where it’s like, You first get the eyes on your product as they’re scrolling through and you want to, you want to. Picture and that somebody wants to click on it entices them enough to click on it.
It’s not distracting It’s [00:20:00] or sometimes it is distracting. We just want to have them click on it and see what it is But it’s an enticing picture that we want to get them in but once they get in then it’s all about the buy And so then it’s we’re adding the images that get them to buy knowing that they’re not going to read it They’re they might even not read the title but they’re gonna look at the pictures most likely So we really focus on the pictures selling the product as best we can.
And that’s really where a lot of our focus goes is, is creating great images. Because that’s, that’s the conversion. That’s the, getting the eyes on it, getting the click and then getting the conversion into the pie. And, and that’s what Jen just, that’s one of Jen’s greatest skills is, is knowing what a great image looks like and knowing how to How to get people to buy something that they’ve never even seen.
Like the bouquets, you know, we were able to show what those bouquets look like through images before anyone really knew what it was. We were not only showing a product, we were having to teach them about the product. [00:21:00] And so that was a really complicated thing. I think we learned a lot from those days of bouquets.
Of how to take pictures and how to show things online that now translate into day of like, you know, she’s now we can do video. So we’re scrolling through the decks to show how thick they are to show what they look like and the sheen that they have and, and, and, and the texture and everything. And we do our best to show all that so that it.
It grabs somebody in so it’s not just a flat product.
Michele: So you’ve told us a lot about Jen’s strengths and what her role is in the company. What is yours?
Jason: So my role is keeping it all together. My role is really it, it, my role is, comes down into basically Jen is this Uber creative person and basically I wanna keep her doing that as much as possible so that I. Then try to handle the rest. So my, my job really is you know, I, I look at as far as the [00:22:00] marketing side of things, I’m very much the details and numbers guys.
So I give her the information that I find what, what our top sellers are, what keywords are popping, what keywords are trending. I also share with her kind of what I see in the, in the world that’s, that’s popping, but then she has her own just knowledge and, and being able to see trends she’s.
It’s really been great with that knowing what’s going to come, knowing what’s on trend, knowing how to follow that. So it kind of blends the two of like me looking at the, the kind of the, the metrics and then adding hers is more natural instincts. Marketing also I handle all the advertising craziness because that’s just a disaster on amazon.
It’s just a mess of keywords and Numbers and all kinds of stuff that she does not want to do with at all and then when it comes to the other stuff, you know the finance and admin arm of the business I handle all that and then of operations is now handled by the team. But [00:23:00] I really am the one implementing the systems and the systems is when it comes down to it is my biggest part of it.
And that, that even goes into the marketing role world where I’m constantly trying to find a system so that we can delegate, so that we can replicate, so that everything goes out consistently. My goal, I always tell this people and they look at me really weird. My goal has been McDonald’s where you put a cup under it and it fills it up to the top.
Perfectly every time and that’s the type of things I want to be able to do is just I want a repeatable thing you know our Employees I I look for being able to train them really easy and to get them going we have a lot of students. We have a lot of part time We have a lot of people that they come in and I have them up and running in a matter of hours with Something because it’s it’s so such a repeatable process.
It’s been done and we know exactly how to do it. So that really is kind of my world is trying to keep us going and keeping us being able to scale. And, and it’s been a long time figuring out what my role is exactly. I always just kind of. [00:24:00] Picked up the pieces and kind of just shoved them together.
And, and over the last about 2019, I started to really focus on myself and, and got in some education and learning that really took me in the right direction. And now I understand my role, which I was doing, but I didn’t know why I was doing it, how I was doing it, but now it’s much more strategic and.
I know that creating the systems inside of our business is the most important thing that I could be doing. And that’s where I spend a majority of my time.
Janis: Good.
Michele: You said you took a lot of education. Is there one standout class that you were like, I would recommend this to everybody?
Jason: There’s a organization in Columbus called Gerber and he has a it’s called foundations and it’s for first generation entrepreneurs. And that was my first,
like, I saw them at a Pickerington chamber of commerce event speak one time. And I was like, I like these people. I’m buying what they’re selling.
I saw them. I then found out they were a thing later on that month or next month. And I went to that and I was like, okay. They’re speaking to me [00:25:00] and going through that and, and, and finding a group of people that I could relate to for a year was really the, the starting point of my learning. And it’s funny, it was not called foundations back then, but it did create, it’s, I was just going to say it created the foundation I needed to really grow the business.
It’s funny, Jen and I always joke, we did have, for a while, we had this, this roller coaster of, we were watching Shark Tank, where we thought our education really, part of it got formed. That was when we were like, we need to scale, and we need to figure out how to do that. And then, and then we got into the profit and that was our next education.
And so that, that taught us some things, but it wasn’t all coming together for me and Gerber is where it all started to come together and I started to have confidence. I think the biggest thing that I came away from, from that class and that cohort that I was in was when I got to out of it and I made some decisions, those decisions I had more confidence in and were easier for me to make than ever.
[00:26:00] And knowing how to make the right decisions is one of the hardest things about being an entrepreneur. And so understanding how to evaluate it and how to do it and how to have confidence in it was really really valuable to me but since then it’s it’s i’ve just soaked up anything. I can I find any anything with ai i’m i’m going towards anything within the eos process i’m always trying to learn I’m now a member of EO entrepreneurs organization in Columbus.
That’s been it’s allowed me to take that. I’m kind of at the point where I don’t need as much education and I need experience. And so that’s allowed me to learn from others and their experiences. And it’s, it’s also had a another group that goes with kind of learning the EOS process through the years.
And there’s a day long class once a quarter that I’ve been attending. That’s just been amazing. And it’s built on what I learned at Gerber, but everything’s built on everything else. And it is that that kind of EOS or scaling up as some people call it. Those, those books and those [00:27:00] processes, learning those things.
Has really helped me Organize and strategize and set my goals in a much more deliberate and effective way
Michele: Yeah. For those of you who don’t know what EOS stands for, it’s what entrepreneur operating system or something like
Jason: Exactly. Yeah, the book is traction. But it really It’s a very simple thing, but it’s complex at the same time. But It’s really something that I’ve seen a lot of people utilize, and it’s hard to implement in the size that we are, because it really is our, our company, I will say is basically just Jen and I doing most of the other stuff.
Most people are just there. They’re not just, but they are getting the orders out the door. They’re taking care of customer service. They’re doing that, but growing the business is really up to Jen and I, we have one person that helps us with a lot of those needs with graphics and doing other things within marketing.
But most of the team is really. Focused on orders and getting things out the door. So it’s hard to kind of implement it with just Jen and I. But we found ways that it really has been helpful for us.
Michele: Yeah, the book has some [00:28:00] really great thought provoking questions to really nail down what you want your business to be.
Janis: Yeah.
. So you started selling on Amazon. What was it that made you start selling there?
Jason: So, literally they announced Amazon handmade was launching. They, they, they, they grabbed a few people from Etsy in an initial kind of push and they grabbed them and then they started with those and then they open it up to applications and I think the day that it opened, we had our application and which was insane.
Like to sell on Etsy. It’s like, give me your email. And this was we were, we were showing pictures of us making it going into all kinds of stuff where we source things, what we do. It was very, very drawn out more like this is great because we were at the point where we weren’t just like doing it as a hobby.
This was our full time job and we were competing against people that were hobbyists. So, It was like we were, we felt like we were going to a place where it was like, this is where we belong [00:29:00] right off the bat. And we really just hope we add a little bit to our growing Etsy sales. And it took off rather quickly and then it just kept growing.
And now I’ve surpassed Etsy. I will say that at that time that we joined Amazon, which was in about 2015, 16 we were selling vintage, we were selling jewelry. We were selling bouquets a little bit still. When we went to Amazon, we went focused and we said, we’re just going to do science. We’re not going to take anything else.
It’s too complicated. It’s too, we’re just going to bring signs to Amazon and start there. And I think that that really helped us. Be focused and not get distracted by other things and it helped us succeed a lot more
Janis: So what are the benefits and challenges of selling on Amazon? So
Jason: amazon is I will say I I definitely talk more negatively now about etsy than I do amazon. Etsy has Gone down a path that i’m not really thrilled with [00:30:00] and their support is just Lacking and it’s confusing and there’s not much you can do I’ll touch on etsy ads are literally you can turn them on or you can turn them off.
That’s all you can do There’s nothing else strategic you can do other than on or off and that’s per skew But that’s about that’s all you can do On Amazon, you can do so much. There is there really is just the opportunities there are so much greater with being strategic as far as advertising and such.
The marketplace itself and the customers are enormous. It’s just, the scale of Amazon is incredible. The fulfillment through Amazon Prime is amazing. And then the customer service, which is hysterical, you know, you would think that Etsy would be this like touchy feely, like I’ve literally never talked to anyone at Etsy.
I’m like connected on LinkedIn with people that work at Amazon. And I’m, I have known these people and like, I have faces and I have like people I know at Amazon. I have [00:31:00] a, I have a certain, a manager that works with me so I can reach out to her for anything and she’ll help me find. And so the support on Amazon and the support for brands has really been incredible and surprising and wonderful.
So I really, I speak very highly of Amazon. The struggles are basically you have to follow the rules. A hundred percent. You have to follow the rules. Number one rule following Amazon or number one rule is follow the rules. And there’s a lot of them, but as long as you follow the rules and stay in their box.
You’re free to play. The other thing is amazon customers versus etsy customers I’ll take an etsy customer all day long so much more understanding amazon You just they’ve set the bar for different expectations and I just have to accept that there’s different expectations I have to accept that if the problem happened with usps, it’s still my fault I have to accept the fact that if they ordered it wrong, it’s still my fault Like it’s just they have different expectations and amazon’s Created that but it’s also created a marketplace that you buy with such confidence.
So [00:32:00] it is what it is. So that’s kind of the good and the bad with amazon.
Michele: it’s understandable. I guess the differences between the client base I know when I’ve ordered from Etsy, I’ve expected like a two week wait. So how do you manage the inventory and fulfillment of your Amazon?
Jason: their Their data is amazing. First of all so they really can tell you, you know You want to have 90 days of supply they can tell you what you sold in the last 90 days You can they can tell you what you should send So it’s fairly easy to kind of know what needs to get going there You it’s pretty easily sent we just send big boxes to like mostly Indianapolis and Chicago filled with product.
They process it and then it goes all over, you know, those prime semi trucks that you see running around. They’re just running around with all kinds of stuff to get into all the fulfillment centers so they can get it there quick. [00:33:00] So really, they do provide a lot of information to kind of know there’s some things that we have to understand and know ourselves as things are, you know, Christmas cards, have a specific time we’re selling at one pace, but we’re not going to sell at that pace past like December 15th.
So we do have to kind of know that. As far as on the ground and like in the shop, what we’re doing, it’s Amazon prime has changed our business in such an incredible way because it was the first time that I had stuff for people to do after they were done with orders. Every day we come in and we fulfill orders.
It’s like a restaurant. We have a rush. We go through, we get the orders that
came in. Yesterday we get about today and once those are done. It’s kind of like, okay, you prep for tomorrow Maybe get some stuff on the shelves, but we don’t keep a lot of stuff on the shelves We do a lot print on demand, especially if banners are made to order.
Well now what was like, all right Well, here’s all the stuff that needs to go to prime this week So now once you’re done with orders get started on prime [00:34:00] And so finally I had a balance and I could, I could keep people’s days fill. And so it really helped me be able to scale my employees because I had something that was ongoing and something that was kind of like had ebbs and flows because Monday’s it’s super busy and then it, it, it dips throughout the week.
So that’s really been great. So we do keep some stuff on the shelves and we try to stay ahead. I’ve again, created a system that allows us to literally I could from the road or from my house, add in what we need to send a prime and people start moving it along in the system. And so it really is that has become a very well oiled machine, which is again, where my skills lie.
And And so, yeah, so that’s, that’s how we keep things moving.
Janis: What strategies have you found effective for increasing the visibility and sales on Amazon?
Jason: advertising is huge. Advertising for us is huge. We and, and there’s so much out there content wise that we, we watch and I listen to because it’s, you know, [00:35:00] In the beginning, I’m okay to almost lose money because I need those reviews. I need those few reviews. I need about 10 or 11 reviews and then I can fly.
So I’m almost willing to, you know, you can’t pay for reviews anymore, but you can heavily advertise to get people to buy it. If you have confidence in your product that you’re going to get great reviews, which we get great reviews and. So it’s, it’s, it’s pretty quick to I’m pretty quick to basically lose money almost on, on advertising.
And then I scale it back once it starts going. But there’s, there’s a lot of other ways. You know, we can, we can bundle things together. So we do like, you know, Christmas cards that are for kids. We can package a lot of them together. So, you know how you can see just you can click through on one page to see different things So it’s it’s nice to be able to expose people to a number of
products without leaving that page and wandering somewhere else So and then just having great.
Images and stuff really helps convert people we have a lot of infographics and stuff like that so that it explains what they’re getting. And we just constantly are working at, you know, [00:36:00] making that a better experience for people. But images, images are everything for us.
Michele: How do you handle the customer service and feedback on Amazon? And like, one thing I’m curious about is the returns. How
Jason: So
Michele: that?
Jason: returns. So yeah, returns are just, I almost want to just ignore them and just not know that they happen. A lot of the returns are happening through FBA. Unfortunately, once our products are open, they have to get sent back. And we basically just, it’s, it’s, it’s a, it’s a process that kind of stinks. Fortunately with handmade stuff because it was made to order for them, we don’t have to accept returns.
But fortunately we get, we do not have to deal with many returns. It’s not a, it’s not a bad process. It’s a costly thing because it happens at prime. But as far as like the stuff we ship from our facility, it does not happen very often. And so it’s been okay, but it is a little bit costly. I will say [00:37:00] there was recently one that we are getting a really high return.
And it had, for some reason, I think it was because we weren’t following the rules, right. And we put capital letters in our bullet points. And so we lost our bullet points. Well, I noticed our returns jumped up while I put the bullet points back in and made sure to say paper in it. And all of a sudden the returns simmered back down.
So it was like they were, they were missing the fact that, you know, that some people think it’s made out of wood or something when it’s. You know, three sheets of cardstock sewn together which meets the expectation often. But when you’re expecting like a piece of wood, it doesn’t meet the expectation.
So those types of things, you know, we really try to focus on and figure out why
are people returning it? Can we? Kind of keep them, can we meet their expectations better with the information we provide them? And then reviews and stuff, there’s not much you can do. You just kind of hope and pray that they are good.
And most of the time they are, but we do get some that, you know, It can, we’ll get two reviews and they’re bad. [00:38:00] And it’s like, well, that product’s shot now, but it’s, it’s not easy to get him removed. It’s you’re, you can respond, you can try to reach out to the person. It’s really, it’s difficult. We’re very fortunate that we have had lots and lots of very happy customers.
And some of our top products are almost I don’t want to say invincible, but they’re, they’re, they’re so strong, you know, with. About 4. 8 stars and we have like 500 reviews. So a few bad reviews don’t hurt that bad when we have that many good reviews. So it’s nice to be able to have some products that have that kind of strength.
But it is, it is, and it’s with a tough skin. You have to deal with customer service. And I still don’t do it very well. It can ruin my evenings anytime.
Janis: I get it. I get that. So do you have any tips for people who want to start selling on Amazon
Jason: Yes, learn, learn, learn know what you’re getting into. It is. It is very easy to start an Etsy shop. I would, anytime I’m meeting with somebody who’s kind of making something or doing something, it’s start on Etsy, [00:39:00] prove your concept there or start with a website and some social media because Amazon is a beast that you have to be prepared for.
And there’s a lot of learning you have to do to understand it’s, it’s a very different listing structure than Etsy. So we had to learn how to do that. There’s definitely a lot of strategy with it. You can put stuff out there and it could not be found. You kind of have to be prepared to spend a little bit of money on advertising and investing in that.
But it definitely is is something that you can do. It’s just, it’s time it’s learning. It’s understanding how the Amazon system works because it is a big, well oiled machine with tons and tons of competition. And you have to make sure your product’s going to be able to stand out. You know, that that’s why we go with long tail.
We’re. We’re happy with finding the few people that are super stoked to find dragon christmas cards There’s enough of them out there that we can we can we can make them, you know, it’s fighting their needs those niches and stuff like that. But it is a difficult thing to [00:40:00] learn We’ve now been on it for eight years And i’m still like going through education learning how to use it better and better because is a very complicated and difficult thing to understand.
But if you put the time in and if it can be incredibly successful it really, I mean, it’s, I always get frustrated with people that are kind of whining about Amazon because the amount of small businesses that are thriving with Amazon. Being their main revenue stream is just incredible. You know, I know many people that their jobs are Amazon and we don’t work for Amazon.
So,, it is really created a huge opportunity out there. , but it is, one that you need to educate yourself on and know what you’re getting into for sure.
Janis: and follow the rules
Michele: Yeah, that’s
Janis: and don’t put caps in the bullet
Jason: right. Yeah. There’s a lot of weird rules like that
. I want to switch gears here a little bit and talk about being a leader and having a team. So can you share with me any [00:41:00] lessons that you’ve learned about leadership and management?
Jason: You know, so I’ve realized in the last few years, Jen and I made it far enough in our careers to kind of know some strategies, know some things about business, but we did not make it far enough in our careers to be leaders. We never led anyone. I led a team of dishwashers and that’s as far as my leadership went, really.
We were being led by people but we weren’t leading. And so I think that that’s always been a. One of the biggest challenges for Jen and I is knowing how to lead and becoming better leaders. I have really struggled with kind of accountability and things like that. And it’s just kind of being able to be a leader in a good way.
You know, if I would get frustrated, that’s what I would tell people kind of there. Something was not going right. It would come out as frustration as opposed to like a, a, a Kind of calm and like, all right, this is what we’re seeing. These are the expectations and stuff like that. So it’s, it’s taken me a lot of years to kind of get there.
And I [00:42:00] finally feel like I’m, I’m getting there. You know, one of , my favorite sayings is you can’t improve what you don’t measure. And so I finally, with a super veteran team, now I finally may be able to start measuring a lot of our, our stuff that we do. And I’m getting data that I can then turn into expectations because I think I’ve missed.
on expectations a lot. I don’t think people, people want to know what your ex, their, their expectations, your expectations are of them. And I don’t think I’ve done a very good job over the years getting those expectations. I think I’ve gotten better lately. And I think that that’s making me a better leader.
I will also say that culture is everything for us really focusing in on what the culture is of our, our, our workplace is, is important and having the culture and control of the culture is, is really fundamental in me being able to lead the way I am. I want to be a leader that you know, I’ve chosen the way I want to lead.
And that is, I want people to [00:43:00] all, everyone to almost be a leader because they know what the expectations are and they can, they can do it. Kind of call each other out. I don’t wanna have to micromanage. I don’t wanna have to, I wanna be able to set clear expectations of what the guidelines are and what, what we, what everything should look like, and then trust the team to be able to execute it and have enough people there to know, hey, that I don’t think that’s the way that’s supposed to be.
And it’s, I’ve created that culture, Jen and I have over the years, and it’s been great. We, we’ve created this culture that people really care about the customers and, and understanding that. We’re shipping something to them that, you know, they’re spending their money on. And we don’t know what 20 is to that person or the 30 or 40.
This could be the most expensive Christmas cards they’ve ever purchased. So we want to make it feel amazing for that. And also we’ve created a culture that people care about each other in the, in the workspace, and we really. You know, have a very open and inclusive workspace that allows for kind of everyone to be able to have their emotions, have their feelings.
I’ve created a flexible [00:44:00] workspace that people can kind of, be moms or be students or be what they need to be and still have a job. And if they need to call off, we’ll figure out a way to get through it.
Janis: Yeah. So speaking of measuring, you were talking about measuring, what key metrics or indicators do you use to measure your business success?
Jason: it’s often looking at cash flow and profitability. I think I took my eyes off that in 2015 and things got really scary. So I’m constantly watching that. I think these, but that’s kind of a lagging indicators. So I’ve been really working on knowing a little bit more about my leading indicators.
And some of our leading indicators for us is the amount of products we’re putting into the marketplace. When we don’t put new products or I should. skews into the marketplace, new designs in the marketplace, we tend to slow down. I think the Etsy algorithm does really well with that. Sending new things to prime once they’re successful, knowing, knowing what’s going on.
If we’re not getting new things to prime, that’s, that’s going to be a leading indicator that [00:45:00] sales are going to keeping up with the trends. Our inventory at prime is really an important indicator that if we run out of something at prime, sales are going to drop drastically. So, really, it’s been trying to figure out those leading indicators.
And then for profitability, the leading indicator Is a lot, you know, we, we don’t have a lot of variable costs. All of our variable costs are very controlled. It’s like how much we pay Etsy, how much shipping, we don’t have control over that. So those are going to stay the same. So really where it is, is, you know, making sure our things are running as efficiently as they can and our speed.
So I do, I’ve been trying to keep track of like how many orders per hour we’re putting out to see. You know, if we make a shift or if we have too few people on it, is it slower? Or if there’s too many people on it, is it slower? I recently realized from it, we do, do we do better with more shipments?
So there’s almost like an inherent. Chunk of time that’s taken up just by doing orders. So if I can do more orders, it’s going to be better. So we’ve actually gone to a Monday, Wednesday, Friday shipping process. Instead of every [00:46:00] day, we ship a little bit. If there’s a priority or an express, but no changing that.
I think we’ve done been more efficient with our our orders per hour. So those are some of the key metrics I look at. And then advertising is filled with stuff that I have to watch for and look for to kind of know if something’s spending too much or too little or anything like that. And those are the leading indicators of I’m not going to be as profitable or I’m not going to be selling as much.
Michele: Yeah, that’s interesting. I need to nail down more about what my leading indicators are.
Jason: Yeah. Understanding that leading, I don’t know. I learned it was probably 2020, 2021. I learned about that leading indicator. You know, I was throwing out a lot of lagging indicators and that was the stuff that it is what it is. You’re not going to do anything. And it was like, I needed to understand more about what I, the numbers I needed to take care of on the front end of things to then affect the numbers on the back end of things.
Because once the numbers come in for the year, it’s like, well, you can do better next year, but. That year’s done. And so finding out those things, it’s, it was [00:47:00] really kind of a pivotal moment to understanding that. And it’s pretty cool.
Michele: Yeah, mine’s probably like how many networking events I go to, and how many social media posts I post, how much money I spend on Facebook. All right, what drives and motivates you as an entrepreneur? Yeah,
Jason: or maybe it’s the fear of failure at this point. We’re 14 years into this business. Like I am unhireable by anyone I am, I’ve committed and I’m stuck. This is, this is it. You know, it is, it is the drive to make sure I have a job. Definitely keeps me driven and motivated. And that’s always kept me motivated along the way.
And it’s a, I am not driven necessarily by the success being a financial one. My success has always been a freedom one, you know, and I’m you know, I want to be able to take my kids. I want to be able to go to their sporting events. I want to be able to stop and do what I want to do when I want to do it.
And, and that’s, [00:48:00] that’s my success. But I will say that you know, we’ve, we’ve always been happy, you know, bouquets made people happy. Literally people would come to tears with them. We, we told a story with. The bouquets. It was, it was a really cool thing. And whenever Jen would create for her whole life, she wanted to evoke emotion in people.
She wanted them to feel something, you know, when she would give a gift, there was, there was a lot attached to that gift because she wanted, It to be super special and for them to feel like it was made just for them. And so when we kind of looked at things after we got through the vision of, we just don’t want to work for somebody, we came up with the vision of create to make people feel to evoke emotion in people through what we make.
And, and we’ve really carried that forward and it really. I think during the pandemic, we really realized what it was that we were doing because we, we started off and people were like, Oh, you should make these things. And it was like, almost like beer labels about Corona and Corona virus and like these things.
And it was just like, [00:49:00] we don’t want to benefit off the pandemic. Well, and we were like, we’re not, we’re just going to hold tight and see what goes on. Then as things progressed over the next couple of weeks, it was like, we had just done like our vision and mission, which was. Our vision is to have people connect in special ways, have people be able to connect with people with cards that are blank and you write the message and things like that.
And we realized. It was our responsibility to start creating things for the pandemic because our goal was to connect people and people weren’t being able to connect because they were stuck inside their houses. So cards blew up, wine and beer labels blew up because we were creating things that were helping people connect in ways that was like, I can’t hug you, but here’s a bottle of wine, mom and things like that because it was, it was, it became our mission.
And now. You know, we’ve, we’ve moved into these affirmation cards and Jen’s been doing so many about teens and kids and body image and acceptance and, and it’s, it’s, it’s driving us with the, with kind of what we’ve learned about [00:50:00] mental health and the struggles people go through. And we want to, and so that’s really being able to. Motivate us at a different level. It’s our why and it gets me excited about kind of where we’re headed in the next few years because I think we finally know our why I think we really know our vision and when we can put that all together. I think it’ll be a really really cool thing
Janis: Jason, how do you balance your work life with your personal life?
Jason: I think one of the keys I do is I steal from work just like I steal from my personal you know if I have something going on if something needs to be done
On a tuesday peace out i’m not i’m i’m taking care of what I need to take care of you know, there’s a bunch of jewish holidays. That is we the kids are off school and stuff So it’s like you know what i’m off that day And then it makes up for the late nights or when I have to answer an email at midnight and stuff like that So it’s it steals from my personal time as long as your personal can steal from your work I think it helped me remain balanced, [00:51:00] but i’ve also 14 years into the business.
I’ve accepted that my business you Is my life and it runs 24 hours a day my my fiancee has been learning, you know, I was married to my business partner She actually she understood and was I remember she when she we was she was in her hospital bed still after Isaac was delivered. She was answering Conversations on Etsy from her hospital bed.
It’s like, so my maternity leave was like 15 minutes, but here we go. So, but you know, it’s been interesting explaining to somebody and and Her kind of realizing my business just i’m gonna be answering emails It’s gonna something’s gonna bother me something’s gonna come up and i’m just gonna work on it.
And and so it’s it’s I’ve accepted that after all these years, but it is I think the key is Stealing from work when I need to
Michele: that makes
Janis: Perfect. Yep.
Michele: What, what are your future goals for Ritzy Rose? I
Jason: So I’ll just tell you my BHAG, which is the Big Hairy Audacious Goal. And that is 50 people working for us. My, [00:52:00] and that, I will say that is not Jen’s BHAG and, but I think our BHAGs together meet because hers is definitely more on orders and touch that she does externally. I’m a people person.
I love people. I would love to have 50 people work on payroll working for us. I think that would be amazing. If I have 50 people on payroll, I’m going to have the revenue that I need that it’s going to make me happy. But but yeah, that’s, that’s really one of my big goals. But as far as our smaller goals is we’ve kind of realized recently that you know, with the way Etsy has been going, we’re kind of like, it’s been our past.
It is what it is. Amazons are present. But we do look to the future and the future is Shopify, TikTok, Pinterest. Instagram, YouTube, all the other things that we can connect with now that we ran a wedding business for a number of years It was very hard to grow a following because once they follow you they get married and they’re no longer in need of your content It’s not easy to do that So we we really have [00:53:00] struggled with that.
We’re now getting into cards And affirmation cards and, and postcards and posters, which is very much a repeatable buying process, especially with cards, you need them every year. You need them throughout the year. So we, we now know that we’re in a little bit of different space. So we’re really looking forward to being able to create a kind of more content that’s driven around what our passions are and what we want to do.
And really start to grow our own brand as opposed to growing our brand inside of Amazon.
Michele: just had an idea for you. If you, if it works, that’d be awesome. But I, you said the affirmation cards and I have some of those, but they’re from this big influencer in this self healing or whatever space, Gabby Bernstein. So would you be able to like partner with somebody like that to make the inspiration cards so they could like promote them?
Jason: what we’re hoping to do. And that’s what we’re hoping with our [00:54:00] niches. We’ll start to come out with where it’s, it’s like, we’re trying to be very specific with these. You know, we’re trying to find, you know, we, We print on demand. We’re printing. We can print things to order or we can have stock on our shelves.
We have this Ability to and because our we make everything in house We can we can do we have tons of raw materials and we can just make it all day long. It is not a problem so we can go for very small niches and be very specific, you know we have we have people all the time that are like on our christmas cards that we have I don’t even know.
We might have six or 700 different greeting card styles for just Christmas and the holidays we get so specific that we get feedback of like, these were literally created for me, you know, it was like this way. And that’s, that’s the feedback we want. That’s. And so, yeah, if, especially if we can find somebody within the mental health field that is very specific and niche I think it works really well to partner with us.
And, and so, yeah, we, we definitely see affirmation cards as a big thing and we would love [00:55:00] to. Start working with influencers. And we see that as a huge, huge opportunity for us.
Michele: Maybe body ache escape could have some affirmation card.
Jason: You let me know we can we can 100 figure some stuff out We actually we have jewish prayer cards And we’re actually in talks with somebody and they’re they’re planning on putting kind of a box together And our cards would be part of the box and we’re talking about putting branding on it And that’s kind of the first time we’ve ever done that we’ve never we know we don’t we don’t go outside of our box much You know when we did the store and when we did things we were kind of getting outside of our box and kind of feeling around and And we very much were like, here’s our box.
We’re going to stay in it. You know, even to the point where we looked at fair like the kind of the wholesale website for shops to buy from and think, and just was like, we don’t do this. This isn’t our specialty. This isn’t how we work. And we kind of were like, we’re going to stick with what we do, which is selling directly to customers.
But we’re always open to kind of feeling around for other things. But that’s, that’s really, I think being focused is something that is [00:56:00] not, Jen and I are not good at being focused. We, we, we love ideas. We’re always coming up with stuff. It’s hard to stay focused on what we know will drive the business and keep the, keep things running for our work.
But yeah, it’s, it’s tough.
Janis: So, Michelle, are you ready for the quickfire round?
Michele: Yes. Let’s do this. All right, Jason.
Jason: All right,
Michele: We’re going to ask you quick questions with quick answers.
Jason: here’s all right, let’s do this.
Michele: right.
Janis: . Jason. What’s the book you’ve most given as a gift or the book that’s made the biggest difference for you?
Jason: I will stick to business. But E myth by Michael Gerber is my number one book.
Michele: Awesome. What purchase of 100 or less has most positively impacted your life? What
Jason: noise cancelling headphones to drown out the noise of the shop Drown out the noise of my kids to listen to my podcast and my happy place music to keep me calm
Janis: Cool. What’s an [00:57:00] unusual habit or an absurd thing that you love? I
Jason: Lego my basement is like two thirds filled with lego. We have a city. We have a medieval world We have a pirate world. I love lego. It calms me down Lego is my thing.
Janis: love it.
Michele: is your proudest accomplishment?
Jason: My proudest accomplishment, again, I’ll stick with like kids are super proud, whatever. I think my proudest is my, are pivots. I think it’s really hard to pivot in business and we have pivoted a number of times and continued to go for 14 years. Michael Gerber says in his book, you know, after five years 80 percent are gone, after another five years another 80 percent of that’s gone.
So we’re like the one out of a hundred that has made it 14 years. So. I’m pretty stoked about that. And I think it’s our pivots that have done it. So I think my biggest pride is that
Janis: Awesome. What’s your current passion project?[00:58:00]
Jason: my current passion project is, is probably our system for listing. I’ve created a system inside of air table, which is a database. That has helped streamline our listing and getting being able to think in, in different ways of, of being able to think just on keywords and then just on copy and then just on the
title in a, in a very systematic way.
So it all flows and we can add more and more people to scale the listing process. And I’ve been working on that for a year and a half, two years, protecting it, and it still is a work in progress.
Michele: What is one skill you would like to master?
Jason: I think leadership. I, I think that that’s my biggest area of growth. EO group has been instrumental, but learning how to lead more and becoming a better leader being a better father, just that whole idea of kind of guiding people is, is kind of my biggest thing.
Janis: Jason, what was your first job?
Jason: Target, cashier, and then food Avenue.
Janis: Okay.
Michele: Where do you see [00:59:00] yourself in five years?
Jason: I see myself about where I am just a little bit bigger in, in, in how many people are working there. I see myself with Ritzy. I, I see I would love to see it in a place that we can do more by touching people and, and we have a lot of ideas that it’s hard to bring into a marketplace. It’s hard to be like, cause people don’t know they want it.
We have to give people what they know they want and are searching for. I really hope to be in a position that we can tell people what they should want. And be able to influence them in that way and be able to share a product that it’s like, oh, yeah I need that for sure, which we can’t do when it’s just a marketplace So, I think that and just being able to take more time off and time for myself.
Um is is important
Janis: Do you have a pump up song? What’s your favorite pump up song to get you going?
Jason: It would be I know the end by phoebe vergers It still gives me
goosebumps and [01:00:00] it builds and it If I need to get in a place to do something, that’ll be my song.
Michele: I’ll have to listen to it.
Jason: Be prepared.
Michele: are Since we are called Cosmos and Commerce. What is your drink of choice?
Jason: Ah, so I had to stop drinking in 2016 for my heart and I loved beer and I am just so happy that we now are in a world that there is so much non alcoholic beer that is delicious. And some of it’s brewed right in canal Winchester. But, my, a good non alcoholic beer is absolutely my top choice, and I am so grateful that there’s a huge selection now of non alcoholic beer.
I thought I was stuck with a Duels for the rest of my life, and I am not.
Janis: Oh, cool. So Jason, would you rather have your products featured in a blockbuster movie guaranteeing instant fame or have a well known influencer give you a shout [01:01:00] out leading to a study of stream of loyal customers?
Jason: I would definitely lean towards the Influencer. I think that Influencers can tell the why much more than a movie can tell the why. And I think it definitely, definitely an influencer that is going to speak to the niche that we’re trying to deliver to would a hundred percent be my choice.
Michele: Thank you so much Jason for joining us. That was a sparkling conversation. I feel like we’ve all been bedazzled by your insights.
Janis: Absolutely. Who knew brooch bouquets could lead to such a fascinating business journey? I might just start a collection myself.
Michele: For sure. And for our listeners, if you enjoyed today’s episode, don’t forget to check us out at Cosmos and commerce for more inspiring interviews and tips from entrepreneurs.
Janis: Hey, Jason, how can people get a hold of you if they wanted [01:02:00] to order something?
Jason: You can just, the website is the ritzy rose. com r i t z y r o s e. com. And there’s contact information all over there. And it comes directly to me because I am still customer service through and through.
Janis: Cool. Cool.
Michele: thing to delegate.
Janis: Thank you so much for being our guest. We love catching up with you.
Michele: Yes.
Jason: Thanks so much for this conversation. It was a lot of fun.
Michele: Don’t be a stranger.
Jason: Absolutely.
Michele: Have a good day.
Jason: You too.