The Untold Truth About Diamonds: Daniela Sokolowski on Redefining Luxury | S2 Ep. 172

0:05hey everyone welcome back to founder story today we have daniela sokolowski and daniela you are the founder and ceo of decora diamonds which i love the name i really love the name so i want to first start off with understanding about what was the spark in entrepreneurship for you and why did you go into the diamonds but can you explain also the name because it's a beautiful italian sounding name and i really want to understand what does it mean yes it is italian actually it means from the cart and it's interesting how i i i got into this i've been working in this industry for quite a long time i moved to the us in 2009 and that was pretty much my first serious job i started to work for a diamond dealer then i moved on to work for uh debiers i'm not sure if you're familiar but debiers is pretty big diamond mining company and over the years i discovered the passion for making jewelry and designing pieces um the core i didn't really plan on opening the core in the beginning i mean it wasn't like a plan okay five years from now i'm gonna open the quarter it wasn't anything like that i was working as a chief operating officer for another jeweler here in manhattan i'm actually based in manhattan and things didn't work out in my uh at my job so i i would i just decided to go on my own because like i said i love jewelry i love making jewelry and i had a very good feedback from my customers over the years and i opened the core in january 2024 so it's a little over a year now and the reason for the name is it actually reflects how i look at joy i know it's a very emotional process you know getting engaged uh buying something for you for your wife on your anniversary or even the other way around for your husband as well and there's it's it's a business that is very emotionally charged and this is how i look at it from the heart so this is how i came up with with the name i love that from the heart so in my short experiences of buying diamonds i can relate to this the emotional attachment just in the buying process but then in the piece or product that you have that could last you know a lifetime and are you seeing a a big um increase in people that want something that's more custom or bespoke versus the cookie cutter stuff that you might see you know at the mall yes but it depends i mean there's people who just want to have something special something different in fact a lot of customers do say that they want something different but at the end they settle for buying something from the mall however i it just so happened that i have i get referrals from a lot of people and then i make that process very easy and i explain to them and i explain to them that no it's not more expensive no it's not not going to be something you won't like in fact you're very much involved you're 100 percent involved in the process first of all there's no pressure like at the mall nobody pulls a tray in front of you shows you 10 pieces and okay choose no we sit in the beginning i don't have anything not one piece nothing we just sit we get to know each other i ask you so what are you what first of all i want to know what the occasion is right because it's very important and then i start asking questions about the partner and i start asking sometimes they come with a friend or you know and i gather information and we come up with some ideas sometimes they also already know what they want and they say i want something that nobody has and i said okay listen we cannot reinvent the wheel we have to understand what's the shape what she likes does she want the big stone it's does she have a metal preference and we do a process of education mainly the main difference between bespoke and regular jewelry is that there's a lot of education involved when you sit with me i spend about an hour an hour and a half with you even two if necessary nobody pays anything nobody has any kind of obligation to pay anything and they get educated and they understand first of all they understand okay so what would i like to get my significant other what does she like if she is also involved i mean the couple the you know if the partner is also involved it's always easier but i also like this you know the surprise uh the surprise element so i help my customers feel at ease not only by you know not throwing money out the window but by knowing that the piece we deliver the partner or whoever receives that will love it and that's the main difference between sitting at the mall and i'm not gonna get into like of course it's better quality because because that might be a little subjective, but it is.

5:13But when you know what you want, when you know that, you know, that's the metal you prefer. I talk about metals, for instance. What's the difference between 14K and 18K? Why should you choose plenum? A lot of people come and say, oh, I'm going to choose plenum because plenum is more expensive. And I tell them, oh, actually, it's not like that. So that's the main difference is that I sit and I educate them. And they learn about lab-grown diamonds, natural diamonds, metals, materials. And then we design together based on their ideas. And they seem to love that. I think it's a great learning experience.

5:51I went the route of more the custom bespoke, what you're referring to, what you guys offer. And I really learned a lot. And I spent many days learning to understand. And I find it very interesting. so people that are out there that are looking to purchase diamonds is there two or three tips or things that they should know before they even start the process well you know i prefer clients that don't know anything no i mean not that they don't know anything because when you think you know something there's a lot there's a lot of misinformation on the internet everybody can write everything and we you know so tips of course you also have to check you know if the person is legit right the people check about me like they think you google my name there's a lot of information there's you know reviews there are reviews there's there's some written material about me so you want you want to feel like that you're working with somebody that's who's legit somebody who knows at the same time it's you know it's also a matter of common sense i if i buy something myself i you know i check reviews i look up online i go see in person i invite my clients a lot of my work is done remotely but i invite my clients if they're local to come in see the stone not only rely on the videos of course i give them videos and very high and you know realistic renderings and all that but i invite them i said come and sit with me in my studio see that i'm you know i'm the real deal ask me questions but to tell you tips i don't i don't know i mean i cannot say okay buying at the mall is not the good route to go it all depends on what's easier for you.

7:33If it's easier for you to just go and pick one of the five pieces that they show you, yeah, absolutely go to them all. If it's easier for you to be like, you know, more educated like yourself, you said you learned a lot and you like the learning process and you feel like, okay, my God, I learned so much about it. Now I feel ready to purchase. I think going with somebody like me is very important. It's easier and it actually delivers a result that is better than just picking something under pressure in a mall because you are kind of under pressure if they you're especially if you're pressured by time um i don't know i i find bespoke jewelry very interesting and uh very special i did my own ring like that well i did my own ring because obviously i'm a jeweler but i feel like you know knowing about what you're purchasing and uh you know designing together with your designer we coming even if you could you know came across a picture or you have something already that you inherited from your grandma but you want to turn it into something else you know it's working with me is the is the route to go but again to give tips i i mean i it's it's very very personal yeah no that's great thank you for that i think that that lays a lot of the groundwork so for people to understand where to get started and how to get started so as somebody who's been a six-year cancer survivor i know you immigrated from romania which we were just talking about because a lot of my family comes from romania and i'm very interested to visit one day um what has continued to keep you motivated well you know when you face a diagnosis like that you know it puts your entire life into perspective and um one thing i learned about myself is that I'm stronger than I thought I was, obviously.

9:28And this was one of the reasons that why I opened the court, to be honest, was like, I want to do what I love. I just want to do this jewelry, this passion. I want to cultivate it on my own. I don't want to work for anybody else. And I know that I can deliver an experience that people will love. I also look to uplift women that have been in my situation and are undergoing treatment. And I work with the nonprofit. organization to help women that are going through cancer because there's a lot of stigma around this disease unfortunately a lot of people you know when they found out even my own friends when they found out i was sick you know their reactions were very mixed so people think that once you're you know you're diagnosed with something not everybody obviously some people don't think that but your life is over and i want i want to be a story of you know inspiring other women i want to show women that you can still do what you love.

10:25You can still do what you're passionate about it. And then this diagnosis should not deter you. And it did not deter me. So how do I find my motivation? Of course, every now and then, I may also feel a little like, oh, wow, there's always that question looming. What if I get sick again? But you can't think like that. You gotta live life and you gotta see all the positives in life. And I love what I do. And I love what I do. And it's so interesting that people, my customers, customers they a lot of them relate to my story and a lot of them tell me you know my mother have cancer or you know my aunt and and then we you know they relate to my story and they we talk a little and then we find common grounds and they get so comfortable you know they all of a sudden it's not like they trust me more but they look at me as you know what this person is a strong person she loves what she does she wants to succeed and in a way it helps my business as well So, yeah, I'm staying motivated because I don't think you have any other choice.

11:27You don't have other. No, thank you for that. And thank you for being vulnerable and sharing. So I am curious about the challenges in the industry. I've seen a lot of documentaries recently about lab-grown diamonds, and I don't fully understand everything. But there's been a lot of talks, at least from what I've seen so far, around this specific thing and then other things that are happening within the diamond industry. Can you speak to what some of the challenges are? Well, first of all, the market is very volatile. So indeed, there is, I'm not sure how many years this, I mean, the Lightroom Diamonds have been around for a while, but in the past five to six years, and especially in the last two, three years, they kind of took over.

12:11I'm not saying that everybody opts for, like everybody wants a Lightroom Diamond. No, it's very generational, I would say. The younger generation thinks that, you know, they're more sustainable and there's no controversy around it, around the, you know, the Labrador diamonds. And the main challenge for me as a jeweler is that, you know, the supply doesn't meet the demand. So there's too much supply and less demand, which obviously impacts because we all know a little bit of economies. All right. Impacts, you know, prices, margins. The margins are very low. And it's also it's not that the left-hand diamonds are diamonds.

12:56They're real diamonds. So let's start by that. But it all depends on what matters to the customer. Some people, you know, value that story, value the fact that the diamond was in the ground, you know, for 30 ,000 years. and somebody, you know, mined it and brought it to the surface and polished it, blah, blah, blah. And somebody says, oh, you know what? I don't want to spend a lot of money on something that I could get for like five times less. It all depends. I mean, I cannot give you real numbers because it all depends on the piece and everything. But that's one of the challenges. There's a lot of merchandise, so to speak.

13:32You know, like what was very rare is no longer rare. and obviously it affects us as jewelers too because you have to reinvent yourself and how many times can you reinvent yourself at the end of the day making jewelry is making jewelry and even what i can do is just you know provide the best customer experience that i can make the nicest you know designs and explain to customers when they ask me about the differences or what's the difference in between the you know the lab-grown diamonds and natural diamonds because there is a difference it's how they came about right nobody went in the ground for the lab grown diamonds they just put them in this you know machine under a lot of pressure and a lot of you know high temperature and there's a lot of energy involved and it's completely different it's completely different story basically there's no romanticizing as you know the natural diamonds thank you for sharing that because i was really curious about how this is changing the industry and how this looks.

14:31So, Danielle, if people want to get in touch with you, they want to find out more information, maybe they want to visit you, how can they do so? Well, I'm located, I have a jewelry studio in 1460 Broadway in Manhattan, in New York. And I have a website, Decoder Diamonds, D-I-C-U-O-R-E Diamonds. It's going to be hard for people.com. And of course, I have my social handles are also Decoder Diamonds. Well, Danielle, this has been great. Thank you for educating me. Thank you for educating the audience on what you're doing, the motivation, inspiration behind the organization that you founded here. I can't wait to follow up in a year, two, few years and see where you are at at that time because I can tell just how inspired and motivated you are.

15:18So thank you for joining us today on Founder's Story. Thank you for having me.