Ep 31: From Grief to Growth: Olivia Jenkins on Building D.Louise

0:12Today we're joined by a founder of a jewellery brand known for its timeless tarnished re-pieces that are designed to last. From honouring the memory of her late mother to building one of the fastest growing jewellery brands in the UK, her story is one of true resilience, purpose and a passion for sharing her own power and story. Please welcome to the podcast, Olivia Jenkins. I'm so pleased you're here. I'm so pleased that I get to talk to you. Also a fan. Yes. wearing my earrings right on time um I always like to start these conversations by going way back yeah into I think you're I think the childhood really shapes us as people and I think sometimes we don't actually realize that until we live in our adult life or we're doing the thing that we kind of have stumbled across and there's always that kind of connection into why you why the business.

1:08Let's talk about your early childhood. How was that and how did that look? Yeah, so thank you for having me. The earrings are gorgeous. For me, my childhood was so normal. I had the most normal childhood. I had a mum and a dad, two brothers. It was in Wales, so obviously a very quiet little town. And it was just very regular. I went on one holiday a year. um I went to school then I went to uni so it was very there was nothing really in my childhood that shaped me who I was right it was more just like a regular childhood okay yeah and did you have like anybody around you that I suppose was was kind of like instilling that entrepreneurial spirit or was it kind of like you say quite small was there a bit of a ceiling do you think Yeah, for sure.

2:04So I think that so my dad was an entrepreneur and my granddad was an entrepreneur. So they had their own business in cars. Right. So I always knew that you could have your own business. I knew that was a possibility. But you know, these people who like say they woke up and out the womb and they're literally like want to be a business owner. That was not me. I was just not interested in starting a business I just wanted like a regular nine to five and I felt like I didn't really have like that entrepreneurial spirit um but obviously that all changed so it was it was yeah there was nothing really that would make me want to start a business but I knew that I could if I wanted to because my family were like so supportive yeah of everything I did so it wasn't like that thing that I am gonna find my own way and I'm very headstrong and I'm because because sometimes you can really see the glimmer of like I can see it in my children I can see between my three kids who's the one that's probably got a little bit more ambition or kind of that drive versus the ones that are quite easily pleased you know I can see that already yeah and I'm talking in sort of code because one of them sat the other side of the camera so I'm not trying not to give too much away um let's sort of let's lead into your why and the story behind D-Louise yeah so Covid obviously was a huge like pivotal moment for me and so I'm sure it was for you and the whole world.

3:44Yeah. And it really shifted me. So in 2017, I lost my mum, Deborah Louise, and I really was in the denial phase of grief, probably for about three years. And I know there's loads of different phases of grief that people have, but I was just almost like ignoring what was going on. and when COVID happened obviously life got totally moved upside down and it took away everything that I was doing on a day-to-day basis to keep me busy and to like ignore yeah order to sort of try and deal with your grief yeah um and I quickly realized that life is about meaning and purpose and the job that I was in wasn't really giving me that and I went to I basically went to my fiancee Jack who's also the CEO and co-founder of D-Louise and I said to him look I'm feeling all this kind of way and I feel like where I lost my mum like I don't feel like I'm on the right path right and he was someone who as an entrepreneur literally selling sweets on the playground when he was like a kid so he was like through and through had his own business and he was like well why don't you start a business and at the time I was like you are absolutely crazy like I don't know anything about a business like I don't know how accounting works I don't know what product I would sell so it was completely like nothing I'd ever thought I'd be able to do so interesting so it's almost like a because look we know when you lose somebody and you lose somebody in your life that is so crucial and such a you know big part of you to try and find that path and know how life's going to look without that person and what that means and like you say kind of we all kind of try and mask grief grief of other things don't we and And when the world takes away that mask, I mean, I suppose you could look back in hindsight and say, actually, sometimes stripping it all back and having to deal with the bare bones of the grief actually was probably really good for you.

6:11But at the time, your world falls apart, doesn't it? Yeah, no, for sure. And using, it's so interesting that actually the idea of creating a business as a new path, because I kind of, I'm on your team where I say like a busy brain is a happy brain for me and it doesn't work that way for everybody. But if I'm going through something or something big has happened in my life, whether that might be losing somebody or everything turning upside down, my work is like my outlet. Yeah. And it's probably where I'm like, OK, this idea and that idea and everything ramps up a notch. So what's kind of interesting is that actually the business is kind of born through that and and needing to have a path that's yours.

6:59yeah no for sure and I also think that having that meaning behind the business like for me it's never been about making a profit it was I genuinely started it because I needed to find my purpose and it was like a way for me to heal from the loss of my mum but also it's just like a lovely like tribute to her and everything we do in the business is so authentic because she's in the back of my brain saying I wouldn't do that or I wouldn't do that and I'm like I need to everything we do is so like true to my values because it's like giving me that like push from the very like beginning yeah so at what point so you sit down with your fiance yeah Jack Jack and you say and he has this light bulb moment which is you should start a business which is almost like like what brilliant support to have that how do you stumble upon jewelry yeah so there was when we were talking about what I was going to do again I was like I have to really be interested in it and I have to really care about it and I've always loved jewelry like from an early age I used to work at Pandora as like a Saturday girl right and I would absolutely love like people would come in and I've never spoken to them before and they would tell me that their like husband bought them this necklace when they were on their anniversary in Paris and I felt like jewelry was such a perfect almost like ecosystem to create like a meaningful connection brand because people buy it to feel good yes um so it was always about something that like I truly believed in so loved it from the start and also it was like from the very beginning I didn't know I wasn't a designer like I didn't know how to design things and I didn't know so I was like I can't do a fashion brand because like I'm not just not that cool and like the it's not true I'm just like trying to figure out like sizes of different things so I knew that jewelry would be would be on my side because jewelry almost already exists in the world yes so you have the earrings the nexus so it was from um it was basically just didn't fall in fall into place but it was like I had that purpose for jewellery and then it just happened that it also had the connection behind what I wanted to start yeah and I suppose like you say everything there's always that link with like you know skills or I suppose knowledge that you've collected in the way like working in Pandora and being in that environment and being so across that at a retail level yeah I'm sure is kind of added to your skill set you know for founding a jewelry brand you know somewhere in there of course that will add that will add lots of value because what I think is so hard when you're particularly when it's kind of this I suppose is almost in reverse you knew you needed to find a path and then it's what am I passionate about how am I going to do this how's it going to look it's always quite a difficult thing in any market because look we're in 2025 right every market is saturated to a degree isn't it how to sort of carve your own niche and I love the concept that you describe as jewelry you never have to take off what I love is your concept that you describe as jewelry you never have to take off and I just think oh my gosh this is genius this is so me and it's so hard to carve that space isn't it and you know and making your kind of self stand out in a world that there are of course lots of jewellery brands but to make it your thing an affordable price point stylish pieces but bits that you actually don't have to take off how how important was that to you and how hard was it to get that message across us yeah so that was like one of the main drivers for me and where what I really wanted to do in the jewelry space because I'm someone that is like in the gym shower holiday and I'm so lazy like I never wanted to take my jewelry off so when I started talking to Jack about different things that um I could do when we came to jewelry I was like well if I do jewelry it has to solve this problem because that is the most annoying thing about jewelry um so I I started to research into different types of materials and metals that you could use um so I took a chance on this uh manufacturer who I went to and told him everything that I wanted which was I needed to be like an affordable price point beautiful and that you have you can wear it all the time and it will never change color and he just replied like yeah I have something like this like have you ever heard of stainless steel and it was really it sounds really cliche now but it was honestly like a light bulb I was felt like my prayers had been answered because I'd never heard of it before I feel like there's it's a lot more in the space now um and I think where so I took a chance on him he sent me the samples and I was wearing them and I was saying to Jack like I think this is like really good how like that's incredibly lucky like it's so funny when you're starting something new and I do feel like like the the different things that I have started or you know launched that you know that you're on the right track sometimes I mean sometimes it also happens in reverse but you know when everything starts to fall into place yeah like the a manufacturer that you reach out to early on is somebody that is actually normally you have to go through so many different manufacturers to stumble across somebody that gets it understands it the qualities where it should be yeah I think it's the way I describe it is like when you start a business it's like pulling a thread and the more you pull that thread the more things start to go in your way um and for me it was like I spoke to so many manufacturers and I can sit here now and it sounds really easy that I was just spoke to this one guy and he said it but I probably spoke to a hundred manufacturers right and I came across him um and it was I all I was focusing on was what can I put in versus what can I get out okay and I was just constantly focusing on like how how many people can I speak to today and it would be setting myself these tiny little goals in order to reach where I was going um and I was also so naive like I literally had no idea what I was and I just was like everything was almost falling into place because I was so naive yes and I think sometimes it's almost like and I've said this a lot on this podcast that actually you are the naivety is actually quite a beautiful thing at the start because you if you'd have known some of the problems then later down the line occur some of those things could put you off you know when you go in and you kind of like I'm just new to this I've not got much of an idea and I'm doing it off of literally passion and passion alone yeah I think that is sometimes for the best yeah no 100 % and I think what it also allowed me to do was to treat people like human beings and just ask them questions like I was so curious with like anyone I spoke to I was like I want it to be this this and this and if they said no I'll just move on but I think if I had known everything that I know now I probably would have been a bit scared or a bit fearful to ask those questions yeah but I was just like let's see what happens and when you say obviously you stumble across this manufacturer and that is early on which is amazing yeah but you speak to a hundred different manufacturers before the one that fits into place and works for you and how when you said you sort of said I'm gonna speak to lots of different people in a day and that's going to be my focus how many are we talking and how did you go about it like where was your how do you find trusted manufacturers when you actually don't know who you're talking to like what was your kind of route to take in that yeah so I literally just use Google so Google was my best friend again probably just being really naive and uh with jewelry there was some uh like the jewelry responsible council and on their website they had loads of uh manufacturers who are part of you get like a little accreditation and that's where I started so I would go on there see what manufacturers had their accreditation and then I would um just like keep researching different people from their list and then the more I was doing that it's like that pulling the thread the more I was doing that the more it would like suggest me to someone else or they would know someone else so it was like it definitely was just like google and researching as much as I could And bit of a kind of process of elimination.

16:03Yeah. And what what kind of key? I mean, we're obviously finding out your story. But while we're here, we're good to get your advice on that. What kind of key questions should people be asking if they are literally like, OK, this is something I want to do tomorrow. I'm going to do the same. I'm going to get on Google. when you're speaking to a supplier or a manufacturer what key things do you think you need to know about said manufacturer as you're speaking to them yeah so I think this definitely should be spoken about more and what I realized was I wanted the manufacturers to teach me like I wanted them to tell me what I needed to know so you obviously have your basic questions like minimum order quantities that's really important in the beginning um and also what kind of factory they are how many employees do they have working there um how bit how many other brands do they work with and I think you can sort of gauge a size of their business and I think it's what I did in the beginning was I really told them my story so I was like I'm just a girl that wants to start a jewelry business can you help me and some would say yes and some would say no because I think minimum order quantities is a huge pain point for small businesses so I think if you can really work with them on that and try and almost tell them your vision that they can also take a bet on you as well yes and I think that is like your and then when you know it's like and I suppose it's like any relationship you know when it then starts something starts to click and you know at that point that it starts to feel right I think it's so interesting because so many so many of us you know different people are starting businesses from their bedrooms with little kind of expertise or experience and I think you're right that we don't speak enough about those conversations and how of course it is a bit of a it's a bit of a stab in the dark isn't it but But actually, it's hard to put your trust into somebody before you know them.

18:14And I think when it's all done a lot of the time over email or however that might look, it's hard to trust the person on the other side. So I suppose it's using those websites where you know that they've got that accreditation, what they would need to kind of prove their worth too. And I think get on a call as well. Like get on Zoom calls with them. Like I know that there might be a language barrier depending on where you're getting it done. but that just also builds another layer of trust yeah and for you to feel a little bit more secure in that process how so you then so you find this manufacturer that says have you thought about stainless steel yeah you're then happy with what you're wearing yeah how did the design process look did you have to kind of recruit a designer or was that was that did that just come over you and then all of a sudden guess what I'm a designer now too yeah so I think I like I said in the beginning I am definitely not a designer I can't even draw anything but I do know what I like and I basically would send them like five different things of jewelry and I'll be like I like this bit this bit this bit and this bit and then can you make that for me and this is probably also where they were a good manufacturer because they had like an in-house design team okay so they would be able to take what my vision I guess and uh turning it into a reality um and I I think what was really good about my naivety is that in the beginning I basically just chose things that I would wear and what I wanted right and that was like four years ago now and they're still our best sellers today so it was like I obviously just had a good gut feel um for product and I just wanted I wanted dealeries in the beginning to be like a good white t-shirt like jewelry that you can just wear and you can constantly time and time grab for it and like not think too much about it so I think that was what I did almost by accident um and now that's sort of like come into the core of who we are absolutely that let's talk about that I'm so interested in first let's talk about that first order yes and how that looked yeah like because that pressing go no matter how happy you are with the quality and the design and okay this I think is right yeah I suppose how many pieces were in that first collection uh so we launched with eight pieces okay yeah so how did that order look like how much volume did you have to place so we had a I think it was like 50 units per piece right um and it was I literally I remember I went on excel and I was like I'm guessing I just need to like write this on a spreadsheet and like send it to you and he was like yeah sounds good so I literally named them all like just named them random things I was like well I like this name and I like this name um so there was no thought process in that whatsoever um I think the the first order was like I was like right what can you give me for the like the lowest yes units and it was 50 so I was like fine I'll just order 50 of of each thing and as we and we should flag like when we're talking MOQs which is minimum order quantity yes sorry the the bigger the bigger the volume the cheaper that they'll that they'll produce it for you so you're kind of dealing with a the larger the order yeah the cost per piece will come down yeah but obviously you've got to put a risk on thinking would i sell a thousand pieces of this versus 50 and how much that's going to cost you and then that obviously factors your commercials and your margins and how that will then look yeah um but obviously that is the hardest thing for a small business when they're starting you can talk to suppliers and they're like okay our minimum order quantity is 500 units yeah but at this point we're like well no one knows who we are yeah it's quite a big risk yeah I've not got 500 friends yeah yeah literally yeah so I think I was quite fortunate that I was able to order like low quantities yes I think it definitely helped so so the timeline between you trying it you talking to the manufacturer and you actually sitting on those 50 units of each piece yeah how did that look so I can literally remember I was it was September 2020 right and uh what a weird time in the world weird time and boris had just announced that you could go back to the office like okay like two or three days a week yes and i remember my friend rachel texting me being like what days of the week are you going to go back in and i was like i'm never going back i was like i can't do it like i was like that for me that was like the starting point of like being able to start the business yeah and so i'd had conversation with Jack about like starting something new um but that was so that was September and then I launched in January 2021 which is like the stupidest thing in the world like after Christmas no one's got any money and like I again that naivety I was like well the product's ready the website's ready so I'll just I'll just that's quite a fair turnaround in terms of like that that's speedy that's really impressive but like no thought went into like the like branding or like I I remember making the logo on like a word document in parents kitchen so I was I was very much like speed I just want to get this out and then I'll like perfect it later like I was all about action see that is so interesting because when we talked to you either it's a game of two halves right some people wait for perfection yeah which at the time you might think it's almost close to perfect or perfect and then a few years later yeah you kind of you re-evaluate how perfect then looks to you or some just take action and think do you know what I'm gonna get this out there I'm gonna give it a go yeah and then I'll finesse it as I go I just need to make my mark I think that is so brave.

24:24It's such a brave thing to do. And I suppose if you aren't going back to a job in September and you think, okay, now this is now my focus. Was there an element of, because you knew you were taking a risk to a degree. Well, everyone's taking a risk when they launch a business. And not going back to kind of stable income. Was there an element of, I just need to get this. And if it's going to work, amazing. if not I just want to fail fast yeah so I uh I didn't leave my job until the April off so I started in Jan left my job in April right um so I did have that income on the side and I do think that was really helpful just in the beginning because it just took a little bit of pressure off me in terms of having that money coming in being able to pay rent um but I also So it was just, I had nothing to lose.

25:17Like I knew that I didn't want to do the, continue to do the job that I liked. So that I was in. So I was like, if I'm just going to try and do this thing, if it doesn't work out, I'll probably leave my job anyway. So I was, I was totally fearless. Like I was just like, I'm just going to go for it and just see what happens. And it's such a sort of nice space to be in. Like that, of course it's risky. Of course it might not work out, but actually I'm not going to stay here anyway. yeah so why not now yeah and I suppose it being such a it's a brand that you birthed that had such a deep meaning to there's that real kind of I suppose sincerity with the brand and the what that means to you yeah I suppose at that point with all of the MOQs and all of the admin and everything else in the world that the reason for the brand D Louise, I suppose, takes precedent over anything else at that time.

26:20And that's what feels right. Yeah, like I was so driven by almost like I was driven by my grief and I was driven by the pain that I had been through that I felt like I needed to make it mean something. I felt like I had to, all of the hard times and the things that I've been through, I was like, there has to be a reason for this and and I do think losing my mum was like a huge like pivotal moment in my whole life that I was like right if I do this it's almost like I've been reborn into this business and all that pain can then go into this yes absolutely that so you launch do you remember the date you launched in January I think it was 15th of January 15th of January 2021 yes how does that launch look what's the first day week month like so my first order was my friend uh molly so thanks molly shout out to you and i remember so um i remember turning the website live so i did all the website myself like just with youtube like was on shopify and just adding the product and um i remember we launched on the 15th and no one i hadn't told anyone because it's really scary when you launch business and you feel like you're so vulnerable and I was like what are people gonna say and I remember I just like reposted to my store I just had a private Instagram I reposted this like dealeries thing to my Instagram my friends were like what is this and I'm like not sure don't worry about it it's all fine like why do you think so what because you were kind of I guess I was just like almost like a bit embarrassed maybe like I was like I don't know how people are gonna receive it like you're putting yourself out there like it was quite like a vulnerable moment we do that as women don't we like i think that you've put your heart and soul into this since you know you decided you were going to do it and then we do that thing where we dumb it down it's just this thing and i'm just gonna see and just not sure don't worry it's not a big deal yeah and then so your friend she buys her order she buys her order yeah and then what happened um so i probably had like maybe 10 orders that day but they were i knew every single person um and i then would just package them and take them to the post office myself right um but fortunately uh in lockdown jack had learned how to do facebook advertising very good jack yeah i was like love that he was doing more than making banana bread yeah that yeah i was like you do that i'll watch you from afar um so he was like i think we should run some ads for it and i was like fantastic and i remember um he started running say say it was like a wednesday he started running them on like the thursday or the friday and we didn't get any sales and i was like why are we getting any sales like i thought you these ads were meant to work this was your thing jack yeah i was like why is there no one buying anything and he was like yeah no this is all fine this is all fine like it's gonna be fine and what's really funny is he tells me now that he had spent like nearly like 800 pound on facebook to get our first sale and it took like a whole week to get the first sale but then once you got that first sale it started then to like um obviously rot a snowball um but yeah it was it took a long time to get that first sale because obviously people were like what is this brand yes yeah um so i think yeah it's funny that he was like don't worry it's all totally fine i'm not gonna tell her what i've spent on this yes um you know the ads are happening and they actually then start to land and people are engaging with the content that I suppose they're being served by the ads at what point did you realize that actually this is now more than my friend supporting this this is a sort of you know that light bulb's gone off here and this is actually becoming a bit of a thing yeah I think it was i remember it was we did like a a payday weekend sale it was like 20 off site wide and i remember we had maybe 300 orders or where are we here in timeline i would say so i left my job in april so this would probably be it was before that's what made me quit my job so probably about march okay so january february big probably about march um and we launched this set it was the first time we'd ever done a sale um and had no expectations and it just went wild like people loved it and had 300 sales in the weekend and I had to pack them all myself as well as having my full-time job and I remember just saying to Jack like I'm so miserable doing both like I need to like make a decision here if I'm gonna like quit my job or keep doing this um and I quit the next day yeah so then I had a month's notice which was like the worst thing in the world um but yeah it was like from doing that first sale I was like oh my gosh I think this is we're on to something yeah and how quickly did you place your next order order because your first order is 50 units of each piece yeah that you have eight of at the time yeah how quickly do you press go on order number two so this is where again my like chaotic life to you because I was doing the buying right and were you doing it all I was doing it all yes and um I basically just had like a spreadsheet and I would uh have a budget so say my budget was like two thousand pound to spend on stock I would basically then just split that two thousand pound like evenly through all of the skews didn't take into consideration what I already had in stock so at one point um I remember we had like 300 of one thing it wasn't selling whatsoever and I just kept on buying like 50 more 50 keep replenishing and like I remember looking at being like why have you got so many of that one thing and then yeah obviously that was a really stupid way to do it but it's all those learnings yeah how are you supposed to know and I think sometimes you you never know if something takes off if one of those ads land or someone posts it or however that might look yeah actually then that's the thing that you're gonna go out of stock on yeah so I had no I had no buyer experience whatsoever I was just like excel blind um but I then where the manufacturer um saw that we were able to do it he then was able to help me in terms of having even smaller buys so I would do like top-ups like every two weeks okay because I we didn't have any cash so I needed to sell the product before I bought new and this is the often the problem that you see with businesses that are in their infancy because you can be presented all of this opportunity.

33:05But actually to make that opportunity sort of come into fruition, you need the cash flow to be able to place the order, to retail it in a certain store. And you're kind of, it's actually how, weirdly how a lot of businesses can then sort of dissolve at an early stage because they've got this opportunity but they can't house it. because the cash flow isn't quite there and they're selling, but they're making these decisions to retail here and move a certain way. But it's actually hard on the purse, which is ironic because you're actually selling so much. Yeah, no, for sure. That was like our biggest pain point because we needed to supply.

33:50So it just meant that we were out of stock for a lot of it. I think you have this idea in the beginning of business that it's going to be like one way and and you always need to be in stock and it always needs to look perfect but like I learned very quickly that like if you're out of stock for like a few weeks just don't really worry about it like yes you just gotta you can only do what you can do and there's also something about the like as far as like marketing is concerned the idea of being out of stock is really appealing like I always want the thing that no one can get like it's my biggest bugbear it's out of stock that's the thing that I'm waiting for yeah but logistically on the back end being half stock is an absolute nightmare and it's something that took me a while to kind of get used to understand yeah um I want to talk about so you're evolving you leave your job yeah and then obviously you're noticing the kind of how often those top-up orders are happening and how that's looking in 2023 uh former Gymshark CEO Steve Hewitt invested um and and joined as an investment director yeah to get from the girl that's kind of as you say your words not mine doesn't know what they're doing isn't across buying you know this is like a passion that is and a kind of a deep-rooted love for what you do to get the approval which is which is an approval when someone wants to invest that's because they can see the success rate and how well you're doing how did that feel how did that partnership come about and i suppose how does it feel and what impact has it had on d louise yeah so we had a fantastic 2022 black friday um and it we sold basically all of our stock for december january february and march wow and i was freaking out obviously because I was like what are we going to do it was obviously a really good problem to have but also really a bit scary to navigate and that's when Jack made the decision to sell his old business and come on D-Louise full-time because I think that was when we realized wow we've got something really special here and we said right if you're going to do this this is our livelihood we need some gray hairs on telling us what to do someone who's been there done that someone who has been there done that and got the t-shirt yeah and um my friend used to work at gymshark and he said all of the ex uh good gymshark lot have just left and set up an advisory company okay um and that was uh for now and steve so there they had i remember filling out a form and it was like is your business uh over like five million pound and at the time we weren't and I was like yes yes yes like answering all these questions that like were not true but I knew that if I got she was hustling the system I was like I just need to get on a call with them because once they hear the story once they know it's not quite there but it's gonna be yeah I was like is this like future money um and so we did get on a call with them and they were like oh so you're not they were a bit confused about my questions when I'm looking through your numbers they don't stack up to the questionnaire that we asked you to fill out yeah um and we did a um like a big discovery day is what they call it and um we just really got on really connected as like a team and steve just really saw something in me and the story behind the brand because he always says that he invests in the people um and then the maths have to work is what steve will always say um and yeah so he said I want a piece of the pie which again I feel like I shouldn't be saying that and it was like landed in my lap but it was like that but don't you think it goes back to I'm I've read the book signs and I'm such a believer in like this was supposed to happen yeah like sure your mum is there a hundred these strings yeah it's a this is the course it was supposed to take yeah no for sure and I I feel they had just started their advisory company right um and we were still this like in in their world we were just this little baby and it was just the right place right time um and for us as like where you're a small business you obviously see other people and and they say oh your business is doing really well when you're in the weeds you're like this is so damn hard it's so hard to see that isn't it yeah yeah yeah for sure so then when he was able to say that to us I was like oh maybe we do have something really good here and to get that like you say I think sometimes when you are doing it all and you know you are founder and co-founder and CEO and however that looks the weeds are so weedy yeah it's like is this good is it a great month and I know we're doing well but it's not as good as last month and how do we yeah but actually as I said before like to get someone's approval that is a gray hair yeah it must really I suppose give you that confidence in knowing that 100 % we spoke about getting on the right path but knowing that you are really on it for you but now for this business too yeah a hundred percent how do you now having that investment what has that now meant for you and your day-to-day role and I suppose you know defining those kind of roles and responsibilities what does that mean for Olivia now yeah so this has sort of been like such a personal journey for me so like Dee Louise has like really grown up and I think I've really grown up with the business as well like I'm obsessed with personal growth and personal development and I'm always wanting to learn new things yeah um for example like two years ago I had a private Instagram and I could I'd never been on camera before and I couldn't talk to people like yeah so I literally was like a total newbie to it and I feel like I've grown so much from that to what I am now um and obviously in the beginning I did everything so where we're hiring more people I'm doing less and less of like the doing um but I'm doing more and more of the learning and the growing and I feel like I'm a real voice for D2Es but also a real voice for people who I hope have gone through hardship and by me being vulnerable it encourages other people to be vulnerable yeah so I always say like my biggest like role I guess in the business is is to inspire people to create strength in their own story and that for me is is like one of the best roles I guess I could do at the company absolutely that and I think you kind of when you're doing something that of course everything great is normally born out of something self-indulgent right and if you're doing it to better yourself and to put yourself on the right path I suppose at the time what you don't realize is into the future how many other people that that will inspire and motivate to kind of kick start whatever it is that is going to put them into a better place at the time you can't really see that but if you could see if you could look if the old you could look forward to for you sitting here now yeah I mean it would be quite the contrast wouldn't it yeah no for sure and I think one thing that I've really realized is that the true fulfillment that I was looking for it doesn't it doesn't come from what you get from the world it comes from what you give to the world and I think the more I'm giving the more I'm almost getting back yeah I'm finding that my true purpose is is in that story and in that inspiration and that joe malone is the biggest advocate for storytelling she's her business you know she's built two billion dollar businesses and storytelling is the heart at the heart of them and that's something that's so important to her and i think in every brand the storytelling is is crucial isn't it because how do people buy in to it how do you build a community how do you grow that business without any of those things you know I find it so interesting and I've spoke to many people on this podcast Emma Greed Ella Mills Joe Malone being three of those people that founded their businesses with their partners yeah and I think it's such a it's such a special thing when that works and when that goes right I've also spoke to Chrissy Cheller who found her business with her partner and she believes that was the kind of, the thing that kind of tore the relationship apart.

43:08So I think it's so, I find it so interesting when people work with their fiancés, partners, husbands. How do you navigate working together whilst having a romantic relationship? Yeah. Are you conscious to kind of switch off? So in the beginning, I used to think that you had to like have like a dead stop in like we're going to stop talking about work at this time. But as the business has evolved and we've evolved, like we love talking about the business. So the business is almost like ingrained in our also romantic relationship. and I think me and Jack are literally ying and yang like he is so commercially driven like such a visionary and I'm like obsessed with like brand product photo shoots so it's like we work really well together because we're so opposite yes um but yeah I used to think like all my friends used to say to me like oh do you just talk about work and I used to be fearful to say yes but now I have a lot of I feel like a strength in saying yes we do just talk about work but I really enjoy that yeah and I think as well like don't get me wrong if I'm lying on a sunbed in Dubai and he's like have you seen the P &L I'm like get away yeah yeah but it's like such a huge part of our lives that yeah it would be hard not to talk about and I get you know but people will always put their outside noise and opinion on anything anyone's up to when they particularly when they don't understand it and I think that's often where it comes from.

44:44But I also think it happens whether you work together or not. We'll go for dinner and look at pictures of our kids all night and we've just left them and got a babysitter and wanted to go for this dinner and then we're like, oh my gosh, what about when he did this or she did that? I think whatever it is that lights you up as a couple, of course you're going to talk about it. And I think it's also hard for people to get their head around it when they work to live, not live to work. Yeah. And I think there's kind of always a difference in opinion that actually work is kind of a negative place to be.

45:22But when for you it bears such a positive because it's such a personal passion and that story, I think it's only a nice thing to talk about. And yeah, don't get me wrong. We don't always want to be talking logistics when we're trying to chill. No. But it's something that lights you both up. And I think that's important to have that when you have such a tight relationship. Before we get on to the rocket round, because it's one of my favourite things to do, I always like to touch on community. Yeah. Because I think it's such a big part of every brand and every successful business. And I think what's so special is that your, the story of your brand and your mum's presence in your life through your business is so special and I know that every year you host a walk and talk event for Mother's Day where you walk from Cardiff to London I'm saying it like it's walking half an hour you often see about these like people do 5k's together you know as a community but you walk from Cardiff to London just in case anybody didn't hear that I'm saying it again um such a big you know such a big thing to take on but it's such an important thing for you to do personally do you think in doing so your brand and what you do and how present you and your family are in that do you think you've engaged a particular customer too because of that yeah I think it comes back to why I started the brand which was always that purpose over profit and I really want to be a voice for people who are navigating something really difficult and with walk and talk it's all about opening up conversations and allowing vulnerability and I think where what I've learned is like in the beginning I was found it it's really hard to talk about someone that you've lost um we haven't touched on it but I've also lost uh my brother to suicide so I've been through a lot of grief and that was like a huge like shift in my life and doing things with my community like walk and talk it almost like makes me deal with it as well so I have to get used to um used to talking about difficult things and the more I talk about it the more it heals me um and it's incredible because the walking talk there's the start of the day so you do six marathons in six days girl I've run one marathon the London marathon and let me tell you I was hibernating for quite a while afterwards I could walk I didn't know I didn't have an idea of like when I got back home I remember getting in the car after the marathon and I couldn't get up the stairs.

48:19What? Six of them in six days? Yeah, but you are walking. I don't think that matters, babe. No, it is really hard. It is super hard. Don't downplay this. Yeah, but it allows people to come. Like we had people from all over the UK coming and they honestly just open up to me like instantly like about their mum that they've lost or their sister that they've lost. and I get such fulfillment in helping those people have a place and helping them feel like they've got somewhere they can come safe space and share a safe space and in doing so does it help you a hundred percent like it helps me navigate my own grief um and I think it's it probably comes back to where I was saying about that fulfillment it's like the more I give to people the more I'm vulnerable it's almost making me stronger as a person um like it's bigger than jewellery I think that's what one thing that I can really take after talking to you and it's and it's gorgeous jewellery and yes of course you do you shoot lovely campaigns and visually I want to wear it but actually this is so much bigger than a jewellery brand yeah and it's kind of you've almost I suppose carved out the impossible in a world of like jewellery you think aesthetics you think kind of perhaps a little more disposable like of course there are forever pieces in jewelry but in the way that fashion moves and like statement earrings are a big trend but this is more than that and there's a lot more substance to this and I think that is obviously how you've connected with people yeah I think it's like people are really emotionally connected to the jewelry and then the jewelry makes them feel really really good so then they just keep coming back like I love that people can buy and wear my product and they they put it on and they feel good in themselves like there's nothing like if I go out without earrings on I'm like oh my god I'm naked like I feel like I've like not got a part of my body um and I think that is where the emotional connection with themselves and then I think that people just find my story really relatable because like I said I had no funding I had no network of people around me telling me what to do I was just a regular girl who made a decision to change her life and channel your grief and channel my grief into this a positive yeah yeah back to the business side of it what does like a really good month look like now for you we spoke about those orders and we started off with the 50 of each yeah I know that it's grown somewhat how does that now look yeah so our first year we did 290 ,000 revenue and this year we'll do 10 million in revenue so yeah it's gone so good look how modest you are what I love about you is you're like absolutely bossing it but you're like so it's still all right friends don't worry about this little thing that I'm doing I'm just sharing it it's it's absolutely incredible and it's so nice to see and hear and it's so it's like a passion project turned business it's it's it encompasses so many different things and I think that's why it's connected on a different scale I love it I love it I love it all thank you should we do the rocket round yes I know that you're you're so modest I can feel you like you know when someone pays your compliment you don't know where to look no I appreciate that and I love it you're very humble um okay first one is always what do you believe are the non-negotiables for launching a business action over perfection um having a really good product like you your business won't survive without a good product and a good story I would say yes absolutely that I mean girl you got all of them that's for sure when did you first realize that you truly launched probably on that black friday where we sold out everything I was like what is going on you need a plan b I was like what is that I was like turn the website off like it's too much I love that what's the first thing you do when you wake up and the last thing you do before you go to bed so I am an early bird so um probably get up at like about five and I'll make a lovely coffee from my like sage coffee machine and that gives me so much happiness why is why is that so like it's like almost like meditation makes a bit of therapy isn't it that me time early mine's matcha yeah but that like early doing it's like doing something for yourself yeah when the house is still yeah I love it it's unbeatable isn't it yeah and I always people are like it's not getting up early is not realistic and it's too early I'm like just do it yeah like you force just for me I had to force myself for a bit because I don't think I'm naturally an early bird I am now but I wasn't yeah but when you break the back of it that alone time first thing before everyone else is up I think the freedom you feel like you're cheating the system yeah I'm already ahead yeah and I'm very calm when anyone sees me um and then before bed I always read my book so I'm a big like book nerd yeah and I don't want a business book I don't want a self-help book I want like dragons and fairies and like okay a bit of a scapism yeah so I love what are you reading at the minute so I just finished the court of thorn and roses have you read them no oh my god they're really good okay do you like fantasy books do you know what I am probably the opposite to you and I quite like a self-help okay I quite like a kind of I do occasionally I do like to run off into like this doesn't really affect me yeah but I'll try it I'm going away soon and I always optimistically take a book that I'm gonna read on the lounger but then I remember that I've got three kids yeah and everyone wants to meet a bomb in the pool so I will give it a go um one piece of advice that you wish you hadn't listened to like go to uni I probably was just I never really took time to realize what I wanted out of life I was doing what everyone else was telling me to do so I was like go to school go to sixth form and then go to university and then get a corporate job whereas I up my I wish I didn't do that and just like took some time to be like what am I really good at what can I like dive into that would really benefit me yes yeah yeah and I think it goes back to what you were touching on before is that like you know my my upbringing was really quite regular but that is you go to school you go to uni that is breaking that and not conforming sometimes it's actually harder yeah isn't it yeah um what is a skill that you'd love to learn do you know what I love it when people can do like handstands and like backflips I love this.

55:32I didn't see it going in. No, I love it so much. Like, do you ever get like intrusive thoughts where you just want to do like a slip or something? That is like a skill I'd love to learn. Love it. Gymnastics for you. What's one thing you wish someone had told you before you started your business? That it's not going to be as easy as you think it is. yeah yeah I think everyone thinks it's going to be yeah because it's particularly when you have a little like you have a bit of a good run and you're like this has worked and I've got this and we're just going to sell it and it's going to be straightforward it's never ever straightforward correct what would be your dream collab for your brand oh that's a good question like that could be a person that could be another brand you know we're seeing like big brands coming together you know like mu mu a new balance or you know yeah i do think um like my dream girls are obviously molly may is amazing actually you are also one of my dream girls for shan oh you're very kind you're very kind i feel like i'm collabing here yeah i'm like i'm in i'm in um i think brands i always love something food like we could do a food stanley cup sandy oh yes that would be yeah yeah yeah I feel like I'm not answering it well but I haven't thought about it yeah well listen this is it's a good one for the thought tank yeah um if you could choose one female figure as a mentor past or present who would that be it's cliche but I love Michelle Obama I feel like she's been through so much and she's still like so like headstrong yeah that she would be great It's just nice to be nice to be like a sponge around her and absorb.

57:21Like she just talks in quotes, doesn't she? Yeah. And I love it. I'm like, oh, everything is powerful. Yes. Good one. Every episode, I like each of our guests to leave like a tangible piece of advice to our listeners. So if you were to give a piece of advice to a lady looking to launch, if tomorrow they're like, do you know what? I've listened to Olivia she's inspired me I'm gonna start a business what would that piece of advice be it would be start pulling the thread so start with setting up an Instagram like setting up a website just do really small tangible things so like make sure that you're doing actionable steps towards launching the business versus like idealization yes like actually get out there and yeah like you take that action yeah love it and then lastly

58:26I love to know how people spend their lunch hour it's something that really excites me like it's the time of the day where I'm like okay what are we doing for lunch how are we gonna and some days everyone reminded me earlier on actually we took lunch at five o 'clock yesterday but some days it's not you know we're kind of just all a little bit everywhere but what does a kind of typical day look like for you where are you what are you eating how are you spending lunch um so I actually love that you ask this question because whenever you ask this question I'm like well what do they do I know it inspires me I'm like guys should we all have a I don't know whatever it is a big lots of people like these like fancy sexy salads yes which i do like we've had like emma greed then gets like jamaican food in as a treat i've had chinese like i'm like yeah i want to get inspired what do you do so i i do love a sexy salad like the salad project is so good oh it's good yeah it's really good i do really like that um but i also i love cottage cheese i know That sounds so nice.

59:28Girl, I didn't see it going here, but I'm here for it. So I was like, it's so boring. Really high protein though. Yeah, so I'll have like three rice cakes with like cottage cheese, like cucumber and carrot. Right. Or I'll have a yoghurt bowl. Love a yoghurt bowl. Nice. So I like, I don't like to meal prep something and then heat it up in the microwave because it kind of just gives me the ache. So do you know what? It's so funny. We've moved into a new studio and a new space and we've got our own kitchen now, which I feel like I feel like I've mum I've made it we've got our own kitchen yeah because I used to get the ick when I'd come in or walk out into like our our old space in the shared kitchen and someone be like heating up a curry at half 11 yeah like what's happening here yeah and then I just get like memories of eating like before like cooking it and it just like makes me it's not for you yeah so I'm not really like a big lunch girl just prefer like yogurt bowl cottage cheese what is so funny is that we always try and send our guests their lunch afterwards when they're the week of their podcast airing so i'm just gonna maybe you could do the salad project it's probably easier i'll get the cottage cheese i think it's niche at least i know you'll use it um thank you so much it's been so good to talk to you i've absolutely loved that and you are so incredible but you're in equal measure very very humble and i like it so thank you very much

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