Made You Look Jewellery

At 23,  Sarah Dougall bought a building and started a jewellery store...and she was pregnant when she did it.  Now, 20 years later, she shares her business wisdom with What's This Place Podcast.  It's an incredible story of retail perseverance. How has she made so many people look...both online and in real life? 
What is this place? Let's go inside and find out.

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Transcript

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[00:00:00] Miranda Black: At 23, Sarah Dougal was in jewelry school. When she realized the options to sell her work. Once she'd graduated, you know, the business end of being a maker, they were slim to none that was 20 years ago back in 2001. And she decided her best solution was to open her own store with this unique business model.

She breaks down. Because I did not operate like this, but I kind of wished I had, oh, and she was pregnant when all this was going down. So now 2021 is both her business and her son turned 20. I'm having a fan girl moment here. She shares how she persevered in Parkdale and how. The store causes so many heads to swivel made you look, who is Sarah Dougal and how has she made so many people look, 

[00:00:42] Sarah Dougall: what's this place, this place, what's this place.

What's this place. What's this place 

[00:00:50] Miranda Black: let's go inside and find out I'm blown away by. Um, oh my goodness. Wait to dive in to see how this whole thing came to be. So what is this place and who are you? 

[00:01:03] Sarah Dougall: My name is Sarah Dougal. I am the shop owner here at made you look jewelry. We've been here 20 years. I thought I wanted to make jewelry for my living, but at that time, There was a real lack of venue for graduates.

So you would come out of the program, then not have a studio to make it in and not have customers to sell it to. That was the dilemma where we can come and make jewelry and be able to sell that jewelry to the public. So have a proper venue for sales. I'm looking out at the options and going, this is bleak.

It all just started. Talk over the table in the 

[00:01:36] Miranda Black: cafeteria, you were a student and you decide to go out and buy a building. Like, 

[00:01:43] Sarah Dougall: yeah. How do you hop, skip, and jump to that space. It really was born from bringing that conversation to the dining table at my parents' house and saying, there's gotta be something better out there.

And it was at that point that we started looking for the right space, which ended up being this building on queen street west. 

[00:02:04] Miranda Black: I'm going to sneak an apology in here. We recorded this part of the episode in masks because Sarah was working the floor. So there's some hot mic issues, popping PS and so forth.

The problem does resolve itself. So please bear with us and I appreciate your forgiveness from my learning curve. You started looking with your parents, 

[00:02:22] Sarah Dougall: my father in particular. So I was 23 years old, crazy pregnant with my son. It was now or never kind of saying it was like, I want to create an amazing life for my son.

I want him to see what possibilities exist in life. My dad is very practical. I'm the dreamer. And my dad is where the rubber meets the road, where you take dreams and ideas and make them meet reality. 

[00:02:49] Miranda Black: Great synergy. 

[00:02:51] Sarah Dougall: Yes. He's a number cruncher and he's very practical in that. He didn't want me to rent my retail space because he was concerned that I would never get a chance to get ahead and that the rent would just tsunami every month while I'm trying to build my business.

And he was like, if you're going to do this crazy thing, you need to own the. You need to not have your investment be swept out from underneath you. Part of the business model was to be landlords and rent apartments. So I was living upstairs, working in the gallery downstairs and then had tenants. So when you add all of that together, So you're starting to become this sustainable dynamic.

And of course at the time it's felt like a huge chunk of change by no means. Did that come easy? A building that was in a neighborhood that not everybody wanted to be in. 

[00:03:43] Miranda Black: I remember the moment deciding to pull the trigger on this. If you take us back 20 years ago, I 

[00:03:50] Sarah Dougall: do remember that because I was a very rebellious teenager and push the boundaries of.

Because my parents, a lot of stress, there were many, many talks about how they can't trust me. And I was just one of those kids and I'm pregnant. I'm starting my life, my dad and I had quite a serious talks. And he's like, are you serious about this? Because this business is going to be. Ball and chain around your ankle.

And I said, I'm going to picture this ball and chain to be made of solid gold. So yes, I am stuck here, but I am tethered to something full of potential. That was that moment where I was like, I'm in. I realize what I'm saying yes to, I can do this. 

[00:04:31] Miranda Black: Okay. So your. Three. And first of all, how did you come up with the name 

[00:04:36] Sarah Dougall: it started with playing with the word you, we were hoping that the experience that we could offer would be individuals that the jewelry is unique.

Lots of it is one of a kind. We want to hear your story about your relationship. We're going to customize this piece. So kind of started there a lot of what we do really lives outside the box and it makes you look. Also wherever we're located in Parkdale, the look of our facade, like all of that is designed to make you look as well.

So that's how the name came 

[00:05:07] Miranda Black: to be. You mentioned the neighborhood Parkdale. This neighborhood is not the same as it was 20 years ago, or, I mean, you would know better. Has it evolved? It 

[00:05:17] Sarah Dougall: has absolutely evolved over the years. And I would say that 10 to 12 years ago, we were at a bit of a sweet spot that I would describe to be sweeter than where we are right now.

Yeah. Before the pin. Our neighborhood lost a few very key businesses that played a significant role in anchoring the vibe. And the, we 

wanted 

[00:05:41] Miranda Black: to talk about that because you mentioned in the made you look archive, I'm going to jump in. Cause we refer to the made you look archive a couple of times in the interview.

And what we're talking about is this hashtag she created on Instagram. It documents this huge milestone, her 20th anniversary through pictures and stories, and you can find it at hashtag made you look archive. You mentioned there were no. Stores there, except for designer fabrics, you describe all these little things that people from the outside, they never in a million years think they affect business it's stuff.

You can put into a business plan. And I love how you give credit to designer fabrics for bringing in this particular clientele. Small businesses have like a butterfly effect. Now that you are the butterfly effect. Do you feel that 

[00:06:30] Sarah Dougall: responsibility? Uh, I certainly do. I don't feel like I act any different than when I was brand new.

That level of intention and care has always been there. So those 

[00:06:43] Miranda Black: clothes like designer fabrics, is there other stores there that were in the neighborhood? I didn't realize 

[00:06:49] Sarah Dougall: that it's more than just designer fabrics, that we are grieving. The loss of it's also the Cadillac lounge.

Yes. He had been there for 20 years. So we'd been around like the same amount of time. They just attracted people from all over the city. They had their own unique vibe and it was a one of a kind venue. And during that time, this was the strip that never slept. There were taxi cabs going all night long. It is queen street.

It's a famous street. It needs to have these unique businesses being large and in charge kind of thing. And so that's really missing. But as far as that energy here in Parkdale, it's gone and it's hard to replace that. 

[00:07:36] Miranda Black: Give you pause or use guns, a blazing. How do you feel about business right now in Parkdale?

[00:07:42] Sarah Dougall: That's interesting. Uh, personally, still guns, a blazing jewelry has been a part of human history since the beginning of time people want it, it's intuitive and I'm just presenting it in a certain unique way. So personally, I'm still completely invested in what I'm doing and really excited about what's next for my business and our community.

As far as retail in Parkdale. Oh boy. Oh boy. Yes. Pause. Pause is a good word. People like me, retailers, a type people. It's hard to pause. You want to put your finger on something to say, Hey, I'm recognizing this trend, but we are in a global pause. You know, you have to just hunker down and be okay with not knowing the outcome right now.

All I can do every day is put that forward. 

[00:08:29] Miranda Black: That I really love about your store. You have a really visible repair department and I had a tailor shop and I loved the ability to service garments. I think it's naive to think that your clothing, your jewelry, your shoes, that you just walk away and you never have to upkeep.

And a service department, also employees artisans, you employed tailors and seamstresses or jewelers. Was that always 

[00:08:55] Sarah Dougall: part of your plan? Service side of the business is very important when you're dreaming up a business. One of the first questions. Someone will ask you is, well, is it a product based business or is a service-based business, but if you can create a model that involves both, then it's the best of both worlds.

So I don't have to have a customer buy one of my finished items in order to be come a client of mine. They can come in with a bauble that they got at. Hmm. That is special to them, plastic and glue that has deteriorated. It's not easy to find a place to fix something like that. The traditional jewelry store is mostly focused on gold and things where there's more of a profit margin when it comes to repair.

So I mean, how much money can we make gluing a bubble back on, but we can make. We can make people happy and that's worth a lot. And all the systems involved in managing those items because they're, people's precious belongings. It's like at the dry cleaners, you drop off your shirts and they only different things like how do they bring all those items back together again, so that when you come to pick them up, all five items are there similar for us because it's not always the same jeweler that's working on every item, different skills involved.

So part of the work of running your own business is figuring out. That as efficient and easy so that the customer has nothing, but the best experience, 

[00:10:19] Miranda Black: uh, service department has that helped with your growth and your longevity? 

[00:10:24] Sarah Dougall: I would say so. Absolutely in business speak, you could call it a loss leader because not a lot of money to be made and huge labor.

You make a friend and people are so passionate about their jewelry. They're out in the world saying, oh yeah, this was my thing that I love that so-and-so gave me. And I thought it was broken forever, but those people that made you look, they fixed it. And now they're my saviors 

[00:10:45] Miranda Black: for me as well. I did, I was going through my jewelry from H and M and I thought, no, one's going to service.

I took it to you guys. I was super embarrassed and I'm like, if you can't fix it and the girl was, oh yeah, no problem. We can do that. You made my day. 

[00:11:02] Sarah Dougall: Yes. It is a very special component of our business and not completely selfless. The jewelers that get to interact with those pieces. It enhances their repertoire as far as.

How jewelry's put together, especially when it comes to vintage jewelry and pieces that are made in a bygone era. And we're seeing them today. It's such a gift. Really. We're so privileged to be able to have access to people's items that we would not otherwise see. So really it makes us better Goldsmiths and jewelers to be able to touch these things.

Even the H and M items. 

[00:11:35] Miranda Black: Retailers might think, oh, it's going to cost too much to employ someone like that. But if our goal is to get repeat customers, getting them in the door, a service department creates all those opportunities. It would be so great for so many different items, not just your clothing and your jewelry and your shoes.

Which is also 

[00:11:53] Sarah Dougall: rare. Well, for sure, because I mean, hopefully we're entering into a day and age where each one of us is being more mindful about wasting and like it, isn't always about having to buy something new can be equally as valuable for you to become reacquainted with something from 

[00:12:09] Miranda Black: your past.

Absolutely. Equally as valuable. I got that pile. I got them home and it gave me a joy as if I'd bought something. And 

[00:12:18] Sarah Dougall: people really seem to express that when they see the thing fixed, like they drop it off all mangled and maybe they're even at feely a little embarrassed, as you're saying, and then they pick it all up and it's like, what

[00:12:33] Miranda Black: if you love to shop? I have a feeling. It also like the rush of having something repaired. The problem is the more we repair, the less we buy, which is very unhealthy for a consumer based society. But if you could just take a leap of faith for a second, that we won't face mass extinction. If we cut our consumption and instead of giving our dollar bucks to a factory line and investing our time and hunting in a mall, maybe in this utopian world, we give our money to skilled labor and invest in higher quality goods.

I know it's just a fantasy, but it's interesting to think of different ways. We can get our shopping buzz on without ringing the earth and the people on it dry. So can you. To the student and the back of the classroom, which is me, your business model, the consignment versus wholesale because in clothing or the kind of clothing that I was in, I didn't buy out of a catalog, but I went to a show.

You touch it, you try it on. And then you buy a bunch of. Yeah, you definitely buy more than one. This is not how you do business. You have a totally different business model. It seems it could be far less wasteful because once you put something on sale, which is inevitably going to happen, when you have multiples, it's lost its value.

So. 

[00:13:42] Sarah Dougall: Yeah, for sure. It's such an interesting question. So there are 20 self-employed jewelry designers who pay me a monthly fee to be part of our studio. They're just lending me their jewelry. So they've created a line and then they've said, I wonder if anybody will ever buy this stuff. And I say, I wonder if anybody will ever buy this stuff too.

[00:14:02] Miranda Black: I don't know. Quite no money has been exchanged. No money is exchange. Artists has made the. Yeah. 

[00:14:10] Sarah Dougall: And that's their risk, right? That's their risk that they came up with that design. They put their money into it. They're showing it to me. And I'm saying, yeah, let's give it a go. So we have a contract that allows them to feel comfortable leaving me with their goods, with no money exchanged.

We do everything under the sun and moon to give that line the best chance at selling as itself, the designer gets a check and in exchange for that dynamic, I offer the jeweler a better price than if they had sold that item wholesale. 

[00:14:41] Miranda Black: So do you have any 

[00:14:42] Sarah Dougall: employees? I do now in the early days, it was just me for seven years.

I worked seven days straight, just myself in the gallery. 

[00:14:53] Miranda Black: So if it were to work with a clothing store, not, I am in no way wanting to open another bricks and mortar store 

[00:15:00] Sarah Dougall: because I wanted you to open up one next to me. He were parked

[00:15:06] Miranda Black: totally. With a clothing store, you would have different clothing designers and they would, 

[00:15:13] Sarah Dougall: so for instance, all of those designers, someone like me would go to them and say, Hey, when you're not doing your show, does this inventory go? And they might say, oh, just kind of hangs out in my studio. And I would say, do you want it to just like, hang out in my store and stuff?

Yeah. Your inventory. If you need to do a show, if you have a private client, what you need to do, if you sell something online, then you'll only have one of come get it. But in the meantime, if you've got stock, that is not being viewed by the public and it's tucked away somewhere. Why not have it 

[00:15:46] Miranda Black: in storage with me?

Because this is the first time I've heard of it. Other than consignment, like consignment clothing stores. This is not, this is not where did you get this 

[00:15:56] Sarah Dougall: business? So one of the businesses that had a big influence on my vision for this store was a venue called arts on king. And I sold art for the wall and sculpture, and maybe even some furniture all the way down into smaller objects, including jewelry, they had such a variety and it was all contemporary, but still very accessible, like.

To purchase, not just art to point out, you know, and I really appreciated that. And some of the way in which they were able to get their hands on such a huge amount of stuff was through consignment. So it's not a new model. It's just that a maker. It's almost like a maker. Has it in their mind that they've been successful.

If they've convinced a retailer. By the lines and that somehow it's less successful if it's just being sold on consignment somewhere. But what I say is, if you've been able to sell your line wholesale to a buyer, that means you convinced one person. That your work is desirable. Who knows if it actually sells to the public, you've just convinced one person on consignment.

It's the public that decides. And when you make sales, it's still legit customers. Who's actually wearing this stuff. Not just people who like it for their store. So I just, I encourage people to be more curious about the end buyer than the, 

[00:17:20] Miranda Black: the middleman. It's an interesting way of thinking about the different retail models that might work better for people moving forward.

[00:17:29] Sarah Dougall: Totally totally less risk. One more example. And the line of jewelry, there might be some really exquisite pieces, one of a kind expensive showstoppers, but if I have to buy the lie, I might not have the budget to buy that showstopper. I might have to just buy the little trinkets and the things that I'm really sure are going to sell, but it's in the designer's best interest to have that showstopper on display.

You've got showstopper, that's going to increase my chances of being able to sell it. Trinkets and we'll just call them. So in that wholesale dynamic, the offering gets constricted by the limitations of the buyer. Whereas if we get into this consignment deal, no risk can put these extravagant pieces on display and they sit there and that's okay because it's used as a tool to sell those other items.

[00:18:18] Miranda Black: I want to talk about selling online because you know how rich the in-store experiences. I personally never found that oomph or that inspiration to take my store online. I was very resistant. I couldn't, or wouldn't face it. I didn't have to, but now you have to go online and you have a great website and I'm not even sure why.

It's great. Is your online store rewarding for you? How do you grow to love your honor?

[00:18:53] Sarah Dougall: Awesome question. I love the question so, so much. So although we do have a robust website that features over 2,500 unique or individual products, it is not an add to cart website, so you can not click. Anything. Yeah. And that is why I love my online baby. So I'll back up just for one second. Say I did have an add to cart website a long time ago, the labor involved in putting the.

It was so intense. It still is. Fraudulent transactions were way more common back then. So you're always up against, is this a legit sale? Like this stuff. And then you're like, ah, they're probably just trying to Rob me. So it sucked basically it sucked, but it's important for me to say I tried it it's like online dating it sucks.

So that's how I feel about the online, add to cart website for my business. And the reason I say that is because I am selling a unique, one of a kind product. Our customers are coming to see us because they're looking at things they've never seen before. So we have a lot of descriptive. And measurements, and we actually just added this new try-on feature during the pandemic.

So you can actually, uh, hold your hand up and superimpose the ring onto your hand. So our client is able to send us a message and say, oh my God, I love this. How do I buy it? Then we get back. Awesome. Here's how we can do this. And there's lots of different ways we say, great question dot item has just sold, but I have these other three that are similar and I'm going to send you photos right now.

And you like one of these better. So we have this personalized experience virtually and lo and behold before. Ready to buy that we learn is that they actually needed that conversation before they could feel totally confident about the purchase. What happens with a lot of add to cart websites is in order to give the client confidence to make that purchase, you have to say full refund, no questions, blah, how to spend my time processing refunds.

I would re rather than. In the client, make them feel more and more confident about what it is that they're buying. So that is how I'm able to love the, the online presence. 

[00:21:05] Miranda Black: I did a shopping online experience, but you still have to talk to 

[00:21:09] Sarah Dougall: people. Yes. Well then we won't. We want it that way. We want to be grounded.

In reality, a lot of people are online. People are on their phones. I have to accept reality where it is, but on my terms, I don't want to lose. What's special about our store, which is the personalized experience, which goes back to the word you in our logo, you know, you're not a zombie on the other end of the computer.

I'm not just selling one of 85 billion of these. Yeah. It's about you and your unique needs and your unique questions and your 

[00:21:43] Miranda Black: it's a hybrid it's halfway between I sold a lot of custom suits and I was like, I can't sell, is it impossible to sell custom suits online? Totally. The hybrid model. Maybe it's the way to go for people who they've got something that's 

[00:21:58] Sarah Dougall: unique.

One of the biggest challenges is. To stay true to who you are and all of that gumption that you had that got you to the point where you said yes, and I'm going to open up the store and I'm going to do this thing. You have to keep that intact. It can get clawed away at because every minute of every day, you're being told that you should be doing something different.

I wake up to emails saying, hi, I've combed your website and you are failing in all of these categories. 

[00:22:28] Miranda Black: I still get. No years and people will be like, I just went through your, and I'm like, really? Because right on the front page, it says I'm closed. I want to read you a quote from your made you look archive that really spoke to my heart.

You said. Social media is often a platform showing only the positive and happy side of business, these successes, but the truth is there is a test every single day, without being able to make peace with the stuff that's really difficult. I would have been back to my cashier job at Loblaws in a flat. Now this was regarding the brick that got thrown through your window.

Every retailer has had that call in the middle of the night that the alarm is going off for some reason, but it transcends. That little quote transcends the brick, the pandemic, because it's just the latest challenge and the latest test that you've gone through. Um, the question is what is the biggest challenge that you've faced since.

And it doesn't have 

[00:23:37] Sarah Dougall: to be the pandemic. No, for sure. And it isn't, it isn't the pandemic. I think finding a pace that's sustainable as an entrepreneur is probably the number one biggest challenge. I was so grateful to have my young son at the beginning of my career because he would force me into doing something else, playing Lego, caring for him, cooking dinner, bath time, all of that.

As he's gotten older, there's nothing. Hold me away from work, work, work, work. It's easy to keep feeding that I don't want to refer to it as a monster, but I think I should, because it can sneak up on you that your life has become out of alignment. It's really easy to just get in a cycle of more and more and more, but you're never, it's never enough.

So finding the. To be able to take pause and reflect that to me is the ultimate biggest challenge of running a business like this. But just to speak to the quote that you read a simple way to explain how I've dealt with the blows with the hard times, and to not be totally discouraged by them connects to sort of like a Buddhist philosophy about how joy and suffering.

Are inseparable and the way that you can actually got a piece of paper right here. So you take a blank piece of paper and you imagine that joy is one side of the page and suffering is the other side and try and separate two, you can't and they don't and suffering is not something to resist. It allows it is actually the conduit to joy, that idea.

Really rang true for me early on in my career. And so when I met with something that feels sticky and icky and hard, I'm still really intrigued and curious, and it doesn't like knock me right down, because that would be just way too exhausting 

[00:25:33] Miranda Black: and internal struggle. The internal struggles are always harder than the physical brick through the window.

The physical brick through the window is bandaid. You know, it's like, okay, we'll just fix it. And it's fine. But the internal struggle 

[00:25:45] Sarah Dougall: that. Yeah, absolutely. Because at the end of the day, it boils down to the quality of the thoughts in your own mind, which is something that people are trying to conquer at all times, no matter what their vocation, you know, that's a human conundrum.

Doesn't matter if it's about business or not. And I think getting at peace there, it means you can be peace in peace, wherever you 

[00:26:07] Miranda Black: are. I was about, it's a question that I only just thought of. It's not a gotcha moment at all, but it is a sensitive issue. I'm just wondering if we can talk about Yelp reviews for a moment.

Cause it's a bit of a prickly place for me. I used to get ticked off by random people who didn't even purchase anything, but they have this power to rate it and to create an impression for the rest of the world based on. And just, I personally, I'm sick of people who have no experience who are able to hide behind a username on Yelp or any of these review sites.

And I'm wondering if it's time for the resurgence of the business owner as the expert and not the random stranger who's creating their 

[00:26:53] Sarah Dougall: own completely, completely. So I love the question because it's a provocative topic that needs to be talked about. And many questions are the same old question over and over again.

But this is certainly a question that never comes up. I completely agree with you that Joe Schmoe's opinion doesn't get to have merit with me, or if there's a potential client that is looking at Yelp review. Before they come to see me in my store right there. That's a deciding factor for me because I'm not looking at a Yelp review before I go into a store.

So right away, we're dealing with a segment of the population that I can't relate to. Which is fine. Spend your time reading Yelp reviews. Yeah. I, I hope your life is full of joy. I hope this fills your cup and entirely. So you have someone who spends their time doing that and Zen's are going to align with the person who's spinning negativity.

They're going to align with that. So in a way, I like the Yelp reviews because I feel like it's weeding people out in advance. Like I, wasn't going to want to do business with you anyway, if this is how you tick. So please, please be influenced by that review. We're cool. And then there's that provocative moment where she's listing the thing she's taking issue with about the price point.

And I'm like, right this minute, I could run them out, run my store and find you a hundred items that are $20 in. 

[00:28:27] Miranda Black: Well, there were people who were saying it's pricey and blah, blah, blah. And I looked online for starters. And second of all, trinkets there. 

[00:28:37] Sarah Dougall: We've we've always wanted our store to be for the people in our neighborhood from day one and every day, since then anybody is welcome in our store.

If somebody has $10 to spend, I can show them lovely options, not one or two things, and that's always been a mandate. So if somebody missed. And they didn't even ask when they were in the store. So for any one who's listening, who has felt the sting of a Yelp review in one way or another, and I'm sure it's many of you, there is an amazing south park clip on YouTube.

And forgive me, maybe you'll have to bleep me out. It's it's called. Burgers and com it's a hilarious song about Yelp reviewers who go to restaurants and write negative reviews. And the south park guys are saying that they're going to taint the food with.

And so it's crude, but it goes right to the point that says, How about you review this burger that's full of, because that's how we feel about you is of course so intelligent, so on point, and it really drives home that it's really a skewed way of living in the world. It's nothing I want to align with at 

[00:29:58] Miranda Black: all.

I was shocked to find that it still has so much power in the world and these were elite. Uh, elite 20, 21 reviewer. So they have, you know, quote unquote, I'm using air quotes. Correct. And it's the opposite. It's my own personal crusade 

[00:30:18] Sarah Dougall: to 

[00:30:19] Miranda Black: Yelp and to crush Yelp reviewers. 

[00:30:22] Sarah Dougall: Yep. I don't know if you're familiar with the author Bernay brown, but she is she okay.

I don't even have to give an introduction.

Okay. The books it's called daring greatly. The title, any entrepreneur could relate to, to do the thing that you're doing right on the first page, she talks about how you don't get to have an opinion about my life. Unless you are in the ring with me doing what I do living life through my vantage point with my scars, with my perseverance.

So if you dare think you're going to impart your opinion on a subject matter, that you are not even remotely close to. Inappropriate it lacks class. It locks tact, it lacks intelligence at the end of the day. So I am with you sister. You know what? You know what Brenda, the universe is reviewing those customers.

They are already creating their own best life and I'm using air quotes. So enjoy 

[00:31:36] Miranda Black: what is your biggest success at. 

[00:31:41] Sarah Dougall: This amazingly magical space that I've created at the surface. You think we're talking about jewelry and that I've created this business that has jewelry at like the epicenter of the reason why I'm here.

But really this is a community. These are people who have all chosen to follow their dream and their heart. What I've been able to create has allowed. So many people to prove to themselves. What they're capable of, and it has trickled down as far as their children, many of the jewelers children, we see, oh, it's not just my mum.

Who's a jeweler. It's all of these various characters who have committed to this kind of lifestyle that. Within these walls. And I didn't really realize that that was what was going to happen when I first opened. And the focus was so much about the jewelry, what feels so satisfying is relationships.

Often. What we talk about is that none of us are getting rich, quick doing what we're doing, but our lives are really. Yeah, the quality of our lives are rich and so dynamic. And so that to me feels like the biggest thing. 

[00:32:56] Miranda Black: There was one retail, super power. You couldn't live with that. 

[00:33:01] Sarah Dougall: What would that be?

Being able to meet someone where they're at, I feel is a retail superpower. As we reenter after the pandemic, one of the things I had to really coach my staff about, they said, you know, we're likely to be confronted with extreme. We're going to have some clients in the store that are elated about being in a store again and overwhelmed by the beauty and the product and just giddy and excited, you know, unicorns and rainbows, and like just over the top.

And it's going to be easy to want to meet them where they're at. Cause that's a heightened energy and it's easy to join in on that. But I said, well, we have to be careful because we're likely to meet people that are still nervous. And maybe this is the first time they've been out and really long time, or maybe they lost someone special and they're grieving.

It's just a ferry unknown time. So if you're with client a and your unicorns and rainbows, and then the next client you meet is not nearly at re unicorns and rainbows. That's a bigger distance to travel, to meet that next customer where they need to be met. So I said, guys, I want you to just be in the space as grounded as you can.

Be strong and stable, be aware of other people's energy and your own energy. And the more we can make that meat, the better a connection we're going to have with one another. And just takes one second to look you in your face and say, hello. Just that one little extra pause. I see 

[00:34:29] Miranda Black: fondest memory of this place so far.

[00:34:33] Sarah Dougall: Very hard to pick just one 

[00:34:35] Miranda Black: the last time I'm got to make your brain 

[00:34:37] Sarah Dougall: work. No, I love these questions and gosh, oh my, how could I pick just one? Well, I mean, you touched on it a little bit about your own journey with having a bricks and mortar store and having your son. And saying, you know, it was a bit heartbreaking for you to close your store while he was still young, because then he might not have known like what you did and you won't have those memories that is like huge, like a huge thing that you did.

So I think for me, where I'm at today is that my son who's 20 works with my dad here at the store. And so he's here three days a week doing the bookkeeping with my dad. Who's 74. And so we, we work together. You know, our family and this was never a goal of mine. Never an expectation of mine, never something I put on him to say, wow, one day you got to work for me.

And you know, this is a family business. Like I would have never fed him that line. But just naturally, like, that's how it's turned out. It just blows my mind. And I pinch myself every day to have this time together. So it's all very close and it's like something to really protect and preserve and respect and we nurture it every day.

So that's my most. Thing that has come out. It's 

[00:35:55] Miranda Black: amazing. Thank you so much for talking to me about your business, your ideas, and your thoughts about how business moving forward for bricks and mortar retailers. 

[00:36:05] Sarah Dougall: Thank you so much for doing what you're doing. If 

[00:36:08] Miranda Black: Sarah Dougal hasn't made you look in real life yet Google her store or follow her on Instagram.

You're going to be blown away by the artwork, the jewels, everything I'd love to hear your thoughts on the current state of shopping and retail or anything you've heard here today. So get in touch at what's this place.com and I'll see, in two weeks.