0:01

Welcome to Jewelry Making Tips with Metalsmith

0:04

Society the ultimate podcast for anyone

0:06

passionate about the art of jewelry making

0:08

. I'm your host , Corkie Bolton . Metalsmith

0:11

Society is a community on Instagram that

0:13

has over 240,000 individuals

0:15

, from professional jewelers to small

0:18

business artisans , hobbyists , students

0:20

and even those curious looky-loos eager

0:22

to learn about jewelry making . Together

0:24

, we share tips , kindness and even those curious looky-loos eager to learn about jewelry making . Together

0:27

, we share tips , kindness and support . In this podcast

0:29

, I will discuss tips from the Instagram

0:31

page , provide deeper insights

0:33

, address questions and share bonus

0:35

tips that often surface in the comments section

0:37

. So , whether you've been making

0:39

jewelry for a while or you're just starting

0:41

your jewelry making journey , this podcast

0:44

is your go-to resource for all

0:46

the jewelry making tips . So grab

0:48

your tools , dust off your workbench and join

0:50

me . In today's

0:52

episode , I will be discussing how to sell

0:54

your jewelry during an Instagram Live

0:56

with special guest Chelsea Leigh Jewelry

0:59

. Chelsea makes each piece of jewelry

1:01

from her home studio in North Carolina

1:03

. She has two business degrees

1:06

, but has always had a passion for the

1:08

arts . She has been a full-time

1:10

jeweler for over three years . Chelsea

1:13

has been successfully doing Instagram

1:15

live sales since 2020

1:17

, and it's been a major revenue generator

1:20

for her business . She makes an average

1:22

of $8,000 to $10,000 every

1:24

time she goes live . Chelsea

1:27

welcome .

1:28

Hi Corkie , Thanks so much for having me today

1:30

.

1:31

I'm so excited . You're here and this topic

1:34

gets me really excited

1:36

, because that's amazing . Tell

1:38

us everything . Start at the beginning .

1:41

I am excited to talk about it . I would consider

1:44

myself a pro with Instagram

1:46

live sales at this point . I

1:49

started them in 2020

1:51

just kind of for fun to see

1:53

how it would go , and

1:55

it's been a very important

1:58

part of my business ever since then . So

2:00

I've been doing them for four years now .

2:02

That's amazing . Could you start for our

2:05

listeners and just explain

2:07

what an Instagram

2:09

live sale is ?

2:11

Yeah , so essentially you're using

2:13

the live feature on Instagram

2:16

. You're going live and think of

2:18

it kind of like QVCs , where

2:21

you're just showing all of your

2:24

pieces that you have for sale and

2:26

allowing people to purchase them in

2:28

real time . So explain

2:31

to us how it works . So

2:33

I will create

2:35

a collection or just

2:37

a variety of pieces

2:40

and I will

2:42

kind of market this ahead of time to

2:44

all of my followers . But essentially

2:46

I'm going live on Instagram and

2:49

, one by one , I will

2:51

show each piece that's available

2:53

and for sale and allow

2:56

people to kind of claim that

2:58

piece as I show it .

3:00

Awesome and I'd love to hear from you for

3:02

someone that maybe is interested in doing this

3:04

themselves . Do you stay

3:07

on one piece until it sells

3:09

and kind of like how do you like fill

3:11

that time ? Are

3:13

you just chatting away ?

3:15

You know it's , it's a little bit of selling

3:18

, but it's also a little bit of connecting

3:20

with customers and kind of just facilitating

3:23

conversations . Sometimes people

3:25

will tell me oh , I love your shirt

3:27

that you're wearing , or I love your

3:30

makeup , or you know , kind

3:32

of connecting with people on a

3:34

personal level . That is

3:36

kind of what fills the time . But I

3:38

will show a piece , and the

3:41

first few pieces I show people

3:43

always kind of wait because they want to see what's

3:45

coming . So I'll kind of hover

3:48

on a piece for a couple of minutes

3:50

, try it on , tell

3:52

them about it , how I designed it , talk

3:54

about the price , and if no

3:56

one bites on it after about a minute

3:59

I'll move on to the next piece . And

4:01

a lot of times I'll get requests for

4:03

people to come back and say can you go back

4:06

to piece number six or

4:08

whatever , and I'll pause what I'm doing

4:10

and go back to piece number six .

4:12

Oh , that's amazing and I love the idea of you trying

4:15

it on and just being so engaging with

4:17

your followers , like that's amazing .

4:20

Yeah , it's kind of like I said . It's a fun way

4:22

to connect with my customers

4:24

and my followers and

4:37

they feel like they get to know me on a more personal level when I'm actually going live , as opposed

4:39

to just a pre-recorded reel or you know kind of scripted type of video .

4:40

Hey friends , I wanted to give a shout out to all of you incredible

4:43

supporters out there . Your enthusiasm

4:45

and dedication keeps this podcast

4:47

going strong and I'm endlessly thankful

4:49

for each and every one of you . One

4:57

of the best ways folks like you can support my work is by heading over to metalsmithsociety . com

5:00

and shopping my wide range of merch that reflects the spirit and values of our

5:02

community . Whether you're looking for

5:04

apparel to represent in practical

5:06

items such as work aprons , quench cups

5:08

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covered . Every purchase directly

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supports me in continuing to run the community

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. But that's not all . When you visit metalsmithsociety

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5:54

off , and thank you for listening . Amazing , and let's

5:57

say I want to buy one of your pieces

5:59

. How does that go down ?

6:02

So on the live I have

6:04

an index card written out

6:06

for every piece . Every

6:08

piece gets a number assigned to

6:10

it and on the index card

6:12

is the number , the price , all

6:14

the details about the piece and

6:17

if you want to purchase that one , you

6:19

will leave a comment saying

6:21

item number 10 , and

6:23

then your email address . And

6:26

once you leave that comment , I

6:28

actually have the helper in the background who

6:31

is taking down all of the

6:33

comments , writing down their email

6:35

addresses , what pieces they want to claim

6:38

. And after the live sale is over

6:40

, I will actually go through all

6:42

of those comments and items

6:44

that were claimed and send one big

6:47

invoice through my website

6:49

.

6:50

Amazing . I love this idea of a helper . So

6:52

is your camera on you so that you

6:54

can't see the comments , but the helper can .

6:57

So I am usually , my

6:59

camera is usually facing my

7:02

table . Most of what

7:04

I sell is rings , so I'm constantly like trying rings

7:06

on my table . Most of what I sell is rings , so I'm constantly like trying rings on my fingers

7:08

, and so there's no really

7:10

need to see my face , but

7:12

I can see the comments as they're coming through

7:15

. The helper is more

7:17

oh , because

7:20

I'm getting . Sometimes

7:22

, if I sell a piece , I'm getting like

7:24

10 comments for one piece

7:26

, and so we have to go through all those

7:28

comments and figure out who was

7:30

the first comment that came through

7:32

to claim it , since all of these pieces

7:34

are kind of one of a kind items

7:37

.

7:38

Wow , that's awesome . This might actually be a new job

7:40

for my husband .

7:42

It is Podcast editor software engineer

7:44

for my website .

7:45

I'm going to keep putting him to work .

7:47

Yeah , it's definitely recommended

7:49

to use a helper . The first live

7:52

sale I ever did , I did

7:54

not use a helper and

7:56

I needed it big time , and

7:58

I'm lucky that my boyfriend actually

8:01

was just watching in the other room and

8:03

he noticed that I was kind

8:06

of struggling to write down names and

8:08

keep up with comments and things like that , so

8:10

he started doing it on his own

8:12

. So , bless him , but now

8:14

he's my . He's my full time helper

8:16

for all the Instagram live sales .

8:19

That's fantastic , because the other consideration

8:21

here is is that , even though we can download our

8:23

live and even share it , we can't get

8:25

the comments . They're like gone forever

8:27

.

8:28

Exactly , and I think that is

8:30

something you're able to do on Facebook

8:32

. I believe I'm not 100%

8:35

sure but I think that when you go live

8:37

on Facebook , it saves the comments

8:39

. So if anybody listening

8:41

has got a bigger audience on Facebook

8:44

, that might be something to

8:46

look into . But on Instagram , yeah , you

8:48

can save the live but you can't

8:50

save the comments . So there's no going back and

8:52

double checking .

8:54

Okay , so helper is essential . One

8:56

other quick question I have here is has that

8:58

interest in a particular

9:01

piece ever led to

9:03

you custom creating it and getting

9:05

additional orders ?

9:07

Yes , Sometimes the

9:09

piece is a one of a kind . It

9:11

is what it is and it's

9:13

just something I made one day randomly

9:16

and I won't be making anymore . But

9:18

a lot of times , if enough people

9:21

are interested in it , it's almost

9:23

a way for me to kind of gauge what

9:25

is popular or what

9:27

I might want to incorporate into

9:29

my permanent collections on my website

9:32

. I also will sometimes take

9:34

pre-orders on the live sale , though

9:37

I try to focus on the live

9:39

sale , being more ready to ship

9:41

items . If something

9:43

is popular enough , I'll go ahead

9:46

and say , okay , well , I have the capacity

9:49

to make five more of these and I'll

9:51

take pre-orders right there .

9:53

That's great . What

9:55

is the frequency of

9:58

you going live with these sales , and

10:00

I'd also you know ? Part

10:03

two of that question is how are you promoting

10:05

folks so that you can get a good amount of your

10:07

followers attending ?

10:28

allows kind of this buildup in between live sales . If I did it more frequently than that , it

10:30

might not be as special or exciting . So that's definitely

10:32

a big reason why I think I've

10:34

been so successful with the live sales is

10:36

because they are just infrequent

10:38

, therefore more special and something to

10:41

look forward to . And

10:43

as far as kind of advertising

10:45

and marketing , it usually about

10:47

a month in advance I'll announce

10:49

the date for the live sale and

10:52

just start posting on

10:54

Instagram like teasers

10:57

or behind the scenes of me making

10:59

things that are going to be on the live sale

11:01

. I also love to

11:03

engage my audience and ask them

11:05

, hey , what colors are

11:08

you loving or what stones might

11:10

you want to see ? And give

11:12

them the opportunity to kind of feel like they're

11:14

involved in what is coming

11:17

on the live sale . So it's usually

11:19

about a full month worth

11:21

of hyping it up before

11:23

it actually happens . Do you use

11:25

an email list ? I do

11:27

. Yes , I have an email list so

11:30

I'll send out emails . I

11:33

don't send out a ton of emails just when

11:35

I have new things or , you know , save

11:37

the dates . So with email

11:39

, I usually won't start marketing the

11:41

live sale until about a week before

11:44

. I feel like any sooner

11:46

is a little bit irrelevant . So

11:48

I do send out emails , probably

11:50

a week leading up to the live sale , but

11:53

most of it is done on Instagram

11:55

. That's amazing .

11:57

Are there any other perks that your

11:59

followers might get by attending one

12:01

of these lives ?

12:03

they definitely get the opportunity to shop

12:06

things that I don't normally

12:08

make . The live sales

12:10

are something for me where

12:12

I get into

12:14

this kind of production mode . When

12:17

I'm making orders , I get on

12:19

my website and kind of get

12:21

out of that creative type

12:24

of mindset , whereas the live sale

12:26

is set aside

12:28

time for me to work on these

12:30

creative ideas . So

12:32

my customers are getting to see ideas

12:35

that they've never seen before

12:37

, and I'll make different pieces

12:40

than what I typically make , so

12:42

it's just kind of something cool and fun

12:44

and different for them . And then

12:46

I also mentioned before , it's a really cool

12:48

way to interact and

12:50

I actually love that

12:53

. My customers have started to interact with

12:55

each other on these live sales

12:57

and they'll kind of cheer each other

12:59

on in the comments , like I'm so

13:02

glad you got that one . And

13:04

it's funny , even

13:07

on a piece where let's

13:09

say I have five people that tried to claim

13:11

it and I'll announce Corkie

13:14

got piece number 13

13:16

. And all the other people will be like yay

13:18

, corky , I wanted that one so bad

13:20

, but I'm so glad you got it . Amazing

13:24

. Yeah

13:32

, so it's been really awesome to see how I've been able to build a community and they start to interact

13:34

with each other and not just interact with me . So I really love that part

13:36

of it .

13:37

Well , and I just want to you know I want to interject

13:40

here for folks that you're

13:42

following , as of this recording is around

13:44

like 7,000 followers . I know from us

13:47

previously chatting that you had some other

13:49

followers that you deleted . I guess I'm

13:52

bringing that up and not really explaining it . So

13:54

it's very impressive

13:56

to have this dollar amount of sales

13:59

and it just goes to show the power

14:01

of the true fan , because you

14:04

just have these true fans that

14:06

are willing to spend money with you and it

14:08

doesn't matter that you don't have 200,000

14:11

followers .

14:11

You have committed fans and that's amazing

14:14

100% , and I think

14:16

that is something that's super important

14:18

to highlight for anybody

14:20

listening is that your follower

14:23

count on Instagram does not

14:25

mean anything . It doesn't equate

14:27

to sales . You , just like you said , you

14:29

have to find those diehard

14:32

, true fans who just love you and

14:34

love what you do , and you'll

14:36

be successful if you find enough of those people

14:38

.

14:39

Definitely , and you know your followers

14:42

and supporters are so supportive of you . I

14:44

wouldn't doubt that they're listening to this right

14:46

now , so shout outs to them , yes

14:48

.

14:50

Shout out to all my CLJ girls . I

14:52

love it .

14:53

Even having like the little

14:55

like hashtag with it is awesome

14:57

, and I'm a CBJ

14:59

, so we're like pretty similar there . Very close

15:01

, very close . Yes , you know

15:04

, and I certainly don't want to end

15:06

on any kind of negative

15:08

note , but is there any downside to doing

15:10

this or what have been some of the pain points in

15:12

doing this that you've overcome

15:14

, people ?

15:15

trying to claim them . Sometimes

15:17

there's a little bit of frustration

15:20

or anger from people who

15:31

aren't able to get a piece . Or maybe

15:33

they said oh , I thought

15:35

my comment came through first , but

15:37

on my end it doesn't look like it came

15:40

through first . We got someone else's comment

15:42

first , so sometimes

15:44

that can be problematic . I

15:46

will say my customers are

15:49

amazing and usually , like I said , they're

15:51

kind of just cheering each other on . It's

15:53

more just me . I feel bad . I wish

15:55

I could give everybody everything they

15:57

wanted .

15:58

Yeah , I think that that's totally understandable

16:01

, that people might get frustrated , but again , you're generating

16:03

this excitement over scarcity

16:06

in a way . But yes

16:08

, also you have a lot of options

16:10

for folks too .

16:11

So yeah , I will also

16:13

say that it's a lot

16:15

of work on the back end

16:18

after the live sale is over

16:20

when I have to go through all

16:22

of those emails and match

16:24

up who got what and then send out

16:26

those invoices . I usually

16:29

will stay up until like three or

16:31

four in the morning after it's over sending

16:33

out invoices because I want to just go

16:35

ahead and get them done and out

16:37

. So it's definitely a lot of work

16:39

on that end of things , but

16:42

it's obviously worth it .

16:44

And you know , just to go along with that because

16:47

your time is valuable , is there

16:49

a like minimum price point for something

16:51

that you're going to sell in the live ?

16:54

No , I have sold things as low as

16:56

$5 . And

16:58

I find that people

17:01

use these live sales

17:03

to kind of stock up . So , because

17:05

they happen so infrequently , people

17:07

kind of wait to shop until

17:09

the live sale and they're buying multiple

17:12

items through it . And I add

17:15

those lower dollar items just

17:17

as a way for you to kind of like add on

17:19

to your order if you want . I

17:22

have usually a

17:24

minimum cutoff for shipping , so

17:26

I'll do $5 shipping

17:28

on all orders

17:30

and then if you spend $100

17:32

or more I'll waive shipping . So

17:34

that kind of incentivizes people to

17:37

go ahead and get two or three items

17:39

.

17:40

That's great , and do you have any international shoppers

17:43

?

17:44

On the live sales . Occasionally I'll

17:46

have a few people from different

17:49

countries , but I would say 95

17:52

percent of all of my shoppers

17:54

are based in the United States great

17:57

.

17:57

So that makes it pretty easy to say , like here's your standard

18:00

shipping rate , right , right

18:02

, awesome Chelsea

18:05

, you've inspired me . I'm not

18:07

going to lie .

18:07

I definitely want to try this . Well

18:09

, I've seen you doing your auction

18:12

pieces and I feel like that

18:14

is a really cool concept . I've not

18:16

really seen many people doing something

18:18

like that , so that could be something

18:20

that you do on live as

18:22

well . You could have people doing

18:25

a live auction .

18:26

Yes , yes , and for those listening

18:29

at Corkie Bolton Jewelry

18:31

on my Instagram I will occasionally

18:33

put up a piece for auction where folks

18:35

comment on the post , and it's

18:37

a great way to like what

18:40

Chelsea's doing . You're generating some excitement

18:42

, You're generating engagement . It's

18:44

so important in this day and age that

18:47

our followers and

18:49

us have this relationship

18:52

, Because if people

18:54

are just scrolling

18:57

and maybe tapping the heart but they're not really

18:59

engaging with you , your work's not going to show

19:01

up as much for them . I could kind

19:03

of go off on that . But the auction

19:06

gives that engagement and generates

19:08

that excitement and sometimes , like

19:10

with your you know lives

19:12

, it's like people almost got the piece

19:14

, but then they didn't . So then the next time there's an auction

19:17

they're even more excited . They want to get

19:19

one that next time . So

19:22

yeah , I mean

19:24

maybe I'll bring an auction to the live

19:26

.

19:26

Yeah , that'd be fun . You should try it , chelsea

19:29

.

19:29

thank , you so much . You can find

19:31

Chelsea on Instagram at Chelsea Leigh

19:33

Jewelry . You can also find her work

19:35

at ChelseaLeighJewelry . com . I

19:38

want you to go ahead and follow her and make sure you

19:40

check in on her next live , and

19:42

she also has her own podcast

19:44

called Beautifully Consumed . Do you want to

19:46

tell ?

19:46

us a little bit about that . Yeah

19:49

, it's just kind of a side project . I started

19:51

for fun and it's

19:53

not necessarily related to

19:55

business or jewelry . It's

19:58

more just like mindset

20:00

, motivation and kind of how

20:02

we can all become the best versions of

20:05

ourselves that we can be . So if you need a

20:07

little feel good or a pick me up , that's what

20:09

it's good for .

20:11

Amazing . So that's the Beautifully Consumed podcast

20:13

. You can find it on Spotify , apple Podcasts

20:15

or wherever you get your podcasts

20:18

. So thank

20:20

you . Like truly , what an inspiration you are . This

20:22

is awesome . It's so generous

20:24

of you to be willing to share

20:27

this concept because

20:29

clearly it's worked so well with you , and I think

20:31

that truly is the spirit of folks

20:33

in our community at Metals mith Society is being

20:35

willing to help other jewelers and knowing

20:37

that it doesn't take any money out of your pocket

20:39

, and that's just so cool to

20:42

me . So thank you .

20:42

Yeah Well , thank you . I actually have

20:45

convinced a lot of my other

20:47

small business friends , not

20:49

just in the jewelry space , to start doing

20:51

this , and they have started doing it and

20:54

have seen success from it . So it

20:56

feels cool that an idea I had

20:58

is able to like help other people

21:00

.

21:01

So yes , that's amazing . Thank you

21:03

, I'll definitely be stealing it at some point .

21:05

Yeah , you should let me know when you decide to . I'll definitely be stealing it at some point . Yeah , you

21:07

should Let me know when you decide to I will

21:10

.

21:10

Thanks again , Chelsea , and I

21:12

look forward to putting this out there into the world .

21:17

Yeah , thank you for having

21:19

me Corkie .

21:19

Thanks for tuning in to today's episode . I

21:22

hope you enjoyed it . Remember , you can always show your support

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and reach more listeners like you . Second

21:37

, if you could , please leave a rating and review

21:39

on your favorite podcast platform . Your

21:42

feedback not only boosts my visibility

21:44

, but also helps me improve and tailor my content

21:47

to better suit your interests . So I'd

21:49

love if , in the review , maybe you could tell me

21:51

about what your favorite episode's been so far

21:53

. And lastly , consider

21:55

sharing the podcast with your jewelry making friends

21:57

. Word of mouth is a powerful tool

21:59

and your recommendation means the

22:01

world to me . Thanks again for being

22:03

a part of my podcast community . Your

22:05

support keeps me going Until

22:08

next time . Bye

22:10

.