The Trailblazers Experience Podcast

EP 66 Jade Sammour CEO & Founder Dainty London Jewellery : My Entrepreneurship Journey & Building a Family Legacy

• Ntola • Season 4 • Episode 66

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EP66 Jade Sammour Founder and CEO Dainty London 
In this episode of the Trailblazers Experience, Jade Sammour shares her inspiring journey from being a children's heart transplant specialist to founding her own jewellery brand, Dainty London. She discusses the challenges of entrepreneurship, the importance of networking, and how she balances motherhood with running a business. Jade emphasizes the value of mentorship, the power of creativity, and the significance of building a community around her brand. Her story is a testament to resilience, adaptability, and the pursuit of passion in the face of adversity.
Her journey is a testament to the power of passion and perseverance, offering a treasure trove of inspiration for aspiring entrepreneurs. Tune in to hear Jade’s story of turning dreams into reality and her insightful lessons on navigating the entrepreneurial landscape.

Chapters
00:12 The Journey Begins: From Medicine to Jewellery
03:11 Building a Brand: The Birth of Dainty London
03:59 Idris Elba bought my Ring for Sabrina Elba 
05:47 Challenges and Triumphs: Navigating Entrepreneurship
08:33 The Balancing Act: Motherhood and Business
11:33 Learning from Mistakes: Insights for New Entrepreneurs
14:11 Harnessing ADHD: A Unique Perspective on Creativity
17:05 Networking: The Key to Growth?
29:19 Creating a Supportive Network for Women Entrepreneurs
32:16 Balancing Business and Family Life
36:53 Establishing Boundaries and Avoiding Burnout
41:44 The Importance of Continuous Learning
42:23 Networking and Building Relationships
51:46 Collaborations and Partnerships for Growth
55:29 Expanding Presence: Offline Strategies
56:29 Key Takeaways for Aspiring Entrepreneurs
58:46 Outro

Find Jade Sammour 
Daintylondon.com
Instagram : @Dainty_london_jewellery
Linkedin : https://www.linkedin.com/in/jade-sammour
Six Figured Females Community : https://sixfiguredfemales.com/about/
Watch Podcast :https://youtu.be/X_2Gxb_TCic

Listen : to the audio version Apple Spotify .Amazon Music Google Podcasts
Watch and subscribe to my YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/@Thetrailblazersexperience
Follow Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/thetrailblazersexperience/

The Trailblazers Experience :

Welcome to the Trailblazers Experience podcast, the podcast where we have candid conversations with women sharing their career journeys. My next guest is the amazing Jade Sammour, founder of the jewellery brand Dainty Landon, and she is indeed a trailblazer. I'm really looking forward to this because A I'm generally just interested in women who just decide to break the mold and start a jewellery brand in this already oversaturated market, but also the fact that we have so many badass few more entrepreneurs just taking the plunge and starting their businesses and contributing to the brands of the future is amazing. Jade, welcome.

The Trailblazers Experience :

Thank you, thank you very much for having me so exciting, so exciting, and I love doing research about your business and how you started. But for the audience, for someone who's just looking and sitting down and saying I've got an idea, I want to be an entrepreneur. Where did it all start in terms of your journey that led to the creation of the brand Dainty London?

Jade Sammour:

So I used to be a children's heart transplant specialist at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London and, as you can imagine, it was quite an emotionally and physically stressful job. So I did that for many years and then, on my sort of days off, I used to do lots of different bands, like lots of different creative outlets to kind of de-stress lots of different bands, lots of different creative outlets to kind of distract and one of them ended up being jewellery making, which I loved. So I did a Victorian doll's house making course before photography course, all of these, but the jewellery making one was the one that I loved the most and it stuck. So I did jewellery making for about 10 years, teaching mostly myself, using YouTube videos and cheap books off Amazon, tools from eBay, and kind of did myself a novice and intermediate kind of training. And then I hit a wall and then joined up to the Goldsmith Centre in London.

Jade Sammour:

So once I had my first baby back in 2018, I was on maternity leave, absolutely dreading going back to work, and so my darling husband turned around and said do you know what? If you don't want to go back to work, here's a little pocket of savings. Go and turn it into a business, go and make a jewellery business. So I did so. I registered business on Boxing Day 2018. I did so. I registered business on Boxing Day 2018. And then I thought I'm going to sign up and just do a trade show. So I did so.

Jade Sammour:

There I was, signed up, did a trade show, which was top draw, and while I was there so that was like three weeks later so I just had to rush everything through. I kind of had an idea already. I knew the name of the brand was going to be Dainty London. I knew that the logo of the brand was going to be my engagement ring, which was this kind of diamond shape. So I was like I know all of this already. So it was all registered. I already had the brand, the logo, everything rushed, everything through, did top draw. While I was at top draw, it was really, really, really successful for like my first ever time. Um, I was approached by someone that was organizing London Fashion Week. So they said do you want to come along and exhibit at London Fashion Week in two weeks time? So I went and did that and that, for me, was sort of the pinnacle of the beginning of my brand. When I was there, I was approached by a beautiful actor called Idris Elba.

The Trailblazers Experience :

Oh my days. This story is just getting more intense.

Jade Sammour:

So he brought one of my rings and said I want to give this to my then fiance, his now wife, and so off he went with the ring. And then about two weeks later, she tagged herself at the Saatchi party in LA wearing the ring. And that was it. My social media went crazy.

The Trailblazers Experience :

That is crazy, jade. Jade, I mean, let's just rewind, because you've just said that you've got a medical background. So you've done all those years of, like you know, studying, getting the academic requirements and then working in the profession itself. But in the meantime meantime, years and years I suppose it was a pastime and something to do for yourself, learning about the jewellery trade. So this was already, I guess, something that was in the making, but you didn't know. So you had been doing all the background work, understanding the jewellery industry, what it means to actually make jewellery, and thinking about all the metals and things like that. So for many who just think, oh yeah, I got a loan from my husband and sort of the first investor and that's how it all started, there's a whole backstory to that as well. My question when you were growing up, were you interested? Did you have a creative side to begin?

Jade Sammour:

with. Yeah, I did, and do you know what? I've got absolute raging ADHD, like everybody else does, but I am very creative because of that. So I flipped quite quickly from kind of craft project to craft project. So, yeah, so I've always been very creative. I wanted to go into fashion, but I grew up in a very working class town in Cornwall, and being a fashion designer wasn't a kind of desirable career path. It was basically going to healthcare, teaching or tourism, and so I took the healthcare route. So I would have gone into creative kind of design if I went back in time and had more of an opportunity.

The Trailblazers Experience :

But yeah yeah, so that was really always your true calling. But you look at the, you looked at the circumstances you were in and said, right, I need to be able to earn a living. Um, I think back in the day, it was always like, oh, those creatives, you know, it's not stable, it's not a real career, which is, you know, completely nonsense now, isn't it? Everyone should be able to live, live and find in the authentic self and find things that actually bring them joy, and if they can earn money off it, that's that's always interesting. But, yeah, so you've always had a creative side. Interesting, yeah, yeah, and that was the launch of your brand. So you have this amazing social media push, but at that point you didn't have a lot of ske brand. So you have this amazing social media push, but at that point you didn't have a lot of SKUs, you didn't have a lot of product. Talk to me about that stage of the business after going viral.

Jade Sammour:

So it was. I didn't have that much, so I just built up a loyal, honest customer base and then just kept expanding. So I was my own investor. Every time you, you know, one item would sell out, I would then develop a so many people would buy it. I'd have like. Even now, to this day, I'm so proud to be able to say my customer returning customer rate is still 45 percent. Wow, that's good. It's high, isn't it for a product, um, business. Once I realized, you know, that would be quite saturated and lots of people have got the necklace, then I would launch the earrings to match it, and so there was always something um to keep me going. But I mean 120 designs later I now have to start archiving some and clawing it back because it's um, yeah, I'll get, it will get out of hand, otherwise there's a lot of stuff well.

The Trailblazers Experience :

Starting a jewellery brand from scratch obviously is not easy. We've talked about how it's taken you years to perfect and to get all the knowledge, the skills. What are some of the challenges you you've had?

Jade Sammour:

just thinking in hindsight, so on a pro, the plus thing would be to, if you're going to start a business at at the beginning, just be a yes person If you can afford to do it. Don't get inside your own head. It's a mindset thing. So just say yes. If there's an opportunity that comes up, just say yes, because you never know how many doors it will open, the people that you'll meet. So that's the first thing.

Jade Sammour:

But I would say the challenges were obviously I did it on maternity leave and so when I was at the London Fashion Week I found out I was pregnant again with my second baby. So I had morning sickness, so I felt really unwell. So you know, there was the challenges of motherhood and the expectation. I'm married to a Muslim man, so having the expectation, from a religious point of view as well, of breaking down stereotypes, being the stay-at-home mum, because I wanted to be creative, I wanted to be a good mum, I wanted to kind of fight against the expectation of what I was supposed to be doing culturally, yeah, so there was challenges from that side.

Jade Sammour:

Then also there was the challenges of um plagiarism. So when you create a design because you're only a small brand, bigger, you know more established brands would see a product that you've designed and then just take it, and there wasn't really anything you could do. It was just, you know, you just had to let them just take that design, um, you couldn't afford to fight against it, uh. So again, I would say to anyone that is in, you know this, first stages of building product based specifically, you can register all of your designs, um, on the government website, um, and I would definitely do that the same with your logo and things like that as well. Just copyright, everything. It's only like 70 pounds to register 10 items. So I've just done every single SKU.

The Trailblazers Experience :

Now yeah, and at the beginning I guess it was all about a cashflow thing, isn't it? You've just started a brand. You don't actually have the money to be registering trademarks and brands, and probably at that point you didn't even think you were a brand. You're starting a jewellery business, thinking I'm just, you know, selling a few lovely items that I've created, but to think that that you're actually a brand. At what point did you know that you were actually a brand? Jade?

Jade Sammour:

Right, this is gonna sound really cheesy, but it was almost. It was almost like an epiphany, like I knew that I was going to start a jewellery brand. I knew the name of it, I knew the logo and I knew the direction I wanted to take it in. So when I first plucked up the courage and said, right, I'm going to do it, I'm going to register on Companies House that was the beginning for me I was like, right, I'm going for this. So, yeah, I kind of already knew the direction I wanted to go in. Mean, we're five years in now and there's lots of different. I've gone up and down and up and down. One minute. I want to be like a little hobbyist business. Then I want to scale it and be national, and it goes up and down constantly.

The Trailblazers Experience :

Yeah, yeah, and what is the story behind behind the name? Uh identity London? Why? Why is it significant to you? Why does it matter?

Jade Sammour:

I just really like I've got tiny hands and so really tiny hands, so I kind of just wanted to create like smaller daintier pieces for everything that would suit, like you know, really small fingers and things like that. And then I lived in London and, as I said, my engagement ring, so I had this vision of the, the logo, the name, everything. It was just everything's been tweaked over the five years.

The Trailblazers Experience :

Brand color else has come and gone as well yeah, and you talked about how your brand it celebrates love and you know that connection it's. It really comes across even on your website and your socials as well. So for you, please have a look. Definitely talked about. You talked about some challenges obviously being a mom, which everyone always underestimates, but you're wearing so many hats. Being a wife, being an entrepreneur how has your role changed in terms of being a founder, in that founder journey since you've launched the business? Do you now have a larger team? What does that look like? What is day today for Jade?

Jade Sammour:

So first and foremost for me is being a mum. I spent a couple of years just over Christmas and things just being away and doing trade shows after trade shows and being away for like significant things for my children. So my first little girl started school and I wasn't there for her first day and it really broke me and I it really gave me like insight, like what, what does it all mean? Why am I here at a trade show on the first day of her school, like I should have been there. So, first and foremost, that's my priority. So I work now around the kids. So I work a lot, um, and you know I get down to work from eight till, sort of have a three every day and then I'm mum until bedtime and then I'll pick it up again in the evening. But I do outsource a lot. Now I've got a nice team around me that help um, so I do have people to kind of outsource to and relieve my workload a little bit.

The Trailblazers Experience :

That's a big one, isn't it? I think people underestimate and you've just described it really well how much actual planning goes into being a parent and a business owner to say, okay, this is my window to operate and be as efficient, as productive as possible, and then there's sort of not really downtime, but then the switch into the other role and then it's right, right, the kids are now in bed, bed, everything's done, and now I'm switching one again. Um, and being productive. In that certain aspect it provides also a bit of flexibility, isn't it? Because there is no right or wrong. There is no, you have to do a 95. I know some people wake up at four and start off their day and they're finished by 10, depending on the time zones, dealing with suppliers, they're all these things you sort of are doing what's working for you. Is that fair?

Jade Sammour:

to say I think, absolutely. I think the whole point in having your own business is you make it work for you. I always compare it. So no matter how busy my workload is, I always just think to myself no one's dying. So in my old job you know that would be the case, so you were there for really long hours. I would have been away for Christmas, for New Year I would have been on shift and it would have, you know, sometimes been really really emotionally challenging. So whenever things get overwhelming or I've got too much work on, there's nothing for people to delegate to, I just think stop, think to myself everyone's well, everyone's happy, just know. Break it up into components and work through it, prioritize and lists. Love a list.

The Trailblazers Experience :

What are some of the transferable skills that, from your previous career in the medical profession, are helping you as a founder, as a leader, as an entrepreneur?

Jade Sammour:

I think time management, which is a really unthought of thing for somebody with adhd as well, um, because we're we're known to have quite poor time management. So when I worked in the nhs you had to be like spot on with drug giving and timings and medications and things like that. So, um, I think I'm good with my time management from a work perspective. It's not necessarily on my outside life, but in a work perspective it's quite good, I think, in having a um good rapport as well. So building up customer relationship, um, having a good kind of customer retention and storytelling as well, I think is really important for the brand. So having that chance of getting to know your customers and getting to know your customer demographic who are they, where do they live, where do they shop normally, what clothes they wear gives you an idea of the type of people that are buying your product yeah, it's interesting.

The Trailblazers Experience :

You talk about time management and I guess patients are sometimes your customer. You have to understand what they're telling you so you can talk about the not only well, come to the diagnosis and understand what the next stage of of their treatment is as well, but customer I mean who is who is the customer of your brand? If you were to describe them, apart from indus elbow's wife?

Jade Sammour:

yeah, so my customer is a very independent lady between around 30, 30 to 35. She shops in john lewis. She likes luxury holidays. She wears whistles clothing. What else does she do?

The Trailblazers Experience :

she likes kind of quirky but classic jewellery pieces and she likes shoes so she's sort of, yeah, so she's sort of in those, those 30s loves pre, what a premium luxury brands sort of in in that arena. That's very interesting, and the fact that it's clearly defined for you that really helps, isn't it? Because you're having to target your marketing, your social media, your launches. You know that all plays an important role. I was at a conference the other day and they always talk about understand your customer, build that community in order for you to build your brand, because that's what will drive the revenue and the profitability of the business as well. So, five years in, so five years in five years, this has been going on. Yeah, yeah, it's now a profitable, revenue driving business. We talked about how you started the business. Talk about funding, any challenges you faced it. Have you taken external funding or are you proud to say, actually, do you know what? We are bootstrapped and we're driving revenue and growing um as such?

Jade Sammour:

exactly that bootstrapped driving revenue. We could have gone down a funding route, um.

Jade Sammour:

But like I said, I've been popping babies out, um so it's been up and down and up and down, like now that my children are a little bit older I can actually see. You know it might be an opportunity to look into funding, but at the moment I'm quite happy with where it's going. It's on the way up, yeah, and it's just slow growth. I don't know if I'd be able to handle like a fast growth and also trusting other people to sort of manage other areas of the business. It's always been mine and my little thing that I work on. So, yeah, I'm not sure at the moment, but, yeah, bootstrapping, investing and and hoping for growth and just being really careful with my investments.

Jade Sammour:

I've made some huge mistakes down the way on the way. I would have loved, like a business mentor at the time, beginning someone that was understood the growth, the journey that I wanted to go on and say and give me the advice. I didn't seek that because I didn't know I needed that at the time, but yeah, so I always ended up wasting loads of money on things that weren't relevant. But you know, you live and learn, don't you?

The Trailblazers Experience :

it's a learning curve yeah, so do you want to share so some of those mistakes that that you've made? Because I'm sure there's someone listening right now probably might not be the same sector or category, but they've started their business and they're just on that cusp where they know something is happening and we want them to fail fast and move forward. What were, if you were to tell one story of something that where you thought, oh my God, hindsight is an interesting thing. I wish I knew this, yeah.

Jade Sammour:

Like. Personally, I did things like at trade shows. They would be testing a new environment. So they'd message and go would you like to join this? This isn't you having a stand at a trade show. It would be like one-to-one meetings with buyers. They'll create it. You turn up, you pay your fee and and then you get a catalog of buyers and it would be sold to you like john lewis will be there and you know um, harvey nichols will be there and blah blah, so you can just go in and request, like almost like a tinder, yes. So that was one thing. So I was like, yeah, I'll do that, that'll be great, and then I don't have to have a stand. I can just put the money that I would have put into a stand into this and have these curated one-to-one meetings. It wasn't worth the money. There weren't the buyers. It was really disappointing and it was just such a headache to argue it. So I ended up going and just speaking to three or four people and there wasn't anyone big in there that I was promised. So that was really disappointing people. And there wasn't anyone big in there that I was promised, so that was really disappointing.

Jade Sammour:

Another one would be like paying for you know, like in British Vogue and things like that, you can pay to be in the advertorials. Yes, again, it's a lot of money. Yeah, not really worth it. I've done it. I've done it a few times. You know, I did Tatler and Vogue and other things like that. Yeah, it's great to be able to say that you were in it, but you paid to be in it. So you don't get that kind of validation.

The Trailblazers Experience :

Yeah, and especially when you're a smaller business, it's a big commitment, isn't it? The ones who are established? The reason why they do advertorials and have that, it's because they have that constant line in their P&L. That is just about brand awareness and they know the return will come back in a year or in two years, but they want to be everywhere the customer is and at this point in time you can do it through other ways social, you can do it through seeding product but you have to sometimes go through those things to learn. So any founders out there starting out, do not pay for advertorials at the beginning of your business. Focus on building that community and that brand. I think is more important you talked about at the moment. You outsourced a lot of things. I think that would be good just to talk about in terms of what are the key things that you've outsourced. So the expertise that you have then decided I don't have it in-house. I'm not intending on recruiting someone, I'm outsourcing this.

Jade Sammour:

So I outsource now my gemstone setting. So whenever we set the gemstones in the workshop, it takes time and to be able to produce the amount that we need to produce, I now outsource it. So it's all still within the UK. I'm still working with all UK suppliers, but, yeah, I outsource it to a's. All still within the uk. I'm still working with all uk suppliers, but, yeah, I outsource it to a company in london that set all the gemstones for us. So the rings and things like that will still be made by us, but the gemstones will just be set by the outsource company.

Jade Sammour:

I also have helped social media. I have helped with blog posts. I have helped with my marketing. So all of my ads google ads, facebook, instagram, etc. That's all outsourced as well now and that just frees me up a bit more time. I don't want to go down the route of having mass produced jewellery. I don't want to go down a route of working with trees. I did at the beginning as I could see the brand growing quite quickly, and I did look the beginning as I could see the brand growing quite quickly and I did look into it. But the samples that I was sent back I was not happy with the quality. And then I just thought you know what I can do such a better job in-house and train my own people to do that, and so that's what I do.

The Trailblazers Experience :

Yeah. So keeping it niche and authentic, isn't it to your brand? Because that is your USP? That's the reason why people are coming to you as well. Jay, you've talked a lot about ADHD and I think it's your superpower. At this point, Can you share your unique perspective of how it's fueled your creativity and how it's driven your success? Because we have to raise our hands to those who've got ADHD. It's your superpower. It's something that's going to help you and guide you.

Jade Sammour:

let's talk about this so I do honestly think the amount of people that are being diagnosed with adhd, don't you think in maybe 20 years time it's, it's just the norm? Yeah, it'll be like, instead of being labeled as neurodiverse, it will just be which neuro category are you one, two or three? And then when children in school, they'll be neuro one, so they'll be taught like visual teaching see one, do one, that kind of thing, like I do think. Like the amount of people, like 20 of the population, I read somewhere recently. But anyway, obviously it has pros and cons.

Jade Sammour:

I have absolutely horrendous like rejection sensitivity, which is part of ADHD. So if I applied for something and I didn't get it, I'd be like. The pros of it are that you can hyper focus. So if I am planning to do something, I'll get it done if I'm interested in it. So if I want to launch a new collection, I will draw out the collection in my head, draw the collection out on paper and then, like most people, it might take them about six months to launch the collection. I would have made that collection by the end of that weekend. I would have photographed it by Tuesday and then by Friday it will be up on the website. So it's like this. It's tunnel vision, this hyper focus. We can't see anything else. I'm just going to do this.

Jade Sammour:

Everything else kind of gets forgotten in the meantime, so that's a bit of a risky one, but yeah, so I think if there is a project or something in hand, I will get it done. I think from a time management point of so I now have a timer and I just have this timer on and set 20 minutes or 30 minutes and I just do one project. I have no other kind of distractions. The phone goes off, you know, the ring doorbell's turned off, everything, and I just have 30 minutes and it'll be like 30 minutes of blitzy emails. Go through the emails, you know. So, yeah, so I have timers for everything as well. Now Everything's put into categories and into boxes and that I can work my way through you know what's so interesting about what you said.

The Trailblazers Experience :

It's not even just in schools where it's going to be predominant, I think, also in organizations, because we assume if I think of from my own lived experience of working in various organizations, that everyone works the same way, presents the same way, takes in information the same way, and actually you need to embrace the different types of people you have working for you or the interaction that you have to harness the information. I remember in the early days when we'd have workshops and I know that there's some people who would be in the room where they'd be very good at adding value, but they couldn't add value at that moment. They were taking in all the information, probably putting it into their quadrants in their notebook, but if you ask them the day after or at the end of the week what they actually thought and next steps, they would be the best contributors. We're the ones who are just shouting and wanting attention in the room because they wanted to be heard and thought they had to say something in that moment. Unfortunately they were seen as the contributors etc. But maybe not providing the best ideas or strategies for for the business.

The Trailblazers Experience :

I think now that whole it's probably an american, american term of we'll circle back to something is because, actually, let's, let's have the meeting, let's have the workshop, but give people the opportunity to take it away, immerse themselves, information, and then come back with what's actually required. So, yeah, that focus time resonates so much with me because that's how I work as well. I need that focus time. I need sometimes time to be an active listener first before I can then contribute. Yeah, which is a lot, but you know yeah, I've read a book actually recently.

Jade Sammour:

It was probably the most interesting book I've ever read um, and it's a book called surrounded by idiots. Yes, I've seen that.

The Trailblazers Experience :

Do you know what? I've seen it advertised around boris johnson's book and I know they're using it as a pun in terms of this is this guy and she's surrounded, but it's actually a really good book isn't it absolutely incredible?

Jade Sammour:

it color categorizes people by their personality types. So, like when you were saying people just bulldoze in and they've got loads of opinions and that's like they're. They're a color red and once you understand all the different color categorizations, you can identify it in people that you meet. So whenever I'm having interactions like I had a meeting earlier in london I already knew the colors by the first sort of few minutes. Getting to know the person already know what colors they are. So then you learn how to please them, what sort of things they like you know. You learn how to annoy them um, that kind of thing. Like you know how to press their buttons. By understanding it. It's honestly probably one of the best books I've ever read.

The Trailblazers Experience :

It's based on like a study from the 1970s they did about, yeah, personality types and that even helps you with networking and building connections, I think, because you can walk into a room and sort of like do your james bond type of scan of the room to understand how you approach certain characters, how long you actually engage with certain people, the personalities to avoid in a way, and actually thinking, oh actually these are the ones I need to talk to, because there'll be the value add there. It's a good way of categorizing, segmenting, putting into those boxes to help you also navigate through conversations with people.

Jade Sammour:

Yeah, absolutely so. Yeah, I would really highly recommend it, surrounded by idiots.

The Trailblazers Experience :

Has networking influenced the growth of your business?

Jade Sammour:

Important role or not really For a brand. I found it very difficult personally to do networking at the beginning because I had such small children and obviously I was going in blind. I've never run a business before. My husband has his own business, so he kind of had some ideas. But I was just new, I didn't have any business friends. I'd moved to a new town as well, I'd moved from London to Essex to settle down with our children and and I you know I kind of struggled.

Jade Sammour:

So I did put myself out there to do networking. I would have to pay to put my children into nursery, so that would be like 50 or 70 pounds a day. Whatever it was to just go and have these two hours of networking and a lot of the time I would leave and find I just wasn't in the right groups drain. I felt myself drained, I was giving out loads of information but not getting enough back and I just felt like it was a bit of a waste of time for me. So, personally, a couple of about a year and a half ago I was complaining about this to some other business-y friends and they said let's just start our own networking group. So we did, did so that's amazing and how big is it?

Jade Sammour:

talk to me about that it's it's doing really well actually. Um, it's really pretentious name and it's deliberate. Go on, then gets you talking. It's called six-figured females love it and it's for women that are at the next stage of business. It's not the stages of I'm just starting out and how do I register my Instagram account and how do you use hashtags. It's more like how do I utilize my VAT bill? How can I work around the VAT? You know, working at the next stages towards six figures and either or above or yeah.

Jade Sammour:

So we just found that there was this gap in the market for sort of startups and then the higher end, but there was nothing in between. So we were like we'll just launch one, but it has done really well. Like we've got five different memberships, five different locations launched. Yeah, and it's lovely. Like the people that are in the room are all in the same boat. So you get, there's always a crier every meeting that we have, someone always like opens up and you know they're going through a hard time, but you feel like you're in a safe space to talk about it and have a have a little cry because they get it, they understand it, you know if you've got customers or clients that are being really demanding and things like that. You can work around it. Everyone's got enough advice in the room to be able to solve a puzzle, basically.

The Trailblazers Experience :

And that's it. You hit the nail on the head in terms of at the beginning. And I think now, jade, there's actually more resource out there. I mean, google is your friend for everything. You can literally narrow down as to what are you looking for, what type of networking groups. You can listen to podcasts, you can follow someone on Instagram, tiktok, etc. And you will find your niche. Obviously, it's still a minefield if you've never done it before, but the fact that you've now found a group of women to say, man, what's out there we don't like. So we're just going to be the change we want to see and start a network together, which is awesome, you know, I think it's pretty good. And so your point about starting a networking group that is targeting a specific niche, because there's some people that, like you said, beginning of their journey, some that maybe their revenue is probably too high. So you've hit that sweet spot, isn't it, of leveraging and becoming that business-minded entrepreneur of your business.

Jade Sammour:

Yeah, yeah, I like to think so, but it's lovely. I love it so much Like I basically get to work with my friends and all the people in the room. It's just. Yeah, it's lovely.

The Trailblazers Experience :

We'll definitely tag it in the show notes. So anyone who thinks they need the criteria that yeah, we'll definitely tag it in the show notes. So anyone who thinks they need the criteria, that's an opportunity for them to join and be part of it as well.

Jade Sammour:

That would be lovely.

The Trailblazers Experience :

Balancing business and babies oh my days. You've talked about being a mother to three small children and, by the way, it's good to have them actually at similar ages. It's stressful now, but when they grow up you're going to be like, yeah, this was a good investment, we did the right thing, I guess. Thank you, because they'll have friends, but balance the demands for both. You've talked about time management and making things work for you. If you were to share some strategies that have actually worked in terms of balancing that not just business, but even work-life balance and finding time for yourself, because at the beginning of the podcast you said being creative was your safe space for you, but now your creative element is your business, how are you then finding time to do things for you, jade?

Jade Sammour:

I have hour and a lot, hour and a half long baths. I love that. I love that. Keep it simple. Yeah, Jade, I have hour and a lot, hour and a half long baths. I love that. I love that. Keep it simple, yeah, yeah, that's it. That's my time. Then Kids are in bed. My husband will be like you go, you go, do your thing, and I'll have a bath, buy all my fancy oils. I even brought a dimmer on the lights for the bathrooms.

The Trailblazers Experience :

Make it really, and the arms for the bathroom make it and beyond.

Jade Sammour:

Yeah, and I'll just lie in the bath for about an hour and a half just like that face mask on everything. So that's now my, my, because otherwise, yeah, they're, they're small, so somebody always wants something from you, naturally, and then you've got the business on top as well. I have learned at the beginning you want so much for your business to succeed that you are willing to give everything of yourself, and I found myself so available all of the time. So, for an example, I had a lady back in I think it was like 2022, something like that that brought a ring off my website and she had told her husband to buy it in a certain size. He ordered it on the website. I delivered it, posted it. They received it. She received the ring and opened it up on Christmas Day and then sent me a email, a WhatsApp message, a Facebook message, and got in touch with me on Twitter by 8am on Christmas Day.

Jade Sammour:

So I'm watching my children at the time opening their gifts and my phone was going ping, ping, ping, ping, ping, ping, ping and all it was is that he'd ordered the wrong size. She just wanted to change it, would it be okay? And it's my own fault, because I didn't manage expectations. I should have put an out of office on. I should have just not had the phone. But yeah, and it really got to me because I was like like, what are you doing? I would make myself available as well in the evenings.

Jade Sammour:

You know, you get a Instagram message at half past ten saying I'm just wondering. You know, I just wanted to check where my order was. It was posted on this day. Can you chase it up? And you'll have a ten in bed reading a book and you're like, oh, so now I've learned the hard way and I'm only available at certain times. I have out of offices. I have my phone. My husband, clever man, put my phone onto a family mode and do not disturb, which is perfect. So for my headspace on a Wednesday, I literally don't see the phone. The only person that can call me is my husband, and I'm just with my little boy for the day and I love it. It just gives me that one day a week where I'm just a mum you know it's like you've embraced the power of no.

The Trailblazers Experience :

you know the power, for at the beginning you talked about saying yes to everything, every opportunity, because you're growing your business, you're testing and learning, you're trying to understand what direction could it go and at that point you know it's the best point in your life because you're growing your business, you're testing and learning, you're trying to understand what direction could it go and at that point you know it's the best point in your life because you're growing that business.

The Trailblazers Experience :

But then at some point you're like right, I need to have some boundaries here. I need to understand that I don't need to be there for every customer all the time, and I think social media has made it very hard. If you're especially engaged with your community, you feel the need that you have to respond to everything, when actually you don't. Sometimes it sorts itself out Someone posts something that may be negative, et cetera, but then all the other comments, that sort of drain it out. But even a customer service query. I mean, we remember the days when shops were open a certain time and you had to wait until you know you got back on a monday before things could be resolved. So it does take some resilience and going from I'm going to say yes to everything to actually learning the power of, of no and me time yeah, yeah, so it's just having your own boundaries.

Jade Sammour:

I think you have to hit that burnout level before you can actually start taking some kind of drastic action to manage it. Yeah, yeah, and I think you have to hit that burnout level before you can actually start taking some kind of drastic action to manage it.

The Trailblazers Experience :

Yeah, yeah, and I think you know, like you said, burnout is a very big thing. There's some people who hit the wall but they don't even realize that they've hit that wall. And come to that point, mother and this is lived experience once again that when you have children, your, your ability to then make decisions, to change the trajectory of your life when you're in that inflection point are much easier, whereas if you're, you don't have any children or any responsibilities, you're sort of like, no, just keep going, keep going, and there you are burning out, burning out. But when you have those children, it's like, okay, this is a sign something needs to change. It helps you with the decision making. Have you found that as well?

Jade Sammour:

yeah, absolutely for sure. It's all the juggle, isn't it? And it's also having the the, the end result, like where do you want this to go? So now my girls are a little bit bigger, as in bigger I mean four and five but they, you know, they say, they tell people my mummy makes treasure. They say, when they want to grow up, they want to, they want to make treasure like mummy, and things like that. And I just think that's, that's my goal. You know, I want to create a business that I I used to think I wanted to create, a business that I would grow to sell, but now I don't. I want to keep a family business, a lifestyle business.

Jade Sammour:

I would grow to sell, but now I don't. I want to keep a family business, a lifestyle business. I will grow to a level that's manageable, take people in, but then I will hand it down to the girls. That would be the dream.

The Trailblazers Experience :

That's interesting. So what's changed that? What's changed the perception of grow to sell, to grow and have it as a family generational wealth business?

Jade Sammour:

I think my girls are really creative as well and I think I would have loved to have done a creative role. Like I was saying, like the fashion design thing, I don't want them to be segregated into one area like no direction, like I want them to have that flexibility. So my husband's gone in on my, on his dad's business and it works really well. So I would love to create something like that for for my girls.

The Trailblazers Experience :

yeah, well, that's amazing. I think it's, and also I love the fact that you're creating, once again, the businesses of the future. You know that the high street, the e-commerce landscape, social media that that all needs to change. I think there are a lot of brands that obviously have been there for a very long time 100 years, 200 years, 30 years but I think it's great to see new brands coming in, and especially for the, for the uk economy. You're embracing that in terms of making a product and embracing all the skill set that is actually here in country as well. Yeah, absolutely.

Jade Sammour:

I can recommend a really good course I did recently. Anybody that's maybe a year or two into their businesses. The course is called the help to grow course and it's funded by the government it was conservative government so hopefully, yeah, labor will take that on as well but it is uh 90 funded by the government and then you pay the 10, so I think it was like a 7 000 pound course. You pay obviously about 700 pounds, um, and it is a 10 week course. Once a week on zoom it's with one of the university. So I went to greenwich university and it from not having any business experience previous to starting my business. It just opened up so many doors and gave me so much more information, things that I didn't even know I needed for my brand. You know like simple things, like your core values of your business.

The Trailblazers Experience :

So people remember that Never thought about that before, and at what stage would you encourage someone to join such a course?

Jade Sammour:

Maybe a couple of years in. You need to be making money. You need to have some employees to do the course as well, or people that work with you. Yeah, but I would absolutely recommend it, so it might be something for everybody for the new year to look into. Yeah, I really enjoyed it and I took so much from the course.

The Trailblazers Experience :

Better than an advertorial, isn't it so good investment, investment, to invest it in yourself, actually, yeah absolutely absolutely which is, I think, a lot of times that's also something that you're not taught is that learning never, never stops. You have to keep on thinking about what else is happening in the market. What is the skill set that I still need to acquire to improve as an entrepreneur, as a founder, as a leader? Are there any financial or legal aspects of my business that I need to understand? What's changed in supply chain? Are there any regulatory stuff that have to do with, you know, the gemstone industry? All these things, and learning never stops, and I think that's one thing we as women, or even men, should just embrace that being curious and constantly.

The Trailblazers Experience :

My dad always says, constantly filling the tank. You know filling the tank, giving yourself that toolkit. You never stop learning, which is really key. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. So how you know you're an award winning brand is you're very modest about it, but you are, yeah, and celebrity has played a little part in sort of launching your brand and getting yourself out there. Now, just on reflection, you've had an interesting journey in terms of where you were raised and then going into the medical field and then embracing your creative side, having an interesting, dynamic family, even from cultures as well, having daughters based on your journey. What are some of the key lessons that you've learned as an entrepreneur and building your business?

Jade Sammour:

I would probably say if you can't afford to outsource it, then look into doing it yourself. So also you, from a networking perspective. You don't know who you're going to meet. So I'm going to give you an example back in in 2019, at the end of that first year. So I'd done London Fashion Week and Emily Sandé wore my jewellery and blah, blah, blah, blah blah and all these influencers, etc. Etc.

Jade Sammour:

At the end of 2019, I applied for an award, thinking, oh, I'm just going to apply, and I got down to finalists. So I went to the award ceremony and a lady who was presenting the awards I didn't win Met the lady that was presenting the awards, introduced myself, got chatting with her. She was really nice and then left it at that. She was a journalist and kind of followed her on Instagram, played in touch over the last few years. Anyway, this year, international Women's Day, woke up in the morning and my phone had gone crazy like all these messages, and someone had tagged me saying you are absolutely killing it, go girl, I'm so proud. I was like what? Looked at it and it was for Forbes magazine and they'd written a feature about inspiring international like business women, entrepreneur, women that are like juggling life, juggling children, juggling business.

The Trailblazers Experience :

And it was written by that lady I'd met in 2019. That is amazing. So she'd been following you and you. You know she was mesmerized and inspired by you with that one interaction.

Jade Sammour:

Yeah, like and just I think if there's a rapport there work on it you know like, and it wasn't that we were friends or anything like that, I just just liked her posts. They came up on Instagram that kind of thing, and I was just so flattered that she remembered me. It was a feature about the five business women to watch, type thing, and yeah, I was one of them and my head she'd obviously taken a picture of my website and it was the front page of the feature was my face, so that was incredible. The other thing I would say is I used to work with a PR company which was absolutely amazing. If you have a budget for it, I would highly recommend. They are a PR company called we Are PR, but I found for me, just with being on this kind of bootstrapping, basically, and not having this guaranteed income with the sales and things, I found it quite hard to budget so I decided to pull back. So I got so much exposure working with this PR company and it was amazing and they're lovely people. I just found I didn't have budget for it, so I pulled back and started doing lovely people. I just found I didn't have budget for it, so I pulled back and started doing it myself. I would highly recommend, if you can, if you can work with a PR company, do it oh my God, amazing. If you can't afford to, then my advice would be to find the relevant people within your industry. Find them on LinkedIn. So for me it would be. You know the editors of marie claire or l magazine or cosmopolitan grazia. You know all of that kind of thing and I, every week at the same time, at 12 o'clock on a wednesday, I send out an email to all of them with a, with a pitch, a press release, this is the product, and it will just talk about the story of the product and then it will just say high res images available and samples available and request. You probably won't hear anything back, but you will get so much press because it's you know like what's the word repetition, yes, yeah, consistency. So even though they're not looking for your email over time, they'll know that they'll get an email at 12 o'clock every Wednesday and if they have a gap in their magazine where they're like, oh, I need to fill it with a piece of a product, of Christmas gift guide, that ring, that girl, and they'll look it up and I'll be there, and the amount of prep I've got from doing that is absolutely amazing. So, yes, I'd recommend that.

Jade Sammour:

The other thing thing as well is applying for awards. So if you apply for an award, you don't get shortlisted, you haven't lost anything. If you apply for an award, you get shortlisted and you don't win, you still haven't lost anything, but your name is now out there. So I would apply for some awards. So one of them, for example, was the Great British Entrepreneur Awards, which if anyone is interested in applying for, I would 100% recommend doing it.

Jade Sammour:

And I got shortlisted and then was a finalist, went to this beautiful, like you know, wine and dine black tie event. My husband was sat there. He was like I'm so proud of you, don't expect to win, but I'm so proud of you, don't expect to win, but I'm really proud of you for getting this far. So I said okay, okay, it's up against people like Lapland UK, um, and then they called my name out to win. So I was like, okay, so off. I went back up there. My husband's mouth was wide open. I couldn't believe it. But from winning that award, the amount of press that came my way, and even six months after, was absolutely insane. So I would honestly say like apply for an award, apply for Muddy Stilettos, your local kind of local award. You'll get so much press from it afterward and it gets your name out there, so you're doing your own press without having to pay the large fees to do it.

The Trailblazers Experience :

I mean you've said so many nuggets there. One thing about internal PR so PRing yourself and your business, so that consistency whether it's. I was listening to a podcast about a lady who started the good quote on Instagram and she'd started it years ago before they were scheduling. You know you can now schedule posts, but before she would wake up and she would post every hour. So she'd set an alarm and be posting every hour on the dot. So that's consistency, consistency. Now it's taken her years to grow her brand but she's now got her own agency where she helps other businesses. But she talked about, as you said, she couldn't afford to have someone do it for her. So she set her alarm and said at this time every day and actually for her it was 24 hours she would be posting because the more people see it, that thing about repetition and consistency is key.

The Trailblazers Experience :

And then what you said about internal PR how you come across when you're in a room and talking to people like we said, networking events it's hit or miss. But how you come across as an individual, your character, your core values, you as how you interact with people, that speaks volumes and that resonates with people beyond. This is my business card and this is what I do. That sticks a lot. And the last point you said about just apply, just go for it, just what's the worst that can happen? Type of mentality as well, because that's that PR People want to know. Oh, who is this great entrepreneur and what are they doing that I'm not. What's the secret sauce? And here you are baring your soul, talking about I'm learning across the way. There's been so many lessons learned. I think it takes away the stigma of being an entrepreneur. It's a journey, isn't it, that you have to embrace, but also taking these plunges is really key, absolutely.

Jade Sammour:

Absolutely yeah, I would recommend doing. If you can't afford an agency to do it, then do your own PR for now but it's worth it.

The Trailblazers Experience :

Does that mean also, jada, because you've done a lot of things yourself, that you're very particular when you're now working with externals, because you know how it's done, you're like, hang on a second, are you more critical?

Jade Sammour:

um, yeah, yeah, I mean, if I could still work with a pr agency and I could afford monthly fees, yes, I would do it, but at the moment it's working well. There's a couple of databases that you can access. So obviously you've got LinkedIn. You've also got one called PR Dispatch. I've heard about that one. Yeah, that's a database of just names with email addresses of the magazines that are relevant to you. The other one is called the Lightbulb Group on Facebook and that's amazing. I mean there's a lot in there, but every day it's just journalists that pitch in and say I'm looking, I'm doing a case study on this, can anyone help? And if you find that relevant, then perfect.

Jade Sammour:

But that was what I started with at the beginning. I think it's like five pound a month as well, five or ten pound a month to join that group. I got picked up so much at the beginning, so it would be, and it wouldn't even be jewellery related, it would be. You know how do you? Has anyone got any DIY mishap? And I would just put in my husband built me a garden office and the roof fell down as soon as I sat down to type on the computer. You know it was um, things like that. But then it got me exposure in closer magazine and metro and telegraph and grazia and all of these places that I would never have had access to be featured. Yeah, yeah, they all kind of tagged my business in there anyway.

The Trailblazers Experience :

So it helped with that, with exposure how important are um partnerships, because you talked about your returning customer rates at 45%, but the other 55% is still new customers that you're having to acquire and talk about your trying to get their exposure. What's your approach to finding partnerships and collaborations?

Jade Sammour:

I during lockdown. It was amazing, wasn't it? As in, lockdown wasn't great, but for small businesses and online businesses, it was a good place to be. So I, during lockdown, would work with loads of different content creators, sent them loads of products. Um, I never paid to do collaboration, so it would be for people that were maybe a thousand to up to a hundred thousand, and it would be. I'll offer you a piece of jewellery. It's worth 250 pounds, can you? Can you talk about it on your socials? So that really grew my social media following quite quickly.

Jade Sammour:

I wouldn't necessarily pay. I have worked with content creators in the past where I paid to do a post and then send them products, and it wasn't very good. Like, unless you've got a content creator or an influencer that really resonates with your product and you can see that they're like your customer demographic, I wouldn't waste your time, um on on doing it, because they have to be passionate. Yeah, you have to find people that are going to be talking. If you're not in the room, they're going to sell your brand for you and so, yeah, so that's one.

Jade Sammour:

I've had a mind block now, so and so now it's such a saturated market. It's really hard to find content creators that, because they're doing it as a business, it's an actual business. So for me, I find it hard to find content creators that are not charging. So I don't want to send out a £500 necklace and then have to pay an extra 300 pounds for someone to share it on their feed. So what I do now is I work with my brand friends. So anyone that is a brand that's similar to myself, right?

Jade Sammour:

yes, and I'll say you've got 20,000 followers. I've got this many followers, let's do a collab. So you give me some of your skincare, I'll give you a piece of jewellery, and let's do a collab and talk about each other's businesses, and that works amazingly well, and also for the small business owner as well. You're you never get gifted things. Having like some new, you know a nice new candle or nice skincare, or you know nice jumper and things like that I can wear up in the workshop that I can talk about.

The Trailblazers Experience :

That's my, that's my new way of doing collabs at the moment yeah, I feel like it's also more authentic because you're tapping into their customer base as well, and I was saw Jigsaw does it actually very well, and I know they're a very profitable large business across the UK. But they do this thing where, within their stores, every week, they have some sort of collaboration, whether it's with an artist or whether it's with a small entrepreneur, which is sort of like we're helping the community but we're also bringing a different kind of customer in and in a way that's probably better to. It resonates more and you know that the other brand is just as committed as you are to the cause. You know you will definitely talk about the skincare or the product etc. And they'll definitely talk about your your product as as well.

Jade Sammour:

It's it's the new way forward, I think, as well yeah, yeah I, yeah, I think so, and then you've got user generated content and things like that as well. Um, with your reels and whatnot. But yeah, I just I enjoy doing it with other brand owners because I know that we're sharing the same same struggles, same highs and lows and same difficulty and getting exposure.

The Trailblazers Experience :

So sharing customers, you know, following demographics yeah, yeah, and would you ever look at growing an offline presence? So in terms of having stores or pop-ups, have you, or is that something where you say no, not really yeah, yeah, I do that all the time and I do.

Jade Sammour:

I work with john lewis quite a lot, so I do a lot of pop-ups with them, um, and I have about 30, 30 or 40 stockists as well. So I do wholesale and then have a presence in in stores as well, which is amazing. So I'm really glad I ended up going down wholesale route yeah, it's probably easier, isn't it?

The Trailblazers Experience :

because, coming also from from going to trade shows, you probably saw the benefit of having that buyer coming in and saying they have somewhere to touch and feel the product too. Yeah, yeah, yeah, amazing. We are now at the end of the podcast where we asked our amazing guests and you've shared I mean for anyone who's maybe tuned into the end fast forwarded to what we call the trailblazers experience takeaway tips. Jade has been sharing nuggets the whole podcast long, so we not pattern paper for helping you as an entrepreneur. Um, that's been amazing. But if you were to circle back and just think about three top tips that you'd love to share, that you wish your younger self knew, or paying it forward for someone who's listening, what would they be? Get a?

Jade Sammour:

mentor. Find yourself a mentor, a good business mentor. Find somebody that will see your direction, someone that understands the growth, the way you want to go whether it's a lifestyle or a scalable brand and find that advice. Like I said, I wasted a lot of money trying to wing it and learn my own way, whereas actually it would have been great if I had someone that could help me with the direction. Second thing would be, as I said, be a yes person for the first year.

Jade Sammour:

Don't say no to opportunities. Do pop-ups. You know. If you do do pop-ups or you know Christmas markets or anything like that networking events always have cards or leaflets or something to hand out, because you never know when people are at home and they're sitting down quiet for 10 minutes, making a cup of tea, looking at a handbag, and they'll find your card. She's been in there for six months, but they might then be an engaged customer. The other thing is consistency. Be present for your audience on social media, but also have consistency. So if you do want to get exposure, um, then send out regular emails to people that are relevant to your industry.

The Trailblazers Experience :

Thank, you amazing. I mean. This has been such a great conversation to have with you as a founder. As a person, I can feel the passion behind your brand and it's really going to be interesting to watch the journey of it coming this far. And, like you said, you've learned so much along the way. I feel a book coming, actually Sharing your nuggets, and also you're building your own community, your network. It's been really inspiring, researching about you, but also following your journey, and it's come up very authentic and I'm sure it'll resonate with the audience.

Jade Sammour:

Oh, thank you so much. It's been lovely being here. Thank you for inviting me on.

The Trailblazers Experience :

So for the audience, this has been the Trailblazers Experience podcast. Do me a favor, tell another woman about the podcast, and also don't forget to do the usual follow, share and subscribe Until our next episode. Thank you very much and goodbye.