Today Gregg sits down with Jennifer Fisher, founder and Chief Creative Officer of Jennifer Fisher, also known as ‘The Queen of Hoops’!

Growing up in Montecito and watching her silversmith grandfather make jewelry in her parent’s garage, Jennifer had no idea she’d enter the jewelry industry years later. She had a childhood passion in fashion, but no jewelry experience. All self-taught! Gregg has Jennifer step back 18 years ago and explain her evolution from college student to business mogul!

While working as a wardrobe stylist, she decided to start a family, had some bumps along the way, but ultimately had her son, Shane. Wanting a unique piece of jewelry to commemorate his birth led to the start of Jennifer Fisher jewelry. The charm pendant she designed was a hit with celebrities on the set she was styling for. Uma Thurman was one of her first celebrity clients-she even wore the charm on the cover of Glamour magazine.

Jennifer started in a tiny studio in Soho and grew from the ground up. She used intuition to help grow her business. She dealt with magazines saying charm jewelry wasn’t fashion-forward enough and she would never be successful. Customizable fine jewelry wasn’t a thing at the time and Jennifer saw the opportunity to bring to market this new trend. Pivoting to brass jewelry made the charms more accessible to everyone, and the business exploded!

Jennifer’s top tips:
Resiliency is key and relationships are everything!
Family support means everything. This support led to Jennifer taking risks knowing they had her back. Watching her father fail at times in business taught her how people can come back from failures. Life is not perfect, especially for working parents. Jennifer is not only married, but her husband is her business partner!

Be a self-funded smaller business with an entrepreneurial spirit. Find the employees that appreciate that spirit. Transitioning older employees from the entrepreneurial style the company used to have, to the current style with more ‘guardrails’ in place. It’s been a challenge for Jennifer to no longer be the one in charge as her company has grown. Her design schedule has changed to accommodate her new company’s structure.

Be vulnerable and finally, don’t take anything too personally, especially while fundraising!

Want insight into growing a business from the ground up, entering an industry without any experience, working with your spouse as your partner, how to hustle and handle the word ‘no’? Check out my full interview with Jennifer Fisher for all this and much more!