Success With Jewelry

Welcome to the Success With Jewelry podcast, hosted by Laryssa Wirstiuk and Liz Kantner, two experts passionate about helping independent jewelry artists thrive.

Welcome to episode #190! We're still in our holiday planning series, and this week Laryssa and Liz are tackling one of the biggest decisions jewelry brands face every Q4: whether to participate in Black Friday, how to think about discounting, and what to do instead if a sale doesn't feel right for your brand.

In today's episode, Laryssa and Liz cover:

• Why Black Friday is the noisiest marketing weekend of the year - and what that means for your strategy

• How to decide whether discounting makes sense for your brand, your margins and your positioning

• Why staying in your own lane during Black Friday weekend is easier said than done - and how to prepare your mindset for it now

• Creative alternatives to a straight discount: early access, volume-based collector's sales, limited edition holiday packaging, storytelling deep dives and more

• What to do if you decide not to participate in Black Friday at all - and why that's a completely valid choice

• Why Small Business Saturday might be a better fit for independent jewelry brands than Black Friday

• How to handle an "off day" Black Friday without confusing your customers

• Why sharing your values during this noisy season can be a powerful differentiator

• How to set realistic expectations about engagement during the busiest marketing weekend of the year

In the bonus segment for Insiders only, Laryssa and Liz share what they're seeing from their own clients right now - including a real example of a limited-run drop with an early access strategy - and a cautionary tale about what happens when a brand misses the moment after an in-person connection.

Liz Kantner works with independent jewelry artists to help them find their unique voices and succeed in today's marketplace. With over ten years of experience in jewelry marketing and sales, Liz offers consulting services and digital strategy. She's also the founder of the Stay Gold Collective, a private group providing live training, industry insights, and personalized feedback. Learn more at https://www.lizkantner.com.

Laryssa Wirstiuk is the founder and creative director of Joy Joya, a digital marketing agency for the jewelry industry. She's the author of Jewelry Marketing Joy and the creator of JoyDeck, a platform designed to make marketing accessible for jewelry makers and designers. Discover more at https://joyjoya.com.

Tune in to hear Liz and Laryssa share valuable insights, tips, and strategies for success in the jewelry industry!

Welcome to the Success With Jewelry podcast, hosted by Laryssa Wirstiuk and Liz Kantner, two experts passionate about helping independent jewelry artists thrive.

Welcome to episode #189! We're extending our holiday planning series because there's more to cover - and because if you're listening in September, this is exactly the right time to be thinking about this. Today Laryssa and Liz focus specifically on email marketing for Q4: how to show up in a crowded inbox, what to actually say, and how to use the lead-up to holiday as a storytelling and merchandising opportunity rather than just a sales push.

In today's episode, Laryssa and Liz cover:

• Why the inbox gets more competitive every Q4 - and what that means for how you need to show up

• Why your email list is your warmest audience, especially at a higher price point

• Why you should never be showing up for the first time in someone's inbox on November 28th

• How fall and the seasonal transition create so many natural merchandising and storytelling opportunities - color stories, layering, cozy styling content - before you even have to say the word holiday

• Why emailing only when you have something new or a sale is a habit to break now

• How to write subject lines that actually get opened - and what a good one looks like versus the sea of "last chance" and "20% off" sitting in everyone's inbox

• Why one clear idea per email will always outperform a packed, try-hard send

• How to think about your customer's mindset and what they're actually doing this time of year

In the bonus segment for Insiders only, Laryssa and Liz share what they're doing right now with their own clients to build momentum toward holiday - including a real example of a collection launch that's been teasing for over a month with zero audience fatigue.

Liz Kantner works with independent jewelry artists to help them find their unique voices and succeed in today's marketplace. With over ten years of experience in jewelry marketing and sales, Liz offers consulting services and digital strategy. She's also the founder of the Stay Gold Collective, a private group providing live training, industry insights, and personalized feedback. Learn more at https://www.lizkantner.com.

Laryssa Wirstiuk is the founder and creative director of Joy Joya, a digital marketing agency for the jewelry industry. She's the author of Jewelry Marketing Joy and the creator of JoyDeck, a platform designed to make marketing accessible for jewelry makers and designers. Discover more at https://joyjoya.com.

Tune in to hear Liz and Laryssa share valuable insights, tips, and strategies for success in the jewelry industry!

Welcome to the Success With Jewelry podcast, hosted by Laryssa Wirstiuk and Liz Kantner, two experts passionate about helping independent jewelry artists thrive.

Welcome to episode #188! Liz sits down with Corkie Bolton - jewelry designer, founder of Metalsmith Society, and someone who has built one of the most engaged communities for jewelry makers and metalsmiths out there. Today they're talking about something that might seem like a small detail but is actually a really big deal for your brand: packaging. How you present your jewelry when it arrives at someone's door is part of the experience, part of the story, and part of why customers come back.

In today's episode, Liz and Corkie cover:

• How Corkie got into jewelry making and what led her to founding Metalsmith Society

• Why packaging is a brand experience, not just a practical necessity

• Where most jewelry brands go wrong with packaging - and what to do instead

• How Corkie's own packaging has evolved and what her rebrand taught her about brand alignment

• Why your packaging should reflect your brand DNA - colors, esthetic, and all

• The small details that actually matter: tissue paper, handwritten notes, wax seals, stickers and stamps

• How to think about the cost of packaging versus the value it adds

• When to start investing more seriously in your packaging

• Sustainability and being thoughtful about materials and waste

In the bonus segment for Insiders only, Corkie shares her specific packaging recommendations - where she sources materials, what she recommends at different price points, and one action you can take this week to elevate your packaging without a complete overhaul.

Learn more about Metalsmith Society: https://metalsmithsociety.com/ Corkie's jewelry brand: https://corkieboltonjewelry.com/ Packaging ideas from Metalsmith Society: https://metalsmithsociety.com/a/blog/jewelrypackagingideas Custom jewelry packaging on Etsy: https://metalsmithsociety.com/a/blog/custom-jewelry-packaging-etsy

Liz Kantner works with independent jewelry artists to help them find their unique voices and succeed in today's marketplace. With over ten years of experience in jewelry marketing and sales, Liz offers consulting services and digital strategy. She's also the founder of the Stay Gold Collective, a private group providing live training, industry insights, and personalized feedback. Learn more at https://www.lizkantner.com.

Laryssa Wirstiuk is the founder and creative director of Joy Joya, a digital marketing agency for the jewelry industry. She's the author of Jewelry Marketing Joy and the creator of JoyDeck, a platform designed to make marketing accessible for jewelry makers and designers. Discover more at https://joyjoya.com.

Tune in to hear Liz and Laryssa share valuable insights, tips, and strategies for success in the jewelry industry!

Welcome to the Success With Jewelry podcast, hosted by Laryssa Wirstiuk and Liz Kantner, two experts passionate about helping independent jewelry artists thrive.

Welcome to episode #187! It might feel early, but Laryssa and Liz are here to tell you: now is exactly the right time to start thinking about holiday. From production timelines to marketing plans to setting realistic goals, the brands that have their best Q4s are the ones who started planning in August - not October.

In today's episode, Laryssa and Liz cover:

• Why starting your holiday planning now gives you a creative and strategic advantage

• How production timelines for jewelry brands make Q4 planning more complex - and why that means starting earlier

• Why the logistical and "boring" stuff (shipping cutoffs, deadlines, lead times) is just as important as the creative marketing

• How to set a holiday goal - and why having one matters even if you're brand new to the season

• Why Q4 doesn't have to peak on Christmas Eve - and how to think about the full arc from now through the new year

• The post-Christmas selling opportunity that a lot of brands overlook

• Why planning ahead gives you the space to try one new thing this holiday season

In the bonus segment for Insiders only, Laryssa and Liz share real examples from their current client work, what different Q4 strategies actually look like in practice, and how to build a plan that's structured but still flexible enough to move around.

Liz Kantner works with independent jewelry artists to help them find their unique voices and succeed in today's marketplace. With over ten years of experience in jewelry marketing and sales, Liz offers consulting services and digital strategy. She's also the founder of the Stay Gold Collective, a private group providing live training, industry insights, and personalized feedback. Learn more at https://www.lizkantner.com.

Laryssa Wirstiuk is the founder and creative director of Joy Joya, a digital marketing agency for the jewelry industry. She's the author of Jewelry Marketing Joy and the creator of JoyDeck, a platform designed to make marketing accessible for jewelry makers and designers. Discover more at https://joyjoya.com.

Tune in to hear Liz and Laryssa share valuable insights, tips, and strategies for success in the jewelry industry!

Welcome to the Success With Jewelry podcast, hosted by Laryssa Wirstiuk and Liz Kantner, two experts passionate about helping independent jewelry artists thrive.

Welcome to episode #186! We're wrapping up our Instagram series with the stuff you can actually change this week - your captions, your calls to action, your posting habits, and a few strategic tweaks that can meaningfully improve how your content performs. A lot of this is simpler than you think.

In today's episode, Laryssa and Liz cover:

• The truth about hashtags in 2026 - and what you should be doing instead

• Why your captions need to sound like you, and what that actually means in practice

• How to write captions that are personal and scannable at the same time

• Why calls to action matter - and how to mix them up so they don't feel repetitive

• What to do in the 10 to 15 minutes after you post to give your content a boost

• Why most of your post views happen in the first three days - and why posts are lasting longer than they used to

• The moodboard content trend Liz has been noticing and saving - and why it works so well for jewelry brands

In the bonus segment for Insiders only, they share a practical Instagram audit framework you can use to look at your account with fresh eyes and figure out exactly what to change first.

Liz Kantner works with independent jewelry artists to help them find their unique voices and succeed in today's marketplace. With over ten years of experience in jewelry marketing and sales, Liz offers consulting services and digital strategy. She's also the founder of the Stay Gold Collective, a private group providing live training, industry insights, and personalized feedback. Learn more at https://www.lizkantner.com.

Laryssa Wirstiuk is the founder and creative director of Joy Joya, a digital marketing agency for the jewelry industry. She's the author of Jewelry Marketing Joy and the creator of JoyDeck, a platform designed to make marketing accessible for jewelry makers and designers. Discover more at https://joyjoya.com.

Tune in to hear Liz and Laryssa share valuable insights, tips, and strategies for success in the jewelry industry!

Welcome to the Success With Jewelry podcast, hosted by Laryssa Wirstiuk and Liz Kantner, two experts passionate about helping independent jewelry artists thrive.

Welcome to episode #185! We're wrapping up our Instagram series with the format that often gets overlooked in favor of feed posts and reels - stories. And as it turns out, the data suggests stories might be Instagram's most underrated format in 2026. Laryssa and Liz dig into why stories deserve more of your attention, how they connect directly to DMs and real one-on-one relationships, and what a smart stories strategy actually looks like for an independent jewelry brand.

In today's episode, Laryssa and Liz cover:

• Why stories are a gateway to the DMs - and why that matters more than reach

• How stories give you more control over timing than the feed algorithm does

• Why a segment of your audience may only be watching stories and never scrolling the feed

• What the data shows about story replies growing - and what that signals about how people want to connect

• How to use link stickers strategically in stories

• A new Klaviyo feature called K Social that lets you grow your email list directly from Instagram without anyone leaving the app

• What makes a good story versus a random, off-brand one

In the bonus segment for Insiders only, Laryssa and Liz share how they're thinking about stories for their own accounts, tips for using stories to drive direct outreach, and one thing you can try this week if you've been neglecting stories.

Liz Kantner works with independent jewelry artists to help them find their unique voices and succeed in today's marketplace. With over ten years of experience in jewelry marketing and sales, Liz offers consulting services and digital strategy. She's also the founder of the Stay Gold Collective, a private group providing live training, industry insights, and personalized feedback. Learn more at https://www.lizkantner.com.

Laryssa Wirstiuk is the founder and creative director of Joy Joya, a digital marketing agency for the jewelry industry. She's the author of Jewelry Marketing Joy and the creator of JoyDeck, a platform designed to make marketing accessible for jewelry makers and designers. Discover more at https://joyjoya.com.

Tune in to hear Liz and Laryssa share valuable insights, tips, and strategies for success in the jewelry industry!

Welcome to the Success With Jewelry podcast, hosted by Laryssa Wirstiuk and Liz Kantner, two experts passionate about helping independent jewelry artists thrive.

Welcome to episode #184! We're back with part two of our Instagram series, and this week Laryssa and Liz are getting into the format question everyone asks: should I be doing reels? Are carousels worth it? Can I just post a single photo? They're pulling in data from a study of over 24 million posts to answer these questions - so it's not just opinions, it's backed by real numbers.

In today's episode, Laryssa and Liz cover:

• What the data actually says about single image posts in 2026 - and why views going up doesn't tell the whole story

• Why reels are still the format with the most consistent across-the-board performance

• The carousel stat that might change how you think about your content: carousels outperform single image posts across every single metric, get more than double the reach and views, nearly four times the interactions - and yet they're used 37% less often

• Why carousels get nine times more saves than single image posts

• How photo dumps and multi-slide storytelling carousels are performing

• How often you should be posting - and what the data says about the sweet spot for smaller accounts

• Why consistency still matters more than format perfection

In the bonus segment for Insiders only, Laryssa and Liz share what's going on in their own businesses right now, including how they're thinking about the lead-up to holiday season and what they're watching in their clients' strategies.

Liz Kantner works with independent jewelry artists to help them find their unique voices and succeed in today's marketplace. With over ten years of experience in jewelry marketing and sales, Liz offers consulting services and digital strategy. She's also the founder of the Stay Gold Collective, a private group providing live training, industry insights, and personalized feedback. Learn more at https://www.lizkantner.com.

Laryssa Wirstiuk is the founder and creative director of Joy Joya, a digital marketing agency for the jewelry industry. She's the author of Jewelry Marketing Joy and the creator of JoyDeck, a platform designed to make marketing accessible for jewelry makers and designers. Discover more at https://joyjoya.com.

Tune in to hear Liz and Laryssa share valuable insights, tips, and strategies for success in the jewelry industry!

Welcome to the Success With Jewelry podcast, hosted by Laryssa Wirstiuk and Liz Kantner, two experts passionate about helping independent jewelry artists thrive.

Welcome to episode #183! We're kicking off a three-part series on Instagram, because enough has changed in 2026 that it felt like time to take a fresh look at what's actually working. Today Laryssa and Liz start with the big picture - what's shifted on the platform, what it means for smaller accounts, and whether Instagram is still worth your time.

In today's episode, Laryssa and Liz cover:

• Why a lot of people are still doing Instagram like it's 2016 - and what needs to change

• What a study of over 24 million posts reveals about how the platform is performing right now

• Why "views" replaced "impressions" and what that means for how you measure success

• How Instagram behavior has shifted - saves and shares matter more than likes and follows

• Why your posts are lasting longer than they used to (and what that means for time-sensitive content)

• Why smaller accounts actually have an advantage right now

• How the algorithm is changing the way content gets discovered - and what that means for jewelry brands

In the bonus segment for Insiders only, Laryssa and Liz share the one shift they think every independent designer should be making on Instagram right now.

Liz Kantner works with independent jewelry artists to help them find their unique voices and succeed in today's marketplace. With over ten years of experience in jewelry marketing and sales, Liz offers consulting services and digital strategy. She's also the founder of the Stay Gold Collective, a private group providing live training, industry insights, and personalized feedback. Learn more at https://www.lizkantner.com.

Laryssa Wirstiuk is the founder and creative director of Joy Joya, a digital marketing agency for the jewelry industry. She's the author of Jewelry Marketing Joy and the creator of JoyDeck, a platform designed to make marketing accessible for jewelry makers and designers. Discover more at https://joyjoya.com.

Tune in to hear Liz and Laryssa share valuable insights, tips, and strategies for success in the jewelry industry!

Welcome to the Success With Jewelry podcast, hosted by Laryssa Wirstiuk and Liz Kantner, two experts passionate about helping independent jewelry artists thrive.

Welcome to episode #182! We're wrapping up our email marketing series with the topic that makes everything else work harder: segmentation. We've covered strategy, list building, what to send, and automations - now it's time to talk about how to stop sending the same email to everyone and start sending the right email to the right person.

In today's episode, Laryssa and Liz cover:

• What segmentation actually means and why it matters even if your list is small

• The difference between a list and a segment - and why mixing them up creates a mess

• The easiest places to start with segmentation (hint: your craft show attendees are a great first segment)

• How to use your e-commerce store data to send smarter, more targeted emails

• Why segmenting out your disengaged subscribers can actually improve your results

• How to avoid over-complicating segmentation - and what "segmentation for show" looks like

• A note on A/B testing subject lines and when it's actually worth doing

In the bonus segment for Insiders only, Laryssa and Liz share the specific segments they recommend jewelry brands build first, plus how to use segmentation inside the most popular email platforms.

Liz Kantner works with independent jewelry artists to help them find their unique voices and succeed in today's marketplace. With over ten years of experience in jewelry marketing and sales, Liz offers consulting services and digital strategy. She's also the founder of the Stay Gold Collective, a private group providing live training, industry insights, and personalized feedback. Learn more at https://www.lizkantner.com.

Laryssa Wirstiuk is the founder and creative director of Joy Joya, a digital marketing agency for the jewelry industry. She's the author of Jewelry Marketing Joy and the creator of JoyDeck, a platform designed to make marketing accessible for jewelry makers and designers. Discover more at https://joyjoya.com.

Tune in to hear Liz and Laryssa share valuable insights, tips, and strategies for success in the jewelry industry!

Welcome to the Success With Jewelry podcast, hosted by Laryssa Wirstiuk and Liz Kantner, two experts passionate about helping independent jewelry artists thrive.

Welcome to episode #181! We're back with part three of our email marketing series. We've covered strategy, list building, and what to send - now it's time to talk about automations. These are the emails that go out even when you're not at your desk: the ones that welcome new subscribers, follow up after a purchase, and bring people back when they've gone quiet.

In today's episode, Laryssa and Liz cover:

• What automations are and why they matter for independent jewelry brands

• Why the welcome email is the single most important automation you can set up

• What a welcome series looks like and how many emails it should include

• Abandoned cart emails - best practices and how to avoid feeling spammy

• Win-back sequences: what they are and when to use them

• How to know if your automations are working and how often to revisit them

• Which platforms support automations and how to get started

If you're interested in checking out Laryssa's in-depth report, you can download it here.

In the bonus segment for Insiders only, Laryssa and Liz share the specific automation sequences they recommend to jewelry brand clients - including what to say in each email and how many to send.

Liz Kantner works with independent jewelry artists to help them find their unique voices and succeed in today's marketplace. With over ten years of experience in jewelry marketing and sales, Liz offers consulting services and digital strategy. She's also the founder of the Stay Gold Collective, a private group providing live training, industry insights, and personalized feedback. Learn more at https://www.lizkantner.com.

Laryssa Wirstiuk is the founder and creative director of Joy Joya, a digital marketing agency for the jewelry industry. She's the author of Jewelry Marketing Joy and the creator of JoyDeck, a platform designed to make marketing accessible for jewelry makers and designers. Discover more at https://joyjoya.com.

Tune in to hear Liz and Laryssa share valuable insights, tips, and strategies for success in the jewelry industry!