In the Loupe
In the Loupe
From President to Owner: an Interview with Stephen Barnes of IJO
For an exclusive first interview, Michael interviews Stephen Barnes, newly announced Owner and President of IJO about what the changes mean for him, IJO, and the retailers & vendors included in the group.
Stephen Barnes shares his journey from longtime IJO member to President and now Owner, discusses his vision for the future of the Independent Jewelers Organization and what this transition means for retailers and vendors.
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Welcome to In the Loop. What is up everybody? My name is Michael Burpo and thanks again for listening to In the Loop. This week I'm joined by the newly announced IJO owner, stephen Barnes, and this is my third interview with Stephen. I interviewed him as his first exclusive interview after being announced president in 2023. And then we did a one-year check-in last August in 2024, talking about what he's learned in his first year on the job.
Speaker 1:And recently, at IJO Palm Springs, it was announced that he was going to be, or is, purchasing IJO and I wanted to ask him what that means for him, but also for the retail jewelers that are members of IJO, as well as the vendors like Punchmart. It was a really cool conversation. He's very forthcoming about his goals and his vision for IJO and, as a longtime member of IJO, he seems to understand the unique place that IJO fits in with the jewelry ecosystem and I really appreciate that about him. But also I asked him some of the harder hitting questions. I wanted to ask him a little bit about what the brokering process of buying IJO from the previous owner, jeff, was like, and also I asked him about is IJO on the right track and what does he have to say for some members that might have stepped away in recent years. He's very forthcoming about everything.
Speaker 1:I think it's a fantastic conversation and if you enjoy conversations about the jewelry industry, I'd like to encourage you to subscribe to In the Loop. It's free and we're available every week on Tuesdays with new great conversations about the jewelry industry. Thanks, and enjoy the conversation with Stephen Barnes.
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Speaker 1:And now back to the show. What is up everybody? Very special day. I am interviewing Stephen Barnes, the president and now owner of IJO. How are you doing today, stephen?
Speaker 3:Man, I am fantastic, Mike, I am on top of the world. Life is grand.
Speaker 1:Very cool. This is now the third part in our kind of recurring series and I'm just interviewing you anytime there's a change in your title. It seems like Very exciting news. It was just announced at IJO Palm Springs that you are now the sole owner of one of the largest, if not the largest jewelry organizations you know in North America. Can you explain to me what being owner and the new sole owner means to you?
Speaker 3:Sure, absolutely. Well, it's a dream come true in many aspects, Michael. You know I've been a member of IJO for over 25 years, or our family's jewelry store has been a member of IJO over 25 years. I just remember coming to my very first show and just how impressed I was and just blown away with the organization as a whole. And so I became very, very involved, very passionate about the organization and truly a dream of mine one day was to just work for IJO and then, as things progressed along, it's like man, that became a reality. And then, on top of that, like I never thought I'd have the opportunity of being an owner of IJO one day, but it became a reality. And so, yeah, definitely living the dream, I'm very passionate about my role in this company and how we can make everybody around us better.
Speaker 1:It's really a cool, cool thing to watch. So you were announced. It's just about been two years, or one and a half years I guess, since you assumed the president role, and that was a pretty exciting move because you had been a longtime member. Like you had mentioned, we had our follow-up interview actually to the day last year, on August 1st I believe, and from there you kind of provided a little bit of a checkup, talking about your goals for unity inside of IGL, which was really cool to hear and how that's something that only someone who's a real member could kind of target as a focal point. Now, as owner of IJL, I wanted to ask are you still president? Is there a delineation between those roles? Or was president sort of the title before you could become the owner?
Speaker 3:Yes, I think it was definitely a stepping stone into ownership. You know, coming from a retail background and a consulting background, I had to really learn about the organizational from a corporate standpoint versus just, you know, I mean, I understand business, I understand all those things, but just understanding the IJO way and how IJO runs things. So I think it was definitely a stepping stone towards getting to where I am today. As far as what changes, nothing really changes in my role. I'm still going to assume the role of president. I'm still going to be the leader of this company. I feel like I've got 20 more good years in me to make this happen, and so I'm looking long term on this. I'm setting up 20 year plans right now and goals for, you know, the next 20 years of how I can bring everybody along with me. So, yeah, it definitely is. Nothing really changes for me in this ownership role. I'm still going to be the visionary, still going to provide the leadership that this organization needs.
Speaker 1:I love that, and so I guess let's get into, like, the questions that everybody is definitely very interested in hearing about. So the first one is going to be what is the process of brokering, like a purchase of an organization such as IGO? Igo has so many retail members, so there's the retail member list, there's all the vendors, there is the I mean employees that work directly under you, there's, I'm sure, a million other assets that go along with it. What is the process of, like starting to buy something, because I imagine it's slightly different than just buying a house or something like that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it is. And it comes down to the first thing and I've said this many, many times as a consultant when I was in the consulting world it comes down to communication. You know, I think Jeff and I had a very good relationship we still have a very good relationship and I think that's all due to just we were very open and communicated with each other exactly what we wanted throughout the process and we were very sensitive to each other's needs and wants and desires of how we wanted this transaction to actually happen. So, you know, people look at this and they say, oh, it just happened. No, this has been years in the making. This is not something that just happened overnight.
Speaker 3:These conversations started, you know, seven, eight years ago with the process of how we wanted to arrive at an end goal of transitioning IJO. And once again, for us and for Jeff and I, it started with those conversations. And then, once we kind of had some agreements on what we wanted and how we wanted this transaction to actually happen, then of course, we involved more professionals, like our legal teams, our accountants, because once again, we don't understand all the tax laws, we don't understand all the legalities of how you shift such a large organization over, and so, once again, with their guidance, with their help, with negotiations back and forth between each one of our professional teams, we were able to reach a very happy compromise that suited both of us very, very well.
Speaker 1:So I guess that's an interesting kind of point is that I believe Jeff was second generation ownership at IJO and now yourself, obviously a member, someone that he definitely trusts and has worked with for a long time. But is that something that he can dictate some of the vision or some of the goals going forward in the sale of something I don't really understand? I know that with some businesses they can make it like you can never sell this portion of the business or something like that where it becomes about what assets must stay under control. But in the grand scheme of things, is there anything that Jeff was able to kind of put in the stone on his way out the door that makes it so that you have to kind of adhere to this vision that he and his father had set up initially?
Speaker 3:Yeah, to some degree there was some legal boundaries that I had to stay within, based on contractual obligations to each other. However, you know, jeff had many, many opportunities throughout the last five or six years. He had many, many different companies, many different private equity groups, many different individuals actually approach him about, you know, possibly wanting to buy IJO. And Jeff kept coming back to just one really sound thing about IJO that he just didn't want to give up. He knew that if he were to sell it to a private equity or to just a conglomerate of some sort that he just didn't want to give up, he knew that if he were to sell it to a private equity or to just a conglomerate of some sort, that he would definitely lose control and lose the legacy that his father started, you know, over 50 years ago.
Speaker 3:And one of the reasons I think that he specifically chose me is because he knew I would protect that legacy and continue to provide the necessary resources for our retailers, for our vendors and, more importantly, the staff at IJO. And you know, staff is an amazing team. When I think about what all they go through and what they do behind the scenes. They do not get the proper accolades that they deserve, because they're just an amazing team to work with and to lead. So yeah, going back to the, you know your question. Yes, jeff kind of chose me because he knew I would protect that legacy of his dad and make sure that we take care of our members?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you mentioned the staff. Is the IGO staff going to be staying on? Is that included in the purchase from Jeff that you'll retain this number of members of the staff?
Speaker 3:No, there was nothing in writing specifically geared towards that. However, I can say without a shadow of a doubt, the staff is 100% on board with this change, with the direction that we are taking this company, and I shared with them Tuesday in our staff meeting that you know we're in this together and that we are going to make this organization better, and I'm just one person and I can, you know, only do so much, but it takes a team effort for us to make this organization great, and so they're all on board, and we're even in the middle of looking and hiring and bringing additional staff members on to fill some roles that we feel are important to drive us future or further into the future, for sure.
Speaker 1:Really cool and I guess all that I know it costs. It costs money, I mean, and that's one thing I kind of just wanted to ask just in like the initial kind of setup for this interview. I know that IGO is revenue driving. It definitely makes it's privately owned, so it should be making some money. And now you want to be making these, you know additional acquisitions. Are you? If it's okay with you to ask, are you the sole owner for this or was this like a conglomerate purchase? Is it under your name or is it under your jewelry store's name? Like what does that look like?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I am a single member, llc, and so I am the sole owner of IJO, moving forward. Now I'll say that with a little bit of caveat Anybody that knows me and my family, my wife and I are partners in everything we do, even though my name may be on that document, we are a team and we do everything together. I don't make any decisions without her and vice versa. We have that mutual respect with each other. So we're very much a team moving forward through this process. But yes, to answer your question directly, yes, I'm a single member, sole owner of IJ.
Speaker 1:Good save, steven. Hello, ms Barnes, if you listen to this, everybody, we're going to take a quick break and when we come back, we're going to talk about what is changing, so everyone stay with us. Talk about what is changing, so everyone stay with us. Punchmark is so excited to announce the launch of our email marketing campaigns crafted specifically for jewelers. Take your jewelry stores marketing to the next level with Punchmark's email marketing service. We created tailored, data-driven campaigns that will not only engage your customers, but also boost your sales. Whether you want to be hands-on or prefer a fully managed service, we deliver everything you need to stay connected to your audience and increase your ROI. Let's grow your business through the power of strategic email marketing. Learn more at punchmarkcom slash email dash marketing. Again, that's punchmarkcom slash email dash marketing.
Speaker 1:And now back to the show. All right, everybody still speaking with Stephen Barnes, the president and new owner of IJL. So, steve, we just talked about the acquisition and the process of buying. You've made a lot of assurances that not a lot is going to be changing in regard to, like, the leadership and direction of IJO, but I assume that not everything is going to be the same. Some things might be changing and I wanted to ask what changes are you planning to make, because I am sure that there are some things that you might have wanted to alter while you were president that you were not able to.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely. You know, as president, you know I always still had to answer to Jeff as the owner it was his company and ultimately you know his decision, final decision on everything. Now that I'm owner, it does change that a little bit in the fact that I still have accountability. I still have to answer to my board of directors, I still have to answer to my staff and my members, but it does give us a little bit more flexibility to make changes as we see needed.
Speaker 3:You know, one of the biggest changes that I hope to do very quickly is basically change the persona of IJO in general, and what I mean by that is I think that for so many years IJO had the persona that the quote unquote leadership or staff of IJO was unapproachable, you know, untouchable kind of thing.
Speaker 3:And anybody that personally knows me or has known me for years knows that I'm somebody who just I love people, I love relationships, I love building relations, I love talking to people, getting to know people and I am very approachable.
Speaker 3:And over the last couple of shows I've had so many retailers and so many vendors come up to me and just share their story or share some of their challenges and we've been able to talk through a lot of those issues or challenges that they have and come to a common ground and both of us move forward, or both, you know, the organization and the member move forward in a very positive way. So that's what I really hope to change immediately within the organization that hey, if there's challenges, issues or anything that you feel you need to share with us, please come to us. We're here to help any way that we can. We as an organization are here to provide resources and tools and everything to make everybody's life better, and so please reach out to us and let us know how we can make those differences, or how we can help you in those challenges, interesting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I guess you know, when I think of like strong leadership, like what does that meant to me?
Speaker 1:I think one of the things that it's always meant is being like receptive and having a great understanding of everything and seeing the field clearly. And seeing the field clearly, and when I think about like incredible leaders, I always think of people who are, you know forgive the analogy, but it's like people who are willing to like sit down at the lunch table with you and just listen or just kind of hear what's going on, because in the end, these are jewelry stores and they are experiencing a variety of, you know, experiences all over the world. It's not just people in the Northeast or in the Midwest, it's all of the different ones. So coming up with like these decisions that are going to be affecting them is probably something that is rather difficult. Are there any main challenges or main goals that you plan to kind of tackle head on now as president and owner? Are there anything that you definitely have kind of in your eyes, now that you've been speaking with jewelers more?
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know, with my retail background for the last 30 some years, it really gives me insight into the challenges that our retail members are facing, because I've sat in every seat.
Speaker 3:You know, in previous interviews I've talked about kind of my progression from early childhood all the way up. I've sat in pretty much every seat you can sit in in a retail jewelry store. So I can identify with a lot of those issues and challenges that our retailers are facing. And some of those challenges are very simple, that things we've not thought about before as an organization and how we can help, you know, providing different service providers, whether that's, you know, legal counsel, accounting, bookkeeping, health benefits, you know all kinds of other benefits that might come up HR services, you know financial services. We've got stores that are, you know, very profitable and they're like, okay, now that we're making money, what do we do with all this money or whatever the case may be. So, just being able to reach outside the box a little bit and find ways that you know what as an organization we've got the resources to be able to provide and help our retailers kind of figure some of those pieces of the puzzle out that they've neglected for so many years.
Speaker 1:I think that's a. That's a really good way to kind of put it is you know, using experience? I always say that, like, experience is the is the true shortcut is that. I always ask people like oh, if you've ever done this before, do tell, because all you're doing is just saving me iteration on everything I'm doing and I guess, is that something? Is there going to be another Stephen Barnes, eventually? Are you, do you have your eye? Are you trying to find who the next? If there's going to be another president or someone who needs to be, because you can't be everywhere at once Are you kind of planning to have someone that will be able to do that role for you as you assume more and more leadership, you know?
Speaker 3:like I said earlier, I've got about 20 good more years in me and I'm a planner, so obviously I'm always looking for quote unquote the next understudy or mentor that I can bring alongside of me to help them in their own personal careers. And I'm a true believer in mentorship and coaching. I've had great mentors in my life and coaches in my life and I've been a mentor and coach to many, and so, once again, when the time is right, I always feel like that person rises up and kind of becomes evident in their role in my life. So I would probably say within the next five to 10 years, I will be looking for that person to start bringing alongside of me to hopefully coach through the rest of my tenure, if you want to call it that. But yeah, I'm always going to be looking for that person and, who knows, it might be within our organization. It might not be within our organization, but I always keep my eyes open to those opportunities for when you know that person does arrive.
Speaker 1:Very cool. And one last question when it comes to like what's changing. So now you have this kind of you know, leadership, you get to make these the big, you know more unilateral decisions. So do you get to choose the show locations or is that still kind of like a convoluted process? Are you going to have everything in North Carolina going forward or is that still kind of decided way out?
Speaker 3:You know those shows.
Speaker 3:Obviously we have to book those usually three to five years out because of contractual obligations of the hotel and just planning on that. So you know, we're pretty booked out, I think, through 2027 as of right now. We do have a little bit of say-so, or I should say I have a little bit of say-so in that, in the fact that we kind of come up with ideas and we have suggestions from, you know, our memberships, our vendors, and the reality of it is is there's only a certain amount of places that we actually can fit into as an organization, because we have such an amazing turnout for our shows that there's just, once again, not as many hotels that can support the amount of rooms that we need to provide for our membership to be able to attend our shows. So with that limitation, you know, we try our best to try different places, but it is a challenge, so to speak.
Speaker 3:Directly to North Carolina. It's on the radar. I can't say specifics yet, but it's definitely on the radar because I want to show off my home state of North Carolina. I'm very proud of it and so hopefully we can make arrangements to get to North Carolina at some point in time.
Speaker 1:Well, hey, if you wanted to get to North Carolina at some point in time. Well, hey, if you wanted to go to North Carolina. I know a guy he's pretty big up in IJL. Maybe we could put in a fix and get us at IJL in four to seven years. It sounds like. Well, stephen, we're going to come back in just a moment and I want to hear about your roadmap for IJL.
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Speaker 1:And now back to the show. All right, everybody Still speaking, with Stephen Barnes, president and new owner of IJL. So, stephen, we were just talking about kind of the acquisition and then we talked about what's changing. And now I want to talk about the roadmap. And you've always talked about how you IJL just celebrated a couple years ago 50 years and now you're planning for the future 50 years and that doesn't happen without like a pretty, pretty strong roadmap. You can't take things day by day. If you're trying to plan for 50 years, can you kind of give an overview of what your roadmap for IJO looks like?
Speaker 3:Absolutely. So you know, the first thing I look at is I want involvement of our members because I think the more that we can get our members involved in our organization, the more we can educate them. The more that we can get our members involved in our organization, the more we can educate them, the more we can provide resources for them. So that's the first thing. I do have a growth mindedness to me and my vision is to continue to grow our retail membership side of our organization. I don't ever want to be the largest organization, I just want to be the best, and by being the best, I think it is a collectiveness of all of us pulling together and doing our parts to make us the best. You know what is our secret sauce? It's our members. Truthfully, our members share openly with each other their ideas and different challenges they have and they help all of our members overcome some of those challenges. So for me, growing our member base with quality members that are going to contribute to the overall health of our organization, that's one of my main focuses. Like I said, I don't ever want to be the biggest, just want to be the best.
Speaker 3:When it comes to that, I also want to expand our vendor partnerships with a lot of our vendor members. You know we've got a decent mix of vendors, but I feel like there's still some categories that we're a little low in. I want to look at vendors that are going to be great partners or buyers that maybe our jewelers are already using, or maybe that we bring in some that they're not currently using to give them a different mix. We're also going to be looking at ways that we can provide value to our membership with possibly looking at bringing in different brands of vendors that we don't necessarily have right now. So we are setting up those appointments in, you know, maybe in JCK this summer in luxury, to be able to hopefully bring some of those vendor partners on as well. I'm also looking at ways that we can provide services to our members, like I mentioned before, whether that's legal services, bookkeeping, accounting services, benefit services, whether that's health care or insurance, financial you know retirement plans, things like that.
Speaker 3:We're just looking at all encompassing that we can do to just help our members get better, from marketing resources to educational resources, I mean we're just we're covering every area that we can to try to help our organization grow organically internally and also helping them grow their own businesses.
Speaker 1:And you know what. I really appreciate that the goal is not just growth for IGL, because I could see how very easily it would be hey, let's go from having this many retailers to having this many retailers but it's more about the sustainable kind of action to it. So at the beginning of this interview I had mentioned, I wanted to ask some of the tougher questions because in our last two you're president it was more of like a kind of like a you know, this honeymoon phase for the first year and a half. I wanted to ask you this Do you feel like IJO is on the right track for those things? Obviously, you've been president for just a short while and now owner, and I know that these things can take a long time. It's not like it's like a sailboat that you can change anywhere. It's more like a big ocean liner that takes a long time to change its course. Do you feel like IJO is on track for those goals? And you know success that you just outlined, absolutely.
Speaker 3:Pretty much over the last 18 months since I've assumed the role of president. My initiative has been straight, very straightforward I want to really pour into our next generation of jewelers, which we've done. We've had two amazing workshops over the last two years with them doing off-sites, where we're building into them, we're pouring into them with educational, with networking opportunities for them to personally grow in their own abilities and being able to go back and implement things in their own jewelry stores to help them grow. We've also recognized the need for some of our larger volume stores, larger revenue stores, that they felt like they just weren't getting quite the level of education that they were needing. So we, even at this last conference, we had a workshop designed specifically for them to give them tools in their tool bags to help them go from, you know, $5 million to $10 million or $10 million to $20 million. So we're definitely trying to pour into our retailers as best we can to help them continue to grow. We've gotten so many new educational tools that we've brought on, technology tools that we've brought on, marketing tools that we've brought on. So we've started initiating all those things.
Speaker 3:But, just like you said, this is a pretty big ship and it's not going to turn overnight, but some of those initiatives have already began to happen. You know, we talk about unity, and one of the things that I feel very confident in is that we as an organization are going to continue to get better and stronger together. I think that the retailers are realizing that our vendors are partners of ours, meaning that none of us are going to be successful without each other. Our retailers need our vendors, our vendors need our retailers. Ij, as an organization, we need our retailers and our vendors. So if we can collectively work together, we're all going to get stronger, and that's what we need is just unifying our efforts to make this industry better.
Speaker 1:I like the thought behind you know laying the groundwork with education, because that's what I've always been. A big focus of mine at Punchmark is that we can't convince people to just use our product more. We have to experience, explain the why and then the how. But at the same time, again another little bit harder one is I feel like you alluded to these larger stores. So some of these, we consider them. You know these power users.
Speaker 1:So for us these are these stars that are that are pushing the bubble for e commerce. You know we're impressed by what they're doing and it's no secret that like 10% of our stores are doing like 80% of the volume when it comes to e commerce, because they've have it figured out. And I can only extrapolate that to IJO and some people, some of the naysayers might say that there is a focus on this family and it's a little bit more beginner-friendly when it comes to for these retailers. You know the education is great but the education is typically you know about like hey, let's build up together. But what about? Do you feel like some of these more, these stores that are pushing the envelope, have a reason to be coming back to IJL under your leadership? Is that kind of the goal is to entice them to return or to see the increased value with IJL 100%.
Speaker 3:Man. That is exactly what we're trying to do. You know, we, at this last conference in Palm Springs two weeks ago, we had stores that had not been to a conference maybe in a couple of years and they had not seen quote unquote, the new IJO and what we've been kind of trying to do, and and some of those were very large stores, $10 million plus stores and they came. I actually personally got a chance to meet with them and talk with them and just I wanted to hear from them like, what are some of your challenges? What can we do as an organization to help you get better? And once again, they came to our workshop that we had on Friday and literally after the workshop, they came up to me and they said this is exactly what we've been missing. We're not getting this from anywhere else. This quality of education, these resources that you're providing us with, we are not getting within any of our other organizations.
Speaker 3:And what I did and what we did as IJO is we started looking outside the jewelry industry. You know we all go to different conferences and we kind of hear some of the same speakers. Well, we're trying to diversify ourselves. We're looking outside the jewelry industry and bringing in higher quality speakers, higher quality presenters that are presenting content that any business owners. Doesn't matter if you're in the jewelry industry or not, but any business owners can apply to their business and take their business double, triple, 10x their business using the tools and resources. So that is what we're hoping to do. And yes, so you know all of those naysayers who may have walked away or stepped away from IJO in the past couple of years. All I can say is come back, give us a chance, see what we're doing differently, and you're instantly going to be surprised at what you see.
Speaker 1:And I guess it also goes to say that there is some competition out there. Out there and it's something that I have taken some comfort in at Punchmark is we're not just believe it or not there's a big store out, a big business out there that we're competing with as well, that has billions and billions of dollars in investment, and we're just this, you know, company and we're trying our hardest. But I think that there is something that they can learn and, like I mentioned before, you know, advice and watching others is the greatest shortcut you can find is, you know, it just saves on having to innovate, or saving on having to, you know, experiment as much. Ask about that. Do you find that competition is something that you find healthy for IJO? You know having this other organization that is kind of, you know, pushing the limits and trying their hardest to innovate as much as possible, is that something that is benefiting IJO as well?
Speaker 3:I truly believe the competition is a great thing. I look at it as it helps us all stay sharp. It always helps us to, you know, always be looking at bettering ourselves. I think that if there's no competition, we get very comfortable and we get stagnant in our approach. I am one that just wants the best from everybody, and you know I also want you know, other organizations, other competition or whatever. I want them to be healthy as well. I'm not one of these that says, oh, I've got to be the best and I want to take down everybody. That's not my approach.
Speaker 3:I feel like there's plenty of opportunity out there. All I ever ask from any organization that maybe thinks or considers themselves a competitor is let's just all play fair and play nice in the sandbox. You know there's enough out there for all of us to exist and so, yes, for me, you know, what makes IJO different is our people, and I believe that truly is our secret sauce, and I know that we tout the fact that we are family. I can't express how many people just come up to me and say the IJOS shows are so different. We just see something so different here. We get so much value out of them. We're not just a buying group. We are an organization that is truly focused on making every single member the best version of themselves that they can be, helping them all to achieve maximum potential in their businesses, whether that's the retailers, the vendors or our service providers. We want each one of them to be as strong and as healthy as they can be, and we're there to support that any way that we can.
Speaker 1:You know what. I think that that's definitely the mature approach, and I think that learning from, from anywhere that you can. I always laughed at like, uh, you know I'm a big fan of of MMA and people find, uh, you know, inspiration and techniques from the most unlikely of sources and I find that that is one of those things that that is true creativity and that is true, um, you know, innovation is being able to learn from anywhere. Um, are there? Is you had mentioned going to other shows that aren't just buying groups? Are there? What are you learning? Or like, have you been able to experience anything outside of IJO that's got you kind of excited or jazzed up that that you want to bring back to IJO as well?
Speaker 3:Absolutely so. So me personally, I'm all about, you know, continuing my education, and so, for me, I attend at least two or three other conferences a year that are not jewelry specifically related. I've attended the Global Summit. I'm going to an actual organizational workshop this summer, so I'm always personally looking for ways to grow my knowledge outside of the jewelry industry, specifically because I've learned throughout my life that I actually learn more and take things away from other industries that I can now apply to the jewelry industry that we've not thought about. Unfortunately, I feel like the jewelry industry is behind the times when it comes to technology and innovation I think that we've not thought about. Unfortunately, I feel like the jewelry industry is behind the times when it comes to technology and innovation. I think that we lag behind some other industries. So I'm always looking at finding ways of looking at those other industries and taking things away from them to say, hey, how can I adapt or how can we use that in our industry to make us better?
Speaker 1:You know, I think that's right on. A lot of times, it takes some unfortunate and tumultuous event to really push this industry of ours kind of forward or make us take that leap. And you know, with the pandemic, I feel like we grew up, you know, 10 years over the course of a couple months, but that still put us like three years behind the times and I was like, oh, come on, guys, like we've been yelling about this for years and years and years, and I don't want it to be a tumultuous event that forces us to learn what's happening nowadays. We need to be looking around at other industries, whether it's these like quick buy events that I feel like some of these stores are doing to great success, whether it's on Facebook or Instagram or online auctions I feel like some stores are just really doing so well or even just these buying events at different stores that are really kind of bringing in like a strange and unique demographic to their stores. I feel like it's these things that have sprung up only in the past couple of years that are really some of the driving factors in why the industry is, you know, starting to succeed, especially with, you know, it's not the easiest time for jewelers.
Speaker 1:Is that something that you've been hearing? Because the price of gold, man is. It is an all time high. It is so expensive. What is it that are you telling? Telling jewelers, hey, just weather the storm as best as you can? Or is it more nuanced in this? Because it's not like you just joined the industry yesterday. It's been. You know, this is your life. Is this something that you've kind of seen throughout the years?
Speaker 3:I have. You know, our businesses, especially in the jewelry industry, has been such a roller coaster over the last I'm just going to say 10 years. You know, we look at all the challenges. We went through with COVID and we came out of it. We came through what we call the COVID bubble where we had these great sales and great revenue. And then, you know, 23, 24, kind of settled back in and leveled back out to some of our you know pre-COVID numbers and you know, I think the stores that have really embraced the new normal are the ones that are going to be, you know, looking at growing their businesses.
Speaker 3:Do we have challenges? Yes, you know we've got all kinds of challenges, whether that is the natural versus lab-grown diamond world. We've got gold prices going up. We've got tariffs that are, you know, out there now. So, once again, we have all of these challenges. But we'll be able to navigate those together and collectively if we will just all focus on what is best for our industry, what we can do to help each other through this, what we can learn from each other from this. We're going to be better and stronger throughout that process.
Speaker 1:Stephen, I couldn't have said it better myself. And just to kind of end this on a slightly more lighthearted kind of note, if there's one thing I know about jewelers, we love a trophy, we love a little commemoration, we love something to signify. We've been there and I think we've seen so many customers do this over the years, so we kind of want that ourselves. Did you commemorate being president with anything? Do you get a watch? Do you get like I don't know like a ring that has the IGO crest on it or something like that, which is pretty cool.
Speaker 3:I've got one myself for my family crest. Is that something that you do Anything in particular? You know it's kind of funny, so I'll kind of give you a little backstory. So my wife and I, when we travel, we always like to remember where we are and what we do. So we're not huge art people but we love buying original artwork wherever we go, when we travel somewhere, Just once again, it can be a small something, but we always like to commemorate and memory of that trip with some art.
Speaker 3:And at our Palm Springs show our keynote speaker was Eric Wall, who was an amazing speaker and artist and he painted. During the general session when he was speaking, he painted several, several pictures, portraits, and at the end of the general session we auctioned those portraits off and are donating all of the money to two wonderful causes in California to help combat the wildfires and all Well. My wife, knowing that we try to commemorate those events in our life when we travel, she was able to continue to bid on a piece of artwork that Eric Wall painted of Einstein and once again we did receive that, we did win that auction, and so that Einstein painting will be hanging in my office in Connecticut to commemorate this moment in my life.
Speaker 1:An Einstein painting as the trophy for becoming a jewelry organization owner. What a roundabout way to get there, but I love that one. That's a great trophy. Good for you. And is there anything that you want to leave our listeners with? I'm sure that everybody is going to be very excited and interested to follow iJo along the years. But anything you want to say as you kind of embark on this new chapter of your career, absolutely. I just want to tell, as you kind of embark, on this new chapter of your career, Absolutely.
Speaker 3:I just want to tell everyone that may be listening you know what I have a big heart. My heart is absolutely set on helping anybody that I can within our organization or even outside of our organization. We just want everybody that we can to be the best versions of themselves, that we want them to just achieve whatever it is they can in life. And if you don't believe, you can just look at my career and how I've reached to where I am the pinnacle of where I am that if you believe in yourself and have great support around you, you can achieve anything in life. And so I want that for every one of my members of IJO, whether you're a retailer, whether you're a vendor. I want to help you to achieve the success that I know you can do, and I believe in you and IJO believes in you, and we're here to help you any way we can.
Speaker 1:Man, that's so exciting. I'm very, I'm very excited to follow along. I follow IJO like a fantasy football team, like I really hope that they are doing the best and things are successful and I'll be following along your journey as well, very excitedly. Thank you so much for coming on again, steven. Hopefully we can follow up again in about a year and I can hear about what the first year of your ownership has been like. But I really appreciate you taking time out of your very busy schedule. Thanks for speaking with me.
Speaker 3:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:I appreciate it very much. All right, thanks everybody. We'll be back next week, tuesday, with another episode. Make sure you subscribe. Thanks Bye, all right, everybody. That's the end of the show. Thanks so much for listening. This week my guest was IGO owner and president, stephen Barnes. Thanks so much for joining. This episode was brought to you by Punchmark and produced and hosted by me, michael Burpo. This episode was edited by Paul Suarez with music by Ross Cockrum. Don't forget to rate the podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. It's the best way to grow the podcast and leave us feedback on punchmarkcom slash loop. That's L-O-U-P-E and we'll be back next week, tuesday, with another episode. Cheers, bye.
