679: The $20 Jar of Salt Behind Her 9-Figure Jewelry Brand

**Nathan Chan** (0:01)
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She started with $5,000 and a dog tag she made for her son and turned into a jewelry brand on track for nine figures this year. And her secret weapon, a jar of salt. So today's guest, Jennifer Fisher, founder of Hollywood's favorite jewelry brand, who bootstrapped her brand for 20 years and is now growing 50% year over year. So if you're building a DTC brand, this episode is a cheat code. You're going to steal the $20 product she uses to acquire customers for a fine jewelry. The exact Instagram pivot that tripled her sales overnight and the one manufacturing mistake that nearly broke her entire business so you never have to make it yourself. This is 20 years of brand building lessons in one conversation.

**SPEAKER_2** (1:46)
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Welcome to The Foundr Podcast with Nathan Chan.

**Nathan Chan** (2:00)
Jennifer Fisher, welcome to the show. You spent 10 years working as a stylist before starting your company in 2005
Can you take us back to that moment when you couldn't find a dog tag for your son? And how did that one missing item turn into this massive jewelry brand?

**Jennifer Fisher** (2:20)
It's funny. Well, first of all, thank you for having me.
I'm so excited to be here. I have always been that person that was looking for something different my whole life. And if I couldn't find it, I would make my own. And that's sort of how I've always worked. I was an entrepreneur since I was a child. And after having years and years of struggles trying to have a child, after going through chemotherapy when I was in my 30s, my oncologist didn't want me to carry a child. We had unsuccessful IVF surrogacy for years. And finally, I got pregnant. And that was my son Shane. And when he was born, I couldn't find anything that I felt was worthy to represent him. I wanted something different. I'd collected charms my entire life. And I always wanted to wear them on a necklace. And people were like, no one does that. You wear them on bracelets. And I'm like, no, I really want to wear it on a necklace. And I wanted to have his full name on it, because it was such a big deal of what I had gone through. And I wanted to represent him fully, not just by a letter, not just by something that you walked into a store and bought. And I didn't want to look like every other girl on the street that was wearing the same type of, you know, mom jewelry. So I knocked on doors on 47th Street after being a stylist. For so many years, you're very resourceful, and you can get things done very quickly. And I also don't like to take no for an answer. And I found someone to make me this very simple dog tag that I had sketched on a piece of paper, and it said Shane, my son's full name. And I sourced a beautiful heavy gold chain, and I wore it on a, just similar to this, on a heavy chain. And as it was stylist, I would wear it on set, and everybody on set wanted to know what it was. And it was an instant conversation piece. And then once I told them what it was, they wanted to either purchase one for themselves, or they wanted to, you know, tell someone about it. And I had the opportunity to make one for Uma Thurman. And it happened the day that she received it, she chose to wear it while she shot a glamour magazine cover, which was fortuitous for me. And at the time, there wasn't really a lot of jewelry to represent your children. And I started making it for Grips and Gaffers, and I was doing small trunk shows, and I made Nicole Kidman's Bridesmaids' Gifts. And I sort of started, you know, I remember when Us Magazine and Star and all of those magazines were a very big deal for celebrities and placement.