The Skinny Confidential Him & Her Podcast - How To Manifest What You Want In Life & Get The Gift You Want This Holiday Season Ft. Ring Concierge

Episode Date: December 14, 2022

To connect with Ring Concierge click HERE To connect with Lauryn Evarts click HERE To connect with Michael Bosstick click HERE  Read More on The Skinny Confidential click HERE For Detailed Show Notes visit TSCPODCAST.COM To Call the Him & Her Hotline call: 1-833-SKINNYS (754-6697) #525: On today's episode we are joined by Nicole Wegman AKA The Ring Concierge. Nicole returns to the show for her second time to discuss how we can manifest and get what we really want out of life. We discuss what it takes to pursue a life on your own terms and demand the best. We also discuss what we can do to get the gifts we want this holiday season and how to nudge your friends, family, or partner in the right direction.  This episode is brought to you by The Skinny Confidential. This episode is brought to you by Ring Concierge Ring Concierge is the leading luxury jeweler committed to designing for women, by women. Use code SKINNY20 and save 20% on any fine jewelry at ringconcierge.com This offer excludes bridal jewelry, classic diamond studs, and gift cards. Produced by Dear Media

The following podcast is a Dear Media production. This episode is brought to you by Ring Concierge. She's a lifestyle blogger extraordinaire. Fantastic. And he's a serial entrepreneur. A very smart cookie. And now Lauren Everts and Michael Bostic are bringing you along for the ride. Get ready for some major realness.

Welcome to the Skinny Conf skinny confidential, him and her. Everybody on the team works so hard because they want to. I think 90% of the team are women, which I love in an industry that's all men otherwise, because we're selling a product where the end user is a woman. And so to have this incredibly powerful female team that is designing jewelry that they love and, you know, making sure the experience is an experience that they themselves would want to shop. I mean, that's why the company is so strong because it is all of these women behind it. the Skinny Confidential, him and her podcast. Time is of the essence. The holidays are around the corner and we are going to teach you in this episode how to get the life you want, but just from a micro standpoint,

how to get the gift you want this holiday season. And you guys liked the episode so much, part one with Ring Concierge, that we decided to bring her back to help walk you through exactly how to get the gift of your dreams. And a life. And a life. Nicole is back. She's the founder and CEO of Ring Concierge, a New York-based city private jeweler catered towards millennials. You've probably seen her

on Instagram. She has a celebrity following. I love her stuff. I'm wearing her earrings right now and two tennis bracelets, which that's a gift, the tennis bracelet. Anyway, she's back. She's here. You guys were so obsessed with this episode. I had so many DMs that I decided to bring her back and to get really niche. This is one of those episodes that you want to turn up in front of your significant other right now. Just crank it up and slowly manipulate them into giving you exactly what you want. I'm probably being manipulated right now. I'm really lucky that I have my husband here so he can get some gift ideas. I'm sure he hasn't done shit yet.

And like I said, time is of the essence. This is The Skinny Confidential. Him and her. Okay, Nicole, welcome back. Thank you for having me. So happy to be back. She came all the way from New York. I did.

Okay. This morning? Last night, in and out. And I'm heading out tonight. And just so the audience knows, what tennis bracelets am I wearing? I'm wearing the little one and the thicker one. So you have a mini diamond tennis bracelet on, which is like a great starter tennis bracelet. And then you have a serious classic big tennis bracelet, which

everyone needs at some point in their life. And what I liked about working on this tennis with you is like you sent me some. I played with it. I saw what I liked, what I didn't like. And then I gave you feedback and then you refined it back to me. Yes. I mean, you have a sharp eye. You wanted really high quality diamonds, which I get. I love that. And so we made something really special for you. Yes. And I love being able to talk you through it instead of just buying something and being like, oh, I wish I had done this. Okay. So one thing about you that Michael and I really admire is you're incredibly entrepreneurial and you're also in sort of a man's world when it comes to diamonds. How did you manifest what you have right now? So I think what's really interesting

is I went into all of this really naive. This was almost a decade ago. I was 26. And I think when you're 26, you're super cocky and you just think you can do anything, which was great. It probably worked out for me. I think if I knew what I knew now, I probably wouldn't touch this industry. But I just decided it's tough. I think the first few years of the business were a lot easier than where it's at now. And I think if I knew how much of my life it would take and consume, I might think twice about my life choices. But at the same time, it's kind of who I am at this point. And there's no turning back. I don't know if you guys feel similarly about the businesses you're growing, but it's a lot once they start to get big. I think that's why most people that overthink

things either don't get started or procrastinate too long or give up on ideas. Pretty much anything we've done, I'll speak for both of us, Lauren, tell me if I'm wrong, professionally, if we would have, also personally, if we would have known all of the challenges going into it or thought about it, we probably would have never done it, right? Because who in their right mind wants to go through that kind of suffering, right? You just like, our thought is like with ignorance and bliss and belief that you think that you can make something of yourself, you should just go and do it and everything else take care of itself. But if you were to actually tell me now all of the shit that we've had to

go through to get to where we are, there's no way. And I think that applies to most people. And this is why I think it's also dangerous talking to too many people about your ideas before you launch them, right? You want to have some healthy feedback, but you also don't want to get so much where it disables you from actually taking action. Couldn't agree more. And I think now that becoming an entrepreneur is like such a trendy thing, everybody's trying to do it. And I think people spend way too much time on research and development and not enough time just like throwing the idea out there and testing it in an inexpensive, quick way. And just seeing like, is this even interesting? Is this even a viable product or concept or service? And I don't know about when you guys started, but this was about a decade ago for me. And being an

entrepreneur wasn't really like a trendy thing. It was just something that started to evolve naturally when I saw a niche in the market. And so I didn't go into it saying, I'm going to create this huge business that will be worth X multiples and I'm going to have 100 employees, whatever. I was just like, I think there's something here. Let me play around. Let me test. And you're totally right. If I had known the grind and the lack of sleep and just the lack of life I would still have today a decade in, I probably wouldn't have signed on. Yeah. But here's the thing is like what I tell people, especially entrepreneurs, like the stuff you remember the most is the shittiest stuff, is the hardest stuff, right? I never think about any success we've had. I'm like, man, that's so great we're having this.

I think about like all the grittiest, hardest moments. And for people that have listened to this show since the beginning, they've probably heard us say for the longest time like launch fast and adjust and we keep this whole rolodex of all of these or this back catalog of all these episodes or all these years and it can really like if you listen to them it's like it started really sloppy and really scrappy and really kind of like not buttoned up and then over time the show got a little more refined and then the show over time kind of created a situation where you could launch dear media and then dear media started a little scrappy, a little bit fucked up. And then that got refined. And then the product line came and that was scrapped.

All of these things wouldn't exist unless you just kind of like throw yourself into the fire and like I said, launch fast and adjust. I would love to get really granular with both of you guys. If someone's listening and they want to sort of be an entrepreneur or create their own life, where do you start? And I would love to know, Nicole, first where you started. Then, Michael, I think you should speak on this too. Were you guys journaling? Are you reading books? Where are you starting to dip your toe in the pond? Well, I think what's funny is I was thinking about it this morning before I came in with you guys. When did it kind of start for me? And I would say it literally started in childhood. I went

to high school with my husband. That's how we met. And so he was like, he's brilliant, blah, blah, blah. I don't like to give him credit ever. But technically, he is- Never give him credit. Never, right? He was valedictorian of a class of 600, one of those, right? So he won most likely to succeed for yearbook awards. And so I was a year grade younger and I was like, well, that's the award I want. If he got it, I want it. I did not qualify from like a grade standpoint, but I forced everyone I knew to submit me for that. And I won. And at the time I was kind of like, oh, I cheated. It didn't really count.

But actually like, no, that is how you do things really count. But actually, no, that is how you do things as an adult. That is how you get ahead. Yeah, you hustle. And I felt like I cheated the system. But no, that's really how you do it. And so kind of taking that same mindset now, if you see something and you want something and it's somewhat realistic, I mean, you have to be realistic with what you're good at. And if it's a viable business idea, you just go full force. And to your point, you don't let people make you feel like it's a stupid idea. Because if you really believe in it, you're the only person that can make it happen. And other people, they might not get it. Who cares? I think for me, it was as simple as, well, one, I usually try to talk people out of being an entrepreneur or taking the path because I think, and people say this all the time on podcasts, it is lonely in a sense

because it's not relatable to a lot of, to most people, especially, actually the funniest thing is it's how it will end up not being relatable to many people that are close to you in your own life, right? Because it's just, you know, for every entrepreneurial endeavor, there's a hundred that fail, right? It's hard. And so, and you don't have the structure of, you know, going into an organization and having stability. So you have to be somebody that's already kind of a little, maybe unhinged and in a position where you don't feel like you need a lot of stability. In addition to that, I think like the second biggest thing, and this is how I felt from a young age, I was always a rule breaker. Like I don't, I don't conform very easily. And the reason that

applies here is I don't think you can be an entrepreneur and wait for permission. Totally. Right? Or wait for a credential or wait for someone to say, it's okay, you can do it. For me, there's been so many times that people still probably listen to the show and say, oh, you're not qualified or you can't do this or there's no reason. There's nothing in my career that maps out to me doing what I do now. And so I think if you don't have that kind of devil may care, not waiting for permission, going to do what I want, also don't need stability, also don't mind a little risk, also don't mind a little bit of loneliness, then yes, do it. But if you need all those other things, maybe don't. I could never imagine even as a young kid

going and not doing something for myself. I actually am more scared about trying to go get a job than I am about trying to go and figure out how to build my own thing. Oh, could never go back, which is crazy. And so it makes you try even harder, right? Because what's my alternative? I could never go work for somebody after this. I have to make this work. I have to own my own company. Yeah. I actually firmly physically believe and mentally believe that I could not have it. The last job I had was when I was 15 years old. That's the last paycheck I took that wasn't from myself. No, no, no. You still have a job. It's me. Sure. But you know what I'm saying? I've never ever in my entire life had a resume. Never built one once. Don't have one in a file. I don't even know what that means. And it scares

the living shit out of me to think that I would have to do that. Not because, again, there's a million twos, threes, fours, fives that do a hell of a lot better than me or you or Lauren that work in fabulous organizations. And those organizations need those people and they thrive. But like for me, I just, it's not in my DNA. So I think like if that's the first thing is like, if you feel that way, then like maybe it's time to go to your own thing. But if you're like, oh, I want a little bit more predictability. I want it to be a little more stable. Go work in a great organization and go make a bunch more money than me. Or if you need someone to help work to solve problems for you. That's kind of what I think is the biggest challenge. No matter who you surround yourself

with, it's on you to solve every problem, to make the final decision, to steer the company and the team in the right way. And it's a lot of pressure. And if you don't like that level of pressure because it is so high, then don't do it. Yeah. There's nobody up the ladder to complain to. You are the top of the ladder. There's no like, hey, that didn't work. It's somebody else's fault. It's all your fault. Always. I've realized as an entrepreneur that something that you just said is that you have to be able to make decisions quick and you have to be able to make them. Totally. If you can't make decisions quick, it's going to be tough because you have to know exactly what that decision is and you can't waver on it. And you have to be okay with it not being the best decision because indecisiveness

is a disaster with a rapidly growing company. So you have to obviously try to be as smart and strategic as possible, but you need to make a decision and go with it and know that maybe it wasn't perfect. And then you're going to figure it out later. And then if it isn't the right decision, you have to be able to quickly and swiftly and seamlessly pivot to what is better and not spend so much time crying over spilt milk of the decision that you can never cry. You can be pissed off for one hour, be stressed for one night, and then you got to get over it. Tony Robbins has this thing where it's like you have seven minutes or something.

I don't know. Got to change your state of mind. But I like T-Bone Pickens. I think it's T-Bone Pickens on this one. Rest in peace, T-Bone. I think he used to say there's a lot of... Maybe... Fuck, I may be butchering this. But he would say there's a lot of people that go ready, aim, aim, aim, aim, and they never fire, right? The way you make decisions like ready, aim, fire. Oh, that's the wrong way. Ready, aim, fire. You got to keep moving even if it's the wrong decision. You don't want to get stuck and you don't want to paralyze yourself. Even pulling what you guys said in the beginning, it's like you don't want to be a forever student.

If you're just noticing that all you do all day is consume content to make you better, you actually have to go act on it and apply it. And listen, there's been multiple times, and I'm sure, Nicole, you can agree with this, where I've put myself out there. It's not perfect, but you just have to put yourself out there and see what sticks and what doesn't. Totally. And be okay with not everybody liking it. Especially if you're thinking about doing something with social media and having a big presence. I'm sure you have this. There are people that love me and there are people that hate me and it's over like the silliest things and you have to be okay with it. What's something silly that people hate you over? Everyone thinks I hate my child, which not

everyone I should. There is a group of people that think I hate my child, which I just literally couldn't bother me less because it's ridiculous because I make fun of her on social. She's one and a half. She is a little terror. It's real. Anybody that's ever met her will say, oh my God, you've got a lot to deal with later in life with this kid. And I make fun of her and it's just not okay to some people. But what are some of the jokes? I think you hate your child. The joke would... I'm trying to think of a joke, like just really benign, like truly benign. But I think it's a sensitive topic to not only gush about your kids at all times, to

not just say, love being a mom. Oh my God, what an angel. Like that's not reality. You guys are parents. Like 90% of it is tough. 10% of the time. You're hanging on by a thread. Treading water.

You know, like she'll be really sweet 20% of the time. The other 80% of the time, she's throwing a tantrum and kicking me in the face. So I'm going to be honest about it. And so little things like that, and you'll get this flood of women that hate, that can't believe I would ever say anything but nice about my daughter. But I think the point is kind of tying it back. You have to have a thick skin. You have to be okay with some things that you say or do aren't going to be well-received. Make a decision. Do I pivot? Do I change? Do I stay course because I don't care? This is me. It's a lot of decisions and you have to really be willing to make fast

ones. Nicole does not hate her child. No, I love her, obviously. I spend so much time with her, but that's not what's fun to show. It's not fun to show your kid being really nice. It's funny to show them throwing a tantrum. Well, I wish that Lauren and I could relate on this, but literally everyone, and I mean everyone on the internet,

loves everything about us. Nobody dislikes one thing about Lauren and I. Yeah, it's hard. It's hard because when you're so loved by so many people and there's not one person that would ever criticize you for anything on the entire internet it's just i am so fucking okay with not everyone liking me i'm so okay with it like if you apply it to from like a micro level it's like high school not everyone's gonna like you it's the same thing with social media if you don't like me unfollow me it's easy. That's the thing. And then the people that do get that it's sarcastic,

which of course it's sarcastic, are obsessed because they're like, finally, someone being honest about motherhood. It's hard. Finally. It's hard. Well, I refuse to give anyone that I don't know power over me. True. Does that make sense? Yeah. I don't care if you're a journalist or if you're an audience member or if you're someone like if i don't know you i'm giving you no power over me i don't care what you think of me i don't care what you think of my family i don't care what you think about my business like i hope you like me i hope it's good but i'm not giving you one inch of power over my mind you learn that from your dad yeah well it's but it's true so many people and i think this is important topic especially if you're talking about the life you want in entrepreneurship, so many people give power to people that they don't know over themselves because they're worried about an opinion of people that they don't know and that they will never meet.

And I think that's really important for us to think about as a society and as people. Why do you care so much about what strangers think? What do you think is going to happen? Is your family going to disown you? Are your friends going to disown you? Is it going to disable you from doing what you want and getting what you want out of life? No. What is going to disable you and create a terrible life is constantly worrying about those people and placating to those people that you will probably never meet or hear from. The other thing is it really starts to build a super strong community, right? Because you're not going to work for everyone. That's totally unrealistic. Not everybody likes everybody's personality. It's

normal. But the people that do like it, love it, and just rally behind and are so committed to me and the brand, great. If my sarcasm makes 90% of the followers love me more and 10% hate me, that's a trait I'm willing to make yeah it's like and it's those are the people that you want to have relationships with and those are the customers that you want to cater to more and those are the community members that you want to provide more value to right like why are you not focusing on the people that love you or love your product or love what you stand for why you focus on the people that are always going to hate you no matter what you want to try to win everybody over it's's very narcissistic, right? It's very like, it's not realistic for me to think that I could

spew all the things I spew on this mic consistently and then think that everyone is going to love what I say. Like you would have to be some kind of whack job to actually believe that. Or you just become so vanilla trying to be careful about every word that leaves your mouth and then it's boring. Oh my God. I mean, I see it on the dear media side, like shows that I got to cut. I'm like, what are you saying? Nobody cares. You're just right in the middle of the road. I'm sorry if you're listening to that and I cut you, but like, honestly, like say something people care about or let's get the fuck off the airways. Oh, you know, it's a good example. This happened

recently and it's related to jewelry. I love to just be like cheeky all the time on social. And so I wanted to hear how women got their ring. Like how did you get your partner to propose when they were dragging their feet? So I shared my story first. And look, I sound a little crazy in this story. Tell the story. So because we started dating in high school, my husband and I were at nine years before he proposed. That's a long time, but we started young. So I'm about 25, maybe 24, 25, and I start talking rings like most women in their mid-20s like it's time to talk rings and we are exploring new york city trying on different rings and i find

this this is before i had the company and i find this ring i really really like and i tell him like this is the ring i want i don't want any other ring it was an antique ring so you couldn't replicate it like you know it had to be this ring and he was kind of like and there was never a question about whether we wanted to get married i wasn't worried about that he just was dragging his feet similar we knew high school took me long to propose oh you guys were high school as well well we just knew each other for forever like we were young when we got like we're like the first ones in our great in our friend group to have kids versus get married it's that kind of vibe same as totally so i wasn't ever like is does he want to marry me we had talked about that that for years. He was just dragging his feet, having to shell out cash for a ring. He just didn't want

to deal with it. And so I fell in love with this ring. I kept going back to the store and trying it on. I even brought my best friend. I was like, come try this ring on with me. I was being a little crazy, let's be honest, but I really wanted this ring. Clearly, I like jewelry cut too today. So one of my best friends, and this I think happens to a lot of women and people don't admit it. One of my best friends who had been dating her boyfriend for way less time, I think she was at like four years, five years, gets engaged. I lose my mind. And this happens a lot, especially if your younger sister gets engaged or your best friend gets engaged, then women are kind of like, well, where's my ring? Because you felt like you had put in more

time. Like, why are you not like. Yeah, I don't even know what it is. It's not totally sane, but I've heard so many stories of this happening to other women. It just starts to make you feel like, well, why not me? Is it similar? Lauren, when people, like one person in the group has kids and then everyone starts to like kind of have kids or is this a different thing? Yeah, it's the domino effect. Like Lauren told all my friends when they have kids, like, oh, you guys, like now all of them have kids.

They're all like- And they all want kids if they don't have them. Yeah, and I think if you're in a steady relationship and you're at that certain age, you just start to think about getting married. It becomes, for whatever reason, important once you're in your like late 20s, let's say, if you've been in a long-term relationship. So I started, I got kind of pissed off and I was like, this is ridiculous. I'm at nine years. There is not a ring on my finger. So I would start to show a picture of the ring to his friends and be

like, this is the ring he's going to get. This is the ring he's going to get. Yeah, you're raising your eyebrows because it's a little nuts if we're being honest. But I wanted to make sure he wasn't going to go buy some other ring because I'm the one that has to wear this every single day. I want to like it. And I'll tell you what, it worked. It's the ring I got because there was so much pressure on the poor guy that he had no choice. But this story just kind of blew up on social like some people were like this is genius i've done way worse things like here's i did x y and z to get my ring and then other people were like you're you know you're manipulative manipulative you're nuts like how could anyone

do something like that he must hate you it's like obviously he doesn't hate we've now been together 20 years like he knows what he's got here like men need a manipulation sometimes i i have no i am not apologizing for that or an ultimatum a hundred percent shit or get off the pot make the decision like i want you to know within the first five seconds if you're gonna marry me well i do think um and if you don't goodbye i did need manipulation and i did need probably an ultimatum because guys i was not on your neck no because surprisingly at all i was like no do it when it works no but you were you were at the point when like we've engaged like what the fuck are you doing buddy and honestly it was probably like so guys just think they're

like oh we're just gonna like whatever everything's all good and i think especially as you and i tell my guy friends this all the time as we get older you don't want to waste a woman's time and you don't want to waste their youth and i gotta be careful saying like you don't want to drag somebody saying you're gonna you don't want to waste their youth. And I got to be careful. You don't want to drag somebody saying you're going to, you know, eventually you're going to commit and you're going to marry and you're taking the best years away from like a reproductivity standpoint. And then all of a sudden the person's like, hey, you're not committing. You're like, what the fuck? Like, I think that's not nice when men do that to women.

Couldn't agree. Yeah, I think you hit a certain age and you just, you have to think about the woman. I do think though, it's not all up to the man to propose. I think as a woman and I'll tell you this, I'm not saying like, well, that's what I'm saying. I need to know what I'm saying. No, but I'm saying, you know, as a woman, your intuition and your sixth sense knows if someone's going to propose to you and if this is the person, in my opinion.

Here's what I'll say. If a guy is over the age of 27 years old and he is dragging his feet and wasting your time he's probably wasting your time under 27 like when i was like guys don't you're young you still feel like you know we mature at a lower rate than you guys like you still feel like here's all the bits that you fucking but at 20 you get these at 27 you're becoming a man at 28 you're at 30 you're a fucking man and you should know what you want or not or don't want right and if you're wasting time then like i would take that as like hey they're either leave his ass or give him an ultimatum i also think though that like for me i

want to take accountability too like if if i knew if there was any inkling that i knew that you weren't going to propose i would have been like. I knew and I was confident that we were supposed to be married. I think if you feel or you have an intuition, like a smell, I should call it, that the guy is not going to propose and doesn't want to marry you. I also think it's on the person to be like, OK, this isn't working. Goodbye. Go fuck yourself. Totally. Like, why is it the the you know, the man has the upper hand in all of this or the partner like we just sit around and we really sweet and just like hope that they're going to present a ring one day that's also kind of unfair to not say this is important to me and i need you to do this

because it's important to me and i think like you know within reason right like there's definitely a lot of people out there that i think overspend on their ring, and I don't love that, right? Yes, I'm all for big diamonds. Who's kidding who? But it's not so important that you need to put so much pressure on your partner that they are in a financial situation. In my case, I knew he could afford it, and I knew he wanted to marry me. We were at nine years, like, shit or get off the pot. Is it a carrot for every year? It should start to be. It should start to be. That would be cute. That could be the new. If you're over the age of 26 and you're a dude, it's a carrot for every year. But speaking of giving someone the upper hand, what I always told my sisters and everything, and this is maybe not just in relationships, but

someone could only have the upper hand over you if you give them the upper hand. I don't have the upper hand over my wife. She doesn't have it over me. You would have to actually give someone that power over you. Many people do for various reasons, but I think that's something that I always try to tell them to remember. The only time someone can have an upper hand on you is if you've actively and passively given them that upper hand, right? They don't take it from you. You gave it to them. Yeah. And I think that is the case in a lot of relationships still today which just seems crazy you know i my husband and i have a very balanced relationship it seems like you guys do too but that's not the case for a lot of women

you know and i think that's why a lot of this is still happening where women just like wait around and hope for a ring and just like hope for best. And meanwhile, years are going by. So I do think people should be more vocal if things are important to them and not let that imbalance happen. I want to take it back to manifesting your dream life. You've done something really smart that I've noticed just as a bystander. And Michael's done this too. And I hope I've done this. You've created... I mean, I think I've done this. You've created a very strong, supportive, powerful team around you. How has that propelled your business and helped you scale to have your manifestation be brought to life? I mean, the team is the most important thing, right? Like year is one, two, three, you can do all of it pretty much. But then you start to grow and you can't. And you have to depend on your team being strong and finding the right people.

And I think that's hard. I think that's one of the hardest things about growing a business is finding the right team and finding people who you can trust to do it, not just the way you want it, but better. Hopefully, the people around you are smarter than you and experts in areas you're not, and they can do it better than you can. And we're at about 100 people with full time employees and contractors and kind of the whole ring concierge ship. And we still need more. 100 employees. It never ends. Yeah. We have combined the full time with the retail store and all of our bench jewelers. It's a big team making this all happen. And it's still not enough.

It never ends. And so I think having a really, really strong HR department or HR expert pretty early on is something most startups don't think about and I think is crucial to growth and just staying sane. I think that's such a good tip. Shout out to Holly. She's amazing. And that's so true is having a strong HR is incredibly important, especially as you scale with employees. Our team, yeah, I mean, is incredible. And there's no way that... Would I try to tell founders or first-time founders or just people trying to run their own business is if you're not consistently trying to put yourself out of a job, you're in trouble. So an example would be in the early days of Dear Media, I was doing all the talent signings.

I was doing all the sales. I was doing all these things. And when I say put yourself out of your job, I think a lot of founders, maybe you guys relate to this, they hold on to too much control and they're too worried about being involved in every aspect. Yeah, high level, you got to know what's going on. You got to pay attention. You got to get great people.

First thing, I had to put myself out of jobs. I didn't want to do the talent signing. So I bought someone on. That's great. They do all that. I wanted to put myself. I shouldn't be doing the sales. Bring on somebody that can do it better than me.

That's better than me, right? I think that's what founders need to understand is you're consistently putting yourself out of job and then finding new areas where only you can participate and give growth, right? Yeah. And I think that's hard, right? Super hard. Because in the beginning, to your point, you do it all yourself and you like it a certain way. So it isn't easy. I think that's probably most founders' biggest challenge is giving up control in different areas, but it's completely necessary.

Yeah. But to your point, if you build the right, I mean, when you say HR, I think like when you build the right culture, right? And you align everybody on the mission so that it's like, it's bigger than you in a way, right? And you get people so that they understand, hey, like we're here right now, but we want to go there and we want to do it in this way. Like, I feel like the rest of the stuff kind of takes care of itself. Yeah. And I think that's why they all... I could honestly say everybody on the team works so hard because they want to. Because I think 90% of the team are women,

which I love in an industry that's all men otherwise, because we're selling a product where the end user is a woman. So it just doesn't make sense to me that men should be running this. And so to have this incredibly powerful female team that is designing jewelry that they love at price points that they can actually afford to buy themselves because that's so important to us and making sure the experience is an experience that they themselves would want to shop. I mean, that's why the company is so strong because it is all of these women behind it. Let's get to the juice. Ready for this, guys? Turn it up a little louder. How do we get the gift that we want

without being annoying and too obvious? So when we open it on Christmas or when we open it on New Year's or whenever our birthday, we're like, oh my God, you shouldn't have. But the whole time we knew we were going to get the gift. You got exactly what you wanted. Yeah. So I think there's a bunch of strategies. We just did a big Instagram Q&A on this because I wanted to get tips from the followers. I think the best move is just links. Just sending your partner a few links, making sure the size and the color and everything you want is perfect because that's so easy to mess up and just saying any of these I would love. Or there was some women that said they would just like leave tabs open on their partner's computer and he'd like just come home and find it.

That's a good one. I think that's great. Or like popping your computer screen up in front of them on like, oh, whoops. Or like, you know, sharing something on Insta and just be like, whoops, didn't mean to send, but like how cute. You know, I think you can do it in a way that's a little less in your face. And then your partner feels like, you know, they're a genius when they hand you this home run gift. I'm assuming this is women manipulating men.

So that's why that's the kind of example. Is there thought to not just like killing the guy's bank account? Yeah. No. Okay. So I think send a variety of price points. And for the men out there, jewelry is a win. It's always a win. Find a woman who doesn't want a piece of jewelry as their present doesn't exist. So when in doubt, buy jewelry. But there's such a huge range of price points. So if you send the guy something that's like $200, $500, $800, hope for the best, fingers crossed you get the $800. But you'd be thrilled if you got a $200 piece of jewelry. Give him options.

Don't make him feel like he's pushed into a corner. And then everyone wins. What are some stocking stuff or gifts that you think are cute little trinkets that could help make us look cute? I think huggies, like cute little earrings are always a win. You don't need to know finger size or anything that can be tricky. Rings are tricky as a gift, so you should default to pieces that don't require sizing. I don't care if they're tricky, Michael. Measure my finger when I'm sleeping. I have a ring sizer in our downstairs door by the laundry room it has all sizes i will be sleeping i'll pretend like i'm not awake and you can measure don't you think also

there's like phases of a relationship where it's like okay like you're in the necklace phase which means like you know a ring's a little ring serious like you get a ring even if it's like a decorative ring it's like no it could be like i love could be like, I love a little diamond pinky ring or a little midi ring. Yeah, I'd love a thumb ring. I mean, I wouldn't give a girl a ring box if she thinks she's getting proposed too soon

and it's not an engagement ring. Steer clear. Stick to a necklace. Stick to a totally different shaped box if you're playing that game. That would not have gone over well with me if you pulled out a ring box and I thought you were going to propose. Well, see, this is the interesting thing. I think that you can't go wrong with a necklace. Yeah. No, you can't. Necklace and earrings and bracelets. Those are all so easy to gift. Why are you stuck on a necklace? No, no, no. I just think it's safe.

I think if you want to just be like, hey, I want to get a nice gift. I just started dating this person. I think if you get, I think honestly, even like a bracelet's a little more serious. Okay. Right. I think if you're going to give

a necklace though, make sure it's in a necklace box. Like let's all picture Titanic. Remember Titanic with the big, with the big like blue necklace. There was a big large box that opened up to the necklace. Like let's get one of those boxes

instead of a micro ring box. I'm getting Lauren a Dear Media merch box this year. Perfect. She'll be thrilled. No, I don't know about that. I think also there's an art to, if you're a guy and you're listening and you're looking for something for your girlfriend or your wife, I think there's an art to also buying more masculine things.

So I love watches. I love watches. Like I love watches. And I also love men's watches. Yeah. Well, I'm just saying like I want my collection. What size sweatshirt are you? I would love a watch. So there's also like maybe more creative things

that you could get a really beautiful anklet that you could wear all the time. Like there's different things you could play with. But I think that's tough for guys to navigate. And that's why I think, Michael, you're right. You can't go wrong with a necklace. Or earrings. Earrings is good too. Earrings or a necklace. I think anklets are kind of specific. You have a certain vibe you might want to go for. I don't think a guy would think about an anklet. I'm giving them the ideas. Just turn it up and get a diamond anklet for us. I have no anklet.

I'd love an anklet. Anklets are very dangerous. You make the wrong ankle. Like I say, it's the wrong size. And you've assumed that it's smaller than it is or it's way too large. I don't fuck around. Necklace is good. Earrings are good. Bracelets a little bit more.

Necks like, hey, we're pretty serious. Ring is your, you better be careful. Here's a hot tip. I think whatever piece of jewelry that someone's giving you, girl, boy, whatever, it should have a story behind it. So let me give you an example. I decided to get you these earrings because your eyes are so blue and this brings the blue out in your eyes. And when I saw these, all I could think about was these earrings next to your eyes, giving you a little fire. You need to have a context and story around why you're giving something something is that how is that how you talk when you give guests yeah like i want like i want like a story or a card like like if you're gonna get me a necklace you could be like this heart

this heart reminds me of you and your your children like an infinity like we're always gonna be together i am personally a good letter writer and i'm a good gift giver, but I'm not good with words. I don't like to do a sappy moment where I sit down and hold the hands. You know what could be the solution, Lauren? I think you're onto something, but for those who maybe aren't going to be so poetic, we have personalized jewelry. And a lot of it. And women love personalized jewelry because it had thought had to go into it. But an example could be a piece of birthstone. So if you have two kids, a birthstone for each kid, you know, like the guy doesn't have

to think that hard to figure it out. You know, the months they were born and boom, here's something that is very thoughtful and that you'll wear all the time and it's personalized, but it's still just, you know, it's a piece of jewelry. That is a really good idea because it, like I said, it makes the person feel special while you're also getting the story i my birthstone is emeralds i love them i don't have enough emeralds in my life and emeralds are trending isn't emerald like the one of the most expensive stones yeah it's definitely not the cheapest birthstone what's the cheapest birthstone oh like an amethyst you know that's not yours though

what's what's an amethyst it's purple february it's mine birthstone oh my gosh i know but i just stick to diamonds yeah it's okay i'd really like something emerald and i think that that's really personalized and i think you're so right about adding like the kids names or like or engravings of your anniversary if you don't have kids and you've been dating or married. And we have like, I'm wearing it right now, like this sick bangle. And it's Roman numeral of my anniversary date. So it's kind of like a subtle, cool girl way to wear a date on your wrist. Adorable.

So one year, I decided that I was going to get so personal with Michael. This is like when we first started dating. This is maybe going to gross the audience out. So I'm like, what can I do that is like really personal? And so I took my dog to the jeweler and had her fingernails bronzed. Stop it. And then I made him a bear claw necklace of my dog's fingernails nails so they weren't bear claws yeah but it looks like a bear claw and he wears you still have it you wear around your neck my chihuahua's finger so do you love it i love it i just was like imagining i'm like like girls like leave tampons and like you know like hair ties around the house i'm like

i'm gonna leave my chihuahua's fingernails around my husband oh boyfriend and like, you know, like hair ties around the house. I'm like, I'm going to leave my Chihuahuas fingernails around my husband. Oh, boyfriend's neck. Do you know what I mean? Like, like, what is someone going to say to you? What are you going to say? You're going to lie? I was like, hey, this is just like this is from a bear. It was a small bear.

And I fought it with my bare hands. I won it. I know they look small, but it's because like I had them, you know, casted down. That's why that was the story. I think that you should bring back that necklace. I actually like the necklace. It's iconic. and it's like the real fingernails around his neck can i tell you my first mother's day gift and this is why i think we need to be blatant about what we want like yeah we can be cute but also like this is why we have to be blatant

my first mother's day so my baby was born in march mother's day is may so like she's fresh out right like i'm in the thick of it i'm postpartum my and if you know me at all you know why this is like extra ridiculous. I mean, you can look at me right now and I'll give you one guess if I ride bicycles. I don't. My husband bought me an electric bike, like a nice one,

which I think makes it even worse because he spent money on something that I legitimately have never and will never use. I'm glad you look shocked, Lauren, because you should like unacceptable that's just not what i would buy what was his thought that like we could ride in the neighborhood together well let me tell you he bought himself one too yeah okay so he wanted he thought we were what was your face i was so mad because he had kind of mentioned this like a few

months prior and i was like do not buy that like do not buy that and then he did anyway you're the last person on earth i would buy an electric bicycle for unbelievable yeah and spent like a decent amount of money and then got himself it was really so he could get himself on without me saying like you don't need that but that was my first mother's day present i'm sure i paid next year what happened next well no i just went and made myself a diamond eternity band like as my own like pushed out a baby present did you ever ride the bike with him no i've never been on it on it. Do you still have it? Yeah. I mean, my baby's 21 months old. I've never been on this bicycle. A bike is a great gift for someone. A bike is not what I would gift to you. Right. Know your audience. Jewelry is safe. Jewelry is safe. Okay. So if someone has a

specific thing in mind, something so niche, niche, niche, what is it? I think it's niche. I don't know, but I better cancel that dirt bike I had on order for you. Don't do a dirt bike for me. I'd love like a pink golf cart though if you're looking for something on wheels. Definitely make sure that the little windows left open. By the way, guys can do this to girls too. Like make sure the windows left open. Accidentally DM them on Instagram. maybe perhaps send a text of the screenshot and say, whoops, meant to send this to a friend. But the point is, if you want something, go and get it. It's just like how you won most successful. You wanted it. You went and got it. Yeah. So this is another thing I did one year for Christmas. I'm super, super picky. And so I'm

really tough to shop for. And I don't like owning things that I don't use because I just hate clutter. I live in Manhattan. You can't have clutter. So 90% of what my family would buy me for Christmas gets returned. It's really bad. Don't try to buy me clothes. I think you can look at me and say, that's a tough guess. If you're not super into fashion, I wouldn't try to buy me clothes. You can't buy me jewelry, right? So limited options. So one year I literally made a registry for myself, a gift registry, like on a wedding website. I know, I know. And sent it to my mom and like my brothers. And I was like, anything from this is good. Like I'll be thrilled. It worked out great. That is really when you really know what you want. You just create your own registry.

So I shared this on Instagram yesterday. So many people said, I've done that too. Well, you know, I think we're all secretly doing this stuff. It just doesn't sound okay. I have a firm belief that after 18 years old, everyone should stop having to get gifts for each other in the family. And I'll tell you, I'm not saying in a relationship, I got to get my wife gifts.

I got to get my wife gifts. I got to get my kids gift, but my aunts and my cousins and me and the grandparents and the friends that we've done this since we were kids, nobody wants it anymore. Right. Nobody wants it. It's, it's, it's too much.

Everyone's stressed in the holidays running around. Like I, I, I believe it should just be for the kids at this point. What about me? Yeah. And you, but like,

I know, don't forget about me yeah and you but like i know don't forget about me because here's the thing people like what do you get for somebody and how do you not how do you make sure it's not wasteful right here i am mr everyone's probably saying like fuck this guy i disagree they want the gifts but i'm for me like i don't want i don't want people to get stuff from me that's the thing like that i don't actually want other people to get me things but people feel the need to right and so then i want to make sure it's something I'll actually use because otherwise it's a waste of their money. It's just so wasteful. So I do think it's stressful. I think, yes, it's kind of ridiculous. The text chain's going out with my family right now. What should we get everyone? Just buy women jewelry

and then buy your kids gifts and everyone's good. Can't go wrong. I think it should be immediate family only. Grandparents, wife, girlfriend, kids. Everyone else has to be their own thing. Cut. Everyone else is cut. Yeah. For anyone who is listening right now and they need to get something quick, what are some quick pieces on your site they can pick up quick? So we have an entire in-stock collection and everything will ship before Christmas. I think the cutoff is the 21st for a ship. That's pretty good.

For placing orders, we're cutting it real close so we can get everyone their last minute gifts because we track the demographics of what's coming in. Guys shop really last minute. So we like to make sure that they don't get in trouble. We don't have to call you. Yeah. We like to make sure they don't get in trouble. So we like, you know,

we'll overnight all their gifts on the 21st to get there on time. If someone really wants to be on the pulse with their gift, what is that gift? Like, I feel like the tennis bracelet, like, you know, maybe that's not moving into 2023. Maybe there's something more fresh. What is that gift?

I mean, tennis bracelets are going nowhere. I would say like, if you want something classic, stick to the tennis bracelet. The mini diamond tennis bracelet. The mini diamond tennis bracelet is $12.98, which is crazy for a tennis bracelet. But otherwise, constellations are huge right now. We just launched, I'm actually wearing it, this really cute constellation pendant that is a cool way to give someone something personalized without it being a name or really in your face. It's subtle. That trend is really big right now. I don't see that going anywhere. It's a super safe gift.

Can we do a code for the audience or for anyone that's listening that needs a last minute gift? Yes. Okay. Let's do 20% off for everyone listening and we'll make it skinny 20. Okay. And this obviously excludes like bridal and fine jewelry. Yeah. Well, it includes all fine jewelry, excludes bridal and diamond studs. Everything else will be included. Okay. But let's say there's a guy listening right now and he's like,

I want to propose to my girlfriend. I want to make someone my fiance on Christmas. Is it too late? Yes and no. It's too late to do a totally custom ring. Those do take some time. But we are launching on Thursday a collection of ready-made rings in our Whisper Thin,

which is our most famous setting, that all can be overnighted. And so you can still propose on Christmas or New Year's if you haven't gotten your act together. Those are the two biggest proposal days of the year because you're usually around family and the pressure is on. So if you're a guy and you've been dragging your feet and you're going to get in trouble this Christmas, you can still buy your ring last minute from us.

Okay, I have to ask you this before you go. You've been on before. I've never asked you this. Gun to your head, you can only wear three pieces of jewelry for the rest of your life. What are they? Oh, easy.

Diamond studs. Okay. The bigger, the better. Okay. Like what's a good size for a diamond stud? When you say big. I'm a bad example of what's normal. No, I want to know. Okay, I wear six carats. So it's three car, what's a good size for a diamond stud? When you say big. I'm a bad example of what, of what's normal.

I want to know. Okay. I wear six carats. So it's three carats in each year. Yeah. No, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, and each year is also incredible. But I wear six. Tennis bracelet, which you have and you get it. And a diamond ring of some kind. It could just be a killer eternity band. That's also awesome.

But I need a diamond. I love a baguette eternity band. Emerald. You're probably thinking. Beautiful. Live for an emerald eternity band. Okay. Can we do a giveaway of something? Yes. Okay. What can we give away? Do we give away the mini diamond tennis bracelet since you're wearing it? Let's do it. You guys, I'm wearing the mini diamond tennis bracelet. Like I said, I have two. I have the classic and the mini one. I love the mini one.

It's so chic. That's so nice. That's like $1,300. Let's do it for three people. Like let's increase the odds. Because otherwise I listen to giveaways and I'm like, I'll never win that. I don't like low odds. So let's make it so three

people can win. Wow, you guys. I think this is... The second best giveaway we did was our first episode with you, which was huge. This is our first best giveaway. This is happy holidays to our audience. So all you have to do is follow at ringconcierge on Instagram.

Concierge. Am I pronouncing it wrong? Concierge. Listen, it's hard. Michael, I don't know. Am I pronouncing it wrong? Concierge. Listen. It's hard. I can't. Michael, I can't do it all. I can't pronounce everything perfect. Say breakfast.

Breakfast. Is that it? Breakfast. Oh, you used to say breakfast. Ring concierge. Yeah. Concierge. On Instagram.

And then tell us your favorite part of this episode with Nicole on my latest post at Lauren Bostic. And she is going to give away three mini tennis bracelets. This is real diamond, real diamonds, real gold. These are legit. These are tennis bracelets. That's very nice. You're fucking Santa. Shit. Don't even play this episode for your significant other. Just enter the giveaway. Don't forget the promo code is skinny 20. You get 20% off. This excludes bridal and classic studs, but it does include fine jewelry. SKINNY20. Oh my God. I'm going to use this code on myself. And then also enter the giveaway. Three of you are going to win a classic

diamond tennis bracelet. Nicole, thank you for coming on. Where can everyone find you? Pimp yourself out. At ringconcierge on Instagram or ringconcierge.com where you can shop. It's a slippery slope. You know, enter at your own risk. And if we ever need to borrow a bike in New York, we have one that's pretty much brand new. Bike for free for whoever wants. You should just like put like crystals on it or something cute. I mean, this bike is now infamous.

I could probably like, you know, I should do a giveaway or something with it. I've talked about it so many times. I'm so upset by it. We're no longer doing the diamond stud giveaway. We're giving away an electric bike, everyone. Brand new. You should give away the bike on Instagram. I really should. Thank you so much for coming on, you guys. Be sure to listen to part one where you can find everything and anything about engagement rings. Michael and I will link it in the show notes. Thanks, Nicole, for coming on. Thank you, nicole thanks you guys don't forget to use promo code

skinny20 this is 20 off and it excludes bridal and classic studs but everything else you can shop find jewelry amazing and make sure you enter the giveaway all you have to do is tell me on my latest instagram your favorite takeaway of this episode with nicole and follow at Ring Concierge.