Today we’d like to introduce you to Jaimie Geller.
Hi Jaimie, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I come from a fashion background, and my husband is a 3rd generation jeweler. When we had our first son in 2007, we decided to leave our jobs and work for ourselves and came up with the concept of Jaimie Geller Jewelry. We wanted to be able to provide our small town in Pacific Palisades, CA with all of their jewelry needs. We aimed to make a mini jewelry department that carried all the best jewelry designers, but also a place to have custom, bridal and jewelry repairs. We combined our strengths and started with a small private office in 2007. By the end of 2008, we had a lease for a retail storefront and we opened (just as the stock market crashed) in December of 2008. It was a great time to open a luxury fine jewelry store (lol), but the good news was there was only one way to go (up). And between 2008 and 2014 we welcomed two more sons, and we grew our business as well.
We were so blessed that our small town supported us, and us them… and our combination of curated designers and trusted quality craftsmanship was a hit in our home town, and so we decided to launch our website and try to bring our same magical recipe to the world.
When the world shut down in March of 2020, we were really uncertain what a retail store would look like. We used the opportunity to really concentrate on our website and trying to navigate the social media world. However, our small town was again so supportive, and we have found the perfect balance with a retail storefront and a website.
We are still a small company, literally a mom and pop shop, simply trying to keep our clients as happy as possible by providing them with the best curation of designers, the best quality custom, bridal and repairs, the best customer service, and trying to deliver our magic from Pacific Palisades, CA to all over the world.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I don’t think that “smooth road” and “retail store” ever go hand in hand. Owning your own business will probably always be a roller coaster and a 24-hour per day job. Over the last 15 years, we have learned to ride the roller coaster a little more smoothly but I would be lying if I called it a smooth ride…
Stockmarket crashes, wars, and pandemics are the obvious major struggles. But there are day-to-day struggles as well. Keeping clients happy, keeping employees happy, keeping employees at all…
Having 15 years behind us, our best coping mechanism, for the retail roller coaster ride is to take a wide-angle view and know that this too shall pass…. as it always does.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I personally specialize in curating jewelry brands, and my husband, Michael specializes in creating custom jewelry. There are so many amazing brands out there but there is only so much real estate in a store, and pages a person wants to scroll through on a website. I think we are best known for bringing our clients the best of the brands out there, for our knowledge is not only a trend but quality. It’s really important that the jewelry not only looks amazing, but that it is well made, and that it fits in but doesn’t overlap with any of the other brands we carry. We curate fine jewelry at every price point and also make sure that the energy behind the jewelry is really good. Maybe I have been in LA too long (born and raised) but I feel that behind every piece of jewelry is a story and the designer has a huge role in that story. We curate designers with good positive energy only :). I think our specialty has really been creating the one stop shop for everyone’s jewelry needs. And I think this combination of the two of us sets us apart from the others. I find that the custom jewelry designers are not very current in design, and the stores that carry multiple brands of fine jewelry often don’t have the years of jewelry manufacturing experience to understand the quality of the pieces they are selling. I think that’s what sets us most apart.
We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
Wow. That’s a good question.
I define success as happiness.
The money comes, the money goes, the money comes back. But success is wanting to wake up in the morning and be happy with what you are doing in that day.
Happiness is the ultimate success.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.jaimiegellerjewelry.com
- Instagram: jaimiegellerjewelry
- Facebook: jaimiegellerjewelry
