Meet Nikki Zazzali of Revive Jewelry in Redondo Beach

Today we’d like to introduce you to Nikki Zazzali.

Nikki, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
When I was studying jewelry design in college, I needed inspiration for a project. At the time, the H1N1 virus had everyone up in arms. So I did a Google search for it and this microscopic picture of a virus popped up. And I was like, cool! I loved it’s organic shape and figured it’d make an interesting piece of jewelry. I made that piece, but I didn’t stop there. I adopted this cellular imagery incorporation as my design aesthetic from there on out. When I graduated college, I knew I wanted to continue making these designs, but I wasn’t sure how to make it a viable company. Instead of going out on my own right away, I got a job working in the industry as a production manager. Then everything changed.

In 2012 my brother was diagnosed with lupus. It’s an auto-immune disease where the body attacks itself causing muscle and joint pain. There’s very little information about what causes it or how to treat it. I learned this out of necessity, but it blew my mind. How could we be living in modern times and still have these unanswered medical questions? And what was being done to find the answers? Not nearly enough. I knew I wanted to do something to change this, but I didn’t know how, yet.

Fast forward to 2014. My grandpa, who was like a father to me, was diagnosed with lung cancer and passed away within a month. It was devastating to me and my family. I was left feeling angry, frustrated and powerless.

And then, the light bulb went on! What if I took the jewelry designs I already make based on disease & pair them with giving back to create positive change & find cures? And thus, Revive Jewelry was born.

The Revive mission is to use diseases against themselves to take back our power from them and raise money for research toward a cure. It’s also very important for me to create a community of Change Makers: people who want to use their buying power for good. We’re all in this together, so let’s use our power for positivity.

Since 2016, I’ve been partnering with charities to support different types of disease research. I believe every disease deserves to have a voice & they all need funding so we can find cures. Currently, I represent 16 different causes and have plans to continue growing to include as many as possible. To date, Revive Jewelry has donated over $3,000 to disease research and our community of Change Makers is growing every day.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Oh, god no. If any entrepreneur says it was or is, they’re lying. My biggest struggle was quitting my full-time job and jumping in headfirst to Revive Jewelry. I knew that I was limiting my company by relying on my steady paycheck and that if I quit, it’d light a fire under me. But that’s easier said than done. I also got married in 2017, so if anyone has planned a wedding and worked full time while trying to also start a side business- you understand that struggle! So the first two years of the company, I kind of only had one foot in and one foot out. But, I knew my company was special and my mission needed to be shared with the world. I believe in this cause. It’s so much bigger than me or you. This is something that can help the entire world. So, I finally quit my job in 2018 and it was the most amazing decision I ever made!

There’s different obstacles every day that you have to deal with. You’re gonna spend about 80% of your time doing all the stuff you never wanted to do (hello bookkeeping, thanks mom for making me do my math homework), and 20% doing the stuff you actually wanna do. But I actually love it, every second of it. Every obstacle is a challenge and I love finding solutions and being the owner of my own destiny.

Revive Jewelry – what should we know? What do you do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
We want you to feel good AND look good. Our pieces are more than just jewelry; they’re hope, strength, awareness, charity, and cures. Motivated by the diseases that affect us all, each design is based on a cellular image of the disease it represents. Because 10% of every sale goes directly to disease research, you’re supporting life-saving advancements and creating positive change for the future.

The jewelry I make connects deeply with people. When I meet people and tell them about my jewelry, it’s not uncommon for them to get teary-eyed remembering a loved one and connecting with the sentiment and mission of my jewelry. Often, people are drawn to a piece they connect with before they even realize it represents the cause they care about most. It’s a crazy phenomenon that just illustrates to me how special and important my jewelry is to humanity.

I’m definitely most proud of my give-back mission to take our power back and provoke positive change for the future.

What is “success” or “successful” for you?
Tricky question. In a sense, I already feel successful because for all intents and purposes, I’m living my dream. But I think true success is different for every person. For me, I think there are lots of points of success along the way. Each time we accomplish a goal, that’s success. But then we just set more and bigger goals. So we’re all celebrating little successes as we achieve our goals. My ultimate success is having a self-sufficient company that I love, that other people love and that helps others have a better life through beautiful jewelry.

Pricing:

• Prices between $35-$385

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.revivejewelry.com/
• Phone: 3108441958
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/revivejewelry/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ReviveJewelry/
• Other: https://www.pinterest.com/ReviveJewelry/

Image Credit:
Jason Cook

Suggest a story: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.