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Richard Helppie
Welcome to The Common Bridge. I’m your host, Rich Helppie, and we are on our series about entrepreneurs. The work world has changed so much over the decades. Not that long ago we were told to get a good job with a solid salary with a growing company that pays benefits, put your time in and have a great career and a great life. That kind of employment model is really tough these days. But in every economy there’s opportunity, so we are talking to entrepreneurs. Today, from Delray Beach, Florida, we have Blake Polizzi. Blake, welcome to The Common Bridge. We are so happy you’ve joined us.
Blake Polizzi
Thank you. I’m so glad to be here.
Richard Helppie
Blake, our audience likes to know just a little bit about our guests. If you don’t mind, what were your early years like, and what are you up to today? What brought you to this point of being an entrepreneur?
Blake Polizzi
I am the owner of Susan Blake Jewelry, a small, family owned business that is beginning to grow. We have three locations: Armonk, New York, Delray Beach, and now I’m opening a third in Miami this month. What led me here? I studied business in college. I was majoring in finance, and thought I was just going to get those marketable skills, go into finance and all that - the classic thinking. I started to question that halfway through, and it didn’t feel super right to me. But I trekked on for most of my 20s and tried many office jobs. I’m a data analyst at heart so I was a data analyst in various capacities, but it never felt great to me, the classic nine to five. I knew something else was out there for me, but I could not figure out what, so I spent many years agonizing over that. Now I’m finally in the right place with Susan Blake Jewelry, and can feel that to my core. I think that missing piece I was feeling was the entrepreneurship element. I think I’m meant to be creating and outputting into the world - I think everyone is in different capacities, of course - in the actual creating a business and tangible things for others. Now I’m here today. To give back story on how I leaped; I didn’t just end up with three fine jewelry stores overnight. I’m a third generation jeweler now, my grandfather began the business. He immigrated from Argentina in the 60s with zero dollars, no aspirations to take over the world, just make a paycheck to feed his family and live a quiet life once he got to this country. He was discovered by Tiffany and Co. and signed, basically, a lifetime contract with them, and it just catapulted his career and my family as well. That turned into a large factory of all handmade jewelry on 47th Street. Susan Blake has very strong origins in handmade quality designs and in the diamond district in New York City. Fast forward, all of his kids worked for him and then his daughter, my mom, being an entrepreneur herself, branched off and started Susan Blake Jewelry, which is the retail side of things. Fast forward to today, now I’ve taken over Susan Blake fully.
Richard Helppie
That takes great courage, because retail is tough. Jewelry is very tough. But you weren’t just taking the business as it stood. You had an idea about what you could do with it and how you might be able to get online and such. Blake, you came into the business as third generation and now you’re running it. What led to this?
Blake Polizzi
In the past few years, I worked very closely with my mom, and she’s the founder of the retail front. She’s the one who began that. Then being a data analyst, and a natural innovator of process and being able to see things that need improvement, I started working extremely closely with her and upending all back-end systems which really brought the business a level up. Creating a website, overturning the inventory system and so on, and then, of course, working in the store with customers as well. Unfortunately, a little over a year ago, she passed away from cancer. So a bit sooner than expected, I’ve fully taken over the business, but at the same time, I’m absolutely honored to do so, and now more than ever, I’m still in awe every day that as unfortunate as it is that she passed away a bit too soon, I think it is so incredible that my mom was able to leave me a business. I think that is so cool, rather than like belongings or money, the fact that she left me a full business that she created from the ground up, it’s incredible and what keeps me going every day.
Richard Helppie
I’m so sorry about the loss of your mother, and at the same time, I’m applauding that you looked at a business and said, yep, if we keep doing what got us here, we won’t get to be here. You took your data analysis expertise and applied it, and I think you did some things in your search engine optimization and other ways to reach clients and potential clients, too, correct?
Blake Polizzi
Yes, of course, that was a huge value of mine. When re-doing her website from scratch and everything, I made sure to really uphold values that definitely didn’t exist before, understandably, but SEO, leveraging AI to write some content. I didn’t even realize back then when I was putting in all this work on the website, that it would go even further forward because now we need GEO or the AI SEO optimization. So I’m meeting people because ChatGPT and whatnot is sending them to the store. It’s pretty cool to see.
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Richard Helppie
That’s something. What is GEO? We’re moving beyond the web browser and search engine optimization, SEO, and we’re moving into something GEO. Maybe geographic or something? I’ve never heard that term before. You’re catching that wave on the way up, which is what an entrepreneur does. It looks at where things are, where things could go. Blake, let’s talk a little bit about entrepreneurship. If you had to define entrepreneurship... let’s say you’re somebody listening, reading or viewing this program, and you say I wonder if I could do that. What would you tell them about entrepreneurship? How would you define it for them?
Blake Polizzi
I would define entrepreneurship as making a decision to act, and it’s to take full accountability for something. To be fully vulnerable, absorb those feelings and the consequences - everything - agree to absorb all that for the chance to put something material out into the world for others. It’s exhilarating, but also can be terrifying. It has both good and bad sides. It’s like taking a chance on yourself and taking on a lot of responsibility to put something out into the world. By material, I don’t necessarily mean like physical materialism, because it could be a service, but by material, I mean something others besides yourself can see in the world. I think that’s how I would define it. To people who have that feeling in them and are questioning whether they should do that thing that they want to do, I would always say yes to everyone. You don’t know until you try and what’s the worst that can happen? A lot of times when you answer the question what’s the worst that can happen, it’s not actually going to be that terrible. If your decision, your questioning could tank something like a publicly traded billion dollar company, then maybe that’s a different story. But when it’s just an idea in your head, I recommend asking what’s the worst that can happen? Because usually it’s not so bad.
Richard Helppie
Truer words were never spoken. I know every entrepreneur has to experience that terror of there’s payroll due in two days, and I don’t know where the money’s coming from, or I’ve got to pay a key supplier and I don’t have enough in the bank. That is exhilaration and, frankly, terror. But if you can figure out a way to get through that.. and look, let’s be very candid, most entrepreneurial small businesses fail, you have to thread the needle very precisely. Have you had any moments when you wondered if you were going to make it?
Blake Polizzi
Yeah, I think in the beginning, especially, I would have those feelings. I complained for so many years about the corporate job and thought wouldn’t it be nice to just clock in and clock out for a little bit? But that was in the beginning, because I had to take over within seconds. I didn’t have time to think or anything. It wasn’t the best entry into beginning. But now that I’m more balanced and used to imbalances as well, being able to roll with the punches and understand things are not going to be perfect and there’s always more to do, I manage those feelings a lot better. It’s really a perspective that’s something I’ve learned a lot in the past year, a lot of the agony is really having to reframe things. That applies to so many things in life. But I think especially for people, entrepreneurs, in a position where your company is still small and scrappy, and you’re doing everything a lot of the time, switching your thinking is key. When I wake up, I’m so excited that I have so many things to do, because it’s all going into my thing, and impacting this and that, and all of it is meaningful, rather than waking up and saying, oh my gosh, I have so much to do. It’s really monitoring your relationship with yourself and the business that can really go a long way, because it’s always going to be hard. It’s just you have to be happy to do it, I would say.
Richard Helppie
For those that haven’t taken the plunge yet, it is scary. Most entrepreneurs are rolling out of bed early and realizing that there’s more that could be done that day than there is possible time for and you start the day like, what am I not going to do today, because there are only two or three things I can concentrate on. But it is quite the adrenaline rush. Blake, today, you’ve got three locations, and you dealt with the computer systems and with the heavy heart of losing your mom and partner there. What are you thinking about for the future, either short term or long term?
Blake Polizzi
For the future, this Miami opening is a huge, huge deal for me. Although I was alongside my mother for the... to backtrack a little, our store in Armonk, New York is a little town in Westchester. It has been open almost 20 years, and it was a cornerstone of the town. It’s runs like a machine. Then we have a second one, that’s the baby in Delray Beach, and although I was next to my mom for most of it, I wasn’t the one doing the heavy lifting to open and build out the store. This will be my first time doing so in Miami, which is terrifying, but mostly so exciting and exhilarating. That is what I have my focus on. The idea behind it was something I know my mother never did - I analyzed the location, the foot traffic, the demographics of the area, everything like that, and made sure everything was extremely sound. So I’m just so excited to start something there that’s still 100% Susan Blake, but fully something I built, and something that came from my own brain. Then, aside from that, just continuing to lean on our strengths, which is being a small family, scrappy business. That’s what attracts people to us; you can feel the soul of the business. When you come in, we’re not just a big conglomerate with massive margins and trying to push jewelry on you. You can feel the soul of the business. So leaning on the organic-ness, I guess, of Susan Blake, but while still ironing out kinks like improving our website and making things more professional, because I find myself repeating a lot of tasks in the past year, which is against my values. I don’t believe in that. But I’ve caught myself not pausing to build process. So just focusing on, I guess still, the skeleton of things a lot of the time, and building process and streamlining.
Richard Helppie
How can people find out about Susan Blake Jewelry? What’s the website or the addresses? What’s the best way to search? I hope they just put excellent, creative jewelry in the AI engine and find you at the top of the list. I kind of think they might. How do people that are listening or reading or watching this show find Susan Blake Jewelry?
Blake Polizzi
If you type in “best jewelry in the world,” we should come up. But if that doesn’t work, you can find us at SusanBlakeJewelry.com. Our Instagram handle is SusanBlakeJewelry. I recommend checking out our Instagram first so you can see the life of the business. That’s where you can find us. .
Richard Helppie
Wonderful. Blake, any final thoughts for the listeners, readers and viewers of The Common Bridge?
Blake Polizzi
I guess my final thoughts would be just to echo what I said earlier, if you’re on the brink of doing anything and it’s just fear or concern holding you back, just do it, or at least do the first few steps to see how it feels. Because something I’ve learned is like with a lot of things, the feeling of confidence that you’re subconsciously waiting for comes right after you act, not before. You’re supposed to feel the fear before, and a lot of the time the fear means you’re in exactly the right place, and you just have to push through. Those are my last words.
Richard Helppie
Very well said. As a fellow entrepreneur, I often counsel folks to say, look, if you fast forward 30,40, years into the future and you did this versus you didn’t do this, how are you going to feel? There’s no right answer there. Some are going to choose to take the plunge, others not. We’ve been talking today with Blake Polizzi of Susan Blake Jewelry. Excellent, creative, original jewelry, in three locations: Armonk, New York, Delray Beach, Florida, and soon, Miami Beach, Florida, or Miami, Florida?
Blake Polizzi
Miami.
Richard Helppie
In Miami. I’d encourage you, those entrepreneurs out there, or those thinking about entrepreneurship, to listen to some of the lessons that Blake has brought to us today. With our guest, this is your host, Rich Helppie, signing off on The Common Bridge.
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