She Started at 18 With £400. Here's What Actually Happened

Building a business online can look glamorous from the outside. Especially when millions of people are watching.

But this episode tells a very different story.

In episode five of Perls of Wisdom, I sit down with Amelia, founder of Bijoux De Mimi, the colourful jewellery brand that became a huge success across TikTok and social media.

What started with just £400 from selling clothes on Depop turned into one of the most recognisable jewellery brands online. But behind the growth, the viral moments, and the packed pop-ups, Amelia opens up about the pressure that came with it all.

From navigating people being “bitchy” about her success, to the emotional toll of building a business so young, this conversation goes far deeper than social media highlights.

We talk about:
 • Starting a business at 18 years old
 • Growing a brand through TikTok before brands understood the platform
 • Building a loyal community online
 • Dealing with pressure, comparison, and criticism
 • The reality of managing money while scaling a business
 • Pop-ups, content creation, and influencer marketing
 • The emotional side of entrepreneurship nobody talks about
 • Relationships being affected by business stress
 • Moments where Amelia genuinely felt like shutting it all down

At one point, Amelia says:
 “But I’ve had nightmares beyond nightmares… my relationship was on the rocks… like I could shut it down tomorrow.”

And honestly, that line sums up so much of what this podcast is about.

Because Perls of Wisdom is not about pretending business is perfect. It’s about the messy middle. The uncertainty, the chaos, the pressure, and everything founders go through behind the scenes while trying to build something meaningful.

This episode is honest, emotional, funny in places, and incredibly relatable for anyone building a business, growing online, or trying to chase something bigger than themselves.

If you enjoyed this episode, make sure you follow Perls of Wisdom, so you never miss a conversation about what it really takes to build a business.

This podcast is all about the messy middle. The part nobody talks about. The lessons, mistakes, and breakthroughs that happen while you are still figuring it out.

If this episode helped you, I would love it if you could share it with a founder friend or tag me on social media so I can see you are listening.

You can find me here:
 Instagram: @itsisobelperl
LinkedIn: Isobel Perl
YouTube: Isobel Perl
Website: perlsinbusiness.com

If there is a founder you would love me to interview, or a topic you want covered, send me a message. I read more than you would think.

And remember:

You do not need to feel ready; you just need to decide to start.

Love Isobel x

Transcript

– Introduction

SPEAKER_01 0:00

There are so many people that are so bitchy about it that I've had nightmares beyond nightmares. My relationship is on the rock. And like I could shut it down tomorrow.

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Welcome to Pearls of Wisdom, the podcast where we talk all about the messy middle of starting a business. And today I have on Amelia, the founder of Bijie de Mimi, which is TikTok's favourite jewelry brand. It's all about bright, bold, colourful jewellery. Now, Amelia started her brand when she was just 18 years old with 400 pounds, and there have been a lot of lessons learned along the way and some incredible experiences along her journey. I cannot wait for you to hear this episode. I am just gonna preface this with I forgot my cue cards. So I do have my iPhone on my lap. If you see it there, just ignore it. We're all human. If you like the episode, please don't forget to like and subscribe. And please comment below any questions you have or any founders that you want me to get on for season two. And I cannot wait for you to enjoy this episode.

– Most Chaotic Moment: Speaking at the Global Changemakers Conference

SPEAKER_00 1:11

Hi, welcome to Pearls of Wisdom. I'm here today with Amelia, the founder of Beaton Mimi. Thank you for being here today. You are A-O-K, my friend. I am very excited for this. Um so first up I want to ask you, and this is my favourite question, what's the most chaotic thing that's happened to you this week?

SPEAKER_01 1:29

So the most chaotic thing that's happened to me this week, thank you so much for having me by the course. Of course. Um, is on Monday. So I've been invited to this thing. A thing. A thing. So I got a message from um someone I'm very lucky to know, basically saying someone I met through her would like me to come and talk at this conference. They're like big dogs, sort of, they're like 50. And um I was like, okay, amazing, thanks so much. Was waiting to hear what it was about. Didn't do much research, should have done, but have been very busy because decided to launch a new in the US, Europe, and open an office in the same week. Anyway, so didn't really research it and then um get onto the cool on Monday and kind of actually realise it's a humongous fucking girl. Can I swear? Yeah, okay, cool. Um, and it turns out it's a thing called the Global Change Makers Conference, and it's 600 invited sort of CEOs from around the world. And when she was explaining the audience, she was like, Let's say the I mean they were so nice, but they were like, let's say like the CEO of Delor Artois, and then like the CMO of Coca-Cola kind of vibe, and then like Troll and I was asking who it's going to be to, and then they sort of said that it's gonna take a lot of your time, and you have to do a presentation and everything like this. And I'm talking with Zach Brown, as in he's the CEO of McLaren, um, and a famous artist, and someone else, and then so I was like, oh, and then I was like, just to let you know, I haven't really spoken to I'm fine on stage, but I haven't spoken to a room of anyone that's not teenage girls before. Yeah, so um it's the same. Anyway, it turns out this is gonna take about a day of my week to prepare until it happens in November. So wish me luck. Oh my goodness. Um, and so that's added chaos because I've had to prep and I have to get public speaking, um, training and everything like that. So it's like one extra new job. Incredible opportunity though. Wonderful opportunity and great exposure.

SPEAKER_00 3:32

Yeah, she's a busy girl, why not add something else to the plate? Just want to why not? Um well that's incredible. Congratulations. Thank you so much. Of course. And so for anyone listening who has never heard of your brand before,

– Bijou Tamimi: The Elevator Pitch

SPEAKER_00 3:45

can you give us a quick elevator pitch?

SPEAKER_01 3:47

On it like a carbonnet. Hi, my name's Amelia. I'm the CEO and founder of the original colourful jewellery brand BG Demimi. We specialise in high quality, reasonably priced, colourful jewellery. Um, I started it for my bedroom when I was 18, and I'm lucky enough that it's become one of the fastest growing jewellery brands in the UK without any investment. And here we are today.

– Starting at 18: From Paris to Depop to Brand

SPEAKER_01 4:07

That was five years ago now.

SPEAKER_00 4:08

Insane. Bob's your frickin' uncle. Insane. And so can you take me back to you were 18, were you, when you started it. So can you take me back to 18-year-old Amelia? What was happening then? Why I started jewellery business in her life.

SPEAKER_01 4:22

Okay, so conveniently I've had to write this out the other day for the speech.

SPEAKER_02 4:27

Perfect.

SPEAKER_01 4:28

Um I was at Central St. Martin's, I was doing a foundation and fashion design. I absolutely hated it, but from the age of 12, I was sure that I wanted to be the creative director of Condé Nast. So I did everything in my power to get me there. And CSM, according to my research, just had to be on the equation to be able to be the creative director of Conday Nast. Um, I hated it, and I had decided that it's gonna be on my CV. So once the foundation was over, I wasn't gonna go into women's wear. I was basically gonna um work my way up. And I was in Paris in the 2019, no, 2019, yeah, it was 2019, in the 2019 December, um, interviewing for different internships um at fashion houses, and my life goal was Conde Nast, and I'd written to Condé Nast 58 times between the age of 12 and 18. Wow. Um and basically lo and behold, finally got an internship at Conde Nast. But whilst I was in Paris, it's quite a jumpy story, so I'm trying to find a way to tell it in like a filtered way, but it's hard. Um, whilst I was in Paris, I discovered there's this road in Paris where there's loads of wholesale jewellery, and in there there was so much colourful stuff, and I had never seen huggy earrings that were like I've always loved like loads of piercings and everything like that. And um I'd always loved colourful jewellery, but it's so expensive because it's obviously real stones at the time. You could only have crystals or rainbows, and I don't like either of those. So I was in the shop in Paris, bought loads of stuff, took it home, sold it on Depop. A couple of months later, COVID happens. My internship at Condé Nast is cancelled, and I'm like, shit, what am I gonna do? My boyfriend is a serial entrepreneur. Sorry, you said talk to you, and I'm talking to the camera. You can talk to the camera. Um, my boyfriend has been a serial entrepreneur since he was he was like one of the original supreme resellers back in the day. Obsessed with that. So he's so he was basically like to start a business. Yeah. And I was like, fine, I will. Um my biggest worry was how to send a parcel. Anyway, turns out there's systems that do that for you.

SPEAKER_00 6:53

It turns out that was the least of your worries.

SPEAKER_01 6:55

Yeah, that was the least of my worries.

SPEAKER_00 6:57

Um and yeah, that's how I started. Wow. And so I guess you always knew that you did you always know you were entrepreneurial or I always knew I would be hyper successful. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:10

I've always known that I've always wanted to be famous from something I do in my career. Yeah. Um, whether, like not, I've never wanted to be like an actress or something like that. Yeah. But it's more so I've always wanted to be known for my career.

SPEAKER_00 7:25

Yeah, and why what at 12 made you want to work at Conde Nas, be the creative director? That's I feel like that's quite niche, no? I was really obsessed with Teen Tapmer and Teen Vogue. Ah, okay.

SPEAKER_01 7:35

Yeah, and I just thought the concept of the devil wears parada lifestyle sounded awesome.

SPEAKER_00 7:40

Oh yeah, but then when you actually get into the actuality of it, it's not quite. It's gone well for me. Yeah, being a founder, I think, trumps anything, in my opinion, no matter how hard it is. And so jewellery, was it always was that always a thing of yours, or was that literally just sparked from that trip to Paris?

SPEAKER_01 8:00

Uh no, I think I've always loved it. Like I've always had my when I do something great in life, I love get my get a piece of jewellery made. And talk me through it. Talk you through my jewels. What these are they something do they mean something in life? This was my first cyber week.

unknown 8:20

Amazing.

SPEAKER_01 8:22

Um do you know what? I actually don't have quite a lot of it on, but these two are actually a birthday present from Tarka.

SPEAKER_00 8:27

Oh lovely.

SPEAKER_01 8:28

Um this one was I think maybe a warehouse maybe getting the warehouse. These two were presents from Tarka, actually. I'm not I'm not a good advocate for this one today.

SPEAKER_00 8:42

That's going down a route and I'm not wearing it. That's absolutely fine. I love that though, because I feel like jewellery really does have like a meaning. I mean, Paige and I were talking about this where she was saying, was it you that I was talking to you about jewellery? Well, yeah, yeah, all your jewellery is sorry now, I'm just pointing at you. But is it like you get jewelry for like important things? Yeah, like you know, you get a watch, a nice watch for a special birthday, or charms that you add to a bracelet for your 21st. Or like your Pandora back in the day. Pandora back in the day, yeah, exactly. Okay, just honestly, I love I love that starting story. Thanks. I love how bulshy you were as like a 12-year-old. You're like, I will be creative director at Condi.

SPEAKER_01 9:23

I actually got asked to leave one of my schools. Well tell me more. Um, asked to leave is a blurred line on that one. But for being too ambitious, because I beefed a teacher that told me that I would never be more than a B student. No. And like it was weird that a 13-year-old was so obsessed with Central St. Martins and wanting to be the creative director of Gondo Nast. Anyway. They told you that that was weird. It came out with 100% in art, and um yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:56

Suck on that. Amazing. Okay, and

– First Steps: £400, No Clue, and Breaking Even on Day One

SPEAKER_00 10:00

then take me back to the very start of the Jew. You started it with £400, I think. Yes, with the money I told on Depop. Epic from the jewelry from Paris. Half half, half wardrobe, halfway. Okay, so what were those first steps like? What did you what did you do? What what was how did you know what to do?

SPEAKER_01 10:19

Um well I didn't.

SPEAKER_00 10:21

Yeah, but just kind of No one knows.

SPEAKER_01 10:23

Yeah, did you?

SPEAKER_00 10:24

No.

SPEAKER_01 10:25

No. Like you just kind of Google how to build a website, yeah. Build a website, and Tarx did know how to build a website, so that made life a bit easier. Um, but everything else I just kind of went for. And Bijou became Bijou did really well and became the kind of trend that it is because when I started it, I'd obviously just come out of school and I was really obsessed with at school how whatever the coolest girl in Upper Sick wore, everyone wore. So then I made the coolest girl in Upper Sick that every school I could think of an ambassador.

SPEAKER_02 10:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:56

And then that's how it sort of sold out. So we broke even on day one and kind of went from there.

SPEAKER_00 11:01

And that was just a lucky accident, or like it's a great marketing tactic, but was there much thought behind it on the other side?

SPEAKER_01 11:10

No, there was no there was absolutely no thought behind it. It was just Epic Young me. I yeah, it was so cocky and just but you ha you have to be.

SPEAKER_00 11:21

I feel like I saw a reel this morning, and it was like you can't be a shy founder because you've got to promote your business, you've got to run a team, you've got to have difficult conversations with people. Like you have to have an air of almost, yeah, like cockiness or self-assurance, yeah, or like arrogance. Yeah, exactly. Like perhaps not arrogance, but more confidence that that you know what you're doing, even if you don't have a fucking clue what you're doing.

SPEAKER_01 11:47

Yeah, I fake it till you make it. I've faked it till I've made it. Yeah, in the early days.

SPEAKER_00 11:51

100%. I want to talk more about marketing, but maybe in a in a little bit. But do you think without having talks you would have you would have stepped into business,

– Did You Always Know You Were Entrepreneurial?

SPEAKER_00 12:00

or do you think having someone who was almost like, no no no, you can do this? Because I think it's so important to have people around you who can almost like support you in that decision. Because for me, I it was my dad. Like my dad was like, Come on, you have this business idea, why don't you just like try it out? And I feel like it's you need that support network around you to you, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:25

I've never really thought about it. Oh interesting, but yeah, I think I probably definitely did. Yeah, um my friends always find it funny because there are so many people that were so bitchy about it in the beginning. I was gonna say, what did people make of it? They were like so like, what the fuck is she doing? kind of thing. And I've got so many recalls of when I went to go and I'm kind of anti-uni. And I've got I've when I went to go and see my friends at uni and um stories where like girls that I knew when I was younger would be like, Oh, so what are you doing? And then they're like, Oh, okay, but like what are you doing as well? Yeah. And was like, Oh, so you're like you're not doing anything, and I was like, Well, you know, I make a lot more money than you do. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 13:07

And it's so annoying. People don't I I wonder whether it's the narrative of being like a young female founder that people don't think that you can also be a successful young female founder. Do you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 13:19

Like, yeah, it everyone thinks it's like this a small little thing, like a small little side hustle, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 13:24

But you're literally like paving, like you and so many other founders are paving that path of like no, like we can be young, we can be successful.

SPEAKER_01 13:33

And then for we didn't have that, as in like we didn't have that.

SPEAKER_00 13:38

No, we didn't.

SPEAKER_01 13:39

It is visible that we've done that for youngers. Exactly. Because I see like in my shops, like all the time, girls come in and they're like, I'm gonna start a business because if you I'm not going to uni, I'm starting a business.

SPEAKER_00 13:50

Right, and it's like it when I was so I'm now 30, and very much so for me, it was like you go to school, you get good grades, you go to uni, and like that was it. There was no conversation. Then you get a job at PBC. And I got a job at KPMG, and like it's it's that it's it's that the path that you take, and it and I'm I'm so like grateful and appreciative that like you and I have done what we've done, and we've done it so visibly on social media that we can be like to the younger generation no, like you don't need to have a conventional school uni literally like marriage babies retirement, do you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 14:28

Like, yeah, and it's interesting because when did that narrative change? Because if you think about our like, I don't know about your parents, but like my mum didn't go to uni, yeah. No, mine didn't go to that, but my mum didn't, but like if that it was for them, it was like you know, you if you went to uni, you were becoming a doctor, yeah. Whereas like what change that then has made it like you can go to uni and do anything, and you go to uni and you do anything and you carry on after school and yeah, exactly. You you get in loads of debt, and I can't comprehend it.

SPEAKER_00 15:00

It's so true. You go to uni, you do I did biology, but that kind of has helped related, but kind of like I went straight into a job in HR, like make that make sense. Like you go to uni, you get into loads of debt, you do a random degree in a random subject. But you're evidently interested in something a bit biological. That's true, exactly. It's true. I think there's an element of like um, yeah, like what your passion is and what you end up going into. But I do feel like a lot of people go to uni, come out with a random degree, and then just go into a job that they probably could have done without going to uni and like 100% and might not even want to do it. Yeah, and slash can't find a job. Yeah, well, yeah, I think that's the life now, isn't it? It's a whole new ball game. But I think also with like the rise of just social media, Google, AI, you you can just if you're a hungry individual like you were, you can just go out and teach yourself these things and learn it. Like there's no degree or course that's going to train you into how to be a business owner without just becoming a business owner.

SPEAKER_01 16:03

Literally, the only thing that I wish I knew about before is finance. Tell me more. I just fucking hate numbers.

SPEAKER_00 16:11

Yeah, I mean, I love numbers, but I hate looking at them.

SPEAKER_01 16:15

No, like as in like you love numbers, do you? I do. Your numbers brand. I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_00 16:20

I got an A in my maths A level. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 16:23

Who raised you? That's crazy.

SPEAKER_00 16:25

Yeah. Well done. Thank you. I do like maths. But I hate it. But that's wonderful for you because you understand numbers.

SPEAKER_01 16:32

Look at them though. I mean, but it doesn't matter if you don't look at them, but you understand them when you do look at them. It's true. Whereas like I get numbered cry. Like I'll be like and then I'll start crying.

SPEAKER_00 16:43

We can hire people that are subusi. Learning what you're not good at and hiring people who are better than you at it.

SPEAKER_01 16:50

Yeah, but I do have a complex that I like to learn everything first before I hire someone, but I can't I can't. Which is important though.

SPEAKER_00 16:55

It's also important. I think it every every time I talk to founders, I'm like, do it yourself, understand it, and then outsource it.

SPEAKER_01 17:04

Yeah, because otherwise you'll get fucked. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:06

And I've been fucked over so many times. Oh, we will we will talk more about it. Um, I guess you you knew from day dot then that it was never gonna be a hobby and it was always gonna be a business, right?

SPEAKER_01 17:19

Or was there an element of I well when I started Bijou, I then started working as well as a PA for the founder of Mary Mary, which is a children's wear brand that's huge. Okay. And um so I guess I I feel like I did know it, but I also kind of wanted to do something else. I don't really know. Yeah. And then I think about like a month in, I was like, oh okay, here we go.

SPEAKER_00 17:46

Yeah. A ride or a die. When did you make that decision? Literally a month in? You were like, I actually don't know the timeline, but it was pretty quick. Fine, yeah. Yeah. I think it's um I did the same thing. I literally started, got a full-time job because I didn't think it was gonna be more than just a side hustle, and then then it became more, and I was like, oh okay, I'm doing something, I'm doing something more than this.

SPEAKER_01 18:08

But you got on, did you you I think you got on socials earlier than me?

SPEAKER_00 18:12

I not TikTok. Not TikTok, really. We did we did Instagram for six the first six months, and then we got on TikTok. You and I were exactly the same time again. Same.

– How TikTok Made Bijou Famous (Without a Strategy)

SPEAKER_00 18:21

So talking about TikTok, I'd say you're probably known as TikTok's favourite jewelry brand or favourite colourful jewelry brand.

SPEAKER_01 18:28

Why does call now's TikTok's favourite jewelry brand?

SPEAKER_00 18:30

There we go, TikTok's favourite jewelry brand.

SPEAKER_01 18:32

Thanks.

SPEAKER_00 18:33

Was there any strategy behind TikTok? None. No, talk me through it.

SPEAKER_01 18:38

I literally found it so fun.

SPEAKER_00 18:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:41

Do you know what I mean? Like it was just like, let's make a TikTok, let's make- and actually, I have to say, when I look back now at some of the shit I posted, I'm like, oh my god, imagine posting that now.

SPEAKER_00 18:50

I feel the same way when it shows you your like what you're up to to do.

SPEAKER_01 18:54

I'm just like hilarious. But who who okayed that? Do you know what I mean? Me?

SPEAKER_00 19:01

You did, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:01

I propped up the camera and I filmed it.

SPEAKER_00 19:05

So there's absolutely no strategy behind it, just vibes uh well there wasn't.

SPEAKER_01 19:09

And now Fran is putting a bit more, a bit more thought into it. And to be fair, I've put thought into it for ages. But it's interesting because I think when you put thought into it, like now with the stage it's at, you need to put thought into it. The interaction's nowhere near as good.

SPEAKER_00 19:23

Yeah, oh yeah, I know. When it's and it's ever-changing. Honestly, like what worked a year ago doesn't work anymore. What worked a month ago doesn't work anymore. It's yeah, it's an ever-changing beast. I want to go back to the marketing of um using the most popular girl at school and just like making her an ambassador. How did you go about doing

– The Ambassador Programme: What Worked, What Didn't

SPEAKER_00 19:50

that? Like, where did you find them? Where did what schools did you know to go to?

SPEAKER_01 19:55

In the early days, um, I went to well, because I was in I was the year above, so it wasn't that hard to find them at every school I knew. Yeah. And I went to seven schools. So I had lots of different friends from different schools. Yeah. So you could just ask around. Amazing. Um and yeah, but then then we built out an ambassadors programme, so they all had a code, and I literally manually make that code. Yeah, send it to it. And then send it to them and check it. And but then we built out Shopify Collabs, and then we had 350 girls that were like all over the country. Um, but also at uni and at school and at everything. Um, and then we've actually stopped it now.

SPEAKER_00 20:39

Oh interesting, how come?

SPEAKER_01 20:41

Because I think what it used to be amazing, and then it sort of ended up being a lot of admin and only 2% of sales. Interesting. And I can't be bothered with that. Um, so we just now send it to girls and say, can you make a TikTok and post it?

SPEAKER_00 20:55

Yeah, perfect. And you were managing it through Shopify Collabs?

SPEAKER_01 20:58

Yes. Like that app. How did you find that? Was it What Collabs is an app? Yeah, was it good? Or quite like it. I don't know. Okay. Um, I don't hate it, I don't love it, but I think it's quite a lot of admin.

SPEAKER_00 21:10

I think basically any of those apps are a lot of admin. 100%. And I was thinking because we've tried, we've tried like affiliates, ambassadors, so many different apps, and it's just more headache than it's worth. And we had one app that ended up getting loads of people from the house.

SPEAKER_01 21:26

I had this on collabs. Yeah. That that they set themselves up as a person, but I don't understand how because we I had to verify everything, but I we didn't verify.

SPEAKER_00 21:35

And they basically run ads through their code and they get your permission for making sales, even though they're running ads and bidding on your brand name. We we got rid of that. But yeah, it's the same thing, it's it's aggro. Oh do you find gifting works for you?

– Gifting vs. Paying Influencers

SPEAKER_00 21:54

Yeah. Yeah, you're very big on gifting. What's the strategy behind that? How do you go about? Finding creators, finding influencers, gifting. It's actually really funny.

SPEAKER_01 22:04

We literally have a group chat and we send anytime we're scrolling and we're like, that's a cool girl. She's got loads of like interaction. Even if she has 2,000 followers and one viral video, we'll send it and say, please make a TikTok in this. Um I it's such a slippery slope now saying this, where it was it was so fine two years ago. But I don't pay influencers.

SPEAKER_00 22:31

I think I think it's fine to not pay creators as long as there is no um expectation that they'll post.

SPEAKER_01 22:40

Yeah, so we say, like, if it's sort of a girl at school with 2,000 followers, we say, Would you be interested in a gifting in exchange for a TikTok on your platform wearing the jewellery?

SPEAKER_00 22:52

Yeah. And like, I think that's fine.

SPEAKER_01 22:54

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 22:57

Exactly. And ultimately, as well, like being on like the creator side, I need things to also talk about. Like, I want I want people to send me products so I can share it on my stories. And also, like people want free shit.

SPEAKER_01 23:07

When you're not they're not influencers, yeah, they're just like girls building girls that love to post a TikTok. Do you know what I mean? They're not trying to build a career out of it, yeah. Um, or like trying to create beautiful content. So that's how we go down that that route. Yeah. Um, but then we also a whole other side of it is we gift loads of influencers, and if they wear it, they wear it. If they don't, they don't. If they want to post, they do. If they don't want to post, whatever.

SPEAKER_00 23:29

It's epic. What what are some of your favourite influences who have formed Bijou?

SPEAKER_01 23:33

Um I'm still waiting for a photo of Molly Mae. But what do you think? Does she have she has yeah, she has your stuff. Um, but I can't find a pick. But I think she's also quite inactive, like as opposed to people that post every single day, whereas her content's obviously so thought out and things like that. Um but we I have like I have favourites who I like at like most as people because they come to all the events and they like really support and yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:59

Um, but yeah. Nice. No, it's important. It's it's important to have the backing behind in terms of like influences, they can do a lot for you.

SPEAKER_01 24:07

Yeah, 100%. But we're quite lucky because it's just everyone does seem to love coming to events and getting involved and stuff.

SPEAKER_00 24:14

You do cool events, amazing pop-ups, like it's it's an experience. I think I don't even think I've got a question on here about your pop-ups, but I wanna I want to talk

– Pop Ups: The Strategy, the Chaos, and the Queue Gates

SPEAKER_00 24:23

about them.

SPEAKER_01 24:24

So I just want to talk about.

SPEAKER_00 24:26

At what point did you realise that doing pop-ups was like the next thing that you needed to do?

SPEAKER_01 24:32

Well, I've been doing pop-ups for years. Yeah, you have. Everyone talks about it as if like I only started them last summer, but like my first pop-up was a few months into Beijou. Wow. Um was that like? Where was that? It's souk. Do you remember Souk? Yes, I do. It went under, but I loved them back in the day. I mean, extortionate, but it was great. Um, and I used to do souk pop-ups all the time, like a couple of times a year. Uh, and then we had our St Christopher's Place one that was the first with a pink and red shop. And I see Beijou Girls 24-7, and so we did a King's Road one, and then since then we've just had King's Road ones. Yeah. Um, because it just does work for us. It's where is where your girlies hang out. It's where my girlies are at. And I've done street interviews, like we were the brand that did street interviews on King's Road and have done since 2020, and so it's sort of well obvious. Um, but yeah, and they I love the pop-ups because A, you can take amazing content, B, I just love decorating a space, that's like my favourite thing. Um, I love throwing an event, I love my pop-up girls as in the team. Um, and people just love to come for the experience.

SPEAKER_00 25:47

It it is it is an experience, and I think that's what retail needs in this day and age is an experience. Like, you don't just want to turn out to a shop and it'd be like white walls, oh yeah, dull, look at everything like that.

SPEAKER_01 26:00

Although I would say like it's a hell of a lot of effort putting on like I want a long-term shop, but I am a bit like how do you keep that hype up? Because I'm not wanting to do a a weekly event. Yeah. Do you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 26:12

I know exactly what you mean. What lessons have you learned from pop-ups? I feel like there's loads. There's many.

SPEAKER_01 26:18

Yeah. There's loads and loads. We're talking about it for hours. Um, but I primarily QGate in 2024. Oh, yeah. Was the worst and best day of my life. Um, I learned so much from it, but I also it was awful. And since then we have ticket systems, we have security, we have um the whole experience thing. Um, we like to grasp all numbers before it happens. We pre-pack everything. Yeah. Um, so like a hell of a lot of work goes into those. And are you is do you generate a lot of profit to make it well worth it? Yeah. Yeah. Um yeah, no as sales is kind of the best thing for from the shops. Like the sorry. Um, they will always be worth it.

SPEAKER_00 27:11

Yeah. And I think with like such a physical product, it's you people want to see it, they want to see what it looks like in real life, they want to try it on rings and things like that. You need to make sure it fits you. Well, rings only launched in May. It's true.

SPEAKER_01 27:25

So have you had a pop-up since you've launched them? We had uh the main shop was to announce them. Nice. Um, but yeah, no, exactly. But it's I also think girls just love to come and take a picture and show that they were there. Yeah. And that's kind of like the main thing.

SPEAKER_00 27:40

And it's such a social media brand. I think that's where you really want to land with a brand is to be almost like so trending on social media that people just want to be associated with the brand. Literally. Even if you're not shopping there, the brand exposure from being tagged in like a photo, it just it's that kind of like it all just adds.

SPEAKER_01 28:05

It's like the constant, like the constant sort of flow of it. And that's that is also like a whole nother side of bijou. It's like we get so much, we obviously can't download it and post it because that would fuck our algorithm. But like TikTok is filled with girls flexing the fact that they're wearing bijou, and it is yeah, so like even though we only have like 120k across both of them or whatever it is now, 190, um, the girls is like a whole nother ball game.

SPEAKER_00 28:36

It's millions of eyes on your business across so many different so our socials really don't actually comprehend the amount of people there are.

SPEAKER_01 28:49

Yeah. Um because it's almost like it's so hard to talk about this kind of thing and not sound unbelievably arrogant, but it's also it's always kind of mental because pretty much every follower we have is a customer, and every customer loves it, and they come back and they sort of obsess over it. It's like a cult.

SPEAKER_00 29:12

Yeah, but that's what you want, and that's the beauty of a brand where you're always constantly releasing new things and new styles, new jewels, new, you know, new um new products that people are always coming back for more. Literally, uh the amount of times you're changing your earrings, you're changing your rings, your necklaces, do you know what I mean? It's like I have so many necklaces, so so many rings, and when you find your favourite brand, you just come back again and again and again, and I think it's like creating that user experience and that buyer's journey that brings it back.

SPEAKER_01 29:48

Although I would say I built the brand before I built the product. Yeah, which most people don't have. Yeah. Like a really good example for this, for this is I was going through old reviews from like 2021, and so many of them are like, my earrings broke, but I don't care because I love Bijou. And so it's like the brand is so influential on all of these girls, which is amazing, and I love it. And they come for the goodie bags, they come for the like merch, they c but in terms of the jewellery, it's like only in the last three years have I properly like been like shit, we need to like actually sort this. And like I desi I've been I've been di designing them since six months in, yeah. Um, and manufacturing them all

– Manufacturing Nightmares and Finding Good Suppliers

SPEAKER_01 30:39

and all of that, but I've had nightmares beyond nightmares with manufacturers where like they promised you the dream and then six months in the shit breaks. Yeah. And then that's sit now. We've got like amazing, we've got a well we've got two, but one of them is excellent, and like the quality control is fantastic and it's like revolutionized everything. Yeah, but it's only recently that that's all properly happened.

SPEAKER_00 31:02

It's literally when you get under the bonnet of like people's businesses, it's just like so scrappy, do you know? Literally, it's like so scrappy for such a long time, and then 100%.

SPEAKER_01 31:13

I literally feel like only this year it's really like now like a big girl business. Do you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 31:19

I know exactly

– The Lowest Point: Rock Bottom in 2022

SPEAKER_00 31:20

what you mean. I would love to talk about some of the challenges. What's what are some like standout moments where you've been like fucking hell, this is this is too much?

SPEAKER_01 31:31

Um in 2022 summer, I hated Bijou.

SPEAKER_00 31:35

Really?

SPEAKER_01 31:36

And I was like rock bottom, like still making money, but was thinking myself. I feel like you've had that moment because I think we spoke about it, and I said I I was like in the exact same place this time, X, Y, Z. Um, but I was sorry, I I don't know why I bought that up. Is that okay? Yeah, of course. Okay, cool. Um, but yeah, I was a bit like oh rock bottom CBA for this. I knew that I could sell it for quite a lot, and I was like, maybe that's a better idea, and maybe I can start something else. Um and I was in hospital. My I used to, I'm actually fine now, but I used to have like such a bad immune system that I'd be in hospital the whole time. And um I was in hospital, I can't remember what for, some kind of infection. Wow. And I'd been in hospital, so I'd had my 21st birthday, my relationship was on the rocks. I had wasted I'd spent so much money on my 21st. I'd like taken all my friends to Ibetha and um bookloads of amazing things. And then I my relationship was on the rocks, and I was in hospital and in Ibiza just after my birthday had kind of ended, and then came back home, was then in hospital in London, and when I was in hospital in London, like it's overnight vibes, my mum was like, Amelia, I'm really sorry to get involved here, but I've just seen on the ring camera that some men have turned up at the house because I'd been getting shitloads of letters that I hadn't seen, and that St. Christopher's place pop-up um had not had business rates, but I thought they covered the business rates, and they I even had emails where they said don't worry, like you don't need to pay business rates. But when there was a mix-up, is this idiot man meant you did need to pay the and you didn't need to like register, you'd have just got reliefs, but no one told me that. Whereas I had taken that as rates are included, you don't need to pay business rates when I accepted the offer. And um turns out I did, and I've been getting shitloads of letters to my mum's house because at the time the business like letter address was my mum's house, and so they turned up at her house, and they turned up and they were like, it what what are they called? Like bailiff. That's the one. Holy shit. Anyway, so then we just like press pay and um then it was fine. But how much did you owe? A lot, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:23

Wow, oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_01 34:25

Yeah, and what a bit weird with numbers, like I don't love talking about that's fine, actual numbers, sorry.

SPEAKER_00 34:31

No, no, no, you're absolutely fine.

SPEAKER_01 34:33

Um what what kept you going?

– What Kept Her Going and the Turnaround

SPEAKER_01 34:36

I kind of did another year and then f 2024 I was like one last push, and if the push doesn't work, breast sell. Um and then the push really did work.

SPEAKER_00 34:44

And what was the push? What did you do? Did you change anything?

SPEAKER_01 34:48

Yes, I kind of changed everything. I got rid of the office, um, had a shift in all of my team and went back to the very basics where I did everything. Put it in a well, put it in a warehouse first, because obviously I couldn't package orders as well. Went back to the basics. Um so we launched our warehouse, yeah. S changed the whole team, and basically what what happened with that, it had all happened organically, and then I got loads of freelancers that were experts in their field. Yeah. And then it's been like that since. And I've sort of built on it and built on it and built on it, and yeah, it really works for us.

SPEAKER_00 35:24

So getting rid of your getting rid of your first studio in London, that decision came off the back of things just being a bit difficult and being like, why am I paying for this expense?

SPEAKER_01 35:34

Yeah, and also I just moved into a place where I had a home office. Yeah. I had like the the office then got business rates on it. I hated it. Like it was like there was barely any natural light to the state.

SPEAKER_00 35:47

I do remember, I remember you saying as well, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:49

Yeah, it just wasn't a vibe. Yeah. And so hashtag got rid. And it was my best decision I ever made. I think and now we've got a new one as of last week. I know I want to

– Getting a New Office: Why and Why Now

SPEAKER_01 36:00

talk about that.

SPEAKER_00 36:00

So uh congratulations on your new office. And why, how come? What was the decision behind that?

SPEAKER_01 36:06

Um, I still have a home office. Yeah. Um, and I love working from home. It really suits me to not have anyone around. Gorgeous home as well. Thank you. Um, and I've got a really good deal, and it's also got a room where if I decided to move from having an office in my space to having an office in there, then like I can. And it's wonderful, and just a big pink and red place. And I also think having somewhere that's just completely and utterly black branded, yeah. Um, like have you seen the perfect head offices? Yes, yeah, like that. I mean, well now bee gees are like that, but in pink and red. Um it's so good for the vibes. Yeah. Do you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 36:47

Everything is a content moment.

SPEAKER_01 36:48

Yeah, and it's so nice that in and just to be around it constantly. And it's so nice to have we also one of the rooms has all of our pop-up stuff in it, whereas usually that's in storage. Yeah. And so that's just gonna make life a hundred times easier pre-Christmas.

SPEAKER_00 37:05

Yeah. And I feel like as well, it's it's just such a vibe when everything's brand colours. Like we drove past the Bowdoin office and it was literally like striped coloured pink and green. Where is that? And I was like, oh, somewhere around this area, yeah. Like Westrounded, yeah. Yeah. Um, and I was like, that is sick. Like the entire outside of the office was like coloured pink and green and in the the Bowdoin colours. Yeah. It's like your brand is such an important, your brand visuals is such an important element. So I feel like living and breathing in a space like that just makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 37:40

Um, and it's like the amount of brands that have come out pink and red story.

SPEAKER_00 37:45

I would love to talk about this.

– Dealing with Copycats

SPEAKER_00 37:47

This was one of my questions, actually. Um, I know you've had a lot of copycats. Yeah. How how do you deal with that? Depends. Tell me.

SPEAKER_01 37:59

Legals, if I can be fucked. Like if it's do you know what? I actually can't even be fucked for legals anymore. I could before, and now I'm just like, oh, it's just so long. Like I have the ammunition to take one of these brands now. Like I could shut it down tomorrow.

SPEAKER_00 38:16

And what does legals look like? Is that expensive for you? Time consuming?

SPEAKER_01 38:21

Everything. Like you need to like whip up. I mean, we do have a fantastic timeline and all of the evidence, but you literally need to like whip up all of the evidence, and then then you send a cease and desist, and then they have to react to that, and then I don't know, it's just a whole fucking headache, and it's constant negative energy.

SPEAKER_00 38:40

Yeah, oh a hundred percent.

SPEAKER_01 38:41

Because it takes up so much of your time about something that's so frustrating and so unfair, yeah, and I can't be fucked for it. So, but you know what's so nice is now, like, whenever we have shops and whenever we have things like girls come into my shop and they're like, Oh my god, I saw did this, and then they're like, just to let you know, I am team bijou thrown through, and like we know that like how obvious all of the copying is, and like they make it seem so nice on social media, but like we know, and I'm like, Oh, you guys are my absolute fucking favourite. Um it is like ridiculous some of the timelines that I've got now, though.

SPEAKER_00 39:22

Um and yeah, it's almost frustrating because fair enough, I feel like so many original ideas are almost like not original anymore because everything's been done over and over. Yeah, and that's fine. But it's also so frustrating because it's like it's like you say, it's so blatantly obvious. Yeah, like the colours, the styles, like the stars, yeah, everything. It's just like it's embarrassing to see other founders not try and be creative themselves, if you know what I mean.

SPEAKER_01 39:57

Yeah, also like so many of these we have factual evidence of them writing to people that have done stuff for Bijou and saying, I want to do X, Y, and Z just like Bijou. Wow. And then now they're like there's one brand, the website has our hex codes. Wow. Hex codes is something where there's 17,666 different pan tones of pink and red. But they just so happen that when you use a little colour picker, use the exact same pink and red on our brand deck, which means they have been onto our brand, like onto the website, onto the Instagram, and my hex code never changes, as in like I always use exactly the same tone of pink and red for absolutely everything. We even have custom paint, like wool paint. Yeah, and they've gone on with a little colour picker and gone, we'll take that pink, we'll take that red, and now we'll do it. How fucked is that? The the audacity. And imagine being that unoriginal, honestly. Some of the stories are actually fucking mental.

SPEAKER_00 41:01

Yeah, I can imagine. But it's so nice to know that your community is so strong and like rallies behind you because they see right through it. Yeah, literally. Yeah, literally.

SPEAKER_01 41:12

Who is their audience? A lot of the followers aboard, thank god. But some of these brands I've genuinely caught out, like they have gone to like really unique, super expensive designers that are like very small business designer-esque, but obviously like a ring would be like £5,000. And they've taken a screenshot of it and used that exact screenshot on their website and had them made, like fake versions. I was gonna say it's giving like AliExpress. Not sorry, let's get onto this. And one of them, every single product, you can take a screenshot of that product, and don't get me wrong, I know that AliExpress goes onto our websites and duplicates everything. Yeah, but with these, you can see that they've used the photo from AliExpress and gone onto Canva and then like removed the background because there's still the lines that on AliExpress have the like point to the measurement. It's ridonculous anyway, not worth my time, can't be bothered for it. No, but it's just fucked, and like just all I'd say is be wary of what you're like signing in for, and it's so unfair. But then there's also the other side of the handle where it's like, is that an expression? The other side of the handle, where it's like there's come there's so many brands, and it's happened to be you load, but I just don't give a fuck. Um where people on AliExpress go and make those products and then make it look like they've been bought but they haven't, yeah, and it's so unfair.

SPEAKER_00 42:47

And then it looks like you're buying more products from AliExpress actually, AliExpress are taking your photos, but it's quite annoying because then it's like the brands that are just buying shit on AliExpress and using those photos, yeah, they can be like, oh, they're copying, and it's like, well no, they're fucking not, you're buying them directly from them, and you can even see it.

SPEAKER_01 43:05

Oh, it's so annoying.

SPEAKER_00 43:06

And for us as business owners, we can see right through it, but I feel like some just like general public. Yeah, of course, consumers wouldn't wouldn't know. Yeah. Yeah, it's I think I think you're handling it so well. I think it's such an emotional negative drain. Exactly. That all you can do is rise above it, and like you all you can do is look at these things and just think, just almost like laugh at them, like you say, like to use your hex codes, like it's just a joke, like it's actually just comical. Like how unoriginal like people can be without coming up with that and also equally on at the same time on that vein, like your brand is as successful as it is because it's your uniqueness behind it, if you know what I mean. And it's like it's it's like a flip to the coin because the amount of founders who are like, Oh, like I can't start a jewelry brand because there's so many jewelry brands. That exist. No, you can. Which is true, there are so many jewelry brands that exist, but they've not got that they've not got the head that you've got on your shoulders. And as long as you're putting your own spin on it, as long as you've got your own ideas on your own um yeah, your own ideas and and your own way of of showcasing that to the world. And fair enough, like you know, take inspiration from everywhere because 100%.

SPEAKER_01 44:25

And this is what really annoys me. Yeah. It's because it's like I am like I am the person that is like, go and start a jewelry brand, go and do this. Yeah. But it's like don't go and make a copy of Bijou, you fucking idiot. Yeah. Do you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 44:38

Yeah, it's like take inspiration and make it your own.

SPEAKER_01 44:42

And I have so many messages from our copycats from back in the day, where it's like so easy to deep stalk and at least unsend a fucking message. Yeah. Where they've messaged me and they've been like, I want to start a jewellery brand just like Bijou da da da da da. And I'm like, oh thank you so much. Like, let me help you. And honestly, some of them I've literally been like, let's go for coffee, let's sort this out. I'll teach you how to design your own shit, I'll teach you how to like get a brand deck made uniquely. But like, anyway, whatever. But also, it sounds like I'm being dramatic because I'm not going into the stories, but if I go into the stories, I could imagine it just caught it just makes the the internet will go crazy. So I just can't be bothered to. But guys, there's some seriously radical moments that have happened.

SPEAKER_00 45:25

This would be a great series, though. Unbelievable, honestly. It would be a great founder series to do on like the chaotic ways brands have copied you. I would love to love to whip up my timeline and put it online.

SPEAKER_01 45:37

But do you know what? Just with this one brand, not worth the energy. Not worth the energy. And also what negative karma would I get from doing that?

SPEAKER_00 45:44

Yeah, it's true. It's true. We don't want to be putting bad juju out into the exactly, but it is mental.

SPEAKER_01 45:50

There's 27 incredibly like I don't know if incriminating is the right word, but incredibly powerful things on my legals list of what I could do to this one brand because of how much they've like the extents they've gone to.

SPEAKER_02 46:05

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 46:06

And then there's like a sub-list of things that are like are really weird, but you can't take legal action on.

SPEAKER_00 46:11

Wow, yeah. They've not got a leg to stand on if one day you do decide. Yeah. I'm seeing red today. Oh no, I I'm don't want to bring that back attention to myself. No, exactly. No, I think you're doing I think you're doing the right thing. Just yeah, like let it annoy you because it's annoying, but then whatever. And rise above it.

SPEAKER_01 46:29

Tom, who you met at mine, he said to me once, like, just don't engage. Like, you literally just don't engage. It's just not worth your energy, everything you're gonna put into it. And that kind of really stark, where it's just like, take it as a compliment, don't engage. Take it as a compliment, don't engage. And then um Trini said just like when I spoke to her about it, she was like, just hone in on Bijie. Yeah, it's not a good one. Just like honey in on everything. Just double down. Pink and red, pink and red, pink and red, pink and red. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 46:59

So double down. We were the original pink and red jewellery brand, I hope you know. Thank you.

– Biggest Financial Challenges

SPEAKER_00 47:05

On a similar vein, I feel like that's quite a big challenge. What would you say has been the biggest challenge? Finance. Finances, numbers.

SPEAKER_01 47:15

Well, I was an idiot when I was younger because you know, you give an 18-year-old the sort of hundreds of thousands of pounds that she was making. You can, you know, obviously, I'm gonna go and do stupid things and book helicopters and whatnot and take people wherever in the world. And um I did. And now I've realise, I mean, I live the same lifestyle that I lived when I was doing shit like that so young. But like the brand is ten times bigger, so like it's fine, it wasn't fine then. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:54

Um but yeah. No, I think finances are I think it's something that people don't wanna they don't want to look at. For me for sure, it's like as long as there's money in the bank, I don't want to know. Yeah, but also it's like there's money in the bank, but also money going out every other place, and so actually that money in the bank is pretty much like not in the bank because it's owed elsewhere.

SPEAKER_01 48:17

Yeah, but also I have such a complex about the fact that this really should be taught in school. It should. Like, as in I don't have or yeah, I think it should be completely mandatory at school. Because tell me when you've used Pythagoras's theorem. Do you know what I mean? Honestly never. But do you know what no one ever told me about? The 11 different taxes I have to pay every fucking week. Yes. Preach. Which you're all gonna be avoiding soon, and I can't fucking wait to hear how it goes.

SPEAKER_00 48:43

Oh my goodness, get me too.

SPEAKER_01 48:44

So you're just gonna register the company out there.

SPEAKER_00 48:47

Gonna So everything's registered out there already. Yeah. Was that easy? It was actually, yeah. So then you'll live at a Dubai salary. I will pay myself from Pearl Dubai or into Dubai. I'll probably put pay myself from Pearl from the UK. Okay. Into Dubai. Um, yeah, but it'll be based UK or it'll still be based in the UK, but we'll have like a subsidiary. Okay, fine, to what I'm doing in America. We can talk more. Yeah, sorry, not podcast behaviour that one. No, of course. Um okay, so that's biggest financial challenge or sorry, business challenge.

SPEAKER_01 49:23

Oh not not cash flow, I think I've been quite lucky with cash flow, but with um I guess just like knowing.

SPEAKER_00 49:32

Knowing, knowing where things are going.

SPEAKER_01 49:33

Who who knows? Oh, you have to register for this and register for this and register for this. Who like knows you need an accountant? And then when you have an accountant that's not telling you what to do, and like the start of the year, I don't know if I told you about this. I think I saw you after this. Yeah. Yeah. I had a shit show, but now I've got my amazing accountant, Grace, who I love.

SPEAKER_00 49:53

Amazing. So we've spoken about the biggest business challenge. I would love to talk about what has been the biggest like personal challenge you've faced in starting the business. If there has been any, there might not have been.

SPEAKER_01 50:08

What would you classify as a personal challenge? The thing is, Bijou and I are kind of one. Which makes it a bit more.

SPEAKER_00 50:13

I mean, perhaps that is the personal challenge that like you're over-identifying with the business or other areas of your life have been neglected because you've been so busy building the business.

SPEAKER_01 50:25

Do you know what? I think I've done so much fucking self-work that I'm fine. Like, as in like Slay, I love to hear it. I'm like I think like my time management. Yeah. Shit. Sorry, not my time management, my like work-life balance. Time management too. Yeah. Uh my work-life balance is fine. Like, I work long, but I love it, so that's okay. So I'm not, it's not like I'm I did think this week maybe I'm a bit burnt out, but that's because I'm trying to wake up earlier to try and become a gym legend, and frankly, it's just not for me. Um no, but I'm fine. No, I'm not sure. Although my life has got a lot better. So ages ago I was diagnosed with OCG, and then we kind of tried to therapise it out. Do you know what I mean? And get some good methods going. Um, and then I started taking medication, and fuck me. Wow. It's incredible.

SPEAKER_00 51:16

That's insane.

SPEAKER_01 51:17

Yeah, like I don't have mental breakdowns all the time, and I'm absolutely fine.

SPEAKER_00 51:22

Incredible.

SPEAKER_01 51:22

Yes, and I've been very good at letting go of the reins.

SPEAKER_00 51:25

Yeah, yeah, since it. And it's tough even just without having OCD being like very protective of your brand.

SPEAKER_01 51:34

Yeah, and like, don't get me wrong, I'm still a raging control freak, and like you do see where it comes into play, but I'm fine.

SPEAKER_00 51:40

Good. Oh, I'm glad to hear. Do you know what? I think it's so important. I think being a founder, and I've probably said this on every episode we've recorded, but like you learn so much about yourself that you probably never would have learned had you not have started a business.

SPEAKER_01 51:53

I don't think I'd have ever not started one now. Like, I think you know, yeah, I was always in the pipeline.

– The Future of Bijou: US Expansion and Rebranding

SPEAKER_01 52:00

What is the future of BG? So we are launching. Well, the stock has arrived today in America and it has cleared customs. Sick. Thank fucking god, because we were waiting for hundreds of thousands of items of jewellery to be seized. And they weren't. So Bob's your uncle. And that's all because of the tariffs or best not get political. Yeah. Um but lots of different resources differently.

SPEAKER_00 52:31

Was it always part of the plan like to expand globally though?

SPEAKER_01 52:34

Yeah. Nice.

SPEAKER_00 52:36

Amazing.

SPEAKER_01 52:37

Um and then I found out my warehouse could do it, and I was like, yeah, let's let's be a guinea pig. Why not? Um and then we doing that in the US and in Europe. Uh and I'm gagging, well, we have two before Spirit of Christmas, then we've got Had have you ever considered that?

SPEAKER_00 52:56

No.

SPEAKER_01 52:56

No, fine. Too much faff. Yeah, fine. Um yes, because you had a shit show with your pop up. We did. We did. We didn't have the best time. Can we talk about that or not right now?

SPEAKER_00 53:06

We can if you want. Yeah, I'd love to know. It was um we didn't cover cost, which was such a shame. And we just had, yeah, we just didn't make, we just did not sell. But what were they charging? Maybe that's on us. It was just the we obviously split the space between three brands. Yeah. I think it cost us all in three grand and we made like a grand and a half in revenue. I just don't know whether the brand I don't know, I don't know what it was, but the other brands did amazing. Like they all did really well. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 53:43

Do you think it's because with skincare you can't try it? Yeah. I think there's like you always need like an e-sop experience. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 53:50

And if someone's out shopping, why would they want to take their makeup off? Exactly. It's such an intentional purchase. Like, we were there with swimwear and jewellery. So also, you know, jewellery, people see it, they love it, they buy it. Swimwear, people want to try it on. So that all their customers who've wanted to buy one came in to try on the swim. Like, it's a very like, you try it, you love it, you buy it. It's a thing. Whereas with skincare, it's very, you know, you need to see the before and afters, you need to see people using it, you need to maybe try it yourself, which like you say, you can't necessarily do when you're there in a shop.

SPEAKER_01 54:22

100%. And I guess you need like a sink, like eesop. Yeah, exactly. I know what I mean. Yeah. But then also that's so interesting, because then is that's not your because you really have to be able to sell. Yeah. I can't sell. Like, I'm not a salesperson. I don't think I'm a very good sales person either.

SPEAKER_00 54:38

I'm like, oh, like have a look. Like, do you know what I mean? It's it's a skill. But I mean, trade shows may be different. Trade shows could be different. We just the brand for us has never been in a place where we can go to a trade show and I'd be happy with it. Um well, and spirit is extortional. And they're also expensive. And I'm just like, we at the moment are better off putting our money in places where we know we're gonna get a return on investment. Yes, like ad spend's probably great for you. Yeah, exactly. I mean we spend a shit ton of money on ads, but um, yeah, so it's I know trade shows are important, but I just think we need to get the brand to a place where we can we would be happy to be stocked in retail, if you know what I mean. And maybe that's a next year thing. Yes, like a Space NK kind of vibe. Yeah, once we rebrand, so yeah. You want to talk about that? We can talk about it, but uh this is your episode. We're not talking about it. I talk about myself the whole time. I want to talk about this this is this is for you. No, we're rebranding. This is great content for you, so let's talk about it. We're rebranding in January. What are you gonna call it? We I'm not gonna say just yet. Actually, I'll come back. Can you tell me and then bleep it? It's gonna be called Isabel Pearl. What? And you can do that. Yeah, I can do that, but I can't have Pearl. Tell me more. Tell me more. But that's wonderful because because you've got such a strong like brand. I can't.

SPEAKER_01 55:54

Yeah, you're not getting rid of also like can you just add on the products?

SPEAKER_00 55:59

Well, exactly. We probably could, but my thought process was I want to get rid of I don't want to be pissed off that we can't use all of the old stuff, like photography, videos, like everything has to change. So we've just completely changed the whole thing. Like we've got like dark amber jars, we've got dark wooden lids, like what a lovely colour! So I'm really looking forward to it. Yeah, stay tuned on the socials. I'll show you after. Yeah, I've got some photos. But anyway, I want to go back to you. So can I just say, Yes, I'm loving the cleansing balm.

SPEAKER_01 56:31

Feel free to add the feel free to use this as an ad. I'm glad. I am a lazy person with my skincare, so I need to get better at doing it every day. But as in like I just wash my face, and then the next morning when I kind of wash my face again, I can tell there's still makeup on it, which is actually really bad. Oh no. But nah, but I when I use yours, then it I get it off.

SPEAKER_00 56:53

But I'm so glad.

SPEAKER_01 56:55

Yeah, love it.

SPEAKER_00 56:56

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 56:57

Yeah, seriously, love it, it's kind of cute.

SPEAKER_00 56:59

It did actually fly off the shelf, so we're trying to get more in stock before we rebrand.

SPEAKER_01 57:03

But like, how are you even like making that?

SPEAKER_00 57:07

Do you know what I mean? Like, I can't fathom the content. Same as I couldn't fathom how you design jewellery. It's you know, you just like learn it on the job, we've got a formulator now, she makes the formula, we send it to our factory, they manufacture it. So interesting. It's cool, isn't it? Yeah,

– If You Started Another Business, What Would It Be?

SPEAKER_00 57:24

really cool. If you had to start another business and it wasn't jewellery, what would you do? Do you know that?

SPEAKER_01 57:30

Um, I've registered long and short because I think that why are hair daxons are underrepresented in the Daxon community. Sorry, start that again. You think I've registered a company with my boyfriend called Long and Short. Right. Because I think wire hair daxons are underrepresented in the Daxon community.

SPEAKER_00 57:51

You are iconic.

SPEAKER_01 57:53

You cannot find tooth well, and a children's wear company, but let's talk about that later. You cannot find a Christmas card, a birthday card, a mug. Everything has a fucking smooth hair Daxon on it, and don't get me wrong, love them. But if you want a white some hair Daxon merch, you can't get it anywhere. Literally cannot get it. Except for at Beijie this Christmas, because I have made a Wanga Hair Daxon Christmas card and it says Daxon threw the snow on it. Adorable. But I yeah, so and then we were like, well, maybe we just start a dog brand, but long and short is a fantastic name. Yeah. And then there's so many items of dog stuff that I want, but I can't get. Yeah. Like beautiful dog bowls, beautiful anyway. So nice. Yeah, like so. I would want to start a dog's brand with Tarka, we'd do it together. Um, however, don't have the time for that right now. Yeah. But I also I think when I'm 30 will start a children's wear company. Because I wanted to do children's wear as well when I was younger.

SPEAKER_00 58:55

Oh, epic. Well, I'm very excited for this. A few years in the making. How old are you now? 20, I've just turned 24. Getting old. Oh my god, no, you're not. You're not at all. Um, four facility under 30. Huge say. Thank you. How did that make you feel?

SPEAKER_01 59:13

Before that, had I ever told you that it's like my life goal. No, but I can I can imagine. Yeah, it's my life was my life goal. Well, you've achieved it, so what's next? Um I really want an article in that. So random. Oh my god, that'll be a good idea. I'm hoping it'll happen. We've been pestering for years. Um yeah, obviously launching in the year. Oh, like obviously business goals there's more, but like personal goals slowly under 30 was literally my life goal. And every year I've been like, fuck, didn't get it, fuck, didn't get it, fuck, didn't get it, and then this year finally. I'm so proud of you. But you know they didn't tell you you woke up to it really on the website, you didn't get like an email. So you just had to like find it yourself.

SPEAKER_00 59:56

I'm intrigued by that. I mean, I've got to be able to do it. But then you did have an email. Then you did oh that is tough. That's so annoying because you're like the perfect candidate. I just never would have thought to apply because I just would never think that I'm like with the right candidate for it.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:11

Fairs, where it like when I was like 17, I was like, I want to be on 30 on first one day.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:16

Yeah, so no, absolutely insane.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:20

So, yeah, so proud of you. Thanks. I didn't really have that much of a reaction to it. I was obviously happy. Maybe I have like an an issue with emotion sometimes.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:29

Do you know what though? From other people that I've spoken to, it's very much so been a case of achieving the thing is somewhat underwhelming. It's the getting there that's been the biggest part.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:39

Yeah, yeah. Um, although I did suddenly like have I was weirdly, I was in Dubai and I was with my friends, and someone said all well done, and then I suddenly started crying, and I was like, Oh my god. She does have emotion. Where did that come from?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:50

Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:51

Thank you, thank you.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:53

And what does success look like to you now? I mean, maybe as 17-year-old Amelia it was getting Forbes 30 under 30, but has that has your definition of success changed?

SPEAKER_01 1:01:03

Pretty pretty much the same. The same. Yeah. Okay. Although I do have the mindset of more more.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:08

Yeah. Which is bad, but it's not because No, it's not. Because you need you need to you're not going to get anywhere in life if um you're happy just bumbling along with small ambitions.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:20

No, I'm yeah, I'm uh big ambitious girl.

unknown 1:01:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:24

As you go. I'd like to live to I like I think I'd like to live in America.

unknown 1:01:27

Nice.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:28

At some point.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:30

Yeah. Okay, well, you heard it here first. You heard it here first. Um, before we wrap up with some very quick fire ending questions, what is one pearl of wisdom that you would love to leave the viewers, the listeners um with?

SPEAKER_01 1:01:45

Wait, love this. Thank you. It's like in saving grace, whether like, how would you save grace? Love that too. Yeah. Um, my pearl of wisdom is well, I have a few, but I'm gonna go for don't be embarrassed to just like go for it because it ultimately it is embarrassing. Like you're seriously putting yourself out there, people are gonna be like, what the fuck are you

– Advice for Aspiring Founders: Just Start

SPEAKER_01 1:02:10

doing? And you just have to get over it because those are the kind of people that then want to be invited to everything and then want to be your best friend and then want to la de da. Um, and yeah, I just wouldn't, I wouldn't, I wouldn't sort of take anything too deeply. I'd literally just go for it. Also, the younger you are, the more naive you are. Yes. And the less you have to lose. And so wait, don't get me wrong, whatever age you're at, just do it.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:35

Just do it. Like I love Grace Beverly's um in your twenties. Like just quit just quit your job. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:44

Like that's so fine. My friends fucking hate me because I'm like, just quit. Like just like move back home if your parents will allow you to, and just quit. Like start from scratch. You you've got no responsibilities, no kids, no mortgage. Yeah. Just why are you live why are you doing this dead end job that you fucking hate? Quit and follow your dream. And if it doesn't work in a year, go back and get a job. Do you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 1:03:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:08

Perfect advice. Perfect advice. Um,

– Lightning Round: Favourite Jewellery, Underrated Tools, and Founder Swap

SPEAKER_00 1:03:11

what is your favourite piece of jewellery that you've designed from Bijou?

SPEAKER_01 1:03:16

Um, probably these. I'm seriously vibing with them at the moment. The big hoops, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:21

They are gorgeous.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:22

Um, although I also don't have it on right now, but I love the hand chains. Yes. Excuse my five-year-old nails, let's talk about it. Because my photo my hands are in photos all the fucking time. I always get my nails done. My nails are in such awful condition, so I'm embracing my inner five-year-old and growing them. She's gonna break, she's being a natural girl. I'm gonna try and grow my sunlight biab. I just don't have the patience. Really? I can't tell you how. Maybe that's something that I could improve on. I hate inefficiency. The brain of a founder. I can't not get something done super duper quickly. And nails, I'm like, oh my god, please hurry up. Like, this is such a waste of my time, and I can't use my hands, I can't do anything. Um, anyway, so and any form of inefficiency. Like, I hate people that are like, oh, maybe this, maybe that. I'm like, no, no, no, just like paint the fucking wall one cut. That is an unwarranted dig to my mum. Love her, but she is very indecisive. Um and just like, just choose and just go with it. Just choose, go with it. Just like if it's a mistake, we can go back and fix it. Also, I do think one of the keys to my success, I don't know if we've spoken about this, is failing quickly. I fail incredibly quickly.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:42

It's important.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:43

And I'm like, get over it, whatever. Yeah. Move on to the city.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:46

Whereas I think one of my pullbacks of success is I spend way too long celebrating this bloody podcast. It's been like a year in the making. I'm like, I need to do it, I need to do it. Just like, just fucking do it, see what happens.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:59

So many, I can send you some vids, but I've got on to so many people that are like my background noise when I'm air wrapping my hair that have such good advice on just like even if I get an email through, I have to reply to it then and there, because I'm and I've seen it. I have to turn everything off because otherwise this can be taken too far. But and I've seen it, I have to reply to it because otherwise it's like then you think about it and then you like da da da da da da da, you just have to do things quickly, quickly, quickly. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:26

Yeah, no, it's very important. Um, what's the most underrated tool for running Bijou? Tool. So it could be like, I don't know, technology, something physical. Um nice. Um even like your fulfilment centre, I don't know. Um Pink and Red. A brand book. Stunning. I love that. Perfect, perfect, perfect answer. Um, if you could swap lies with the founder for a day, who would it be? Grace Beverly. Yes, Lou. Yeah, me too, I think. Me too. And then finally, where can people find you?

– Where to Find Amelia and Bijou

SPEAKER_00 1:06:05

Where can people find Bijou if they want to check you out? That's nice.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:08

www.bijumimi.com. Um or you can come to our pop-ups. We'll be at Spirit of Christmas, we'll be at 324 to 326 Kings Road from the 13th to the 21st of December. And then we will be having a long-term pop-up in that pop-up next year. And uh at biju.de dot meme on Instagram or at bju to me no dots on TikTok.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:34

Perfect. Thank you so much. Thank you for being here. I've loved everyone. Thank you, my darling.