Zero dollars in my pocket and 48 carats on my finger

Let’s rewind — November 2015. I had a clothing line was that basically going sideways. My biggest obstacle was while I loved what I made, I hated marketing it (truth). I really struggled to find an ethos to stand the company on. There only so many little black dresses posts, I could do on Instagram without making myself sick.

I was uninspired, depressed, and realizing that marketing clothing took deep pockets and marketing genius that I didn’t have in me.

Around the same time, I’d also become obsessed with 💎 diamonds on Instagram. Did you know people put pictures of diamonds Instagram? All kind of kinds, big diamonds, cheap diamonds, ugly diamonds, pretty diamonds — it’s all there and I might have personally scrolled through almost every photo. I was spending hours on this new found addiction every night. It was bad.

Uninspired by my clothing brand, I just decided to start something new.

Which might seem crazy, I had a full time job, I had just invested money in this clothing brand and on paper this plan probably seemed rash and doomed to fail.

Whatever. I had a feeling, I was inspired. Influencers were blowing up and I could count on my fingers the numbers of jewelry influencers, the market was totally undersaturated. I envisioned a new brand, one that championed women buying their own diamonds and talked about diamonds, the way my best friend would. Not all technical, misogynistic, and shady like the norm in the industry.

So — I took the leap — I started my own diamond focused Instagram account called @gem_hunt. I had 0 followers. Square ONE. I also started a blog, I figured website is always a good idea — meet gemhunt.co

I new nothing and I mean pretty much nothing about the jewelry industry and I knew no one in an industry that is notoriously closed off and secretive.

I just started somewhere.

I started blogging, reaching out to people asking questions. I become obsessive about growing my Instagram posting multiple times a day, spending hours networking, liking, commenting, and finding and creating interesting content.

Guess what — it paid off.

I invested $0 in Gem Hunt and now I have a full fledged business. I have industry connections, diamond suppliers, I am attending GIA school. I know my G color and what an SI diamond looks like. Say my name to a jeweler and there is a good chance people will know of me (insta fame will do that). I have close to 200,000 followers across platforms and I have a real business. I have held 48 carat diamond (yes, it was HUGE).

Brick by brick I built Gem Hunt. First I built the blog and Instagram. I made connections, I got paid sponsorships. I took that money and invested in back into ads made it grow even more. Took that money, and starting investing in my store Gem Breakfast.

I still have a long way to go…my business is by no means, successful, stable, or what I want it to be. But I have to say, I do love it.

In a land of a lot articles and hype about raising money, funds, and or taking loans to build your company. It can feel like that might the only way. I wanted to write this story to share — it’s not. There are start up’s for the rest of us.

You can follow my personal Instagram, or follow me on Twitter.

You can find my fine jewelry blog at gemhunt.co and my store at gembreakfast.com

This story is published in The Startup, Medium’s largest entrepreneurship publication followed by 289,682+ people.

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