Alex and Ani - The Simple Impact of a Bracelet

Who has heard of Alex and Ani? Up until a few months ago, I hadn’t. I don’t believe in coincidences. I believe there is a reason for everything that happens, every person you meet, every situation you find yourself in.

Last December, I received a holiday gift from the Company I work with. It was a gorgeous bracelet. I loved it immediately and have worn it every day since. I consider it one of my good luck charms. I wear it proudly, but didn’t really give much thought as to the bracelet manufacturer. I just know pretty when I see it.

Let me jump ahead a bit.

Last month I was in Anaheim for the Craft & Hobby Show (CHA), the craft industries annual mega show of craft suppliers, jewelry suppliers, beaders, scrapbookers, and anything that has glitter and bling. I’m not a craft blogger (and not a very good crafter), but I went to the show to find out what all the fuss was about and to get a good blog post out of it. Ha… little did I know that the little thing called “you were meant to be there” was going to hit me upside the head.

I wouldn’t normally go to an early morning Keynote breakfast, but I was meeting some friends and decided to go grab a free cup of coffee. As we sat and chatted over our coffee before the conference opened up, we found ourselves getting ready to hear the Keynote speaker.

The speaker was Giovanni Feroce, the CEO of a jewelry company called Alex and Ani. You might have heard of them… or maybe not. Like I said, I had never heard the name before and wasn’t all that interested in listening to this guy until he started his presentation and up on the big screen came a bracelet. Holy shit! That’s MY bracelet! And suddenly, this wasn’t something random. I was meant to be there.

Giovanni captivated me. I think I learned more listening to him than I have at any business seminar, blog conference or college class I ever took. It’s hard to relay the impact he had on me, but I did want to share a few of the things that really struck me.

• Show pilars of success. Don’t be afraid to let people know how successful you are. Proudly display your business name, let people see how far you’ve come. Don’t hide it.
• Create Standards. You aren’t better than anyone else, but nobody else is better than you.
• If you don’t belong in business, get out of it. If you do belong in business, be prepared to take the risk.
• Don’t be afraid to get rid of a customer if they aren’t a good fit for your business.
• Just because you are an artist, that doesn’t mean you know how to run a business and can (or should) be a retailer.
• Focus on your triple bottom line: economic (make money), social (give back), environmental (be eco-friendly).

Alex and Ani is a $230 million business with 60 retail stores and 130 wholesale accounts. They do more sales per square foot than any other store other than Apple. They are big. BIG. And it all started with the idea of one woman, Carolyn Rafaelian. She wanted to make eco-friendly jewelry that was made in America. 

“Our items are designed for longevity, as artisanal pieces that can be passed
from one generation to the next.”

So, was it a coincidence that I was there… at that exact moment… listening to the CEO of a jewelry company that manufactured a bracelet I had been wearing since December? Or was it all a grander plan that I would end up working for a company that valued it’s contract employees enough to gift them a bracelet that I would be wearing the very moment I sat at a convention center in Anaheim listening to the CEO of that very same jewelry company?

And now I’m addicted to Alex and Ani jewelry. Take a look at their website and I know you will be too. Because a simple bracelet can make more of an impact than you know.