A Note from Jane
OK buckle up, it has been a while since I have written a A Note from Jane with this tone. This blog, me literally writing directly to you all (my therapy!) started during in 2020, during COVID. In a time of uncertainty, it felt better to bring people closer than to isolate, and it really helped. So I thought I would try it again. For a little reference on the tone of the blog during covid, here is a blast from the past Note from Jane.
I honestly don’t even recognize the person who wrote that note to you! Moving on.
As you know, I LOVE love love love (there aren’t enough love’s!) making jewelry, I love that our pieces have meaning that connects. I love making videos. I love helping you choose your first coin and learn how to layer. I love working with an incredible group of people to bring Jane Win to life. I love our showroom. It makes me jump out of bed every morning. That is balanced with, and always has been: building a company, managing a company – it’s REALLY hard. In the beginning I felt like I was told no all the time, we hit a lot of roadblocks…and then about 5 years in I felt some wind in our sails. We had built a customer base that loved what we did. Those are the ups and downs of running a business that I accept but that, honestly, affect me so much.
Lately, I feel as though we are getting hit with the roadblocks again. REALLY big ones. The cost of gold and silver is at a record high, twice what it was when we started our business. We have not doubled our prices…so…it’s a challenge to make the math work. Email deliverability is terrible – aka our emails go into your spam even when you sign-up to hear from us. It’s like…hellooo…we are here, we want to share our beautiful pieces please get us out of the very un-glamorous JUNK folder 🤣. We are feeling a little buried, and not sure what curve ball is going to be thrown our way next. While I don’t want it to get me down, it can’t NOT…
So what do I turn to? Cookies and wine 😅 JK JK. I really try to stay as mentally clear as I can, that means exercise, sunshine, moderating my commitments so I don’t feel like I’m constantly running. Frankly, this is going just ok (like small o small k). I’m giving myself a C+ on overall mental health. And isn’t it so CRAZY, I make morning Instagram videos so happy – and I wake up happy and ready to go…but throughout the day it’s like bam, bam, bam, the challenges mount.
I will NOT let this be a grumpy Note from Jane. HA, I swear. I guess the overall message is WOW, can we recognize that there is a lot going on and how hard people (small companies!) are working to make things work. If you can, be nice to the waiter. Don’t write a snarky comment on Facebook (please, can we just eliminate that aspect of FB!). Help your neighbor. Smile at people.
In that spirit, we are bringing back a piece from 2020, the STRONG Mi Alzo Ancora Original Coin.
Mi Alzo Ancora is Italian and translates a few ways:
Still I Rise
I Rise Again
And my current favorite… I Get Up Again (isn’t that funny!), like. I drag myself up again and again. And again.
Another blast from the past, read this blog from the launch of Mi Alzo July 2020!
So that’s what we are going to do! We are going to get up every morning, we are going to rise, again and again until we get where we want to be. We are going to keep building something strong. I can’t make the cost of gold go down, but I can continue to design pieces that you adore, I am going to share with fun videos – and I am going to ask you to sign up for texts because emails are in junk (you can do that here)! We are going to build ourselves up, we are going to make our lives fulfilling, eliminate the fringe that isn’t positive, we are going to get the fresh air and sunshine, we are going to carry ourselves with grace, we are going to manage the curve balls and grow from strength.
That always sounds easier said than done, but I have found that a piece of jewelry, anything that you can hold on to (grab a lucky pebble for your pocket) can bring you back – it’s a reminder of your strength. The sun rises everyday and we get a new chance. I’m going to take it ❤️ she says with a mouth full of cookies 🤣
Sending tons of love,
xx Janie
