Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in jewelry but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Julia Van Arsdale, co-founder of Proud Diamond, located in Seattle, WA, USA.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

We are creating an online jewelry brand that is ESG conscious. We want to disrupt the diamond industry. Proud Diamond is a Montreal and Seattle- based start-up created in April 2021. We design and distribute lab-grown diamonds – real diamonds carefully grown in the most high-tech laboratories around the world. We are adamant that mined diamonds, also called blood diamonds, are diamonds of the past. Proud Diamond represents a new area where all diamonds are made by people, for people.

Our customers are millennials and Gen-Z. This target group is more than ever conscious of what they buy. They focus on high quality and strong company values. Even Boomers (The generation is generally defined as people born from 1946 to 1964) are more interested in lab-grown diamonds than expected.

Tell us about yourself

I get inspired by designing jewelry, creating marketing campaigns, and making the experience of buying diamond pieces online as fun as possible by providing around-the-clock customer service. It's a great inspiration for me to chat with our customers about their ideas, experiences, and also pain points.

My partner Virginie and I have worked together in the luxury industry for Luxe by Airbnb for about two years. She left the job due to the birth of her second child. A couple of years later, I followed in her steps and welcomed my first daughter. Being a new mom, I reached out to her for constant advice and guidance. This friendship led to our partnership. She told me about the idea of lab-grown diamonds and their potential in the modern world. But what really sold us on the idea of interrupting the industry is the harm that mined diamonds have on the environment and especially on young kids and their families.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

My biggest joy and accomplishment is to see our jewelry in our customers and read our reviews. Knowing that each of those purchases could have been purchased made within mined diamonds, I am proud to say that we stopped people from buying mined diamonds. We educated people, we changed their minds, and we continue doing so.

We also just sold an 8-carats diamond (ring), which is the biggest diamond purchased in America. (The first one is 9 carats and was sold in Paris). It was a special event, not just for us but also for the women who received it, as we delivered it via a helicopter.

What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?

Owning a business comes with many ups and downs. It's important to cherish the ups as much as you can. So taking time to look back at the achievements and celebrating small and big wins is a challenge but, in my eyes, absolutely necessary. Otherwise, you burn out fast. So my advice: once a day, stop everything, sit back, and be proud that you made it that far, count till 5, and then get back to your to-do list.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

  1. Look back once in a while, be proud. But then turn around and face the unknown future and your growing to-do list.
  2. Have a to-do list. There are many tasks you need to tackle, and they all need to be done on different timelines. A to-do list (or even a management software like Asana is a must-have).
  3. Listen and ask questions, many questions. Listen to your customers, listen to experts, and don't stop asking questions about how, what, when, and where. People love to share their opinions. I believe that in every conversation is a takeaway you can use to grow your business.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://prouddiamond.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/prouddiamondofficial
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/prouddiamondofficial/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/prouddiamond/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solopreneur that you'd like to share, then email community@subkit.com; we'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

Feel inspired to start, run or grow your own subscription business? Check out subkit.com and learn how you can turn "one day" into day one.