Latest / The iDesign Lab Podcast / How Katia Rudnick Built a Purpose-Driven Jewelry Brand Through Intentional Design

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How Katia Rudnick Built a Purpose-Driven Jewelry Brand Through Intentional Design · The iDesign Lab Podcast

• 0:00
  Voice Over: This is iDesign Lab, a podcast where creativity and curiosity meet style and design.
• 0:06
  Voice Over: Curator of interiors, furnishings, and lifestyles.
• 0:09
  Voice Over: Hosted by Tiffany Woolley, an interior designer and a style enthusiast, along with her serial entrepreneur husband Scott.
• 0:16
  Voice Over: iDesign Lab is your ultimate design podcast, where we explore the rich and vibrant world of design and its constant evolution in style and trends.
• 0:25
  Voice Over: Today on iDesign Lab, we're joined by Katya Rudnik, founder and CEO of Katia Designs.
• 0:31
  Voice Over: From growing up in Soviet Russia to building a purpose-driven jewelry brand in South Florida, Katia creates pieces that blend natural elements, empowering mantras, and mindfulness.
• 0:42
  Voice Over: Her jewelry isn't just worn, it's felt.
• 0:45
  Voice Over: Today, we'll explore her journey of creativity, confidence, and turning inspiration into a thriving brand.
• 1:14
  TIffany Woolley: Which, if you can't see, they're beautiful sparkly pieces around your neck.
• 1:18
  TIffany Woolley: I'm sure they have to do with your designs.
• 1:21
  TIffany Woolley: So welcome.
• 1:22
  TIffany Woolley: Thank you.
• 1:23
  TIffany Woolley: And not only do we want to hear and highlight obviously Katya designs, but we want to know the backstory.
• 1:29
  TIffany Woolley: So explain to our audience where Katya designs started from.
• 1:36
  Katia Rudnick: You know, it's funny because sometimes I look back and I feel like I've lived so many lives.
• 1:42
  Katia Rudnick: You know.
• 1:43
  Katia Rudnick: And and uh not often, actually, when I have this conversation, we'll go all the way back.
• 1:49
  Katia Rudnick: But I think it does have so much to do.
• 1:51
  Katia Rudnick: As as most of us, I think our childhood uh foundation influences are but your childhood started in Russia.
• 2:00
  Katia Rudnick: Yeah.
• 2:01
  Katia Rudnick: So it's to me.
• 2:04
  TIffany Woolley: To me, that's just so fascinating.
• 2:05
  Katia Rudnick: Yeah, it's so tell us a little about that.
• 2:07
  Scott Woolley: Where did where in Russia did you grow up?
• 2:09
  Katia Rudnick: Uh I grew up in Moscow.
• 2:11
  Katia Rudnick: Okay.
• 2:11
  Katia Rudnick: Um uh back it was when it was a communist country, and I immigrated to the United States in 1989 when all the changes were happening.
• 2:23
  Katia Rudnick: Uh so when the world came down and uh just things are so I really got to experience how it was there for the previous 70 to 80 years, and I think that anyone my age or older that came from Russia have been have that tough foundation because you had to be uh to to live in that.
• 2:50
  Scott Woolley: So did you come with your family or by yourself?
• 2:52
  Katia Rudnick: I I I immigrated with my family because we were Jewish.
• 2:56
  Katia Rudnick: Uh so we had some family here in the United States that sponsored us.
• 3:02
  Katia Rudnick: Wow.
• 3:02
  Katia Rudnick: And I came here when I was 15, almost 16.
• 3:06
  Katia Rudnick: Such an impressionable time.
• 3:07
  Katia Rudnick: That's a crazy.
• 3:08
  Katia Rudnick: Yes.
• 3:10
  Katia Rudnick: Uh, and we came um with not much.
• 3:16
  TIffany Woolley: And how does a family even have that conversation?
• 3:19
  TIffany Woolley: Like, how do your parents you know?
• 3:21
  Katia Rudnick: I now think about it because I'm the age.
• 3:24
  Katia Rudnick: Sort of like where, you know, my mom, because I came with my my my parents and my grandparents.
• 3:30
  Katia Rudnick: They came with us, they were 70 years old.
• 3:32
  Katia Rudnick: My mom was in her 40s, and I'm thinking, how does like I that's crazy?
• 3:38
  Katia Rudnick: It's like me moving to a country that I don't speak the language as well.
• 3:43
  Scott Woolley: So you didn't speak English when you came?
• 3:45
  Scott Woolley: No.
• 3:45
  Scott Woolley: Wow.
• 3:45
  Katia Rudnick: And like so, for all of us, it was you know complete culture shock.
• 3:49
  Katia Rudnick: Um, and it was quite an experience, and we uh lived in an apartment all together.
• 3:58
  Scott Woolley: Where did you settle?
• 3:58
  Scott Woolley: Where did you come to Boston?
• 3:59
  Scott Woolley: Into Boston.
• 4:00
  Scott Woolley: Okay.
• 4:00
  TIffany Woolley: So it's so it's funny, I went to college in Boston.
• 4:03
  TIffany Woolley: Yeah, which one?
• 4:04
  Katia Rudnick: Yeah, my husband went there.
• 4:07
  TIffany Woolley: And there was a great Russian community there.
• 4:11
  Katia Rudnick: There's definitely the, I mean, Russians are everywhere.
• 4:13
  Katia Rudnick: Right.
• 4:13
  Katia Rudnick: Yeah, like anywhere in the world you go.
• 4:15
  Katia Rudnick: Yeah.
• 4:19
  Katia Rudnick: Um, and I think of what has happened, you know, from that time to now.
• 4:24
  Katia Rudnick: Um, and yeah, so the definitely some core beliefs and foundation that uh I was raised with has a lot to do with the way I am today.
• 4:37
  Katia Rudnick: At this point, I'm very Americanized.
• 4:40
  Katia Rudnick: You know, I mean I barely speak any Russian.
• 4:43
  Katia Rudnick: I only speak to my mom a little bit, you know, but I speak English, you know, my kids don't speak Russian.
• 4:48
  Katia Rudnick: Um but I think in English.
• 4:52
  Katia Rudnick: You do?
• 4:52
  Katia Rudnick: Yeah, like I used to dream in English.
• 4:54
  Katia Rudnick: I I count in Russian, you know, but I think in English.
• 4:58
  Katia Rudnick: And uh uh it's it's it's an interesting thing that is happening in my head.
• 5:03
  Katia Rudnick: But yeah, like I'm I'm I'm very Americanized, but at the same time, those 15, 16 years that I spent there has a strong impression.
• 5:16
  Katia Rudnick: It definitely made me into a person that I am today.
• 5:20
  Scott Woolley: Well, at 16, was it tough to learn English?
• 5:22
  Katia Rudnick: It was.
• 5:23
  Katia Rudnick: I came I I went to Brookline High School.
• 5:27
  Katia Rudnick: In Brookline, in Brookline, and there was a a a little Russian community there, you know, students.
• 5:34
  Katia Rudnick: And uh, you know, if right now sometimes I giggle thinking to myself, taking because I was basically just dropped into taking English classes, and I'm like, you know, I don't even just jump in.
• 5:47
  Katia Rudnick: I don't even know how um but you know, you do resilient.
• 5:52
  Scott Woolley: But it's also writing and reading.
• 5:54
  Scott Woolley: Everything, yeah.
• 5:55
  Katia Rudnick: I mean I took uh ESL, which was uh English Second Language, but I was talking to someone actually recently, and they were talking about a critical thinking class, and I'm like, I remember taking that where I barely spoke English.
• 6:11
  Katia Rudnick: Like, how the how was I even supposed to figure that out?
• 6:14
  Katia Rudnick: Right.
• 6:15
  Katia Rudnick: So so yeah, that was that was an interesting experience.
• 6:18
  Katia Rudnick: And then, you know, it took me a couple of years to um start feeling more comfortable because I was surrounded by a big Russian community, the accent stuck around because I was speaking actually Russian, where someone that is dropped in in in in the area, like if there was no Russians spoken, I know people that came in the same uh time as me, same age, they have zero accent.
• 6:43
  Katia Rudnick: Yeah, but mine interesting.
• 6:45
  Katia Rudnick: Mine's stuck, yeah.
• 6:47
  Katia Rudnick: I kind of like that.
• 6:48
  Katia Rudnick: It's it yeah, I guess so, you know.
• 6:50
  Katia Rudnick: So I I it was uh a little upsetting, but I've learned to appreciate it and love it at this point.
• 6:56
  Katia Rudnick: And so in uh I met my husband uh when I was in Boston, as I mentioned, he went to be you, and we settled down there, and we have three beautiful daughters, and we uh moved to Florida 20 years or 21 years ago.
• 7:21
  Scott Woolley: What brought you to Florida?
• 7:23
  Katia Rudnick: What do you think?
• 7:24
  Scott Woolley: Business or the weather.
• 7:25
  Scott Woolley: Those two.
• 7:27
  Katia Rudnick: Those two actually we uh we used to have a chain of medical spas in Boston and New York, and we would come here every possible break vacation, and we were like, what are we doing there?
• 7:42
  Katia Rudnick: As many of people that move here from you know northeast.
• 7:46
  Katia Rudnick: And one of those times um we were like, you know what, okay, we're just gonna do it.
• 7:51
  Katia Rudnick: Yeah.
• 7:52
  Katia Rudnick: So we opened up a store, uh actually a few stores here, and we did that.
• 7:57
  Katia Rudnick: And and back then, uh I was really uh assisting my husband's, it was more of his dream running that business.
• 8:08
  Katia Rudnick: And I was using my artistic uh creativity to build our locations to help out and sort of eat the vision.
• 8:20
  Scott Woolley: Does he still do that?
• 8:21
  Katia Rudnick: No, no, not anymore.
• 8:23
  Katia Rudnick: Um and uh we did that for quite a few years, and then when I was about 45 years old, you know, because I I was searching, I wanted to do something that you felt it felt yeah, it's like mine and and felt good to me.
• 8:44
  Scott Woolley: And how old were your three girls at that point?
• 8:48
  Katia Rudnick: Uh so my uh youngest uh my uh my older kids might have uh twin girls.
• 8:55
  Katia Rudnick: They were um about twenty.
• 8:59
  Katia Rudnick: Okay.
• 9:00
  Katia Rudnick: Yeah, and my little one was about uh uh thirteen, I guess.
• 9:05
  Speaker 4: Okay, they're about to we have twin girls.
• 9:07
  Katia Rudnick: Okay.
• 9:07
  Katia Rudnick: How how old?
• 9:09
  Katia Rudnick: Sixteen.
• 9:09
  Speaker 4: Sixteen.
• 9:10
  Katia Rudnick: Okay, you got a couple more years.
• 9:11
  Katia Rudnick: Hang in there.
• 9:13
  Katia Rudnick: All right.
• 9:14
  Scott Woolley: So they're so your two oldest are around twenty, and you're now thinking about doing something different.
• 9:20
  Katia Rudnick: So yeah, so I'm I'm basically where my kids are sort of like already, you know, at the place where I can probably driving.
• 9:28
  Katia Rudnick: I can yeah, they're driving, they're doing the thing, the you know, school time is becoming more available.
• 9:33
  Katia Rudnick: Definitely have shifted, you know?
• 9:36
  Katia Rudnick: And I wanted to do something, I didn't have the clarity of what I wanted to do.
• 9:41
  Katia Rudnick: And one day I was uh in yoga class, and I was in upside down dog, and uh, this woman between my legs was wearing this really cool medallion bracelet, and it just it was like an iPad moment.
• 10:00
  Katia Rudnick: I I was just looking at it at the whole class, you know that it took it it took my attention because it looked so cool.
• 10:05
  Katia Rudnick: And the thing is, I was never into jewelry, never really into fashion, but my like I was kind of doing my thing, but I wasn't jewelry was never my thing, right?
• 10:18
  Katia Rudnick: But that thing, that that vision was just like so strong, and I came up to her uh after the class and I was like, this is really Tell me what is what is where'd you get this, you know?
• 10:28
  Katia Rudnick: Yeah, and she gave me the name of the company.
• 10:32
  Katia Rudnick: I looked it up right after the class, I couldn't find it, and then I was like, I wonder if I can make it, because I was always been very good with my hands.
• 10:40
  Katia Rudnick: I can I like creating things.
• 10:43
  Katia Rudnick: And so that day I just went on Google and I looked up art classes in in this area.
• 10:50
  Katia Rudnick: Yeah, so for the for the jewelry, right?
• 10:54
  Katia Rudnick: And uh Boca Art Museum popped up because they have a lot of classes for adults and kids.
• 10:59
  Katia Rudnick: Amazing.
• 11:00
  Katia Rudnick: And there was a class for jewelry making, and I just drove there.
• 11:05
  Katia Rudnick: On a whim.
• 11:06
  TIffany Woolley: Just like your husband and kids or I just want to be able to do it.
• 11:09
  Scott Woolley: You're not a jewelry wearer.
• 11:10
  Scott Woolley: No.
• 11:11
  Scott Woolley: You've never run a business.
• 11:12
  Scott Woolley: No start a jeweler.
• 11:13
  Katia Rudnick: Not in my no.
• 11:14
  Katia Rudnick: Not on the mile, no.
• 11:15
  Scott Woolley: No.
• 11:16
  Scott Woolley: So did you think you're gonna start creating jewelry or so?
• 11:19
  Katia Rudnick: This is what interests, this is how sometimes, and I'll tell you first the story.
• 11:22
  TIffany Woolley: You have to be so open, I feel like, to be able to receive that information, which clearly you were.
• 11:28
  Katia Rudnick: That was and and that was something that after I explained to you how this all came about, I think that's exactly what makes this the most important part of this whole experience.
• 11:40
  Katia Rudnick: Right.
• 11:40
  Katia Rudnick: You know, because I was just following.
• 11:45
  Katia Rudnick: I was receiving and I was just following without any overthinking.
• 11:50
  Katia Rudnick: There was no like, oh, how am I gonna?
• 11:52
  Katia Rudnick: So I drove to that school, I walked in, and I was like, this just feels right.
• 12:00
  Katia Rudnick: This feels right, and then there was it was this medium that I've never seen before.
• 12:06
  Katia Rudnick: Still a lot of people don't know about it.
• 12:07
  Katia Rudnick: It's called metal clay, where metal comes in a clay form.
• 12:12
  TIffany Woolley: Okay.
• 12:13
  Katia Rudnick: So you you basically, it's like play-doh.
• 12:15
  Katia Rudnick: Yeah so you form it into whatever you want, you put it in a kiln, and then it turns into solid metal, and it comes in uh bronze, copper, silver, gold, whatever you want to work with.
• 12:27
  Katia Rudnick: And I was like, wow, this is magic.
• 12:30
  Katia Rudnick: You know, it was like completely kid in me.
• 12:32
  Katia Rudnick: A kid in me, it was like, wow, and it just looks so organic and cool.
• 12:36
  Katia Rudnick: And I walked out of there, I was just like, my my heart was beating faster.
• 12:42
  Katia Rudnick: And uh it was almost like I got infected by something that I it was it it overtook me.
• 12:49
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 12:50
  Katia Rudnick: And I uh um signed up.
• 12:53
  Katia Rudnick: It was eight classes, one one class a week.
• 12:55
  Katia Rudnick: But meanwhile, so was this like during the day or when like your kids are in school or yeah, I just I just like any free moment that I had was you were like focused on that.
• 13:06
  Katia Rudnick: That was my focus, was just like tunnel.
• 13:10
  Katia Rudnick: I I watched I started watching YouTube videos on how to I bought all the books, whatever information I could get.
• 13:18
  Scott Woolley: Was there a vision that you were thinking like coming in the future that you were planning for?
• 13:23
  Katia Rudnick: The vision, the the the the vision of uh putting the medallion of her of her was sort of like my end goal of a kind of foundation of where I was going.
• 13:39
  Katia Rudnick: And then the vision was I wanted to put messages because I was 45-year-old woman, and a lot of women that age are refining ourselves, re-just lost, you know, and looking and searching uh to be fulfilled because kids are kind of grown up.
• 13:58
  Katia Rudnick: You're you know, you're so many changes were going through our changes as women.
• 14:04
  Katia Rudnick: I was like it was it was a combination of that.
• 14:08
  Katia Rudnick: And the fact that you knew like I need to do that.
• 14:11
  Katia Rudnick: I felt, I felt I was I was being called for something, and then then the what happened simultaneously is I was going through my spiritual journey, awakening the changes.
• 14:23
  Katia Rudnick: So I started to meditate, I started to read books, I started to look for things that would help me feeling better.
• 14:32
  Katia Rudnick: And I leaned towards gratitude, uh, being more mindful of what I need to pay attention to, think about, uh, and all that practice that I was doing for that, I wanted to put into the messages on those pieces that I was creating.
• 14:52
  Katia Rudnick: So I in the beginning it was like So were you sketching them?
• 14:56
  TIffany Woolley: Were you writing them down?
• 14:57
  TIffany Woolley: Like what was your process when you weren't like per se in the class?
• 15:02
  Katia Rudnick: Like what were you the the in the class I was only you know one hour a week.
• 15:06
  Katia Rudnick: Right.
• 15:07
  Katia Rudnick: So how were you collecting all of the age?
• 15:10
  Katia Rudnick: It was just like it was a downpour of inspiration.
• 15:13
  Katia Rudnick: Like it could be uh uh again, a video that I was listening to, it could be a book that I saw, it could be someone that would say something, and I was like, okay, you know, the like uh any type of message, it could be anything is possible.
• 15:28
  Katia Rudnick: I'm like, I want to put that on, and then I was I started making stamps, and I was starting to create pieces.
• 15:35
  Katia Rudnick: In the beginning, I was very inspired by nature, shelves, leaves, and then I would put that message on the back, and I was playing, and I started making playing with beads, putting it on the side.
• 15:46
  TIffany Woolley: So, where would you go to like get inspired even by these mediums, like a shell?
• 15:51
  TIffany Woolley: Or like we're going to the beach, or yeah, so yeah, really reflecting.
• 15:56
  Katia Rudnick: I would go out outside, but you know, I would go on the beach with my husband, I would look for pretty shells, which you know, living here is pretty easy to do.
• 16:03
  Katia Rudnick: And then you would make a mold of it.
• 16:06
  Katia Rudnick: Okay.
• 16:07
  Katia Rudnick: And then I would make that pendant, put basically create that outside, and then on the other side, I would put the message.
• 16:15
  Katia Rudnick: So that was, and and you know, if you scroll all the way down to the beginning of my Instagram, which was seven years ago, which will take a while, uh, because I've been posting every day.
• 16:27
  Scott Woolley: You have a pretty strong Instagram.
• 16:29
  Scott Woolley: You got like over 80,000.
• 16:30
  Scott Woolley: I have amazing followers.
• 16:33
  Katia Rudnick: That's a whole nother we need to dive into social, but I want to hear it's it's uh uh and yeah, so I'm community that comes with community has has been a blessing.
• 16:45
  Katia Rudnick: And so I started making different it it was so fulfilling for me to do this.
• 16:51
  Katia Rudnick: So were you doing this at the kitchen table?
• 16:53
  TIffany Woolley: Did you transfer a room in the house, garage, okay?
• 16:56
  Katia Rudnick: I kind of started the kitchen table, but then eventually I bought kilns, you know, and then you had a table mess everywhere.
• 17:05
  Katia Rudnick: I'm not I'm a messy creator.
• 17:08
  TIffany Woolley: Did any of the kids want to like you know, does it want to do you?
• 17:11
  TIffany Woolley: Like everybody's kind of let you do your thing.
• 17:14
  TIffany Woolley: Yeah.
• 17:14
  Scott Woolley: What did your husband think of all this?
• 17:16
  Katia Rudnick: In the beginning, he was like, Okay.
• 17:19
  Katia Rudnick: Yeah.
• 17:20
  Katia Rudnick: Called it a hobby for a while.
• 17:22
  Katia Rudnick: Okay.
• 17:22
  Katia Rudnick: You know?
• 17:23
  Scott Woolley: Or at what point did you say to yourself, I want to start selling this and start creating a business?
• 17:29
  Katia Rudnick: So the way, the way, you know, the the concept came to me almost the first week.
• 17:35
  Katia Rudnick: The logo and the name came to me the first week of this.
• 17:39
  Katia Rudnick: Then I started making this um a few months into it, I decided to do to start doing a little pop-ups around here, which was very intimidating to me back then.
• 17:51
  TIffany Woolley: Well, and I would think even just having enough to be able to present, like, you know, creating an inventory had to be a process.
• 17:58
  Katia Rudnick: I was making like I because I any free moment I had that I that I was doing that.
• 18:03
  Katia Rudnick: So I built up already to begin with, somewhat of the nice inventory of yeah, nice inventory.
• 18:09
  Katia Rudnick: And then I uh had my first uh uh pop-up in Delray in the city.
• 18:15
  Scott Woolley: But you said you were intimidated by it.
• 18:16
  Scott Woolley: Why?
• 18:17
  Katia Rudnick: What because I've never done anything like that.
• 18:19
  Scott Woolley: Okay.
• 18:19
  Katia Rudnick: And I didn't know if people would like it.
• 18:21
  Katia Rudnick: Like I loved it, but I didn't know if I can, you know.
• 18:24
  Katia Rudnick: So there was a first pop-up in in a garage in Delray.
• 18:28
  Katia Rudnick: It was on Atlantic Avenue, this little uh gallery, and they had like l vendors, you know, a few vendors.
• 18:35
  Katia Rudnick: And uh I put up my table, uh tablecloth, decorated.
• 18:38
  Katia Rudnick: I was gonna say curate your house.
• 18:48
  Scott Woolley: And I was like, That'd make you feel good.
• 18:50
  Katia Rudnick: Okay, alright.
• 18:51
  Katia Rudnick: And um and then I just started doing them as as many as I could.
• 18:58
  TIffany Woolley: And how did you decide like your price point or how to even like put a value on something that you you know have such a connection to?
• 19:07
  Katia Rudnick: Uh I you know it's interesting that you asked me that, you know, because I have been working with brass brass and bronze, which is not a fine metal, but the time that it took me to create it uh is the value is the value.
• 19:23
  Katia Rudnick: You know, so so that was originally how it has been priced.
• 19:28
  Katia Rudnick: As the business grew and the whole uh business model changed, that price somewhat maintained because of the cost of the running an operation and a team and and marketing and all that stuff.
• 19:44
  Katia Rudnick: So um and uh I started doing that, and then this is what's interesting, what happened uh also a few months into this process.
• 19:56
  Katia Rudnick: I was playing around one day creating uh necklaces, and I had a magnetic clasp, and I was playing with the necklace, and I was like, wait a second, to give you an example of that.
• 20:12
  Katia Rudnick: I was like, I put a magnetic clasp on it, that's so cool, and then I was like, you know what?
• 20:18
  Katia Rudnick: If I put the magnetic clasp over here, then the necklace design will change.
• 20:23
  Katia Rudnick: So I was like, I've never seen it before.
• 20:27
  Katia Rudnick: I was like, that's interesting, that is interesting, and I ran to the next room to tell my husband.
• 20:34
  Katia Rudnick: I was like, I think this is freaking cool.
• 20:38
  Katia Rudnick: He was not impressed, not impressed at all.
• 20:42
  Katia Rudnick: I'm like, this is a Eureka moment.
• 20:45
  Katia Rudnick: This is like, yeah, this is really cool.
• 20:47
  Katia Rudnick: And then so I incorporated into my designs, and when I started selling it, women were like, Genius, yeah.
• 20:54
  Katia Rudnick: They were like, This is amazing.
• 20:56
  Katia Rudnick: Yeah, because you're getting more so much more, more useful, you know, have you found has anyone else done something like that?
• 21:03
  Katia Rudnick: Or is there well what happened was I was like, I wonder if I can patent this.
• 21:07
  Katia Rudnick: So uh the patenting process can be very interesting and daunting and lawyer and uh everything, you know, it can be lengthy, very expensive, not not guaranteed results.
• 21:20
  Katia Rudnick: But uh I was like, I think I want to do this, and so we went to uh a patent uh lawyer, and first you have to go through a search process to see if which is like can you imagine exhaustive, yeah, like you know, and we did that, and then we applied, and the lawyer was like, listen, there's no guarantees.
• 21:47
  Katia Rudnick: We can do this process two two times or three times because they might come back.
• 21:51
  Katia Rudnick: Right.
• 21:52
  Katia Rudnick: And um, and we got approved the first time that we we we applied.
• 21:58
  Katia Rudnick: So I owned a patent on.
• 21:59
  Katia Rudnick: So it literally is it is literally my design.
• 22:05
  TIffany Woolley: So um that is the next step into a business.
• 22:08
  Katia Rudnick: That was that was the next step to the business, yeah.
• 22:10
  Katia Rudnick: That's huge, you know.
• 22:12
  Scott Woolley: So it was intellectual property doesn't make value just in that.
• 22:16
  Katia Rudnick: Yeah.
• 22:16
  Katia Rudnick: Yeah.
• 22:17
  Katia Rudnick: So when I, you know, when someone asks me what makes our jewelry and what makes our brand unique, I always go to this three points.
• 22:29
  Katia Rudnick: One is how it makes you feel.
• 22:31
  Katia Rudnick: Our tagline, it's not just jewelry, it's a feeling.
• 22:34
  Katia Rudnick: Yeah.
• 22:35
  Katia Rudnick: So it always starts with a message.
• 22:38
  Katia Rudnick: Like this pendant over here says believe.
• 22:41
  Katia Rudnick: Okay.
• 22:41
  Katia Rudnick: So this one says breathe.
• 22:45
  Scott Woolley: I have to on your website, you have categories.
• 22:48
  Scott Woolley: Uh uh, I wrote some of them down.
• 22:50
  Scott Woolley: Care, gratitude, peace, self-love, things that people are your jewelry fits into these different basically what are you searching for?
• 22:59
  Katia Rudnick: Where are you what you need that day?
• 23:01
  Katia Rudnick: A little balance.
• 23:03
  TIffany Woolley: Where's the imbalance, I guess?
• 23:04
  TIffany Woolley: Yeah.
• 23:05
  Katia Rudnick: Like we all, you know, some days I need all as well, and some days I need to remember who the F you are.
• 23:10
  Katia Rudnick: Right.
• 23:11
  Katia Rudnick: The reassuring.
• 23:12
  Katia Rudnick: It depends, you know, which what what type of uh space you're in.
• 23:16
  Katia Rudnick: And that's very personal.
• 23:17
  Katia Rudnick: So you find piece that speaks to your heart.
• 23:21
  Katia Rudnick: So the message is the foundation of this brand, how it makes you feel.
• 23:25
  Katia Rudnick: Number two, magnetic class, patent design, where you can wear one piece many different ways.
• 23:31
  Katia Rudnick: You can double it, triple it, you can bring the pendant on the bottom, on the top.
• 23:35
  Katia Rudnick: And number three, the fun and the layering look.
• 23:39
  Katia Rudnick: Right.
• 23:39
  Katia Rudnick: Because women will tons of compliments because it's very unique and different.
• 23:45
  Katia Rudnick: And putting those three together, I feel like I'm not really in competition with other brands.
• 23:51
  Katia Rudnick: You know, we have our own niche.
• 23:52
  Katia Rudnick: I I uh I like this is who we are and this is what we do.
• 23:56
  Katia Rudnick: And I think being authentic about this.
• 24:00
  TIffany Woolley: And it's ageless too.
• 24:02
  TIffany Woolley: I mean, you're not pigeonholing into a t an age limit.
• 24:06
  TIffany Woolley: I mean, I would think that this really could speak to anybody.
• 24:10
  Katia Rudnick: It will speak to anyone.
• 24:11
  Katia Rudnick: Uh, because of the messages and the messages that I put on the jewelry, our customers are I would say 40 plus women.
• 24:21
  Katia Rudnick: Okay.
• 24:22
  TIffany Woolley: Because but I would even think in the youth today, you know, with teenagers and just going through, you know, times, it's such a cool thing for a parent to give a child or a friendship.
• 24:34
  Katia Rudnick: It is, it is, absolutely.
• 24:35
  Katia Rudnick: It is, absolutely, but not as much as it's gonna mean to a woman who's gone through some shit.
• 24:41
  Katia Rudnick: Yeah.
• 24:41
  Scott Woolley: So when you say messages, you all of your pieces have some sort of uh word or statement or saying that makes you think about yourself or your life and where you are that day.
• 24:52
  Katia Rudnick: Yeah.
• 24:52
  Scott Woolley: So there's an impact of just beside just wearing it, reading it, reminding yourself of it.
• 24:59
  Katia Rudnick: That's right.
• 24:59
  Katia Rudnick: It's not just a pretty accessory.
• 25:01
  Katia Rudnick: Right.
• 25:01
  Katia Rudnick: It has a purpose.
• 25:02
  Katia Rudnick: So, like a you know, bracelet might say, Today I choose joy.
• 25:07
  Scott Woolley: Right.
• 25:07
  Katia Rudnick: Or I own my peace.
• 25:09
  Katia Rudnick: Or it could be something keep going, or you're doing effing great.
• 25:17
  Katia Rudnick: Like there's you know, there's a it's it's it's the messages that helped me.
• 25:22
  Scott Woolley: Yeah.
• 25:22
  Scott Woolley: So does every piece have some sort of saying, or most of the pieces, yeah.
• 25:28
  Katia Rudnick: Most of the pieces have them.
• 25:29
  Katia Rudnick: So the some pieces that might not are the layering.
• 25:32
  Katia Rudnick: So the concept starts with the medallion of the inspiration.
• 25:36
  Katia Rudnick: That's how I like to go about it.
• 25:38
  Katia Rudnick: You know, and then what happens is when someone's in the whimsy kind of.
• 25:43
  Katia Rudnick: Yeah, it it it's a it's it we it it's funny because our customers often say, like, I have to unfollow you because my husband is gonna addiction.
• 25:55
  Katia Rudnick: We've known to be a little bit addictive.
• 25:57
  Katia Rudnick: Yeah, it's a good idea.
• 25:57
  Katia Rudnick: Because you you get one piece and it feels good, and it's easy, and you put it on a second, and that message makes you feel a certain way, and then you see another video of mine where I show you how you can lay it with this necklace or this necklace, and then customer like, okay, I think I need to have that.
• 26:17
  Katia Rudnick: And then what ends up having happening is they are building a collection.
• 26:22
  Katia Rudnick: Right, which is wonderful.
• 26:23
  Katia Rudnick: And and they they yeah, so it's it's not just like a a pretty necklace that I'll wear with whatever.
• 26:30
  Katia Rudnick: It's there's a mission behind it, and then they start collecting more and more and more because everything is layerable.
• 26:37
  Katia Rudnick: You can change whatever you you can create different looks with messages or colors.
• 26:44
  Katia Rudnick: Well, I was gonna say, and color has messages meaning, so uh stones, you know, so there's a there's a lot to it, and um and then yeah, I I often get uh pictures of uh customers' uh jewelry stands or collections, and you know they could open up a kati design store if they wanted to.
• 27:06
  Scott Woolley: So are most of your sales on your website or in stores?
• 27:11
  Scott Woolley: Because I see you sell at a lot of stores, a lot of locations.
• 27:14
  Katia Rudnick: We we uh we the way we build this business is straight to consumer through uh mostly Facebook, Instagram, okay, which is such an amazing way.
• 27:24
  Scott Woolley: So for people who are listening and watching to this podcast, yeah, what is that website so they can it katedesigns.com is our website.
• 27:32
  Katia Rudnick: If you go to Instagram or Facebook, it's Katy Designs.
• 27:35
  Katia Rudnick: You can find us on TikTok or on uh pretty much any platform.
• 27:40
  Katia Rudnick: And uh we do have uh I think close to 200 boutiques that carry our line.
• 27:48
  Katia Rudnick: Most of them in the United States will have some international.
• 27:54
  TIffany Woolley: I mean, you said you have a team, like yeah, where is it?
• 27:57
  Scott Woolley: So do you go to shows?
• 27:58
  Scott Woolley: Did you go to like jewelry shows magic show in Vegas?
• 28:02
  Katia Rudnick: Or we we actually went uh this year to Magic Show.
• 28:05
  Katia Rudnick: We have not done a lot of shows.
• 28:06
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 28:07
  Katia Rudnick: Uh because we're still kind of developing our wholesale because again, most of our sales have been directly to the consumer.
• 28:17
  Katia Rudnick: And um we have grown tremendously from the day when I was in my garage.
• 28:22
  Katia Rudnick: You know, we sold over $25 million of jewelry since then.
• 28:26
  Katia Rudnick: Um it's been it's been an incredible experience.
• 28:31
  Katia Rudnick: Um we're now stepping into the retail, and I'm very, very excited about it.
• 28:36
  Katia Rudnick: I'm sure.
• 28:37
  Scott Woolley: So now you have to have different pricing.
• 28:39
  Scott Woolley: You need the three three-tier pricing.
• 28:41
  Katia Rudnick: We we you know, and we do right now.
• 28:43
  Katia Rudnick: You know, we have our prices really range from I would say $40 to $150.
• 28:49
  Katia Rudnick: Uh-huh.
• 28:50
  Katia Rudnick: Um, so we have quite a range.
• 28:53
  Katia Rudnick: It's considered to be a fashion jewelry, uh, yet um our product less.
• 28:58
  Katia Rudnick: We have an incredible uh quality to our product, which I'm very, very particular about.
• 29:05
  TIffany Woolley: Where are you manufacturing now?
• 29:08
  Katia Rudnick: We or overseas.
• 29:09
  Katia Rudnick: Overseas we assemble it here in Bokuratan in in our studio.
• 29:13
  Katia Rudnick: We're located in uh in a plaza where melting pot is.
• 29:17
  Katia Rudnick: I don't know if you know her.
• 29:18
  Katia Rudnick: Yeah, yeah.
• 29:19
  Katia Rudnick: Yeah, we have a studio there.
• 29:21
  Katia Rudnick: Um, and uh yeah, we've built an internal team.
• 29:24
  Katia Rudnick: You know, we have people that work uh internally and also off uh uh remotely, like my uh brand uh um manager, my right hand is in Texas.
• 29:37
  Scott Woolley: You know, we have uh people that manage our media, so it's so how does that does that work well for you, having someone in Texas and you're here and she saw you know, she actually started with me when I was still in the garage.
• 29:50
  Katia Rudnick: Okay.
• 29:50
  Katia Rudnick: So she knows she can she knows, she knows this brand inside out, you know.
• 29:55
  Katia Rudnick: We build it together.
• 29:56
  Katia Rudnick: Um, and we have an incredible team, you know, and Christina, who's uh our PR, that uh uh put you and you guys together, you know, she's local, but uh she's remote also, you know, she's not in actually in our store.
• 30:09
  Katia Rudnick: So it's a it's a combination.
• 30:12
  Katia Rudnick: Um, but yeah, you know, what happened was started in a garage, and then we decided to I was doing local pop-ups, right?
• 30:22
  Katia Rudnick: And uh I could see how the customers were responding.
• 30:26
  Katia Rudnick: It allowed me to develop sort of the the the what is going to be like it's yeah, there was a foundation that, and then my husband, who's my partner, and he's uh you know business genius.
• 30:40
  Katia Rudnick: He's like, you know what, we you can't do this on your own.
• 30:44
  TIffany Woolley: We should time to take it out.
• 30:46
  TIffany Woolley: I think he jumped you?
• 30:48
  TIffany Woolley: I think he did jump in and you know, we worked with the city.
• 30:50
  TIffany Woolley: Well, what a beautiful validation though of your tenacity to keep it.
• 30:55
  Katia Rudnick: You know, he saw the potential, you know.
• 30:57
  Katia Rudnick: He's like, okay, I think uh I think we need to um start improving this model and and building the infrastructure and foundation.
• 31:07
  Katia Rudnick: Obviously, it did not happen overnight.
• 31:08
  Katia Rudnick: You know, we hired still seven years.
• 31:11
  Katia Rudnick: What a vision.
• 31:11
  Katia Rudnick: It's it's been it's been cool.
• 31:13
  Katia Rudnick: Yeah, we hired a couple of people in our garage first, and then we're like outgrew the space and then got into the first studio and then moved to another studio as we grew.
• 31:24
  Katia Rudnick: And there's, you know, when you have a business, it's continuous, constant change.
• 31:28
  Katia Rudnick: You have to, you know, uh also the life of entrepreneur.
• 31:32
  Katia Rudnick: Right.
• 31:33
  Katia Rudnick: There's there's so many changes and variations all the time.
• 31:37
  TIffany Woolley: Easy to enroll with the city.
• 31:38
  Katia Rudnick: You have to adjust, you have to be on the top of things, you have to be uh creative.
• 31:44
  Katia Rudnick: But all those things uh have been fun because I love learning.
• 31:52
  TIffany Woolley: And that's what keeps it so you know, you said you learned from a mistake one of your most popular finishes.
• 31:58
  TIffany Woolley: I mean, I can't even imagine through those processes.
• 32:02
  Katia Rudnick: Yeah, so that was uh it it it it's interesting the way that happened.
• 32:06
  Katia Rudnick: And that's uh I when I was working making the pandants, right?
• 32:10
  Katia Rudnick: And I and it the the they were very shiny the pandets, but when I was putting the messages on, the messages and the details didn't stand out as much.
• 32:21
  Katia Rudnick: So when I accidentally dropped one of my pennants in um this oxidation solution, and I was and I was playing with everything.
• 32:29
  Katia Rudnick: I was doing, I was banging the head.
• 32:31
  Katia Rudnick: I mean that that garage was, you know.
• 32:34
  Katia Rudnick: Um and then it it turned almost like black.
• 32:38
  Katia Rudnick: And when I polished it, all the beautiful details to that.
• 32:41
  Katia Rudnick: You know, and I was and I loved, I love that I that look, it was almost like, you know, um, I often uh describe our jewelry uh that it's earthy glam, like it's like it reminded me of coins that you would find on the island somewhere, you know, when you find a treasure.
• 33:01
  Katia Rudnick: Right.
• 33:01
  Katia Rudnick: It's a treasure, it's shiny, but it has like uh it has some ruggedness.
• 33:07
  Katia Rudnick: Yeah, like some it has been limiting, yeah.
• 33:11
  TIffany Woolley: It's a lie.
• 33:12
  Katia Rudnick: So uh so and now I've maintained, I love the oxidized look, you know.
• 33:17
  Katia Rudnick: I like I feel like it gives the character to the pieces.
• 33:20
  Katia Rudnick: So I've maintained that.
• 33:22
  TIffany Woolley: Um that was an interesting So how do you keep the creative process going for yourself?
• 33:27
  TIffany Woolley: Are you still doing the hands-on, or do you still keep a corner of the garage that keeps you like uh in all your spare time?
• 33:34
  TIffany Woolley: Or do you feel like you've morphed more into the the face and the you know the business side?
• 33:41
  Katia Rudnick: I would say everything.
• 33:42
  Katia Rudnick: All of it.
• 33:43
  Katia Rudnick: You know, all of it because I still design it.
• 33:46
  Katia Rudnick: And it's still very I it's uh probably not the most uh traditional jewelry company way.
• 33:55
  Katia Rudnick: I'm very um which how would I say that?
• 34:03
  Katia Rudnick: I like I get inspired just the way I was in the beginning, and I follow that.
• 34:08
  Katia Rudnick: So sometimes I'll just be like, ah, good idea.
• 34:11
  Katia Rudnick: And I'll sketch that.
• 34:13
  Katia Rudnick: So you will.
• 34:13
  Katia Rudnick: And I'll be like, okay, let's make it, you know, like so it's it's it I have a hard time planning sometimes because I'm not sure.
• 34:21
  TIffany Woolley: Well that's the creative mind.
• 34:22
  TIffany Woolley: You can't always plan.
• 34:24
  TIffany Woolley: You have to and you have to keep your brain open to that.
• 34:28
  Scott Woolley: So, like currently, right now, how many pieces, yeah, unique or different pieces are you selling?
• 34:34
  Katia Rudnick: Uh you know, we probably have maybe close like around 350 to 400, you know.
• 34:40
  Katia Rudnick: And what happens is different different different SKUs, different, you know.
• 34:45
  Katia Rudnick: So different things.
• 34:46
  Katia Rudnick: You have rings, your bracelet.
• 34:48
  Katia Rudnick: I mean, rings, bracelet, and then what happens is most of our pieces are limited edition.
• 34:53
  Katia Rudnick: So once it sells out, it's gone, it's gone.
• 34:56
  Katia Rudnick: So uh there's some few core pieces, but most of them, once they're gone, they're gone.
• 35:02
  Katia Rudnick: And that's another reason why our customers will buy it, because they might not it might not be available tomorrow.
• 35:08
  Scott Woolley: So the consumer knows that that's a limited quantity.
• 35:12
  Katia Rudnick: Once they get to know us more and more, if they if they decide to uh invest some of their time, because I'm I there's a lot of education in my marketing.
• 35:23
  Katia Rudnick: I you know, as I as I show people uh and teach them, and once they get into it, then they know.
• 35:30
  Katia Rudnick: They're like they see when I post something and I'll say, you know, very small collection, they know to jump on.
• 35:36
  Scott Woolley: So how often are you making new pieces?
• 35:38
  Scott Woolley: Uh uh on a monthly basis, a yearly basis?
• 35:41
  Scott Woolley: Is it a lot of people?
• 35:42
  TIffany Woolley: Yeah, every you know, every every month, a quarter, like do you release like fashion houses?
• 35:47
  Katia Rudnick: We we have we have um uh uh typically two new collections a month.
• 35:54
  Katia Rudnick: Wow, you know?
• 35:54
  Katia Rudnick: So when you say a collection, how many a collection a collection might be uh uh a necklace, earrings, bracelet, and a ring.
• 36:04
  Katia Rudnick: Uh or it might be a collection of the same necklace in a few different colors.
• 36:10
  Katia Rudnick: So there's different type of collections.
• 36:12
  Katia Rudnick: Um like for example, next week we have a release of this necklace, and the neckla it has matching earrings and a ring.
• 36:24
  Katia Rudnick: The earrings say dream.
• 36:27
  Katia Rudnick: The necklace says believe, and this ring says achieve.
• 36:33
  Katia Rudnick: Okay.
• 36:33
  Katia Rudnick: So it's a story.
• 36:35
  Katia Rudnick: You tell you don't have to buy all three, right?
• 36:38
  Katia Rudnick: But you because they each one of them will represent a feeling.
• 36:43
  Katia Rudnick: Yet if you like matching things and you level three, you can too.
• 36:47
  Katia Rudnick: Right.
• 36:47
  Katia Rudnick: So that's gonna be a collection next Friday.
• 36:50
  Scott Woolley: Two or three collections a month, so that adds up on a yearly basis.
• 36:54
  Scott Woolley: Yeah.
• 36:55
  TIffany Woolley: How far out are you planning them?
• 36:57
  TIffany Woolley: Uh a few months in advance.
• 36:59
  TIffany Woolley: So do you have does your team keep you like accountable a little bit?
• 37:03
  TIffany Woolley: Like you be creative for that?
• 37:06
  TIffany Woolley: I mean, that is for me too.
• 37:07
  TIffany Woolley: Like they're all trying to keep me out of my team.
• 37:10
  Katia Rudnick: You know, I I've learned to become more organized.
• 37:13
  Katia Rudnick: They've learned to deal with my whim and sometimes creative, you know, chaotic uh approach.
• 37:20
  Katia Rudnick: It's finding the middle ground because, you know, um, I also do uh all the sort of the marketing, you know, it's uh it's the founders' brand.
• 37:30
  Katia Rudnick: So I'm in the videos and uh the posts that I do.
• 37:34
  Katia Rudnick: That's so amazing.
• 37:36
  Katia Rudnick: So balancing all that together is definitely makes it uh how do you balance your time between all that?
• 37:43
  Katia Rudnick: Because there's the creative side of having to continually create new having the right team and having enough right people to help you is is the way you do it, you know?
• 37:55
  Katia Rudnick: That that get me, that uh know how to work with me where we complement each other.
• 38:02
  Katia Rudnick: Um it it's it it really comes down to that.
• 38:05
  Katia Rudnick: And grateful probably to be part of this.
• 38:07
  Scott Woolley: I mean your story is really like what our podcast is I design.
• 38:11
  Scott Woolley: Yeah.
• 38:11
  Scott Woolley: I mean you've in every aspect of design, you're from designing a business to designing jewelry to designing marketing.
• 38:19
  Katia Rudnick: I mean, behind it all.
• 38:22
  Katia Rudnick: And the growth behind it, and and and also what you've pointed out, you know, uh at the beginning of our conversation.
• 38:29
  Katia Rudnick: Like when I look back at that day in yoga class, if I just ignore that because I had to do stuff, right?
• 38:43
  Katia Rudnick: Because I had to run errands, or or because I would doubt myself and be like, no, that would just be doesn't that make you like take your breath away?
• 38:56
  Katia Rudnick: Do you ever think where you might be today if you had be somewhere, you know, this is a great mom and yeah, happy adventure that you're on.
• 39:04
  Katia Rudnick: But but all of us are like that, you know, because there's it's not like there is a wrong path.
• 39:10
  Katia Rudnick: Right.
• 39:10
  Katia Rudnick: We just need to align with that path and go.
• 39:13
  Katia Rudnick: But all but you know, that little whisper that came in and I decided to follow it that day, yeah, and then this incredible path that it took me on.
• 39:26
  Katia Rudnick: Um, I always think about that, and I'm a lot more uh careful and mindful, you know, because I I continue.
• 39:36
  Katia Rudnick: I mean, the that that spiritual journey is continuing.
• 39:38
  Katia Rudnick: Every day experiencing all this manifested physical experience, yes, but it it it comes from continuous everyday awareness of what am I thinking, how am I handling stress, yes, how am I how do I want to go about things?
• 39:56
  Katia Rudnick: It goes hand in hand.
• 39:58
  Katia Rudnick: You know, how do we what do we pay attention to?
• 40:01
  Katia Rudnick: The same as what I put into my jewelry.
• 40:03
  Katia Rudnick: You know, it's almost like my jewelry is helping me, just like as it I wanted to help others, others, you know.
• 40:09
  Katia Rudnick: I go to the to the like yesterday I was wearing a necklace that says resilient uh AF because I've been and I've been wearing it for the last few days because I needed it, you know, the with whatever I was dealing with, you know, and I was um sharing it on a story yesterday.
• 40:30
  Katia Rudnick: I'm like, you know, we all have stuff to do.
• 40:33
  Katia Rudnick: Every single one of us, either it's health, either it's family, uh finances, jobs, whatever it is, just a random circumstance.
• 40:46
  Scott Woolley: How do you do it?
• 40:46
  Scott Woolley: It's more than just a jewelry line.
• 40:48
  TIffany Woolley: Yeah.
• 40:48
  TIffany Woolley: There's a message.
• 40:49
  TIffany Woolley: And and I love that you've been able to build such a team.
• 40:56
  TIffany Woolley: How did you go about like even just like bringing that first person in?
• 41:01
  Katia Rudnick: Um my husband, um, Andy, is definitely a huge help in that.
• 41:07
  Katia Rudnick: You know, he is uh he when it comes to operation, uh I wouldn't be able to do it without him.
• 41:13
  Katia Rudnick: You know, needed person because so he is very good at uh hiring, recruiting, building, putting together a system.
• 41:21
  Katia Rudnick: And the combination of us two together doing this is is yeah, it but yeah, just you know, finding the right people, um allowing um training time.
• 41:34
  Katia Rudnick: Sometimes people, you know, move to other positions.
• 41:37
  Katia Rudnick: Uh you just kind of roll with it, as you know, in business.
• 41:40
  Katia Rudnick: That's you know, that's that's that's how it is.
• 41:43
  TIffany Woolley: So as you know, the brand is evolving, and obviously you are the face, the founder, the creator, and social media is a huge part of that, I'm sure.
• 41:53
  TIffany Woolley: Yeah.
• 41:54
  TIffany Woolley: But do you align yourself with brand ambassador?
• 41:57
  TIffany Woolley: I mean, are you you even considering that route?
• 41:59
  TIffany Woolley: Is that part of the future?
• 42:01
  Katia Rudnick: We you know, we we work with a few influencers.
• 42:04
  Katia Rudnick: Um, but there's really uh a couple that I like to work with because as you can see in the last especially year there's been so much change in the social platform.
• 42:19
  Katia Rudnick: It's crazy, you know, and I'm not even talking about AI.
• 42:23
  Katia Rudnick: I mean that's a whole nother thing.
• 42:25
  Katia Rudnick: That's a whole other thing, you know?
• 42:27
  Katia Rudnick: So what I find and and there's so much, it's it's it's it's it's filled with so much, and it's overwhelming too, you know.
• 42:37
  Katia Rudnick: And again, like can you compete with others?
• 42:40
  Katia Rudnick: It's it's crazy.
• 42:41
  Katia Rudnick: And also part of the reason why we are uh stepping into the retail space is because it's uh now it it the the Facebook matter in general and other platforms are so much more challenging than they were a couple of years ago.
• 42:59
  Katia Rudnick: You know the cost of acquisition is very different than it was before.
• 43:05
  Katia Rudnick: Yeah, you know, because of a lot of different reasons.
• 43:08
  Katia Rudnick: So and for me, the most important thing is brand exposure.
• 43:15
  Katia Rudnick: Right.
• 43:15
  Katia Rudnick: Because 50% of our sales come from repeat customers.
• 43:19
  Katia Rudnick: Of course.
• 43:20
  Katia Rudnick: So once people come in, a product speaks for itself.
• 43:24
  Katia Rudnick: Yeah, they love the product, they're most likely gonna become repeat customers, they're gonna come back and buy more.
• 43:31
  Katia Rudnick: But to get that first person in the door, which means they have to learn about us.
• 43:36
  Katia Rudnick: How do you do that now?
• 43:38
  Katia Rudnick: You know?
• 43:39
  Scott Woolley: The educating us back.
• 43:40
  Katia Rudnick: You have to f like no if you don't if you if they don't see you, they won't know you.
• 43:44
  Katia Rudnick: Right.
• 43:44
  Katia Rudnick: How do you get in front of their face?
• 43:46
  Katia Rudnick: The cost of marketing on those platforms is very different than it was a few years ago.
• 43:52
  TIffany Woolley: So I didn't realize that part.
• 43:53
  Katia Rudnick: Well, yeah, of course.
• 43:54
  Katia Rudnick: Because it's not that, you know, how do you how do you learn how does brand become more famous?
• 43:59
  Katia Rudnick: Either that or some uh maybe a celebrity, you know, sharing it with their following.
• 44:08
  TIffany Woolley: Um so yeah, I think And was that helpful in the beginning for you, the the influencer route or yeah, and it still is.
• 44:16
  Katia Rudnick: You know, I have a couple of um, you know, I have one strong influencer that uh um I have worked with for many years, and I think the reason that we continue working together is because she built a very organic following raw.
• 44:31
  Katia Rudnick: She's like a real deal kind of woman.
• 44:33
  Katia Rudnick: And that's how my jewelry is.
• 44:35
  Katia Rudnick: Right.
• 44:36
  Katia Rudnick: You know, and she the way she taught she uh her customer, her followers trust her.
• 44:43
  Katia Rudnick: And so it's not just an empty, here's a pretty necklace, or like you can feel it.
• 44:48
  Katia Rudnick: Yeah, you know, you can feel um uh how your product is being presented.
• 44:56
  Katia Rudnick: And for mine, it's really important that whoever presenting it is uh presenting it similar as I do, yeah, you know, and expresses how what it really is.
• 45:07
  Katia Rudnick: So if if it's an influencer that is pitching 10 different products a day, how do you stand out and work?
• 45:15
  Katia Rudnick: No.
• 45:15
  TIffany Woolley: Because they're selling, you know, gummies, anything, you know, anything and everything.
• 45:21
  Katia Rudnick: Yeah, exactly.
• 45:22
  Katia Rudnick: You know what I mean?
• 45:22
  Katia Rudnick: Yes, and there's so much of that now, which is like such a whole nother process.
• 45:28
  Katia Rudnick: It's a cool yeah, it's a very we're living through interesting times.
• 45:32
  Katia Rudnick: It's true.
• 45:33
  Scott Woolley: Do you do you advertise a lot?
• 45:35
  Scott Woolley: So that's how it's on social or do you do print or we don't do print.
• 45:41
  Katia Rudnick: We do yeah, social uh events basically mostly it's been you know uh uh Matter um Instagram has been our isn't that just amazing, really, at the same time.
• 45:53
  TIffany Woolley: Yeah.
• 45:53
  Katia Rudnick: I mean and so I'm looking forward to this kiosk.
• 45:56
  TIffany Woolley: Uh actually tell us that's obviously the next phase.
• 45:59
  TIffany Woolley: You're gonna do kiosk.
• 46:01
  TIffany Woolley: The kiosk, yeah.
• 46:02
  Katia Rudnick: You know, we've been thinking about uh opening a store.
• 46:04
  Katia Rudnick: We've been talking about it last year, uh but I'm really and it was a little bit of an overwhelming thought for me because it's like a big deal.
• 46:13
  Katia Rudnick: And then there was the opportunity came with Simon Mall in Boca Town Center where they offered us a spot in um Nordstrom Wing.
• 46:24
  Katia Rudnick: Okay.
• 46:24
  Katia Rudnick: Uh and um yeah, so we uh open our April 1st is uh where we'll start.
• 46:33
  Katia Rudnick: So it's it's it's a little crazy right now.
• 46:35
  Katia Rudnick: You're h you're hiring new people to empower them and meeting with a um designer uh we're building the kiosk, you know.
• 46:45
  TIffany Woolley: So I was I was gonna say, what is that process even look like?
• 46:47
  TIffany Woolley: Because you're like, where do you start?
• 46:50
  TIffany Woolley: Right.
• 46:50
  TIffany Woolley: You know?
• 46:51
  TIffany Woolley: And is it a kiosk like a cart or is it a kiosk like a counter?
• 46:56
  Katia Rudnick: It's a kiosk like 10 by 10 kiosk.
• 46:58
  Katia Rudnick: So it was like, you know, first you start looking for inspirations, and it still has to come from me, just like my junior, it was like I can't just hire someone, make it like it has to be something that feels right to me.
• 47:11
  Katia Rudnick: I'm not uh a space designer or uh, you know, uh it was but but I do like I do know what I like or don't like.
• 47:22
  Scott Woolley: Is it a kiosk that you're in the middle of it and the counters surround you?
• 47:27
  TIffany Woolley: So people can try on and look and you have mirror and like all of that.
• 47:31
  TIffany Woolley: Yeah.
• 47:32
  Katia Rudnick: Yeah, and I I so I've been kind of going back and forth, and I'm like so excited about what it's starting to look like.
• 47:40
  Katia Rudnick: We're pretty much the okay.
• 47:43
  Katia Rudnick: It's like I I'm like happier than so you're having to design your kiosk.
• 47:49
  Scott Woolley: Yeah, the colors, what it's like.
• 47:50
  Scott Woolley: And then you've got a buy a or or get a POS system, cash register.
• 47:54
  Katia Rudnick: Yeah, yeah, everything.
• 47:55
  Katia Rudnick: And you know, and that design uh has to be approved by them all.
• 47:59
  Katia Rudnick: Right.
• 48:00
  Katia Rudnick: Because it has to be aesthetically uh into the standards, you can't just do whatever.
• 48:06
  Katia Rudnick: So it's been really, really interesting, yeah.
• 48:09
  Katia Rudnick: And I'm excited because that is going to so many times people message me and they're like, Do you have a physical store?
• 48:15
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 48:15
  Katia Rudnick: I said we don't have a store, we have a studio, you can pick up your order there if you're local, but it's not a place where you can come and try things on, only online.
• 48:24
  Katia Rudnick: This is gonna be our first official location where people will be able to come in and feel in touch and and try things on.
• 48:33
  TIffany Woolley: And so will you when you like roll out the kiosk, I mean will you have like an event re associated with that?
• 48:40
  TIffany Woolley: Yeah.
• 48:41
  Katia Rudnick: Yeah.
• 48:42
  Katia Rudnick: Yeah.
• 48:42
  Katia Rudnick: I mean, I again, it's like a lot happening.
• 48:45
  Scott Woolley: You see yourself working it in there?
• 48:48
  Scott Woolley: Yeah.
• 48:49
  Katia Rudnick: I'm gonna have to.
• 48:49
  Katia Rudnick: In the beginning, yeah, to figure it out, you know.
• 48:52
  Scott Woolley: Uh the biggest thing I think, because I've been in the retail business and having lots of grocery stores, micro stores, is the personality behind or the person that's there.
• 49:02
  Scott Woolley: To engage the consumer.
• 49:05
  Scott Woolley: Yes.
• 49:05
  Scott Woolley: That engagement.
• 49:07
  Scott Woolley: It's everything.
• 49:08
  Scott Woolley: Yeah.
• 49:08
  Scott Woolley: That's like you said, about 50% repeat customers.
• 49:11
  Scott Woolley: Yeah.
• 49:11
  Scott Woolley: The right engagement.
• 49:13
  Scott Woolley: The right engagement is everything.
• 49:14
  Scott Woolley: Yeah.
• 49:15
  TIffany Woolley: Have any of your girls shown an interest in jumping on board with the city?
• 49:19
  TIffany Woolley: A little bit.
• 49:20
  Katia Rudnick: Yeah, a little bit here and there, you know.
• 49:22
  Katia Rudnick: And uh are they still living here?
• 49:24
  Katia Rudnick: I have uh one twin daughter that lives in New York.
• 49:28
  Katia Rudnick: Okay.
• 49:29
  Katia Rudnick: She's been there for five years.
• 49:30
  Katia Rudnick: Uh one lives here, who's actually working with me right now.
• 49:34
  Katia Rudnick: Oh, wonderful.
• 49:35
  Katia Rudnick: And then uh youngest daughter is uh in college and FSU.
• 49:39
  Katia Rudnick: And who knows where the paths are going to go.
• 49:43
  Katia Rudnick: You know, obviously it'd be really cool to continue to come, you know, and and make it a family business, but it's not something you want to be forced in, you know.
• 49:52
  Katia Rudnick: No, it's understood.
• 49:53
  Katia Rudnick: And I I'd rather almost them get an experience out there and then come in.
• 50:00
  TIffany Woolley: Something that from that, you know, in the beginning of our conversation that I feel like I want to sh get out because it's like it's so crazy to me that you came from, you know, the communist background where like all feeling almost is kind of they don't want you to talk about it, and your creativity's pretty much forced or stuck in a box.
• 50:23
  TIffany Woolley: And like how your life came full circle and where your creativity and your drive and your American dream.
• 50:34
  Scott Woolley: And then you start a business like this at 40 years old.
• 50:37
  Katia Rudnick: Right.
• 50:37
  Katia Rudnick: And and and and uh that is again, you know, the this country is so amazing.
• 50:45
  TIffany Woolley: So amazing.
• 50:46
  Katia Rudnick: Because an opportun like who would think about this?
• 50:49
  Katia Rudnick: And where else can you do this?
• 50:51
  Katia Rudnick: I know.
• 50:52
  Scott Woolley: Um But you can tell listening to you, you're not going to work every day.
• 50:55
  Scott Woolley: You're going to on an adventure every day, you're enjoying what you're doing.
• 50:59
  Katia Rudnick: I'm I'm I'm enjoying what I'm doing.
• 51:01
  Katia Rudnick: Uh obviously, as a business owner, which is which is there's it's it's it's it's work because there's daily, but but uh but I think if you're not loving, if you're not passionate about what you do, then it's not fun.
• 51:15
  Katia Rudnick: Yeah, yeah.
• 51:16
  Katia Rudnick: You have to love what you're doing.
• 51:18
  Scott Woolley: I think your success is gonna continue to grow and grow and grow because of that.
• 51:21
  Katia Rudnick: Thank you.
• 51:21
  Katia Rudnick: Thank you.
• 51:22
  Katia Rudnick: Thank you for saying that.
• 51:24
  TIffany Woolley: Well, definitely, and I just feel like you know, any challenges you do come across, you use those as things to propel you just to continue that growth.
• 51:34
  Scott Woolley: Well, just all of her sayings on the jewelry are motivating every day.
• 51:38
  Katia Rudnick: Yeah, you know, the challenges are gonna happen.
• 51:40
  Katia Rudnick: Yes, it's it's it's it's do we value the problem attention or do we give the solution attention?
• 51:49
  Katia Rudnick: Love that.
• 51:50
  Katia Rudnick: Absolutely.
• 51:51
  Katia Rudnick: So, and that is really that's the mindset that will make the difference in your life experience.
• 51:57
  Katia Rudnick: Correct.
• 51:58
  Katia Rudnick: You know, it's it's and we all need daily reminders.
• 52:01
  Katia Rudnick: Daily reminders, how do we want to look at things?
• 52:03
  Katia Rudnick: Yeah, right?
• 52:04
  Katia Rudnick: As uh um Wayne Darius said, uh, change the way you look at things and the things you look at change.
• 52:09
  Katia Rudnick: Right.
• 52:10
  Katia Rudnick: Oh, wow, that I know that's it.
• 52:12
  Katia Rudnick: That's it.
• 52:12
  Katia Rudnick: It's so simple.
• 52:13
  Katia Rudnick: You can be miserable or you can be uh grateful and happy and blessed.
• 52:19
  TIffany Woolley: I know, why don't we do it?
• 52:20
  TIffany Woolley: In the same situation, I know why do we complicate it so much, right?
• 52:24
  Katia Rudnick: We do it, we sure do.
• 52:25
  Katia Rudnick: We're good at that.
• 52:26
  Katia Rudnick: We're so good at it.
• 52:28
  Katia Rudnick: We're like, you know what?
• 52:30
  Katia Rudnick: I just want to concentrate on that problem.
• 52:32
  Katia Rudnick: And and then everything is just you know, and until we get hit in the head, we're like, okay, you know what?
• 52:39
  Katia Rudnick: It it's I think it's enough.
• 52:41
  Katia Rudnick: I need to make a change.
• 52:42
  Katia Rudnick: Yes, it's just it's it's we're humans.
• 52:44
  Katia Rudnick: That's how we also grow and expand because it's it's a necessary part of it.
• 52:51
  TIffany Woolley: So you mentioned yoga was obviously a pivotal point and all of that.
• 52:55
  TIffany Woolley: Is that something that you continue to you know rely on or uh yes, yeah.
• 53:02
  Katia Rudnick: I mean exercising for me has been major part.
• 53:06
  Katia Rudnick: Yoga I I practice still once or twice a week.
• 53:10
  Katia Rudnick: And it's also I I actually was saying in my recent post how working out is uh is a is is is another form of meditation because when you're working out hard, you can't think about stuff that you shouldn't be thinking about, which is obvious that's the most that's the the the most important thing about meditation is how do you turn your monkey brain off, you know?
• 53:38
  Katia Rudnick: So the when so when I uh I I love lifting weights, you know.
• 53:43
  Katia Rudnick: I uh often throw in some videos about that.
• 53:47
  Katia Rudnick: I l uh because for me uh lifting heavy weights, I've done some bodybuilding competitions, did some CrossFit and yoga, and all of that has been tremendous.
• 54:00
  Katia Rudnick: And like when you add that to everything else, uh I think it's it's it's it's a magical touch that can be so helpful that a lot of people don't even realize because when you're physically strong, you're mentally uh even stronger.
• 54:20
  Katia Rudnick: You know?
• 54:21
  Katia Rudnick: Yeah, so it you're meditating, uh you're turning your brain off, you're allowing yourself to receive what you need to receive, and at the same time you maintaining your temple.
• 54:34
  Katia Rudnick: Yeah.
• 54:35
  Katia Rudnick: That's that's so yoga, yes, lifting heavy weights, yes.
• 54:40
  Katia Rudnick: Um even on the days when you don't want to.
• 54:45
  TIffany Woolley: So have you taken on it?
• 54:46
  TIffany Woolley: I mean, obviously you're an influencer for your brand and your lifestyle, which is the brand.
• 54:51
  TIffany Woolley: Do you dabble in the influencing as well?
• 54:54
  Katia Rudnick: Or is that something a little bit, and I'm open to it, you know.
• 54:58
  Katia Rudnick: I think like sometimes I will make a post and I'll call it things I like.
• 55:04
  Katia Rudnick: That has nothing to do with my product, but I'll uh, you know, it might be a shirt uh or it might be a lipstick that I love that I've been using for years.
• 55:14
  Katia Rudnick: Right.
• 55:15
  Katia Rudnick: And I'll post it not gatekeeping, and and my customers love it, you know?
• 55:19
  Katia Rudnick: Yeah, I'm sure.
• 55:19
  Katia Rudnick: Sometimes they and they ask, they ask us.
• 55:21
  Katia Rudnick: I'm sure uh where did you get this, where did you get that, because they kind of they like my whole relaxed look, you know?
• 55:31
  Katia Rudnick: And and by the way, we also do, we have a small apparel line, which you remind me of.
• 55:36
  Katia Rudnick: We uh early, uh maybe three years ago, I uh bought uh a shirt that I really liked.
• 55:47
  Katia Rudnick: It was a white buttoned-down shirt, and I started using it in a lot of my videos because it provided such a clean canvas for my jewelry.
• 55:56
  Katia Rudnick: And I was making so many videos with it, and people would ask me, Where'd you buy it?
• 56:01
  Katia Rudnick: Where'd you buy it?
• 56:01
  Katia Rudnick: And the beginning I was like, I bought it in this company, and I was constantly sending the link to this company, and then I was telling I was you know telling my husband, like everyone was asking, he's like, we need to create our own, you know, let's do it.
• 56:16
  Katia Rudnick: Canvas, and so that's how the Gara shirt was born.
• 56:19
  Katia Rudnick: Uh in the garage.
• 56:21
  Katia Rudnick: Uh from from this.
• 56:22
  Katia Rudnick: So we we found the vendor, went through the whole process back and forth testing it out, finding the right fabric, finding the right uh cut.
• 56:30
  Katia Rudnick: And uh we have and all and and scarves.
• 56:33
  Katia Rudnick: I love wearing scarves.
• 56:35
  Katia Rudnick: So it's actually funny because our gutter shirts are always on the number three most sold items.
• 56:45
  Katia Rudnick: We're jewelry company.
• 56:46
  Katia Rudnick: Right.
• 56:47
  Katia Rudnick: But the sh but the shirts that the gutter shirts Well that makes sense because it's they love the look.
• 56:52
  Katia Rudnick: Yeah.
• 56:54
  Katia Rudnick: So our shirts and the scarves, a lot of customers they kind of like love that whole thing.
• 56:59
  Katia Rudnick: Because that's like that's how I do it.
• 57:01
  Katia Rudnick: You know, I don't leave the house without one of my scarves.
• 57:03
  Katia Rudnick: Like I put it in my back.
• 57:05
  Katia Rudnick: Right.
• 57:06
  Katia Rudnick: It's uh it's like my like a blanket security blanket.
• 57:09
  Katia Rudnick: It's my security.
• 57:10
  Katia Rudnick: And I we call them just breathe, also.
• 57:12
  Katia Rudnick: Like you the way I sell it is that scarf is a beautiful accessory, but you hold on to it when you need to get grounded during the day.
• 57:21
  TIffany Woolley: Yes.
• 57:22
  Katia Rudnick: Um, the same as the goddess shirt.
• 57:23
  Katia Rudnick: You feel like a goddess when you wear it.
• 57:26
  Katia Rudnick: So there's similar approach as the jewelry uh to so uh would I, you know, are there more apparel or other wellness items that can come into this brand?
• 57:39
  Katia Rudnick: Absolutely.
• 57:40
  Katia Rudnick: You're you're but I'm very picky.
• 57:42
  TIffany Woolley: You're evolving, but selective.
• 57:44
  Katia Rudnick: Selective, very, yeah, yeah.
• 57:46
  TIffany Woolley: I don't just like and will those be available at the kiosk as well?
• 57:51
  Katia Rudnick: Probably not in the beginning.
• 57:52
  Katia Rudnick: Okay, you know, but maybe you know, we'll have to prove this first uh store and then work out all your kinks.
• 57:59
  Katia Rudnick: Work out the kings, yeah.
• 58:01
  Katia Rudnick: And then I think uh once it's proven, then we'll go.
• 58:06
  Katia Rudnick: You'll just keep going.
• 58:07
  TIffany Woolley: Yeah.
• 58:08
  TIffany Woolley: Well, thank you.
• 58:09
  TIffany Woolley: Thank you so much for joining us on the iDesign Lab today.
• 58:14
  Katia Rudnick: Repeat what your website so people website is KatiDesigns.com.
• 58:18
  Katia Rudnick: And your Instagram is Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, also Kati Designs.
• 58:23
  Katia Rudnick: Yeah, you can Google.
• 58:24
  Katia Rudnick: Uh we have over 10,000 five-star reviews.
• 58:28
  Katia Rudnick: Our reviews are like love letters.
• 58:30
  Katia Rudnick: Oh, is that wonderful?
• 58:32
  Katia Rudnick: Yeah, we have we so you can Google our reviews, you can see our verified uh buyers' reviews on our website.
• 58:38
  Katia Rudnick: We're a real deal.
• 58:40
  TIffany Woolley: Wow, what a beautiful testament, too.
• 58:41
  TIffany Woolley: Thank you.
• 58:42
  Katia Rudnick: Thanks for being aware.
• 58:44
  TIffany Woolley: Thank you, guys.
• 58:44
  Katia Rudnick: It made this really enjoyable.
• 58:47
  TIffany Woolley: Thank you.
• 58:47
  TIffany Woolley: Thank you for tuning in to the iDesign Lab Podcast.
• 58:51
  TIffany Woolley: Have a great day.
• 58:54
  Voice Over: iDesign Labs Podcast is an SW group production in association with the five star and TW Interiors.
• 59:00
  Voice Over: To learn more about iDesign Lab or TW Interiors, please visit TWInteriors.com.