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From Street Finds to Quiet Luxury: The Jamie Young Story · 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.
• 0:17
  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.
• 0:39
  TIffany Woolley: Someone who turned a lifelong love of art, travel, architecture, and discovery into one of the most recognizable names in home furnishings.
• 0:48
  TIffany Woolley: Jamie Young has spent nearly three decades redefining casual elegance and quiet luxury, creating pieces that feel collected, soulful, and timeless.
• 1:00
  TIffany Woolley: Alongside her husband and creative partner, David Jeter, she's built a design legacy rooted in curiosity, craftsmanship, and a fearless point of view.
• 1:11
  TIffany Woolley: Today we're going inside the inspiration, her creative process, and the story behind the newest Jamie Young collection.
• 1:21
  TIffany Woolley: Welcome, Jamie, to the podcast.
• 1:24
  TIffany Woolley: Hi, thank you guys for having me.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_01: I'm thrilled to be here.
• 1:27
  Scott Woolley: We're looking forward to spending a few minutes or an hour with you talking.
• 1:31
  unknown: Great.
• 1:32
  Scott Woolley: You have a great, wonderful story there.
• 1:34
  Scott Woolley: Tell us like where it all started.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I um born and raised in Southern California, born and raised with creative people all around me, entrepreneurs, artists, musicians, everything that you can think of that happened in LA in the 70s.
• 1:56
  TIffany Woolley: Such a cool time to actually be able to identify with and remember.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I think very influential.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_01: I think that um from a very young age, I was always thinking about how to be an entrepreneur, how to sell things that were creative and make people happy.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_01: And I loved the human connection, I loved the business side, and then I love the creative.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_01: So um that's all I really knew what to do.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_01: That was this, it just drove me from a very young age.
• 2:31
  Scott Woolley: So, how did you get started creating the brand?
• 2:35
  Scott Woolley: I mean, you weren't you weren't an interior designer, correct?
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: No, um, I was not an interior designer.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_01: I I always had a passion for design and designed my own homes and designed my house, designed my bedroom when I was 10 years old.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 2:48
  TIffany Woolley: I saw that in the research.
• 2:50
  TIffany Woolley: I love that.
• 2:51
  TIffany Woolley: I could relate to that.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um I mean, that was it was always in my in my genes.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um, my mom would, my mom was an artist and she would do boutique if you remember that.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, the time of boutique, and she would do these huge, gorgeous boutique pillows all over the house.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_01: Or she was a ceramicist, so we had a potter's wheel and a kiln in our backyard.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_01: So I was around this all the time.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: My husband was a um a sculptor, and to make a living, he was building high-end furniture.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_01: And we both were like, he was a very romantic guy and said, you know, when you get married, I don't want to just go off and see you at night.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_01: We should be doing something together.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, which was very sweet and not everybody's perspective, but for us it worked, right?
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_01: And he wanted to travel the world, and I um found things I loved that I wanted to sell and test.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_01: And so we just we kind of made this work together.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: I found great cement garden pots on the streets of Mexico.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_01: I brought them to LA.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it was silly how I started, really.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_01: Like, you don't think about it.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_01: You like, I I need to make a living, I'm pregnant, and we want to travel the world.
• 4:10
  Scott Woolley: Well, wait, you're you're in Mexico, you're finding these pots, and you decide you're gonna bring them back to California to sell.
• 4:17
  Scott Woolley: Yep.
• 4:18
  Scott Woolley: Was like dozens of them?
• 4:20
  Scott Woolley: One, you know, how did you like it?
• 4:22
  TIffany Woolley: And was it had Nate had Jamie Young been born yet, the name, or was it really born right there on the streets?
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_01: It was born on the streets of Mexico.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um I found these great old concrete, well, they weren't old, but they were dusty and they were on the street, and they were small cement pots.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_01: And um, I thought they were so beautiful that I put them in my truck and I found, I I don't know, 25 of them maybe, and drove them back to LA and filled them with flowers, pots, and orchids, and took pictures of them.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_01: And there was a florist at the time, it was called the Woods in Brentwood that I had loved.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_01: And I went there and I said, I've never seen anything like this.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: Do you want to buy them?
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_01: And he said, Sure, I'll take a dozen of each one.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, Oh no, I don't have many.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_01: I don't have that.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_01: Drove back down to Mexico to find them and started a business.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it was really that simple.
• 5:24
  Scott Woolley: So this is in the early 90s?
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 5:28
  TIffany Woolley: So it was that simple.
• 5:30
  TIffany Woolley: And so for the beginning, you were really sourcing things that just spoke to you.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, it was the first round was what did I find?
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_01: And very soon after, because my husband was a sculptor and I had all these ideas, and then I had an idea about the classic terracotta pot, um, flower pot, orchid pot.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_01: And I thought we should cast it in concrete.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_01: Now, this was way before people were going to Asia and and bringing in pallets and containers of concrete pots or faux concrete or whatever that was.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_01: So I brought them this little you know group on the streets of Mexico, and I brought them all these terracotta pots, and I said, can you cast these in cement?
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_01: And um, they did, and they didn't have a phone, and I had to drive back down there to find them.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it was quite the adventure that when you look at it in hindsight and you start a business like that, you you know, it's very different today, obviously.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_01: There was no emails and there was no website or internet or anything else.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: It was just, I just had this exciting idea.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_01: And then very quickly after, my husband started casting table lamps out of concrete in our backyard.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_01: And um, I love textiles, he loved sculpture, and that's when it really became Jamie Young Company.
• 6:58
  Scott Woolley: So, what was the next sort of line of products after pots?
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_01: Just right into lamps, and that's how we started.
• 7:05
  TIffany Woolley: And oh, that is how I always think of Jamie Young, his lamp.
• 7:09
  TIffany Woolley: Yeah.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_01: It was I we we designed three lamps and six lampshades.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_01: And what we found was because I would go places and everybody had this like very basic, ugly white lampshade.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um, that I had an opportunity.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_01: I saw something in mixing textiles, and we really launched, and I think this is how the company really got out there was people could come to us and mix and match their shades.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_01: And no one was doing it.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_01: So funny to think back, right?
• 7:41
  TIffany Woolley: That no one was doing that.
• 7:42
  TIffany Woolley: What a little nobody.
• 7:44
  TIffany Woolley: Yeah.
• 7:45
  TIffany Woolley: So it's like one thing can be worn this many different ways, type of thing.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_01: And we would show it different ways, and I had different patterns, and I had higher end fabrics like Schumacher was a big deal, and and really elevated, gorgeous fabric.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_01: And then I had Dupiani silk, which was a big deal.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_01: I found local sources.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_01: I found a local source to help me make the shades.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_01: I was really um very gritty, very, it was not a polished business.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_01: It was not, I wasn't in real estate, I wasn't, you know, doing some big scale thing.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_01: I was thinking, we're artists, we want to travel the world and we want to make a living.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um and how are we gonna do that?
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: So, and and then I got a wall in someone's trade show booth in New York.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_01: They was a friend of mine, and they said, you could just take this wall.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_01: We sold tons of product took orders there.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_01: We took orders, we drove back down to Mexico.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_01: It was, you know, we had a bunch of fails, we didn't know how to pack concrete, all the orders were shipped and broken.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_01: Every every story you can think of.
• 8:55
  TIffany Woolley: Which is how you build success, right?
• 8:57
  TIffany Woolley: Yeah, it's all those little learning lessons along the way that build the resilience that have become your backstory to how successful you are today.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_01: It it's true.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_01: It's and it continues.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you guys know, like you every day you wake up and you're like, okay, what logistical thing do we deal with today?
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_01: Because I I believe that most things come down to logistics.
• 9:23
  Scott Woolley: Um at what at what point did you realize that you had a serious business and this was really starting to take off?
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_01: I would say um a couple of years in, we got our first angel investor.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_01: Oh when I saw that we needed, you know, in what we do, it's an inventory-based business, right?
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_01: Which means it's a cash-based business.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_01: You you if you want to be successful, even then, you needed product to ship right away.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_01: No one wanted to wait.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um at that time, people waited longer than they do today, but you still needed the cash flow to do it.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_01: And I had a vision about really what could this become.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I had been to the trade shows in my before I started Jamie Young selling soap, and I really understood what the business of the trade shows looked like.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_01: And I loved the gift store and the lifestyle store around the country because at that time that was really the the deal.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_01: There were lifestyle stores.
• 10:27
  TIffany Woolley: I know, and I loved all those stores too, like the small business and the curation of them.
• 10:33
  TIffany Woolley: They that you know, they're so special in what that person's eye brings in.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: And that's how we built businesses then.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_01: So you would go to a trade show, you would write a bunch of orders with paper, you would go back to your hotel room and you would add them up with a calculator.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_01: And you, you know, like you really um, it was very grassroots, and there was no Excel, and there was no, this was just but I had an idea and I learned very early that ideas are are great, but execution is what makes the difference between an idea and a business, right?
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so I just naively probably not being naive was probably my best attribute because I didn't know what I was getting into in a sense that I went for it.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't know if I would have gone for it, gone for it if I knew too much.
• 11:30
  TIffany Woolley: That's like a blessing in disguise, right?
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_01: It really is.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_01: But that's when we knew to answer your question, we really understood, wow, we have something.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_01: We got on the cover of the Neiman Marcus catalog.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_01: We got a two-page spread in El Decor magazine.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_01: We we started to see momentum at a time when home furnishing brands there weren't really brands in the home furnishing world.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_01: There were the high-end designer brands.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_03: Correct.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_01: But there weren't um, we had a niche that we were able to lean into.
• 12:05
  TIffany Woolley: Yes, and very different to curation.
• 12:08
  TIffany Woolley: So when you brought on the angel investor, did you have to start seeking where you know who's gonna be manufacturing all of this new material?
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_01: And did you resource back to Mexico or Mexico was a great place to start, but um what happened was I found candlesticks from an importer that I loved that I thought would be great lamp bases, and then my husband wired them in our garage.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_01: And um one day he it was crazy, yeah.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_01: And then he said, you know, we need to go to India.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we shouldn't be buying these from this this company for three times, probably four times what we could get them in India.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_01: And we need to get India to wire them the way we need them to, you well approved, and get them up and running and mix and match the sh the shades we're making in the US with product from India.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_01: So he got on a plane and went to India.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_01: So there was your travel needs.
• 13:12
  Scott Woolley: Did he have did he have knowledge or know where to go?
• 13:16
  Scott Woolley: How did he know?
• 13:17
  TIffany Woolley: Yeah, considering the internet was just being born then too.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_01: So how did that hold he he didn't have well, we we had through different, you know.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_01: As I said, I grew up in LA where there were a million entrepreneurs, and some of them were people like um who worked in the garment industry, and they knew and because the garment industry was already deep in India and China and everywhere else.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_01: So we talked to them and they met, they introduced us to someone who introduced us to someone, and we were just we were very resourceful, right?
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_01: We were very curious and and um gritty and resourceful.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_01: So he found someone, he flew to India, and it ended up that that connection was a fraud.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_01: Oh he was stuck in India calling me when because we eventually that's when we first had cell phones, and I never forget him calling me.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_01: I had a brand new baby, and he and I said, Okay, we have to get off the phone because it's gonna be an$800 bill.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_01: Like we can't do this.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you should just fly home.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know what to do.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_01: I can't, I don't know what you know.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_01: You flew in and I can't help you.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_01: So very soon after we met an agent um who came to visit me in the New York show, and my mom was helping me in the showroom.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_01: And my mom leaned in and she said, He's really cute.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_01: You should you should talk to him.
• 14:38
  TIffany Woolley: So that made he was he was legit.
• 14:40
  TIffany Woolley: He was cute.
• 14:40
  TIffany Woolley: So he was legit.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_01: You know what?
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_01: I I tell these stories because we we all think that there's some big um magic.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_01: No, it's grit.
• 14:50
  TIffany Woolley: I love that you keep using that word.
• 14:52
  TIffany Woolley: I do, because it really, that's the magic word.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_01: And and being very curious and very open to what happens in front of you, um, and not being afraid to to you know fail.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but we met this this partner, and we're still business partners with him today, almost 30 years later.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we have an office in India, we now produce all over the world.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and David's my husband, his his background was really in art history and a deep-rooted understanding of the world.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um and it it just helped so much, right?
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_01: So he could understand culture, he could understand what countries make the right things, and then you really start building a business.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_01: And um and that's what we did.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_01: And it it did get to a point.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_01: So we we bought our angel investor out, and then we owned the business by ourselves.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_01: We were able to get through that part, but then you know, things like um the 2008 um economy crash, yeah, or um 9-11, things that happen that we had to really weather and figure out.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_01: And we all know when you're in business for this long, like there is it is always um okay.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_01: Ebbs and flows.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_01: Ebbs and flows.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_01: What do you do next?
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_01: And um things like when 2008 happened, I renegotiated my leases, I renegotiated everything.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_01: I never stopped paying my bills, I never stopped paying my employees, but our industry got hit really hard.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_01: Everybody did.
• 16:37
  TIffany Woolley: Yes, yes.
• 16:38
  TIffany Woolley: So it's so amazing that all of that was somewhat intuitive to you.
• 16:43
  TIffany Woolley: I mean, that really is the entrepreneurial spirit, and alongside not giving up, you know, just not folding, just keep moving.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_01: I think there must be a stubborn part of me, right?
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_01: Or like at some point, I'm like, geez, this is exhausting.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_01: But you, yeah, there's a resilience.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_01: There is this idea.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_01: And I loved business.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_01: I loved the process.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_01: I thought it was the process was fascinating to me.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I went to art school, but I I just I like it.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_01: It's fun, it's interesting.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I love the creative.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, I got lucky that I had both sides to it.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_01: My husband, pure artist, pure sculptor, designer, traveler, not interested in in business.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_01: Not that he wasn't interested in business, but he wasn't interested in the the nitty-gritty of the business.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 17:35
  TIffany Woolley: Well, that was gonna be my next question is like, when did your roles as not only a husband and wife, but a partner in this, you know, budding business, what role, like did you ever say, okay, this is gonna be my part and this will be your part?
• 17:49
  TIffany Woolley: Or did you like what was those defining times like?
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um, well, if you don't do that, you you probably won't have a marriage with a real lifetime.
• 18:01
  TIffany Woolley: But you've been able to successfully manage both.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, because we we drew the line.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_01: We knew if I crossed, in all honesty, I crossed the line much more than he did because as a strong female, I wanted to get my hands into everything.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_01: And he would be like, Nope, stay in your lane.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_01: We talk together, but you do this, I do this.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_01: And and the only thing that crossed over was creative, kind of overseeing where the vision of the company went.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_01: He was very, of course, I that was my vision.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_01: He could execute and he could design product.
• 18:39
  TIffany Woolley: So wild.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_01: So that's how we did it.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_01: And and you know, luckily, my husband um, he's a quieter man than me, and he was fine with me being in the front, and he didn't want to go to a trade show.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_01: We wouldn't let him talk to people.
• 18:57
  TIffany Woolley: You know, he was he stayed in the design.
• 19:02
  Scott Woolley: So you really defined your roles, yeah.
• 19:04
  Scott Woolley: You have to be on your hands, and your strengths in each one of you.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and you have to be self-aware, right?
• 19:10
  Scott Woolley: Yes.
• 19:11
  Scott Woolley: So do you ever disagree, you know?
• 19:14
  Scott Woolley: All the time.
• 19:15
  Scott Woolley: All the time.
• 19:16
  Scott Woolley: But do you so big question like for us?
• 19:18
  Scott Woolley: Do you bring it home or do you have a we keep it at the office?
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_01: You know, whatever the well, I think we we did both, you know, we were raising our little boys, we were traveling, we were running.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_01: It was also a mesh.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_01: It was almost impossible to draw the line.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and at the beginning, I was working, I you know, until midnight every night.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_01: I would be, I would put the kids to sleep, or I would go run to a soccer game.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_01: I would, but you right, and then I had to get back on and had and do the paperwork or whatever.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_01: I was deep in it where he sort of took over at the end of the day more than I did.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we just balanced it.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, we would disagree.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_01: I think what was always helpful, I mean, today our kids are grown and he's actually retired.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um, he just retired, which is great for him.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_01: And but he's still so he still travels with me all over the world.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_01: I have no interest in traveling by myself.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_01: And we still he still has so much input creatively.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but we work through it.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_01: It was not easy.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_01: There's it's no such thing, but we work through um conversations and our egos and hearing what's actually best for the company, and then he would really work with me to for me to let go at the end of the day, because that was my hardest part.
• 20:41
  Scott Woolley: You've mentioned travel several times.
• 20:44
  Scott Woolley: Is travel really important for coming up with new creative ideas?
• 20:49
  Scott Woolley: Is it more for manufacturing?
• 20:53
  Scott Woolley: Or is it just because you just love the travel and you travel?
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's all of the all of them.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_01: I think travel was the the core to our business.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um, creative inspiration.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_01: All the textiles that I've always loved have been inspired by the global perspective of the textile world and how it started.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_01: I I love to understand why Turkish, Indian, Vietnamese, Indonesian textiles, where it came from and English, French, and how it all incorporated.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_01: And to me, that's always been something I'm I'm passionate about.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and you get to see that when you're overseas, you get to see people's clothes and their the colors they wear.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_01: And then you bring it back to how can you incorporate it here in in normal everyday lifestyle.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_01: Because if it's too extreme, I think we lose something.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_01: And if it's not interesting enough, we lose something.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_01: So travel has been just a critical part of our creativity.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_01: You also Meet people, these small makers, we call them makers today, but they're you know, these small factories, workshops, and what their specialties are.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_01: So we started going to India 28 years ago.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_01: You must have seen so much evolution and amazing.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, when we first started, we there were cows in the airport, literally, just walking through the airport.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um and and no more cows.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_01: Not even, you know, they've cleaned up the cows on the streets of Delhi of court now, but they've tagged them so that people own their own cows.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um but so yes, things have changed.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_01: But I will say we are very connected to our factories.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_01: So we took our kids with us as much as we could.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_01: Even when they were younger, we just take them out of school and they'd be come with us all over South Asia.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_01: And we always just felt like that was the best education.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_01: Education for sure.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and made them, you know, resilient, interesting humans that saw lots of cultures and lots of classes and and all kinds of things.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that we would take them to these factories and when they were little, and they would play with the factory owner's kids while we worked.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_01: So special.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_01: And so now we were just at a factory last year, and the father's son is running the factory, and I didn't realize that he was the same one that my kids were playing with.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_01: And then they had pictures of our kids all over the front office with them.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it was just like this beautiful thing, right?
• 23:36
  TIffany Woolley: So special.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_01: We really build and we we build our business with the right factories.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um, first of all, we we care deeply about the people and what they're making and how they're being treated, and that they really understand the quality we're looking for.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_01: And um we have to understand the culture so that we know what we're asking for and that they can do what we need.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_01: So there's a there's a lot to the travel and the resources, but the the core for us was see the world and create based on what the world can offer.
• 24:13
  TIffany Woolley: And you really were able to make that happen.
• 24:16
  TIffany Woolley: I mean, you're living it.
• 24:18
  TIffany Woolley: Like that's truly amazing.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I don't know how we did it.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_01: You know, there's companies that there's obviously a a lot of companies out there, bigger companies than us, that have done this as well, but they were generations.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_01: We started on our own.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_01: I don't no one taught us this.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so we learned a lot along the way.
• 24:39
  Scott Woolley: So you so you have upwards of what, a thousand SKUs?
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_01: We do.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_01: We have about a thousand skews, right?
• 24:46
  Scott Woolley: A thousand skews.
• 24:47
  Scott Woolley: How many different factories are you working with from a design standpoint?
• 24:54
  Scott Woolley: Doesn't a dozen, dozens?
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_01: No, dozens.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, dozen.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_01: So it's not your perfect solution.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_01: I would say if you're in any other industry, you you you know, you consolidate factories, you make a product, you find the best place to make it, the most cost-effective, and you diversify enough, but you're looking for efficiency.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_01: In our business, because we're looking for diversity, because we're looking for a a wide breadth of product, you have to go to a lot of places to get what you need.
• 25:28
  Scott Woolley: Well, when you go through your website and you look at everything that you have on that website, I mean, you could tell that you must be going to many different factories.
• 25:36
  Scott Woolley: And everything's very beautifully and well made.
• 25:40
  TIffany Woolley: And very unique.
• 25:42
  TIffany Woolley: I mean, and that's when I do always turn to the Jamie Young brand, is when I'm looking for those special pieces.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_01: We've worked hard at both what we hope that we can offer is elevated core product and the icing.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_01: And we're doing both, and that's been exciting.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_01: We have to reinvent all the time, we have to re-educate all the time.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um, that's just the nature of our business, right?
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_01: As the new designers come on board and they haven't heard of us.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_01: We are the, you know, we're a legacy brand, but we're also a startup in some ways because we really think that way so that we're constantly saying what's fresh and new.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_01: But the the sources um are incredible because you have to find there's only a handful of ceramic sources I want to use.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_01: There's only a handful of blown glass sources that I want to use.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_01: There's there's um ceramic, there's furniture sources where there's a handful of really good furniture people that we we think are great for us.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um there's leather and hides, and very and we're very specific on where we go for that.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_01: So each category for mirrors, I have two or three phenomenal factories that work with our designs and get it right.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_01: So that's how we build it.
• 27:07
  Scott Woolley: So, how hands-on are you now still with design?
• 27:10
  Scott Woolley: The fact that you're constantly coming out with new items.
• 27:14
  Scott Woolley: Are you involved in the design of every single item or do you have a team that you've oh we have a team that you've you know?
• 27:23
  TIffany Woolley: So do you set like a goal?
• 27:25
  TIffany Woolley: Like, do you do it like once a quarter, or you know, like like how are your new releases scheduled?
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_01: So we have um we have a great director of product, Jen Gibbs.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um, she's been working with me for two years almost.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, two years.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_01: And she leads the design team now, but um, I am completely involved every day.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_01: So we meet at least twice a week for two to three hours a week and just review design and review details and review, and then we go on the buying trips and sourcing trips, design trips.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_01: So we're going to South Asia in November for two weeks, um, to to Vietnam, Philippines, and Indonesia.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_01: We just came back from India and China.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_01: And we do at least two trips a year.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_01: We introduce product twice a year, and it's very it in, you know.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_01: When I first started, it was just about I love this, put it out there.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um as you grow, you want to be a more, you know, we're we're more uh versatile and and analytical, right?
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_01: We have strategy now, and that we have to.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um, because we're introducing so much product, you really need to retire product or look at it differently, or what's what's our opportunity?
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_01: We know we sell white and blue lamps all day long.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's just our number one seller.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_01: So, what's fresh and white?
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_01: What's fresh and blue?
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_01: What does that mean?
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_01: What's the scale?
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_01: We look at analytics, we we do all of that, but then at the end of the day, we're designing from scratch.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_01: So we're looking at ideas and silhouettes and finishes constantly.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_01: And I to answer long questions short question long, sorry.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_01: No, I'm very involved in the in that process.
• 29:17
  TIffany Woolley: And so, what is the creative team's process?
• 29:21
  TIffany Woolley: So you're still involved, obviously, and you brought on your creative director.
• 29:25
  TIffany Woolley: How many people is she managing?
• 29:28
  TIffany Woolley: And is it broken up into like this person's managing lamp design and this one's managing you know accessories, and this one's doing mirrors?
• 29:36
  TIffany Woolley: Is it broken up that way?
• 29:38
  TIffany Woolley: Not right now, no.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_01: We're we have a small team.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_01: I have a creative director, Charlie, that that is overseeing.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um she looks at all the visuals of the company.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_01: And Jen is our director of product, and she's looking at all the categories, and and then we have a team with Jen that's more administrative and operational.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_01: And then I it's me and my husband.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_01: So from a design perspective, that's the focus.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um, sometimes we we hire outside designers to help us when we give direction, but we're really very hands-on.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_01: And then we have strategy and merchandising that goes into it, and then a whole operations team for sourcing and producing.
• 30:23
  TIffany Woolley: Still like a true founder's brand.
• 30:26
  TIffany Woolley: It's really exceptional.
• 30:28
  TIffany Woolley: So you spoke about like bringing your sons along on your travels, and they've obviously witnessed this beautiful evolution of the brand itself.
• 30:38
  TIffany Woolley: Will any of them join into the legacy?
• 30:42
  TIffany Woolley: I see your face.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think so, but they're both creative.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_01: So we'll see.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_01: Right now they're exploring their own um careers, which is great too.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, they're they're definitely independent thinkers.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_01: They they're, you know, of course they're my kids, so I'm gonna say they're super smart and all that.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_01: But but they definitely um they they have great input.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_01: I will tell you, I love look talking to younger people who understand today's marketing differently than how I started.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_01: So I get a lot of um input, and they're always, you know, part of our company in that they're they're always involved in all the things that we're working on, but they're doing their own thing.
• 31:27
  TIffany Woolley: So they keep they're they're in the loop.
• 31:30
  TIffany Woolley: Yeah.
• 31:31
  TIffany Woolley: So so you guys are launching a new collection.
• 31:36
  TIffany Woolley: So tell us, and I know you're going more into furniture.
• 31:41
  TIffany Woolley: I'd love to hear about that.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_01: Well, we're we're thrilled, you know.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_01: We've grown the categories lighting, chandeliers, all the parts of lighting.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_01: We've grown mirrors, it's a great category for us, um, and accessories and occasional furniture.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_01: We've always done well with smaller accent decorative pieces.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_01: And I feel like um what we really didn't do and now feel strongly about when Jen came on board with her background was designing furniture.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_01: So we have a small case goods collection and a beautiful seating collection that we've just started with.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um it's 54 pieces, it's fabulous.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_01: It's um it'll be in in new high point in October.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_01: So exciting.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_01: It's really exciting.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's solid oak, it's beautiful polstered accents to it, it's natural materials wrapped with it, it's carving in the case goods, um, some nightstands.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_01: It's a boutique collection, you know, a curated place.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_01: But like everything in Jamie Young, I think it it speaks to our DNA, our point of view about quiet luxury, about really beautiful pieces, well made, um, and can fit into a lot of spaces, both coastal, mountain, city, because we, you know, we work across the country.
• 33:08
  TIffany Woolley: So with introducing this new line, I mean 54 pieces is a lot, and you're gonna be showcasing it at high point.
• 33:17
  TIffany Woolley: Is are the fabrics interchangeable or is it C O M or is it just they come as they are?
• 33:24
  TIffany Woolley: They come as they are.
• 33:25
  TIffany Woolley: They're not I love that actually.
• 33:27
  TIffany Woolley: It makes your life easier.
• 33:29
  TIffany Woolley: It does.
• 33:29
  TIffany Woolley: And you know, you did mention too, which I which is a great thing I do love about and appreciate about Jamie Young, is you know, even though we are in this fast-paced world of I want it now, you know, I still don't like to lose, to fall into a cookie cutter type of thing.
• 33:46
  TIffany Woolley: And I feel like Jamie Young answers all of those questions.
• 33:50
  TIffany Woolley: Like you do stock the items and they are unique, they're not just things you're gonna find anywhere.
• 33:57
  TIffany Woolley: So it really does fit the bill.
• 34:00
  TIffany Woolley: So adding upholstery is a win.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_01: Well, and I will say upholstery is probably a strong term for what we've done.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_01: We have upholstered chairs, uh-huh, but then we have the case goods.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_01: We we are not in the in the sofa business.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_01: I understand that.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_01: But we were dabbling um in a really what I feel can go to a lot of homes.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_01: It it's you can sit on it, you can buy it as shown, no problem.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_01: Like it's gonna work.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_01: It's um a performance fabric, so it's easy to clean, but it's we've worked hard on making sure that it's beautiful, it's upholstered correctly, the the solid wood, um the way that it's made, everything about it is just we've worked hard, you and it's comfortable as could be.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_01: Like you've got to be able to sit in it.
• 34:48
  Scott Woolley: You're launching that in October.
• 34:50
  Scott Woolley: Yeah.
• 34:50
  Scott Woolley: How long has that been in the works?
• 34:52
  Scott Woolley: How long when did you first start the design on that?
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_01: 14 months.
• 34:56
  Scott Woolley: That's yeah.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_01: I wish we could do it faster, but that's a true, that's a reality.
• 35:02
  TIffany Woolley: Well, I think 14 months is pretty fast to bring 54 pieces to life.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I think it was the fastest thing we've done, especially when in with new categories.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we've got another hundred coming next April.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_01: And those we just finished.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_01: So we're ahead of the game right now, which is great.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um, because we've got three, four hundred new designs we're working on.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_01: That's unbelievable.
• 35:31
  Scott Woolley: So does any of that, does any of that stressful at all?
• 35:34
  Scott Woolley: You know, because what one of the things we have one of the things we haven't spoken about is inventory.
• 35:39
  TIffany Woolley: Yeah, where it's where is it?
• 35:42
  Scott Woolley: You know, inventory, and I always as uh concerned about the fact of inventory and what doesn't move.
• 35:49
  Scott Woolley: And you know, did I order too much of this item?
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_01: And it's um well, it's a real thing, right?
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_01: So we um we have a great operations team.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_01: My business partner, Gary Fender, is um, he comes from operations.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_01: We look at this so carefully.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_01: We are very cautious in how we buy product.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_01: We have a very clear way that we do reorders.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it's it's we have it under control.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_01: We are not over-inventoried.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_01: We try to stay the the just-in-time inventory concept, making sure it's there for people, we we play with that.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, like you know, global logistics have made it um really challenging for everybody in our industry to price it properly, to make sure that it gets on a container, that the container didn't triple in cost, that we what tariffs are we paying?
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_01: There's just it's a world we we didn't have to deal with five years ago.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um so that's hard.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_01: You know, there is now I I say all this with a smile on my face, but yes, it's very stressful.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_01: But we do manage it.
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_01: We are in Los Angeles area, we've got about a hundred thousand square feet warehouse, and that's great, but at the same time, furniture takes up more space.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_01: There's great across the country.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_01: So we're always thinking about ways to improve and and and innovate, um, and be very and work with factories who will you do small quantities that can reorder faster because that's the most efficient way for us to do it.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um so so that's we're always thinking about inventory.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_01: I think anybody who's starting a business or looking at business in general, you know, the again, I started naively, which was good for me because this stuff is hard, but you do learn it, or you get great people who know more than you.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 37:50
  Scott Woolley: So over the years has the business grown from a standpoint, are you selling outside of the United States?
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_01: We do sell in Canada, okay, and we do sell in South America.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um those, you know, lighting is always harder because it it requires different kinds of wiring for us.
• 38:07
  Scott Woolley: Yeah, the plugs are definitely.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_01: So that's a thing we don't um do as much of.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_01: Or our main focus is the US, but it has grown.
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, we've done, you know, knock on wood or knock on anything.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_01: We're we're proud that we're 30 years in business, we're still here, and we continue to grow and we continue to think out of the box, right?
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um, on different ways of of being creative and both business and product.
• 38:34
  Scott Woolley: Do you rely mostly on the internet?
• 38:37
  Scott Woolley: Do you have stores retail?
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_01: We do not have we we set we have fabulous salespeople across the country selling our product to retail stores and interior designers.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um the internet is um we we are, of course, the internet's very important to today's selling and marketing.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you have to you you can't ignore it.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_01: It's an important part of how consumers see product, it's just the way it goes, right?
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_01: So we we lean in.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_01: I lean into technology.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_01: I think that you stay relevant if you lean in, you just find the balance.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_01: I think all technology is important for what we're trying to do.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, of course.
• 39:23
  TIffany Woolley: So when you're like when you're finding your local representatives and deciding what shows to go to and how much you curate for each area, and even the photography behind all these items, like that just it seems a little overwhelming on all of those fronts.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it is overwhelming.
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think this stuff is easy.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_01: I think we year after year we get better at it.
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_01: We've got our creative team, we work with photographers, we work with digital photography, we we are always here's the thing I believe the most about a business like like Jamie Young or anybody else doing these kind of things.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_01: If you're not open to change, yeah, and you're not really, really open to what is a better way to do this, what can I do differently?
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_01: How how can I show product differently?
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_01: How do I get to the customer to see it differently?
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_01: Then you you die.
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_01: You don't you don't make it, right?
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_01: So can't be stuck in my own way.
• 40:28
  SPEAKER_01: I happen to love change, I'm the most comfortable with it.
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_01: I I would say my employees are not going to be as comfortable with change as me, but that's my leadership.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_01: I hope to help them through that to see that's how things evolve and keep going well.
• 40:45
  TIffany Woolley: And how about with social media?
• 40:48
  TIffany Woolley: And you know, it's such a huge part of building a brand now.
• 40:52
  TIffany Woolley: How was integrating social media and becoming like the person behind the name, essentially?
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I know it's it's so funny.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_01: I have my my kids are people who are not big social media people, like they they're which is so funny, right?
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_01: They're artists and they're creative and they're like, don't get sucked in, mom.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I'm always like, well, it's not that I'm getting sucked in, but I need to reach the necessary evil, I always say.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you need to connect.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_01: And personally, my favorite things are connecting to people.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_01: So I got lucky.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not a person who wants to show everybody all the details of my life all the time.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_01: It's not, it's not my my jam, but it is important to be in front of your customer and to because I'm at every trade show.
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_01: I am meeting my customers all the time.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_01: I know.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_01: I love fun about it.
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_01: It's the part that I love.
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_01: And I want to hear and learn from people.
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_01: I want people to feel like they know me and they know our brand because I mean, it's not just me that runs this company.
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_01: We have the best people and everybody's so committed and all across of it.
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_01: But as a face of the brand, I think it's important.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_01: You just have to embrace it.
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_01: And I embrace it.
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not perfect, I don't have perfect skin.
• 42:16
  SPEAKER_01: I my hair is always crazy.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_01: Like I don't, I just can't worry too much because life is too busy.
• 42:22
  TIffany Woolley: Well, and authenticity is always gonna win, I feel like.
• 42:26
  TIffany Woolley: And your brand is so authentic, and so are you, and they resonate beautifully, consistently.
• 42:33
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_01: That's nice.
• 42:35
  SPEAKER_01: Your questions are great, you guys.
• 42:36
  SPEAKER_01: I I do these sometimes, and I love these conversations.
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I will I want to hear more about what you guys do.
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_01: You're asking me all these great questions, but I'm like, you guys have business background and all these things too, because it really makes it fun.
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_01: And for your listeners who want who really are wanting to be entrepreneurs or have business questions as much as creative, I just love that stuff.
• 43:01
  TIffany Woolley: Well, you've done such an amazing job of literally designing the life you wanted to live.
• 43:07
  TIffany Woolley: And you did it somewhat consciously, you know, saying you wanted to travel the world, you wanted to work together with your husband, you wanted to be creative and you love design, but you wanted to build something.
• 43:20
  TIffany Woolley: And, you know, to know 30 years fast forward, you've done that and you're continuing it.
• 43:26
  TIffany Woolley: And it is such a, you know, in our design industry, a very well respected and sought-after brand.
• 43:34
  TIffany Woolley: For me, it's just so exciting to talk to somebody who's done that.
• 43:38
  TIffany Woolley: And doing it.
• 43:39
  TIffany Woolley: And continuing to do it.
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I I have to say that thank you.
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um, because we just had an article at Business of Home launching our new collection, right?
• 43:52
  SPEAKER_01: And I got an email from a very old friend.
• 43:55
  SPEAKER_01: I hadn't talked to her in 25 years, and she was a very high end interior.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_01: Designer in Los Angeles at the time.
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_01: And I didn't know about high-end interior designers then.
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_01: I knew what I loved, but I didn't know that world as well.
• 44:11
  TIffany Woolley: You were falling into this category.
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_01: And she literally said to me, First of all, Jamie, congratulations on your career.
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_01: It's so great to see this.
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_01: And I never even thought of myself as having a career.
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_01: It was weird.
• 44:25
  SPEAKER_01: Because I just that I just, this is what I want to do.
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_01: And I was always in awe of her, you know, almost intimidated by how she could pick all these high-end, gorgeous things.
• 44:36
  SPEAKER_01: And she's like, You are so funny.
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_01: Cause I was always like, wow, this girl's got grit.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_01: Look at her go.
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_01: Like she's just building this stuff out.
• 44:45
  SPEAKER_01: And so I just think it's interesting.
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_01: We don't always see what we're doing.
• 44:49
  SPEAKER_01: We don't always stop and go, wow, you know, let's let's take a moment and just like back it up a little bit.
• 44:56
  TIffany Woolley: And that's why we love this podcast so much, is because everybody's stories are just so incredible.
• 45:02
  TIffany Woolley: And I just had that aha moment.
• 45:03
  TIffany Woolley: Like, little did you know you were creating this company that landed into high-end residential.
• 45:09
  Scott Woolley: But I find it fascinating.
• 45:11
  Scott Woolley: Like I first asked you in the beginning of the podcast, you weren't an interior designer.
• 45:15
  Scott Woolley: So you you started and built this wonderful business, not having any experience with interior design, what interior designers want or looking for, and putting together houses and decorating houses.
• 45:28
  Scott Woolley: But here you're designing and creating all of this product that's beautifully going into homes as though you had a prior career as an interior designer.
• 45:41
  SPEAKER_01: The only thing I could say is I had I had a lot of background.
• 45:44
  SPEAKER_01: I went to Parsons School Design in the idea of design.
• 45:48
  SPEAKER_01: I've always been a love of design, of spatial design, a creation of stuff.
• 45:57
  Scott Woolley: Right, but you you built a business, your distribution of your product, the manufacturing of so many different types of products, the design and putting all of that together is quite remarkable.
• 46:09
  Scott Woolley: I mean, and I let me ask you a question.
• 46:12
  Scott Woolley: So sitting there today, if you could go back 30 years ago, was there something that you wish you knew then that you know today?
• 46:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, to to chill out.
• 46:28
  TIffany Woolley: I feel like you get that information, you get graced with age with that information.
• 46:34
  TIffany Woolley: I mean, I keep saying that to myself, and I feel like that confidence comes from all the time that you did spend worrying.
• 46:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 46:43
  SPEAKER_01: I think so.
• 46:44
  SPEAKER_01: I remember we did this project for Pottery Barn, and they they bought a lamp from a regular line, and it was this floor lamp of branches, crazy branches that we did out of Thailand.
• 46:56
  SPEAKER_01: And it was such a big deal.
• 46:59
  SPEAKER_01: And they bought 800 of these floor lamps.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_05: No way.
• 47:03
  SPEAKER_01: And it was so we were like, oh my gosh.
• 47:06
  SPEAKER_01: Right now, we'd never worked with them.
• 47:08
  SPEAKER_01: We didn't know testing protocols, we didn't know anything.
• 47:12
  SPEAKER_01: I just said yes.
• 47:14
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, in my infinite wisdom, I'm like, sure, we could do it.
• 47:19
  SPEAKER_03: 800 skios of the same item.
• 47:22
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, for pottery barn, which for the pottery barn.
• 47:26
  SPEAKER_01: That was a big deal.
• 47:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 47:27
  SPEAKER_01: And I'll never forget that the buyer called me, and we were producing them, they were in production, and the buyer called me and said, Jamie, I have um bugs all over my table from the sample you sent me.
• 47:41
  SPEAKER_01: Oh and I thought I was gonna have a heart attack.
• 47:45
  SPEAKER_01: And my husband had to get on a plane literally the next day and go to the production of of Thailand in Thailand to say what what's going on.
• 47:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 47:56
  SPEAKER_01: And it was just I didn't sleep for two weeks.
• 48:00
  SPEAKER_01: I was just a wreck.
• 48:01
  SPEAKER_01: It was so it was the biggest opportunity we ever had.
• 48:05
  SPEAKER_01: Now later we find out that this sample that was sent did not go through fumigation.
• 48:12
  SPEAKER_01: And the production has to go through fumigation, but I would never have even known that.
• 48:18
  SPEAKER_01: So the bugs that were on this this big buyer's desk.
• 48:22
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my goodness.
• 48:24
  SPEAKER_01: Was was just it destroyed me.
• 48:26
  SPEAKER_01: And so I I can say I can probably tell you 20 stories that are exactly the same craziness that taught me that you things work out.
• 48:34
  TIffany Woolley: Like you figure it out.
• 48:37
  TIffany Woolley: Absolutely do.
• 48:38
  TIffany Woolley: That was actually gonna be one of my questions.
• 48:40
  TIffany Woolley: Was do you plan to collaborate with other designers or manufacturers?
• 48:45
  TIffany Woolley: Not as a manufacturer's because you are your own manufacturer, but something like a pottery burn.
• 48:51
  TIffany Woolley: I had no idea.
• 48:52
  TIffany Woolley: So do they private label it or do they sell it as Jamie?
• 48:57
  TIffany Woolley: A private label.
• 48:57
  TIffany Woolley: Okay.
• 48:58
  SPEAKER_01: So we we definitely design and produce for some of the big retailers in the in the world.
• 49:04
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 49:05
  SPEAKER_01: And that's been very exciting because what happens is they find something that they love that we've done, and they want um uh an iteration of that exclusive for them.
• 49:15
  SPEAKER_01: And that's how you also build a business, right?
• 49:17
  SPEAKER_01: So you need you need the factories to be busy, you need, and and it's exciting because they've got um the up, we get the opportunity to sell to a lot of people.
• 49:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um at the same time, it's different than our high-end specialty stuff.
• 49:35
  SPEAKER_01: So we have different divisions, and and that, and a lot of it started because we got this great exposure from like El Decor or Neiman Marcus, and then they came to us and we did private label for them for many years, and then and other people who come to the show and they're like, Oh my gosh, this is beautiful! Can you do something like this for us?
• 49:54
  SPEAKER_01: That kind of thing.
• 49:56
  TIffany Woolley: This is, I mean, I find I feel like I might know the answer to this question already, but imitation is obviously a sincere form of flattery, and you definitely bring together so many unique materials.
• 50:09
  TIffany Woolley: Do you ever see competition in what you're doing, or do you just keep the blinders on and keep going?
• 50:16
  SPEAKER_01: I wish I could say I keep the blinders on, but I am very human and I am very much look at everything.
• 50:23
  SPEAKER_01: I I laugh because people who know me personally, you know, you know me as this side of silly and lighthearted and fun.
• 50:32
  SPEAKER_01: I'm extremely competitive as well.
• 50:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so I take that and I have to tone it down.
• 50:41
  SPEAKER_01: I have to go, wait a minute, it's okay.
• 50:43
  SPEAKER_01: I we came up with this thing.
• 50:45
  SPEAKER_01: Someone else, there's always gonna be 10 people who do something similar.
• 50:49
  SPEAKER_01: You just have to, and then I come back to do what you do best.
• 50:53
  SPEAKER_01: So I have a whole cycle in my mind that I go through and I have been going through for 30 years.
• 50:58
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, selling to pottery barn, I sold to them, but at the same time, I'd walk in their their their windows and they had three things that looked exactly like us, but we didn't make.
• 51:08
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 51:09
  SPEAKER_01: So it it you can't avoid it.
• 51:12
  SPEAKER_01: You know, good design starts at the high end and goes down, or vice versa.
• 51:18
  SPEAKER_01: Like you in today's world, it you can see everything.
• 51:22
  SPEAKER_01: So you just have to know if you know how to create, you have to keep creating.
• 51:27
  Scott Woolley: So high point is coming up.
• 51:29
  Scott Woolley: How important is high point for you?
• 51:33
  Scott Woolley: Very important.
• 51:34
  Scott Woolley: Very do you go.
• 51:35
  Scott Woolley: Do you do do do you participate in in others or many other shows?
• 51:40
  SPEAKER_01: I participate.
• 51:41
  SPEAKER_01: I have a showroom in Atlanta in the merchandise mart, and it's because I started in the gift world and the gift industry, home furnishings was Accents was great for Atlanta.
• 51:52
  SPEAKER_01: But it ended up that we've got a big showroom in Atlanta and we have a showroom in High Point, and that seems to be good for us.
• 51:58
  Scott Woolley: Are they open year-round?
• 52:01
  SPEAKER_01: Atlanta is sort of.
• 52:03
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's supposed to be.
• 52:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um, that building is an interesting place.
• 52:07
  SPEAKER_01: It it should be, but we get we get almost more retailers in Atlanta and more interior designers in High Point.
• 52:15
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 52:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's so we need both.
• 52:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um space is always a challenge, but we are in great locations in both.
• 52:24
  SPEAKER_01: In High Point, we're in the main IHFC building upstairs.
• 52:29
  Scott Woolley: We've been to your space, we've walked through it.
• 52:32
  SPEAKER_01: And um, and we have a space down in Inner Hall as well, right below us.
• 52:36
  SPEAKER_01: So you're always trying to figure out it's like real estate, right?
• 52:40
  SPEAKER_01: Location, location, and um, and it's that's always a bit of a challenge because you need to balance the cost of how much space with what makes sense.
• 52:52
  SPEAKER_01: And so I'm very cognizant of that.
• 52:54
  SPEAKER_01: My business partner and CEO were both he he, you know, he's really always helping me now pay attention to that balance.
• 53:03
  SPEAKER_01: You want gorgeous and creative, but you need it to sell and you need to stay profitable.
• 53:07
  SPEAKER_01: So, how do you look at the whole thing?
• 53:10
  TIffany Woolley: Well, that's really interesting.
• 53:12
  TIffany Woolley: So, where do you see Jamie Young continuing?
• 53:15
  TIffany Woolley: I mean, I know you've mentioned about the new case goods.
• 53:19
  TIffany Woolley: Uh is the plan to just keep growing and scaling?
• 53:23
  TIffany Woolley: It is.
• 53:24
  TIffany Woolley: I love it.
• 53:24
  TIffany Woolley: It is.
• 53:24
  SPEAKER_01: We're I I I'm I have the energy, I have a lot of the same energy I've had, you know.
• 53:30
  TIffany Woolley: I feel very you love what you do and it comes through.
• 53:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'm I'm excited.
• 53:37
  SPEAKER_01: I and in some ways I understand more than I did obviously 30 years ago.
• 53:42
  SPEAKER_01: So I have a maybe I'm a little more focused.
• 53:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I also try to remember that innovation comes from being really open-minded and really paying attention and being curious.
• 53:58
  SPEAKER_01: So I have that too.
• 54:00
  SPEAKER_01: And I think you need both.
• 54:01
  SPEAKER_01: And I see Jamie Young, we're just a growing great brand.
• 54:05
  SPEAKER_01: As I we are, we hope to give people an alternative to some of the bigger brands out there that are selling that have 5,000 SKUs and more.
• 54:16
  SPEAKER_01: We are we have such a gorgeous curated collection.
• 54:19
  SPEAKER_01: We're in stock.
• 54:20
  SPEAKER_01: We we pride ourselves on um really good customer service.
• 54:25
  SPEAKER_01: People like to work with us.
• 54:26
  SPEAKER_01: We want to make the designers' lives easier.
• 54:29
  SPEAKER_01: It's hard enough with installation and deadlines and mistakes and challenges.
• 54:34
  SPEAKER_01: And so we just approach this like great customer service people.
• 54:39
  TIffany Woolley: That's well, it sounds like you've been able to master all these little recipes perfectly, like you have the right amount of everything.
• 54:48
  SPEAKER_01: I think we today today's a good day.
• 54:50
  SPEAKER_01: If you talk to me tomorrow, you never know.
• 54:53
  SPEAKER_01: I always say when you have kids, it's like you wake up in the morning and if they're good, you're having a good day.
• 54:59
  SPEAKER_01: And if one of them isn't, then you're not, or that's how I am.
• 55:02
  SPEAKER_01: And so today's a great day.
• 55:05
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm excited by it all.
• 55:06
  SPEAKER_01: Tomorrow, who knows what will happen with a tariff or a anything.
• 55:12
  TIffany Woolley: But you know it'll work out, right?
• 55:14
  TIffany Woolley: That's the yeah, you know, yeah.
• 55:16
  TIffany Woolley: Well, that's the goal.
• 55:18
  TIffany Woolley: This was such an amazing conversation.
• 55:20
  TIffany Woolley: I'm so grateful to be able to meet you virtually and look forward to seeing you hopefully at high point or even.
• 55:28
  SPEAKER_01: Please come see us at High Point.
• 55:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, if we're in South Florida, which I will be, I will definitely say hello.
• 55:35
  SPEAKER_01: We would love to come see you.
• 55:37
  SPEAKER_01: But if you're in High Point this October, please come see me.
• 55:40
  SPEAKER_01: I would love that to meet you in person.
• 55:42
  TIffany Woolley: And I would say as a designer, thank you for growing your line.
• 55:46
  TIffany Woolley: I mean, thank you for being so unique and bringing all these beautiful textures and just different materials to our fingertips.
• 55:58
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, well, thanks.
• 55:59
  SPEAKER_01: I I appreciate it.
• 56:00
  SPEAKER_01: I love that people like what we're doing.
• 56:02
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's so important.
• 56:04
  Scott Woolley: When we first started, you talked about in the 70s, and I and on your website it talks about the 70s and the 80s and the influences and music and fashion.
• 56:13
  Scott Woolley: And who are some of those, or what are some of those things that influenced you that that you have you bring that up and you know clearly on your website?
• 56:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 56:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um there we had so many different people around us.
• 56:29
  SPEAKER_01: We I sort of had a hippie west side lifestyle with my family, very lots of New Yorkers, lots of um different famous people who were sort of part of like my dad's life.
• 56:44
  SPEAKER_01: And then my mom was, as I said, a sculptor and a painter.
• 56:48
  SPEAKER_01: And um so we we just had this interesting blend of of characters, um, but a lot of them were unique driven people.
• 57:00
  SPEAKER_01: I I mean, my father grew up in Brooklyn, and his best friends were basically Sandy Koufax and Larry King.
• 57:06
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah.
• 57:07
  SPEAKER_01: And so they were Sandy's my godfather.
• 57:10
  SPEAKER_01: Larry was my dad's closest, closest friend.
• 57:13
  SPEAKER_01: So he would bring us, I would always get to go for his interviews.
• 57:18
  SPEAKER_01: I would it he was like we would be in the back just because he was, you know, just a guy from Brooklyn.
• 57:24
  SPEAKER_01: So basically, we were a family.
• 57:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so those were some more famous people, but we were around a lot.
• 57:32
  SPEAKER_01: Like we were always influenced by all of it.
• 57:34
  SPEAKER_01: We were always in galleries and museums, and everybody, and fashion was a big deal.
• 57:39
  SPEAKER_01: If you I will never forget, like um his name was Mike Glasser.
• 57:45
  SPEAKER_01: And if you remember French dressing, which was a jeans in the the patchwork jeans of the 70s, which was like the hottest thing you could ever imagine.
• 57:56
  SPEAKER_01: And he invented these jeans, and then he and he made a lot of money and he came and picked me up from elementary school in a convertible white Rolls-Royce.
• 58:07
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, wow.
• 58:08
  SPEAKER_01: And I never forget I was like, wow, this is the craziest thing.
• 58:12
  SPEAKER_01: It was with my dad.
• 58:13
  SPEAKER_01: And then he said, Do you want to come downtown and pick out jeans from the factory?
• 58:18
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, wow.
• 58:20
  SPEAKER_01: And and it was very influential because not the not the Rolls-Royce, because that was just goofy, but the factory where he designed something and produced it was mind-boggling.
• 58:32
  SPEAKER_01: I had never seen that before.
• 58:34
  SPEAKER_01: So it was very inspirational to go, you can draw something, create it, make it, and sell it.
• 58:40
  Scott Woolley: What is it so that had a big impression on you in the way you are today?
• 58:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, a huge impression.
• 58:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 58:46
  SPEAKER_01: I I I and he went on to five different major gene companies that um what was it, seven for all?
• 58:54
  SPEAKER_01: What is it?
• 58:55
  TIffany Woolley: Yeah, yeah, seven for all mankind, yeah.
• 58:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 58:57
  SPEAKER_01: So that was his a bunch of big brands in the fashion industry, but he was very, and he would let me, as I started my business, I would go down there sometimes.
• 59:07
  SPEAKER_01: So I had a lot of people like that who they were just family friends and said, Jamie, this is so cool what you're doing.
• 59:13
  SPEAKER_01: Come check out what I'm doing, kind of thing.
• 59:16
  TIffany Woolley: I love that.
• 59:17
  TIffany Woolley: Like, and that you were just so open to it.
• 59:19
  TIffany Woolley: And I feel like we talk about that a lot too, is you just have to be open for these, you know, blessings and these inspirational times so that they mean something as you move forward.
• 59:31
  TIffany Woolley: Yeah, you have to hold them.
• 59:33
  SPEAKER_01: You do.
• 59:33
  SPEAKER_01: The stories are important, and and you get so I feel like I continue to get something from each of these things that we do, even our travels today.
• 59:43
  SPEAKER_01: Every time we go somewhere, we take a cup.
• 59:45
  SPEAKER_01: My husband's really good at saying we need two days to just see where we are.
• 59:50
  SPEAKER_01: That's not work.
• 59:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 59:51
  SPEAKER_01: And he always does it.
• 59:52
  SPEAKER_01: And it really makes a difference, right?
• 59:53
  SPEAKER_01: You first of all, you don't burn out, right?
• 59:55
  SPEAKER_01: But then you you understand the culture differently, you see things so differently.
• 1:00:00
  TIffany Woolley: Well, I appreciate you bringing all of that beauty into our design world.
• 1:00:04
  TIffany Woolley: And thank you for joining us today.
• 1:00:07
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, thank you guys.
• 1:00:08
  SPEAKER_01: It was super fun.
• 1:00:09
  SPEAKER_01: I appreciate all the questions too.
• 1:00:11
  SPEAKER_01: It it's it gets me all excited.
• 1:00:15
  Scott Woolley: You have great answers, though.
• 1:00:17
  Scott Woolley: Great story.
• 1:00:18
  SPEAKER_01: Beautiful story.
• 1:00:19
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks.
• 1:00:19
  Voice Over: Okay, cool.
• 1:00:21
  TIffany Woolley: Thank you for tuning in to the iDesign Lab Podcast.
• 1:00:26
  Voice Over: iDesign Labs Podcast is an SW group production in association with the five star and TW Interiors.
• 1:00:33
  Voice Over: To learn more about iDesign Lab or TW Interiors, please visit TWinteriors.com.