Ep25 Samuel & Paige Thomas—From Pawn Shop to Empire: Building a Multi-Million Dollar Jewelry Business Through Sheer Will

Jason Croft  0:00  
So you get into 40 stores? Yeah, I'm gonna

Sam Thomas  0:03  
get the 40 stores. Yeah, that's not a question. We want to get to 40 stores. I need 500 million in assets and 40 million a year income. And so we're gonna go until we get it. That's our first goal. When we reach that goal, then we'll decide the second goal.

Jason Croft  0:17  
Welcome to the lion's edge, where top performers sharpen their teeth. Hosted by Joe Blackburn, founder of The Lion, who is relentlessly dedicated to helping business owners lead multi million dollar teams and me. Jason Croft, I transform unseen entrepreneurs into industry leaders by developing their market gravity. Each week we revealed proven strategies and raw insights to help you maximize your business, multiply your wealth and make your family indestructible. Now let's create your edge. Well, this is awesome. Sam page, I'm so glad you're here, Joe, Yeah, guess I'm glad you're here as well. I showed up. Yeah, this is fun. I love that we're having folks from the lion on here and digging into just the powerhouse of folks that you have Joe in this I love how we kicked off the episode with Gary and had you kind of jump in and tee us up with what you know about Sam and Paige and all the good, the bad, all the good, all that stuff. Okay, tell us about them. Well, let

Joe Blackburn  1:30  
me say this out of the gate, there is no lion without Sam. So he's the biggest advocate because he's the hungriest. So he naturally attracts other people that are hungry, and I couldn't do what I do without him. And, you know, I've got two real strategic partners, the glue, Lauren, behind the scenes, and then Sam's, you know, tip of the spear, so to speak. And I will say this, and I don't want to flatter him too much, because it could get dangerous, but it's closest thing to a brother I've ever had. I didn't have a brother growing up. And, you know, we do calls at five in the morning Saturdays. I mean, it's like if I, if I got in real trouble, and I have been in my life, and I had to call someone my first call, Sam Thomas, because it doesn't matter where. Damn right. Yes, God damn right. I mean, it doesn't matter where he is, what he's doing because he'll

Jason Croft  2:21  
need to, yeah, because he needs a good laugh.

Joe Blackburn  2:23  
No, for it. I mean, whatever the problem he would did throttle me, which I would expect. But he's my first call. You know, I like to be the first call for all the lions. He's my first call. So, and, you know, I talked to a lot of people every day about wanting to grow and get bigger, and all the things we talk about. And the difference between all those people and Sam, he doesn't have to think about it. He doesn't have to worry about it. He's hungry and has the will to win and will just do it. So there are probably people in this world might be smarter, may have more luck, may have more given to them. He's done it with sheer will to win. And those people are rare. I mean, if I had 100 Sam Thomases 100 we'd take the world of it's an innate will to overcome any obstacle, face fear, run right through it. I mean, there's just, there's no one like him. And I, when I was introduced to him, the person said there's no one like him. And I was like, yeah, right, I've met a lot of people. Nah, there ain't. And he got, you know, ass lucky, and met Paige, which is true. So you know the the universe lined up, and you know what, what's and I watch everybody, you know there is, there is some value and chemistry and pure love that counterbalances it. Because I got a lot of people, sometimes I gotta, like, nudge them with sand. Sometimes I gotta, like, Hold on a sec, just one second, like, one breath, and it's just, it makes what I do so much more enjoyable to see someone that demonstrates and doesn't talk. You know, there's a lot of online tough guys. Sam doesn't do that. He just does it so and what he's done in rentals in his business, you know, it's pretty unprecedented, quite frankly, so I couldn't ask for, you know, a better person to be in my life kissing his ass here. But Sam, you know, does jewelry and everything. So like my kids, they're like, they know Sam because they see presents, but you know, Scarlet, my 11 year old, sold Girl Scout cookies, and was like, Can I call Sam? Can I text Sam? That's how well known, because she knew, yeah, he's gonna do that. So it's just, it's a testament to all the excuses you carry around in your head. They're not real. You know, we'll talk about it today. They expanded and the store burned down. Did they just close up? No, found a new location within a week, operating out of a new place. So couldn't ask for a better partner, friend. I mean, just I call him my brother.

Jason Croft  5:11  
How'd you like that? That's phenomenal,

Sam Thomas  5:14  
damn rod. I did. That's my brother, and

Jason Croft  5:17  
that's the call. That's it. That's all we needed. What an intro. I love it. Sam page. I know how real that is just from conversations I've had with Joe. So I want to hear the business side of it. I want to you know what makes it up everything with the jewelry store. Where did that start? Why? Why jewelry and just got real properties and all that launched into it. Give me some give me some business details here

Sam Thomas  5:47  
jewelry, it was just just an opportunity, like I've told Joe, everybody knows, like I worked a lot. When I got out of the service, just worked a lot. And one of the part time jobs I had, I always worked at least three jobs, so two full times and a part time or one part time and two full times, always seven days a week. And one of the part times was a pawn shop. And I saw a way to be more valuable. There was a bench there. Lady's husband had died. There was another gentleman there. He was not that good, and I could see that. So I took the chance and asked her if I could just figure out how to repair jewelry when customers weren't around, because there's already buckets of scrap. And if I fix it, you make more money. If I don't, you're melting it anyways, right? And so I just did it. Just went after that. Decided I gained enough knowledge from that to where I could start traveling. And I'm an impulse guy, so if I see something, I'm going after it. And so I got a part time job too, at a mall here, working as a goldsmith, so I could work on actual real, like, nice jewelry. I only worked on, like, kind of crap. And nice jewelry is actually easier to work on something most of the time. So after that, I figured that out. Wasn't that great. Knew that. Found out there was a school in Quincy, Illinois, Gem City College, and they also had a watchmaking program, which a master watchmaker's name is a horologist, just so, you know, just great. And so I moved, went to the school, quit all my jobs, packed up everything, went to Quincy, Illinois, rented a house. My next door neighbors were carnies Street. House across the street had burned down from meth. The basement at this house smelled like urine, so I poured bleach down there every two weeks. It was good enough, and then I became then I went to the school. Two weeks in, I found out that I was better than the teacher, and I knew I was not good, and so knowing that and knowing that and knowing I'm better. And then I've seen kids that have been there for six months and eight months that can't even size a ring that takes about 20 minutes to do. They still can't do it. I realized, okay, it's just a bad move. So I went to a jewelry store in town and got a job, and then became their head Goldsmith, and started learning I'd never set a diamond before there at all ever. In fact, the owner came in and told me to set a three carat diamond because he was getting engaged, and I'd never even set up a diamond that's the size of an ink stick. I just called around and called the company. I'm like, I gotta set a diamond. You need to tell me how. There's gotta be a way. Somebody's gotta tell me something. And so got it figured out, said it, and then started venturing forward. While I was there, a good guy, Teddy maracas had seen me. He was a vendor from New York. They used to produce all of sales jewelry at one time before it went overseas and stuff. It was Alpha International. Was the name of the company. And he saw me, and started talking to me, asking questions, and I told them I taught myself everything I can. I need to see somebody like I need some help. And so they talked to the owners and decided, all right, we'll fly them out to New York to work with our guy for a couple of weeks. I was like, I'm sweet. Flew to New York. I slept on the floor of this hallway apartment for about two weeks. Guy gave me an air mattress that held air for about 10 minutes. And so it was fine. I didn't care. Slept on the floor, met this guy, not seen

Sam Thomas  9:06  
Filipino guy, the best I'd ever seen. He you got big torches, like this big the old timers natural gas torches, where we use propane. It's like a little pencil torch. Now it's cleaner and you can pinpoint more. This guy had this big torch, big flame, and did things that I've never seen in my life. It was amazing. And from there, we just, he taught me everything, like I learned how to use giant mill press, just how to properly melt gold, because there are steps you got to do. It's not just melting it and pouring it. There's little things you got to learn. And then how to, like, flatten it, how to kneel it properly, just all the right things, things I had kind of known but weren't perfect at so that for two weeks they really liked it. Told me, Hey, we we love you. Go back. Want you to work for a year, then we want you to come back here and work for US manufacturing. So I went back while I was there working, and I was also working part time at night at Fred Meyers Jewish. Or it's a chain store in a mall. So at nighttime, I'd work there when I got off work. And then on the weekends, when I got off, usually Saturday, I would drive back to Sykes, and then would work here at that store, still trying to help them. I'd work all through the night, all day, Sunday, through, halfway through Sunday night, and then drive back, you know, to Quincy, I did that. And before that, I was doing that. When I was going to Jackson, Tennessee, I'd get some search certificates each week. Made you a master. You paid the money go there. Lady hated me. I don't know what was going on. Didn't like men much. I don't know. So then I did that. Then I came back and I was doing that same thing on the weekends there, well, I would drive back on the weekends. Work all through the night. I worked 36 hours in a day and a half, you know, and then drive back. So it's great. So yada yada yada. Then while after I came back from New York, a guy in Chicago and called me at Wyatt Austin jewelers. Now, I'm from Arlington Heights originally, so my family lives in Schaumburg and Arlington Heights at the time. So this guy calls me, wants to hire me while I was real valuable, because I knew how to do sales. Okay? And most of us Goldsmiths are weird. We're just freaking weird, right? So I was real valuable because of that. So I went there and I could work on the floor and in the goldsmiths. So now I'm working with this guy, Hector, who was amazing, so now I can see how things are really done. And Hector's willing to answer questions, which is rare in this industry. Goldsmiths kind of like to mess you up a little bit. They don't want you getting better than them. So Hector was really good to me, so I did that. Then, while I was doing that, I was on the sales floor. There was only about three people on the sales floor, but if you didn't sell something, he would just fire you. That day, someone walked in, you were just fired. People took it the wrong way. This guy gave you all the tools and all the knowledge you needed. It was up to you to take it right? So if you didn't use it, you clearly you just fired yourself. So I took those tools every week. You got to go these psychology classes just to learn about people, to learn how to talk to him better, to learn what they're saying to you, just to learn more and not use feelings so much. Did that. I did great. I love this guy. Nobody really liked him. I loved him. He made me good. Then another Goldsmith came in. His name was Sasha, and he was the best I'd ever seen at that time. So now I get to see what he's doing. So I'm going back and forth. I'm learning a lot about sales, a lot about how to work the business, and how to how to make everything the best, how to be the actual best. When it comes to repairs, fixing, setting, whatever it was, how to be the best. Because that's all you could be. If you weren't the best, you weren't welcome there, which is great. So did that for a year, had a deal to come back to run a store with a lady. And I wasn't real smart at time. I mean, I was young. Handshake deals came back six months in I after a month, I changed their business, made them profitable after one month, when they've been losing for probably over a year, six months in deal, then just deal didn't work. No big deal. Decided I'm open my own store. So I rented someplace look like a shit hole. Got a loan. I went everywhere. Nobody would give it to me. So I had an uncle. He helped me. Got me a loan. Help co selling for 130,000 my mom asked her, called her. She let me borrow 25,000

Sam Thomas  13:22  
that's a lot of money, so I spent it all on my equipment and my service. Kept about somewhere around 30,000 in the bank for something catastrophic. Started with two quarter carat diamonds. Had four showcases look like they come out of a gas station cut. Mcgalove got plywood cut. It painted. It looked like one level white a buddy of mine, Joe Loeb at Seymour glass was a cool cat. Cut me some glass for the front of it, so we put it on so you couldn't tell. And then I got lights. I'm like, What's the strongest lights you can get through these halogen lamps? I can't remember what they were, but I only have four cases, and in the wintertime, you need to turn the heat on here. Like, that's how much heat they projected. Like, never turned heat on, but I knew, I know I needed light, right? I just know these things, but I, you know, a lot of things that wasn't great at but so we did that, and then just worked on our service, on how good we were, and make sure everything was perfect. And this steadily built it from there, you know, after that, wound up getting to have my kids blazing cash. And they grew up in here. So they slept on the floor every night to about three or four in one while I worked. And then you go further in a few years in we were finally able to buy the building go a little bit further in here. And where we were up here, worked every night till three in the morning, gutting it the upstairs for a year. Did all the things. Didn't take a brain. Had another guy that was brilliant that came in and did all the things that do take a brain, built it perfectly. So now, now my kids, when we're working at night, now they have a walkie talkie. They get sleep in a bed. I mean, we're moving up. So now they're then if they wake up, they just walkie talkie. Dad, no problem. I come up check on them. We're good. To go, or they might just want to come back down and hang out with me. They were so used to it at the time. I mean, there was a time I remember one time when I said, Hey guys, we have couches in the back room to sleep when I was working. I remember my daughter. She came with me. It was the greatest thing you could ever heard. She said, Daddy, we want to stay with you. We're gonna sleep up here with you. I was like, thanks. I mean, they better sleep on the floor next to me. I mean, it was great. And so we did that. I mean, we played in the store every day. We just had fun. It was a family thing. 10,000 moms and grandmas held my kids. I mean, they're crying, you know, you got a baby on the hip and you're trying to sell jewelry to someone that doesn't have kids, they don't always understand it. It's kind of annoying. But if someone has kids, they get it, and they almost want to, and they want to help you. And so they helped me. I had, I can't tell you how much felt, just from people. It was incredible. You. Fast forward. We just went through the grind and just invested every penny we had back in it took a lot of hits along the way, made some bad decisions, made more good decisions. This is why we kept going. Just fought, fought through him. We didn't know, I didn't know any better to stop. You know, like, I don't know the right way to say it because it's wrong. You know, you don't want to say the word. Like, I was just dumb enough to not know any better. It's not a good way to say it, but I don't know how to really say it to somebody I just knew to never stop.

Jason Croft  16:21  
Yeah, I mean, that's, that's a drive that I think we all wish we had even more of. I think you could say naive, or just you didn't know that area. And thank goodness, right? Because, yeah, you mentioned it early on. It is such a, I mean, it's a, it's a head game, it's a mental game. My gosh. Imagine simple process. Yeah, imagine way back then, if you're like, wow, I really need to get this figured out. And, oh, that school wasn't quite right. So let me find another school, because somebody I've got to learn. No, I mean that that story is absolutely the demonstration of how Joe has described you as long as I've known him. And I just Paige, I want to ask how you got roped into all this. And, oh, man, and your side of it. But Sam, where does this come from? Where do you think this comes from? This just drive, just go. You've always worked. You mentioned that, yes, it's

Sam Thomas  17:24  
really easy. Comes from government places. One my mom, hard worker. I watched her work. She just worked. My dad was hard worker. He was a hustler, you know, he grew up on the streets of Chicago. His his dad came over on a boat when he was 16. Couldn't speak no English, hopped off the boat. You know, I think at the time, Turks were killing them all. So he come over, where Syrians, Assyrians, not Syrians, but Assyrians, Christian. And so he come over and had it figured out. So he was raised pretty tough. And so it was my dad. So he gave me this, this toughness that I needed inside, to defend, just to just to protect. I don't know. It's just, he just built something inside of me, man, that was clear that you cannot stop us like it's you, come on, whatever you got. Come on. And and then my mom, with her work ethic, watching her, she worked 1618, hours a day, every day, all the time. She was, at one point working 18 hour shifts and only crock it in for 12 so they they didn't know how long it would take her to get everything done. It just made her look good, because she was trying to make cuts, because company, big company, would buy them and cut half the company. And she made that cut every time, you know, she knew she was tough. So I got got great work ethic from her. And then the Marine Corps, the Marine Corps teaches you, the greatest thing it gives you inside is that when you think you're done, when you think I've gone as far as I can, you can go 10 times further before you actually die, 10 times further. And so with all of those, you know, all those factors that have been given to me these gifts. I mean, that's all it took. It was real simple. After that, then it was just go and I just went hard. The problem was, that's what I could do. I could just go really hard. You. Fast forward.

Sam Thomas  19:17  
I get to finally meet Joe. It was very enlightening.

Sam Thomas  19:24  
We learned a lot the day I met Joe was the day I quit losing money on bad decisions like that day. Haven't lost a penny since, and I had made some bad decisions because I was always trying to advance. I always wanted to go further. Just wanted to go more, wanted to go more. And Joe was gave me the right structure after I meet Joe, me and Paige had been friends for we were friends for about 10 years before we actually dated. She was crossfit coach, and Paige was such a value to me, because I am just go and Paige will tell you, like, even in CrossFit, I would people would flock. To her. I watched her with her knowledge, and they just flocked her as a leader. They just, she did extra she didn't just do CrossFit, right? She's going in, okay, well, I'm a crossfit coach. She kept going actions, kept taking these extra things, finding these extra deals to study, getting these other groups to be better. She just always made herself better, and everyone knew it. So everyone talked to her. So that was attractive. I saw a leader, and I watched it for two years. I talked me and Joe talked about it for two years. She just led. And then at the time, she was working over at this CrossFit joint, and I didn't want to offer a job, because I knew the guy there, which is the wrong mentality, I should recruit her directed in there, I've learned later in life. But I waited, and then a hospital finally offered her job. She left there, and as soon as they did, I called Joe, and Joe said, You better hurry up. Joe's like now. And so we came up with a quick plan. Made her a great offer, and thankfully, she took it. Oh, and to back up just for a second. The reason we did was, I asked Paige if she would just come in for one Christmas, for 30 days to help us, and she came in, and in 30 days, she had never been into restore. She's exercise science is what she went to school for. But she's, she's had her own meal plan, company and things like that. She created all this other stuff. She came in 30 days and changed the whole place completely changed how we did it. I mean, made it 10 times more efficient. I mean, just started rocking. I just saw things. Started changing them. And I thought, holy shit. I mean, this is it. This is the one. And so we talked, and then we got her hired after that, thankfully,

Jason Croft  21:43  
Paige, I want to hear your side, your side of this. What were those 30 days coming in? It was really

Paige Thomas  21:48  
like, how the fuck have you made it this far?

Joe Blackburn  21:51  
It was my first question. When I met him, too.

Paige Thomas  21:54  
I was like, what everything's like, written on a triplicate piece of like, those carbon copy receipts, you know, you're just like, write shit on it, give the customer one, keep one, and then, you know, not to, not to expose too many secrets. We had no clue, like, what inventory we had, or anything like that. That's not like my thing, but I am a very analytical person, so like, all my strengths are Sam's weaknesses, and all his weaknesses are my strengths. So it just worked out really well. And you know, it's my it's a strength and a weakness that I am so analytical. Because I'll, I'll take three months to do something that should take a week, but so I just kind of slowed down and dove deep into it. And if I don't know something, I'm gonna find out, like, it's just, it's a tick. I just can't not find out how to do it and how to do it the best.

Jason Croft  22:39  
So when he came to you'd had that 30 that 30 days with him when it came to the job offer, what was going through your head was it

Paige Thomas  22:49  
was so much fun, just because of the environment that he had created in his story. It was so much fun. Regardless, I was eager to continue going. And I saw all the potential, obviously, because he had made it this far without, without, you know, everything, being 100% by the book there the we were going to soar. There was no doubt about it. So there was just so much potential on the table that I knew I just, I wanted to stick around. And Sam's very magnetic person. So everybody that meets him and knows him will tell you that. So it's just easy. It's just easy to be around and just easy to work with and and it's a it's a good time. You know, we work hard, we play hard, but it's a lot of fun.

Jason Croft  23:31  
That's awesome. And Joe, I know, yes, you can, you can help someone who needs that help business wise. But how much easier is it when it's somebody who they're gonna go, Hey, you should do this. Okay, did it? What next?

Joe Blackburn  23:47  
Well, that's why I said, I wish I had 100 when you see someone that isn't reckless, they're not reckless. I mean, there's, there's a rail out there somewhere. It's just, why spend the time processing the what ifs because no one knows until we do it. So the you know, whether it was instilled or, you know, learned however it came to him, the thought of it not working is like a nanosecond. I don't even know if he has it. And everyone what happens is everyone else gets really focused on, what if this doesn't work? What if I mess up? What if, in in Sam's, by the way, that's a little bit of the counter rounds on page wise, talking. Well, this may not work. And to Sam's credit is I don't care. I'm doing it anyway, like I don't care if it doesn't work. So most of us get caught up in I don't want to look foolish, I don't want to mess up. I don't want to fail like the I don't want to takes over. And then we put six months between something where Sam's like, this is what I want. This is an experiment for anyone out there. Go ask someone what they want. You. And see how they respond. They can tell you everything. They don't, but they don't know what they really want. And in Sam's case, he's like, I want this. I want this to work. I want it to work here. And I don't give a shit if the store burns down or we fire all the sales people, which we've been through multiple times so and it's not mean, or it's just like, hell, we fight one dude. He started one day I got a call. 530 in the morning is like, I gotta get rid of this guy. What do I do? And it's the difference in that is someone else would have said, well, you know, their gut said this is not right. Sam is smart enough to say, this ain't gonna work. I'm not gonna give him 6090, whatever performance plans, if you just knew it wasn't the right thing. So it's like, okay, and by the way, it was a favor to that person, because it gave them the opportunity to go right back to where they came from, instead of dragging them out 90 days when you know it doesn't work, which is what most people do. So the difference is the will to do what most people won't and to pay the price gives you massive success. And to Paige's point, it makes you magnetic. There are times when all of us introspect into the things we should have done versus doing them. And if it works, it works. And if not, I'm moving on, I will tell people in the lion if you had that, if you would just do that, you would go 10 times faster. And it's not that they're bad. It's just we're all wired different. But it's a wi it's it is a will. It's what it comes down to, is the will to do it. And that's the difference between doing okay and being okay or being great, there's the difference. It's the will to do the things that most people won't.

Jason Croft  26:47  
Again, that's the greatest raw material to work with, and then, and it is raw. And Sam to your credit, to also recognize I need the Joe, I need the light. I need Paige to come in and help. I need these aspects that I'm gonna keep going. There's nothing wrong with me and the Go, go, go. It could be better.

Sam Thomas  27:15  
Oh my gosh. Listen, without Joe and Paige, look, ain't none of this happening. I got no problem admitting this. I was going and I was gonna make it, but I went from this to a Joe and Paige to this in a hurry. And I mean, we did it in what was it? Three years? We or under three? It was two

Joe Blackburn  27:39  
years like under seven figures to multiple seven figures.

Sam Thomas  27:43  
Yeah, two years we, like, tripled our annual sales and then went after a second store. I mean, it was that it was that fast, and that's a big deal, and that is 100% because of Joe and Paige. Like, that's just how it worked. We didn't know we needed structure. We can go like you said, I will go through a freaking wall. But you we need some structure. We need some some finesse. There's one little

Joe Blackburn  28:06  
point I want to make here for the people in the cheap seats that watch this, if you just rewind 30 seconds. No ego. There's never an obstacle of ego, and most I have one. I I've been accused of having a huge one for no good reason, by the way, but the I'm shocked. I know it's shocking, but the ability to not care that if I credit someone else, or someone takes a shot at me, or what it's that I took, it's the ego isn't there. It's, I want to win. And that's, I mean, I just, I'm I'm in the hunt for it, for people to be in the line. That's who we're looking for. Like you're gonna, if you can't focus and fail fast, you're fucked. You can write that down. And Sam, I mean, failure in his eyes would be quitting or not doing it, which is the right mentality, not something didn't work out. Oh, this didn't work. Well, no shit. I mean, you know how many things we've all done that didn't work the way we thought they would? That's everything. That's all of it. But the ability to just say, I'm not gonna quit, and I don't care. I'm going where I'm going. That's the 100 million dollar mindset, right there?

Jason Croft  29:27  
Absolutely. So Paige, what makes your stores different, better, unique? What is the whole process, the offering, the present to everything better and successful.

Paige Thomas  29:41  
It's 100% the experience that each customer gets. And it's this environment that we've already spoken about, that Sam created, and how every single customer is treated when they walk in the door. It's you know, when you when you come into our store, you're offered a genuine conversation, a. Drink a How can I help you? How can I get you to where you need to be? We figure out what you what you want, what you need, and find the best possible outcome for each and every customer. And so it's it's 100% that people leave our store and immediately go tell five people about how much fun they had. I got a quarter stick of dynamite from Sam's fine jewelry like, you know, because Sam's just giving out firecrackers and people are allegedly, he brings us to the in persons too, by the way, it's just a genuine good time with every single person. And then we, you know, we, of course, we try to have the best possible offer for it, for our customers. We handpick the best designs. We do tons of custom we do all of our repairs in house. So we offer just the best of of what you can find in any jewelry store. And we make sure to stay on top of the competition and constantly monitor what other people around us are doing, and make sure that we stay one step ahead. So there's just, there's so many avenues that we are encroaching on, and just making sure that we have the upper hand in several different lanes, so just so that nobody else even has opportunity to pass us

Joe Blackburn  31:17  
up before this gets into another topic. One thing that Sam and Paige do is give back. So, you know, the Law of Reciprocity is pretty real. I mean, in sykesson, you don't make it 20 years in a town of 15,000 people without being the cornerstone of the community. So it's time volunteering, talking to kids, you know, hosting charity events, championing the downtown, like, being real about it too, not just doing it because I get business. Like, they give their time and energy and money to every town they go to which a lot of people don't. They rely on low impact, like, let's run ads, okay, really being the backbone of these communities and becoming the go to, like I said, he's my first call. I'm not the only one, so that's a huge thing. And most people, what do they do? They want to go home and hide. That's normal. I do. I don't like people, but if you want to be successful in a community, you have to be a part of that community. And I promise you, and sykesson Jackson, you name it, people know who they need to go to when they want something or they need something so but that comes from giving time, energy, effort and money, and they've been phenomenal at that. I mean, quite frankly, and this is, you know, sometimes a surprise even to me, Sam sits down at coffee with people that you know, presidents of the college, a local judge, I mean, not the typical people that you know, you would think he's socializing with, but they're at every event, hosting everything. It takes time and energy to do that again, going back to do whatever it takes. And I'm not sure it's always because we want to make a bunch of money. I think they generally want to take care of people. And Paige said it like, when you I've been there, when you walk in, you feel that like, hey, we want you to feel great. I don't care what you do. Just if you walk in this place, you're gonna feel really good. You're gonna feel way better than walking out than you did before you walked in. Do you know what I mean like? And that's key in their business. Because, you know, jewelry has two real functions. Legacy number one, there's something this means something, and it's gonna mean something for a long time, and status. So you have to have an experience. It can't be it's hard to commoditize that. And they've just and somewhat naturally make people feel good, like if you if you interview all the lines which you will having Sam and Paige in the room makes it feel different, because Sam's generally interested, and they want you to have kind of a similar takeaway. And that's hard to coach, because most people don't want to do it, but they're getting great at it. They have events. I mean, it's, you know, like their social calendar is as busy as the store hours.

Sam Thomas  34:07  
Yes, because of Joe, why I help nudge?

Jason Croft  34:14  
Yeah, that absolutely sets up. The question on everyone's mind is, how do you replicate? And you and you are replicating that you are going to this store and another. How do you do that when it's not the two of you in every store all the time, making sure this experience happened? How do you expand? You learn as you go.

Sam Thomas  34:39  
You just do it. That's what we did. We just did it and figured it out along the way. Took a lot of ass kickings, learned a lot of knowledge. Got real good this second store, man, we were rocking it was hard, and we did it. And then we were open seven months, and then a store next door caught fire and took out four of us, and we lost it. We had to gut it back to the studs. You lost. Lost all year. We lost everything. All that time. It took all that build up was just an ass kicking. So, you know, whatever, just rebuild the damn thing and go at it again. And then when we did that, we learned even more about the loss of momentum. Even though we thought we had it, the different types of what we did do, what we didn't do, we learned how we recruited wrong, where we recruited, right? There's so much knowledge on and so many factors that come into play to make you better that where, if you would have just stopped, if you would have just taken that ass kicking and that store burn stopped, you just been defeated, and you probably just gone through just wouldn't have been great. Gone back to the store would have been fine. Probably had an okay life wouldn't really accomplish the goals that we've been wanting to accomplish, the things that we want to do, the people we want to help, none of that would happen. So we just went right back at it and kept going. And it was harder the second time, I'd say twice as hard. Paige was setting up pop up events every night of the week. We're working getting home 10 or 11 o'clock every night when we don't have a store open for five months while we're trying to get that going. And now, we just bought a third building in Paducah, downtown, Paducah. Man, it's massive, and we learned so much we had at the second store. We had to go so hard, and we didn't have a choice. It had to go that way. We had to go that hard, and we had to figure it out. We had to find out. People say, don't grow too fast. Well, you don't know what that is until you push that point. And you have to push that. You have to go with everything. We were going after a couple stores, we went after 40. That's how we got a couple stores. We made a plan to get 40, and we didn't stop. And we didn't do that, we wouldn't have accomplished this.

Joe Blackburn  36:43  
Let me add something to that real quick. So the other thing, and not everybody understands the jewelry business, but the other thing that they've done very well is most people in retail view that job as I show up at 10 o'clock and I leave at five o'clock, and whoever walks in, it's my job to sell them something that's most people in retail, and when we talked about the recruiting side of it. Now they have in sykesson and in Jackson, now one of my favorite humans, people that understand if I go out and do what Sam and Paige do, go to coffee, attend an event, talk when I'm at a party, like just having the Wi Fi on, like Laura is a huge example of this, and Sydney, and hell, Sarah's going to Bunko. And, you know, Wendy's a natural. She's just super likable and very by she and now you have, you know, you got Nicole in Jackson, who is, I would call her a trooper. She's every she goes a gym, taking that mindset of, I only get what walks in and making it why don't you make your life easier? And in normal conversation, learn how to pivot into what you do for a living, which is sales, which is total counterintuitive to all retail. Retail is store hours. So in the beginning, we got some people with experience even that, their mentality was, I clock in and I clock out, and it made it harder, especially in the growth trajectory in a new community. I mean, it just may, you know you're you got 20 years in sykesson Yesterday, congratulations on 20 years. So you got 20 years of that, of working 1617, hours a day versus six months. So why not do that earlier? And they've really ran with that. And I tease, they have a goldsmith. Her name's Sarah. Sarah's not the most personal human being. She's not, is she? Hope she sees us. But you know what? How do you do she show she shows up. We do some sales. Work with them on a weekly basis. She shows up and has, like, yeah, I went here and talked to this person like she's so far out of her like, I'll you, I can talk about the great ones. There's ones that are crushing it and are mastered this. But her who doesn't do client facing and isn't super social is doing it. So like, if you looked at the spectrum, and this person who has the least accessibility is doing it, and these people are exceeding goals. Now that's how you replicate it. And so when you go to the next location, you start that from the beginning is you're you work hours. You're not paid hourly. What you do? We call it net time. No extra time. What you do? You know, like hell, Sydney's in like five church groups, so she's not there saying, Hey, you want jewelry. You want jewelry. You want? No, it's just converse, like, learn how to talk about other people, be curious about them, and then if it comes up, you may have an opportunity. And they've gotten that down, which is a huge advantage over all the other retailers, because they're not and they're salespeople service. Really aren't. So if you can replicate that within each new town, so to speak, and teach it out of the gate, now you have a huge competitive advantage.

Jason Croft  40:10  
Oh yeah, and I imagine that comes both in the recruiting of those folks. Now your intention. Now you know who to look for, but then also you've got to incentivize those folks as well, right?

Joe Blackburn  40:23  
You know, what else they do that very few people do. There's a consequence to underperformance, and most people don't do that out of fear of loss. Meaning, I can't lose I can't get anyone, so I can't lose anyone. Well, if you don't hit your goal, there's a clawback, or, you know, in your next month. And so the superstar now missed in July. She hasn't missed. She succeeded every month, and she ain't gonna miss and doesn't want and so it like that. Takes guts as the employer to hold a high standard in your sales team. It takes guts like, you know, their sales people aren't dropping out in trees these days. I don't know if you've noticed, most people take what they can get and live with it, but Sam and Paige didn't, and that's a lot due to Paige putting in a system on a monthly basis, measuring it to the penny. And if you don't make it, you don't make it. And that's a good you know, Sam said in his first job, it was the first if you didn't make it in a day, you were, well, we're not doing a day. We're doing a little more time. Times have changed somewhat, but I think the more backbone you have in that, the better people you keep and attract. Yeah, and you

Jason Croft  41:32  
combine that with setting the example doing and have done and continue to do what you're asking your people to do a fraction of that's huge. So you get into 40 stores,

Sam Thomas  41:49  
that's the I'm gonna get the 40 stores? Yeah, that's not a question. We want to get to 40 stores. I want half them. I need 500 million in assets and 40 1,000,040 million a year income. And so we're going to go until we get it. That's our first goal. When we reach that goal, then we'll decide that second goal.

Jason Croft  42:07  
Fantastic. I don't think anybody watching has any doubt that's going to happen.

Sam Thomas  42:13  
I hope they do, because it would really help.

Joe Blackburn  42:15  
We're going to start a fan page of doubt, of haters and doubters, and then I'll just feed

Sam Thomas  42:19  
it to you every week, to

Joe Blackburn  42:20  
you every week showing this re I'll read them out live. I love it.

Jason Croft  42:26  
Oh, man, perfect. How do folks find out about you? Where do they go to either harass you or come in the store and

Paige Thomas  42:34  
buy from you? Well, of course, we're in sykeston and Jackson, Missouri, so we are. We like to plant ourselves in the downtown areas. So you can find us there uptown in Jackson. And then we're on Instagram as Sam's fine jewelry M O from Missouri. And then also the same on Facebook, and you can visit our website, Sam's fine jewels with an S on the end of it.com since that domain was already taken before we could get to it. So same spine jewels.com and our engraved map is also in downtown sykeston as well. So we can engrave damp

Sam Thomas  43:11  
near anything. Yeah, we do a massive amount of engraving. So we found in the industry, people do not like to do engraving because it's pain in the ass. It's a real pain in the ass, like for the first 10 years, maybe 12 years I was open. There's at least twice a month, every month, at Christmas, right after work, 50 hour shifts straight doing just hand engraving, because it took so long, you didn't make any money. We eventually were able to buy some machines and start getting faster and better. So not profitable. We were getting faster. So we were seeing what could come that's when my kids actually started doing it. And they started joining and they started working those machines when they were eight and nine years old. Work until midnight. The kids knew they were solid. And now I think we have more engraving capabilities than anybody in the industry. We have a whole building set up. We do guns, basketballs, wood, leather, glass. It doesn't matter what it is, we can make it so small you got to use a microscope to see it like it doesn't matter. We can do anything that's just one more of those things. You know, if somebody else can

Jason Croft  44:11  
do it, we will fantastic. Sam page, thank you so much for being here. Love this. Love the story. It's great to finally put faces to the to the stories, to the to the drive and passion. I know I'm extra inspired. I hope everybody watching is as well. Thanks for being on.

Sam Thomas  44:31  
All right, brother, thank you all thank you, Joe, appreciate your brother. Appreciate my lion group.

Jason Croft  44:36  
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Speaker 1  45:10  
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