We recently connected with Elizabeth Graham and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Elizabeth, thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?
My work ethic comes from my parents. They both showed me resounding examples of honoring commitments throughout my childhood, never letting me bail on things I didn’t want to follow through on just because something more fun came up. I had a lot of friends and teammates who were not held to the same standards by their parents so I would get frustrated at times, but I think even then I knew I was being taught strong values. They also taught me the value of placing myself in the way of opportunities; by getting out and doing things, different experiences became available to me and those propagated even more opportunities. This has been foundational to my success as an adult and something I believe has been a differentiator along the way in my career. I’m sure it would have been easier and less time consuming from their perspective to just let me sit home and hang out with friends after school, so I am really grateful that they chose the path they did with parenting because it definitely shaped who I am.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
By day I am a Data Leader at a Tech company, but nights and weekends I am a Jewelry Designer and entrepreneur. My company, Talismania Jewelry, is a vessel for the tale of the journey to self discovery that we are all on. Each collection is, and will be, an exploration of the outer world as a reflection of the inner world, and the message of empowerment as we tune into our inner voice. I have had a few experiences in my life where I felt like symbols were presented to me by inexplicable forces to guide me along my way. This is where the concept of Talismania comes from – adorning your journey in symbols, talismans of your most cherished experiences or battles won. The image that comes to mind is a child on a scavenger hunt, backpack on, ready for adventure, decorated in the treasures they have discovered along the way. I want to tap into that energy with my messages, because there are so many reasons presented to us to be afraid all the time, or worried, or stressed out, living from an insurmountable deficit, and I want to help people tap into a life that feels like an empowering adventure instead.
As for my jewelry designs, I am focused on sustainable luxury. I create high quality jewelry using only natural, responsibly sourced materials. This means recycled metals, ethically sourced stones, recyclable and compostable packaging and carbon-neutral shipping. I moved from NYC to Montana several years ago and I feel so lucky to live in a place with such rugged and wild landscapes that provide me with endless inspiration. I think being in the city makes sustainability such an abstract concept because you are so far away from the nature you are trying to protect and so close to opportunities to purchase new things that being really conscious about consumption patterns beyond just recycling didn’t really hit me until I moved out here. Creating slow economies with items that last for generations is not only better for the ecosystem, but I believe it is better for our mental health as well; it pulls us off the hamster wheel and slows us down, reducing the fast economy dopamine spikes.
I have three categories of jewelry currently – accessible ready-to-wear, premium ready-to-wear, and custom. My accessible ready-to-wear applies my quality standards to sterling silver and semi-precious gemstones, creating unique designs that customers can feel good about wearing without a major life event to justify the purchase. My premium ready-to-wear are one of a kind designs specializing in Montana Sapphires and diamonds, and solid gold. These pieces are unique in so many ways and are really designed to tell a story and speak to the perfect client, becoming a special symbol to them in their day to day life. Finally, custom commissions are ground-up projects where I work with my clients to hand select the stones, draft out designs, and fabricate the perfect piece for them. Examples of this are engagement rings, anniversary gifts, and other special gifts that create future heirlooms.
Starting in May several of my pieces will be carried by Flying Solo in Paris (43 Rue Étienne Marcel) through the Fall. I will also be hosted by Bluebird Big Sky (Big Sky, Montana) on July 10-11 for a special Pop-Up event. Finally, my Evergreen Collection will be launching Memorial Day Weekend, where customers can mix and match solid gold stackable pieces with their birthstones or other favorite gemstones for a completely custom look. Subscribe to my newsletter on the Talismania website to stay up to date on the latest news!
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
A quality that has served me incredibly well is my ability to execute. I’ll be clear, not everything I complete is a masterpiece, but knowing when something needs a lot of care versus just getting carried over the finish line is a great skill to develop. I think a lot of people are so afraid of making mistakes or sacrificing quality that they never pick up the pencil to take the first step. In most cases, the process reveals the next steps, and ideas come from doing. Another important aspect of this is that we don’t ever have all of the information – I had no idea that by creating my website that Condé Nast would find it and reach out, so no amount of planning could have allowed me to best prepare for it. By just doing, I created exposure that brought the opportunity to me, which ultimately opened even more doors and began to reveal a path. Second has been my ability to prioritize. Keeping a constant stack rank of what the most important things are at any given point in time allows me to create a clear focus on what matters right now and push other tasks into the future when time will be more abundant (allegedly). If something never makes it to the top of that list, it is probably a high effort and/or low impact task that was a good idea at one time but ultimately isn’t important.
Finally, resourcefulness is essential in entrepreneurship. I have accidentally become a master of several Adobe tools by virtue of needing to rely on myself and figure it out to get advertising tasks done without admitting to the advertiser that I, in fact, have no idea what I am doing. I think my level of comfort operating in this “fake it ‘til you make it” space comes from watching my husband, a serial entrepreneur, teach himself new skills from the bottom up and sell that competence to clients. The reality is, everyone starts from the bottom at some point and going to school for every skill isn’t practical. Choose tools that have good documentation and scalability, and lean into Youtube, Reddit, and Google.
Any advice for folks feeling overwhelmed?
I slow down. The most sage piece of wisdom I’ve learned over the last year is that whenever something feels like a big rush, it’s not. The consequences are usually minimal and protecting your peace is so much more important than running ragged against an artificial deadline. Communicating proactively about timelines and feasibility are ways to be forthcoming and collaborative to avoid consequences. There will be things you can control and things you can’t control, so breathing through the things you can’t and being strategic with the things you can will allow you to maintain focus and get things done, but not at a personal cost. A few things really help me with this – my dogs, running, and my breathwork practice. My dogs are always ready to play, and something about that brings me into the present moment like nothing else. None of this is serious for them, they’re just here waiting for their turn and sometimes force it upon me, which I love. They also make me laugh a lot, which is the best anti-stress treatment there is.
Running has been such a practice in enjoying the Journey as well. I run long distances, and the longer I run, the more I lean into the pleasure of the time being preserved just for me. I get lost in thought, I let my worries fall away, and I just Be. The other amazing thing about running is that it tires me out to the extent that anything that isn’t truly important just falls off my to-do list. It shortens my line of sight and reduces the chaotic swirl that can occur from trying to take on way too much at any given time.
Finally, my breathwork practice brings me immense clarity. Breathwork requires effort so it can become a challenge to protect the time for it – it’s not an unwind activity the way that meditation can be. On the other side of the work, however, are new ideas, empowerment, inspiration, and a calm, fortified nervous system.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://talismania.co
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/talismania.jewelry/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/talismania.jewelry
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/talismania-jewelry/
Image Credits
Lex Kilgour
