Meet Jessica Walker

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jessica Walker. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, so we’re so thrilled to have Jessica with us today – welcome and maybe we can jump right into it with a question about one of your qualities that we most admire. How did you develop your work ethic? Where do you think you get it from?

Work ethic is mostly about staying motivated for me. When there doesn’t feel like a reason to keep pushing, it can be hard to do so. That’s where accountability comes in to play. For personal goals I find it really helpful to voice them to other people, so they know what I’m aiming for. A “how is x coming?” is often enough to bust me out of a slump. As a small business owner, my commitments to our staff, customers, vendors, and to my partner keep me moving. With at least half of our business being seasonal, we are exceedingly aware of the passage of time. When orders are slower in the summer months it easy to just want to wind down and relax. We choose to spend that time working on long term projects and new product line, so that we are prepared when things kick into high gear September though December. The time will pass anyway, so it is best to make the most of it.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I worked in the art non-profit sector for about five years after I finished college before leaving to pursue opening Ruby Clay Company. My business partner, Maddie Schmidt, and I are long time friends, and often talked about opening a business together. She worked to help open a boutique home goods store and managed it for four years after its opening. We felt that our shared passions and unique skillsets would mix well together.

Both having graduated with art degrees, we loved working with clay, and noticed a need for a ceramic art supplier in our area. While working to open Ruby Clay in 2022, we met Lauren Haskell of Lo Home who was looking to take a step back from running her ceramic decor studio. We purchased Lo Home’s ceramic catalog and studio, and transformed the studio’s storefront into our ceramic supply store. We celebrated our grand opening in April of 2023.

Since then it has been full steam ahead! We sell ceramic supplies like clay and glaze and all kinds of tools to artists and schools. We also provide some classes, firing services, and kiln repair. Our staff splits our time between that and glazing and packing ceramics for Lo Home’s line of decor and our own designs. We specialize in everyday ceramic decor, gifts, and seasonal pieces for holidays throughout the year.

We are currently gearing up for our fall art market. Ruby Market is a small art market featuring artists of all kinds, food vendors, art making activities, and much more! We sell artists work on consignment in our storefront and on our website year round, but Ruby Market is a way to highlight independent makers and artists, like our consignors, on a larger scale. We first hosted this event in September of 2023 and we had no idea what to expect as far as turnout, but it was very well attended and we are excited to do it again. The Second Annual Ruby Market will take place September 21st from 10 AM to 4 PM!

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Entrepreneurs are natural dreamers, so I think it is easy to let your big ideas get away from you. Being able to think big is an important quality, but so is keeping grounded and realistic. Don’t let those big ideas get in the way of the original goal. Maddie and I have big goals for Ruby Clay, and I’m sure we will make those things happen. However, we can’t forget to focus on current bills, fulfilling open orders, and working on things that will better get Ruby Clay to the next quarter.

With the exception of obvious spam, we answer every email we get. There are opportunities you haven’t even imagined that will come your way if you make sure you are open and available to them. Even if you can’t help fulfill someone’s request, if you leave them with a positive impression of you and your venture they may bring other opportunities your way in the future. If you are working in retail, like we are, the same applies. No customer or order is too small.

Similarly to answering every email is the importance of keeping a wide circle. Small business owners are imbued with a large helping of self reliance so it is easy to forget to keep your friends, acquaintances, and fellow professionals close. Even if you don’t have a specific request it pays to reach out with a general update on what you’re doing. If you’re hosting an event for your business sending someone an “I’d love to see you there” sort of message can go a long way.

The number one thing that got Maddie and I through the early days, and it still serves us today, is to break your big goals down into more manageable benchmarks. If X meeting goes well then we’ll keep going. If we can get our legal paperwork in order without a hitch then we’ll keep going. If the vendors we’ve contacted agree to open an account for us then we’ll keep going. It’s the “keep swimming” mindset. And if you don’t reach those benchmarks, it doesn’t mean give up, it means you just need to reevaluate and get flexible.

We’ve all got limited resources, time, energy, focus etc – so if you had to choose between going all in on your strengths or working on areas where you aren’t as strong, what would you choose?

The ceramic supply side of our business means we are in a niche market. We were concerned when we first started that once we established a base we would have a hard time reaching new customers which would stop us from growing. Our base would be reliable, needs based customers, but outside of them, not everyone out there is going to buy clay. Once we added the manufacturing part of the business it really opened a whole new world of customers. Not everyone will want to buy clay, but anyone could potentially want to buy vases, bowls, etc. One side of the business fills in the gaps and weaknesses of the other making the entire enterprise much more well rounded.

In addition to that we use we use the spaghetti strategy, meaning we’ll throw anything out there to see if it sticks. I wish I could say we came up with that term, but we heard local journalist Tara Rittler use it to describe her parenting strategy. We recently launched our class schedule and firing services, because they were so often requested. If those things are popular then we will continue doing them! Same goes for the ceramics manufacturing. Our designs are made to order, meaning we can offer a wide array of designs. If something is a flop we aren’t left holding a whole lot of stock, but if it’s popular we can give it more attention. We haven’t so narrowed our focus that it stops us from seizing other opportunities.

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Image Credits

Some of these images were taken by Lindsey Boulden

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