Informing each set of new designs is the feedback Dimond receives from her customers.
“The emotional feedback I want is through social media. People are so open and so generous with what they share. Some of the stories are fantastic, every day I’ll be talking to people,” she says.
“As I come from an advertising/marketing background I’ve always recognised the importance of building your brand, so five or six years ago we set up social media pages and now we have an in-house digital strategist and a consultant.”
Palas Jewellery’s communication on social media is very measured, but authentic, having been informed by focus reports on the brands social media engagement.
Also informing Dimond’s designs is her own spirituality.
“It’s not any particular religion. It’s about positivity, love and inner-strength, things everyone can connect with. They’re thoughts and messages people of all religions and races can relate to.”
One of her favourite charms is one she’s created with the words “I love you to the moon and back”.
“I put that on one because I say it to my kids all the time, and apparently so do about 50,000 others. It’s our bestselling charm to date and it was a really great realisation,” she says.
Each day, Dimond finishes in the office at 5pm, and three times a week she has a personal training session.
“I do altitude training. It’s been six months and I’ve been going three times a week. I also pick up my kids one day a week, but my husband and the kids’ nanny also help out,” she says.
“Then I get the kids sorted, help with their homework, take the dog for a walk, do the washing, my husband cooks and then I’m back doing work when the kids are in bed from 9pm until midnight.”
Like most entrepreneurs, Dimond likes to use her time efficiently and chose altitude training because it makes your body work harder in a shorter time frame.
“You’re operating at 3000m … It’s like working out for 1.5 hours, only it takes 45 minutes.”
On the weekends, Dimond likes to socialise and she still loves to travel.
“I go interstate for trade fairs and I travel to Indonesia three times a year to my factory. I’m off to New York in a couple of weeks too. Travel is a big passion of mine and I’ve dragged my kids all over the world with me.”
Dimond wants to continue to expand her range.
“My main goal is to have a charm for every moment you’d have a greeting card. I want to build on our stockists and their loyalty and have more carrying our complete collection,” she says.
Her best piece of advice for aspiring entrepreneurs is to “listen to your gut”.
“If you’re passionate about what you’re doing don’t let people shake it out of you, but be realistic about your numbers, commercial viability and sign up with mentors.
“Even if you’re not a numbers person, absolutely make yourself one. If you have a partner, at least have one of you who is on top of the numbers. You can’t move forward unless you have a realistic picture of your finances.”
