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Podcast Episode 2:
Lorette Pribil, Sales Executive Published June 12, 2025 Dig into the glitz and glamor as well as some of the hard truths of sales in the jewelry industry in this 30-minute interview featuring sales executive Lorette Pribil. Alongside Wisdom for Wannabes host Jackie Morreale, you'll learn more about the role of a sales executive, the importance of anticipating your customers' needs, knowing your high-quality products, and making all these facets (and more) align. Listen to/watch the podcast recording or read the transcript below: |
"In sales, your best customer is the customer you already have. You do everything you can to keep that customer and always communicate well with them, make their life easy, and they'll appreciate it. It all works out. But it all comes with putting in the time." - Lorette Pribil (Wisdom for Wannabes podcast episode 2, 19:16)
Jackie Morreale (JM): Hello and welcome to Wisdom for Wannabes, a new podcast series hosted by me, Jackie Morreale. I am on a journey for wisdom and trying to discover who I am and how to do things better and have a bigger impact on the world, and the things that I want to do and give back and be good.
And at the end of the day, I want to be better at sales. So let's start with this interview number one. I want to be better at sales.
A very special woman in my life is here with us today. She has been a sales executive for the past 20 years in the costume jewelry industry. She has worked across various industries, and she is a change agent for any company or brand that she represents. She's able to create new business development and start from nothing to something and take businesses to the next level. I am very proud to have with me the most important woman in my life, the woman who gave birth to me, who breathes life into everything that I do. I have my mother, Lorette Pribil, who is also a sales executive at Jardin Jewelry. Welcome to the show, Lorette, and thank you for being with us.
Lorette Pribil (LP): Thank you for this moment to speak about my life experiences.
JM: Absolutely! Tell us more about what you do in sales.
LP: Gosh. Where do I begin? Sales is not simply just selling an item. It's knowing your product, knowing how it will benefit your customer, knowing how to make your customer, in my case, it's my buyer, how to make their life easy. So then You provide them with everything that they need. They will give you the parameters and it's your job to make their life easy. When you do, they keep coming back. A lot of times you're trying to sell them the wrong merchandise or the wrong styling at the wrong price, the wrong quantity, the wrong retail, and there's a long list of parameters that are important when selling a product. You have to know the customer in terms of their corporate requirements, such as their terms, their minimum orders, where the shipment is going to be delivered.
Is it FOB or it on a delivered basis? How many samples do you have to provide at no charge? How much testing do you have to provide? Who pays the freight? Do they want 30-, 60- or 90-day terms? Or are they going to pay COD? You might have to include pricing for traveling to cities to meet your customers, traveling to trade shows, just having stuff on hand.
The latest trend is with retailers is that the wholesaler - which is the company that I currently represent is a wholesaler - is a designer, manufacturer, wholesaler, distributor. We basically do everything. If your customer wants a bulk shipment, gosh, that's easy. But if they want drop ship, then we have to have the appropriate software. that's another step too. There are many platforms that are not free that have to be included in the pricing or the setup.
Many times when you go into this new drop ship arrangement, it takes many months to get set up. Then basically the customer doesn't actually pay for it. You stock it, you bring it in, you pay for it wherever you manufacture, you hold it. If they don't buy all of it, you have to find a plan B to sell off the remainder stock.
We used to have people that their full-time job was to program and understand stock and how many units a company is going to buy need and, and when they were purchasing it, it was somebody's full time job. Nowadays we have to do that because we don't want to get stuck with inventory, but then we also have requirements in terms of our factories. Our factories always say, it's easy to make 50 units easier than making 24, let's say. So they usually will give you a setup fee on a styling that you're not ordering enough units.
JM: Let's stop there because you talked about sales by way of so many other parts of the business. So sales isn't just having the guts to pick up the phone and call somebody? It's listening to your customer. It's establishing who the customer is, what they need sometimes before they even know it, planning, having the right sourcing lined up, inventory, having your tech all lined up so that you make it easy to work with other stores and companies.
LP: Right. Another factor is that traditionally we had market weeks and for every market week you would have to bring in a whole new collection. A collection could it be anywhere from 200 to 400 new styles that have to be catalogued and priced and photographed. Now we have a full-time photographer because the clients are depending upon us more and more to provide them with photography because they're selling the products online through e-commerce. That's another reason that they work with us, is because we provide professional images so that the product can sell better.
JM: You're really providing not only just the actual product when they need it, how many they needed at the price that they need it, which all require strategy behind it, but you're also providing the services that go along with marketing the said product and with getting it out there to their customers, the photography and whatever else they need to put it up on their website and get to selling?
LP: Yes, that's correct. And they have to kind of like you and be able to communicate well with you. They're very busy people.
For retailers now, each buyer is representing more than one category. whereas I used to have a jewelry category, my buyer is now doing jewelry, hair, belts, handbags, and she just was doing shoes for a while. The more qualified she is, the busier she is, the harder it is to reach her. She's like talking to your lawyer... You better have all your questions lined up, because you're going to get 30-minute phone call, maybe an hour once a month.
You figure it out before you get on the call. You have to have a rapport. You have to be kind.
One of my favorite companies that I work for, I say I work for them, the brand. If I don't have her, I don't have a customer, I don't have a job. Every time they communicate, they are always so pleasant and write happy Monday or happy Tuesday or happy whatever day it is. Throughout the entire company, everybody is so pleasant to work with.
JM: Do you have any buyers that you want to shout out from different companies that you've worked with over the years that you really have built up a nice relationship with?
LP: Oh gosh, let's see. Well, my favorite right now, is Betsy. We have a really nice rapport. We've been growing the business about six or seven years. We've just been growing the business every market every season.
JM: How often is the market in costume jewelry?
LP: I'm actually in better fashion jewelry. We do have one brand that is costume. There are different qualities of jewelry The company that I work for, Jardin Jewelry, we have at least six brands that we sell. Each brand is very specific to the type of metal, the type of stones, the branding name, and the quality. So, you also have to know your products.
At this point, I've been in fashion jewelry for more than 20 years, I've worked for different designers. I worked for a designer that did beaded jewelry with sterling silver for almost 10 years. I worked for another company that sold low end costume jewelry, like tens of thousands of units. When I was hired at Jardin, was specifically brought on to handle the licensed brand, CZ by Kenneth J. Lane. At that point, they had just taken on the license and they didn't have anybody to sell it. Our collection consisted of 100 pieces. I can say right now, our collection probably consists of 100,000 pieces.
JM: Wow, that is a lot of SKUs to sell. How do you organize all those SKUs? How do you know which of the six brands is right for each buyer? How do you know if you're going to get the sell through that you need to keep growing with that client? How do you kind of strategize for Betsy, say?
LP: You always want it to be a positive experience. If you know your customer well, and you have a collection go on their e-commerce site and let's say you typically on the high-end side, you would sell 100 units, but typically a more expensive item you'd only sell 12 units. So, it doesn't make sense to put 50 units of a high-priced item on an e-commerce site, because then something that is beautiful and is actually being discounted to their members is not going to show well because it's going to show that it's not a good seller, if you only sell 12 out of 50. Then I back that up to when we bring in new items because we always have to refresh the collection. We can't keep selling the same thing over and over.
JM: Are you able to do, say, a 12-item test? Then you can get 100 % sell through.
LP: Yes, we see what works with their customer. I have a good feeling what works for their customer... but you never know. Things change. Other companies go out of business where we could fill in the gap.
I work with my designer quite often to bring in items created specifically for the customer. A lot of that is traditional pieces.
JM: Seems sales is so much about target marketing, right? And:
- being there to anticipate all of their needs,
- being someone who's reliable and a friend
- even making the right suggestions about how many pieces should show
Even if you're excited if they order a hundred, and they don't sell the hundred pieces, then it's bad, right?
LP: You have to be smart to think ahead. There are some pieces that I personally don't like. I'm sorry to say this (Mark :)), that I don't include because for me, they don't look proper or they're too big or they don't hang right on the ear. If they don't sell, they get stuck with it, and they won't grow. Yes, maybe somebody else will like it. But then you're stuck with it. So, it's all about planning.
JM: Are you working with the overseas sourcing for these products as well? Are you part of the making sure that you get the inventory in at the right time and getting to the right place and making sure everything hangs right?
LP: Yes, that's a sidebar. Of course, we have full-time people that handle that. There's a lot just in working with the factory in terms of the quality of the product.
They call them "top-of-production" samples when we're a very large bulk shipment. An associate of mine handles receiving new samples, arranging for all the transportation. A big job, it is. Do I keep in touch with that? Yes, I do. If I know I have a shipment coming up, I double check that everything's on time. Normally they would advise me if there was an issue because we will have to ask for say an extension Other than that, we have a really good delivery rate. We're almost 100%.
JM: Yay.
LP: We really do, we do very well.
JM: You are on top of it. Obviously, you know your job in sales. So, let's find out a little bit more about you with some quickfire questions, shall we?
LP: Okay.
JM: Let's talk about some of your favorite items. What is your favorite food?
LP: Hmm. Favorite food. I am a quasi-keto person. My favorite food would be watermelon or strawberries or chicken. I still like a nice steak once in a while. And I like fish. The proteins I try, although I do like bread and pasta, I do try not to eat that.
JM: I like it too, but it doesn't like me. Favorite caffeinated drink?
LP: Oh, that would be coffee in the morning.
JM: Okay. With anything in it?
LP: Cappuccino. Nice and sweet.
JM: Very nice. Your favorite book of all time?
LP: Oh gosh. I don't know if this is politically correct, but the Bible.
JM: I love that answer. That works for me. Favorite movie?
LP: That would have to be like an oldie goldie like, The Sound of Music.
JM: I love The Sound of Music. Good pick.
LP: I like all those oldies. I even like the movies that my grandchildren force me to go see like, The Cruds.
JM: The Cruds? The Cruds would be a very different movie (than The Croods, lol).
LP: We still sleep pile, lol.
JM: Exactly! Well, favorite flower?
LP: I love flowers. I would say a rose, but it doesn't have to be red. It could be any color under the sun. I love tropical flowers. There's not one I don't like.
JM: How about your favorite place to vacation?
LP: I guess that would be Florida.
JM: Why not? It is nice here in Florida.
LP: If it were European, I'd say Italy.
JM: Very nice. Favorite place to work?
LP: My favorite place to work, in terms of a city?
JM: Could be, or it could be a certain desk or a certain computer... whatever stages your workplace.
LP: I work at a desk and I'm so focused on what I'm doing that I really don't like a lot of noise around me.
My dear Jacqueline, I know you sing when you work.
JM: I sing at the top of my lungs when I work... super distracting for those around me, lol.
LP: Exactly. In our office at Jardin Jewelry, I have a little desk in my own space, and I sit next to the bookkeeper. She's a quiet one, too. Every once in a while, we cross examine whatever's going on. I spent time in the showroom too. Between my desk and the showroom.
JM: It's interesting that you like a quiet workplace. Meanwhile, you have a very active jewelry showroom right next to your office and your office is in the middle of Midtown Manhattan. There's definitely a hustle and bustle when you leave your desk.
LP: It's always fun going in there because there's always something new and you go, Wow, I didn't see this. What is this? This is beautiful. How much is it?
JM: Do you ever see anything on the streets in Manhattan that you're like, We need to do this piece. It looks so great.
LP: Yes, but we're always very excited when we see our pieces on movie stars and on TV shows.
JM: Even better, right?
LP: Even J.Lo (Jennifer Lopez). She was one of our biggest celebs that used to come in on a regular basis and borrow styles and wear it on the news and interviews. We were so excited about that.
JM: She wore it in Vogue too, right? And on the red carpet.
LP: Yes, she did a lot, a lot of times.
JM: She likes to bling.
LP: Yeah, we're excited.
JM: Two more questions. Favorite song?
LP: Unforgettable by Nat King Cole, he and his daughter sing. It's beautiful. A classic.
JM: Favorite designer? Could be of jewelry, could be of clothing, could be of whatever you like.
LP: I've been into this black and white thing, like somebody else I know, Jacqueline.
I've been liking Karl Lagerfeld. I don't like it with his name all over it. Or I actually don't like any branding on my clothing. You know, if it has big V's, G's, or whatever they are... except for my Gucci belt and my Gucci bag. That I do like. I hate to say that, I guess it would be Gucci. Or Tory Burch.
JM: Yeah, Tory Burch is good, too! What would you say that your big break was in sales?
LP: My biggest break was in about 2008. I took a job, a better job, allegedly. And it was on a one-year contract and I was opening up a showroom in New York City for a fashion jewelry house that was located in Rhode Island.
I already been working in the industry for about 10 years and they offered me this job. It was great opportunity until I took it, and I was like, No... they don't even have a computer with style numbers in it. No, no. Then, it became a national recession. And after my one year with them, they did not revisit my contract. They did do everything they said they were going to do, except they decided against opening up a showroom because of the atmosphere, economic times.
With that, I kind of became unemployed for the first time in my life. And then lo and behold, I reached out to an old buyer of mine, said, Listen, if you hear of anything in the marketplace, would you let me know? I'm looking for a job. She is the one that connected me with Jardin Jewelry, my current company. Of course I got the job and now I've been there 15 years. I think it worked out long term.
That was a big break because I have to tell you, in the half a year that I was unemployed, I probably sent out hundreds of resumes and nothing was working because it was recession; there were a lot of unemployed people.
JM: Well, that kind of leads into the next question: A lot of people want to be in sales. They want to be great salespeople. They want to just break in and live the kind of lifestyle that you get when you're successful in sales. It's not always easy to start up. What advice would you give to someone who's looking to break into sales?
LP: Well, first of all, you have to work hard. You have to put in the time. You have to put in the effort. I must admit that when I started working for Jardin Jewelry and our line was very small, I probably worked from 7AM to 7PM every single day, Monday through Friday.
Then I had an intern come and work with me. And she was a beautiful, smart girl. She was so smart that we just wanted to give her more and more and more work because she would look at a piece and know the style number. That's remarkable. She continued to work for us, and she grew and grew. And then I said to her, you need your own customers because you can then you can get a commission (and then you can get out of your parents' house, lol). So she did, and was very, very successful at what she did, and it came with a lot of hard work.
In sales, your best customer is the customer you already have. You do everything you can to keep that customer and always communicate well with them, make their life easy, and they'll appreciate it. It all works out. But it all comes with putting in the time.
JM: Yes, absolutely. Are you working on any new projects or opportunities that we can promote on this platform? Perhaps new business ventures?
LP: Well, lab-grown diamonds continue to be of interest to the world. We are possibly going to dabble in that. We will see down the pike now. Every time you bring in a new product, it requires a lot of work to get it going, style numbers, pricing. Knowing your merchandise and being able to market to people because lab grown diamonds are more expensive than what we're currently selling very, well.
JM: They're even higher quality products, right?
LP: It's a higher quality. It's a higher price. Honestly, some of them are so small, like a quarter of a carat per ear, which is pretty small. If that's the lowest price range, it's kind of getting a very small earring.
JM: It's look of real, right?
LP: People would mistake it for real. It's actual quality and better than CZ.
JM: Like a real diamond, but from a lab and very high tech?
LP: Right. The only thing about CZ also is great value for its price because CZ does not have any iron lines or they're sometimes very, very difficult to know that it's not a real diamond as opposed to being a cubic zirconia. We cut them just like a diamond is cut. We hand prong set them in the factory. Many pieces have over 50 stones in them. It takes somebody with craftsmanship to be able to create these pieces.
JM: Wow. Sounds beautiful. Pavé style.
LP: Yes.
JM: I heard you had your own company called Brand Fox that you're doing things with all over the country and the world?
LP: Yes. I had the opportunity to create my own company. About 2015 to 2017 is when I was very active. I went into the home sector for a while. I worked with a company that was also selling men's products. It was nice to be able to see how products are sold in different sectors. It gave me a nice opportunity during that timeframe.
JM: Do you think that if you can sell one product that you can sell other similar products?
LP: Yes, you can. It just takes knowledge. It takes time. It takes knowing your product.
JM: So not only knowing your customer, anticipating their needs, making their life easy, but knowing your product at the end of the day?
LP: Yes. At one point, during that period of unemployment, I went to go work for New York Life Insurance because they had a renowned sales technique. I was just curious to see how other things are sold. I went to work with them for less than a year and experienced insurance, which was probably the hardest thing to sell ever in my life. I was so happy to get out of it.
JM: If you were to sell like any animal in the world, because I know that they often attribute sales personalities to animals, do you know what your animal prowess would be?
LP: A fox... I named my company Brand Fox.
JM: Of course it is, see? We've come full circle. Thank you so much for sharing your sales wisdom with this sales wannabe. I appreciate your wisdom and I'm so excited that you joined us for our first interview ever on this Mother's Day (actually recorded on Mother's Day in the USA, May 11, 2025).
LP: Look forward to speaking with you again soon. Thank you.
JM: Bye. Love you, mom.
LP: Bye. Love you, too.
JM: Bye.
LP: Bye now.
And at the end of the day, I want to be better at sales. So let's start with this interview number one. I want to be better at sales.
A very special woman in my life is here with us today. She has been a sales executive for the past 20 years in the costume jewelry industry. She has worked across various industries, and she is a change agent for any company or brand that she represents. She's able to create new business development and start from nothing to something and take businesses to the next level. I am very proud to have with me the most important woman in my life, the woman who gave birth to me, who breathes life into everything that I do. I have my mother, Lorette Pribil, who is also a sales executive at Jardin Jewelry. Welcome to the show, Lorette, and thank you for being with us.
Lorette Pribil (LP): Thank you for this moment to speak about my life experiences.
JM: Absolutely! Tell us more about what you do in sales.
LP: Gosh. Where do I begin? Sales is not simply just selling an item. It's knowing your product, knowing how it will benefit your customer, knowing how to make your customer, in my case, it's my buyer, how to make their life easy. So then You provide them with everything that they need. They will give you the parameters and it's your job to make their life easy. When you do, they keep coming back. A lot of times you're trying to sell them the wrong merchandise or the wrong styling at the wrong price, the wrong quantity, the wrong retail, and there's a long list of parameters that are important when selling a product. You have to know the customer in terms of their corporate requirements, such as their terms, their minimum orders, where the shipment is going to be delivered.
Is it FOB or it on a delivered basis? How many samples do you have to provide at no charge? How much testing do you have to provide? Who pays the freight? Do they want 30-, 60- or 90-day terms? Or are they going to pay COD? You might have to include pricing for traveling to cities to meet your customers, traveling to trade shows, just having stuff on hand.
The latest trend is with retailers is that the wholesaler - which is the company that I currently represent is a wholesaler - is a designer, manufacturer, wholesaler, distributor. We basically do everything. If your customer wants a bulk shipment, gosh, that's easy. But if they want drop ship, then we have to have the appropriate software. that's another step too. There are many platforms that are not free that have to be included in the pricing or the setup.
Many times when you go into this new drop ship arrangement, it takes many months to get set up. Then basically the customer doesn't actually pay for it. You stock it, you bring it in, you pay for it wherever you manufacture, you hold it. If they don't buy all of it, you have to find a plan B to sell off the remainder stock.
We used to have people that their full-time job was to program and understand stock and how many units a company is going to buy need and, and when they were purchasing it, it was somebody's full time job. Nowadays we have to do that because we don't want to get stuck with inventory, but then we also have requirements in terms of our factories. Our factories always say, it's easy to make 50 units easier than making 24, let's say. So they usually will give you a setup fee on a styling that you're not ordering enough units.
JM: Let's stop there because you talked about sales by way of so many other parts of the business. So sales isn't just having the guts to pick up the phone and call somebody? It's listening to your customer. It's establishing who the customer is, what they need sometimes before they even know it, planning, having the right sourcing lined up, inventory, having your tech all lined up so that you make it easy to work with other stores and companies.
LP: Right. Another factor is that traditionally we had market weeks and for every market week you would have to bring in a whole new collection. A collection could it be anywhere from 200 to 400 new styles that have to be catalogued and priced and photographed. Now we have a full-time photographer because the clients are depending upon us more and more to provide them with photography because they're selling the products online through e-commerce. That's another reason that they work with us, is because we provide professional images so that the product can sell better.
JM: You're really providing not only just the actual product when they need it, how many they needed at the price that they need it, which all require strategy behind it, but you're also providing the services that go along with marketing the said product and with getting it out there to their customers, the photography and whatever else they need to put it up on their website and get to selling?
LP: Yes, that's correct. And they have to kind of like you and be able to communicate well with you. They're very busy people.
For retailers now, each buyer is representing more than one category. whereas I used to have a jewelry category, my buyer is now doing jewelry, hair, belts, handbags, and she just was doing shoes for a while. The more qualified she is, the busier she is, the harder it is to reach her. She's like talking to your lawyer... You better have all your questions lined up, because you're going to get 30-minute phone call, maybe an hour once a month.
You figure it out before you get on the call. You have to have a rapport. You have to be kind.
One of my favorite companies that I work for, I say I work for them, the brand. If I don't have her, I don't have a customer, I don't have a job. Every time they communicate, they are always so pleasant and write happy Monday or happy Tuesday or happy whatever day it is. Throughout the entire company, everybody is so pleasant to work with.
JM: Do you have any buyers that you want to shout out from different companies that you've worked with over the years that you really have built up a nice relationship with?
LP: Oh gosh, let's see. Well, my favorite right now, is Betsy. We have a really nice rapport. We've been growing the business about six or seven years. We've just been growing the business every market every season.
JM: How often is the market in costume jewelry?
LP: I'm actually in better fashion jewelry. We do have one brand that is costume. There are different qualities of jewelry The company that I work for, Jardin Jewelry, we have at least six brands that we sell. Each brand is very specific to the type of metal, the type of stones, the branding name, and the quality. So, you also have to know your products.
At this point, I've been in fashion jewelry for more than 20 years, I've worked for different designers. I worked for a designer that did beaded jewelry with sterling silver for almost 10 years. I worked for another company that sold low end costume jewelry, like tens of thousands of units. When I was hired at Jardin, was specifically brought on to handle the licensed brand, CZ by Kenneth J. Lane. At that point, they had just taken on the license and they didn't have anybody to sell it. Our collection consisted of 100 pieces. I can say right now, our collection probably consists of 100,000 pieces.
JM: Wow, that is a lot of SKUs to sell. How do you organize all those SKUs? How do you know which of the six brands is right for each buyer? How do you know if you're going to get the sell through that you need to keep growing with that client? How do you kind of strategize for Betsy, say?
LP: You always want it to be a positive experience. If you know your customer well, and you have a collection go on their e-commerce site and let's say you typically on the high-end side, you would sell 100 units, but typically a more expensive item you'd only sell 12 units. So, it doesn't make sense to put 50 units of a high-priced item on an e-commerce site, because then something that is beautiful and is actually being discounted to their members is not going to show well because it's going to show that it's not a good seller, if you only sell 12 out of 50. Then I back that up to when we bring in new items because we always have to refresh the collection. We can't keep selling the same thing over and over.
JM: Are you able to do, say, a 12-item test? Then you can get 100 % sell through.
LP: Yes, we see what works with their customer. I have a good feeling what works for their customer... but you never know. Things change. Other companies go out of business where we could fill in the gap.
I work with my designer quite often to bring in items created specifically for the customer. A lot of that is traditional pieces.
JM: Seems sales is so much about target marketing, right? And:
- being there to anticipate all of their needs,
- being someone who's reliable and a friend
- even making the right suggestions about how many pieces should show
Even if you're excited if they order a hundred, and they don't sell the hundred pieces, then it's bad, right?
LP: You have to be smart to think ahead. There are some pieces that I personally don't like. I'm sorry to say this (Mark :)), that I don't include because for me, they don't look proper or they're too big or they don't hang right on the ear. If they don't sell, they get stuck with it, and they won't grow. Yes, maybe somebody else will like it. But then you're stuck with it. So, it's all about planning.
JM: Are you working with the overseas sourcing for these products as well? Are you part of the making sure that you get the inventory in at the right time and getting to the right place and making sure everything hangs right?
LP: Yes, that's a sidebar. Of course, we have full-time people that handle that. There's a lot just in working with the factory in terms of the quality of the product.
They call them "top-of-production" samples when we're a very large bulk shipment. An associate of mine handles receiving new samples, arranging for all the transportation. A big job, it is. Do I keep in touch with that? Yes, I do. If I know I have a shipment coming up, I double check that everything's on time. Normally they would advise me if there was an issue because we will have to ask for say an extension Other than that, we have a really good delivery rate. We're almost 100%.
JM: Yay.
LP: We really do, we do very well.
JM: You are on top of it. Obviously, you know your job in sales. So, let's find out a little bit more about you with some quickfire questions, shall we?
LP: Okay.
JM: Let's talk about some of your favorite items. What is your favorite food?
LP: Hmm. Favorite food. I am a quasi-keto person. My favorite food would be watermelon or strawberries or chicken. I still like a nice steak once in a while. And I like fish. The proteins I try, although I do like bread and pasta, I do try not to eat that.
JM: I like it too, but it doesn't like me. Favorite caffeinated drink?
LP: Oh, that would be coffee in the morning.
JM: Okay. With anything in it?
LP: Cappuccino. Nice and sweet.
JM: Very nice. Your favorite book of all time?
LP: Oh gosh. I don't know if this is politically correct, but the Bible.
JM: I love that answer. That works for me. Favorite movie?
LP: That would have to be like an oldie goldie like, The Sound of Music.
JM: I love The Sound of Music. Good pick.
LP: I like all those oldies. I even like the movies that my grandchildren force me to go see like, The Cruds.
JM: The Cruds? The Cruds would be a very different movie (than The Croods, lol).
LP: We still sleep pile, lol.
JM: Exactly! Well, favorite flower?
LP: I love flowers. I would say a rose, but it doesn't have to be red. It could be any color under the sun. I love tropical flowers. There's not one I don't like.
JM: How about your favorite place to vacation?
LP: I guess that would be Florida.
JM: Why not? It is nice here in Florida.
LP: If it were European, I'd say Italy.
JM: Very nice. Favorite place to work?
LP: My favorite place to work, in terms of a city?
JM: Could be, or it could be a certain desk or a certain computer... whatever stages your workplace.
LP: I work at a desk and I'm so focused on what I'm doing that I really don't like a lot of noise around me.
My dear Jacqueline, I know you sing when you work.
JM: I sing at the top of my lungs when I work... super distracting for those around me, lol.
LP: Exactly. In our office at Jardin Jewelry, I have a little desk in my own space, and I sit next to the bookkeeper. She's a quiet one, too. Every once in a while, we cross examine whatever's going on. I spent time in the showroom too. Between my desk and the showroom.
JM: It's interesting that you like a quiet workplace. Meanwhile, you have a very active jewelry showroom right next to your office and your office is in the middle of Midtown Manhattan. There's definitely a hustle and bustle when you leave your desk.
LP: It's always fun going in there because there's always something new and you go, Wow, I didn't see this. What is this? This is beautiful. How much is it?
JM: Do you ever see anything on the streets in Manhattan that you're like, We need to do this piece. It looks so great.
LP: Yes, but we're always very excited when we see our pieces on movie stars and on TV shows.
JM: Even better, right?
LP: Even J.Lo (Jennifer Lopez). She was one of our biggest celebs that used to come in on a regular basis and borrow styles and wear it on the news and interviews. We were so excited about that.
JM: She wore it in Vogue too, right? And on the red carpet.
LP: Yes, she did a lot, a lot of times.
JM: She likes to bling.
LP: Yeah, we're excited.
JM: Two more questions. Favorite song?
LP: Unforgettable by Nat King Cole, he and his daughter sing. It's beautiful. A classic.
JM: Favorite designer? Could be of jewelry, could be of clothing, could be of whatever you like.
LP: I've been into this black and white thing, like somebody else I know, Jacqueline.
I've been liking Karl Lagerfeld. I don't like it with his name all over it. Or I actually don't like any branding on my clothing. You know, if it has big V's, G's, or whatever they are... except for my Gucci belt and my Gucci bag. That I do like. I hate to say that, I guess it would be Gucci. Or Tory Burch.
JM: Yeah, Tory Burch is good, too! What would you say that your big break was in sales?
LP: My biggest break was in about 2008. I took a job, a better job, allegedly. And it was on a one-year contract and I was opening up a showroom in New York City for a fashion jewelry house that was located in Rhode Island.
I already been working in the industry for about 10 years and they offered me this job. It was great opportunity until I took it, and I was like, No... they don't even have a computer with style numbers in it. No, no. Then, it became a national recession. And after my one year with them, they did not revisit my contract. They did do everything they said they were going to do, except they decided against opening up a showroom because of the atmosphere, economic times.
With that, I kind of became unemployed for the first time in my life. And then lo and behold, I reached out to an old buyer of mine, said, Listen, if you hear of anything in the marketplace, would you let me know? I'm looking for a job. She is the one that connected me with Jardin Jewelry, my current company. Of course I got the job and now I've been there 15 years. I think it worked out long term.
That was a big break because I have to tell you, in the half a year that I was unemployed, I probably sent out hundreds of resumes and nothing was working because it was recession; there were a lot of unemployed people.
JM: Well, that kind of leads into the next question: A lot of people want to be in sales. They want to be great salespeople. They want to just break in and live the kind of lifestyle that you get when you're successful in sales. It's not always easy to start up. What advice would you give to someone who's looking to break into sales?
LP: Well, first of all, you have to work hard. You have to put in the time. You have to put in the effort. I must admit that when I started working for Jardin Jewelry and our line was very small, I probably worked from 7AM to 7PM every single day, Monday through Friday.
Then I had an intern come and work with me. And she was a beautiful, smart girl. She was so smart that we just wanted to give her more and more and more work because she would look at a piece and know the style number. That's remarkable. She continued to work for us, and she grew and grew. And then I said to her, you need your own customers because you can then you can get a commission (and then you can get out of your parents' house, lol). So she did, and was very, very successful at what she did, and it came with a lot of hard work.
In sales, your best customer is the customer you already have. You do everything you can to keep that customer and always communicate well with them, make their life easy, and they'll appreciate it. It all works out. But it all comes with putting in the time.
JM: Yes, absolutely. Are you working on any new projects or opportunities that we can promote on this platform? Perhaps new business ventures?
LP: Well, lab-grown diamonds continue to be of interest to the world. We are possibly going to dabble in that. We will see down the pike now. Every time you bring in a new product, it requires a lot of work to get it going, style numbers, pricing. Knowing your merchandise and being able to market to people because lab grown diamonds are more expensive than what we're currently selling very, well.
JM: They're even higher quality products, right?
LP: It's a higher quality. It's a higher price. Honestly, some of them are so small, like a quarter of a carat per ear, which is pretty small. If that's the lowest price range, it's kind of getting a very small earring.
JM: It's look of real, right?
LP: People would mistake it for real. It's actual quality and better than CZ.
JM: Like a real diamond, but from a lab and very high tech?
LP: Right. The only thing about CZ also is great value for its price because CZ does not have any iron lines or they're sometimes very, very difficult to know that it's not a real diamond as opposed to being a cubic zirconia. We cut them just like a diamond is cut. We hand prong set them in the factory. Many pieces have over 50 stones in them. It takes somebody with craftsmanship to be able to create these pieces.
JM: Wow. Sounds beautiful. Pavé style.
LP: Yes.
JM: I heard you had your own company called Brand Fox that you're doing things with all over the country and the world?
LP: Yes. I had the opportunity to create my own company. About 2015 to 2017 is when I was very active. I went into the home sector for a while. I worked with a company that was also selling men's products. It was nice to be able to see how products are sold in different sectors. It gave me a nice opportunity during that timeframe.
JM: Do you think that if you can sell one product that you can sell other similar products?
LP: Yes, you can. It just takes knowledge. It takes time. It takes knowing your product.
JM: So not only knowing your customer, anticipating their needs, making their life easy, but knowing your product at the end of the day?
LP: Yes. At one point, during that period of unemployment, I went to go work for New York Life Insurance because they had a renowned sales technique. I was just curious to see how other things are sold. I went to work with them for less than a year and experienced insurance, which was probably the hardest thing to sell ever in my life. I was so happy to get out of it.
JM: If you were to sell like any animal in the world, because I know that they often attribute sales personalities to animals, do you know what your animal prowess would be?
LP: A fox... I named my company Brand Fox.
JM: Of course it is, see? We've come full circle. Thank you so much for sharing your sales wisdom with this sales wannabe. I appreciate your wisdom and I'm so excited that you joined us for our first interview ever on this Mother's Day (actually recorded on Mother's Day in the USA, May 11, 2025).
LP: Look forward to speaking with you again soon. Thank you.
JM: Bye. Love you, mom.
LP: Bye. Love you, too.
JM: Bye.
LP: Bye now.
Lorette Pribil in the News...
Lorette and Jackie at Fashion Week in NYC and Delray Beach, Florida, 2012 - 2023
Lorette and Jackie, just for fun...
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