Kesslers Diamonds

Jan 31

In their own words

“What we do every day matters to people. It’s a cool experience to be here watching folks look for something special for them, a recognition of an important part of their life. Everyone’s got a story, and it’s really important that we take the time to give them the ultimate experience of finding that right piece of jewelry to simplify their story.”

-Joe Gehrke

Jason’s Interview with Joe

Jason

Today we get to talk to the President of a prominent jewelry establishment in Wisconsin, Joe Gehrke from Kesslers Diamonds.

How did you go from the banking world into the jewelry industry?

Joe

I get that question a lot. Richard Kessler, our founder, is a pretty persuasive guy. He and I had a good conversation, probably for the better part of the year before I came to the conclusion that bankers don't get asked to run companies very often and this opportunity isn't going to come knocking every day. It was a combination of things. We're employee-owned, that was an exciting feature for me—I can create value for myself and 140 people. That is something that motivates me. It's been a great transition, coming up on three years.

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Jason
An employee-owned company. What does that mean?

Joe
The employee-owned nature of our company goes back before we were officially employee-owned. We did a couple things that we believe are important for our employees irrespective of whether they own the company or not. We empower them to make decisions. We are pretty transparent with our folks about open book. And it's continued to flourish since we became 100% employee-owned.

The part of the transition that I still have to be conscientious about is, when you're a banker and you interact with CFOs, CEOs, and Presidents, you speak more numbers and data. In this business, this is a heavily emotional purchase. I’m sitting here in my office, which is part of one of our six stores here in Wisconsin. One of the things I didn't get at the bank that I get here is I get to see people pull up and park. Couples walking in the store. That's something that I didn't get sitting at the bank. It's a cool experience to be here watching folks look for something that is special for them.

Jason
Tell me about a special moment a customer came in that you had a chance to maybe be a part of.

Joe
I just actually had a chance. I had a client reach out to me within the last couple months. We had an advertisement on the radio that talked about fancy-shaped diamonds and specifically called out a heart-shaped diamond. Well, this particular person was going through some really difficult health experiences. One of the symbols that his wife left for him in the morning when he was steaming up the shower mirror was a hand-drawn figure of a heart in the mirror. They were coming up on their thirty-fifth wedding anniversary. He sent me the most beautiful email about how this particular piece of jewelry had so much more meaning to him and his wife than anything they've ever purchased. I set up a time to go have coffee with him and his wife. I brought Monica Kessler with me. Monica is the one on the radio who leads a lot of our advertising voice. It was a great moment that I will never forget in business, let alone jewelry.

Jason
You do so much for the community, too. Kesslers continues to do so much for the greater area. I want to hear about the charities that you want us to know about.

Joe
Giving back to the community is core to who we are. There's a lot of great causes out there in the community. We make sure all of our stores have some capacity to donate pieces or gift cards to the local charities that are important to them. The one that signifies our relationship the best today is Make-A-Wish.

Make-A-Wish Wisconsin is a thirty-five-year organization. We donate proceeds from one of our most popular jewelry lines, Time & Eternity, back to Make-A-Wish. We've had Wish Kids come to our store before they get their wishes as their kind of wish send-off party. We hosted a couple of wish send-off parties last year that were just amazing.

If you go into any of our stores, you'll see the stars, which represent the kids that we've sponsored over the years. It's our charity of choice. It's really important to who we are.

Jason
How do you differentiate yourself?

Joe
I think it first and foremost emanates from our people. It's the people. Every jewelry store, you're going to have beautiful pieces of jewelry. It's the people that deliver it from both the front of the house and the back of the house that are the real differentiators. We don't hire people for jewelry knowledge. Look at me. Clearly, I didn't have a lot of jewelry knowledge, before I came to this company.

Jason
It’s so neat to have nearly 140 owners in a company with six amazing stores in and around Wisconsin.

Joe
And one in Grand Rapids, Michigan. We opened that one five years ago. That was our first venture outside the state.