This week on Keep Going I talked with Nelly Mendoza, the founder of Nelly Creative Studios. She has been making jewelry for about ten years, and her story is not a clean startup arc. It starts with her walking into a class in the basement of her college art center, kind of by accident, and finding the one thing she kept coming back to, even while she was majoring in economics.

The part that stuck with me was how practical she is about an “impractical” career. She did not raise outside money. She took a few fellowships, one was about $5,000 after graduation, and used it to buy materials, mainly gold, and get herself set up. After that, she kept the loop tight, money from projects went back into materials and equipment. There is no magic here. It is repetition, reinvestment, and staying alive long enough to get better.

She also talked about the part people skip when they say “follow your passion.” In a creative business there is no set path. There is no job ladder. It is trial and error, and it can be lonely. She described those stretches where sales slow down and you start asking if you should turn around and do something safer. She had those moments. She also knew that if she took the safe route too early, she might never leave it. So she learned to measure progress in small wins, one new client, one new piece, one new idea, and keep moving.

On the growth side, she did the work that actually gets attention. She built a consistent online presence, wrote blogs, kept a “jewelry journal,” and made her brand for both men and women, not just women. She leaned on word of mouth because jewelry is visual, people see it, ask about it, and that conversation sells better than an ad. Then she added something a lot of online brands miss, physical experiences. Last year she rented a gallery, invited people she trusted, and let them handle the pieces in person. No storefront, so she created the moment herself. She is planning another pop-up, and she is careful about safety and about building a real community around the work.

One more choice mattered. She took a job at Tiffany, in their innovation studio, for four years. Not to quit her business, but to buy time and learn. She called it a kind of second degree. It gave her skills, contacts, and more confidence in how the industry works. Then she left when she felt the job was taking too much time away from the thing she wanted to own. That is a hard call, and she made it without pretending it was romantic. It was about control and focus.

Her economics degree shows up in how she thinks about pricing and tradeoffs. She does not price from feelings. She prices from materials, opportunity cost, and the reality that gold has gotten expensive enough that old prices do not work anymore. She is now thinking about entry-level pieces for younger followers, using different materials, without turning the work into disposable trend-chasing.

If you want the lesson from this episode, it is this. Making your own way is slow and it is messy. You do not need a dramatic leap. You need enough runway to learn, enough discipline to reinvest, and enough patience to stick with the lonely parts. Allie built her business the old-fashioned way, one piece at a time, one customer at a time, and one decision at a time. That is still how it works.

Transcript:

Welcome back to Keep Going, podcast about success and failure. I’m John Biggs. The other show we have Nelly Mendoza. She’s the founder of Nelly Creative Studios, your jewelry maker. Nelly, welcome. Yeah, so you’ve been doing this for 10 years. I think you’re the first person I’ve talked to who is actually making jewelry or some kind of like

Nelly (00:58.162)

Thank you.

Nelly (01:02.184)

I have closed ears now, yep.

John Biggs (01:09.728)

or accessories, etc. So this is a this is a new one for me. So why don’t you just tell me about the business and how you started.

Nelly (01:15.45)

Yeah, so I started in college kind of by accident. Just enjoyed making jewelry, just walked in into a class one day into like the basement of the art center and then started making jewelry that way. And then I was an econ major, kind of went back and forth in terms of careers, but the one consistent thing was always jewelry. And then once it was time to pick a career, you know, last...

last semester or last quarter of school, I decided to try jewelry. I got, yeah, so I started that way. At first, I wasn’t sure what it would look like and how the future would pan out. But as time continued, I kind of figured things out a little bit more.

John Biggs (02:04.536)

So what was the driving force behind this decision? I mean, you had an economics degree and making jewelry is, I suspect, fairly difficult thing because it’s fashion-based and I can’t imagine that it’s cheap to get started.

Nelly (02:23.694)

No, it’s not cheap for sure. You have to be creative in terms of, know, I never got any external funding just because I know what that means. It’s like giving up control of who you are and the type of work you’re working on. So the only funding I got was a few fellowships. Like post-graduation, I got like $5,000 to just buy materials. So I just bought gold and a few other things. And then I was

kind of set up in terms of a studio space. I used the space in the college for a bit. And then that was my first kind of funding. And then after that, I continued to self-fund whatever projects I would get, I would just kind of put back into my work. So I would just go back into buying gold or materials or equipment.

John Biggs (03:14.926)

So tell me about the process. How do you start a jewelry business? What were some of the things that you faced?

Nelly (03:24.04)

The reason I started was because there was really nothing else that I wanted to do. No, you know, it’s, difficult at first. You’re like, okay, I want to do this career, but how do you do it? It’s not as easy as, okay, I want to work in investment banking. Let me apply for different roles. And then I’ll go through these application process, you know, application rounds and interview rounds. It’s more of, okay, you want to do this. You have a goal, but how do you get there? It’s not.

Like someone has done that already and laid a path for you. So it’s a lot of trial and error in terms of how do you get to where you want to be right from you. It was always having control of my own work, being independent and just making beautiful things and having people buy by them as well. Right.

John Biggs (04:12.794)

Mm-hmm. How do you get attention as an artist in that way? mean, obviously, you need to build a fan base. You need to build folks that are repeat customers. But you also have to capture people who are just going to come off the street and say, hey, I like this. What did you do to get started?

Nelly (04:31.558)

Yeah, so I definitely made sure I had a strong presence online. So all of my socials and whatever I was putting out very consistent. So I would always write blogs and I have a jewelry journal just based on, okay, like this is, you know, what the trends are happening for men. And, you know, and I always focused on having serving both men and women as opposed to just doing jewelry for women.

and just having that consistent product, right? So I started my first clients where people I went to school with and then just kind of started telling their friends. And fortunately, jewelry is a very visual product. you know, people see it on you and they’re like, I like it, it’s easy to sell in that way. So you always, you know, I have the work that I wear, but I also, the best people,

Are my best clients or those who wear it and kind of tell their friends? So it’s a lot of word of mouth. And then how do you get it to the wider public? Last year I had my first show. So I rented out a gallery and I just invited friends, friends of friends and, and so on. And a few people who walked in, but it was a closed event, private, just kind of getting, you know, it’s like, people have kind of known me for a bit, but don’t really know who I am and letting them interact with my.

product, especially since I don’t have a store or anything like that. Just having the physical aspect has also helped. So that’s kind of like the next phase of my business, just continuing those pop-up ideas. So I have one planned for this year, for example, somewhere in SoHo again, and just letting people interact with the product. And this will be for a bigger client base. First one was mostly for people already knew.

Obviously you’re dealing with jewelry. You don’t want just anyone walking in. I want people to feel safe when they’re in there as opposed to someone randomly walking in and being a safety thing. So I’m always careful about who I invite and making sure they’re interested just to create, because I’m not just making jewelry or selling jewelry. I also want a good community of people who enjoy my work or who enjoy the arts.

Nelly (06:54.648)

and as opposed to just, you know, it’s just something I sell.

John Biggs (07:00.206)

Was there ever a moment when you said, I should probably get back into investment banking?

Nelly (07:05.339)

that’s very interesting. would say, yes, definitely a few moments where you’re just like, okay, like I’m not selling as much jewelry. just, you know, the creative, the creative career is so interesting because it’s very lonely. You go through these moments where you’re just walking a path and you’re like, this is the right path. Or is it time for me to turn around? I would say once I was past those dark moments of doubt,

I was like, all right, I just have to keep going and things, you know, you have to build slowly. And for me, like the reason I didn’t go until one of those traditional careers starting off is because I knew I would get trapped in that safety net very early on. And it’s once you’re in that, it’s so difficult to leave. So at least for me, it’s like, all right, I had to celebrate the small wins. All right. I have a new client. have a new project, a new idea. I just have to like, put all my focus on there. So.

for very brief amount of time, but I think for me, I just knew this is kind of what I had to do. And if I didn’t do it at a younger age, as opposed to waiting, things just get more difficult. And for jewelry, you kind of have to have mentors and you have to just kind of out in the field and explore and figure things out.

John Biggs (08:28.952)

Did you feel you were able to do it because you did have that backup of an economics degree? I mean, this is like the age-old question, right? Do you go to school for something practical and then do your art on the side, or do you kind of fall in completely? What was your thinking when you were in that position?

Nelly (08:51.56)

You know, having an economics degree definitely made me more confident in terms of, all right, this is how you manage money a little bit more. I think as an artist, like before college for me, I had no idea how money worked. No idea about the stock market, you know, like the value of money, the opportunity cost of something, right? Like if you do X as opposed to Y, what happens? So it definitely taught me to think in a very analytical way.

you know, yes, do I regret sometimes not going into straight up just art, you know, an art degree occasionally, but then I look back at the big picture and it’s like, no, it’s better that I have both the analytical and the artistic because then I can look at something and figure out what it should be priced at as opposed to just the emotional side of, it’s just beautiful.

So yes, it’s an interesting question you ask, like which one came, you know, it’s like, what do you do, right? I don’t think I even thought an arts degree was gonna be something that would help me just when I was in school, but looking back at it, I think I would have been fine either way, but definitely the economics gave me a lot of confidence to just go into my career with full faith, if that makes sense.

If everything failed, I would have that. Sorry, that’s my dog right there. Yeah, I would have, you know, I would have something to fall back on. Yeah, I don’t know if I did a good job answering your question, but.

John Biggs (10:24.352)

Hahaha

John Biggs (10:30.478)

interesting.

No, think that’s, I mean, look, I think you’re honest about it. I think a lot of people would say that, no, I burned my bridges, I burned the boats, and I just decided I’m not going back. I’m not even going to follow the idea of becoming not an artist.

Nelly (10:46.308)

Yeah, yeah, I mean, that’s, that’s interesting. Yeah, for me, I just knew that it’s a time sensitive thing. I think in college, you have the benefit of, you know, you’re still a student and people are like, okay, like, what do you want to do with your life? And you’re almost allowed to play a little bit more, as opposed to what I see now with

A lot of my friends are just like very fixed in their career, very serious career and so on. Here, let me just take care of my... He’s... I think he just... He’s not used to seeing me on calls. All right, let me just give him a little treat.

John Biggs (11:18.606)

Yeah, sounds like somebody wants out of the hole.

Nelly (11:33.244)

or this early on, here, sit. All right. He’s a little shiba, so he’s very demanding of attention. He’s very much like, give me attention. He’s like a little baby. Yeah, I think for me, just knowing that very early on that I had that room to just play and if you fail, it’s not gonna be like, you have a mortgage, you have kids, and what are you doing with your life?

John Biggs (11:41.453)

Hmm.

Nelly (12:04.156)

So that’s what I mean by time sensitive.

John Biggs (12:07.018)

What would you say to someone who’s starting out in this industry?

Nelly (12:11.752)

to be patient. And you you can’t just, you can’t wait for things to just come to you. You just have to kind of go for it and get it. You know, like for me, it’s just, whenever I had moments of darkness and just being like, all right, what am I doing? Just, okay, it’s like, you know, you have the talent, you have the skill, and you can’t think about what you don’t have. You really have to think about, okay, what are the things that I can offer?

Because for me, was like, you know, totally self-funded, like buying materials, gold, everything, just kind of figuring that out. You know, I can be complaining of, I don’t have this or that, but it’s just, it’s, you know, to be in a creative career, it means figuring it out with whatever resources you have, if you really want to make it work.

John Biggs (13:01.358)

I mean, if you really want to make it work, does it mean to really want to make it work? Again, is it a burning your boats kind of situation? You wanted this. I think what I’m trying to say is when you told the story, the beginning of the story, you almost fell into the thing. You went down to the basement. You did some work in the student art lab or whatever.

Nelly (13:26.81)

Yeah, the Hopkins Center up in New Hampshire at Dartmouth. So it’s just like very random, right? Like completely random. And then here we are today. Yeah, so really making it work because here’s the thing, you can definitely make a living doing things that are easier. You know, you can go and again, traditional career and not worry about, you know, when is your next, you know, big project? Is something going to be done right?

John Biggs (13:32.311)

Mm-hmm.

John Biggs (13:35.949)

Yeah.

Nelly (13:56.956)

You know, like if you have a big client, how are you going to make sure, you know, like to follow through with them to deliver like the best product that you can. And it’s a lot of back and forth. And I would say for other stuff, it’s like, all right, you do your task and you go home. You know, there’s no such thing as like, I need to follow up with my client. need to follow up with my, my stone setter. I need to follow up with this other person. It’s just so many different links.

that I have to work with on a daily basis as opposed to just, I’m gonna just finish whatever I’m told and do that. And I spent a few years at Tiffany, actually my last day was just last year. And part of the reason I was working there in their innovation studio. So again, making it work at a point where I was like, all right, I have this job offer.

John Biggs (14:52.834)

Mm-hmm.

Nelly (14:56.496)

and I’m gonna have some time to just kind of keep figuring things out. And this was two years out of school. And I was like, okay, this sounds amazing. I can learn a lot. And I took that job, it’s like the financial security was great, but also I knew I had to go into the world and learn a little bit more just so I had more experience and again, more confidence. I think it’s all about building that.

creative confidence too.

John Biggs (15:27.662)

So you basically took, yeah, you took a gig to work with Tiffany to just, but that was to expand your line, right? Just to have your experience.

Nelly (15:34.94)

Yeah, expand my line, expand my work, my experience. I spent four years there, but towards the end, was like, you know, it’s time again to go back into my business full time. I’m not dedicating as much time into it as I would like. And for me, it’s just, again, having that, you know, authority of this is the work I want to be working on and these are the projects I want to be doing. I think that’s what really drives me.

John Biggs (16:04.502)

No, so this is, I’m looking at the, I’m looking at the site now, nellycreativestudios.com. So it’s a little rich for my blood, but I’m a watch guy. I’d spend a lot on it.

Nelly (16:08.912)

Yeah.

Nelly (16:13.704)

I know I, yeah, I mean, it’s all, you know, with the price of materials nowadays, it’s, it’s incredible how much jewelry has like, appreciate it. You know, I had some stuff on there that, you know, now I can’t even keep those old prices because it would just be more in the gold. So it’s yeah, it’s definitely appreciated. And then, you know, that affects everything because again,

John Biggs (16:21.784)

Mm-hmm.

John Biggs (16:36.174)

Wow.

Nelly (16:42.93)

figuring out like, okay, still want to offer. So actually that’s something that I’m working on now, just offering more affordable work as an entry point for people. Because I have a lot of younger followers who don’t necessarily have the budget to afford a solid gold or a solid platinum bracelet. So are offering alternating materials that haven’t been as popular.

aren’t as popular yet and you’re kind of the first mover that makes sense making it popular and offering something different. I think, yeah.

John Biggs (17:23.064)

What do you want to say to somebody who is just discovering your work? Why should they pick up one of your pieces versus somebody else’s? I don’t know, go down to Tiffany, right?

Nelly (17:34.286)

is it’s always going to go out or go up in value in terms of, know, it’s like as I’ve gotten, you know, more experience and exposure, my work has only gained popularity. So something I see a lot now is a lot of, you know, brands who just kind of make stuff trendy. And they’re like, all right, this is trendy for now. It’s kind of following a similar path of like that, like fashion. And I hate to say this, but fast fashion in a way.

of like make something that’s trendy and then it’s not going to hold that beauty or value in the long term. So for me, it’s like making stuff that you can have and be proud of for 20 years, know, 20 years from now, like something you can give to your kids or your grandkids. and with Tiffany, you know, it’s their stuff is, you know, their bread and butter. You have the designs very consistent. but you can get that any, any other time, right? It’s not something that you can only get.

once in a lifetime. for a lot of my clients, do, especially when I do like a one of one piece, it’s something that they treasure and they keep and they wear almost like a piece of artwork that they’re wearing. Yeah.

John Biggs (18:48.494)

All right, so we’re going to send folks over to Nelly Creative Studio. Everybody’s going to buy all your jewelry, and you’re going have to make some more. So that might be a nice problem to have.

Nelly (18:57.562)

Yes. Yeah, exactly. And you know, the nice thing, you know, about having that Tiffany experience now, I just have so many people on my court in terms of the skills they offer, you know, and I didn’t have that before, like coming from a liberal art school, you don’t really have those connections. So I would say like spending those few years at Tiffany is almost like my second degree. And you were talking about an art degree, like I would consider that

John Biggs (19:16.556)

Mm-hmm.

Nelly (19:27.016)

kind of like my art degree in a way.

John Biggs (19:28.686)

All right, very cool. Well, Nelly, Nelly Mendoza, Nelly Creative Studios, go check it out. And tell us, I guess, tell us what they especially like. I like the angel pendant. Yeah, I like that. It’s like degraded, of, which is pretty cool.

Nelly (19:32.765)

Thank you.

Nelly (19:42.053)

the angel. Yes, those are. Yes.

Nelly (19:48.206)

Yeah, just for my show, I had a few different pendants with again with granulation with the 22 karat. And it was based on the gods. The theme of my show is Ambrosia, who are the gods. So I had, you know, those up pendants. It’s Aphrodite and then Apollo and then Hermes and then a few other gods. But those are always fun to me.

John Biggs (19:59.085)

Mm-hmm.

John Biggs (20:03.48)

Sure.

Nelly (20:16.2)

Those do very well for men as well.

John Biggs (20:19.116)

Mm-hmm. Yeah, I should become a jewelry guy. I never became a jewelry guy.

Nelly (20:21.946)

Yeah, yeah, I mean the path, you know, the line between like watches are jewelry for men. And, you know, hopefully in the next few years, I’ll get to design more watches. That’s definitely a goal of mine. So yeah, one of one would be would be really fun.

John Biggs (20:28.663)

Mm-hmm.

John Biggs (20:38.936)

right, very cool.

John Biggs (20:44.238)

All right, well thank you for joining us. I this has been fascinating.

Nelly (20:46.684)

Thank you. Hopefully I answered all your questions. Thank you.

John Biggs (20:48.844)

No, I think you did. This has been Keep Going. I’m John Biggs. We’ll see you next week.

Nelly (20:56.38)

Thank you.