On this week’s episode, JCK editor-in-chief Victoria Gomelsky and news director Rob Bates talk with Julia Hackman Chafé, social media manager at Intercolor USA, about the unique career she never envisioned in her family business. Julia shares candid accounts of her cringe-worthy first post (her assessment, not ours), finding her footing in the world of social media, and enviable highlights like attending the wedding of the century in Mumbai and getting to meet her idols, including Kim Kardashian. She also shares simple success tips for up-and-coming influencers.
BONUS: Hear a special sponsored mini interview with Howard Stone from Jewelers Mutual, who talks store security and loss prevention.
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Presenting Sponsor: Tracr
Sponsor: Jewelers Mutual
Episode Credits
Hosts: Rob Bates and Victoria Gomelsky
Producer and engineer: Natalie Chomet
Editor: Riley McCaskill
Plugs: @jckmagazine; tracr.com; Jewelers Mutual; @juliachafe, @jewelswithjules
Show Notes
2:26 A Change of Heart
5:19 A Revelation in Bangkok
8:07 Trial, Error, Eventual Success
12:20 Hitting a Million
14:24 Wedding of the Century
19:59 The Lifestyle Approach
23:55 Tips for Aspiring Influencers
Show Recap
A Change of Heart
Victoria introduces guest Julia Hackman Chafé, better known to the industry by her social media handle Jewels with Jules. Julia is the social media manager for her family’s business, Intercolor USA, a wholesaler specializing in sapphires, rubies, emeralds, and other colored stones.
It’s a title—and a vocation—the Long Island native never envisioned, though her family has been in the colored gemstone industry for more than 40 years. “I never wanted to join the industry when I was younger because my dad was in it, and my dad is just so uncool,” Julia says with a laugh. But as a student at NYU during the pandemic, she found her perspective shifted. Could it be that her dad was actually cool? No, she decided, but perhaps the industry was. “It’s cool to be a dork in this industry,” says Julia, who decided to explore a future in the family business after graduating.
A Revelation in Bangkok
Rather than take classes through the GIA, Julia opted to find out more about wholesale pricing by accompanying her father on a shopping trip to Bangkok. “It was the best decision we ever made together,” and a turning point in her life, says Julia.
She found herself profoundly moved by the level of trust her father and his contacts had developed over the decades. “It was so beautiful watching my dad have such close friendships with people,” she says. “They’ve been friends longer than I’ve been alive. There was so much love between them” rooted in a shared passion for gemstones that it broke through language barriers, Julia adds.
Rob points out that while Intercolor USA is a wholesale business, social media platforms are by nature consumer-facing. He wonders what this means for Julia’s role in the company. Julia concedes that she sometimes gets requests from followers about particular stones and has to apologetically turn down would-be shoppers. She also envisions a circumscribed role when it comes to travel. “Seeing how hard my dad works, I realized that as a woman who wants a family, it’s unrealistic” to go away three or four times a year for three weeks on buying trips, she says.
Trial, Error, and Finally Success
When it comes to posting, Julia maintains a brisk pace of three videos daily. Rob wonders how much time that involves. Julia says that varies based on the video in question. Some take hours of recording and editing, then adding music and captions. Others must be done quickly, particularly when the content involves an event, such as the Emmys.
Victoria asks about the first video Julia ever posted for her family’s business, back in August 2021, and what prompted her to do it. At the time, Julia says, she thought TikTok was the future of social media and Instagram would soon fall out of favor. (She’s since revised her opinion.) After searching without success for a TikTok influencer to promote Intercolor USA, Julia’s husband suggested she give it a try. “It was a month or two of him constantly nagging me,” she recalls. Finally she relented, but she cringes at the memory. The topic was atypical trends—specifically, sapphire engagement rings. She put a ring her father had given her on her ring finger, but it “was a complete lie,” she says. “I don’t have a sapphire engagement ring.” Though she got about 1,000 views, thanks to being boosted by TikTok, “it did not work at all.”
A second effort a week later proved more successful. This one focused on Princess Diana’s engagement ring, and though she could edit it in 10 minutes now, it took her nearly five hours as a novice. The time paid off: To her delight, it generated about 10,000 views. She jokes now that she felt like an instant celebrity and wondered if it might be time to don a baseball cap and sunglasses to avoid recognition from fans.
Hitting a Million
Using the Princess Diana video as a barometer, Julia determined that celebrity content would resonate with viewers, so she made it her niche. What followed was a series of videos of Julia pointing to stars with colored engagement rings, from Megan Fox to Victoria Beckham, steadily growing her following on TikTok and Instagram.
“I remember the first post that got over a million views,” says Julia. “It was on Naomi Campbell wearing the Cartier Eternity snake necklace.” It was not only a milestone but also a turning point in terms of the type of content she produced because it involved her discussing jewelry rather than simply pointing to a photo. Talking posts clearly drew engagement, so Julia turned her attention to that format.
Wedding of the Century
Speaking of major moments, Victoria brings up Julia’s attendance at the Anant Ambani–Radhika Merchant wedding in Mumbai this past summer. Julia’s posts about the epic event increased her followers by 300,000 in six days. “The wedding itself was the most eye-opening, spectacular experience of my life,” says Julia. The whole event “was a dream come true.”
Her favorite jewelry moment? A toss-up between Kim Kardashian sporting a Lorraine Schwartz emerald necklace as a headpiece and Nita Ambani, mother of the groom, dripping in gemstones. “Her whole body was covered in diamonds,” Julia recalls.
But even these paled in comparison to meeting Kim herself. It was “absolutely mind-blowing,” says Julia, a longtime fan of the Kardashians. The introduction came courtesy of Lorraine Schwartz, another of Julia’s heroes. The influencer was floored when Kim told her she had not only heard of her but had actually watched her videos. “I almost passed out,” Julia says.
The influencer got a chance to ask a long-burning question: Was the pear-shape Lorraine Schwartz pinky ring Kim often wore hers or a loaner from Lorraine? Turns out it’s Kim’s. “It was so cool having this conversation with two of my idols,” says Julia.
The Lifestyle Approach
That’s a hard high point to top, but working with Tiffany & Co. rivals it, says Julia, who was recently asked by the jeweler to attend an event and generate posts about it. She was also honored to be profiled by Victoria in a recent New York Times article.
Julia hopes that in the wake of the Ambani wedding coverage, followers will get to know her and start to prefer her lifestyle content over simple posts about the gems celebs sport.
She also hopes her work will draw attention to Intercolor and help the family business. While she has no concrete evidence that it’s boosting the bottom line, people at trade shows often come to the company’s booth because they’ve seen her posts on TikTok and Instagram, she says.
Tips for Aspiring Influencers
Rob asks what advice Julia can offer fellow influencers. “Post three times a day,” she says. “Post as much as you can.”
And avoid perfectionism. “Sometimes the content you think is horrible actually performs the best,” she says. “Throw everything you can out there. You never know what’s going to stick.”
Look for Julia at @juliachafe on Instagram and at @jewelswithjules on TikTok.
Any views expressed in this podcast do not reflect the opinions of JCK, its management, or its advertisers.
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