Olivia Landau, CEO and Founder of The Clear Cut, joins ChedHER to discuss how she's disrupting the diamond industry, the role social media plays in her growing brand, and the hottest engagement ring trends to lookout for.

How The Clear Cut CEO is Disrupting the Diamond Industry

and joining us now is Olivia Landau Ceo and founder of the clear cut Olivia, thank you so much for joining us today, so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here. We're happy to have you on the show. Now, the clear cut is on a mission to disrupt the diamond industry. How are you working to achieve this? Well, traditionally the diamond industry has been very opaque, not very transparent and our whole thesis is to be education first, super transparent, empower our customers and build technology so we can have a customer for life. Now you are, this industry runs in your family, but previous to this, you were working on the engagement ring floor at Tiffany's and company. What actually prompted you to want to start your own business. So when I was working on the engagement and floor that was right after coming out of gym ology school and I really fell in love with bridal jewelry, diamonds specifically it was so much fun working with happy couples um for such a big, momentous moment, but I wanted to get a little bit more hands on. So I transitioned to work in wholesale and that's when a lot of our friends started to come to me ask if I could create their custom rings and started doing that on the side and realized that most people didn't know the first thing about buying a ring And there was so much information out there, but no one really knew who to trust. So I started the clear cut in 2016 as just an educational blog for our friends to read about diamonds, the dues and don's and then helped create the rings and through that and social media, more and more people that were strangers, started following following and finding out about the company. Now, it sounds like things. we're going well, you're set to triple your sales this year. So what is your secret to success? I think the secret is meeting our customer where they are at. So, you know, when I was starting in the industry, my parents always told me it was a dying industry, there was no future in it. But I think it was just drastically changing and the consumer was changing. So being, you know, a young woman at the time, I was the target consumer. So I could understand, you know, if I was shopping for this experience, what would I want? So being, you know, creating a lot of organic, original educational content through social media, meeting our customers where they were at and creating like a bespoke experience as expert driven while not overcharging for a brand or anything like that. Now, speaking of social media, you've amassed quite the following here. So what kind of demand are you seeing on platforms like instagram and Tiktok for the content that you're putting out and what sort of content are you putting out to meet that? I think the best thing on social media is really finding that niche in that community and speaking directly to them. So we really started on instagram and that's where we you know created our initial community and we would you know design our collection pieces based on you know feedback we were getting from our weekly Q. And A. S. With our community. Um We would put out content based on what they wanted to see and in turn we would be providing a product that they really wanted. Now Tiktok is one of our biggest platforms and you know there's you can find a niche or like your place on Tiktok if you keep scrolling the algorithm will find you. So we have really found a whole new community and a new generation of young people that are really in love with education and diamonds there as well. Now speaking of a family business, you actually started this company with your now husband. Tell me a little bit about how that happened and you know what it's like to run a business with your partner, how do you divide business and personal time totally. Um We act G. I. A. Which is the Gemological Institute of America. I was there um getting my graduate gemologist degree and he was there for a few weeks getting his diamonds degree. He comes from a really different background. I come from a diamond family. He had previously founded a Fair trade diamond mine in Africa. Um So we met in school, I actually followed him home on the subway um and started tutoring him. Um, and then we were long distance for a year until the Ebola epidemic. But then when he came came back to new york and enrolled in business school at Columbia. That's when a lot of his friends started coming to me to get their rings because I was like the go to guy and through that we realized like, hey, there's a big white space in the market, You have these business skills that I don't have and I have this product knowledge, um, that you don't necessarily have were good combination. Let's try this out. So we have really different roles and we respect each other's roles, which I think is like the key to success when working with your partner, but we never have real separation. We're always talking about work, but we both really love it. So it's okay. I love that story so much. You gotta go out and get what you want. Exactly. That's the last question for you here. Obviously, you know, it's just wedding season all the time. It seems like, especially for women in our age group. So what are some of the biggest trends and engagement rings that you're seeing right now right now? I think for the past couple of years, ovals have been like the hottest shape. But since they've been so hot, we've been seeing a lot of elongated cushion cuts, really more like finger flattering, um, elongated shapes have been really popular. We've seen a lot of anti cuts like old Europeans and old minds. People are looking for something that's classic, but a little bit different than what everyone else has. And we've seen a huge spike in yellow gold in the recent years. I think that has been a huge trend as well. Olivia. Thank you so much for your time today. This is such a fun conversation, So much for having me. Yeah, that's Olivia, Landau Ceo and founder of the Clear Cut.