IAM633- Entrepreneur Runs Online Jewelry Marketplace

A sought-after international speaker, leader, and qualified IBM Blockchain Developer, winning numerous awards including Asian Women of Achievement, Female Entrepreneur of The Year, and Top 100 European Digital Pioneer by The Financial Times and Google. In 2018 Sukhi made global headlines becoming the World’s First #1 Bestselling ‘Blockchain’ Author.

• CEO Hack: I write down my top three goals and stick the Post-it-note on my laptop to serve as a constant reminder
• CEO Nugget: There's always a way. Just find the one that's open to you
• CEO Defined: Being a leader, driving a change with a team(servant leadership)

Website: http://www.marketorders.net/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Market_Orders
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/marketordersofficial/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/market_orders/?hl=en
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sukhijutla/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/market-orders/

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Transcription

 

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Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:29

Hello. Hello. Hello, this is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today i have Sukhi Jutla of marketorders.net Sukhi, and it's awesome to have you on the show.

Sukhi Jutla 0:39

Gresham, thank you so much for having me having me here. And I'm really excited to have a really interesting conversation.

Gresham Harkless 0:44

Yeah, absolutely. This is gonna be loads of fun. We got to connect a little bit and put a voice to her name, as we've been corresponding. But before we jump in, I want to read a little bit more about Sukhi, so you hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. And she's a sought-after international speaker, leader, and qualified IBM blockchain developer. She's won numerous awards, including Asian Women of Achievement, Female Entrepreneur of the Year, and top 100 on European Digital Pioneer by the Financial Times and Google in 2018. Sookie made global headlines becoming the world's first number one best-selling blockchain author. Sukhi, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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Sukhi Jutla 1:17

I 100% am.

Gresham Harkless 1:19

Awesome, let's do it.

Sukhi Jutla 1:20

Let's go for it.

Gresham Harkless 1:21

Let's make it happen. So to get everything started, I want to hear I guess how everything got started. Can you take us a little bit more through your CEO story? And when did you get started with the business?

Sukhi Jutla 1:30

Yeah, absolutely. So you know Gresham, I always say I'm a bit of an accidental entrepreneur or an accidental CEO, I never set out to set my start my own business. And I never really thought I was, you know, business material. And I sort of followed the very traditional route that was expected of me from society. And I guess from my family, which was really to graduate from college and go to university, and then get a really nice flashy job at a really good bank. And then ideally, just stay there until I collect my pension. And actually, I was, I was happy with that plan. I thought that's what I wanted. But literally two weeks into starting my high-flying graduate job at a huge American investment bank, I just knew something in me just started to die. And I just knew, I just knew that this 95 rat race was not somewhere where I wanted to be.

And so that sort of started my entrepreneurial career, which actually lasted like 10 years until I had the courage to actually take the leap out of the 95 corporate structure and actually set out on my own. Because I think as well, the more sort of institutionalized you get when you get comfortable with, you know, working for someone else, and you're always going to get a pay slip coming in. And when you're working in the city in finance, and you're getting paid really well, as the years go by, it can be more scary to actually step away from that certainty and step into uncertainty. And human beings, we are not programmed to be okay with risk, we want to know what's happening. And we want to know, you know, where our income and where our food is gonna come from tomorrow.

So, over the 10 years, when I was still working for a number of different banks, I was always trying to figure out what sorts of things I could do, because I felt so frustrated that I was working at a job that just didn't really fulfill me. And I do believe that at a deeper level, there does come a moment when, you know, having the cars and having the nice apartment and being paid really well. And being able to eat at fancy restaurants, there's only a certain amount of, you know, sort of satisfaction that brings you, and I had got to a point in my life where, you know, it was picture perfect. I was earning over a six-figure income. And all of that money I was spending on myself, you know because I didn't have any dependents. So I had loads of shoes and handbags, and all that kind of all that kind of stuff.

And then I just knew this wasn't where I wanted to be. And you know, when I was like 40, or 50 years old, I couldn't see myself still sitting at a desk and working for someone else. So over the last 10 years, actually, I started to experiment with different business ideas. And at that time, I didn't really think of it as a business idea. It was it was more about following my curiosity and following my strengths and my passions. And I ended up authoring three books in two years. And that was really because I'm a huge reader. And it's always been one of my life goals to write a book. And on the back of that, I set up my own publishing company. And so I started to write a number of books.

And it's only when I actually started to do it that I realized that that again, wasn't something I wanted to do for the long term. So I always say to people that when you're really trying to figure out what you want to do with your life, it's completely different when you're on the other side and you're just hypothesizing and planning stuff. The real nuggets of gold are when you actually jump in, and you start experimenting and doing things because sometimes the grass doesn't greener on the other side, and I thought I would be like JK Rowling, I would publish all these books, and I'd be a billionaire. And literally after my third book, I was like, I cannot write any more books.

And so I think it's so important and really crucial to remember that as human beings, we've got so many different components in us. And we don't just have to be this one persona. And just, you know, try to be this one thing. So when I tell people about my journey to market orders, this is actually my sixth business over the last five years. This is my third iteration, my third attempt at building a business within the jewelry space. I've had a publishing company that didn't work out. I also had a life coaching business that didn't go the way I planned. I also ran my own financial consultancy for a number of years. But I always say none of them were failures at all. It was just feedback, which helped me get to the next step.

Gresham Harkless 6:03

Absolutely. No, I love that. And I appreciate you for talking about that. And I, you know, definitely kudos to you for having the courage to be able to make that, you know, change after 10 years. And I think that there might be people listening to this that are still maybe 12-13-14-20 years in that same job where they don't really like it, or they don't, it doesn't really fulfill them, but being able to have the courage to be able to make that decision. But to take it even a step further. I mean, I think that sometimes we can get fearful over not continuing to try things that continue to test things out and iterate and ignore the fact that one, you know, things change in our lives, we change as well, too.

And not paying attention to that. But I appreciate you for talking about that. I appreciate you for doing that even more because that kind of reminds us of not, it's not always as bad as sometimes we think it is if we try something new. And I think you've been able to do that has been phenomenal. As far as a reminder, reminding us of that. So I wanted to ask you kind of I guess, a two-part question. So I want to ask you a little bit more about market order. So I can hear a little bit more about what you're doing there. And then what do you think is kind of like your secret sauce? So the thing you feel like either sets you apart, or maybe even your organization as a whole?

Sukhi Jutla 7:06

Sure. So with market orders, we are essentially an online digital marketplace. And we allow independent jewelers on the high street to log online or go to our domain marketorders.net. And from there, they're able to basically view, you know, the number of different products that we have. And they're able to order their products directly from suppliers because we deal directly with suppliers. And by going direct, we're able to basically eliminate the distributors and the wholesalers. So we're able to get competitive products and prices for the high street jewelers. Now this might sound really basic and simple. And it is a basic and simple concept. Because you know Gresham, you wouldn't believe it. But in the golden diamond jewelry industry, like there's a tiny tiny percentage of transactions are occurring online.

Most of the transactions are happening face-to-face, in-store, and in person. The good thing about this is when you want to buy something special, and normally when you're purchasing jewelry, it's either a special gift for yourself or it's for someone you care about. So there's always an emotion tied in with jewelry. And when you walk into a store, the customer is already ready to spend a significant amount of money on this particular piece of item. So customer wants assurance from the shop owner that what they're buying is actually legitimate and it's authentic. And if you're really buying a 10-carat diamond ring, you want to make sure it's a 10-carat diamond ring.

Gresham Harkless 8:35

Right.

Sukhi Jutla 8:35

And what we found is many players in this ecosystem and industry are very fearful and very worried about purchasing these high-value items online. And that's simply because there are just so many different participants and if they trust its availability, so what we've done with market orders is we are positioning ourselves as a go-to trusted leader whereby any high street jeweler who's like, you know, they struggle basically Gresham to get the products they need because if you're a small shop owner, you cannot benefit from purchasing power that the bigger guys have. So if you think about De Beers, they have like a huge monopoly over diamonds, you know, they own the distribution, they own the mining.

So they're able to buy things in bulk and then distribute it to all their stores around the world. But if you it is hard hard-working, family-owned business, day in and day out, you're really struggling. And you're competing now, not just against the jewelers in the next town. You're competing against other online e-commerce outlets that are actually, you know, five or six steps ahead of you and they're using digital technologies to actually get to more customers. So with market orders, what we're really doing is we're helping and championing small independent jewelers and helping them to access you know, the best products at way better prices.

And we're able to do that because we're able to aggregate smaller aggregate orders from multiple different customers and we send that law on order to the supplier who is able to give us a bulk discount because we're able to bring volume to them. So it's kind of like an Alibaba or an Amazon, but it's specifically geared for the golden diamond industry. And what we're really doing is, you know, I always tell people, I don't sell gold and diamonds, I actually my business is in the business of selling trust, our customers come to us because they know, when they place an order for 10,000 pounds worth of 22-carat gold, gold jewelry, it's going to be 22 carats, and it's not going to be mixed metals or you know, something that they cannot sell.

So we're really positioning ourselves as a technology-enabled company. And, you know, another analogy I like to use is with Uber for the golden diamond industry, because essentially what we're doing is we're matching supply and demand but doing it digitally, because when you don't have digital processes, nothing is online, so you can't track or trace anything. So we're really matching supply and demand, helping suppliers get the orders they need, and helping the retailers access the products they need at cheaper prices.

Gresham Harkless 11:03

Yeah, that makes so much sense. I appreciate you for breaking that down so much. And as you were saying that I was thinking of Uber or Lyft. Because often when you get into somebody's car, you don't really know that but you trust it because you trust Uber, you trust living trust these companies that have developed that trust. And I appreciate you for doing that and breaking this down because I had no idea about that. But it makes so much sense, as you're making such a big order, you have to really trust whoever you're buying it from that they will actually let you actually get what you're actually paying for. So that makes so much sense. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit. And I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So that could be like an apple book or habit that you have. But what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

Sukhi Jutla 11:41

Okay, so great question, when I started on this entrepreneurial journey, I literally Googled, like every productivity app, I could get my hands on, and I use every single one. And to my utter dismay, nothing worked. However, I do have a great hack, and it is my home humble, post-it note. And the funniest thing is for someone who really works in digital, you know, technologies and stuff like that, what I found is the best way for me to actually be productive is to actually write down my top three goals. And then I stick this note, this post-it note on my laptop. And those serve as a constant reminder as to what my top three priorities are. Because when you're running a business, you've got so many people trying to pull your attention in other directions. And I always say, my inbox is just a box of requests from other people.

Gresham Harkless 12:31

Right.

Sukhi Jutla 12:33

Yeah, and I'm the only one who would like to push my business forward. And I know what needs to be done. So I have to stay true to those things.

Gresham Harkless 12:41

I definitely appreciate that. So I wanted to ask you now for what I call a CEO nugget. And now you might have already touched on this, but what's something you might tell a client or you might even tell your younger business self?

Sukhi Jutla 12:52

Okay, I think what I tell my younger business self is there's always a way. And before and this is even when I was working in the corporate world, I used to look at people like Tim Ferriss was, you know, a bit of a hero for me, I used to, you know, four-hour work week, and all that kind of thing. And I used to always think that when I stepped out of my day job, the very next day, I had to become this, you know, very successful CEO running this multi-million-pound business. And it had to happen instantly. But now what I understand is there are many different pathways to where you want to get to, and you just have to embrace the pathway that's open to you, because it's going to be very unique to you. And you don't have to follow someone else's script or someone else's path.

Gresham Harkless 13:36

I appreciate you for telling us and reminding us of that. So now I want to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different, quote-unquote, CEOs on this show. So you can what does being a CEO mean to you?

Sukhi Jutla 13:48

What a great question. I think for me, being a CEO means being a leader, but also driving change, and doing that with a team. So I always call it servant leadership, you're driving change, but you're at the back, and you've got your team in front of you. And you're just cheering them on because they are the ones who are like the legs to you. They're going to help you make it happen. So I would say being a CEO is about servant leadership and influence.

Gresham Harkless 14:13

Absolutely. I love that. And I think so many times, we can get lost in the day-to-day mundane tasks or fires that we're always putting out. It seems like that we forget why we're doing exactly what we're doing to kind of see you know, a team member, or even a client to have that successful process or they reach their goal is sometimes one of the most fulfilling things of why we do exactly what it is that we do. And that helps us to be successful as well, too. So I definitely appreciate that perspective and appreciate your time even more. What I wanted to do is pass you the mic so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you can let our readers and listeners know and then of course, how best they can get a hold of you and find out about all the awesome things you guys are working on.

Sukhi Jutla 14:47

Sure. So it's been an absolute pleasure to speak to you Gresham, I know we've interacted on the interwebs online and you know I've had a couple of articles published on CEO Blog Nation as well. So thank you, and just want to say thanks for all you do, I do read loads of articles on your site, and I think it's just, it's really personable, it's real life, people talking about the challenges. And what I love is, you know, we're all in this together, we don't have to know the answers. And I sometimes think the most powerful words you can say is, I don't know, and put your hand up and say, I need help.

So we're all in this together. And I just, I just want to say, I'm so proud of everyone out there who just strives to build what they want, and they follow, they have the courage to follow their passions and their strengths. So if you're out there, you know, in the trenches, know that we're with you. And just keep going. And if you'd like to connect, I'm on all social media channels, LinkedIn, and the usual places. And if you'd like to check out market orders, and how we're helping independent jewelry retailers, you can go to marketorders.net.

Gresham Harkless 15:48

Awesome, awesome, awesome, we will definitely have those links and information in the show notes. And I definitely appreciate you for telling your story. I think anytime someone, you know, gives the opportunity to tell their story and talk about what they what they've done, it helps us feel closer, and we feel like we're not alone. And as you said, and as we talked about. Sometimes when you're doing your own path and doing your own thing, it can be extremely lonely, but knowing that you're not alone, you're not by yourself. You're not the only one that's having a bad day or a bad week. That gives us power and community. And I think it helps us to continue on to march on so as to reach our goals and fulfill those aspirations we have.

Sukhi Jutla 16:17

Absolutely.

Gresham Harkless 16:18

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Well, thank you so much again, Sukhi, I appreciate you and I hope you have a great rest of the day.

Outro 16:22

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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