IAM1153- Founder Trades Naturally Coloured Gemstones

Dr. Thomas Schröck is a serial entrepreneur with a doctorate in Economics and a degree in Gemology. He is the founder and managing director of The Natural Gem which is a trader of naturally colored gemstones, an NLP Master practitioner, and is running a company called C10Plus Consulting, and in May 2021 he released the 3rd edition of his book “Investment in Gemstones” which is being translated for the English-speaking market. His companies are headquartered in Vienna, Austria, and due to his and TNG´s aspirations of informing the English-speaking world about the benefits of gemstone investment we are hoping that a podcast appearance would help to expand TNG´s brand.

• CEO Hack: Having a clean desk, communicating with others, and doing what's important immediately
• CEO Nugget: (i) Satisfaction is everything (ii) Build solid foundational principles (iii) A business plan changes with time
• CEO Defined: Connecting people and managing the internal processes of your company

Website: https://thenaturalgem.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomasschroeck/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_natural_gem/

Book on Amazon: Investieren in Edelsteine

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Transcription

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00:18 – Intro

Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresh values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

00:46 – Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO Podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Thomas Shoruk of the Natural Gym. Thomas, it's great to have you on the show. Thank you very much. Nice to meet you. Nice to be here to meet you as well as su you on. Before we ju I want to read a little bit more about Thomas so you can hear about all the awesome things that he's doing Dr. Thomas is a serial entrepreneur with a doctorate in economics and a degree in gemmology He is the founder and managing director of the natural gym, which is a trader of natural colored gemstones An NLP master practitioner is running a company called C10 Plus Consulting.

In May 2021, he released the third edition of his book, Investments in Gemstone, which is translated for the English-speaking market. His company's headquarters is in Vienna, Austria. Due to his and TNG's aspirations of informing the English-speaking world about the benefits of Gemstone investment, we were hoping that a podcast like this parents would help expand TNG's brand. So you are in the right space, Dr. Thomas. Great to have you on the show. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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01:44 – Dr. Thomas Schröck

Thank you. I'm fine. I'm happy to be here. It's, I'm a CEO. Well, I like to be it.

01:51 – Gresham Harkless

Yes, absolutely. I want to kick everything off here on how you ended up becoming a CEO and hear a little bit more about what I like to call your CEO story. We'll let you get started with all the awesome things you're working on.

02:02 – Dr. Thomas Schröck

Well, gemstones, I have dealt with all my life. I started collecting gemstones by the age of 8, started to cut gemstones by the age of 12, and opened my first shop by the age of 20, now I'm 50, and I have done what I have done for more than 30 years now. Well, that's it. Till the financial crisis of 2008, we mainly traded jewelry and we traded collector stones. From the financial crisis of 2008, we started selling investment stones, you named them, natural color, which means not treated, not heated. I think we are the leading trader in middle Europe at the moment in this area. It's a small niche of alternative investments. Well, I think the total market per year is $5 billion around the world. Yeah, there are some competitors, but we enjoy being the biggest here.

02:58 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, well, no, I appreciate you for sharing that. Especially hearing that it's, for lack of a better term, sounds like a life passion that you've poured yourself into learning your craft and being able to kind of teach so many others to do it. For people that I guess aren't as maybe familiar with, you said an alternative investment in the gemstone peach. Could you tell us a little bit more about what gemstones are and how are such a great investment opportunity?

03:20 – Dr. Thomas Schröck

Well, there are 2 areas of gemstones in the world Diamonds or white diamonds are called the other ones are colored gemstones that are mostly rubies sapphires, and emeralds but there are also other stones like tanzanite, tourmaline, zeolite, and so on. The most famous ones are ruby sapphires and emeralds, of course. Well, we specialize in discolored gemstones as the diamond, as the white diamond, hasn't brought any increase in value since 2008, whereas rubies, sapphires, and emeralds have an average increase of roughly 8% per year annually. So that's why we specialize in it.

The stones, go from 1 carat up because 1 carat or 0.2 grams is, if it's too small, it's not an investment stone. The specialty of our stones lies in their natural quality. Unlike most rubies available today, our stones are not treated in any way. Over 2000 years ago, people discovered that the color of rubies and sapphires could be enhanced through heat treatment. However, our stones remain untreated, making them truly unique. So mostly, we can say roughly 97% of all gemstones in the world are heated today. The small niche of 3% roughly is just natural stones.

That means the color of the inclusions of the stones are so nice, that they are just found in nature, just cut and polished and sold as they are. We specialize in this small niche because the increase in value is much higher for this niche. As you know, everything that is rare increases in value. So that's why we specialize in this niche and not going to the heated market because there's enough material in the world.

05:13 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah that makes so much sense and I think it gets back to you know when I introduced you know introducing you read about you know economics the idea of supply and demand and especially if there's a demand for something and there's a rarity of it, there's not that many around, and that's of course gonna increase the value. So I appreciate you breaking that down for us.

05:29 – Dr. Thomas Schröck

Well, there are in the world market, there are 2 driving factors at the moment you mentioned demand and supply. Supply is limited as the earth we know where to find stones today. That's mostly around the Himalayas which means the Asian countries that's East Africa and that's South America and on the other on the other hand side, there is a strong demand especially driven from Asia at the moment, especially China, Indonesia, and India, but also the US and Europe.

So, there are studies that gemstones in general are so-called superior goods in economics. That means if people get richer, the increase in demand is higher than the increase in GDP. So on the one hand side, it's a rare, it's a rare thing. On the other hand side, the demand grows worldwide. But that's why the prices are going up.

06:25 – Gresham Harkless

What would you consider to be what I like to call your secret sauce? This could be for yourself personally, the business, or a combination of both, but what do you feel kind of says you're part of McCheney? The secret, I would say love what you do and I love my business. Yeah, I like running around, see nice stones, buy nice stones, sell nice stones. Well, the second secret is good connections to sources around the world. In some of the countries, you can buy directly from the mines.

In other countries, due to problems with security safety, we have to use some brokers. So it's a combination. Also, you should find some people who like to do what you do. My employees, like my co-workers, they like what they do and it's a permanent improvement. How do you do your business? It doesn't matter if you do gemstones or another business. It's about improvement, it's about good relations with your customers and reacting in the right way to inquiries, to problems maybe. So build up satisfaction and confidence.

Yeah, that's absolutely huge. I appreciate you sharing that. The quote that was coming to mind is, find something you love to do. You never work a day in your life. As you said, if you're able to kind of lean into that personally, but you also have a great team around you that has that passion, that interest. It allows you to kind of, you know, be armed with learning and continue to kind of sharpen the saw and get better. But at the same time, it also helps you, like you said, through the day-to-day, in all aspects I imagine as well as the business and things that you have to juggle.

07:52 – Dr. Thomas Schröck

Absolutely. All the human factors are important. That's the thing, the human factor to your team and the human factor to the customers. Because usually, people do not buy just a product. If it is something, our product is something which has to be explained a little bit. It's not like buying a bottle of mineral water. It needs a lot of explanation. So honestly, we do not sell a product, we sell our service, we sell our face, we sell our people. If there is enough confidence, we are successful together with our customers and the team.

08:26 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. I think so many times I say often that we forget about the human aspect of business and we forget that we're in the people business. We learned that I think we're a little bit more aware of that when we're talking about our teams, but when you're supplying your clients, or helping them, or supporting them, or serving them, we also forget about that human aspect. But I think that's something really huge that we always gotta keep at the forefront and keep in mind. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

09:00 – Dr. Thomas Schröck

I like to have a clean desk, so you do not find anything on my desk in the evening. That's one thing. I want to do everything which is important immediately. I have not read that many books or so about how to be a CEO and how to lead, but in general I have my ideas, I have my education, and communication. So, well, it's all about communication with other people and about communication with myself, how I treat myself. Yeah.

09:30 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. I love that. So I wanted to ask you now for what I call CEO nugget. So this could be a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. It might be something you would tell your younger business self if you were to hop into a time machine or maybe you would recommend it to a client as well.

09:44 – Dr. Thomas Schröck

I would say if you're a CEO, look at your company, look at your liquidity. Yeah, there are a lot of good business plans in the world. There are a lot of good strategies in the world. But in the day-to-day business, for me, it's more important that the company runs well in case of it runs smoothly, that liquidity is okay. And in the long run, that the business plan is okay. Sometimes it's more important to satisfy your customers than to make money. But in the long run, we all want to make money. But in the short run, satisfaction is everything.

10:17 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. I think that as you build a business and as I like to often say like run the marathon, you start to realize that you don't run the marathon the first mile, the first day, the first week, you run the marathon over time. So a lot of times making sure that you are building those solid foundational principles, like you said, serving your clients, making sure that they're okay, allows you to be able to kind of run long-term. Then I love that liquidity part as well too, because I think so many times when you're doing any type of investments, you also have to realize or keep in mind like when you'll be able to potentially get that investment out. So it's always something that you want to kind of keep top of mind.

10:48 – Dr. Thomas Schröck

Absolutely. There's one more point. If we look at the business plan, we should know that the business plan is just at the moment and it will change all the time. It's not something you build a business plan for 3 years or for 4 years. But in general, usually, conditions change maybe each and every year. So it's a starting point, but nothing, which is just put into stone.

11:11 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. Make sure you write it in pencil. That's for sure. Cause like, as we, we were recognizing the limit through now, there are some things that just kind of change and can disrupt so many different aspects. So it's so important to make sure that you pivot and realize that the business lesson might be something that's not set in stone and something you have to pivot and change.

11:28 – Dr. Thomas Schröck

Right, absolutely right. Flexibility is the key to it. To react to situations that can change. You know, COVID was an interesting challenge for all of us, I think. For us, it was, well, in economic conditions, it was very good because there was a shift to alternative investments. So our business increased, it didn't decrease, not one moment. But it was an interesting point to adjust our business culture and the way how we do business because our supply chains, supply chain, they collapsed at a certain moment as COVID hit all of us around the world.

12:09 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. I think so many times we forget that you know, obviously, during something like COVID and, you know, pandemics, obviously, they're, you know, to the extreme, a lot of times, but we always have those disruptions, those changes within our industry, sometimes within our life. Looking at those as an opportunity to kind of reevaluate things, as you said, so well is huge. I think it's something that, another great nugget to kind of keep in mind whenever those certain things happen.

12:33 – Dr. Thomas Schröck

Absolutely. Well, I think the world will run and change faster in the future. The companies will survive and can adapt very fast to these changes. We do not know how our business will, our industries, as you mentioned, will look after some years. Maybe it changes more into environmental issues. Maybe it changes more in the direction of safety issues. It can also be that some businesses or some industries will not exist anymore. So this change is faster than the centuries or yeah the centuries before.

13:09 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah absolutely it's happened at an extremely rapid you know pace and that's why it's so important I think too and that's why I love you know everything that you're doing is having that knowledge and that information because being very knowledgeable about your industry doesn't guarantee success, but I feel like it increases the likelihood of being successful because you know those changes, you're paying attention to those shifts and what might happen. If you have a good understanding, okay, if this happens, then I'll do X, Y, and Z, or if this happens, I'll do A, B, and C, then it allows you to be a lot more prepared for those shifts and those transitions that sometimes happen.

13:39 – Dr. Thomas Schröck

Absolutely, that's absolutely right. I love to look into the history, what happened to big companies, what happened in the 19th century, and in the 20th century, how they adapted, how they used shifts, or how they missed shifts in the industry.

13:55 – Gresham Harkless

Yes, absolutely. What they say, is there's nothing new under the sun. So learning from history is the best way because history has a way of repeating itself, it seems, maybe in a different fashion, but usually, sometimes the same kind of story and theme we can kind of take away. So absolutely appreciate that. So I want to ask you now my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. We're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on the show. So Dr. Thomas, what does being a CEO mean to you?

14:20 – Dr. Thomas Schröck

Well, I think being a CEO means connecting people and managing the internal processes of your company. But mostly it's about connecting people internally and externally. That's for me being a senior.

14:35 – Gresham Harkless

Nice. I love that. I love the internal and external parts of that connection piece because that's something that's a big foundational principle for us. I think so many times we don't realize that when we're going throughout and building relationships and connections, that's really what it's kind of to me as well too, always about like being able to kind of serve your clients, but also serve your team and create those connections and those opportunities so that you can kind of grow and expand and go on that journey together.

14:56 – Dr. Thomas Schröck

Absolutely, because you are members of the team, they want to grow, they want to go somewhere. If we are the owners of the company, I'm not only the CEO, but I'm also the owner of 80% of the company. So it shall be in our focus to keep our team to keep it stable and give them opportunities to grow together with us.

15:16 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely, absolutely. Create those win, win, win, you know, scenarios, and then the rest is definitely history so Dr. Thomas truly appreciates that definition, I appreciate your time even more. What I wanted to do is just pass you the mic so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know. Of course, how best they can get ahold of you and find out about your book and all the awesome things you and your team are working on.

15:38 – Dr. Thomas Schröck

Well, there is not much more to say from my side. Just enjoy what you do and like what you do every day.

15:47 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. Absolutely. People who want to get ahold of you and get a copy of the book, what's the best way for them to do that?

15:52 – Dr. Thomas Schröck

Amazon. Not to make too much marketing for them, but yeah.

15:59 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Now that makes sense. To make it even easier, we'll definitely have the links and information in the show notes as well too, so that everybody can copy your book, and find out about all the awesome businesses you have and investments that you're doing as well. Truly appreciate you again for hopping in on this time and telling us a little bit more about what you do and the knowledge that you have. I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

16:19 – Outro