The Macallan Meet Your Heroes x Shivana Pemberton
BY SOPHIE CHUNG
Co-Founder and Marketing Director, Four Words
25 - JUL - 2024
Leaving the law to lead a life full of diamonds.
Shivana Pemberton is a classic entrepreneur. Like many successful business owners who have failed forward into the arms of success, she has an abundance of experiences and learnings to draw from. As a human, she’s relentlessly positive, empathetic, curious and has a kindness that is so rare to find in a society that is riddled with the green monster brewed from social media’s compare and despair syndrome.
But what really makes her my kind of person is her honesty. This is precisely why I asked Shivana to be on the panel for our The Macallan ‘Meet Your Heroes’ event. I’ve been to a fair share of summits, conferences and networking events and while I find myself inspired and motivated at most of these events, I found that the main thing that gave me the ick repeatedly was the dishonesty when it comes to storytelling. You’ll either find that a speaker will glamorise their story or be guarded with the same cookie cutter answers that don’t add any value to anyone’s life. We’re all craving authenticity - we don’t need to add anymore white noise.
What I want to foster with personal desperation is an open arms community of reliable women who will back each other up and share their real stories with each other. No gatekeeping allowed. That’s what ‘Meet Your Heroes’ is all about. And Shivana is someone who has the natural confidence and openness to provide information and advice like a nurturing sister.
By the end of this interview, I know that you will be able to take something away that is beneficial to you. Whether it’s the nudge to leave the job you hate, how to manage your time as an SME owner who wears all the hats, or the realisation of where you may be in the emotional cycle of change, there’s a nugget of wisdom that will resonate with you to your core.
What are your passions, purpose in life and how do you balance or utilise the two?
Simply put, my passion lies in making things and being creative. I see my purpose as making things that are meaningful to people. I feel like I have a lot to share, and I want to share this with as many people as possible.
Figuring out and understanding what your true passion is, is often easier said than done. For me, I didn’t really understand my passion until I was in my mid-20s. Once I had this understanding, I tried to figure out a way I could utilise my passion and turn it into something productive.
I’m really blessed to now be on a path where I get to make things everyday, and in making those things, I’m able to drive meaningful value to our customers and the growth of our business.
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
My answer to this isn’t one physical achievement as such, it’s more a realisation that has acted as a catalyst for the milestones I’ve reached.
This was realising that I can actually control what happens to me and my opportunities - understanding myself, what I enjoy and what drives me, and then realising that I can control the opportunities that allow me to do that.
The first notable example of this was when I was a lawyer, which was my first ‘big girl’ job out of university. I hated it. I was miserable, and for the first time I found myself in an environment which day by day was eating away at my sense of self. Not only this, but I saw the path ahead of me and genuinely felt horrified by how my life could take shape. Despite this, I honestly didn’t even think that leaving was an option. I had only been with the firm for 1 year and 9 months, and leaving before the 2 year mark meant I had to pay back $4,000 (as the firm had paid for my Profs). I had people telling me that it would get better, being a lawyer gives you security, and that the years and money I had already spent carving out this career can’t just go to waste.
When I actually realised I had the power to take control of the situation (which I know sounds so obvious and simple, but when you’re in the thick of it sometimes it’s just not!), it was SO freeing. To this day, resigning when I did has been one of the best and most impactful decisions of my life.
Understanding that I can control what happens to me, has totally transformed my approach to life.
"Conflict and despair is expected and when it happens, you should welcome it."
From being a lawyer to owning a custom jewellery design company, how did that come about?
I was only a lawyer for just shy of 2 years. As we know, I hated it haha, and I ended up moving into a couple other roles after that, and eventually transitioned into a General Manager role for an Events start up before I went to work on Four Words full time.
On the side, since leaving the law, I had the energy to unlock my creativity and also unlock an entrepreneurial side. Fashion and personal style has always been the main channel for me and my creativity, so I started posting fashion content, and I started a personal styling business within the first 6 months of leaving. This business did not do well haha. But it was my first taste of owning and building something.
It wasn’t until a couple years later when my now husband was looking to propose. He wanted to do so with a lab grown diamond - he was super early to lab diamonds. He struggled finding a jeweller in NZ who knew about them and was willing to work with them.
After our engagement, we looked at the search hits for lab grown diamonds in New Zealand - it was actually popping off. The fact no one was specialising in them at the time was like a huge, “whoa, there could be something here.” We also recognised that content and commerce was merging, and saw that no one else in the jewellery industry was leveraging this - the fine jewellery industry can be kind of mystical and pretentious. So, we decided to make it not like that, and now we’re here!
Before I interviewed you, I had all sorts of misconceptions about the lab grown industry. But now, I think it’s a no-brainer to choose lab-grown over mined and I can’t wait to create a custom design with you. What are the opportunities and the hardships you face as someone who has a business in a relatively untapped industry?
When it came to hardships and challenges, one was definitely around education. Our marketing and sales approach was very much focused on education - educating consumers on what lab grown diamonds were and their related benefits when compared to natural diamonds.
Another big one was it was actually hard to find good production partners, and get our supply chain sorted. It was hard to know who to work with and because we were so small and many turned their noses up at lab diamonds, no one wanted to work with us.
It’s funny because most of the time the challenge is in getting customers, but for us, there were already people wanting to buy lab grown diamonds. It was the industry that wasn’t willing to work with them.
This made us reach further and find others who were also at the forefront of the industry. We worked hard to nurture those relationships. Now, as lab grown diamonds have become more widely offered, we can confidently say we have one of the best supply chains. Our production partners are core pillars in our business.
The key opportunity was the opportunity to control the conversation. No one else was talking about lab grown diamonds, so we saw this as an opportunity to become the authority and default source. We set the standards on how they were sold, pricing, quality and grading. We also had this opportunity to approach the fine jewellery industry with a fresh perspective, break down the pretentiousness and make it approachable.
Would you care to explain how being lab-grown still counts as ‘real’ and why it’s the better option on all fronts?
Lab grown diamonds are physically, optically and atomically exactly the same as a natural diamond. They are a real diamond. Not even trained gemologists can tell the difference. The only difference between natural and lab is how they’re made.
An example we leaned on a lot at the beginning which seemed to resonate, was it’s like comparing ice from Antarctica, and ice that’s made in your freezer. One occurs naturally, the other is made. But, there’s no denying that both are ice.
In terms of key advantages, this comes down to sustainability and price. When buying most things, it is often the case that you have to choose between quality, price and sustainability. What is high quality and sustainable is often more expensive and what is sustainable and cheaper is often lower quality. Lab grown diamonds are one of those rare things which are higher in quality, better priced (around 40% the cost), and more sustainable than their mined alternatives.
You juggle so many roles in your business alongside your own social media - which is so very time consuming. What is the secret to your time management as someone who has to wear most of the hats?
I’m not sure that I do have the best time management haha. But I’ll talk about a couple specific things I do to try to keep myself on track.
A massive part of what I do for our business is content. It’s my key focus - content has become a weapon for us and is something we take very seriously. The key planning tool I use here is Notion.
I’m a very visual person, so when it comes to managing my time and tasks, it helps if I make it visual. In Notion, I chuck all my content ideas into a Kanban board, so each idea becomes an actionable to-do. As I write scripts, film, edit and post each idea, those cards move through the board so I can visually see exactly what’s outstanding, what has been published and so forth. On my work from home days (which is usually 2 days a week), I write all my scripts so that I can productively film and edit in bulk when I’m in the office.
On a day to day basis, I time block based on when I’m most and least productive. Mornings and early evenings are super productive for me, so I like to isolate those times for any project work, or strategic planning. In the middle chunk of the day when I feel like I can easily get distracted and motivation levels tend to dip, I do things like filming content, responding to emails and slack messages.
Then, when I’m being really diligent, I isolate at least 1 hour in the evenings to focus on Birdie which is my press on nails business.
One thing I’m sure any SME business owner reading this will resonate with, is as a business owner, you’re basically always working. There’s nothing wrong with that, as long as a) you’re looking after yourself, and b) you find the things in your business that give you energy and prioritise spending more time doing those things. That’s where you’re going to drive the most value. The things you don’t enjoy as much, you grind away at it at the beginning, and then outsource this as fast as you can.
A lot of business owners run their own social media pages. Where do you get the inspiration from for your Tik Tok and reel content?
My main source of inspiration comes from posts that do well. Once you start posting, you see what resonates, and you naturally will come up with more ideas. Just start and commit and the volume will come.
On this, one key thing I always try to think about is ok, so this video did well, how can I turn this same content into 10 more videos? Don’t be afraid to repurpose - especially when it comes to TikTok. TikTok is a hits driven business - if something does well, do that video again with perhaps a different hook or opening angle. It will get pushed to different people, and that’s how you can 10x one idea.
The other one is, I seek inspiration from what our customers value. When it comes to social media content, especially TikTok, you have to provide value. It’s so simple and obvious, but I see so many businesses not doing this. To be honest, it’s not even something I think I fully grasped at the beginning.
Understanding your customer, what their challenges are, and how you can problem solve for them is where you can provide value. This should inspire how you communicate to them. To truly understand what our customers value, I’ll do things like speak to our sales consultant and customers to understand what questions commonly come up. Sometimes I’ll stalk the comment section of other related posts online to see what kind of questions people are asking.
What is the fear you have when it comes to work?
As basic as it sounds, I think the ongoing fear is “is this investment going to be worth it, and will we have enough cash to meet next month’s payroll?”
More broadly, I’m scared about being mediocre.
I think it’s very rare to find successful people who aren’t a bit woo woo. What are your spiritual beliefs or practices? What do you read, who do you listen to or talk to, to keep you grounded?
I don’t really have a great answer for this as I wouldn’t call any of the things I do as particularly insightful or spiritually driven haha. In saying this, I believe in doing things that give you energy. For me, this comes in the form of both active and inactive routines.
One active example is I go to the gym every morning on Monday-Friday. I never miss, because I know that this starts my day right. It makes me feel motivated, energised, and fresh.
One inactive example is something as silly as watching reruns of my favourite shows while I eat. I hate the idea of working through lunch or ‘eating on the go.’ It doesn’t create a healthy mindset for me, and in my opinion there’s nothing better than eating something yum and watching Sex and the City haha.
Following on from this, in a more practical sense, what is a quote or mantra that you live by to keep yourself going?
Conflict and despair is expected and when it happens, you should welcome it.
There's this framework called the Emotional Cycle of Change, and when I learned about it, it totally changed how I perceive challenging situations.
The idea is, whenever you go through voluntary change, there are 5 stages - Uninformed Optimism, Informed Pessimism, The Valley of Despair, Informed Optimism, and Success & Fulfilment. Uninformed Optimism is when you start something new, and everything is exciting and you're so optimistic that everything will go to plan and be wonderful. You’ll then be greeted with Informed Pessimism, typically when you hit your first roadblock. You realise the path may not be as simple as you had thought.
Inevitably you arrive at the Valley of Despair, and this is the stage that really stuck out to me. It’s where most people quit, and is often referred to as rock bottom. In the Valley of Despair, everything sucks. Your situation feels too hard, and it feels like everything is working against you and not for you. If you push through, you’ll eventually reach Informed Optimism and Success & Fulfilment, which is where all the good stuff is.
Knowing that the Valley is inevitable, and knowing that it’s simply part of the journey, has helped me SO much. I embrace it and welcome it, as I know that if I just keep going I’ll manufacture a way out of it and I’ll be better off for it.
What are your green flags when meeting people?
I have two main ones:
The first is when a person has a sense of agency in their life. They do things to the world instead of believing that things happen to them.
The second is warmth and positivity. You don’t need to be an extrovert or an outwardly bubbly person, but I can tell when someone is positive and warm. I naturally just gravitate toward those people - conversation feels more organic and is generally more interesting, and I get energy from these people (as opposed to them draining my energy).
What is the trait you most deplore in yourself? And what is the trait you most deplore in others?
The trait I most deplore in myself, is my tendency to overthink things. I hate the fact that I find myself overthinking the most trivial thing. I know that it’s a waste of energy, but I do it anyway.
The trait I most deplore in others, is when someone has a habit of constantly complaining about the same thing, without taking any action to fix it.
Best advice you’ve been given?
Don’t take advice from people who aren’t where you want to be.
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