Daily Inspiration: Meet Jessie Taylor

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jessie Taylor.

Hi Jessie, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
Hi! My name is Jessie Taylor — I’m from Santa Rosa Beach, FL, and I started Reshelled three years ago.

I’ve always been beach and shell obsessed, but Reshelled was created after an amazing trip to St. Barths. Here’s the story.

Upon returning from an amazing trip to St. Barth’s, I needed a hostess gift. Shell jewelry was beginning to have a moment, and as a self-proclaimed “beach girl,” I spent time collecting shells while on the trip.

I did a little research, bought a drill and some earring posts, and got to work. By the end of the week, the hostess had shell earrings straight from the beach at Shellona in St. Barths. She loved them, as did my personal Instagram followers.

I started making shell jewelry for friends and family, then eventually got orders from people that I didn’t know. The next step was to create an Instagram specifically for Reshelled, with a website following a few months after.

Things were going well for Reshelled, with a handful of orders coming in monthly — I had also done wholesale orders for several shops along 30A. Fast forward to Landyn Hutchinson (@livingwithlandyn) buying what would turn into “The Landyn Necklace” while she was in Florida.

I couldn’t have gotten luckier as Landyn is a true gem of a human. My mom’s friend sent me her Instagram story (looking for the brand of the shell necklace she had purchased). We connected, and then Landyn offered to share the necklace with a discount code for her followers who were awaiting a link.

My phone was going crazy in my purse after Landyn posted. I ended up with several thousand new followers and 750+ orders, many of which were for multiple pieces. I still meet people to this day who bought because of Landyn. I can’t say enough good things about her and her community — women supporting women is invaluable.

After Landyn, the brand steadily grew. I’ve spent many hours finding and messaging influencers who fit with my vision of Reshelled as a brand. This influencer strategy is how Reshelled has grown completely organically over the past three years.

Growing Reshelled has been challenging and incredibly rewarding — I’m excited to continue the adventure!

We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I love this question. Growing Reshelled has been a smooth but windy road — there have been extremely long nights (and months), and of course, bi-weekly meltdowns. Overall, the journey has been positive and rewarding, with tons of personal growth.

Growing any brand is an uphill battle, but for me specifically, the biggest challenge has been running Reshelled alone. Of course, my husband and my mom are super supportive and help out often, but I don’t have a co-founder or any employees.

My preferred style of decision-making and problem-solving involves bouncing ideas off of other people, so navigating on my own has been a learning curve.

In the previous section, I mentioned receiving 750+ orders. At that time, I had barely any jewelry supplies, I was using random boxes to ship orders, and I didn’t even think I had a label printer. When the orders started rolling in, I had two days before I was leaving for a two-week work trip to Europe for my full-time job.

The whole time I was gone, I was doing customer service, managing all the new social media interactions, and ordering supplies. It was wild.

Getting every single order sent out in time for Christmas is one of those moments that sticks out to me. I’ve never been more proud of myself and my work ethic.

Of course, there are normal day-to-day challenges as well — people say that to build a successful brand, you have to be delusional in your faith that it’s going to work out. One day, I’ll be questioning everything, then the next something good will happen and I’m back to being confident in my path.

The highs and lows are completely worth it — having my brand is a dream.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar, what can you tell them about what you do?
Before Reshelled, I worked in marketing for nine years. I’ve always loved social media and content marketing, which has made the transition to running Reshelled’s marketing pretty smooth.

Reshelled is a jewelry company specializing in shell jewelry. I’m also currently in the works with a manufacturer to start expanding my product lines, which I’m super excited about.

I’m incredibly proud of my journey with Reshelled thus far. Most businesses don’t make it past one year, and I’m about to start year four. Navigating the windy road and working through challenges makes me happy.

I knew right away that I needed to have amazing content. I’ve worked with my great friend, Savannah Young, from Savvibelle Photography to capture Reshelled beautifully. We’ve done shoots on 30A, in Santa Teresa, Costa Rica, and most recently in Turks and Caicos. I know that those photoshoots help to make the brand easy to “follow” on Instagram.

Thanks to my marketing background and personal love for social media, Reshelled has a solid presence online. I’m proud of the brand I’ve built by working with other women on photoshoots, collaborations, pop-ups, giveaways, and much more.

What matters most to you? Why?

Supporting other women and working together has been one of the most joyful parts of starting Reshelled. Without my friends, other women-owned businesses, and female influencers being selfless and supportive, Reshelled wouldn’t be as far along as it is now.

Anytime I get the chance to connect people who I think could create magic together, I jump all over it. My brain is constantly coming up with marketing plays and ideas — I always try to see them through, especially if it’s encouraging or assisting another woman.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.reshelledjewelry.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/reshelledjewelry
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ReshelledJewelry/
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@reshelledjewelry

Image Credits
Savvibelle Photography