← Coffeez with Joe Shalaby
Coffeez with Joe Shalaby
Building a Legacy in Diamonds ft. Gabe & Danny Arik | Coffeez for Closers with Joe Shalaby
00:48:13
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- [00:00]
Joe
In this business, it's common to inherit a store. But Gabe and Danny, Eric, they inherited a legacy.
- [00:07]
Danny
And you can buy a million dollars with a product on a signature. You walk out with the product and you do terms afterwards.
- [00:13]
Joe
Built on their father's vision from Istanbul to la, Happy Jewelers is now one of the most respected names in the business. Not just because of what they sell, but because of how they treat people.
- [00:25]
Gabe
Our store is different again. People like to come into the store to shop for the experience.
- [00:31]
Joe
We talk, invent, inventory, immigration, legacy, risk, family, and what it means to stay grounded in a business obsessed with flash. From Rolex to Richard Mille, from third world hustle to worldwide luxury. Welcome to Coffees.
- [00:48]
Danny
Thank you for having us, Joe.
- [00:49]
Joe
Yeah, thank you guys for being on the show. I appreciate you guys both jumping on today. We're gonna just jump right into it. I like to start every show off the same way with every single owner. Guys, what's your morning routine? You probably have different ones. So four kids each?
- [01:01]
Gabe
Yeah, four kids each. I. I mean, obviously when it's during school time every morning I drop off all my kids, come home, hang out with the wife, go to the gym for a little bit and, you know, and then head into work and you.
- [01:17]
Joe
Get, you, you gotta get here early. You get here at 8 o' clock every day.
- [01:19]
Gabe
So you're. No, me and Danny get here a little bit later. I mean, after like, you know, we've been doing this for so many years, dude. So. So, like after 25 years being in the business, I get here at like 9:30 actually.
- [01:32]
Danny
But our day starts, you know, our day starts at like 6am Phone calls, emails.
- [01:37]
Joe
Yeah.
- [01:37]
Danny
Text messages, setting the whole crew up and everything like that. But yeah, I wake up, take the kids to school. I know it doesn't show, but I actually do work out.
- [01:45]
Gabe
We all have to, man.
- [01:47]
Joe
We're entrepreneurs.
- [01:48]
Danny
You know, you got to take care of your health. It's good for mental health too. You know what I mean? Not even for physical.
- [01:54]
Joe
So you guys have been doing this for 25 years now?
- [01:57]
Danny
25 years, yeah. But our family's been in the business for over 50 years, so we, we come from a manufacturing background, so my dad owned and operated a large manufacturing. Started in Turkey and then came to downtown LA. And then about 25 years ago, he founded Happy Jewelers because he wanted to get into the retail space. And that's when Gabe started that.
- [02:17]
Joe
Nice. Now Gabe, you guys have always been here, right? Right here?
- [02:20]
Gabe
Yeah, we always been in Fullerton. My uncles Had a couple of stores here in Fullerton, and they started their business in 1990. And then I. And I worked for my uncles in Fullerton and for my dad. And then in 2000, when I was 18 years old, I decided to open up my own shop, Happy Jewelers. That's when it got established. But me, I've been, you know, growing up since I was like, six, seven years old. I've been around jewelry and the business all my life.
- [02:54]
Joe
You both grew up in the business. Now, how do you know you're not just carrying the torch, but you're kind of like, rewriting the rules of jewelry?
- [03:01]
Gabe
You know, we're very blessed, me and Danny both. We work very hard. So a lot of people in the industry, they have a lot of respect for me and Danny and our family because, you know, reputation in the jewelry business is everything. And people like other jewelers around the world will always ask us, like, hey, you know, how do we like that? Been in business for longer and that are older than me and my brother, they're like, hey, like, they'll ask us for advice, and we always give them the best advice. And number one thing, I always tell them, like, hey, the success of Happy Jewelers is very importantly, people say, like, you know, definitely customer service and, you know, being presence on social media and having good inventory, that's very important.
- [03:52]
Joe
You guys are dominating the space when it comes to social media in comparison to your competitors. Who is it that, like, which one of you is the one who had the foresight to really just take social media by storm?
- [04:03]
Gabe
It was me. But now, like, Danny is the face on social media. Eight years ago. It was, like, eight years ago.
- [04:10]
Danny
It's funny because he, like, you know, we started doing, like, you know, social media posts, like, on Instagram and stuff like that. I'm like, dude, what is this? You know, and like, this guy got excited because, you know, one, two leads came from it. He sold a couple engagement rings. He's like, oh, my God, this is amazing. When I hired a whole crew, started, like, blasting it. But that's what makes us different. We're aggressive. Yeah. You know, when we see something happen, well, we're willing to take that risk. And that's what kind of sets us aside from other jewelers and other people in the space, you know, because in our business, inventory is key. Right. You have to have inventory, but to have inventory, you got to spend the money. You know, we're not. It's kind of hard to explain. It's not like any other business. You Want to. You want inventory. You know, a small little tray of goods can cost you, you know, 100 grand, 200 grand. To fill up a store, you need a few million dollars. And yeah, that's what kind of sets. Me and Gaba Parsons, we were young, we were always willing to take that risk, but we also worked hard behind it to kind of fulfill it and minimize that risk, essentially.
- [05:11]
Joe
So what is it that gave you that foresight to take those big risks? Like, you showed me a tranche of watches. Like, how do you know that that's gonna pencil out?
- [05:22]
Danny
We have confidence, you know, and we know what we're capable of.
- [05:27]
Gabe
Confidence. And also we.
- [05:29]
Danny
I mean, we're smart, obviously. I don't want to say we're smart. I shouldn't say that. I mean, we understand after being in the business for so long, we understand the space, we know what sells, we know at what price we have to buy the goods at. And we know the outlet to put it into. Because we have the outlet for. We have the customer base.
- [05:46]
Gabe
I mean, I think we have a great sales team. I mean our. We have a sales team of like 20. We have 20 people that are selling our product in store all day. And we ship worldwide, even though we have one store, but we really reach out to the whole country. We ship out about 150 to 200 boxes a day. Just. People will call us from New York, Florida, Iowa. Hey, I saw you on Instagram or I saw you, I watch you on YouTube. I'm looking for this watch, I mean, some watches, from 3,000 to million dollar watches. We're selling just over the phone. How can you do that? It's because of our credibility when, you know, I don't know, like, for me, if I was to buy a really, really high end piece just like, without even seeing it, you gotta really trust that person or that establishment that you're buying it from. I mean, it's crazy. Like, I would have never thought I could be selling like, you know, $300,000 watches to a guy in Idaho that's a big watch collector. He's looking for a paddock Nautilus. I mean, I'm not saying anything about the state of Idaho. It's just like, you can't really. Who's gonna have that paddock?
- [07:02]
Joe
Yeah.
- [07:02]
Gabe
So he has to do his research. He has to buy it from a reputable place, either from, you know, Southern California or, you know, New York or Florida. And people always choose us because of our presence online and because of our reviews online. And they just trust the name Happy Jewelers. If it comes from Happy, you know, the watch is going to be in perfect condition and the paperwork is going to be legit. It's, you know, it's a big deal when you're wiring $300,000 and then you're getting the watch in two days.
- [07:36]
Joe
This is a business of not just jewelry. This is like art. You know, people look at this like art. So what's like the biggest myth about this business that people don't really know because it seems like everyone wants to be a part of this. But what's, you know, what's the biggest myth you think that people should know?
- [07:52]
Gabe
Yeah, everybody wants to be a jeweler. Right? Like, they just, like, they all see all these.
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Joe
The glitz, the glamour.
- [07:58]
Gabe
Exactly. Celebrities. Yeah, Big chains. And like, everybody wants to become a part of it.
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Danny
It just.
- [08:04]
Gabe
It takes a lot of money. You know, we've been in business for 50 years. I mean, we, you know, we've been in Fullerton for 30 years, but we've been in the business for 50 years. You know, we're very, very blessed. Very. You know, we have money to back it up. Like, you can't just open up a jewelry store with a couple hundred thousand dollars. You know, it's very, very hard, obviously.
- [08:26]
Danny
Yeah, Money. I mean, you need the funds to be able to do it. But the jewelry and diamond business is one of the probably only businesses left that you can walk in and you can buy a million dollars worth of product on a signature, and you walk out with the product, and you do terms afterwards. You know, whether you paid in two months, three months, four months. So within the jewelry business, you have to have the backing of your suppliers, whether it's siteholders, whether it's this guy or that guy. If you don't have that, you know, like today, let's say you said, danny, you know, I'm looking for a ring. I need a half a million dollar stone, and I want two to three to pick from. Not any jewelry store is able to just bring in three, four stones for you in that size of that caliber just for you, for you to view. You have to have the name, you have to have the reputation, and you have to have the trust of the supplier to be able to send you that item on memo or consignment just for your client to see that reputation.
- [09:19]
Joe
And that brand authority you guys have established over decades. Yeah, decades. It didn't just happen overnight.
- [09:25]
Danny
No, not at all. I mean, sometimes it's like, you know, you have a client, he wants A million dollar stone or he wants a half a million dollar watch. But the guy wants to see it, right? Obviously, like, he doesn't want to spend a million dollars or he wants it, like we have the ability to bring that in because of our name. But that's because of. Yeah, you said decades of keeping your word.
- [09:45]
Joe
One thing I'm intrigued about is how the transition of COVID I mean, Covid, we saw watches double, triple in value. Now they're coming back down. How did that impact your business? Was it, you know, positive? Was it negative? Did it allow you guys to see a boom?
- [10:00]
Danny
It was a positive, of course, yeah. I mean, it was a positive when watches went up. But what a lot of people don't realize is within us dealers, that we were also paying big money to get that product in. So it's not like, you know, yeah, okay, we had the watch at 20 grand, we bought it at 20 grand, and we were selling it at whatever, 22,000, $23,000 before COVID And then that watch went up to 35, 40 grand within a year, year and a half. We didn't hold that inventory. We were selling that inventory and we're rebuying it. So it got to a point where sometimes it was a little frustrating because you would have a watch that you'd buy for 25,000, you sell it for 28, and then to replace it, it cost you 30.
- [10:36]
Joe
You know, like, the prices were moving, like housing, you know, they were just going up.
- [10:40]
Danny
It was crazy. I mean, it got to the point where sometimes, like, you would like. But my brother was like, you need to turn the inventory faster. You need to turn the inventory faster. I'm like, I don't really want to. Because by the time it sits there for a couple of days, by the time I bring it out, it went up 10 grand. So I'm like, what's the rush? You know, I mean, with us, that's.
- [10:57]
Gabe
Like the thing about, like, me and my brother and our team, we have a huge team, production team, watch team. You know, you buy an item, it doesn't matter. You buy it for 10 bucks and you sell it for 12 bucks. Our margins are very, very small, but we just move it. You know, I don't. We don't buy something for it to sit in the safe. You gotta buy it and sell it. And Covid, prices were going up, like every day. You, you know, you buy something for 10 bucks. You sell it for 12. You know, a month later, you were replacing for replacing it for 14. It was nuts. But our motto is to buy and sell, and that's it. But also, what we did after Covid, you know, prices were like, I don't know. Give. Let's give a good example. On a 5980 rose gold on a bracelet at the height, 450,000. We had a few that we were. We were stuck. Not stuck with. We. They were like, you know, that we owned. So we took a lot of big losses. A lot of the people in the industry, you know, they have money to back it up, but they didn't move it fast enough. You know, we took the loss. If something cost us 400,000 and it went down to 300, we're like, all right, we're going to reprice it 300, take the loss and just move it. Bring the money in. Just turn it and burn it. That's just the way it is.
- [12:14]
Joe
I didn't know that they collapsed like that.
- [12:15]
Gabe
Oh, huge. That 15, I think that's like the biggest. One of the biggest ones. How much is it right now? 160.
- [12:22]
Danny
There's an AP perpetual black ceramic skeleton that I. That I have right now that we're selling for about around 330 or 335,000. At the top of the market, that watch was 850,000. And people were buying it. Yeah, and people were buying it, and people were stocking it. Like, if I had that watch and let's say I paid 700 grand, a dealer would pay me 800 grand for that watch.
- [12:44]
Gabe
And what is it right now?
- [12:45]
Danny
Right now it's in the 330, 335 mark.
- [12:47]
Gabe
500.
- [12:48]
Joe
What do you think was the. Why was. Why did that happen?
- [12:51]
Danny
There was so much money. There was so much wealth built.
- [12:54]
Gabe
Yeah. And then also, like, crazy crypto, too.
- [12:56]
Danny
The crypto space, really, I mean, made overnight millionaires. I mean, some guys made tens of millions, Some guys made hundreds of millions. But also within businesses. Right. I'm sure you guys saw it, too, within your business.
- [13:06]
Joe
Yeah, we were surging like crazy.
- [13:08]
Danny
Yeah. I mean, Covid created wealth. Right before COVID to now. That hundred dollars is not the same. Hundred dollars?
- [13:15]
Joe
No.
- [13:16]
Danny
Right.
- [13:16]
Joe
And a hundred dollars, like 30 now.
- [13:18]
Danny
Yeah. So I think that's what created it. It is just money wasn't the same, you know, before COVID It's like you sold a $40,000 watch. You're like, wow, like hell. Yeah. Like, you give yourself a pat on the back. You know what I mean? Like, that was a good sale. Or like a $30,000 ring where during COVID It was just like, it was daily, you know, multiple times a day. 40, 50, 80, 90. It was like, almost like money wasn't real.
- [13:44]
Joe
Money lost its value during COVID Money lost its value.
- [13:47]
Danny
Yeah, right.
- [13:48]
Gabe
I mean, did you guys.
- [13:49]
Joe
Well, more history. We all know, boom. The rates went down two and a half percent.
- [13:53]
Gabe
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
- [13:54]
Joe
Money was free.
- [13:55]
Danny
Yeah.
- [13:56]
Joe
So with your dad starting the business, he started it in Istanbul. So, you know, he's. What. What is it from your dad's legacy that you guys kept sacred? And what is it that you guys.
- [14:05]
Gabe
Moved away from Me and my dad and Danny? What my dad taught us is, like, you know, to be very appreciative, be respectful, don't cheat anyone. Treat your employees like you would treat your family members. Take care of your employees and take care of your business. You know, be there every day. You know, in our industry, if you just, you know, open up a shop and you're not at the store taking care of it, it's not gonna work. You know, you gotta go to work. And me and Danny come to work every single day and deal with, you know, customers and deal with employees.
- [14:45]
Danny
I mean, if you're not there and you're not taking care of your business, nothing is going to succeed. And my dad used to always tell us that, you know, you want something to succeed, you have to be there. You have to put the effort into it. Because we've seen a lot of kids take over empires that now today aren't worth anything because they weren't there. They didn't take care of the business. It was just given to them. And, you know, they. They ate all the money and all the money's gone. So, I mean, I think that that's for any business, you know, you just got to take care of it. And it goes back to grade school, right? You treat others the way you want to be treated. There's no secret recipe to business. You know what I mean? Yeah, it takes a little bit of brains. It takes a little bit of being strategic. But at the end of the day, if you take care of people, that word is going to spread like wildfire. Right? You have a customer come in. You know, the other day, a guy came in yesterday and he bought a watch from la. And he came in for me to authenticate it, and I knew the person he bought it from. I took him in the back, I authenticated it for him. I sized his watch. The guy was so appreciative. And he asked me a question. He goes, why were you so nice to me? I didn't buy the watch from you. You didn't profit. You came in, you had a smile on your face. You're the. You're the business owner. I could see you have, like, 70 employees, and you're sitting here, you're talking to me, and you did all that stuff for free for me. I said, because, you know, when you walk out of here, you have that feeling. You're probably gonna tell 20 of your friends or whoever you talk to today, tomorrow, the next day, you're probably gonna be like, man, Happy Jewelers is the best. Happy Jewelers is the best. And I said, that's probably gonna bring me 15, 20 customers.
- [16:13]
Joe
Yeah.
- [16:13]
Danny
And over time, that builds. And from those 15, 20 customers, when they come and you take care of them, you have a smile on your face. Eventually you're gonna become successful. And that's any business. And that's what we took from my dad.
- [16:25]
Joe
Tradition is one thing. What have you guys changed from your dad's legacy?
- [16:29]
Gabe
Definitely, yeah. So, like, you know, me and dad. Me and. I feel like me and my brother took. Take bigger risks than my dad. I would hate to say it. Yeah, yeah. I mean, sometimes, like, he would come into the store because we still had the factory when he used to walk in, and, like, he was just always very proud of us. And whenever he used to see everybody, like, he's like, you know, because he's a Middle Eastern dad. You know what I mean? I'm sure, Joe, you have Middle Eastern dad. He's like, wow, so many employees. You know, you gotta, like, you know too much, you know, Right?
- [17:00]
Danny
Like, boys. He's like, with these boys, you never know. If I don't keep them grounded, they'll come home with a helicopter one day and they'll park it in front of the house and tell me, dad, it was a good deal. Don't worry, we're gonna make money.
- [17:12]
Joe
So now we've entered the A of AI and now there's AI Design in jewelry. Now, are you guys leveraging AI Design? Are you guys still doing, like, handcrafted craftsmanship? So. And how is AI changing the landscape of your business?
- [17:28]
Danny
Look, I know there are some jewelry companies out there that are using AI for us. We do all of our designs by cad, but it is by a person behind the camera doing it, because, I don't know, like, AI for the jewelry business and the watch business, like, even, like, you know, we have a website, a watch listed online, right? And a customer reaches out, we take that conversation off the web and we put it to one of our salespeople because it's a personal experience. Yeah, I don't see a computer being able to sell, you know, an engagement ring to somebody which I'm sure can it. I'm sure it can, but I just.
- [18:03]
Gabe
We haven't, you know, honestly, we haven't like used a lot of AI in our industry yet. It definitely, it's going to take over a lot of the industry, but it's going to be very difficult for the jewelry industry and the watch business. I just don't see how it could take it over.
- [18:19]
Danny
The value is in the hand making of the product. Right. And the craftsmanship of it. So in the watch business, I don't see AI affecting it because a person is not going to want to buy a half a million dollar watch by a person that made it from a robot. They want the history behind it.
- [18:33]
Joe
Yeah, right.
- [18:34]
Danny
And for the diamond business, I mean, AI, I could see it probably doing stuff, I mean for a diamond setting and maybe like.
- [18:41]
Gabe
Yeah, for sure. Diamond setting and making the designs. But I just again, like, you know, crafting the piece, it has to be done by a human. You know what I mean? Like, just, I just don't, I don't know. I mean, there's no way all these, you know, setters and jewelers that we have, I don't think, look, I know a machine could set the stones inside the piece, but in, in making it, there has to be.
- [19:11]
Danny
Why?
- [19:12]
Gabe
I just don't, I don't see it. I don't want to believe in it because I don't know, like, you're like, we don't want to be taken over.
- [19:19]
Danny
Yeah.
- [19:19]
Gabe
We don't want.
- [19:19]
Danny
Exactly.
- [19:20]
Gabe
By robots. Yeah, exactly.
- [19:22]
Danny
I mean, look, I think AI has incredible. I mean, I don't think we realize the power of it and what it can do. But do I think what are the.
- [19:30]
Joe
Conferences saying that you guys are going to.
- [19:32]
Danny
They don't talk about it. JCK was there.
- [19:35]
Gabe
Were they, they had a few conferences. They, they don't even know yet. I, I just don't like, they don't even know what it could bring to the jewelry industry and the watch business. You know, there's no like really big confidence. Maybe like, you know, AI could create you a design that you want, but I, I don't think you could craft it. You know what I mean? Like to sit and make it into a piece of jewelry. I don't want AI to take over for sure because like, I don't know, every customer that comes in to buy a Wedding ring or an engage ring. I think they just want that special touch to be done by a human. Right. You don't want something to be mass produced by a machine. Then it doesn't make it special anymore. Yeah, right. I mean I just again, like I'm, I'm not cra. Like I have the. We spend a lot of money on technology on like, you know, our, on our like programming, on everything we do. But I just don't like AI.
- [20:28]
Joe
I don't like one thing for sure. Early adoption is crucial. Whatever industry, you know, for us we're adopting AI. Anything I hear about.
- [20:37]
Danny
Yeah, no, I mean early adoption is good.
- [20:39]
Gabe
Early adoption of like when we, when we started doing social media when like Instagram was nothing, we started like doing Instagram right away. Like not many even, not many jewelers had Instagram. We were doing it and we were like one of the first jewelers to work with influencers and collabing with like social media influencers. We were, we were one of the first actually. But you're right. I mean, yeah, just even though I hate AI in the jewelry industry, we have to adopt to it immediately. But again, like I just, I don't know. Can you like for you, right, A Patek Fleet watch. How can you watch?
- [21:16]
Danny
You can't do it. Yeah, the watch business, I don't think AI will affect it at all. Maybe for these like smaller brands that are mass producing watches. But for a high end Swiss watch, I have no worry with AI, I don't think anything's going to.
- [21:28]
Joe
They're always going to be handcrafted.
- [21:30]
Danny
They're always going to be handcrafted because that's what you're paying for, right? You're paying for somebody to sit there and handcraft the item. But for a jewelry piece, I mean, I'm looking at my staff over here and they're setting them. I just don't see robots there setting them. You know what I mean? Like, can you imagine? Yeah, I don't know. I mean, take it back to my brother's point in the jewelry business, I think it's the, the meaning of somebody sitting there and hand setting your piece and making this special for you.
- [21:57]
Joe
Now with you guys taking Happy Jewelers national, but the brand still feels like, like it's a personal brand. What are like the behind the scenes tensions in growing fast while staying authentic?
- [22:11]
Danny
I mean, look, growing fast is not easy, right? You're gonna have a lot of hiccups, you're gonna have a lot of road bumps, you're gonna have to do a lot of changes within your business to accommodate to the growing. But the family side of the business, the authentic side of the business with us will never change. I mean, we only hire. I mean, even to our employees, become like family, Right. It's not like a name on a piece of paper. You know, when we hire somebody, we bring them in, and we make sure they have the same values as us. Because walking into a jewelry store is very intimidating, right? So you always want to be able to walk in with a smile on your face and. Yeah, that. That part will never change. I'm never worried about that.
- [22:48]
Gabe
You know, me and Danny are here every day at the store talking to every customer. It doesn't matter if you come in here for, like a, you know, $20, hey, fix my rope chain, or you're here spending a million dollars. We literally treat everybody the same. We take care of everybody. And, you know, every customer that walks through the door, we treat them the same. It doesn't matter, you know, who you are. And that's what makes us who Happy Jewelers is because we treat everybody the same. And we always talk about, like, a lot of private equity companies will approach Happy Jewelers. They want to buy the name. They want to be partners with us. But I just. I can't let it go. I won't let it go because it's my family business. It's my dad's legacy.
- [23:34]
Joe
But wouldn't that help you scale your business?
- [23:36]
Gabe
It would, but I just. They would take too much control. They would take too much control. I think they would, like, you know, get rid of half the people that work here.
- [23:46]
Danny
A lot of people ask that, like, oh, well, why wouldn't you guys sell a portion of the company and scale. But what makes Happy Jeweler special is the fact that we're here, right? 30, 40% of the deals wouldn't be able to get done unless me and my brother are actually here to doing the transaction. Because we're different, right? Guy will come in, he'll buy a $200,000 diamond. We'll take a watch and trade. We'll take golden trade. We'll take diamonds and trade. I mean, we make the deal happen. If you go open up a store and, you know, we pay sales tax in multiple states because we do so much business out of state, right? We do the. The volume. We do. We probably do it for 30 retail stores out of one location. But if you open up a store, let's say, in Las Vegas, where we're very famous, right, we have a Lot of customer base in Vegas. If our customer walks into Vegas, I guarantee they'll walk in one time, Tappy jewelers over there, and they'll make the three and a half hour drive over here because it's not the same feeling. It'll be completely different. Very corporate run, and we don't like that.
- [24:43]
Joe
So what's it like running a business together with your brother?
- [24:47]
Danny
Well, when we were younger, we used to butt heads a lot. We were at each other's throats. But as the years went by, because we used to both run everything together, right? Diamonds, jewelry, watches, we kept it all the same. But as the years went on, he kind of took over the. The diamond jewelry manufacturing space and I kind of took over the watches, and that made us get along.
- [25:07]
Gabe
Yeah, he stays in his lane. I stay. Exactly. I stay in my lane.
- [25:12]
Joe
Like you're the face of the brand now.
- [25:14]
Gabe
And now, I mean, on, on social media.
- [25:17]
Danny
Yeah, on social media, yeah. I would say I'm more of the face on it, but within the store, I would say, Gabis, even though I'm.
- [25:26]
Gabe
The better looking brother, I should be the face on social media too.
- [25:30]
Danny
He's not. He's not good on the camera is a problem.
- [25:32]
Gabe
Yeah, yeah.
- [25:33]
Danny
I'm a better talker.
- [25:34]
Joe
Yeah, yeah, for sure. You immigrated when you from. At what age you came? From Turkey.
- [25:39]
Gabe
Yeah, Turkey. So I was born in Turkey at 13.
- [25:43]
Joe
Okay.
- [25:43]
Gabe
Thirteen years old. And Danny was 4.
- [25:47]
Joe
Yeah, yeah, yeah. We came at the same age.
- [25:48]
Danny
I was four.
- [25:49]
Joe
Yeah. Now what, what do you think the biggest mistake is that you guys make? Made with happy jewelers. And how did you guys recover from it together?
- [25:58]
Danny
Mistakes, in a sense of, like, within the business. We didn't really make too many mistakes, but mistakes within, like, you know, sometimes you make a mistake on a purchase. Right. I mean, you just got to learn from it. Yeah, like, we do a lot of that.
- [26:12]
Gabe
It still happens. Like, you know, what's the biggest loss.
- [26:14]
Joe
You guys took on a purchase?
- [26:16]
Gabe
I would say like maybe 150,000 on a watch, but we take it. We take it like a man and take the loss.
- [26:24]
Joe
Don't tell Dan.
- [26:25]
Gabe
Yeah, exactly. Don't tell Dan.
- [26:27]
Joe
Like, $150,000 to him back in the day, how he's processing that $150,000 was like, bankrupt him.
- [26:33]
Danny
Yeah, yeah, look, it's part of business, right? We learn from it. So, like, sometimes, you know, I still make mistakes till today. Sometimes I take risk. Like, you know, I was showing you the watch in the back. The tourbillon. Yeah, right. You Know, there's very few percentage of jewelers or watch dealers that will actually buy that watch and stock it and put the money up for it. But there are certain watches where it's not like a Rolex, Right. There's no value to it. It's just kind of like you're. What you think it's worth, right? Because there's very. There's microbands out there, there's independent watchmakers where, you know, the retailers will say 30 grand, but the watch is worth 200 grand. Right. And when you're buying it, you're kind of gauging the market, like at that time, like, all right, I mean, I guess I'll pay 80 grand for it. And I think I might be able to get 110, 120. Whereas you buy it and they're like, oh, man, yeah, that one's not a good model. You know, the. The industry didn't really react to it well, and it's worth 50 grand, you know, but then there's times where you buy it for 80, based on your gut, and it's worth 150. It can happen, but those are risks that you have to take, and you get the reward or you don't get the reward, which we mitigate our losses. Obviously. We're, you know, we're sharp enough to.
- [27:35]
Joe
It's a tough business because when I was talking to watch resellers, they told me, like, oh, like a company like Jacob & Co. Has no resale value.
- [27:42]
Danny
No, no.
- [27:43]
Joe
Why is that? Like, he's able to sell his watches, you know, at jewelry stores, brand new, 200 grand. But the resale market's like 10.
- [27:51]
Danny
Yeah. I mean, look, so the resale value on Jacobs is. You're going to lose probably half the value when you walk out with it, when you buy it brand new. But if you look at Jacob's marketing, the guy's a genius. Yeah, right. You look at every celebrity, you know, you go to these, like, Instagram pages, like, you know, celeb watch spotter and all these Instagram. And when they're showing these celebrities wearing the watches, if you really look at it, out of the 10 posts they do, three of the celebrities are wearing Jacob and companies. The guy is very smart. It's like Richard Mille. Right? Why did Richard Mille explode recently? And it's not one of the. Even the oldest watch companies because they're marketing geniuses. They know exactly who put the watch on, and they know exactly how to do it.
- [28:27]
Joe
And that watch is no different than the Hublot you said you're not impressed with.
- [28:31]
Gabe
I know, exactly. And Hublot has been in business for. Has been in business for way longer than Richard Mille. I think Richard Mille has been around for 20 years. And, you know, Richard Mille and Jacob and Company, their marketing is incredible. No brand in the world has done what Richard Mille and Jacob and company has done. It's incredible. I mean, they did an amazing, amazing job. Yeah, they just blew up, like, during COVID Well, yeah, he's been in business for a very long time, you know, but his watch brand just exploded. Exploded. And I actually love his watches. I really, really do. They're very unique and one of a kind with everything he does.
- [29:15]
Joe
He does do one of a kind pieces.
- [29:17]
Gabe
Oh, he does? Yeah.
- [29:17]
Joe
Do you guys carry Richard Mille, Jacob and co?
- [29:21]
Gabe
We have literally every brand you could think at Happy Jewelers. That's why people come see us from all over the world. People will fly in from, you know, England, Kuwait, Dubai, Germany, India, China, Singapore, Malaysia, just to come to Happy Jewelers, just to see the inventory that we have. Because you can't just walk into a watch store and try on a watch. It's crazy, right? You know, but it's unbelievable. Yeah. And go ahead.
- [29:50]
Danny
Yeah. I mean, within the watch space, people will fly all over the world because, you know, we have the Richard Mills for half a million in stock. 400,000 in stock, 200,000 in stock. I mean, we've had Rich Mills for 1.5 million. 2 million.
- [30:03]
Joe
So you guys have those here, Richard Mills?
- [30:05]
Danny
Yeah, we have them in the back in the safe. I mean, we keep them in the vault.
- [30:07]
Joe
I just don't see the value in those. I just don't understand. I don't know how people. I don't understand how people do it.
- [30:13]
Danny
I mean, look, Richard, Millennial is. How can I say? It's like, almost like a symbol of wealth, right? You just gotta wear the watch, and it just shows money.
- [30:23]
Joe
Now you guys are selling status symbols in a world obsessed with image, right? That's, like, what we sell. How do you guys stay grounded in authenticity when everything around you is screaming, like, flash? Like, how do you remain authentic?
- [30:38]
Danny
You know, it's funny. People ask that. They go, well, how do you feel? You know, you have one of the most successful jewelry. So they say, I don't really think about it. You know, Like, I don't really think about, like, when I sell a watch for 100 grand, I don't think like, oh, my God, I just made, you know, 40 grand or 50 grand. I don't look at, you know, my profit at the end of the month and say, oh, my God, I made this much money for us. It's just. It's a business, it's a thrive, it's the high of it.
- [30:58]
Gabe
You know, me and Danny, we both come from very humble beginnings. And we're told to this day we just, you know, take care of our family, go home every night, wake up in the morning, come to work and go back. And, you know, we're just humble. And I think we'll never. That's one thing about me and Danny. Everyone will tell you it doesn't matter what we do and who we are or how much we have, we'll never change.
- [31:22]
Joe
Yeah, that's our third world mentality.
- [31:24]
Danny
Yeah.
- [31:25]
Joe
You know.
- [31:26]
Gabe
No, yeah, exactly. I mean, to be, you know, even thinking about it, like, you know, I. I see these people, like, out every night, leaving their kids, like, home. Like, you know, from this gala to another gala and to this and that, I'm like, dude, it's, it's crazy. I mean, we do at Happy Jewelers, we do a lot of fundraisers. Like, you know, we donate to a lot of very good charities in Orange county and LA county. But, you know, we, we're part of it, for sure. We do everything we can to donate, but we never show up to any of it. We send our employees, Ashley.
- [32:03]
Danny
It's funner that way, in my opinion. Yeah, yeah.
- [32:06]
Joe
That's why we got a lot of kids.
- [32:08]
Gabe
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, for sure.
- [32:10]
Danny
Yeah. Yeah, right?
- [32:12]
Joe
So big luxury brands have unlimited budgets. What's the one thing you two do differently than the, than the big giant.
- [32:18]
Gabe
Companies in the industry? Because we're here every day. You could walk in here with, you know, let's say your panerai watch, like, hey, Gabe, I'm tired of this. I want something else. I want to buy something for my kids or my girlfriend or my wife. You could trade that in and pick up a necklace and walk out with some cash. Like under, like, five minutes, very, very easy. Nobody will do anything like that. You walk into a jewelry store, any jewelry store, you walk in with your watch. Nobody's gonna trade you for a. Some cash and some jewelry. It's like, it's incredible. Like, you could walk in here. I would say, like, what makes us different is we make deals happen here every day. You could walk in here with, like, you know, your 10 carat diamond and walk out of here with three watches and some cash and, you know.
- [33:10]
Danny
Yeah. I mean, from that aspect. Yeah. And also from a marketing aspect, I mean, we do a lot of YouTube, we do a lot of Ignition. But our main thing is we work a lot with a lot of influencers and we work with a lot of organizations like, you know, the MLB Housewives. You know, we have any time they're over here playing the Angels or the Dodgers, you know, we'll invite a bunch of the housewives from the Major League Baseball to come over here, do a sip and shop. You know, we have champagne, hors d' oeuvres.
- [33:38]
Joe
They'll come in, won the championship, buy me a ring.
- [33:41]
Danny
Yeah, we actually did the championship ring for the wives and the staff, right?
- [33:47]
Gabe
Yeah, for the Dodgers. 20, 24 World Series. They won, the Dodgers won the championship. Obviously. That's my team.
- [33:54]
Joe
You guys did the rings?
- [33:55]
Gabe
No, we didn't do the men's rings, we did the ladies rings. So we custom designed it with all the wives and we literally custom made it. We'll show you a picture of it so you could put it up too. So all the wives got world serious rings and they got it before their husbands or their boyfriends. They're really cool rings.
- [34:14]
Joe
That's cool. Let's fast forward 10 years. How are you guys grooming the next generation?
- [34:20]
Gabe
That's a really good question. I'm like, you know, me and Danny both, we bring our kids to work, like just like the way me and Danny were going to work with my dad when we were, you know, 7, 8, 9, 10 year old. I'm bringing my daughters, my 17 year old, 13 year old, and my boys are coming to, like they're 10 and 7. They're coming to work so they could see what we do and take it over. You know, Danny brings his daughter's.
- [34:47]
Danny
I do, yeah. I mean, they'll walk around with the ring trying to sell it to customers. You know, they count the money, they look at the product, you know, we explain to them what it is, you know, whether it's a round, diamond, princess cut diamond, whether it's prong or channel, I mean, look, my kids can do whatever they want. If they want to take over the business, I mean, I would love for that. If they want to go be a doctor, lawyer or whatever it is they want to do, as long as they're happy, it's going to make me happy. But for grooming the next generation, I mean, our business is here to stay and it's not going anywhere. And it's always going to be a family business. And I think we've already disrupted the jewelry and the watch industry.
- [35:20]
Gabe
We want everyone to succeed in the business. And we help a lot of jewelers, you know, that are like, you know, a mile away from us. Like, they'll definitely call us and like, hey, Gabe, what do you think about this? Because we've been around for so long, they're like, they know we're very approachable people. So we help the people in the industry to be successful. I give them advice all the time, do this, do that. Like, you know, happy jewelers. Customers are going to come to me. Their customers are going to go to them. Everyone needs to eat, and we want everyone to eat. So that's really important.
- [35:53]
Joe
Now, I got a couple questions pivoting a little bit towards family, because we all have kids, and one thing you guys were blessed with is a dad came. You guys are both third world immigrants, as am I, and we've maintained that third world mentality to this day. How are you guys instilling that same level of grit and tenacity and grind into your children?
- [36:16]
Gabe
My kids always get mad at me because I lecture him a lot. You know what I mean? Because, you know, we're. Yeah, I like. Yeah, I lecture his kids. I don't know. Like, again, like, I came here when I was 13 years old. I saw a lot. I want my kids to be very humble. To work, you know, to just to be good people and be good to other people. That's really important. You know what I mean? Respect and be appreciative. That's why I put it. Like, I tell my kids that every single day, so they get tired of me. I think, like, that every time you talk to us, you lecture us.
- [36:55]
Danny
I mean, look, we. We teach our kids the value of money. You know, we go to church every Sunday, so we distill that big time into them, which I think, you know, if they grow up within the church, God willing, they'll be, you know, good people. You know, that's the main thing is for us, it's just like, be good people, treat others well, and be respectful. I mean, it's really the key.
- [37:18]
Joe
Yeah. I mean, we try to do the best we can, but one thing we struggle, you know, like, I grew up poor, you know, like, my kids did not. So, you know, my kids get to play football games with people that won, you know, you know, NFL quarterbacks, They're.
- [37:39]
Gabe
Being coached by, like, the bus, right? Yeah.
- [37:40]
Joe
Like, I never had once a private coach.
- [37:43]
Danny
Yeah, yeah, you want to give them everything. You want to give them the best. And sometimes, you know, my wife gets Mad at that. Me too. Because they'll go to Barnes and Nobles, you know, and they'll pick out toys. And at Barnes and Nobles, the toys are really expensive. My mom's like, why would you get it at Barnes and Nobles when we can go somewhere else? Or why would you get them eight books when you could get them for? Why would you do this? And I'm like, I don't know. She's right. But, you know, I'm there once a.
- [38:05]
Gabe
Week, you know, so it's like, yeah, me and Danny, definitely, we're very, like, we like to spoil our kids and our wives definitely keep us grounded. Me and Danny are both married to two sisters, and we're very blessed with her.
- [38:18]
Joe
Two sisters as well. Yeah, two brothers married two sisters.
- [38:20]
Gabe
Exactly. We're very blessed with our wives. They're very. Yeah, they're really, really amazing.
- [38:27]
Joe
Also Assyrian.
- [38:28]
Gabe
Also assuring. Yeah, man.
- [38:30]
Joe
You guys kept the bloodline.
- [38:31]
Gabe
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right. Yeah. That's our Ashley. For me, too. Like, I want, you know, for his kids. To my kids, we definitely want to marry, like, within the community. It's not an arranged marriage. It's like, you know, keeping it in the community.
- [38:45]
Joe
Now, let's pivot a little bit to goals. What's a personal goal that you guys have for yourself? A business goal that you have for the business, and a family goal?
- [38:53]
Gabe
You go first on this one.
- [38:54]
Danny
You gonna steal mine or what?
- [38:57]
Gabe
Let me see what you're gonna say. I'm gonna make it better.
- [39:02]
Danny
Personal goal of mine is to, you know, continue to be healthy, continue to work out, continue to be good to my family, raise my kids, raise them right. A business goal of mine would be to, you know, continue to grow it, Continue to, you know, my. My section is the watch section. It's to continue the watch section, grow it, get more customers, give more knowledge to the space within watch brands that don't have much content and knowledge out there is my vision for it, you know, to focus on the micro brands, to focus on other brands that people don't necessarily understand fully, and to kind of educate that customer on what they are and the meaning behind what these watchmakers are making? Because some of these guys are making four or five watches a year. Some of them make ten watches a year. What was the other goal?
- [39:49]
Joe
A family goal.
- [39:51]
Danny
Family goal. Raising my kids right. I mean, and in reality, it's like, you know, raising my kids right, keeping them within the church and keeping them within that straight line would be a blessing for me. I mean, honestly, aside from business, aside from personal growth. Like, forget all that. As long as I'm at an older age, you know, God willing, if I'm 70, 75, 80, if I live that long, to see my kids grow up. Correct. Family successful and happy. Everything else doesn't matter.
- [40:18]
Joe
That's right.
- [40:18]
Danny
Yeah.
- [40:19]
Joe
And then a business goal.
- [40:20]
Danny
Business goal would be to continue to, you know, grow the watch and grow the watch business within happy jewelers and get into different avenues of the watch space. Because, you know, it's like the Rolex, Patek, Richard Mille, A.P. cartier, Panerai, we kind of have those dominated. I don't want to say dominated. That sounds very.
- [40:36]
Gabe
That sounds very conceited.
- [40:37]
Danny
Conceited. I want to say we kind of have that market on lockdown. On lockdown. Focusing on the micro brands and really getting into those independent watchmaking.
- [40:48]
Joe
Who are some of the micro brands that you guys have your eyes on?
- [40:51]
Danny
You know, there's like companies like Debut, there's companies like MB&F. You know, those kind of companies where they're making very few, you know, FP Jorn. Those kind of companies where they make very, very limited watches. So it's kind of like. It's not like a Rolex Submariner, AP Royal Oak, where, you know, you're. You have a watch and you're competing with, you know, 200 other retailers that have the same exact watch as you. You know, you have a Debut and you have an FP Jorn. If the client wants it, they're gonna have to come to you because you're gonna be the only person with that watch in the world.
- [41:28]
Gabe
The business goal is for us to expand more within our area, though. Like, I'm just trying to. Like, when we started, it was 2,000 square foot. Then we took next door, it became 4,000 square foot. So we're trying to, like, expand the store to make it bigger. And we have a huge online presence and we have. We do really good business on, like, online. Just like people, you know, going on our website and just clicking to buy the item. We do really well in store. But I want that the Internet online business to be bigger. So I'm working on that. We're both working on that. So maybe within the next two years, it will be like, you know, it will be a lot bigger. But in order for me to do that, I need more space.
- [42:17]
Joe
Do you need more space? Because I know jewelers now are just all purely online. A lot of them, right?
- [42:21]
Gabe
Yeah, they are. But our store is different. Again, people like to come into the store to shop for the experience. But there's, you know, again, we have a huge website. It's great, but it needs to be. I want, like, people to just click it and buy it right there, you know? So I want to. I want that to be. I want. I want that part of the business to grow more family. Goal is, like Danny said, you know, we're. We're big family people. You know, I want, like, my kids to, you know, again, I'm not very pushy, but hopefully my kids will, you know, take over the business. You know, they'll come here more and hang out with me more. That's all we want. Yeah, exactly.
- [43:08]
Joe
Just to hang out.
- [43:08]
Gabe
Yeah, exactly.
- [43:09]
Joe
Like, they think I'm cool.
- [43:10]
Gabe
Yeah.
- [43:11]
Joe
Their friends think I'm cool.
- [43:12]
Gabe
Yeah. No, dude. Yeah, exactly. Like, people like my daughters, they're like, oh, my God. You know, my. Their friends always like. You know, they follow happy jewelers. We get all these celebrities, like, country singers and, like, you know, like, guys, like, freaking Morgan Wallen comes and hangs out with us.
- [43:27]
Joe
Morgan Whelan.
- [43:28]
Gabe
We do all this stuff, right? Like, because, you know, every girl, like, everybody loves Morgan Wallen.
- [43:33]
Joe
Yeah.
- [43:34]
Gabe
You know what I mean? I would love to meet Morgan Wallen. You have his haircut. You kind of look like him. So. Yeah. So we do a lot of stuff like that. I mean, like, that's. I mean, we literally have, like, every country singer. I can't think of everybody's name, but we have. So they're like, you know, I want my girls to be like, oh, my God, Dad. You're like. But their friends are like, oh, my God. Like, your dad is so cool, Morgan. He's hanging out with Morgan Wallen. But you know what I mean? Like, the kids. Yeah. They don't think you're cool, but is that the way it is?
- [44:02]
Joe
Yeah, for me, too. I hang out with all the YouTube. I do content.
- [44:05]
Gabe
Yeah.
- [44:05]
Joe
You know, I'm a YouTuber. And all the kids were like, oh, he's.
- [44:09]
Gabe
He's so cool. Yeah, dad.
- [44:10]
Joe
It's like, yeah, like, no, dad, get away.
- [44:14]
Gabe
So it's like that at everybody's house. It's not. Only at our house, too. Okay. Yeah, that's cool. That's too funny. So that's the family. Kids, family.
- [44:23]
Joe
And then you're gonna.
- [44:25]
Gabe
My personal goal. I mean, my personal goal is, like, you know, I would say I. I think I do everything I want in my life. You know what I mean? So, like, maybe work out more. Actually, when I go to the gym, I like to go to the sauna. I need to start working out.
- [44:40]
Danny
I swear to God.
- [44:41]
Joe
Just get a sauna at home.
- [44:42]
Danny
He calls me. He goes, I'm like, what are you doing? He goes, I'm at the gym. I'm like, are you at the gym or you're in the sauna? I'm in the sauna. I'm like, dude, that's not the gym. Like, no, I did a couple workouts. He'll go, like, three, four minutes and do a couple weights, and then he goes straight into the sauna. Yeah, you're right. You should get a sauna at home.
- [44:57]
Gabe
Yeah.
- [44:57]
Joe
Yeah. A thousand bucks at Costco.
- [44:59]
Danny
Yeah.
- [45:01]
Joe
Last question, guys. When you're in front of the pearly gates, what do you think God's going to tell you?
- [45:06]
Danny
He's going to say? I mean, I hope, right? I hope he says, you know, God willing. I hope he says, you know, Danny, you helped a lot of people in your life. You never cheated anybody. You're always a good person. You know, I'm not perfect, obviously. You know, I sin, but I hope my goodness is better than my failures. But I always strive to be a good person, and I'm an honest person. And, you know, I hope God sees that as well, because, you know, the gates are narrow, and my goal in life is to make it through them.
- [45:39]
Gabe
That's everybody's goal to, you know, to make it to heaven. So for me, too, like, you know, I'm a sinful person just like everybody else, for sure. I just hope, like, all the I. I do more good deeds and good stuff than. More than I sense. So I, you know, that's it. Yeah. Yeah, that's a good question. That's like. I'm, like, shedding bricks up here.
- [46:06]
Joe
That's that.
- [46:07]
Gabe
That's like.
- [46:08]
Joe
When someone asked me that question. I was on a podcast, and he asked me, like, what's the question you asked everybody at the end of your podcast? And I told him that question. Then he asked me that question. I'm like, oh, man, let me ask.
- [46:17]
Gabe
You that question, Joe. Now you tell us. You put us on the spot.
- [46:20]
Joe
Yeah, And I broke down. I started, like, because your life flashes in front of you.
- [46:26]
Danny
You're like, think about everything.
- [46:28]
Joe
And then, you know, and I answer the same. Like, I, you know, I exist. My whole existence is just to do God's work. Like, everything I do is like, God, I'm here. You gave me all these talents. Like, I don't know why you let me get through all this other stuff and just use me in whatever way you can use me and, like, whatever I could do to do your work. Like, I don't care about money. You gave me more. I came from dirt. I just released a book Rising from the sand. Like, I came from the poorest part of Cairo, and now I'm in Newport beach, you know, like, you gave me more than I ever wanted. So, you know, let me do whatever you need me to do. I'm gonna go ahead and I'll tell other CEOs, and I'll tell other people, like, I'm just God's servant. Like, I do God's work first. He does my work first. So I'm a Coptic Christian. I see. I preach it just like they do because I'm allowed to.
- [47:15]
Danny
Yeah.
- [47:16]
Joe
You can't do anything to me.
- [47:16]
Danny
You got to be proud of it.
- [47:17]
Joe
Yeah.
- [47:18]
Danny
Are you kidding me? I mean, you got it. You got to scream it on the top of the building.
- [47:20]
Joe
All right, thank you, guys. Thanks for being on the show. And if people want to connect with.
- [47:23]
Danny
You, how do they find you on social media? You know, Happy Jewelers. They can check us out on YouTube at Happy Jewelers as well. On our website, Fullerton, California, five. Five minutes away from Disneyland. And on our website, www.happyjewelers.com. but we're pretty much everywhere, to be honest. TikTok Happy Jewelers. Just type in Happy jewelers. You'll find us.
- [47:46]
Joe
Love it. Love it, guys. Happy Jewelers. The legends of the jewelry space. Make sure to connect, especially if you're looking for your next jewelry piece. Thank you, guys.
- [47:53]
Danny
Thanks for watching.