I run a jewelry brand that’s basically having an identity crisis.
This isn’t some glamorous “global CEO” story. It’s me in my kitchen in Cape Town at 9:43pm, hair in a bun, refreshing Shopify and opening Upwork hoping my website developers might still be awake, all the while dealing with the minutiae of the 3PL in LA WhatsApping that they ran out of quilted shipping envelopes and UPS address label protectors
So yeah. Three countries. Three time zones. One company. Zero chill.
In February, in the aftermath of the LA fires I sold my LA penthouse and, on a whim, decided to go spend some time in my homeland, South Africa. Cape Town wasn't my place of birth but rather my city of choice—a city that had just been voted the most beautiful city in the world, a city in which I literally knew no one. Being unknown had its advantage: zero expectations and a chance to re-imagine a life and lifestyle in incredibly beautiful surroundings. I had lived in LA for several decades and bought a home with the vision of friends and family coming to stay. Very rarely did that happen as South Africa was a mere 37 hours door to door and London friends had Europe on their doorstep. Now with the mere mention of Cape Town, friends commit to visiting and have actually shown up.
It wasn't well planned and dreamt about a move but a chance to take a beat, catch my breath and realign my LA based jewelry company, Gillian Julius . I wanted to try being a digital nomad for several months , or so I thought! "Man plans, God laughs."
The world had discovered why Cape Town was so in demand and why it lived up to its newly anointed title, "The Most BeautifulCity In The World" .Rentals had doubled in the space of a year. International investors were flocking to the Atlantic Seaboard, AirBnb was the dominant rental option. Long-term rentals were in short supply, pricing locals out of the market and leaving me no choice but to commit to a 6 month winter lease when prices dropped and landlords left for sunnier shores with dollars in their pockets .
Cape town was not only a circadian rhythm adjustment but a need to adjust not only my thinking but also my expectations. Growing up in Joburg had already prepared me for the UK and then the USA . Joburg was fast paced , high- energy with a focus on business, finance, connections and inclusion . I was used to the mix of the USA East Coast West Coast go-go-go hustle of let's get it done and where people direct and to the point . Cape Town on the other hand is a place with a let's chill attitude and where "Take a Hike" means exactly that ! Signal Hill or Table mountain beckon, daily . A meeting is more often not conducted in coffee shops graded on the quality of their beans and no matter how well you felt the meeting went, follow up is never promised and ghosting is acceptable. One has to get used to the Capetonians' "Let's Get Together," the equivalent of Joburg's "See You Just Now" as eternity is a long wait.
For my company , Gillian Juliius, LA is the heartbeat, the USA is the opportunity , and global distribution is the norm . LA is where we Conceptualize design, from where we distribute both nationally and internationally, while producing offshore . All our inventory sits in a warehouse in the West Hollywood part of town in a well-thought-out but simple-to-access system of clearly labeled, moveable drawers. This system now requires oversight everywhere and tracking for all staff entries into the warehouse. Closing the barn door after the horse has bolted is one downside of not being on hand 24/7 and trusting where trust is not deserved . I now say, "My lawyer's name is Karma and he hasn't lost a case"! We needed to tighten up any areas left to chance!
Our success relies on having readily available correct inventory and stock and a 2-day turn around,so keeping stock in LA is non-negotiable. I fly out every 6-8 weeks to touch products, meet customers, and remember this isn’t just spreadsheets but a business built on personal interaction and a reputation for leaving no stone unturned or any form of communication unanswered. We are only as good as our reputation and loyal customers continually remark on how fast we return calls and emails.
Cape Town is me. I’m the ops brain. Supplier fights, factory timelines, “why is this shipment stuck,” making sure the whole machine doesn’t fall apart. I’m also the one answering “where’s my order” DMs at 11pm because it’s only 2pm in LA and someone’s freaking out. Our answering service requests that all communication be in writing in order to have a record and accessibility to all queries or concerns no matter from where they originate!
India keeps the lights on. Our Shopify devs and marketing team are in Lahore. The best part: they start work at 6am my time, 9:30am theirs, while LA is still asleep. I wake up to a fixed website, ads that are already optimized, and bugs I didn’t even know existed already squashed. They’re asleep when we’re launching, but they’ve queued everything to go live.
My day basically means I catch India in the morning when I’m fresh, grind through ops midday, then LA wakes up around 6pm my time and my phone turns into a slot machine. We all overlap for like 45 minutes at 9pm SAST, 11:30pm IST, 11am PT. That’s when we make actual decisions. Then I log off and the company keeps going without me. All decisions can wait for the next day; after all, we are selling jewelry, not saving lives. But to be honest, it's hard to fall asleep while the problems and solutions of the day are still swirling in my head, and my monkey brain is doing its damndest to keep chatting.
We are continually asked why we don't bring some production to Cape Town. We respond by saying: Speed has been our friend and logistically shipping to South Africa is prohibitive since we've already paid freight and duty into the US, with all goods shipped overnight ex-factory via FedEx. With our business model we do not have the luxury of a seven-day delivery window from LA to Cape Town with a chance of goods being stuck in customs, sometimes"lost" and paying high duty on an already taxed item .
If we shipped from SA, we’d get cooked in the reviews. “Why is my $325 necklace in customs and why do I suddenly have an additional charge over and above duty Oh yeah tariffs ?? Not to mention the strong dollar against a fluctuating rand .Two-day US shipping is the price of entry now. LA warehouse or die. A motto that has served us well! And has been met with a great response from our retailers and E- commerce clients
Our fast rise and success came from having ready to ship inventory when most in the country were playing it safe due to the recession and this remains our modus operandi to this day. Forward trending yet timeless and collectable jewelry with a fast turnaround.
Gillian Julius, a company known for being ahead of the curve and at least 2 years ahead of the market when it comes to trends, needs to stay ahead of the game. You can’t design from a distance, especially from Cape Town when the dress code is athleisure wear and the winter is colder than any I have experienced in LA. I tried being in Cape Town during winter, trying to guess what LA girls want for festival season? I was right on the bead trend, but then again it had been in my collection for well over 2 years and my design inspiration certainly would not be coming from the streets of Cape Town. I needed to travel and be in LA , NY or London because my jewelry is timeless and has a level of sophistication worn mostly on the streets of Europe, the Middle East and Asia. In addition, we are dealing with a socio economic problem in South Africa: Crime is high and jewelry is a continual temptation for many! Sadly understandable.
The upside to straddling 3 continents is a 24-hour advantage. Black Friday hits LA at 9am PT. That’s 7pm in Cape Town for me when I’m done, but midnight in India and our devs are wide awake. They babysit the site, kill bugs live, scale servers. I’ve woken up to a successful day that would’ve crashed if it were just up to me.
To many, having an office in Cape Town that beats to the sound of the Atlantic Ocean , and windows that look to the cloud-covered majesty of Table Mountain sounds like heaven. Sadly, on more days than not, I have to remind myself to stop and smell the proverbial roses and breathe in the salty sea air just feet from my window. So on many days the vision is lost in the harsh reality of straddling 3 continents across three different time zones. And doing it alone.
Sometimes self pity creeps in and you realise that you have no life or you have a life governed by other people's priorities in other time zones . You’re always “on” for someone. I’ve taken factory calls in the Woolworths parking lot. I’ve typed “so sorry for the delay!” while enjoying a Soho House, City Without Houses members event and reminding myself why I joined . Your brain is never in just one time zone but held hostage by others even though you are the piper!
You belong nowhere. LA thinks we’re a local but internationally distributed brand . SA people ask why they can’t pay in Rand. My India team has never met me IRL. You’re a ghost in all three places. It’s isolating, and one has to be one's own motivating force. Why get up when LA will still be sleeping for the next 9 hours and Lahore is up to speed, well, for now at least
Your life is suddenly dictated by a calendar Diwali that shuts down our India based tech team right before the US holiday season ramps up. July 4th kills the LA office when we’re mid-year. Thanksgiving is Black Friday chaos while SA schools are closing. Nothing lines up. Ever.
If nothing else this last year on the move has taught me to stay in my lane; after all I did set it up this way . LA owns product, customers, and money. Cape Town owns ops and suppliers. India owns tech and marketing. The second Cape Town tries to answer a customer DM or LA tries to push website code, everything breaks.
I've learnt to set up a hard stop and force myself to turn off the phone . I’m offline at 10pm SAST. No exceptions. If LA needs me, it waits till morning. The business existed before I replied at midnight, it’ll survive after.
I now follow "The Points Guy" taking his advice and am continually looking for the best price flights between SA and USA. I now book the flight and don't procrastinate about returning to LA. It is now part of my yearly budget . I Do not trust what people tell you on Zoom; I now ask for numbers and insist on photos of product location or count. I make this clearly understood and a non negotiable . Since I have a photographic memory, I question the reasoning if a staff member suddenly moves skus around without prior approval . Listen to my gut and if something feels wrong it normally is . Act on it . Book home sooner than expected and travel unannounced !
My experience of operating out of LA has taught me not to go all-US and drown in overhead, or go all-offshore and end up totally out of touch with the customer. I have accepted the options and reaped rewards from the changes and the acknowledgement that this is a sustainable lifestyle if I listen to my gut, prioritise urgency, step back from the questionable, and switch off when things become overwhelming. It can wait until tomorrow . The reward is in the fact that
we get LA speed, LA taste, LA banking, with ops and tech that don’t bankrupt us. The split is the whole advantage. You just have to be okay with living in the layover.
It’s 10:27pm in Cape Town. LA’s TikTok just went live. India just pushed new collection photos. The company’s wide awake. I’m not.