“Diamonds are a girl’s best friend.”
India’s jewelry advisor RENU CHOUDHARY is a diamond enthusiast, known for her passion for loose diamonds and fine jewelry. In conversation with the #Volocals campaign, Ms. Choudhary talks about her social media handle “The Diamond Talk”, a platform showcasing sustainable and traceable diamonds and precious stones extracted from mines to be converted into jeweled arts.
Ms. Choudhary represents the 4th generation of a family hailing from the gem and jewelry industry background. Ever since her early acquaintance with precious stones due to her family business, she has always been eager to pursue a career in jewelry designing. Fascinated by the rich heritage of royal jewelry and exquisite traditional ornamentations of her native city of Jaipur, she completed her jewelry designing course from the Indian Institute Of Gems & Jewellery (IIGJ).
She took up jewelry designing in Inter Gold Factory, where she also learned marketing for international export designs. She soon became interested in knowing more about diamonds and, to answer her calling, she pursued the Diamond Graduate Program from GIA, New York, to enhance her technical knowledge and expertise. She remained associated with one of India’s leading diamond manufacturing companies, Rosy Blue Pvt Ltd, for the longest period in her career.
Working in the jewelry and loose diamond departments for long, while managing the family business alongside, the prospect of promoting the Indian gem and jewelry industry in the international market dawned upon her. Thus, her social media handle “The Diamond Talk” was born in May 2018. Although she lacked the expertise of curating social media posts, researching, drafting the content, taking professional photographs, she possessed an indomitable passion for popularizing her industry on a broader perspective via social media.
Adequate contacts, abundant knowledge about the field, and long association with the industry and the people, acted as added advantages in her favor. Since 90 per cent of the diamonds are manufactured in India, she expected “The Diamond Talk” to provide an excellent opportunity to talk about the gems and jewelry of the country on an international scale.
The guiding light of her life and career was her mentor Late Arun Kumar Mehta from Rosy Blue India Pvt Ltd who bestowed utmost faith in her. His words of encouragement still resonates with her as she reminisces about him saying: “Renu I know you will achieve something, I know you are precious. You have to be hardworking, have to have faith and work with complete honesty. That’s how you will achieve all your dreams. The sky is the limit.” Keeping these words close to her heart, she has strived along the path of her career, taking one step at a time but never having any self-doubt.
She considers herself to be fortunate enough to be rewarded with an efficient, helpful, and kind team which has been a strong backbone in her journey. She nurtures the notion about the universe conspiring to fulfill one’s objectives once his/her aspirations are firmly built, and she is no exception.
The primary purpose of launching the social media platform was to add value to every person who is interested and invested in her venture. She attempts to educate her audience by her social media page so that visiting it, would be worth their time. Likewise, she adds value to her clients when they approach her for marketing strategies and consultancy, helping them to grow and expand their entire horizon, so that in return they would turn out as valuable assets for her.
After the launch of “The Diamond Talk”, the first exhibition that she attended was the India International Jewelry Show (IIJS), Mumbai, where she introduced herself as a jewelry counselor, jewelry influencer, and jewelry blogger. It served as an excellent platform for exposure and recognition.
She steadily made her foothold strong in the industry by attending simultaneous exhibitions, like the Jewelers Association Show (JAS) 2018, gaining further recognition, acknowledgment, and a warm welcome in the sphere. The Hong Kong September Fair, 2018, was the first international show that she attended. She visited JCK Vegas Show and Couture Show 2019, where she received her first International Press badge.
Attending exhibitions has not only established her professionally, but also has helped her personally–to enhance her confidence and interact with renowned jewelers from the industry with whom she did not have prior acquaintance. She has also received a pleasant social media environment, where people have been cooperative and communicative despite her page being new.
Her initiatives of collaboration, proposals of covering their jewelry booths and discussing about their creations, have been met with encouragement, love, and support to follow her dreams.
She has successfully navigated a male-oriented industry and continues to strive to create opportunities for women with her motto, “Women Empowering Women.” However, she has also experienced a positive change in the outlook of men towards women stepping in the lead roles and dominating the industry. She has always been applauded by them, beginning from her mentor Mr. Mehta, who believed that she could pave the way for women to be inspired by her and join the gem and jewelry industry.
Challenges are, however, inevitable in one’s path, and she has also had her share. However, she firmly holds the opinion that when a person is motivated to achieve his target, he will overcome every obstacle thrown in his direction. The strength and resilience of a diamond, with its ability to sparkle despite the temperature and pressure it is subjected to, has been her source of inspiration.
Whenever she is in a tight spot or feels low, she thinks about a diamond’s ability to outshine every difficulty, and it gives her the confidence to rise and move forward. She encourages people to focus on their goals and administer unceasing labor and determination to achieve it. They should move ahead with utmost faith and must have good intentions to serve the society.
She believes that adding value to the clients and audience is of chief importance, and the quality of the content should never be compromised. Being honest with the audience as well as her material, would reflect in any endeavor that she takes.
She abides by the motto: “Together We Grow.” She considers that the only real competition a person faces is with himself; the main challenge is to improve from what he was yesterday. Therefore, one should be supportive, cooperative towards others to help them grow, experience and learning for oneself. It gives her great honor to uplift and empower someone.
Being of an optimistic nature, she is looking at the positive side of the pandemic. Though the pandemic has affected normal lifestyle and traveling schedules, social media has picked up the pace, and “going digital” is the new norm.
She has been busy in handling “The Diamond Talk”, curating content, and reaching out to clients. However, her main regret lies in not being able to travel. Most domestic and international shows have been rescheduled, and she is missing out on seeing new collections, meeting jewelers, and engaging in new collaborations. So she is waiting eagerly for the Coronavirus threat to get dissolved and traveling to commence.
For anybody who aspires to enter the gem and jewelry industry, an essential aspect would be to acquire a good education. Her word of advice to them is to get enrolled in a noteworthy institute of diamond grading and jewelry designing to be thorough with their basics and get a diploma or degree for the same. This would help him to build his confidence as well as aid him in gaining knowledge and choosing the correct career path that resonates with him. She believes a strong educational base is the main requirement for pursuing any course of work.
With its helm in the capable hands of Ms. Choudhary, “The Diamond Talk” is indeed headed towards a golden future, lauded with numerous achievements, bound to come their way.
Check out the official Instagram handle of “The Diamond Talk” here.
Also, you can visit her official website here.
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