If you don’t do it, somebody else will. And if you’re already blazing a trail, then you better keep blazing.
- 11 minutes ago
- 16 min read
Mindy Hamilton
BONDED Jewelry | Hamilton Hat Bar
I grew up in Ohio, and I grew up on a horse farm and a dairy arm and my whole life was around mud and muck and working hard. We never went without, but when you’re a farmer, you don’t really have a lot of money — we had two, three, four pairs of jeans and a couple pairs of shoes to get us through the school year. Of course, you always had what you needed to be on the farm, that was always priority: the boots, the Carhartts. My whole life, I grew up riding horses. My mom still rides horses, she rides barrel horses. I rode barrel horses, my brothers rode barrels, some of my nieces ride. I started there, didn’t have a lot of pretty things… I think our horses had nicer things than we did! The saddles, I know they were probably more expensive than our cars.
When I had my first big girl job, I worked at a jewelry store and this would have been 18 or 19 years old and then from there I worked in finance. I say this because jewelry fascinated me. I really loved jewelry, and as you can tell I still really love jewelry. I think that’s because I didn’t have those shiny things, so maybe not only do I love what they look like and feel like but how confident they make you feel. When you come from somewhere very unaffluent, you kind of always look at those things like, maybe that makes people better than you. You don’t know until you’re older that it doesn’t mean any of that, right? I worked at the jewelry store and that basically turned into me handing them my paycheck. I had to get a bigger-girl job to pay for the house and the car and all this, so I worked in finance.
I was 27 when I moved to Las Vegas in 2007. I moved here working in a finance job and fast forward, I owned my own social media business for about 10 years. When I met the founders of Bonded Jewelry in 2022, I was like, “Wow, I love what this could be as an event activation.” Logistically, I loved that you’re custom fitting bracelets — anklets, necklaces, but focusing on the bracelets — you’re custom fitting somebody for their piece, and now you’re removing the clasp. In jewelry, I would see a lot of repairs come in because the clasp was broken. Traditionally, we don’t get the right fit. My logistics brain was like, “Wow, that’s interesting.” My business brain was like, “Wow, that’s interesting, this could be an event activation.” And I knew social media, it had been ten years then. I was doing events for my clients, maybe they had an anniversary or a launch party or something and they were always looking for an event activation to have more fun at the event. I didn’t know anything about the convention and conference industry here, I was pretty naïve to it because it just wasn’t my schtick, but I knew about parties and events from my clients. I asked [the Bonded owners] about it, and I said, “Are you going to bring this to Vegas?” They were in Vegas at a friend’s boutique and they were like, “We don’t really know what we’re doing yet.” I had heard about permanent jewelry from them and then from another brand and I was like, “I really want to look at this.” I was ten years into my social media marketing business and when I had gotten into it, it was super easy to get into and posting on social media was super easy. No PR agencies were doing it, no marketing agencies were doing it. Well, fast forward ten years, now everybody’s doing it. I never had a formal degree in it, so I could only take people so far. I’d come to a Y in the road that said, “Are you going to go get a degree in this?” or “Are you going to hire people who know more about this, younger people wo are getting a formal education… what are you going to do?” And it’s ten years in, usually ten years in to most things, you’re like, “Ok, it’s time for a change,” or something’s got to change, good or bad — either you’re quitting or you’re growing.
I looked at being a representative for another brand that was doing permanent jewelry nationwide, and I was like, “This doesn’t make any sense; they make 25% of their sales.” Whereas, if I was a Bonded licensee or owner, I can make 95%. I’m like, “Ok, this makes more sense and I have more control over it.” I bought a license for Las Vegas and I bought a license for Monterey, California which is Carmel-by-the-Sea, Pebble Beach area.
I was in a transition in life as well, I had just had my third child and it was during COVID and it was not a healthy marriage or healthy relationship. I was like, “Ok, I’m going to need to fix this somehow…” Again, it’s a change — whether you’re going to quit or you’re going to change it. Either he and I were going to figure it out or not figure it out. I had come to a place where I didn’t think we were going to figure this out together. I needed to provide for myself, and in the past I had been a single mom so I knew I didn’t want to struggle. I wanted it to be different this time around. I said, “Screw it, I can either take the last of the money that I have and I can buy the license and buy the machines and go all-in with this, or I can get a really good divorce attorney.” Those were the choices. But I thought, “I’d just be giving him my money,” because nobody wins when you hire a divorce attorney, only the divorce attorney wins and everyone’s broke and pissed.
I decided to buy the license and every seven days I would travel back and forth and I would be one girl in a suitcase with my machine and my gold and I would do pop-ups here. I was the second in Las Vegas to do it and the first to do it in California. I don’t want to say it was easy because it definitely wasn’t easy sleeping on couches and eating one bag of groceries for the week and budgeting when I was over there. It wasn’t easy to get everybody to say yes to me… but they did. I did a lot of pop-ups. Here, I would do coffee shops, salons, boutiques. We were just coming out of COVID so every big box place or everything with a brick-and-mortar was very open to creating this community for pop-up people, because this exposes them, this exposes us, we’re all coming out of COVID, we’re bringing people together again, this is great. This permanent jewelry thing seems pretty cool, so people were saying yes to it all over the place. Over there, it was wineries. For me, wine tasting rooms and wineries — get girlies drunk and they’re going to shop from you! Alcohol and sales go very well together. I started sprouting into Napa, clear down to San Luis Obispo. Eventually I left one of my cars there. But for a long time, I did Ubers or I did Turos and I stayed with friends. I built business around it and it was very successful. I spent two and a half years doing that and made a very good living from that.
I always said I never wanted a brick-and-mortar, I never wanted overhead — that always sounded way too scary for a single mom with kids, with tuition and car payments and all of that. Going back to the pop-ups we were doing, especially in California. I reached out to a hat brand that’s very popular called Gigi Pip that was also founded in the same county as Bonded; they’re neighbors. I reached out to my founders and said, “Can I reach out to them?” and they said “Absolutely.” I was doing hat chains, so I was making chains that would go on hats that then would go on your neck. I said, “Hey you guys, I want to pop up next to your gorgeous pop up,” they had this gorgeous trailer. I said, “If I book you for events at wineries, will you come and pop up and sell and I can be next to you,” and they said “Absolutely.” So for a year and a half, two years, I did this; it was very successful for them, it was very successful for me. We did everything from Napa clear down to San Luis Obispo, Monterey a couple more times, then up north and south, and we also did Vegas. It was fantastic for them to have somebody helping them and it was fantastic for my brand because of reputation.
Fast forward, they were going large corporate and a lot of corporate convention stuff was happening for me, weddings were happening for me, getting a little bit busier, they restructured, I restructured, it was a beautiful amicable, “Love you, bye.” It was sad because we travelled together and I loved those girls. We’d seen some great things together, good things, bad things, and it was nice. Again, I wasn’t going to get a studio, but what I saw was other permanent jewelry people were coming on my trail, other people were coming on my trail and a lot of the venues were loyal and would say no, and some of them weren’t and I understand. But the pivot needed to be for me: “You have to do something different.” Because now, not every Friday that I wanted was available. I was working Thursday to Sunday or Monday I was doing wonderful things and making money and now it was being cut and the pivot was happening and I could see that the universe and God were telling me, “You need to do larger things and if you’re going to be the best in the permanent jewelry industry, then you better pivot and it better be up.” There’s only one way on the ladder and it’s up, otherwise you fall down the ladder and nobody wants that. I was determined for Bonded Jewelry to be seen as the best in the nation, it was my personal goal for just my brand in my two cities. I ended up getting a studio here (Las Vegas) two Aprils ago and then last August I got one in Carmel-by-the-Sea. This studio is the studio that I got last April so I was in another collective here and a collective in Monterey and those didn’t work out the way that they should, I wanted to just stand alone. This whole time it was, “What can you do to be better than yourself?” not other people, but also there’s reality to the fact that if you don’t do it, somebody else will. And if you’re already blazing a trail, then you better keep blazing.
Last June, I bought the Bonded brand from the founders. So now the franchise is mine. There was some transition during that time, some contracts were coming due to their tenure, some ladies were getting pregnant and moving, some were military wives who were moving, so we had kind of a shakeout. For the first six months, it wasn’t what I intended on it being but it all worked out for the best. We’ve got Chicago and Charlotte still going very strong, I’m putting in Salt Lake City, I’m still actively finding a recruiter to help me out these owners in other places. So, a transition, but a transition that’s good, and during all this transition I think people can see, “She isn’t going anywhere.” I really do believe that the money that I invested not only buying the brand but putting the studios together, told not only the public but it told event planners, “This girl isn’t going anywhere, so let’s hire her.” Instead of “Let’s hire the cheapest person that’s now going to be gone in six months.”
That is what’s happened over the last two years — people would try to do permanent jewelry, they’d buy a training, they didn’t realize what it took to run a business, they don’t have somebody like me giving them all the marketing plans that they need, text messages at any hour of the night, actual empowerment and leadership. In my opinion, I think that people who are buying these $2,000, $1,500 trainings are money grabs. Because if you’re not supporting them, you’re literally selling them a dream and then you’re doing nothing to help them do it. We do it in more of a franchise situation, we’re going to give you all the tools that it takes to really do what I did and that’s take my last dollar… when I did that four years ago, I had my full investment back in 45 days. I can stand in front of those women who want a change in their life and say, “I’ll help you do that.” With the actual support and things that my founders didn’t give, because they didn’t know, because they didn’t do it the way I did it. They did a very successful job, I love them very dearly for what they created for me. They love me for taking it to the next place and letting them retire from it — that’s part of their story and part of my story.
The hats were a natural fit not only because of what I did with Gigi Pip but because I grew up in a hat. I grew up riding horses, I grew up western pleasure. My aunt called me Minnie Pearl, and not because I had a tag on my hat but because it was funny. My grandma would take me to JCPenney and we would try on hats together and I have some of my great grandmother’s hats.
I said, “All right, I’ve got these studios, everybody knows me, it’s two of the best accessories, which is jewelry and hats, now what am I going to do?” Well, obviously I’m going to wholesale Gigi Pip, so I bought a couple of hats for each studio and I decided the ROI on that doesn’t fit my business brain, that’s not enough for me, I’m a little hungrier than that. Why would I represent her brand, why wouldn’t I represent my own? I am spending so much time and money, why not put my name on it? I have a story, I grew up a rodeo girl. That story is more of a story and gives me more of a right than some people, so why not? I wanted to see my name in the hats; I spend so much time and energy promoting myself. I don’t have a social media team, I don’t have a marketing team. I do have an outside sales girl that helps me. But literally, I wear all the hats. Hamilton Hats is such a good name, it rolls off the tongue.
I started doing large volume, so I didn’t just do six or seven hats, like I thought was going to happen. I had event planners say, “We hear you’re a hat bar.” This is a true story: I was on a call, I was driving, and they’re like, “We hear you have a hat bar, too.” Because they were hiring Bonded to be an event activation all of the time. Nobody in Vegas had a hat bar, and I’m like, “Of course I do.” I literally pulled over, made a one-sheet on Canva, sent it to them, and I started getting booked like crazy; since last December, it’s been insane. Like hundreds of hats at a time. That’s what they wanted and they trusted me to deliver because they knew professionalism-wise I carry insurance, I have an LLC… these things are very important when you’re pulling into the MGM, when you’re pulling into Mandalay Bay, when you’re pulling into The Venetian. You better be covered. I don’t know how many times that Bonded Jewelry would be called back after being told that we weren’t going to be hired because we were too expensive, “Can you save the show? I know it’s today, I know it’s next week, but do you have a team member because those people don’t have an LLC, they don’t have the insurance, we can’t get them on property, they called off…” The same thing is happening with the hat bar now. It’s that level of excellence that I want and demand of my people.
We do fedora, we do western, if you need Havana Nights, I can do those, I can source any damn hat that anyone needs. But we do western and fedora, which is flat brimmed, basically, and some straws and some trucker hats. For like a year, these event planners were like, “Are you going to do trucker hats, are you going to do trucker hats, are you going to do trucker hats…” I’m like, “No, I don’t like them, I don’t like the way they’re being done, it’s not my jibe, it’s not elevated enough.” This past December, my best friend Jenny and I were sitting at the airport in Utah and her sister says, “I just got a hat press if you guys want to use it.” I said, “You know what, it’s a sign. I’m going to do it, but we’re going to do it my way and I’m going to spend December figuring out how we’re going to do it.” So now we do trucker hats, but I do the canvas ones with the tweed or the tapestry bill, I do an all brown and an all black… to me, elevated. We call it Luxe Truxe Collection. We did designer-inspired patches, so YSL, Chanel, Gucci, things that are inspired. That way, the hat is a hat that my girlie, my demographic, would actually put on. She’d make her Range Rover hat and put it on when she wants to go to the grocery store or something. My event planners loved it.
I noticed a competitor then did it immediately… I don’t care, I didn’t invent trucker hats, right? I know somebody who was doing it before me, I just don’t do it her way out of respect for her. They did choose the exact same kind, but I don’t care, I take it as a compliment. Then I had the idea — and it has blown up over the last 60 days — the hankie bar, Hamilton Handkerchiefs. Now you can do bandanas with the paisley-western, or you can do florals, you choose your patch, you can put an initial on it, you can put a brooch on it, and that’s what we do with the trucker hats, too. It’s more brooches and a patch or two just to keep it a little more elevated. Because for me, the trucker hats were getting too neon green and pink and they were too, “Oops, I had too many drinks and I’m not ever going to wear that hat.” A little too childish, so I didn’t want to do that. Obviously, if that’s what a client wants, we can get it for their event. For my corporate events, they like it, because I can get them custom patches with their logo, we have a custom engraver and we can engrave charms or their hats. We just did Dell Technologies and we engraved 200 hats that said Dell Technologies on them. That’s an offering that I feel like elevates the experience and it gives them their money’s worth.
With the hankies, now we have patches to go on them that say “Hamilton Hankie Bar.” My grandpa always carried a hankie, so these are real things that I’m doing out of my roots at 46 years old and really doing it from my heart. I'm not paying any attention to what anybody else is doing, and just doing what I think works. At the end of the day, my people need a budget-friendly event activation, and my hankies are perfect for that. It’s beautiful, it’s fun, it’s a whole different idea, it’s blending the patches from the trucker hats to the hankies.
Then, we started doing these zhuzh kits. If you know me, I love the word zhuzh — it’s a real word, you guys! So we do these kits, and you can buy a kit for $50 and it’s got everything in it to change your hat out. Maybe you bought a hat from me — maybe you didn’t buy a hat from me — but we make it so we can just ship a little zhuzh kit to you and those are perfect for gifting and also for PR boxes. I’ll invite people in to do the hats and they can bring their kits.
People have said to me, “This permanent jewelry thing, it’s going to be a trend.” Yeah, it’s going to be a trend for the money-grabs, but it’s not a trend for us. How the hell is jewelry a trend? It’s been around since Jesus, you know what I mean? People have been adorning themselves for decades and decades… look at Cleopatra. It’s not going anywhere, a custom-fitted piece of chain is going nowhere.
I’m really trying to pull the word “permanent” from our vocabulary and be Bonded Jewelry, because that’s actually what we are. There’s nothing permanent about anything in life, but this is bonded together with a weld, it’s bonded if you’re sitting here with your best friend, which is why the founders created it — they were best friends and they wanted something they could do that wasn’t tattoos or piercings. A lot of times, it’s that bond, that meaningful connection, and the jewelry needs to last. I’ve got 75 pieces on me and I’ve had most of them on for three, four years. I wear these and test them before they’re allowed to go to our licensees. I test them for six months or a year. I’ve really put them through the ringer to make sure. I geta spray tan every week, lotions, all these things. I don’t believe that a custom-fitted piece of jewelry is going anywhere. I don’t believe bonding with somebody is going anywhere. That meaningful connection behind it isn’t going anywhere. This as an event activation is going to stay around just the way cigar rolling has. Those dang things aren’t going anywhere either, or getting a caricature. Same with hats, people are like, “Oh it’s a trend, it’s a fad.” What? Have you seen cowboys, with their hats? They die with their hat. It’s a hat, it’s not going anywhere. This is America, and some of my biggest corporate clients are from Germany or the UK because they come to the United States and they want the cowboy experience.
Actually, I once was sitting somewhere in San Luis Obispo at the bar after doing this big thing for Boot Barn for two days and I had my jewelry on, and this girl goes, “Oh my god, did you get that permanent jewelry here?” She knew exactly what it was. I go, “No, I own a place and I do it,” and she goes, “Do you have a place?” And I said, “No, I’m fully mobile and I just did this thing for Boot Barn, they’re a good client of mine.” She goes, “But you pop up?” and I said yes and she goes, “Could you pop up right now?” It’s 10 o’clock at night. I’m like, “Well… technically,” and she goes, “What if I made it worth it?” Ok, I’ll ask the owner if I can use that table and we’ll do it. She goes out to the rental car I have, she helps me pull it across the gravel, pop up, $1,500 sale. And she bought me another espresso martini! Have gold, will travel.
I would say one of my main focuses right now is to really expand Bonded across the nation again, and there is a possibility that I might franchise the hat lounge. I do believe that these go hand-in-hand really well. Or it might just be simply that we wholesale the hats. I’ve been looking at warehouse space because I do need to have so many on hand and it does take a while to get them. I’ve closed that gap a little bit with somebody locally — locally meaning the United States. There’s probably 500 hats in here right now, but I don’t want them in here, I want them in a warehouse. I think wholesaling is probably the next thing for me. I think it makes sense and that’ll get it out fast. What will make people want to buy them from me and not someone else…? Who knows, we’ll figure that out when we get there. Maybe just the story, I think sometimes people buy the experience and the experience starts with the person who started the brand and the people that help her run it.
I want to be so busy that I’m employing 10 people. Empowering Bonded owners is one thing, but empowering a team of locals is another. I want all my employees to be full-time. I want to be so busy I need people to help me do everything. The best leaders delegate, and I fight with that because I know it as a fact but if you can’t do it because — I haven’t paid myself yet, how can I pay you and pay you well? Those are the things you battle, it’s always something that you’re figuring out as a business owner, especially a small- to medium-sized business owner. But I do feel like I hit what’s next — what’s next was eight months ago and now it’s maintain and grow and don’t let it fizzle, keep pushing forward.
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