Everything about his career challenges you: the beginnings, the salary, the way of doing things. Because her career dream took root while she worked in a retirement home. At 21 years old and with only 1 year of experience, she earns up to 11,000 euros per month. His job? Selling precious stones… but not as you think. Testimony.
The generations of yesteryear think she is arrogant, lazy, always wanting to get her money and butter tirelessly, without putting in the necessary hours of work. However, Gen Z continues to surprise us. At 21, Clara (@thegemaura) is one of the disruptive players in a luxury sector known to be conservative: fine jewelry. A fashion story like no other. Encounter.
Gemologist “not even 1 year ago”the young woman earns her living by searching for and selling precious stones. Atypical, his way of doing things raises the hackles of some purists. A divisive technique which nevertheless bears fruit: his salary revolves around“at least €5,000 per month”while she is a junior. The biggest hit in 1 year of activity? “11,000 and some”. “The crazy thing is I started in December and my biggest month was the following February”she tells us.
Nothing predestined her for this life journey. Daughter of parents “both doctors”Clara originally wanted “do something in the medical field, related to the elderly” for whom she “always had a special attachment.” She will therefore find her vocation for stone… in a retirement home. She notes that“we don’t see too much jewelry on seniors anymore”that the “security call bracelets or pendants are not very nice”. Her desire to remedy this will push her to train in design and gemmology to imagine her own creations.
From mines to markets, she travels the planet in search of the most beautiful stones and then sells them on the internet. Today, Clara earns a monthly income 3 times higher than the minimum wage. In an era where “few people trust this online business, buying precious stones online”the one who grew up in Dijon brilliantly succeeds in selling them via her networks. The key to its success? Sessions of “live selling, live sales on Instagram” that last “at least 2h30 or even 4h” ; history of “captivate the audience” and establish a relationship of trust. “We have to give them time”she explains.
“Sometimes they will say to themselves ‘I don’t want to buy right away, I want to see what she will offer me. Once she has shown everything, I will come back to a stone that I liked, ask questions, ask her to show it again, and why not buy it.'” Accompanied by an owner whose stones she has analyzed, Clara plays the intermediary and presents them one by one in front of the camera – like the teleshopping of yesteryear but via social network. Result: she sells a stone “between $2,000 and $6,000.” The most expensive transaction concluded to date? “A Mahenge spinel, sold for $16,000” (i.e. €14,000).
A way of operating that breaks the codes of the Old Continent and France – a market that still resists it. “I work with few people in Europe. The majority of my clients come from the United States.”
“In France, people have so much confidence in the jeweler in their town that they will not necessarily buy a stone online.” But the young woman has not said her last word: “My goal later is to reach Europe.”
