Jewelry

Johnson couldn’t have imagined when she turned that hobby of making handcrafted jewelry into a small business that she would end up selling her items in Belk.

Yet that’s exactly happened, with her collection, named Agape Gems, launching about two weeks ago.

“The name of my brand is really my story,” Johnson said. “Agape is the Greek word for unconditional love and my brand is really just about creating opportunities to spread love. Maybe that’s you buying a piece of the jewelry and giving it to someone as a Mother’s Day gift or a graduation gift or a ‘just because’ gift, but you know, wrapped up in that gift is just the reflection of the beauty that we carry within ourselves.”

Each year for the past five years, Belk has hosted a competition, the Southern Designer Showcase, which recruits designers who have a connection to the South and who want to grow their business to compete in what Johnson called a “Shark Tank”-type event.

The contest, which Belk announced in January would come back this year for its sixth year, ultimately gives several winners a cash prize along with a space for their collections to be sold in-store and online.

Johnson said she entered after hearing about it from a previous winner.

“A winner from the previous year, who’s also an Atlanta resident, was giving a talk to a women’s group about being an entrepreneur and shared (information) about the competition,” Johnson said. “I just decided, ‘What is there to lose?’ So I sent in my application and sort of thought, ‘Maybe I’ll hear something, maybe not,’ and I was just thrilled and shocked and hen-crazy nervous when I found out that I had made it as a finalist.”

Finalists, who are chosen by a panel of Belk executives, are invited to present their designs at Belk’s headquarters in Charlotte, N.C.

“It was sort of like a ‘Shark Tank’ presentation,” Johnson said. “They had 13 finalists and we had the opportunity to present our story, our brand and our collection to about 15 of the Belk executives and answer their questions, and then we had a few hours to sit and wait and find out what was going to happen. I was again shocked and amazed when they called my name and I found out that evening that I was one of the winners.”

Johnson was one of five winners. That was June of last year, and Johnson said it has been a whirlwind since.

“There were about nine months of corporate meetings at the headquarters,” she said. “It was just working with different parts of their corporate team on merchandising to ticketing to shipping; it’s a different business (model) than what most of us business owners have dealt with on our small scale. A large retailer is a completely different experience.”

That experience, Johnson said, has been a positive one, albeit sometimes stressful.

Still, she said she’s learned a lot about herself and her business.

“I’ve learned an incredible amount about the importance of branding and having all of the pieces tied together, from the actual piece of merchandise to the tag to the little gift bag that comes with it to the story that is told with it,” Johnson said. “You basically are connecting all those pieces so your brand can stand up to the other big names that are inside Belk. In some of the stores, my jewelry is displayed next to the Kate Spade jewelry — that’s crazy. Figuring out that part of the business was huge.”

What was also huge, and continues to be incredibly important, Johnson said, was sticking with the charities she donates some of her profits to.

“My brand gives back a percentage of its sales to support two nonprofits that are fighting human trafficking,” she said. “One of those is based in Atlanta; it’s called Wellspring Living, and the other is an international campaign called the 821 Campaign. I think it’s important to not just think about doing good but actually go and do good, and that’s my way of spreading that agape love — by giving back to places that are doing good not only in our community but out in the world as well.”