Meet Michael McGoey of turquoisematrix in Boulder

Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael McGoey.

Michael, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I’ve been collecting rocks my entire life. They’ve inspired me and grounded me, anchoring memories, places and time. My passion for turquoise took root when I moved from the east coast to Colorado (in 1995) where I was exposed to Native American and Tibetan art that incorporated this timeless stone.

After my son was born in 2000, I pursued a career in technology sales that reflected a dramatic shift in my priorities as a new dad. While investing energy to develop this opportunity to support my new family I realized just how critical it was to nurture my own hobbies. This included learning the basics of metalsmithing in 2005.

My interests in metalsmithing were driven almost entirely by creating turquoise and silver jewelry. I soon found myself burning hours of the work day scouring the internet for any and all information related to this stone. I was particularly fascinated by the ‘local’ mines of the Southwest that have produced some of the world’s best turquoise. At the time, the primary resource for acquiring stones online was eBay. As the years passed, I would invest a small amount of each paycheck into turquoise stones I found – as a gift to myself – a selfish indulgence that reflected my work not to support my family, but to support my soul.

Some of the stones I bought were used in early jewelry creations while many were set aside for a ‘rainy day.’ Slowly, I built relationships with the stones of my collection, acknowledging the history of the mine, the mining families involved while acknowledging that each stone was entirely unique, with its own aesthetic qualities and ‘energy’ that would inspire new jewelry creations.

Fast forward many years to 2009 and I was no longer able to work due to complications from advanced neuropathic lyme disease and co-infections. At this point my son was 10 and my daughter was 7. My wife at the time did not work. In an effort to support my family and account for increased medical bills I started slowly selling my collection of stones through eBay. My listings included detailed descriptions of the mine, the miners involved, the lapidary artist who cut the stone etc. I took a big leap of faith and started investing some of the money from the sale of stones into buying raw turquoise (known as ‘rough’) direct from the miners. I sought out and built relationships with professional lapidary artists in CO and New Mexico who could ‘process’ this rough into cabochons for jewelry. My eBay account name was ‘turquoisematrix’ .

Around 2014, some friends encouraged me to move my business over to Instagram. I was hesitant to make this move as I didn’t really understand how a social media platform could serve a commerce function. I gave it a try though, for fun and launched @turquoisematrix in early 2015. Within 3 or 4 months I had established enough business to sever ties with eBay (a relief) and run weekly sales entirely through Instagram. Four years and 31k followers later, the business continues to thrive.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
There have been an assortment of struggles along the way. While eBay provided a marketplace to reach thousands if not millions of people, it also enforced rigid ‘conditions’ for buyers and sellers that were not always favorable. As a result, eBay would consistently side with the buyer on any complaint – enabling buyers to get out of any purchase they made and leave terrible feedback to effectively ruin your business etc. To complicate matters eBay at the time owned Paypal which meant if they felt it necessary they could ‘freeze’ your Paypal account effectively turning off your business (and your funds) without notice.

The challenge with Instagram was that the platform is not built for commerce. Therefore all processes in managing a sale must be handling manually which is time intensive. Beyond that, while the idea of selling turquoise on Instagram was relatively new in 2015, by 2017 it was commonplace. This created significant competition as more and more people came out of the woodwork to offer their own stones. Finally it’s worth mentioned that Instagram’s shift from a ‘chronological’ feed (where posts appear in your timeline as they are posted) to an algorithmic driven timeline (where Instagram’s tool is determining which posts people see) in early 2016 created challenges, determining who sees what posts, that still persist today.

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about turquoisematrix – what should we know?
What sets my business apart is the consistent quality of the stones that I offer. As a jeweler this is something you notice immediately when creating a work of art. If a stone is cut poorly it directly impacts the aesthetic quality (and potential value) of the final piece of jewelry. Therefore I insist on only offering stones that are cut by professional lapidary artists that are even height and uniform, consistent, often calibrated shapes. This approach, coupled with the diversity of the mines that I offer is a key differentiator from ‘other’ turquoise businesses online.

While most people selling turquoise cabochons online offer stones from 3 or 4 mines at a time, my weekly sales typically offer stones from twenty to thirty different mines from around the world. As is the case with turquoise, each mine has its own unique character in color, in tone and ‘matrix.’ Many of the mines that I offer no longer produce turquoise. In fact, due to the difficulties in mining turquoise, including scarcity, more than 80% of the turquoise mines that were once open in the 1970’s are now closed and will not re-open.

For people, like myself, that are passionate about turquoise and collect it for the jewelry they make and their own personal collections, this offers an opportunity to acquire very rare, professionally cut stones at an affordable price.

Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
1) Consistency – as previously mentioned, customers can tell the difference in my stones due to the time and energy invested for each stone to be cut properly.

2) Community – Instagram offers a unique opportunity to connect with your customers and foster relationships. I love that I get to see what my customers are creating with my stones!

3) I’m a maker – I create jewelry myself. Therefore I understand first hand how my customers interact with my product and what really matters.

4) Always customers first – no matter what the circumstance I invest all of my energy in putting the customers needs first. This is something I’m constantly working on improving.

5) Authenticity – most of my customers are small business owners. They understand the challenges of operating a small business while also trying to keep up with the demands of life. I do my best to interweave my story into my business so that my customers understand that I am in every way just like that them.

6) Love – I love what I do. I love the stone and believe in the energy that it contains. I run a legitimate business and don’t cut corners. Most of the money generated from this business goes back to supporting the miners and the mining families that are responsible for extracting the rock from the earth. I believe 100% that working fairly and honestly with people allows for ‘positive’ energy to reach my customers. This same energy transcends as they create jewelry that is worn and enjoyed by people all over the world.

Contact Info:

• Address: Earth
• Website: www.turquoisematrix.com
• Email: mike@turquoisematrix.com
• Instagram: @turquoisematrix
• Other: https://www.etsy.com/shop/TurquoiseMatrixShop

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