The Business Lesson Nobody Talks About: Keep Showing Up Even When Nothing Is Happening
Can I tell you about Wendy?
Wendy runs Alchemy Bejewelled, a fine jewellery business where every single piece is handmade using traditional goldsmithing techniques with precious metals and precious stones. Her work is extraordinary. She also teaches workshops from her studio, makes bespoke commissions, and this year has had a phenomenal summer creating wedding rings for couples.
But it took three years of showing up, consistently, with very little coming back, before things really started to move.
Three years of fairs that didn’t convert. Three years of social media posts into what felt like a void. Three years of putting herself out there while navigating serious health challenges — burnout, fibromyalgia, autism and ADHD — alongside building something she truly loved.
And then, in the last six months, everything flipped.
I sat down with Wendy on this week’s podcast and her story is one of the most honest and important ones I’ve shared yet. Because what she’s learned about resilience, finding the right audience, and the slow burn of building something real — applies to every single woman in business, whatever you sell and wherever you are in your journey.
1. The effort you put in now will pay off later — even when you can’t see it
This is the hardest thing to hold onto when you’re in the thick of it. You’re doing everything right. You’re showing up on social media. You’re going to events. You’re putting yourself out there. And nothing seems to be happening.
But here’s what Wendy’s story shows us: it was happening. Every fair she attended, even the ones where she didn’t sell a thing. Every social media post. Every time someone saw her name and scrolled past. Every review, every Google listing update, every flyer handed out. It was all accumulating.
Marketing experts talk about touch points — the number of times someone needs to encounter your brand before they’re ready to buy. It can be thirty. It can be fifty. People don’t buy the first time they see you. They buy when they’ve seen you enough times that you feel familiar, trustworthy and top of mind.
Wendy described the moment it clicked for her. People started posting in Facebook groups saying “I think there’s a lady on Poplar Hill in Stowmarket that does jewellery, does anyone have her contact?” They’d been seeing her for months. They’d been watching. And when they were finally ready — they knew exactly who to look for.
All of that quiet, consistent effort is not wasted. It’s building something. You just can’t always see it while it’s happening.
2. The wrong audience isn’t a failure — it’s information
Wendy spent years doing craft fairs that weren’t working for her. She’d put in enormous effort — preparing her pieces, setting up her stall, pushing through pain and exhaustion to be there — and come away with nothing.
She got demoralised. She gave up on fairs entirely.
But here’s the thing she eventually realised: the fairs weren’t wrong. The audience was wrong. Craft fairs with budget products and shoppers looking to spend five or ten pounds are not the right home for handmade fine jewellery with precious stones. Of course it wasn’t converting.
When she found the right venue — a local vineyard with a completely different customer base, people who had the budget and the appetite for beautiful, handcrafted things — everything changed. Sales happened on the spot. Workshops were booked. Flyers were taken and followed up on.
The lesson here is not that events don’t work. It’s that the right events, in front of the right people, make all the difference. And figuring out what ‘right’ looks like for your business is not a failure. It’s the most valuable research you can do.
When something isn’t working, before you give up entirely — ask yourself: is this the wrong strategy, or is this the wrong audience for this strategy?
3. Get yourself visible everywhere — and let it compound
Wendy’s turning point didn’t come from one single thing. It came from a combination of things all landing at the same time after years of consistent effort.
The vineyard fairs. A renewed focus on social media with support from her brilliant assistant Danielle. Serious work on her Google Business Profile and reviews. Showing up more consistently online. All of it working together until the momentum finally tipped.
This is how visibility works. It’s not one magic thing. It’s social media plus Google plus in-person presence plus word of mouth plus reviews plus being in the right rooms with the right people. Each one reinforces the others. Each one adds another touch point. And at some point, the accumulation reaches a tipping point and things start to accelerate.
If you’re feeling like you’re everywhere and nothing is happening — keep going. The compounding hasn’t kicked in yet. But it will.
4. Get your reviews and your Google presence sorted
One of the things Wendy credits most for her recent growth is the work she’s put into her Google Business Profile.
For a business like hers — where people are spending significant amounts of money on something precious and personal — trust is everything. Nobody is going to spend hundreds of pounds on a bespoke piece of jewellery from someone they’ve just spotted on Facebook. They need to see reviews. They need to find her on Google. They need to see that other people have had a great experience.
Your Google Business Profile is free. Reviews are free. And both of them are working for you twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, even when you’re asleep. If you haven’t set yours up or haven’t asked your happy customers for reviews recently — this is your nudge.
5. Get the right support around you
Wendy is brilliantly talented but she’s also honest about the things she finds genuinely difficult — the social media, the admin, the organisational side of running a business. These things are hard for lots of people, but for Wendy, navigating neurodiversity and chronic illness makes them even harder.
The moment things really started to change for her business was when she found Danielle — who she met through networking — and got the right support in place. Danielle handles the social media and the admin. She comes to events with Wendy. She shows up, encourages, supports. And because she understands Wendy’s needs, the working relationship really works.
You do not have to do everything yourself. In fact, trying to do everything yourself is often the thing that keeps businesses stuck. Identifying the things that drain you and finding someone who does them naturally is one of the best investments you can make.
And the best place to find that person? A room full of brilliant women who all do different things. Wendy found Danielle through networking. That’s not a coincidence.
6. Networking doesn’t have to look the same for everyone
This is something I want to say clearly because I think it matters.
Wendy finds in-person networking overwhelming. Walking into a room of people she doesn’t know is genuinely hard for her. And yet networking has played a significant part in building her business.
Because networking is not just turning up to events. It’s being an active part of the Facebook community. It’s posting, engaging, commenting, asking questions and answering them. It’s the connection that happens when someone posts in a group looking for a local jeweller and your name comes up because people know you from the community.
Wendy gets an enormous amount of value from the WIN Facebook group without always being able to make it to in-person events. And that’s completely valid. The community is there for you in whatever way works for you.
If in-person events feel like too much right now — start with the online session. Start with the group. Come when you can and give yourself grace when you can’t. Just stay connected.
A final thought from Wendy
I asked Wendy what advice she’d give to someone who is putting in all the effort and seeing very little back. Her answer was simple and I think it’s the best advice in this whole blog.
“Just keep showing up. And the longer it takes, the more satisfying it is when you finally break through.”
She’s right. The breakthrough is coming. Keep going. 💛
About Wendy
Wendy runs Alchemy Bejeweled, creating beautiful handmade fine jewellery using precious metals and precious stones. She also runs workshops for up to four people from her studio in Stowmarket — whether you’re a complete beginner or an experienced maker looking to hire a bench. If you’ve been thinking about a bespoke piece or a jewellery-making experience, go and find her.
Find Wendy here:
🌐 https://alchemybejewelled.co.uk
📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alchemy.bejewelled
👤 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AlchemyBejewelled
Want to hear the full conversation?
Listen to my full chat with Wendy on the Women Inspired Networking Conversations podcast, available now on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
🎙️ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0DM7Ooc5nLezg4u91OklYo?si=83acff1303aa4471
📺 YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDVCZqf8LiBs92aTeEHZsWrtoNRJEVCXn&si=kfsbmnaQYm0lelUk
Come and find your people:
🌐 www.womeninspirednetwork.com/events
👤 Facebook: Women Inspired Network: Networking For Women In Business
📸 Instagram: @women_inspired_network