Building a Brand Worn by Rihanna, Hailey Bieber AND Coco Gauff
Episode 126: Jennifer Fisher
In this episode of the Matthews Mentality Podcast, Kyle Matthews sits down with Jennifer Fisher, founder and Chief Brand Officer of Jennifer Fisher Jewelry, founder of Maedyn, and author of Trust Your Gut.
The New York Times called her the Queen of Hoops. Jennifer spent ten years as a wardrobe stylist, starting out on commercials, before making a single piece for herself — a gold tag with her son's name on it, created after years of fertility setbacks because nothing on the market felt like her. She wore it on set, made one for Uma Thurman, and Uma chose to wear it on the cover of Glamour without telling her first.
She has lived with a desmoid tumor, a soft tissue sarcoma, since she was 30, at a point when nobody was certain how to treat it. Twelve rounds of chemotherapy shrank it. Turning 50 and living with Hashimoto's, she later read her way into an anti-inflammatory approach to food that became her signature salts, her cookbook, and Maedyn, the lifestyle and media platform she now runs alongside the jewelry business.
The conversation also explores bootstrapping for almost 20 years before taking on Centric Brands, a roughly $3 billion licensing company, as a manufacturing partner; the surge in demand COVID produced; how she gets her jewelry onto the people who wear it; and what gold prices and tariffs are doing to the business right now.
Topics covered in this episode:
The New York Times naming her the Queen of Hoops
Ten years styling commercials before she made any jewelry
Making the first gold tag for her son after years of fertility setbacks
Uma Thurman wearing her piece on the cover of Glamour
Living with a desmoid tumor since the age of 30
Twelve rounds of chemotherapy while building the business
Why she wants people in the office rather than remote
Bootstrapping for almost 20 years before any outside partner
Why COVID created a surge in demand for the brand
Partnering with Centric Brands to scale manufacturing and wholesale
How she approaches getting jewelry onto celebrities
Hashimoto's, inflammation, and rethinking how she eats
Where the name Maedyn came from, and what it is now
What rising gold prices and tariffs mean for a jewelry business
Her husband coming in to run the company
How her family, and the tumor, still shape what drives her
Jennifer also explains why the biggest decisions in her career came from listening to herself rather than the people telling her to go another way, and why she kept going through the stretches when nothing went to plan.
Whether you're an entrepreneur, founder, creative, or someone interested in fashion, branding, health, or building a consumer business, this conversation offers a close look at the decisions behind Jennifer Fisher Jewelry and the woman who built it.
Show Notes:
00:00 Rihanna Walks In
01:01 Meet Jennifer Fisher
02:35 A Day in the Life
03:57 Remote Work vs the Office
11:24 Work Ethic From Family
14:10 Money Loss and Anxiety as Fuel
18:13 Living With a Desmoid Tumor
21:46 The Jewelry Origin Story
24:24 Queen of Hoops
25:59 The Anti-Inflammatory Shift
28:10 Styling Career and Hustle
30:53 Founder Mom Tradeoffs
35:32 Raising Hardworking Kids
38:35 Always-On Sacrifices
40:36 Bootstrapping, Then Partners
42:19 The COVID Demand Surge
44:58 Scaling With Systems
48:15 The Celebrity Seeding Strategy
51:04 Trusting Her Gut
53:45 New Lines and Menswear
54:13 The Maedyn Origin Story
58:03 Adversity and Mindset
01:01:00 Advice for Starting Out
01:02:09 Being a Female Founder
01:04:45 Mentorship and Giving Back
01:08:50 Defining Success
01:10:07 The Nicest Thing Anyone Did
01:11:00 Praise From Anna Wintour
01:12:40 Fashion Favorites
01:13:56 Her Husband as CEO
01:16:11 The Rihanna Amex Story
01:18:13 Gold Prices and Tariffs
01:21:09 Trends and Lab Diamonds
01:23:32 The Long-Term Vision
01:27:16 Family, Motivation, Perspective
01:30:50 Closing Thoughts
