Meet Danielle Jo | Jewelry Designer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Danielle Jo and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Danielle, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
We all have to take risks or we risk losing out on experiencing life to the fullest. For me, fear ruled over my ability to do so in my younger years. Here’s an example of my earlier years and my first real risk I took. Since I was a kid, music has been everything to me. I loved to sing and fantasized about being a famous singer, but I feared anything that put me in the spotlight. In high school, I wanted to do talent shows and such, but at auditions I would walk up to the mike and just giggle while my body trembled. I was so afraid of not being chosen, that I was not good enough, or would completely forget the melody and lyrics. I just couldn’t do it then. Fast forward to college years and I finally got the courage to audition for a band. Took me 30 mins to get the courage to breathe one note, but I did it and started my own underground band in NYC that I had for 16 years. I did not even realize at the time that I was starting to take actual meaningful risks, but I did and that lead to many more to come. I wouldn’t say I’m fearless by any means, but when I worked in the world of luxury fashion I started to really put myself out there. I gave 100% of me, my time, my loyalty, and my passion to make each client feel beautiful and confident about themselves always performing above expectations. Who would have known that taking the risk of learning to follow my heart and believe in myself would lead me to going back to school to reinvent myself in fashion as a Jewelry Designer. I did so even though I had never made a single piece of jewelry before, but I knew I wanted to help change and empower people’s lives one client at a time through jewelry. I took action on my gut feeling that this is what I was meant to do. While at school, I knew the whole time I was done working for other people. I was tired of others making more money off my talents than I was, and took the biggest risk of my life, thus far, and started GhostLine Designs, a jewelry line Created To Bring Out The Warrior In You. I am so in love with what I do that I don’t fear failure anymore. I fear not doing what I want in life that I know will make a difference in this world.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
GhostLine Designs is a warrior inspired jewelry line. My hardships in life are what inspired me to create bold statement pieces that evoke a sense of empowerment, confidence, and protection when you put them on. I had lost all of that for an 8 year period in my life because of what I went through, and was made me feel like a ghost in this world. The specifics of my story are in my last interview if you would like to know more about that. I do have to say, had I not gone through all of it, I wouldn’t be where I am today. Making jewelry is the best therapy out there. I love what I do. I love all the new people I have met. I love that I am now primarily surrounded by creative people that I get to collaborate with on amazing new projects. Going back to fashion design school later in life was the best decision I have ever made as it is what has lead me to help transform myself and my clients. If you are interested in having your own warrior piece custom made that will have a fantastical story behind it, feel free to reach out to me personally at daniellejo@ghostlinedesigns.com . It would be such an honor to work with you and give you the full GhostLine Designs experience.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My first shoutout would go to the former owners/founders of Intermix, with whom I had the honor of working with for 10 years. They taught me so much about the in’s and out’s of retail and corporate world of fashion. They are the reason I had the courage to start my own line and business in fashion. I can’t thank them enough for their trust and loyalty they gave me and all the opportunities I had to wear so many different hats for the company. My husband is definitely my biggest supporter and deserves the biggest shoutout. I wouldn’t be where I am today without him and I am so thankful that he believes in me like I believe in myself. My last shoutout is to myself. Because I was raised to hustle and have a strong work ethic, I ultimately am the one that made all these opportunities happen. If I hadn’t given it my all and hadn’t proven that I was irreplaceable, I never would have gotten myself here.

Website: www.ghostlinedesigns.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/ghostline_designs
Facebook: www.facebook.com/ghostlinedesigns

Image Credits
Andreea Radutoiu