Why Women Wear Earrings
She said, “Do you know why women wear earrings?”
I said, “I think I do, but no.”
She said, “It’s to catch and hold your attention. I’m wearing earrings”
I said, “Yes.”
She said, “You’re a jeweler, a male, you run a jewelry store…”
I said, “Yes…”
She said, “I’m going to make you a wager. Here’s $10.” She laid a brand new $10 bill on the counter. She said, “Have you got a ten?”
I said, “Sure.”
She said, “Get it out. Now really, you can’t lose. I’ve already told you why women wear earrings – it’s to hold and capture your attention. If you can explain what that really means then this $10 is yours.”
If I can do a better job of explaining, your 10 dollars are mine, and you get to declare the winner. Seems more than fair, right? I said, “You’re on.”
I went technical. Precious gold, real gold, great craftsmanship. Diamonds sparkling, playing off the gold. The feeling of wealth, warmth, worth, and wonder. She said, “That was good.” It felt like I had done well but I had the feeling she was about to do better. I had the feeling she’d already won and that I wasn’t the first to take her bet. It was clear her setup was masterful. She was good at what she did.
She said, “I will convince you with fewer than 50 words and it will take less than 5 minutes. She said, “Are you ready?”
I said, “Go for it.”
She said, “I want you to look into my eyes. Notice the earrings, but look deeply into my eyes for a full minute.”
She said, “Now I’m going to take these earrings off, do the minute thing again.”
She said, “I’m going to put them back on, do another minute.”
She said, “What have you seen?”
I said, “Wow. You won, here’s your $10.”
She said, “So what did you see?”
I said, “First – your eyes are green.”
“Second – I feel like I know you better than my girlfriend (don’t tell her that).”
“Third – Like you said, the earrings held me. They were precious gold bookends. I was focused on you, the eye contact was strong.”
“Fourth – When you took the earrings off, the spell was broken and you seemed to change. You seemed different, less engageable, I could drift – I did drift.”
“Fifth – When you put them back in, you got me again. Some part of me knows you’re trying to sell me something, and yet the earrings engage, the earrings pulled me in deeper…Every word you said is magnified when you have the earrings on.”
“Sixth – Do all earrings do this?”
She said, “Yes and no. Some more strongly than others. There are A, and B, and C earrings, all women know this – you guys are generally oblivious but you respond. When we want powerful earrings we get our “A” earrings out. It’s not just expense that makes an “A” pair of earrings – it’s style, design, gems, “the look”. It also depends on the occasion. It depends on what you’ll be wearing, it depends on hair.”
I said, “So which earrings are ‘A’s’?”
She said, “Whoa! Whoa! You’re asking a good question but we’ve gone beyond this lesson, on another visit we’ll get into “A’s” vs “B’s” vs “C’s”.
I said, “This is fascinating. I never understood why, I just sold earrings.”
She said, “Women do a much better job selling earrings because they can talk with you. You guys kick tires, talk zero to sixty, explain quality and tell us the price – you talk at, not with. Women know earrings are high performance attention-getters and attention-holders.
Yes, she was a sales lady for an American jewelry manufacturer and yes, I bought the style she was wearing. I bought other “A” style earrings that morning, I tried focusing on “A’s”. She cautioned me though, and said I should also be choosing some “B” styles as well because we need them, and women need to be able to power down. Even “C” style earrings – they are important as well. They are easy, simple – just like a t-shirt and jeans. An “A” style earring is powerful. An “A” style earring is strong. It speaks louder and communicates a lot more information. Despite operating on a subconscious level, “A’s” deliver a punch. She promised a deeper discussion on “B’s” and “C’s”, and the importance of powering down. Cross will cover that in another post.
This is the simple male jeweler catching a simple obvious clue, this was the pair of earrings she wore that morning. The earrings are open, airy, swept back. The diamonds swirl, the gold echoes the swirl. There’s enough detail in this pair to catch and hold the eye. Elegant? Yes. Sophisticated? Yes. Dangerously powerful? Yes. A certified pair of “A” earrings? Yes.
This pair of earrings have 54 diamonds equaling .61 carat total weight. They are ingeniously made with clip-posts which allows them to drop off the ear lobe just a bit.
