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Allow us to name-drop on behalf of 1999 Bellport High School graduate Jenny O’Sullivan.
Law & Order: SVU
Elvis Duran and the Morning Show
EdiTORIal by Tori Spelling
All three, among others, have featured Hole In Her Stocking Designs, the jewelry line O’Sullivan runs out of her East Patchogue home.
She’s the designer and creator, and like so many in the world of crafts, O’Sullivan got started on Etsy.
But instead of hanging a virtual sign on the virtual door and waiting for business, O’Sullivan did what all enterprising, fledgling entrepreneurs do when they don’t have a marketing budget.
She got creative.
Her biggest coup came through the care packages she had been sending to the nationally syndicated Elvis Duran Morning Show on Z100. Two female personalities on the show, Carla Marie and Danielle Monaro, eventually took a liking to O’Sullivan’s handiwork.
Then one morning she got an email from Carla Marie saying her products were going to be featured the next morning on the show.
“It felt almost surreal” she said of hearing about herself on Z100 the morning of April 16, as she listened from East Patchogue.
“I probably got about 300 sales,” she said. “I had to place a huge order for supplies — and everything I do is pretty much made-to-order — so, yeah, it was insane.”
O’Sullivan, who’s also developed healthy Instagram and Pinterest followings, has seen her business quadruple in the last year, not too long after quitting her other job and going at her own business full-time.
Aside from her ability to network and develop inroads with groups that have connections to the television world, through which her products get used on shows like Law & Order, O’Sullivan credits her early success to a combination of nature and nurture.
“My family was always into crafting,” she said. “My grandma, my mom were always into making jewelry.”
The name of her business, Hole In Her Stocking Designs, comes from the song Dance With A Dolly (With A Hole In Her Stocking), something O’Sullivan heard often growing up.
“It actually goes back to my mom and my grandma, and we would all go crazy dancing and singing to that,” she said. “Me and my sister and mom and grandma used to jump around.”
O’Sullivan — whose last name was Merritt in her Bellport High days — describes her jewelry as boho, or bohemian, inspired. “But, of course, going with the times and what’s trendy, too,” she adds.
Talented as she might be, O’Sullivan said she spends probably 70 percent of her work time trying to market her product.
That, and she’s constantly thinking about how to market her product.
As for her creations dangling from the wrists of TV stars, whether it’s Paige Hurd from Hawaii Five-0, or Dylan Gelula from Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, it’s not as if anyone really knows who makes the jewelry.
But it’s good for name dropping.
And that’s good for getting people to learn all about her and her stuff.
Click here to see the writeup on elvisduran.com.
You can watch the Andrew Singers perform Dance With A Dolly by clicking here.
Photos courtesy of Jenny O’Sullivan (pictured above)
