Paris Jewellers is a Canadian, family owned and operated national retail jewellery brand with 23 stores across four provinces. Chau and her sister, Trang, lead the dynamic company with a 90% female workforce. They are originally from Vietnam and did not speak English when they immigrated to Canada.
When Chau joined, the company had a 400 sq. ft. space in St. Albert, AB, and nine stores. She led the expansion plan to grow Paris Jewellers to 23 stores across four Canadian provinces with over 200 employees. She focused on implementing new training, processes and systems to sustain growth and continue expansion across Canada.
Chau is passionate about the jewellery industry, the customer experience and about community partnerships and involvement. Her biggest passion is her family, husband and two daughters ages 9 and 7.
Chau has been working closely with Dr. Jody on an exclusive new jewelry collaboration called the “Connection Collection” launching soon! Take a sneak peek here.
Q: How did you and Dr. Jody meet, and why were you drawn to her?
We met through our incredible friend Dez Melenka at The Creative Hive. Dez introduced me to Dr. Jody over a zoom call and we immediately hit it off! I was drawn to her positive energy and passion for learning about others. She intentionally wants to make the world a better place and is doing that every day just by being herself.
Q: Can you give us a (high-level) idea of the jewellery collaboration you’re working on with Dr. Jody?
From the first moment I met Dr. Jody, she spoke from her heart about her mission to reconnect a disconnected world. Her passion for relationships and staying connected to your community so that we can walk each other home through hard things—was so inspiring to me! The collection is about connection and wearing your heart “literally” on your sleeve. I am so excited to share these pieces with the world, and it is my sincere hope that people feel a sense of community and connection every time they wear them.
Q: What are the two things you would take to a deserted island?
I would take a good book and a bottle of wine! (I should probably choose food, but wine is more fun, right!?)
Q: What is the best/most difficult part of being a leader?
The best part is seeing the people around you grow and achieve things they didn’t think possible. The most difficult part is balancing the ideas and opinions of all team members and being the one to have to make the hard decisions. I believe that if you have a team that is aligned with the company’s vision and mission everyone will come together—which makes all the challenges worth it!
Q: You are seemingly good at everything, a rockstar business owner, wife, mama, friend. Is there anything you really suck at?
Math! There is a reason why my sister handles the accounting and finances at our company.
Q: Racism. When did that word mean something to you?
My entire life. Growing up, it was very hard for us to share about our family and where we were from because of how people would treat us. Our experience created a fear that people wouldn’t support our business if they knew we were immigrants, which was incredibly stressful with over 200 employees and their families depending on us for jobs. However, in the last 3-4 years we’ve learned that sharing our story creates an opportunity to make a difference. If we can change the perspective of just one person, maybe that’s one child that is treated a little bit kinder at school regardless of their differences. Which is worth everything to us.
Q: What advice would you give your 18-year-old self?
Not everyone is going to like you—and that’s okay. I used to measure my self-worth by being liked by people, which was very hard while running a business. I have learned that it doesn’t matter if everyone likes you because if you behave with good intentions, they will respect you instead.
Q: What content are you currently consuming?
I am re-reading the Go-Giver by Bob Burg, which I highly recommend, and I just re-watched To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before on Netflix. One of my favourite actresses, Lana Condor, stars in the movie and I recently had the honour of designing her engagement ring! As soon as they announced their engagement, I immediately wanted to re-watch all the movies again.
Q: If you were not in the jewellery biz, what do you think you’d be doing career-wise?
I love reading, so maybe something in publishing! Or it would be a dream to be a fund development manager for a charity I really believed in.
