Jewelry Journey Podcast – Avi Levy   What you’ll learn in this episode:   What causes a customer to trust (or not trust) a gem laboratory  How the International Gemological Institute (IGI) is trying to make the jewelry industry more sustainable  Why labs, retailers and dealers have a duty to educate customers on gemstones  Why lab-grown gems are growing in popularity, and why some customers will always choose natural stones   About Avi Levy   Avi Levy currently serves as President of the International Gemological Institute (IGI) North America. With 30 years of fine jewelry expertise, Avi brings valuable experience to the Institute including diamond sourcing, manufacturing, product development, brand partnerships and wholesale trade to major jewelry retailers. Skilled in building relationships and trust within all areas of the supply chain, his leadership skills and expertise gained from various roles have yielded advantageous results and strengthened key partnerships. Additional Resources: Website Instagram @igi_gemgrams Facebook LinkedIn   Photos: Available on TheJeweleryJourney.com Transcript: Founded in 1975, the International Gemological Institute (IGI) is the largest independent gemological laboratory worldwide with more than 20 laboratories. Avi Levi leads the North American division of the business, and his goal is to bring this esteemed company into the 21st century. He joined the Jewelry Journey Podcast to talk about why he partnered with SCS Global Services to make IGI’s work more sustainable; how IGI is maintaining trust with clients while updating its offerings; and why he wants to educate consumers on the intricacies of natural and lab-grown stones. Read the episode transcript here.   Sharon: Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Jewelry Journey Podcast. This is the second part of a two-part episode. Today, my guest is Avi Levy, North American President of the International Gemological Institute or IGI, a 45-year-old company. IGI provides the fine jewelry community and consumers with a broad range of services. Welcome back.    You described this as part of your resuscitation or rejuvenation process for IGI. I like those words a lot. Tell me more about them. To me, the internal change is so important because so many companies just do the outside. Are you doing ads or social media in addition to the internal change? What are you doing?   Avi: We’re doing a little bit of everything. Yes, it all starts inside. Defense always wins the game, as they say. It starts inside because you have to change the culture inside. You have to give the people the power. You have to give the people confidence and the backing that you’re behind them, that you want to help them work, you want to help them grow. I always say I want people on my team who are thinkers, people who are doers, people who can help get the message across. That’s bringing new people in as well as talking to the people who have been here for a while and helping them see different things. Everybody likes to have change, but you need to have support.   In addition to the inside, yes, we’re doing things. We have different social media campaigns. We have discussions and talks with our current customers and new customers. We explain to them why it’s important for IGI to do things in a different manner. It’s also important for a service company to listen to its customers, to hear what their customers need today. That goes all the way down from the wholesalers to the retailers to the consumers. Consumers are shopping differently today. Not everyone goes to the store. A lot of people are more online. There’s a lot more information out there that customers have at their fingertips to help educate them. We want to do everything we can so when they click on IGI.org, there’s education that can help them understand the way the market is today, what the offerings are, why certain things are happening, what the reasons for certification are, why it’s important to have an IGI cer