Reflections on 2020:
A Year of Change

There are years that change the direction of a business, and then there are years that change just about everything. For me, 2020 was both.

I landed in San Francisco on March 11th for our annual Sample Sale just as COVID was becoming more serious and more frightening by the day. Five days later, San Francisco issued its Shelter in Place order. I remember the pit in my stomach because it was immediately clear that CMD, like so many other small businesses, was heading into completely uncharted territory.

When Everything Changed Almost Overnight

By the beginning of April, my Valencia Street shop was boarded up. I had to furlough my San Francisco team and part of my New York team, and our crew went from eight people to four. Suddenly we were all working from home and trying to figure out how to keep CMD alive when nearly everything about the way we'd been doing business had changed.

Kelsey, Jen and I quickly turned the Sample Sale into a virtual event, and what initially felt like an emergency solution ended up opening a completely new door. People began signing up for virtual appointments, and over the following months I met with more than 400 customers from all over the world through FaceTime and Zoom.

You welcomed me into your homes. I met children, spouses, roommates, partners and pets. There were group calls with girlfriends where we laughed and cried together, and I met nurses and doctors who took a few minutes away from incredibly difficult work to treat themselves to a piece of jewelry. After 15 years of running CMD, I remember feeling more connected to the people wearing my work than ever before.

Finding New Ways to Create and Connect

That summer, I came home to New Jersey to help care for my mom after a major shoulder surgery. Sitting on her screened-in porch, I started the Ring Bar Happy Hour, putting together one-of-a-kind ring combinations and sharing them online. It gave me another way to stay creative, play with jewelry and invite people into my world while so much of real life still felt out of reach.

Virtual appointments and online events had started because we didn't have many other options, but they began teaching me something important. Connection didn't necessarily require everyone to be in the same physical place. That realization would eventually become a lasting part of the way I worked with CMD clients.

Saying Goodbye to San Francisco

When I returned to San Francisco in September, I knew I was ready to move back East permanently. I wanted to be closer to my family and the rest of my team, and after so many years in California, it felt like the right time to begin another chapter.

I announced the closure of the San Francisco shop and started booking farewell appointments with longtime local customers. Saying goodbye to that space and that community was emotional enough on its own. Then life changed again in a way I never could have prepared for.

A Year of Enormous Loss

About a week into those farewell appointments, I tragically lost Kamran, my partner of nearly ten years. I was devastated and had to step away from the business for a while. My team, family, friends and community surrounded me with so much love and support, and my team stepped in and took the reins when I simply couldn't.

Only a few days before I was scheduled to fly back to New Jersey, I also lost my beloved 103-year-old Gram. Because of the circumstances, I had to say goodbye to her through FaceTime. By the end of that year, I had lost two of the most important people in my life.

There isn't a neat lesson I can wrap around that kind of grief. It was simply heartbreaking, and I was incredibly grateful for the people who gave me room to fall apart and helped carry things when I couldn't.

A New Chapter in Asbury Park

I finally made it back to New Jersey at the end of November, just in time for the holidays, and began setting up a new CMD space in Asbury Park. After everything that had happened, having a light-filled space near my family and my team felt like the beginning of something I desperately needed.

At the time, I had no idea exactly what the Asbury Park chapter would become. I just knew CMD had survived a year that forced us to rethink almost everything, and that we were stepping into the next version of the business with a different understanding of what mattered.

What 2020 Changed for CMD

Looking back now, some of the changes that began as survival strategies became lasting parts of CMD. Virtual appointments stayed. Working with clients beyond the limits of one city became normal. The business eventually became more personal, more appointment-driven and much more focused on the kinds of conversations and projects that bring me closest to the people wearing my work.

2020 also reminded me how much a small business depends on the people around it. Customers kept showing up. My team kept showing up. Friends, family and the broader CMD community carried us through a year that could very easily have broken the business entirely.

I don't look back on 2020 and try to turn every hard thing into a silver lining. Some things were simply painful. But I can see the ways CMD changed, the relationships that deepened and the new chapter that somehow began in the middle of all that loss.

More than anything, I'm grateful we're still here.

With love for everyone who helped carry us through,
Colleen

 

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Published: December 31, 2020
Updated: August 19, 2026