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ORU students receive off-the-cuff advice from Tulsa businesswoman, Jill Donovan

“You are only equipped with what you need to know each day.”

Oral Roberts University alumna, Jill Donovan shared these words of wisdom with students at the “Nights to Arise” student leadership meeting on Wednesday, April 15 in Christ’s Chapel.

The communications grad shared her story of creating a nationally acclaimed business from the ground up in three years.

ORU Organizational and Interpersonal Communications alumna, Jill Donovan shared her story of becoming repurposed with ORU student at “Nights to Arise.”

After being embarrassed on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” for regifting, Donovan emptied her gift closet and refilled the shelves with purpose.

This purpose came in the form of leather, metal and creativity. Donovan would sit cross-legged on the floor of her guest bedroom and create wrist cuffs through the night hours. She did this for a year, telling no one and ruining her carpet with glue.

“I became, for the first time, truly passionate about something,” Donovan said. “For the first time in my life, I found something I wanted to miss sleep for.”

From the ground up, the floor of her guest bedroom, birthed Donovan’s booming jewelry company, the “Rustic Cuff.”

She gifted one cuff to a friend, and it exploded from there. More people kept telling more people, more orders kept coming in and more house parties were held until she decided to turn her craft into a business (so the IRS wouldn’t come hunt her down she joked.)

Once her business started to take off, Donovan decided to mail 20 cuffs to her favorite celebrities. It wasn’t long before they started popping up on her TV screen donning wrists of talk show hosts and red carpet personalities. She has appeared herself on numerous talk shows, and has sold her line on “Good Morning America” twelve times.

“Rustic Cuff” designs by Jill Donovan. Photo credit: “The Rustic Cuff.”

Today, she has 24 full-time employees: all her girlfriends, who work in production, retail, wholesale, customer service, inventory, shipping and handling. Donovan does all her social media advertising and jewelry designing. She has created more than a hundred designs, each named after an employee, friend, one of her two daughters and their friends.

“It literally was like a volcano erupted and then there has been no recovering,” said “Rustic Cuff” employee and recent ORU grad, Christine Oppermann. “We have just been accelerating ever since.”

The “Rustic Cuff” has recently branched out to carry clutches and a necklace line called “Kate 48” after her daughter’s friend. Donovan creates her pieces using exotic skins like python, ostrich and stingray. Many cuffs are hand stamped with personal messages.

“I’ve always loved big statement cuffs,” Donovan said. “I have collected cuffs from the different countries I have visited with my husband.”

Donovan worked as a flight attendant before attending law school at the University of Tulsa where she went on to teach law for eight years. She thought the “Oprah Show” would be her big break. The embarrassing episode aired three times, exposing her moment of criticism from Canadian psychologists to roughly 60 million viewers.

“If that had never happened, I would have never had the desire to empty those the shelves and refill them with my cuffs. I wouldn’t have had this rehumbling experience to live freely and to replan for God’s purpose in my life,” Donovan said.

Her redemptive story came full circle in March, when she received a text message to look at the cover of “O, The Oprah Magazine.” On it, Oprah wore a regifted cuff Donovan had sent to Oprah’s best friend, CBS reporter Gayle King.

Despite her roaring success, what Donovan enjoys most about her business is giving back.

“It has become so much more than the cuff,” Donovan said. “It’s not about the money. It’s not about the cuffs. It’s about what we get to do with the cuff.”

This is what “Rustic Cuff” employees like recent ORU Grad, Jadyn Tumpkin most admire about Donovan.

“Jill is one of the most generous people ever. She gives to others so freely,” Tumpkin said. “I was working once and she came in the room and said, ‘You can’t work here without a cuff!’ And gave everyone in the room a free, very nice bracelet.”

At the close of her “Nights to Arise” presentation, Donovan gave each student in attendance a hand stamped cuff with the message, “Wherever you are, be all there.”

She asked that each student pass the cuff along to someone they don’t know, and to return to her store to receive their own personal cuff.

“You have to be open to thinking outside your box or just being organic to who or what God wants to bring in your path. Be fully present, even when you’re checking out at the grocery store,” Donovan said. “This all happened organically, not by me pushing it like I did trying to get on the ‘Oprah Show.’”

I have been very blessed by Jill and aspire to be a Godly, stylish, successful woman like her in my future career.