LEHI — A Utah County woman is an example of resilience and determination in the face of adversity.
Jerilyn Brunson, a single mother and entrepreneur, can often be found at Embrace Beauty Salon near Thanksgiving Point in Lehi or at various events — welding and assembling bracelets, necklaces, and other custom-fit statement pieces for patrons of her business as a permanent jewelry artist.
Brunson, 41, is a recent breast cancer survivor and enjoys creating jewelry for others who may have endured a similar health struggle or something that’s personal and meaningful to them.
“I’ve seen women cry after I’ve made them jewelry. I’ve seen people just like so excited and so happy, completely smitten and in awe. And I just adore that part of the job,” she said.
But before Brunson’s “In Her M Era,” the custom jewelry business took off, and she navigated her own personal struggles.
Education to entrepreneurship
Brunson balanced marriage with her career as an educator for most of her 30s. Initially, she went to school to be a social worker, but later discovered she wanted to do something else.
“I wanted to be a teacher, so I went back to school and got my degree in teaching. So I did all that while I was in my 20s,” she recounted.
Brunson spent six years as a full-time teacher and at one point also worked a second job, helping a friend who owned a jewelry business.
Brunson and her ex-husband welcomed their first child in 2020, and she decided to take a break from teaching. Their second child was born not long after.
“I just kind of really focused on raising my kids,” she said. “And we had two kids pretty quickly; they’re 16 months apart.”
However, things took a sharp turn when Brunson’s marriage ended in 2024. When she and her ex-husband decided to get a divorce, Brunson knew she’d have to go back to work, but day care seemed out of financial reach — at least not on a teacher’s salary.
“So that’s when I kind of decided (and) wondered if I could be an entrepreneur. I had always kind of wanted to be one. It always looks very inviting to me to be your own boss,” she said.
Making custom permanent jewelry, she said, seemed like a good option to pursue as she already had some prior skill in it, but she would need to learn to weld.
“I bought a welder on my credit card that I didn’t have any way of paying off, and just kind of thought, I’ll figure it out,” she said.
Brunson sought mentorship from multiple welding professionals and others she knew in the jewelry industry. She eventually began practicing making custom jewelry to hone the new craft and ultimately launched her business two years ago this month.
A devastating diagnosis
Amid learning a new skill and jumping headfirst into entrepreneurship, Brunson was hit with another blow.
“I got the call from my attorney that my divorce was final, and then five days later, I got a phone call from the biopsy results from a lump in my breast that I had gotten checked out and the results were — it was cancer,” she said.
Life, as Brunson described it, was “coming at her fast.” Her doctor said she needed to hurry and get a double mastectomy, which she didn’t have the money to pay for at first.
Despite the emotional and financial toll of navigating breast cancer, she stood defiant in the fight, with support from community members to help cover costs for the surgery.
After 33 rounds of radiation, Brunson was declared cancer-free last spring, but continues to have regular checkups.
She endured all of this while still being a mom to two little boys, ages 4 and 2 at the time — and trying to get her new business off the ground.
Since then, Brunson said she’s learned more about the importance of taking care of people, asking for help when she needs it, building a brand people can trust, and, most of all, creating balance between work and home.
“It’s really easy when you’re starting your own business to be on the clock like 24/7, and the ideas never stop flowing,” she said.
An empowering environment
Last October, she opened up a shop inside Embrace Beauty Salon, alongside other female business owners, who offer a variety of services.
“They’re really supportive, and I think that’s really empowering to work alongside women who are like-minded and entrepreneurs,” Brunson said.
She also does private appointments and events.
Hailey Duncan, the salon’s owner, said she wanted to create a space where women like Brunson could build a thriving business while still receiving support from fellow entrepreneurs.
“Jerilyn has been a great example to all of us at Embrace of resiliency through business and life challenges,” she told KSL.
For Brunson, she said her business is not just about jewelry, it represents a life she’s rebuilding as a mom with her two sons, Monty and Memphis; hence the “In Her M Era” branding.
“It’s helped me feel strong, it’s helped give me a lot of freedom and empowered me to make my own money and encouraged me to set myself apart,” she said.
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
