We were lucky to catch up with Josey Depew recently and have shared our conversation below.

Josey, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?

The name of Graceful Leo Designs stems from a couple things.

First, let’s talk about the Leo part. As it may be obvious, Leo is the zodiac symbol for July-August birthdays. My birthday is August 19th and is kind of a special day. Not only do I share it with two other family members, but it is also the wedding anniversary of my great grandparents. My great grandmother, or Mammaw as I call her, has always been one of my biggest supporters. She has believed in me now matter what I have decided to do and is just the overall embodiment of what I feel it means to be a woman. I have always loved being able to share this day with so many loved ones and feel like it’s a big part of who I am. With the lion being the zodiac symbol, I see lions as strong and courageous, but family oriented, which I feel is also who I am. I am a very strong and determined individual but also value the importance of my family and being true to my roots and where I came from.

Along with being a “lion”, I also love being feminine, a girly girly, a graceful human. Feminine can mean so many things, but to me, it means to be empowering. It means supporting others who might need an extra hand. It means saying, “watch this” and “doing everything a man can do” while also being in 4 inch heels. It means being able to dress up to the nines but also get down in the dirt to get a job done. It’s being confident in yourself, not being held back by stigmas, and reaching for the stars not matter what is thrown your way. To be graceful is to be a woman and all the beautiful things that comes with being one.

Lastly, designs is just an all envelopment of my business. I offer design services of all kinds, including branding packages, logo design, business card designs and so much more. I also design handmade items. I typically specialize in earrings, but I do everything from signs, to cake toppers, keychains, recipe books, and everything else in-between.

All in all, Graceful Leo Designs is me. It is the embodiment of me as a person and what I do.

Josey, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

In May of 2018, I graduated with a degree in Graphic Technologies from the University of Central Missouri. With this degree, I know about all of the different printing processes, how businesses run, and how to design and set up files using the Adobe suit.

After leaving my home state of Missouri in 2020 to follow my husband with the military, I really struggled to find a job due to the COVID 19 pandemic. I applied and applied but no one was hiring (businesses were shut down!). After getting very discouraged, I started offering freelance work. Things started off really well and kept picking up, so I decided to start my own adventure and Graceful Leo was created!

Coming from a design and printing background allows me to offer graphic design services of all types including full business branding, logos, business cards, flyers, file prep, and so much more. On top of design work, I also offer a wide variety of handmade items, but earrings is really what made my handmade side of the business flourish. I am an earring lover through and through. I can’t leave the house without wearing a pair. Some people can’t leave without lipstick or mascara – mine is earrings.

Working with my hands is something I’ve always enjoyed doing. I love being able to bring my client’s and customer’s vision to life – starting from design to a finished product. It gives me so much joy knowing I am able to create something that brings a little happiness to the world. I put my whole heart into everything I do and take a lot of pride in the quality of products I put out. I won’t ever hand out something unless I am 100% satisfied and would be happy myself if I were to get it as a client or customer.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

When I became a military spouse, my whole life and career changed. Before we moved, I was a production manager at a screen printing shop and I absolutely loved my job. If I wasn’t going to stay there, I knew I could have ventured out to a big firm in our nearest city and been able to bring in a very comfortable income. I was heartbroken when we had to leave because I knew all those chances and opportunities would change. When applying for jobs, it’s so complicated to work around the fact that most military moves every 2-3 years. When a company wants someone to grow with them, they’re not even going to give you a second look. That’s just the reality of it – and that’s rough for military spouses who want a career for themselves!

However, if it wasn’t for those changes, Graceful Leo may have never came to existence.

I have always had the mindset of “I will do great things no matter what life throws at me”. However, I really struggled the first couple months after moving because I couldn’t get a job. I felt like I wasn’t able to give to society what I knew I could and my mental health really took a toll. I went from being the one who brought in a majority of the income to not bringing in anything and that really bothered me.

Now, being a small business owner, and still a fairly new one at that, the cash isn’t flowing in – that’s being 100% honest. I am incredibly happy with the success that GLD has had in the 2 years I started business, but a lot of funds have been reinvested in order to continue to grow. Sure I pay myself, but it’s nothing compared to what I used to make. However, I see the potential that GLD has and I am so excited to see the continued growth. I am already able to contract out bookkeeping and social media which is a big deal. My next step is to bring on a part time assistant to help me with smaller, mundane tasks that just takes up a little too much time. These little steps really aren’t little – they’re big steps for my small business.

If I have learned anything, it’s that it’s okay to not always have your life put together. Everyone is literally just trying to figure it out one day at a time. When you find something that makes you happy, it makes the “work” aspect a lot less daunting. Graceful Leo is my passion. I get to make my own hours, create amazing things, and make people happy on a day to day basis.

Any fun sales or marketing stories?

One of my very favorite stories is actually how I met one of my closest friends – and it was a really humbling experience.

Like I’ve mentioned, I pride myself in my work and the quality that I put out. However, I have learned so many things over the past couple years and continuously try to improve myself and my business. When I look back at the things I was first selling, I just laugh. It is such a day and night difference from what I do now.

I had someone purchase a pair of earrings from me from a local vendor event when I first started. About a week or so later, I go a message that the earrings had broke. I was HEARTBROKEN. How could I sell something that would break? What was I doing? You mean to tell me I’m not putting out perfect products? Short answer: absolutely not. I offered to replace or fix at no cost to the client, and we agreed that they just needed fixed, so I fixed them for her. I quickly learned that I needed to do a solid quality check on each pair that I made. I was willing to learn from my mistake and accept that there is always room for improvement (and that’s okay if something goes wrong every once in a while).

After getting her earrings fixed, we both realized that our spouses were military so connected on that level. We would chat here and there, we would grab lunch together every once in a while, and next thing we knew, we had a great friendship. What started out as a potentially frustrating and devastating situation ended up giving me one of my closest friends! We chat all the time and she is still one of my biggest supporters!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.gracefulleodesigns.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/gracefulleodesigns
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/gracefulleodesigns
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joseydepew/

Image Credits
Headshot Photos: Love Atlas Photography Earring Photo (colorful confetti sparkle earrings photo): Life With You Photography