We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Katy Delehoy a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Katy, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s jump right into how you came up with the idea?

The word ‘Ouzel’ is a bird, also known as the American Dipper, the water ouzel is an aquatic songbird that lives on flowing rivers. As they stand along the water they dip up and down as if dancing to the beat of their own drum. It is speculated that they use this action to communicate above the noise of the rushing water. Facts about the American Dipper: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/American_Dipper/overview

We love naturalist and environmental philosopher, John Muir, who was so fond of the Ouzel that he devoted an entire chapter of his book “The Mountains of California” to beautifully and poetically describing its life and history.

“He is the mountain streams’ own darling, the hummingbird of blooming waters, loving rocky ripple-slopes and sheets of foam as a bee loves flowers, as a lark loves sunshine and meadows. Among all the mountain birds, none has cheered me so much in my lonely wanderings, –none so unfailingly. For both in winter and summer he sings, sweetly, cheerily, independent alike of sunshine and of love, requiring no other inspiration than the stream on which he dwells. While water sings, so must he, in heat or cold, calm or storm, ever attuning his voice in sure accord; low in the drought of summer and the drought of winter, but never silent.” – John Muir.

We love the concept of the resilience of the Ouzel, but also of their vibrancy and singing above the noise of the river. It’s similar to how we help our clients rise above the the noise (in branding, marketing & websites) and Ouzels are an example to us to be a force for good, to sing to the tune of hope when the world is so divided. Not only that but they live locally on the Big Thompson River. There’s a nesting pair close to our house in River’s Edge National Area in Loveland, Colorado. Many of the qualities of the Water Ouzel are important to starting and staying in business with the fortitude one must own or develop to keep going.

There is also a planet-conscious aspect to our business. We have a sustainability policy: https://www.ouzelcreative.studio/sustainability and we hope to inspire better environmental stewardship. We help businesses make choices that are better for the environment whether it is in print marketing or digital carbon footprint. Many people were taught to recycle paper, but that online materials are “eco-friendlier”. But what many don’t realize is that we now have a humongous digital footprint with data centers to hold the ‘cloud’ of data storage, especially now with AI needing enormous data centers. The data centers require lots of water and energy that take away from human consumption. We have a whole written series on this here: https:// www.ouzelcreative.studio/posts/our-digital-world-affects-our-physical-world-part-1

To this end, Ouzels are a great representation to environmental protection because having an Ouzel in water sources are in fact an indicator of clean water quality, because if they cannot live off the river then the eco-system is off. Essentially they are another ‘canary in the coal mine’. What is good for birds is good for people. If Ouzel’s die off, we’ll be next if we don’t pay attention.

We recognize that we have an impact on the environment. Our commitment is to minimize that impact. To be fully transparent, we acknowledge that we are not perfect in this endeavor. Perfection is not the goal. However, progress, and reaching towards perfection is our goal.

We believe that running a business should not come at the expense of people and the planet.

We believe that being sustainable doesn’t come at the expense of good design. A project can implement earth-friendly choices and have a great end product.

Our Why

We acknowledge that we share this planet with other creatures (such as the Ouzel), plants and people. Our environment is something that is shared and relied upon for survival by all. We aim to be good stewards of it so that others may continue to benefit and thrive.

Nature deserves to be protected as a crucial element to health and survival. Clean water, soil and air are necessary for producing food for nourishing and sustaining life.

We enjoy hiking, backpacking and bird watching. Exploring wild places and soaking in the beauty that surrounds us is an inspiration for our creativity. Creatures and plants continually influence our design choices and rejuvenate our ability to create beauty in our work. Birds have been vanishing at an alarming rate mostly due to human activities. We can’t imagine a world without birdsong. We want to see natural sites and sounds protected so that they can continue to be enjoyed and explored by future generations.

Katy, 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?

Katy grew up riding horses and had strong interests in the arts: drawing, ceramics, watercolor, photography. She spent time in her youth working in her family’s business in the rural midwest collating catalogs and office tasks. That allowed her to see being a business owner as a way of life. Later after college when her mom asked her to design a digital graphic for her, she realized that graphic design was the perfect melding of all of her artistic talents and interests. Katy graduated from The Art Institute of Colorado in 2009.

Both Katy and Shawn grew up in Kansas but didn’t meet until they both converged upon Northern Colorado—Katy came by entering for her undergraduate degree at Colorado State University and Shawn by way of his love for the mountains. Both grew to love hiking and backpacking in the mountains before they met.

Shawn too, grew up with an appreciation and penchant for art and creativity. Always drawing, sketching, and doodling, during college he created elaborate chalk drawings for the bookstore where he worked. Chalk art turned into graphic design which blended with a mastery of coding and websites and master classes at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Eventually, after Shawn and Katy met and married, with overlapping skill sets and stemming from their own collaborative relationship, they decided to join forces. At the time Katy was working as a solopreneur graphic designer so they rebrand as a partnership, and launched Ouzel Creative.

Katy acquired a StoryBrand Certification in 2024 which sets their business apart from others in the area. A unique framework and popular messaging tool, the StoryBrand Framework allows businesses to clarify their messaging, communicate value, connect with ideal customers and ultimately grow their business using a story BrandScript. Katy’s StoryBrand profile: https://www.marketingmadesimple.com/Katy-Delehoy

A lot of small businesses have trouble getting clear on what they do. They have a hard time talking about their business in simply language because they’re so close to it. What we do by utilizing the StoryBrand Framework is improve clarity, curiosity and vision. Then we make sure to establish cohesion between branding and messaging.

The Problem We Solve:

Many small business owners feel overwhelmed by the day-to-day. No one has time or money to waste on bad marketing decisions. Ouzel Creative provides the strategic marketing leadership your business needs to grow. Ouzel Creative is a boutique studio located in Loveland, Colorado. Our design team takes the marketing burden off your shoulders, helps you communicate your value to the world and accelerate your business growth without compromising the environment. You’ll thrive without the guesswork, waste or worry.

Our Mission:

We believe in empowering purpose-driven small businesses and organizations with strategic visual solutions because remarkable people and brands are worthy of having the world take notice. We create beautifully designed websites, branding and marketing in order to compel our client’s audience in a way that moves their mission forward.

We believe that marketing, branding, and websites should not come at the expense of people and the planet, and that being sustainable doesn’t come at the expense of good design. We inspire global stewardship by informing eco-conscious decisions with choices for digital and print media that reduce environmental impact because present and future people, flora and fauna deserve their place in a thriving ecosystem.

Ouzel Creative is also certified as a gold member of the Colorado Green Business Network. The CGBN is a voluntary program that encourages, supports, and rewards organizations that make the move toward the goal of true, operational sustainability. Ouzel Creative is recognized for their work in reducing resource use and implementing operational best practices in sustainability and environmental management.

Recently Shawn & Katy became organizers for ‘Green Drinks’ which is an international organization that started in London: The organization and the Ft. Collins and Northern Colorado chapter are an informal networking event where environmentally-minded people meet, build sustainability and community. The Ft. Collins chapter began in 2007. Several other organizers came before us and we have taken up the baton to keep the green vibes alive. Northern Colorado is a huge supporter of environmental sustainability. We focus on community building through this mindset of sustainability and inclusivity. We partner with local businesses and nonprofits to bring networking events for sustainability enthusiasts and professionals. We hang out and chat about things like climate policy, environmental justice, non-toxic materials, water restoration, climate anxiety, and other topics centered around sustainability. We believe that a successful transition to a net-zero economy requires creative solutions and there is no better way to facilitate those solutions than to bring people together.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Shawn and Katy were incredibly sick with chronic illness for the first three and a half years of their marriage. It was a stacked layering of illnesses that Western medicine doesn’t fully understand… we dealt with lyme disease and confections, and mold illness to start, then the pandemic hit and we added long-covid, west nile virus all in a span of that 3 and a half years during the worldwide pandemic before long-covid was recognized. We were newly married, with chronic illness, and we decided – hey why not start a business too? When Shawn discovered his work had a mold problem too, it was the final straw and the final sign to quit his job and join Katy in a business venture. If that doesn’t cause resilience, we don’t know what does! We have thankfully recovered from chronic illness after a lot of work, doctors, treatments, grueling days, medication schedules and lifestyle changes. But it taught us that we could depend on each other. It was a miracle many days because the days Katy was having a bad day, Shawn could take care of her, and vise versa, when Shawn had an awful day, Katy could take up the slack. We got by but those were the hellish days when success meant we had enough strength to pull our clothes on that day. With chronic illness, you have more days you fill ill than the days you feel well, and we learned to cherish the small things, the little achievements. You cherish every flower you see, every ray of sunshine, every time you get to leave your house and see the world. It is also a hidden suffering because when you get the strength to go out to see people, we looked mostly ‘normal’. People who have never been through it don’t understand it, or you feel written off as the “sick person” so you have to give people a lot of grace, and also train your own brain to see the potential of getting well again. We would never wish what we had on anyone, nor would we ever want to go through that again, but we would not trade that experience for the empathy it taught us to have for other humans who suffer in this world and the resilience to keep going one day at a time. We are still only 4 years old as a business (Ouzel Creative began in 2022 though Katy started her LLC in 2011), so we’re still in the thick of building business. Now with AI it adds another layer of challenge, but come wind or torrents, we are here for it.

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

We met after both being single into our late 30s. We both grew up in Kansas, but Katy moved to Colorado in 2000 and Shawn moved to Colorado in 2013. Shawn had been attending a Meetup group for Highly Sensitive People for about a year. Meanwhile a friend had shared the book, The Highly Sensitive Person – by Elaine Aron, with Katy. We met one day in June of 2017 after Katy discovered and then attended the very same Meetup group. The group was meeting regularly at a teahouse in Ft. Collins. Many creatives can probably relate or have come to find themselves to be highly sensitive. It’s fascinating to find others who share the same traits and have the same struggles being highly sensitive. We often laughed because we related to each others’ stories and circumstances. Katy recalls thinking Shawn had the best laugh. We kept going to the Meetup group and stayed in touch privately by writing each other over the platform. The short notes turned into long thoughtful letters. Katy found out Shawn was a backpacker and had traveled overseas. When Shawn missed one of the group meetings, Katy offered to “catch him up” over coffee. He suggested they meet at a ‘quaint’ tea shop in town. We sat in this cozy little nook tucked at the back of the tea shop with pillows and two pots of tea. Katy likes to joke, “He had me at ‘quaint’ because I love finding the quiet nooks and secret spots to hang out.” They closed down the tea shop, then kept talking until the wee hours of the morning. That lead to hiking together, longer conversations, discovering many common interests about each other and a similar upbringing in Kansas. Before long Shawn asked me to make our relationship “official” and he make me laugh every day. We were married in 2019, months before the pandemic hit the world. The rest, they say, is history.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.ouzelcreative.studio
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ouzelcreative/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ouzel-creative/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@OuzelCreative
• Other: StoryBrand: https://www.marketingmadesimple.com/Katy-Delehoy

Image Credits

All photos by Christina Gressianu