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

Miranda, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

Leaf & Luxe is a joint venture (adventure) my sister and I created together to share not only our interests/hobbies, but also to create a space in our community that is inviting, inclusive, engaging, and exciting. We wanted to promote positivity with “feel good greenery” and show people how plants can promote wellness and have many health benefits. We want to help people create their own space to be welcoming, comfortable, happy, and beautiful. We believe that plant care is self-care and have experienced the joy that plant keeping can bring to our lives. Our mission came from our own experiences as plant keepers, and we wanted to share that with the community. Coupled with our knowledge of houseplants and home decor, Leaf & Luxe was born.

Our story starts in March of 2018 when our mom was diagnosed with stage four cancer. Our dad had his own health issues and had been struggling for a couple years when we got our mom’s diagnosis. The day our mom had her biopsy, our grandfather was sent home from the hospital on hospice. Our mom passed away just six weeks after her diagnosis. We were devastated. We were then thrown into caring for our father while maintaining our own homes, families, jobs, etc… Three weeks later, our grandfather died. Right away we knew we would have to sell our grandparents home of 64 years. Over the next several months, we continued working, caring for our families, caring for our father and his home, and helping our aunt clear out our grandparents’ house. This process also felt like a loss. There was no time for grieving, only time to keep pushing on. The house sold in November of that year, and we went through the motions of the holidays. Everything had changed and we felt yet another loss. In the Spring of 2019, I had two geriatric dogs that passed a week apart, another loss. Our dad was diagnosed with cancer and began treatments. In July, we lost our dad, and he died in a rather traumatic way compounding the loss. I tell you this story to help you understand how we got to where we are today.

My sister and I received a few houseplants as funeral gifts, and so began our journey into plant keeping. Over the next year, we cleared out our parents’ home and sold it, and in October of 2020 our grandmother passed away. We had truly been through a lot, and the grieving process seemed to just start over every few months. It was mentally and physically exhausting.

We both learned to navigate life very differently and we leaned on each other a lot. Shopping and houseplants became our outlet. We both started to collect houseplants and learned together how to care for them. I especially dove into my newfound hobby. I read books, joined online plant groups, and along the way learned plant care through triumphs and mistakes. By the fall of 2022, my plant collection had grown to over 100 plants. I found great joy and comfort in caring for my plants. They made my home environment look beautiful and alive. I knew plants had the ability to clear toxins from the air, but I had no idea how my plants were healing me. Caring for them was calming and therapeutic. Amongst my plants there was peace, tranquility, and it was a space with no judgement. I got excited when I found a new leaf and shared my excitement with other plant lovers. I found plant people are wonderful people who love to share their knowledge, celebrate all the small things, and support one another. My hobby brought me joy in a time when I had no joy.

I decided that the best way to share my experience and knowledge was to create a business from my hobby. My sister and I worked together playing off one another’s strengths and weaknesses to find a perfect balance. We wanted to share our passions and creativity with others. We chose Lima, Ohio because it is our home and situated our store downtown. We wanted to be a part of the downtown revitalization and we knew our retail space was important to making the downtown area more inviting and walkable. We hope to help sustain a vibrant and inviting downtown Lima area, and we look forward to continuing to serve our community.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I decided to turn my hobby and interests into a career. I brought my sister along with me on the journey because I knew she would make a good partner. We wanted people to experience the joy of plant keeping and provide a space that offered premium houseplants and unique home decor and gift items.

We provide consultation services for homes and businesses interested in adding houseplants to their interior. We look at their space, lighting, and consider their lifestyle and time, then suggest houseplants to suit their needs. We also offer installation and maintenance services for their houseplants. We offer plant sitting services for indoor and outdoor plants, delivery services to hospitals and funeral homes, and we host workshops. We also offer repotting services in shop or on location. We even design outdoor planters for commercial and residential use.

We want our shop to be a friendly and inviting place for our customers. We are happy to provide information on plant care and encourage customers to ask questions and call for any help they may need. We want everyone to be successful plantkeepers!

Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?

Customer service and loyalty is so important to us. We have done a few things to foster brand loyalty and have learned that little things can go a long way. We reach out to our clients via email once a month in the form of a newsletter. We include relevant and useful information our clients can use. We always include a coupon in our newsletter and mention upcoming events. We consistently answer emails, social media comments and messages, and leave comments on reviews through Google and Yelp. We reach out to clients we provide services for to be sure they are satisfied with our services and to ask for questions and concerns. We treat everyone that walks through our doors like a friend. We greet them, thank them for shopping with us, and build a relationship with them through common interests.

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

My business partner is my sister. We do not have any other siblings, and our parents and grandparents are gone so we just have each other. Of course, we also have our husbands and children, but the two of us are what’s left of our main family unit. I am so fortunate to have the relationship I have with her. We have our moments, and we disagree but we always find a way to work it out. A lot of people were concerned when we went into this together that it may have a negative effect on our relationship. So far, our relationship remains the same and our clients seem to enjoy the dynamic. We have very different personalities, but we play on one another’s strengths and weaknesses.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://leafandluxelima.square.site/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leafandluxelima/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/leafandluxelima/
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/leaf-and-luxe-no-title?osq=plants

Image Credits
Davis Digital Photography