The Brand Brief: Katie Dean Jewelry Founder and Designer, Katie Dean

MEET KATIE DEAN OF KATIE DEAN JEWELRY

Katie creates handmade, dainty jewels to inspire women to try something new, embrace their femininity, and feel beautiful while still feeling like themselves. Born and raised in Michigan, she made the move to LA in 2007 and wasn’t feeling fulfilled in the jobs she found there. By disassembling jewelry she already owned and making it her own, Katie Dean Jewelry got it’s start.

Hey, y’all! I’m so excited to share a brand and business owner with you that I’ve looked up to for years, Katie Dean of Katie Dean Jewelry! I first discovered her brand when I was working for another jewelry company. My role at that brand was creative and marketing based so we had a lot of discussions around imagery, photoshoots, creative inspiration, and branding. I kept finding myself coming back to images on Pinterest and Instagram or the same brand: Katie Dean Jewelry.

I loved the aesthetic, clean and dainty designs, and the overall emotions the brand evoked. The rings, initial pieces, necklaces, earrings found their way on many mood boards! It wasn’t until 2019 that our paths crossed when Kollin purchased an initial ring from Katie as one of my Christmas gifts. I was so excited and started wearing it immediately! Unfortunately, on the day after Christmas, Wrigley, our corgi, had other plans when his collar caught my ring stack and ripped the ring off my finger in one fell swoop. Since the design was an open ring, he pulled it enough and the ring just snapped in half.

I sent a DM to the Katie Dean Instagram page and they were SO kind about it. We flew home two days later and my new ring was already in my mailbox with a little handwritten note from Katie herself! I was blown away at how amazing they were and SO happy about the new ring.

As I’m typing this, almost four years later, I am still wearing that ring and it is part of my daily ring stack (I even have a second one in case I wear this one into the ground lol). I got the initial K for Kollin my husband and am still so in love with it! Fast forward to 2020 and I was tagging Katie’s Instagram page a bunch during my “Weekly Best Sellers” Series because people kept buying it! After about a year of that, I decided to shoot my shot and ask if the brand wanted to partner together. I fully thought that it would be a no and maybe we could work together when I had grown my audience more.

Katie replied and, as always, was so nice and said she would love to collab! To tell you I fangirled would be an understatement. Since then, we’ve done several giveaways together and I’m so glad that I now know Katie a bit more on a personal level! Crazy how something can go from inspiration on a mood board to a new friend! I was so grateful that Katie agreed to share some of her stories with us and I know y’all will find so much value in what she has to share!

Hi, Katie! Tell us how you got started in jewelry and what prompted you to start your own business.

I’ve always been creative. Ever since I was really little I knew that my purpose was to create and put art into the world to make people happy. In high school I focused on ceramics, in college I focused on sculpture and then I actually ended up leaving college after my first year because I did not feel fulfilled creatively. I was 18 when I moved to LA and I had a ton of different jobs there. I worked as a production assistant on set, I cleaned houses, I nannied, I cooked weekly meals for families, and then I worked for a stylist that was styling celebs for red carpets and commercials.

I think it’s important that people know I had a long journey before I started my jewelry line BUT with that said everything I did prior to starting my line helped me as a jewelry designer! It’s crazy how that works out. Everything I did and everyone I worked for ended up helping me grow my jewelry business. So, to come back around to the question, I started making jewelry when I was working as a styling assistant. A few years into styling I knew that it wasn’t something I wanted to do for the rest of my life.

At that point, I asked myself what made me happiest and most excited, and that was creating art that was useful. From there, I took some jewelry pieces that I already owned but was not wearing and took them apart. I used all the different pieces to make a different piece. What really prompted me to start a business out of jewelry making was that after making some more pieces and wearing them around, friends and people I barely knew asked if they could buy them and I literally sold them right off of my body! That’s when the light bulb went off and I knew I could create a business out of making jewelry.

What is the most sentimental piece of jewelry you own?

I have a gold Herringbone collar length necklace from my Grandma Julie that she gave to me before she passed away. I wear it a lot and it always makes me feel good like she is with me and cheering me on in life.

This Brand Brief series focuses on women-owned businesses. Can you speak to your experience as a female business owner and any advice you have for those looking to start their own business?

Totally! The most important thing when starting your own business is writing out your purpose. This may sound too simple but I’m telling you, it is so much more important than you realize. When you’re in business you are constantly handling problems, it’s not a bad thing, it’s just part of the game, but sometimes it can make you want to quit. If you have your purpose written out, you can go back to that whenever you feel like you are lost or defeated and it will reignite that spark of why you started and help you carry on.

Did building your business go to plan? What were some things that were easier than you thought they would be and some things more challenging than you expected?

Haha, yes and no! This is a great question because when I look at little segments of time in my business my answer is NO WAY. Things don’t often go to plan. But then when I take a broader look at my journey, as in looking at it overall I would say YES! I’ve actually accomplished almost all of my long-term goals that I initially had when I first started. This brings up another really important point for anyone in business or about to start their own business. You have to be persistent.

When you set goals, you should set long-term goals and then break them down into little goals that you can accomplish so that it’s not overwhelming. Often you may feel like nothing is going right but if you just keep going and get creative with pushing past barriers you will find that before you know it you have accomplished some big goals. You have to keep a broad viewpoint and keep your eye on the mountain top and not on all the little barriers that pop up along the way. Otherwise, you may feel defeated and give up.

Something easier than I thought it would be is managing my website. In the beginning, I thought I needed to pay a programmer for everything related to my website but with Shopify, it is SO easy to manage my website and it has literally saved me thousands and thousands of dollars which I’ve been able to invest in product and marketing.

Something more challenging than expected is predicting inventory. It’s gotten easier over the years to predict what will be a best seller or how much we will sell during peak holiday seasons, but I still find this to be one of the biggest mysteries! It’s an important thing too because if you produce too much of one style and you don’t sell through you’ve potentially wasted a lot of cash on something you may not make a profit from. On the other side, if you are too conservative with your production and you don’t make enough product and you sell out, you then are leaving money on the table because you don’t have enough product to keep up with the demand. Experience is a huge part of being in control of this part of the business. I often have to take a deep breath and remind myself to be patient otherwise I can get frustrated with myself.

Where do you find inspiration for your designs?

Great question. I honestly find inspiration everywhere! I love seeing what other people are wearing, but I also enjoy watching movies from the 80s and 90s and observing what jewelry they were wearing then. I also get inspired by architecture, especially European architecture. When my husband and I were in Europe for our wedding and honeymoon I was so in love with the huge arched doorways that seemed to be all over Paris and the detailing of the hotels in Positano, Italy. This actually was the inspiration behind my Beaded Collection and inspired the detailing on the latest Heart Collection.

How has your role at the company changed since you first began Katie Dean Jewelry?

When I first began I actually did not feel confident in handling various parts of the business and I too often put my trust into people or services that I knew nothing about. That was a dangerous place to be in because when something went wrong in an area that I wasn’t involved in I felt helpless.

You get a glimpse of Katie Dean Jewelry 5 years in the future - what did you see?

I see Katie Dean Jewelry being sold on a lot of major retailers’ websites and being carried in many more brick-and-mortar stores. We are excelling on our wholesale side of the business which has been an incredible area of growth for us. It is a possibility that we could have our own flagship brick-and-mortar shop too! I never entertained this idea until last year when everyone was stuck indoors and it became clear to me that while online shopping will only get bigger, there is a very special connection that happens when you shop in person.

I can envision a very cool Katie Dean Jewelry store opening with a coffee shop right next door or inside our boutique and maybe we could even have a floral element to the shop. I think of my last trip to London when I think of a future KDJ store. They have these incredible floral installations that flank their entrances creating the most beautiful moments! If you can’t tell I’m a huge coffee and flower lover!

Where can everyone find you? Share your website, Instagram, anything!

Thanks for asking! I would love to have everyone find us on our website and subscribe to our email newsletter: www.katiedeanjewelry.com

Then you can find us on the following social channels:

Thank you so much, Katie, for being a part of The Brand Brief! My goal is to share women-owned businesses that we can all support and potentially inspire other women to start or keep going with the ideas and businesses they love! Thanks so much for reading!

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