Episode 24: Dawn Grady, Junebug Jewelry Designs

Craftswoman, metalsmith and businesswoman Dawn Grady has cornered the market of women who want to own the room. Her bold, handcrafted statement necklaces, cocktail rings and other pieces are coveted by collectors. The MORTAR program, supported with SCORE mentorship, has helped Dawn secure a physical storefront and envision a scalable future for Junebug Jewelry Designs. 

Episode Transcript

(00:08):
Hello. My name is Michael Lawson, your host of My SINCEI Small Business
Stories. In this episode, I'llbe talking with Don Grady, owner of
Junebug Jewelry and Designs. We'll findout more about that, but first we'll
be right back after this message.Did you know twice as many small businesses
survive past five years when they havethe support from a mentor. My SINCEY

(00:29):
Small Business Story is brought to youby the volunteer mentors of Score Greater Cincinnati,
a nonprofit organization that helps launch hundredsof new small businesses and even more
jobs in Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky,and Indiana every year. Our vision is
to give every person the support theyneed to thrive as a small business owner.
Visit score dot org slash Greater Cincinnatito request a free business mentor or

(00:51):
share your own expertise. You canalso listen and subscribe for more stories about
overcoming challenges, clearing obstacles, andowning a successful small business. Welcome,
Don, How are you today?I'm good, Michael, how are you?
I'm very well. So I'd liketo know more about your business.
Can you tell me how you gotstarted and what it is that you do
and so forth that would be good. Well. I empower women's style with

(01:17):
bold, handcrafted statement jewelry. I'dlike to create pieces that allow women to
walk into a room, own it, and make a huge statement without ever
opening their mouths. These are heirloomquality pieces that I make with my own
two hands, so there's a lotof pride and effort into each design.

(01:42):
And I specialize in our gentium,silver, copper, and semi precious gemstones
and like to capitalize on the meaningthe metaphysical properties of the gemstones in order
to craft a story behind my designs. I was interesting. Yeah, I
actually fell in love with jewelry earlyon as a kid because my mother,

(02:09):
my aunt, my grandmother, theyall wore bold statement jewelry. So that's
really how my love affair with itcame to be. And I was also
a huge Dynasty watcher and Dominique Devereauxalways, you know, I mean,
the boss women always had on bosspieces of jewelry, So I've always understood

(02:32):
it as that extra jurege that sortof brings your style to life. I
decided to start making it one daywhen I was headed to a Martin Luther
King Junior event. This was whenI was living in Atlanta. I was
in my twenties in fact, andthis was a black tie affair. There

(02:54):
were lots of celebrities and important folkswho were going to be in the room,
and I wanted to look like Ihad been there before. So I
went out and I got a beautifulgown that I couldn't afford, and I
knew that I had to put astatement piece with it, so I went
and got a high priced piece ofcostume jewelry that I thought would go with

(03:17):
it. And I'm putting this pieceof jewelry on on the night of the
event, right and I start tofeel piece is just falling, and this
necklace is literally falling apart as I'mputting it on, and I'm looking at,
you know, just how it wasconstructed, and I can see like
the material is not so great.But then I'm thinking about how much I

(03:38):
paid for it, and I thought, for a moment like this that was
so important to me. I actuallywent to the event, but all I
could do was put on my littlestud ear rings, and I kind of
felt a little bit inadequate. Soit just stood out for me just how
important it is to have your adornmentsones that really bring your style to life.

(04:02):
So fast forward several years and therewas a class at UC just for
a simple bead stringing class, andI took it and everybody raved about my
design. So I went out andgot some tools and started making more necklaces,
more than I could really wear.And I wanted to learn how to
craft my own components, so Igot into metalsmithing. And that's when everything

(04:29):
sort of just came alive for mewith Junebug, because then I could create
the entire piece from start to finish. It was just really a way to
empower those stories that I really likedto put behind my designs. Now I
also understood that you are a graduatefrom Mortar. Yes you're wunning a teen

(04:55):
graduate. Yes, I was inclass eleven and we came out in August
of twenty seventeen, and I wasactually the Pitch Night winner. I'm really
proud of that. So why don'tyou tell our listeners what Mortar is?
And from your point of view,Mortar is a business incubator really looking to

(05:15):
give a business boost to primarily minorityand women own and really you know,
sort of the non traditional businesses thatreally don't have access to all of the
resources that other businesses have access to. So Mortar gives you just a really

(05:38):
good deep dive into how to puttogether a business, what kinds of things
you need to look for in termsof recordkeeping and positioning in the market,
and understanding your books and all ofthose kinds of details. It was a
really good introduction. But what Ireally found most impactful about Mortar was the

(06:02):
relationships that you get from being apart of such a network like that.
There's so many other business graduates thatI now have access to to work with
for really unique products and services.And it's also a one two shop for
outside resources who are looking to connectwith minority owned businesses. It's a one

(06:28):
stop shop for them, so youtend to find out about grant opportunities and
opportunities to really test your product inthe marketplace that you wouldn't have just on
your own. So it was atremendous blessing for me, and it actually
is how I ended up with astorefront and over the Rhine. I'm located

(06:48):
now at thirteen twenty seven Vine Street, which used to be the pop up
space for Mortar. They used torent that space out for small businesses just
to test their concept. As amatter of fact, I rented it a
few times and that was really thereason why I wanted to go through the

(07:08):
Mortar program. Initially talk about beingshortsighted. I just wanted half off on
the pop up space because that wasone of the you know, the benefits
of becoming a more to graduate thatyou had all of the pop up space
for half off. So I thought, you know, based on the tuition
for the program and the discount onthe space after I graduate, this is

(07:30):
a no brainer for me. Ihad no idea that, you know,
there would be so many other bonusesto the relationship. And then of course
Score is part of that bonus.So I was connected with a SCORE mentor
back in twenty seventeen. And Ican tell you that her words bring in

(07:55):
my head almost daily when it comesto business, because she was exquisite at
pointing out exactly where I needed themost work, and that's in the area
of my numbers. And she reallyjust used to drill down some lessons to
me that I literally now they it'slike they almost haunt me to get me

(08:18):
in gear because I can hear herright now in my head telling me these
things, and it's such an assetto have somebody who can, you know,
from a third party standpoint, no, you know, no vested interest
in trying to earn your business,no interest whatsoever except helping you to succeed,

(08:41):
to be able to connect with tolook at all of the details.
Because you know, we all thinkwe have just the perfect concept in mind
from you know, out the gate. But it's the score mentor that's forcing
you to really put those thoughts onpaper that that you know, you really
don't think about having to when you'retrying to operationalize a business. How many

(09:07):
details you literally have to get outsideof your head that you just do on
a regular basis and into paper formatso that you now have an operations manual
so that you can grow. Youknow, in the beginning, when you're
just doing everything yourself, that's onething, but that's not scalable. You're
not going to be able to Youcan only produce what you can produce.

(09:30):
And that's really where I am rightnow in my business is I'm at one
of those crossroads where it's time forme to scale. And that's why her
words keep coming back to me interms of learning how to not just understand
numbers, but she taught me toread the numbers, you know, so

(09:52):
that it wasn't just information, butit was strategy building. It was all
of those things. And really lookat it from that, It's exhaustive to
me because I'm not a numbers personand she totally was. But getting me
to understand that there's it's not justdata, but it's actual knowledge that's coming

(10:13):
from it was the learning curve thatI needed to get around that she really
helped me with the most. Areyou still working with score? I wish
I could say that I was.Back when I graduated from Mortar, I
was a few years out from reallyjumping into Junebug full time. So at

(10:37):
the time, I was still fulltime employed with a very demanding job that
I didn't really have the oh,i'd say, the gumption to walk away
from until the pandemic rolled around andit just seemed like, you know,
if you're going to take a shotin life, now, say you better
do it. So but yes,my goal now is to really circle back

(11:01):
to if not the same mentor thana different mentor, to just continue to
have that extra pair of eyes andthat neutral pair of eyes, especially now
that I'm talking about growing and it'snot just going to be me, I
feel like reconnecting with SCORE now iscritical. Yeah, a lot of SCORE

(11:24):
clients are businesses that are established,not just startups. So yeah, I'm
sure they would be more than happyto have you back. So where do
you see yourself in five years?Oh, in five years, I see
myself continuing to grow Joombug, butat that point I'll have a bigger platform

(11:48):
to do it from, So Idefinitely see a lot more expansion into the
wholesale side of my business, gettinginto to some boutiques, some specialty boutiques
across the country, just to expandJunebug's footprint. I definitely see myself partnering

(12:09):
with the University of Cincinnati and theirthat program to have a steady flow of
interns and apprentices coming through Junebug whomight potentially end up being artisans who continue
to work on the brand. Idefinitely see myself being able to teach some

(12:33):
classes. That's been something that's beenreally attractive just for me personally, to
be able to bring the love ofjewelry making, because you know, people
think of it in really a limitedmindset, but there's so many techniques that
you can use in order to createjewelry. You don't always have to have

(12:54):
like a jeweler's bench and all ofthese specialty tools. There's some things that
you can it right in your lapand create for hours while you watch television
that you know are stunning collectors' items, just as much as the metalsmith's design.
So really being able to deliver alove of jewelry making, particularly to

(13:18):
young people, for young girls,as a way to practice their stem skills,
because there's so much stem involved injewelry making. So but really,
more than anything, just continuing tosee Joombug grow. The long term goal
is to see it as an internationalcompany. So five years from now,

(13:39):
I just hope to be, youknow, looking back on a lot of
milestones and looking forward to quite afew more. I don't know if you
were aware of this, but whenMortars started, which is they're going to
be celebrating their tenth anniversary this year, Score started providing mentors to Mortar in

(14:00):
that very first year, and sowe have this ten year history together and
for their anniversary we're going to bedoing some special podcast and so forth in
the future about that. It's reallya great organization. Yes, So if
I wanted to see your artwork,your jewelry, you mentioned you have a
brick and mortar. How else canI see your stuff? You can visit

(14:24):
me online. I'm at Junebug Jewelrydesignsdot com. You'll also find me on
Instagram and Facebook and Pinterest if thoseare the places that you like to play,
But definitely, junebul Jewelrydesigns dot comis a one stop place to find
access to me everywhere. And what'sthe address of your story again? Please

(14:48):
that's thirteen twenty seven Vine Street.So I'm right in between the Candle Lab
and Shishi, So right in theheart of OTR where they're there's so many
wonderful small and women owned and blackowned businesses that definitely, if you're in
Cincinnati, it's a place to makean afternoon terrific. Well, thank you

(15:11):
don for being on the show.Thank you for having me. If you
would like to sign up with amentor or would like to become a mentor,
go to score dot org and linkon the appropriate links. Please subscribe
to this podcast, share the link. Thank you for listening. Score Greater
Cincinnati's confluence where connections information and inspiration. Come Together has a date of September

(15:37):
eighteenth of twenty four, from eightthirty am to two pm at United Way.
The theme this year is Shine Online. You can go to score dot
org slash Greater Cincinnati and be ableto register for that event. Also,

(15:58):
you can go to that website andrequest a mentor or sign up to be
a volunteer. Thank you for listening. Please subscribe to the podcast and share
the link. Take care