Today we’d like to introduce you to Stephanie Jean Baptiste.
Hi Stephanie, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for sharing your story with us – to start, maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers.
Born and raised in Miami, FL, I’ve always had a passion for diversity, art, and design. Using my creative talents to achieve many goals in my life is something I take pride in and adore. No matter how much I have tried to put my interest elsewhere, I always want to be my person and use my creativity to promote that. Although I graduated from the University of Central Florida with a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and found a career job in my field, I soon realized that was not what I intended to do. I quit that job to work on my own full-time. I am a firm believer in “God does not make mistakes.” God is the founder of masterpieces, and with this masterpiece (me), he has called me to be bold, creative, and passionate in all I do. Becoming an entrepreneur specializing in graphics and designs has helped me expand my horizon and multitude in areas I never thought I could grow. I’m great at fashion design, interior and exterior home design, and business design. Still, my greatest desire is to please people and bring their visions to life by helping them promote and expand their graphics and ideas. I mainly focus on creating logos, flyers, invitations, posters, business cards, and more to assist business owners like myself in promoting their style and vision. I guess that is why I thought psychology was the path for me. I like to help people, but it took me to dig into my passion to understand how and why I want to help people. I choose not to limit my abilities and let my specialty shine through others to better myself and their ideas. Using my talents has helped me learn and become who I am today. As of today, I am the CEO of Stephy Jayy, LLC. for Stephy Jayy Graphics and Designs, making visions come to life for any party, event, and business. I’m proud of how far I’ve come and am even more excited to see where this leads.
I’m sure it had its obstacles, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
My road could have been smoother. I’ve had to learn many things along the way, and I am still learning. One of the main things I have had to deal with is listed below, and I believe a few young entrepreneurs may have had or have these same challenges:
- Being myself despite what and who people want me to be.
Growing up in a Caribbean household, many parents aim for their children to grow up to be nurses, doctors, or lawyers; however, deciding to be my own boss and chase my own dream has not been easy for my parents to understand. They want me to believe in the American dream, make money the way we are told, and build a family to believe the same, but I differ. Everyone should have the desire to be and do as they please despite the money – yes, money is important because we all need to survive – but I am a fighter with passion in what I do and desire to make it for myself. You can progress, become better, and make the best out of it. I have learned it’s about more than just the money; do what you need to and use it to lead you to the next journey. God makes no mistakes in the talents and ideas he gives you. They all lead to something – make sure that something is excellent. - Getting support from family and friends.
Although I’ve had many who trusted me with their ideas and visions and were greatly satisfied, it discourages you when you do not get as much support from those who know you the best. It’s not that people intentionally do it; sometimes people prefer someone else to get the work done before you, and that is fine; it’s just something that pushes me each day to better myself. Only some people understand this, so some give up and think they need to improve. I learned to keep my head up and know that I don’t need to prove my work to anyone; your work should talk for itself as long as you are passionate about what you do. I’m always eager to learn and better myself and am very grateful for every opportunity. Some family and friends do not understand the importance of support or the alignment of it, but that’s okay. Just keep working hard, and everything will work out fine. - Staying out of my mind.
Your mind can be both a safe and dangerous place; I call those the safe and danger zones. The safe zone is where your mind gets you all excited and eager to try a new vision and idea, where your talents are tested to create a masterpiece. The danger zone is where you think you’re not good enough to proceed with those visions and ideas, or things are not going as planned, and you start to give up and think you are not good enough. Learning to cross this line was not an easy task, and honestly, to this day, I still go through this on and off. Staying out of your mind is not easy because you always want to be the best, but once you realize the best comes from many mistakes, you’ll be fine. I have learned from these challenges and sometimes need to remind myself, but once I’m past this step, I know these are things many young and new entrepreneurs need to practice.
I appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am a digital graphic designer specializing in logos, flyers, invitations, websites, and more.
Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
Growing I was raised in a happy family. I was born to be the family’s first grandchild of the family, so that means I was spoiled rotten and got to do many things I wanted. My mom was an LPN nurse who worked with children, and I swore myself up and down since childhood. I wanted to be similar to her but instead wanted to be a doctor (pediatrician). Let’s be real here: once I made it to my senior year and realized how long I’d have to be in school and what I’d have to take up to proceed with those dreams, I just knew that was not something I wanted to do. My heart was elsewhere, but I didn’t know exactly where then, so I tested the waters to find my interest to peddle backward a bit; my family motto has always been “Work hard, and you will get what you apply plus more down the line.” I’ve been trying to do just that, but I’ve had ups and downs. In elementary school, I tried my best to maintain A’s and B’s; I made the honor roll a few times and was student of the month. I competed in an art competition and won first place in my school and then joined a district competition, and my artwork made it to the expo fair. I also was in the drama club, where I acted in a few roles, and in the music club, I played two different instruments. In middle school, I was a bit advanced, so I had a variety of electives; I was able to take a graphic design class as well as Microsoft and Adobe classes to proceed in my arts and graphics, learning how to create designs and bring them to life on shirts, cereal boxes, invitation cards, and flyers, I also joined the chess club as well as bowling club after school to keep myself busy. I joined many clubs in high school, including the National Honor Society, HIP, and Women of Tomorrow. I cheered for two years and became Miss Miami Jackson my senior year. I used my skills to differentiate myself from others, drew a foundation out for myself, and established a way of life that I wanted to better my resume and prepare me for college. In college, I joined SISTUHS, became a Woman of Unity and an elder for the following class, and finally graduated with a Bachelor’s in Psychology. With all that being said, I have hoped around a few things and realized that I was never destined to focus on one thing. I have always shown myself that I am interested in different things and areas in life, and through all those things, I’ve used my creativity and talents to make it through. I’ve always had a passion for being creative and different from a young, and I will continue that as an adult. With my creativity, I can do whatever I please for the day and still be happy. My personality has never changed, and that’s why I love art, graphics, and designs so much because I can use it in just about anything I do. I’m interested in being happy and using my skills to be that is what I will do.
Pricing:
- Logo – $40
- Basic Flyer/Design – $40
- Graphic Flyer/Design – $50+
- Invitations/Business Cards – $40
- Banners/Posters – $50+
Contact Info:
- Instagram: stephyjayydesigns_
