We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Courtney Cay Thomas a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Courtney, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

My first line of work in the industry was modeling for a t-shirt company that specialized in comfortability and simplicity. I had an idea that was similar to theirs, but I wanted to expand on it and rebel against the message it sent. Understanding the market was the first most important concept I needed to have in order to expand upon my idea. I understood that the market has always and potentially will always thrive on hyper-sexuality and outer beauty. I wanted to push something different. So after realizing what some of my core values were, I checked in with the company that I was working with to make sure there were no conflicts of interest. I started thinking about the verbiage and branding I wanted to present. I looked online to make sure my idea wasn’t already executed and once confirmed, started working on my logo through WordPress. After I created my first logo “good girl co.” with a halo hanging from the g, I started looking through wholesale sites (with help from the t-shirt company) to put my branding on. It took multiple orders, articles of clothing, and cricket fails to find my first perfect item to present my company through. We started with a comfortable, stretchy, soft cotton tank to display our logo. I formed my S. corp using an online legal service, and started researching trademark attorneys. My attorney actually found me- lots of mail came in with offers and one really stood out. We worked together for 2-3 months to get the trademark approved. As more product designs came in, we started shooting the product and within months formed an e-commerce website to start selling limited quantities of the good girl clothing. In order to protect the brand/idea, I bought 10 domains that used “good girl” wording. After a controversial company with contradictory values stole our name and made FOX news, we almost gave up. Articles on their company sprouted everywhere and many of our customers and audience were confused. After speaking with a tech guru on whether our company was viable or not, he helped guide us through digital marketing and making the domains I bought live to knock down the competing company’s visibility. That was just out first year and it almost ended before we had truly gotten started.

Courtney, 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?

My name is Courtney Cay Thomas. I’m a 30 year old mom of 2 young boys who works by day in the personal injury and healthcare technology space. Good Girl Co. has been my baby since 2015 that I have managed to run/support alongside my other entrepreneurial passions. I can honestly say that I never saw myself in this industry. I grew up a tomboy but was recruited into modeling at 20 years old. There were a lot of things I loved about modeling- the creativity of the photoshoots, the opportunity to see yourself in a different light, meeting new people etc. But as I started traveling internationally for shoots, seeing the repercussions and response of shooting for brands that not everyone felt the same about, understanding the stigma behind being a “model”, I realized that society had limited their thinking and options for what it meant to be a model, to be beautiful. A t-shirt company with risque wording inspired me to create a concept that allowed women to feel beautiful and comfortable no matter what they were wearing or what their body type is. And we wear/wore all these types of clothing with a brand or logo repeatedly blasted across. Why not wear something that means something? Good Girl was made to be more than just a cute catchy phrase on a t-shirt. Our models represent that wording despite their backgrounds or walk of life. 20% of sales proceeds go to local charities and our models that we source from around the world are vetted through a rigorous application process. They understand what being a good girl is and they’re truly beautiful people inside and out. We come together for local charity projects and travel yearly to countries effected by natural disasters to host our photoshoots. Collectively, our models have over 11 million followers and we are able to bring digital traffic and attention, (therefore more $$ and attraction) to the places we touch and promote. Oh! And we don’t edit the models’ bodies in our pics. We are inclusive to all other brands that are like-minded and help promote small businesses as well as support some of our own internal Girl Bosses/Models who have started their own brands or companies.

We’d appreciate any insights you can share with us about selling a business.

Right before the pandemic in 2018, I started a side consulting company that developed businesses through outside sourcing and technology. I had no intentions of selling until mid 2019 when COVID was in full swing and no one was sure where we were headed. I had put some of my current customers on freeze, not wanting them to overpay for services with unreliable results. I maintained full transparency and communication with all of my clients while this was happening and started to create a deck that illustrated what my company did, the growth we saw pre-pandemic, and potential projections when life as we knew it returned. I made sure to protect the name and idea again with a trademark, securing domain handles, and monitoring cyber-security. I started doing some research on similar companies/potential competitors and reached out to a broker to help me find people interested in the name itself. The broker was my most helpful resource- he linked me with a guy that wanted the name/company because they had a concept almost identical in another state. I set up an intro. with the owner of this company and after 9 months of presentations, conference calls, and negotiations, we had a sale. Maintaining good relationships with the people that have invested in your company is so important to preserving the value of your company and what you’re presenting to sell. The other business came in and picked up where I left off and I still today work with/for some of the customers I had originally acquired.

Has your business ever had a near-death moment? Would you mind sharing the story?

Haha- I could share a few stories, but this also goes along with speaking on a couple lessons I had to unlearn. When I started the business back in 2015, I thought that I could do everything on my own. A business is a BABY and it takes a village to raise it. I was capped at my abilities, trying to learn how to do everything myself from web design, to fashion design (I started school again at SCAD at 26 years old to improve/learn design skills), to navigating an online shop/fulfilling orders etc, to managing and operating a multi-faceted company with well over 50 people involved. You can say pride got in the way, but mostly stubbornness. I was working full time in the healthcare industry and was juggling running my passion product on the side, as it was the ultimate goal of what I wanted to spend all of my time doing. Naturally, orders were missed, communication was delayed, and inventory was hard to keep up with. I had a large order that came in from Canada that had selected a 3 day shipping option for a product that was out of stock. I did not set up the site for international ordering efficiently and did not honestly expect to have traction in other countries. When I say I didn’t set it up efficiently, I had no idea what I was doing and selected whatever attractive option I saw available. The purchaser was unhappy to say the least- it was a gift for an employee going away and time was of the essence. Customer service is SO SO important to me and it was a costly lesson to fulfill this customer’s need. I had to overnight the material from a different (more expensive) wholesaler and use a local shop/tailor to embroider the product before spending $100 for international overnight shipping. The second hard lesson came from finally realizing that I needed help and employing my friends. Not based on their skillset or interests, but because of their belief and support in the brand and our friendship. It’s difficult to manage friends especially when it changes the dynamic of your current relationship with them. Mistakes were made, conflicts arose, and some friendships fell apart while others maintained.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.goodgirlclothing.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/goodgirlcompany
• Other: www.goodgirlco.com instagram.com/goodgirlmodels www.natedornimages.com

Image Credits
@moonfirephoto Natalie www.moonfirephoto.com www.natedornimages.com Nate Dorn www.joeywrightphoto.com Joey Wright @vincentpierce Vincent Pierce Photo