We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Courtney Scantlin. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Courtney below.

Alright, Courtney thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

Throughout my life I have always had an entrepreneurial spirit. When I was a little girl I loved playing retail shop in my bedroom. I would display the items in my room and pretend they were for sale, I would even write up little receipts for my pretend customers. Eventually, I ended up owning a brick and mortar gift store in Southern California after I had kids. I also was always passionate about helping and serving others. I was the kid who always wanted to help friends, family and even neighbors. My desire to serve others ended up in short term missions in Mexico and Nicaragua. This set my soul on fire, and eventually led to my own family living abroad for a year to serve the kids in a remarkably impoverished area of Nicaragua. We did life with these amazing kiddos and they changed who we were. I like to think we made an impact as well, but their pure hearts changed us forever.

When we moved back to the states it was hard, but we pressed forward. Fast forward a couple of year and we were in the midst of COVID. My once busy life in Corporate America became solely working from home alone, and this was not awesome for my mental health. I am an extrovert and get so much of my energy by being around others. With this new transition I was feeling isolated, and I felt like my heart was missing something. I started tossing the idea around of starting an online boutique, since I had a lot more time on my hands working from home. I knew I needed to tie in some sort of charity with whatever I was going to do, and decided to focus on women. The mission became this- selling items made by women for women and giving back a portion of all proceeds to a charity making an impact in the world.

Over the last two years I have had the incredible opportunity of meeting the most talented female makers, female business owners and amazing customers. Cedar and Twine is my passion and brings me immense joy.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

My name is Courtney Scantlin and I am a mom of two young adults, wife to my favorite guy of 27 years and a full-time Executive Assistant at a cyber security company. I love my family, friends, my three Dachshunds, chocolate, tattoos, antiques and laughter. My branding sets me apart from other boutiques. I was very purposeful when I picked the name and when you receive your order from Cedar and Twine each package has fresh cedar wrapped in twine for an amazingly beautiful and fragrant experience. I wanted people to feel special when they opened their items and it’s one of the things I continue to receive comments about.

This business has allowed me to be generous to others. Last year my chosen charity was a family in need. A dear friend of our families was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer and was unable to work much at all during his battle. Cedar and Twine was able to give his family $1400 because of the amazing support of our customers. As this year comes to a close I am getting excited to be able to donate to a local charity, Women’s Empowerment of Sacramento. They are doing amazing things with women in need and I couldn’t be more excited to donate to them.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Building my audience on social media has been a slow process, but absolutely necessary. I am consistent and thoughtful about each and every post. My advice would be to stay consistent and do reels, I wish I had more time to commit to this, but working a full time job can be challenging at times. I try to show myself grace and do what I can do. Each season is a little different so I stay present and do what I can at the time.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Customer service is such an important part of owning a boutique. I am quick to respond to questions, quick to get the orders out and constantly communicate with my clients via newsletter. Quality products, packaging and customer service is the utmost of importance, and I take it very seriously.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.cedarandtwineco.com
• Instagram: cedarandtwineco

Image Credits
I take all of my photos, I am a one woman team with an amazingly supportive family and tribe of women standing beside me.