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

Raylene , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you recount a story of an unexpected problem you’ve faced along the way?

A problem I faced last year was something that came up very unexpected. I had just opened up my Brick and Mortar Store and I got a letter from a lawyer. A youtuber wanted to sue me because our names were similar. They claim that they were trademarked and that I was infringing on the similarity in names.

However they were not trademarked they had no business license or any legal forms to claim their “name”. Unfortunately I had to get a lawyer and I chose to slightly change my name and trademark it so that no further action can be taken. I chose this route because they continued to fight me and wanted my profit I made for 3 years. I hadn’t even been a business for 3 years and i realized they just wanted money from me.

I went from Grim Girl Collective or just Grim Girl which is now officially trademarked by the United States USPTO.

Raylene , 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 brand I built truly represents things I love. I created this business because I wanted to wear alternative clothing designs to Disneyland. I love wearing black, I love Disneyland and I love Halloween so I decided to combine them together so that I can create items people like me can wear. It isn’t easy finding black Disney themed or Halloween/ horror themed t-shirts. I honestly create my designs on things I would wear. If it’s something I wouldn’t wear I wouldn’t want to sell it.

I work with various of artist to help me execute my design ideas and then we screen print them on T-shirts. I also will turn my designs into stickers. I started to add different products like doing purse designs, sock designs, and other various of items.

I really have tried to just empower people that you can really dream of something, set goals and turn them into reality. I am proud of how far I have come because I truly just started it as a way to step away from being mom and wife, kinda like my self -care. What is great is that my husband and kids have helped me, encouraged and supported this dream. I love that my kids can witness that and I feel like it is teaching them that putting your mind to things you dream of and with hard work you can do anything.

I have some big conventions coming up that I will be a vendor at and I am excited because I am creating new things that are a surprise to my customers. I am trying to expand and grow my business by doing some different things so stay tuned.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I shared briefly about a time I almost got sued. I had to pivot and make changes I had to change my business name. Which meant financially that was burden. I had just opened my storefront and i had ordered new signs, business cards, and other products that had my business name and i had to throe them all away because I had to change my business name to protect myself from potentially being sued.
I had to purchase new signs, I had lawyer fees, and it was because this couple that was claiming something that I was infringing on their name.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Social Media can be a full time job. It is very hard to have to post and create content just to stay part of the algorithm. I really started off with just posting daily and staying consistent. I reached out to influencers and creators that I thought would love my product. I tried to be myself 100% all the time and share real life business scenarios. I also have consistently have answer customers so they know there is a real person behind it all. I try to make sure to comment back to them. I also will do giveaways that seems to help with getting new folllowers.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.grimgirl.biz
• Instagram: @shopgrimgirl

Image Credits

Artist: Rey Paez and Sammy Ruiz
Photo Credit: Suzanna and Rawl the Dead