Today we’d like to introduce you to Courtney Porter.
Hi Courtney, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I was always taught to be confident, love myself & look good while doing so. In my lifetime, I’ve encountered a lot of people who didn’t have that instilled in them & from a little girl being dressed head to toe by my mother & watching & adoring my older siblings as they dressed to go out, I’ve always loved fashion & anything associated with enhancing beauty wanting to help show others how to the love the skin their in as well.
I went from being a licensed cosmetologist to now the owner of See Her Style LLC/seeherstyle.com an online women’s clothing boutique selling clothing for regular & plus-sized women with hopes of in the near future adding men’s pieces with the assistance of my 15-year-old son (Caedin). It had been a dream of mine since middle school, but I kept putting it off.
It wasn’t until the spring break six months after I delivered my 2nd son (Emir) stillborn while vacationing in Florida at the suggestion of my then therapist to do something that makes me happy, my son encouraged me to go ahead & start my business after taking our long Uber ride & having a conversation with the driver about her transportation business. She also offered encouragement & tips & it was like a light bulb finally came on illuminating a path for me to find my way out of that space I had fallen in.
So, when we came home I started brainstorming & working on my website. It was launched on April 6, 2021, & I sent out mass texts to nearly everyone in my phone & got on social media networking, started doing pop-up shops just about every weekend & haven’t looked back. I have learned a lot, and am still learning. I have met a lot of people one being, Ra’Sheika Jones who referred me for this interview, & I can’t wait to see what’s next for me.
The sky is the limit & like I tell my son what my late mother & father always told me, I can do anything I put my mind to.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It hasn’t been smooth, but nobody said it would be easy, because if it were EVERYONE would be doing it.
Some days/weeks are better than others. I can go from making $700 in a day to making nothing. I’ve invested almost all my savings in something I am passionate about & I have faith this is my sunshine after all the rain I’ve endured.
Every time I feel like giving up, there’s an unexpected blessing out of nowhere just like this interview.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
As I stated earlier, I am a former cosmetologist, but also a medical assistant, home health aide, retail management trainee, and travel agent & I currently work at a mail packaging warehouse. I’ve pretty much done a little bit of this & that.
Work is work to me & I work hard at whatever I do. My current employer & all my previous employers can agree to that. I love planning & styling & that’s pretty much what gave me the idea of owning my boutique. I’ve always been complimented on my style & been asked to shop for & style plenty friends & family still to this day.
I genuinely love empowering & helping others in any way I can & which may be what sets me apart. I’m proud of all I’ve accomplished thus far.
Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
Again, I’d like to thank my son Caedin for giving me that extra push & my husband for helping with ideas & some of the finances toward getting up & running. I’d like to thank my sister Alicia & her daughter Raisha (my niece) & so many others for being such loyal repeat customers & sharing my posts & website with others.
I’d like to thank my other sister Carla, for always being available to come to be my assistant & mostly every event I have vending/hosted. I’d like to thank Kathy Price for seeing something in me I didn’t see in myself & asking me to co-host my 1st Successful Sold Out Fashion Show alongside her back on April 9th at the Cake Snob inside the Galleria Mall.
I’d like to thank the owner Nichole of that event space & all my models: Tramaine, Melissa, Latoi & My niece Ambria for sacrificing their time to come be a part of & support that vision.
I’d like to thank Nicole of Conversations With Cole for having me on her show to help promote that show & I could go on & on because there are so many others who played a role in making this dream a reality. Still, I’m going to end by thanking Demetria owner of Materialistic Junkie & Junkie Events who offered a business class I took that gave me the information to get my LLC & start my business back in September of 2018.
I truly appreciate all these angels.
Contact Info:
- Email: Courtney@seeherstyle.com
- Website: Seeherstyle.com
- Instagram: @seeherstyle_
- Facebook: See Her Style
Image Credits
Doc Dollinger of Da Playground and After Dark
