Career Profile: Courtney Grace Peterson, Logic and Grace

Courtney Grace Peterson and I met at a networking event and quickly became friends. Whenever we get together I leave feeling energized and inspired. Courtney has had such a fascinating career path and I love hearing her stories and learning from her. Courtney is the founder of the digital communications consultancy, Logic & Grace.  Some of her clients include J. Pocker, Sloane Stationery, and The Beaux Art Consultancy. Prior to founding Logic & Grace, Courtney was a buyer at One Kings Lane, a brand manager for a mobile shopping app, and held editorial positions at VOGUE, Teen Vogue, and Architectural Digest. She has such fantastic advice and I’m thrilled to share it with you today!

You’ve worked as a buyer at One Kings Lane, a brand manager for a mobile shopping app, and at editorial positions at Vogue, Teen Vogue, and Architectural Digest.  You recently founded your own company Logic & Grace.  You’ve had such an impressive career at amazing places! What advice do you have for breaking into the fashion, tech, and editorial? 

Thank you! My best advice would be to educate yourself and build real relationships with people in industries you’d like to pursue. Always be learning, listening, reading, and meeting new people. If you want to work in the tech world, read Fast Company and Tech Crunch daily. If you want to work in fashion read Business of Fashion and WWD every day — know the key players and thought leaders and find ways to meet the right people. It’s important to have a personal and professional network across different industries. It helps you evolve, stay relevant, and understand various disciplines with a different perspective. I’m a better content creator understanding retail and a better merchant understanding the editorial world.

How would you explain Logic & Grace in a few sentences? 

Logic & Grace is a digital branding and communications consultancy. Logic is the tech side of the business and Grace is the content creation, so it’s really a hybrid of my editorial and digital background. I work with my clients to define their brand story and create the most beautiful (and optimized) content to tell that story to the right audience. That translates to implementing social media strategies to rebuilding an entire website and everything in between. This also means my day can take me from the flower market to looking at wireframes and Google Analytics.

 What inspired you to start Logic & Grace? 

When I realized there was a lack of resources to help smaller luxury brands build digital strategies. Social media and the digital world in general can be really overwhelming… the landscape is shifting and many brands don’t have tens of thousands of dollars to hire large agencies to build and execute these strategies. I’m a natural content creator and love the tech and startup world— Logic & Grace allows me to be very entrepreneurial and digitally focused while still creating content in a meaningful way.

I also feel like job security doesn’t exist in the way it did in the past. The best investment I felt I could make was in myself and my own company.

What advice do you have for someone who wants to start their own business? 

Understand your value proposition and make sure someone is already willing to pay for that service/product/idea. Test it in a small way and build off of that.

What are some of the best things, and on the flip side the most challenging things, about starting your own business? 

Best thing is my autonomy, independence, and the fact that I can choose how to invest my time. On the flip side, owning your own company is a tremendous amount of responsibility — that direct deposit isn’t just going to show up in your account at the end of the month with a neat tax deduction, savings, and health insurance. The accounting and financial side of the business are very challenging…thankfully finding the right CPA and accountant is key.

My mantra is efficiency with things and effectiveness with people. (I can thank Steve Covey for that one.) Time management is crucial when it comes to owning your own business — it’s always a balancing act on how you spend your time.

What is the best career advice you’ve ever received?

Your career will never be a neat, linear line. We had a great female entrepreneur speaker series at One Kings Lane and I remember Aileen Lee from Kleiner Perkins and Cowboy Ventures saying how your career is like a jungle gym. It’s more important to keep momentum and to evolve than to wait for the next perfect promotion or opportunity. That really stuck with me. Sometimes lateral moves are better “smartcuts” in the end to career success and a more fulfilling professional trajectory than a job title that just looks good from the outside.

What is on your desk right now?

My iPad, MacBook Air, Verizon JetPack, and my CGP Sloane Stationery notebook. My schedule is so hectic having a clean desk is crucial to staying organized.

What is the best advice you’ve ever received?

Live an authentic life. A message that Gabrielle Giffords reinforced at my college graduation (also a Scripps College alumna).

What is a fun fact about you? 

Can’t wait for Pitch Perfect 2. I was in a competitive a cappella group in college.

What advice do you have for other young professional women? 

Read The Confidence Code by Katty Kay and Claire Shipman and just trust yourself.  Surround yourself with positive, talented, and like-minded young women. I rely on an inner circle of close friends for professional conundrums and advice all the time. We are constantly a sounding board for each other.

Thank you, Courtney!

Images courtesy of Courtney Grace Peterson and Logic & Grace.