Believe it or not, Courtney Quinn started her now wildly popular blog, Color Me Courtney, as a side-hustle to break into the fashion industry. And (spoiler alert) it worked. She landed her dream job and quickly worked her way up the corporate ladder, but after years of working for brands like Tommy Hilfiger, Jonathan Adler, Kate Spade, and Coach, Quinn left her role developing handbags to pursue Color Me Courtney full time.

Now, over 755K Instagram followers and 108K TikTok followers later, it's safe to say Quinn is a veritable force in the digital content creator space. She’s collaborated on product lines with major brands, including the perfect red lipstick "Color Me Confident" for Birchbox, sneakers for Adidas, a pair of "Color Me Keds," and a capsule collection with Rent the Runway. But all that success didn't happen overnight. It took years of hustling, grinding, and innovating to attain the influencer status she has today—and her work still isn't done. 

Below, the self-proclaimed “color queen” gives us the low-down on how she built her digital content empire and garnered an engaged social media following in the process.

How did you make your first dollar and what did that job teach you that still applies today? 

As an influencer, my first collaboration came pretty late. I waited to charge until I had a following of 50k. That job taught me to always ask for a budget before giving out a number. 

Take us back to the beginning—what was the lightbulb moment for your business/career and what inspired you to pursue this path? 

I really started my blog not as a career, but as a way to get a job in the fashion industry. I saw that blogs were taking off, and I wasn’t getting hired based on my education and MBA, so I removed my MBA from my resume and added my blog. That’s what helped me land my first fashion job.

2020 presented everybody around the globe with new, unprecedented challenges. How did you #FindNewRoads + switch gears towards your new version of success? 

Luckily, most of my job takes place online, but I have always strived to influence people to put down their phones and experience life. When life as we know it screeched to a halt, I had to start finding new ways to inspire people from inside. For me though, the most important thing was to make sure people felt connected and supported. And to set a good example. Ensure I wasn’t traveling, I was staying inside even more than the average person and adding context to any old photos I was posting that may have been taken pre-pandemic to ensure I was always setting a good example.

Going after what you deserve in life takes confidence and guts. Does confidence come naturally to you or did you have to learn it? What advice can you share for women on cultivating confidence and going after their dreams? 

I don’t think confidence comes naturally to anyone, and even if you are in a state of confidence, it’s something that has to be continually worked on. I work on flexing my confidence muscle as much as possible, pushing myself out of my comfort zone, trying new things, and always growing and improving. For me, the first step in becoming more confident is realizing that everyone else is as self-conscious as you are, so they probably aren’t judging you the way you fear they are because, in reality, their fears are the same as yours and they’re mostly focusing on themselves. Additionally, realizing that you will never please everyone, so all you can do is be true to yourself. When you’re yourself, you feel the most comfortable, and therefore, can be the most confident version of you!

How have you remained true and authentic to who you are and what advice can you share for women who are struggling with that? 

There was a long time when I looked at other people and tried to replicate what they were doing, and it never worked for me. Plus, it was exhausting pretending to be something I’m not. I quickly learned that if I wanted to be successful at this, I wanted to also be myself while doing it. 

It’s easy to celebrate the wins, but how do you handle failure or when something hasn’t worked out for you? 

It is always a learning experience. Really. Even in your biggest failures, there is some small takeaway or positive thing to focus on. 

With success comes opportunity, but that also means you have your hands full. What keeps you inspired and motivated to keep going even on your most challenging days? 

For me, it’s my community over anything! They’re the most important thing to me in my career and why I want to continue to create, get better, and inspire.

What's the one productivity tip or work hack that truly changed your life? 

Time batching! If you can do all of one thing on one day, you get in a groove and are more productive.

If you could go back to the beginning of your career journey with the knowledge you have now, what advice would you give yourself? 

Being Courtney is enough, don’t waste time trying to be anyone else. 

Fill in the blanks:

I turn bad days around by…

Having a dance party or crying in the shower.

If there were more hours in the day, I would…  

Learn a language or two.

The three qualities that got me to where I am today are… 

Fearlessness, stubbornness, and uniqueness.

My perfect day begins with… 

Just dance! (It’s a video game!) When I start my day doing something non-work related that I enjoy, I have a way better day!

The craziest thing I’ve done for work is…  

Oh, there are so many. Shooting and changing in freezing weather on the streets of New York City. Carrying giant balloons and pool floats around West Village. Sitting up high on buildings for shots, and then remembering that I’m afraid of heights. Jumping in a pool backward with my clothes on for an Instagram Reel.