Megan: Courtney, thank you for being here.

Courtney: Thanks for having me.

Megan: I certainly know what Sugared + Bronzed is because I’ve been a long time customer. But for anyone that doesn’t know who is listening. What is Sugared + Bronzed?

Courtney: Sugared + Bronzed is a place where you can get sugared or you can get an airbrush tan. Sugaring is an all-natural form of hair removal that originated in ancient Egypt, and hopefully most people know what an airbrush tan is. We currently have 39 locations — almost 40 — across California, Texas, Florida, D.C., New York, and Pennsylvania, and we’re rapidly expanding.

What Is Sugaring?

Courtney: Sugaring is an ancient Egyptian method of hair removal. It removes hair in the natural direction of growth, instead of against it like shaving or waxing. Because of that, it’s noticeably less abrasive and generally more gentle on the skin. Most people find it less painful. You’re still removing hair — so I won’t say it’s painless — but if you sugar once a month, people usually find it much less painful than waxing.

Why Airbrush Tanning Is Considered the “Safe Tan”

Courtney: Airbrush tanning is the only safe way to get a tan. Obviously, no beds, no UV rays. It’s done by a technician in one of our stores. You come in, get sprayed by hand — it takes 10 or 20 minutes — and then you can shower within a few hours. Your tan lasts about a week or two.

How DHA Creates Color (and Why It Doesn’t Damage Skin)

Courtney: The active ingredient is the same across almost all sunless tanning — we derive it from sugar beets and sugar cane. When DHA touches the amino acids in your dead skin cells, it produces a browning effect. It’s similar to when you cut open an apple and let it sit out — the way it turns brown. That’s basically the same reaction.

Courtney: And that’s why it’s safe — the reaction only happens in your dead skin cells, whereas a real tan affects your live skin cells.

Why a Professional Spray Looks Better Than a Self-Tanner

Megan: How is an airbrush tan different from a drugstore self-tanner?

Courtney: It’s similar in that the active ingredient is always the same. The difference is the medium — the formula — and the professional application. Because it’s done by hand with a skilled technician, we can safely use a higher DHA percentage and get a more natural-looking, even tan.

Courtney: At home, it’s really hard to get your entire body perfectly even. With the gun and with trained technicians, you can get a darker, more even tan that lasts longer.

How the Idea Sparked

Courtney: I graduated college in 2009. By the end of 2010, I was working at a fintech company, and I kept complaining to my then-boyfriend — now husband — about how expensive spray tans were in LA compared to what I paid in Boulder. I knew LA cost of living was higher, but spray tans were literally three or four times the price. It just didn’t make sense.

Courtney: My boyfriend finally got sick of hearing me complain and said, “Why don’t you just start a business? You’re not the only person who feels this way.” And I was like, “You’re crazy. I cannot quit my job.” It was a recession. I had rent for the first time in my life. I felt lucky to even have a job.

The First $1,000 — and the Leap

Courtney: One thing led to another, and he talked me into it. Startup capital was going to be $1,000. That was shocking — I had just saved my first thousand dollars. I was terrified I might be throwing it away. He said, “What if you put in $500 and I put in $500?”

Courtney: I was still reluctant, but we did it. Thankfully he knew how to build a website. I learned how to spray tan. And for the next 30 days, I was literally running between my fintech job and my apartment in Santa Monica, spraying people on my lunch break or after work.

Turning the Apartment Into a Studio

Courtney: We bought a travel spray-tan machine because it was cheaper. We bought solution, partitions for the dining room, brown towels — literally the basics — and turned the dining room into a spray-tan studio.

Courtney: Honestly, ignorance is bliss. We were 23. The idea that I could test this without quitting my job felt like a win-win.

When the Side Hustle Outgrew the Job

Courtney: Within the first few months, I was turning down clients because of my job. That’s when it became clear: I had to choose. Why would I turn down clients to sit at a job that didn’t excite me?

Courtney: By the end of January 2011 — just three months after putting up our website — I quit my job. Looking back, it’s funny because that’s actually our off-peak season. But I didn’t know any better. I was just watching it grow month over month.

The First Retail Location

Courtney: By Memorial Day 2011, we had found our first space, did the buildout, and moved in. The entire process — from website launch to brick and mortar — happened in just over six months. The store was upstairs, behind a tree. Not exactly glamorous, but our thinking was: if people can find us in an apartment, they can find us upstairs behind a tree.

Early Pricing & Unit Economics

Megan: What were the unit economics when you started?

Courtney: In the apartment, it was $35 for a standard tan. When we introduced the express tan a few months later, it was $45. When we opened our retail space, we raised them slightly — $39 and $49 — to account for rent.

Courtney: From day one, we were cash-flow positive. We paid off our initial investment within a few weeks. We bootstrapped for nine years. We took SBA loans occasionally for construction, but we didn’t raise outside money until 2019 — and even then, only to scale faster.

Marketing Before Social Media

Courtney: Definitely not Instagram — it didn’t exist. And not Facebook either, because they didn’t have an advertising platform yet. So we relied heavily on Google AdWords. We were also on Yelp. I don’t think we paid for Yelp advertising initially, but people organically started writing reviews.

Courtney: It probably started with a few friends, to be honest. And then word-of-mouth took off. It’s still one of our main growth drivers today, even with TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook.

From Website to Retail Store in Under 3 Months

Courtney: We put up the website November 1st, 2010. By the end of January 2011, I quit my job. Looking back, that’s wild, because that’s actually our off-peak season. But I didn’t know any different — I just saw growth.

Courtney: By Memorial Day 2011, we had found our first space, done a simple buildout, and moved in. It was upstairs behind a tree — literally hidden — but it still worked. We figured: if clients could find us in my apartment, they can find us anywhere.

Competing With Luxury Salons

Courtney: There was a place on Montana Ave offering airbrush tanning starting at $115 — and this was almost 15 years ago. With inflation, that’s extremely expensive. They had a much nicer space, so I was intimidated.

Courtney: Clients would tell us, “My friend told me about you, but I’ve been going to this fancy place across the street.” They’d try us once and say, “Oh…” — like, in a good way. And eventually that place went out of business.

Courtney: I love competition. I think it makes everyone better. But I had to laugh when that salon closed. I had been so scared of them — meanwhile we were growing steadily from this humble upstairs space.

Choosing Locations During a Recession

Courtney: That first space was the only one we could afford. We really wanted to be on Montana Ave — it’s a great neighborhood street where people go for beauty services. But rents are expensive.

Courtney: Fortunately, we were coming out of a recession. A small upstairs unit behind a tree — even in a premium area — was still barely within reach. We figured it out.

Staffing in the Early Days

Courtney: In my apartment, I obviously couldn’t hire people to come work there. But when we opened our first store, I hired a couple of people immediately. I sprayed alongside them. We were open seven days a week, so I’d do double shifts. By the end of that first year, I was doing more reception and starting to focus on hiring and training.

Courtney: Not long after that, we were already looking for another space. I sprayed clients for at least the first year — maybe longer.

The First Expansion Strategy: “Mini Franchises”

Megan: You mentioned earlier that you expanded quickly. How did you approach growth in the beginning?

Courtney: In the very early days, we tried our own version of franchising. I like to say “family franchising,” because it wasn’t formal franchising — we didn’t even know how to franchise. But we had a ton of interest, and we didn’t have the money to open new stores ourselves yet. We were still self-funded.

Courtney: People would say, “I’d love to open one in my city.” So we created this hybrid structure: they would open a store, they would pay us, but it wasn’t a true franchise from a legal or operational standpoint.

When Informal Systems Break

Courtney: Within about three years, we realized this structure wasn’t going to scale long-term. Even though we loved the people who opened those early locations, the model caused confusion around what the brand stood for and what systems should look like.

Courtney: We had to acknowledge: “Okay, we’re running a real company now. We need real infrastructure.” And that meant we needed to either franchise properly — with lawyers, operations manuals, compliance —
or we needed to buy back those locations and centralize operations.

The Turning Point: Taking Back Control

Courtney: In 2014, our third year, we bought everyone out. That was a huge moment. People had invested their time and money, and many of them were family or close friends. To this day, I’m grateful to them for believing in us.

Courtney: But ultimately, we had to bring operations fully in-house. That was the only way we could grow with consistent quality and brand standards.

Opening the Second Corporate Store

Courtney: Our second store opened in Manhattan Beach in 2012. That was our first true “corporate” location. It was honestly chaos — in a good way. We were still learning everything as we went. Every new store taught us something we didn’t know we needed.

Courtney: And we weren’t paying ourselves much at all. Literally nothing for the first couple years. Maybe $20,000 the third year. We poured everything back into growth.

Keeping Service as the Foundation

Courtney: One of the biggest lessons was that you have to stay close to the customer experience. I sprayed clients for the first year — probably longer. I worked reception. I cleaned rooms. That kept us grounded in what mattered most: consistency and quality.

Courtney: Even now, with almost 40 locations, our success is still rooted in the tiny details we obsessed over in year one: the technique, the timing, the color matching, the tone of voice at check-in. You can’t outsource that level of intuition unless you train it into your culture.

Scaling With Intention

Courtney: We didn’t open our third location until we really understood our model. People see where we are now and assume it happened fast, but it took years of testing, learning, and fixing.

Courtney: It wasn’t until 2019 that we finally took on outside capital — not because we needed it to survive, but because we wanted to accelerate expansion with a more mature infrastructure.

Growing Into Leadership

Megan: How has your leadership evolved over the years? Running nearly 40 locations is no small thing — what did that journey look like for you?

Courtney: In the beginning, I was young — 23 when I started the business — and I had never managed anyone. I didn’t know how to delegate, I didn’t know how to give feedback, I didn’t even know what being a “leader” really meant. I just knew how to work hard and do the thing in front of me.

Courtney: When we hired our first employees, I assumed everyone would do the job exactly how I did it — same pace, same attention to detail, same level of care. That’s not realistic. And honestly, it wasn’t fair. It took me a long time to understand that people have different motivations, different learning styles, and different definitions of “great work.”

Learning to Let Go

Courtney: The hardest part was letting go of control. I was used to doing everything — spraying, cleaning, payroll, ordering solution, training, hiring… all of it. When you’ve built something from scratch, it feels like your identity. Handing pieces of that to someone else is terrifying.

Courtney: But the truth is, if you don’t learn to let go, you become the bottleneck. And I was absolutely the bottleneck for a long time.

Perfectionism & Emotional Labor

Courtney: I’ve always had perfectionist tendencies. I wanted every tan to look perfect and every client to feel perfect and every detail in the store to be perfect. Perfectionism served me early on — it made the experience great — but it also created this crushing emotional load.

Courtney: I felt personally responsible for every outcome, every mistake, every unhappy customer, every employee issue. It was exhausting. And honestly, unsustainable.

Shifting From “Doer” to CEO

Courtney: The turning point for me was realizing that being a great technician is not the same as being a great leader. I had to shift from “I do everything” to “I build systems that help everyone do great work.”

Courtney: Once I understood that, everything changed. Instead of trying to control every detail, I started investing in training, in operations, in hiring people who were better than me at specific roles. The business grew because I grew.

Burnout & the Cost of Caring Too Much

Megan: Did you ever hit burnout?

Courtney: Oh, 100%. Multiple times. I didn’t have boundaries. I poured everything into the business — emotionally and physically. And because we’re in a service industry, there’s a lot of emotional labor. You’re not just providing a service; you’re managing people’s feelings, their bodies, their insecurities. That takes a lot out of you.

Courtney: It wasn’t until I had a team I trusted — and until I started taking care of myself — that the burnout eased. I still work hard, but it’s not the same frantic, overwhelmed energy I had before.

Becoming a Leader People Follow

Courtney: To me now, leadership is about clarity, communication, and consistency. People follow leaders who are predictable in the best way — not reactive, not chaotic, not emotional all over the place. They trust you because you show up the same way every day.

Courtney: And I only became that kind of leader once I slowed down, created systems, delegated, and realized the business can’t rely on my adrenaline forever.

Learning to Navigate Conflict

Megan: Something I hear a lot from founders is how hard it is to navigate conflict — giving feedback, setting boundaries, or making the call when someone isn’t the right fit. What was that like for you?

Courtney: I’ve always been pretty conflict-averse. I hate people being upset with me. I want everyone to feel good. And in the early days, that made leadership really hard. I would avoid difficult conversations or sugarcoat things — no pun intended — and it always made the situation worse.

Courtney: I thought I was being kind, but really I was just delaying the inevitable and creating confusion.

Firing as a Leadership Skill

Courtney: Firing people was the hardest thing for me. Even when it was obvious — like, painfully obvious — that someone wasn’t the right fit, I would agonize over it. I’d think: “Maybe I didn’t explain something well,” or “Maybe if I give them more time…”

Courtney: Eventually I learned that keeping the wrong person is unfair to the entire team, not just the business. It drains morale. It creates resentment. It sends the message that we tolerate inconsistency.

Courtney: The first time I fired someone quickly — instead of dragging it out for months — I felt this huge shift. It was like, “Oh. This is what leadership feels like. This is what protecting the culture looks like.”

Tolerating Disappointment

Courtney: One of my biggest growth edges has been learning to tolerate other people’s disappointment. Early on, if someone didn’t like a decision I made, I internalized it — like it meant I was a bad leader or a bad person.

Courtney: Now I can sit with it. I can acknowledge their feelings without taking on their emotional responsibility. That took years. And therapy.

Culture as the Company Scaled

Megan: And as the business grew, how did your relationship to culture evolve?

Courtney: Culture has always mattered, but when it was just a few of us, culture meant my personality. As we grew, I realized culture needed to be intentional — something we define and teach, not something that happens by accident.

Courtney: For example, I care deeply about customer experience, and I used to assume everyone understood my standards intuitively. But people can’t meet expectations they can’t see. So we built training, scripts, tone guidance — all these systems that translated what was in my head into something we could scale.

Courtney: That’s when we started seeing consistency across locations, even when I wasn’t there. It was empowering.

Leadership in a Growing Team

Courtney: Becoming a real leader meant getting comfortable with clarity. Clear expectations, clear boundaries, clear communication. It’s not harsh — it’s actually the most supportive thing you can do for your team.

Courtney: And once I understood that, people started trusting me in a deeper way. Not because I was perfect — but because I was consistent.

Becoming a Parent While Running a Company

Megan: How did becoming a mother intersect with your experience as a founder? What did that shift look like?

Courtney: It changed everything. Before having kids, I didn’t have boundaries. I worked all the time, answered every call, responded to every message. Once I had my daughter, I couldn’t do that anymore — and honestly, I didn’t want to.

Courtney: Motherhood forced me to re-evaluate how I was spending my time. Suddenly there was something more important than the business. And that clarity helped me become a better leader.

The Guilt & The Pressure

Courtney: But of course there was guilt. I felt guilty when I wasn’t working, guilty when I wasn’t with my daughter, guilty when I missed something at home or something at work. It felt like I was failing on both fronts.

Courtney: Eventually I had to accept that guilt is part of it. You just learn to live with it and separate what’s real from what’s just pressure you’re putting on yourself.

Operational Changes After Motherhood

Courtney: Once I had my daughter, I had to change the way I worked. I couldn’t be the one doing everything anymore. I had to trust my team. I had to let people make mistakes. I had to let go of the idea that the business needed me for every decision.

Courtney: In some ways, motherhood forced me into the CEO role I should’ve stepped into earlier. It made me elevate my perspective instead of being involved in the weeds all day.

Letting Go of the Fear of Being Needed

Megan: Was there fear in letting go of that operational involvement?

Courtney: Definitely. There’s this fear: “If I’m not involved in everything, what’s my value? What if the business doesn’t need me?” And at the same time — of course I wanted the business to not need me. That’s the irony of entrepreneurship.

Courtney: But once I saw the team succeed without me, it was one of the most empowering moments. It meant I had built something real — not just a job for myself.

A Company That Can Function Without the Founder

Courtney: The biggest shift was realizing that if the business can’t function without you, then you don’t own a business — you own a burnout cycle. And I didn’t want that anymore.

Courtney: Now I’m involved in strategy, vision, culture, major decisions — but the day-to-day is handled by people who are better at those roles than I ever was.

The Non-Negotiables

Megan: You seem really grounded now — like you’ve found routines that support you emotionally and physically. What are the non-negotiables in your self-care? What actually keeps you regulated as both a founder and a mom?

Courtney: Two things have been huge for me: breathwork and cold plunges. They’ve changed my nervous system more than anything else. When I feel overwhelmed or anxious, breathwork brings me back immediately. And the cold plunge literally resets my entire system.

The Power of Cold Exposure

Courtney: I cold plunge almost every day. I know that sounds extreme, but the benefits are insane. I feel like a more patient, calmer version of myself afterward. It’s like someone pressed a reset button.

Courtney: And on days when I don’t do it, I’m more irritable. I feel it.

Movement & Mental Health

Courtney: Movement is another big one. I walk, I strength train — nothing crazy, but consistent. I’m not a “run 10 miles” person. But a 25-minute walk or workout does wonders for my head. If I skip movement for too long, I feel it emotionally.

Morning Rituals That Actually Work

Megan: Do you have a morning routine?

Courtney: I do — but it’s not this intense, hour-long thing people brag about. I wake up early because my kids wake up early. I drink water, I do breathwork if I can, and I try to get sunlight, even if it’s five minutes on the patio. That alone makes a huge difference for my mood and energy.

Letting Go of the “Old Self”

Courtney: I also had to accept that my self-care looks different than before kids. I used to be able to spend hours at the gym or meditating or doing long routines. Now my self-care is woven into small windows of my day. And that’s okay.

Courtney: I had to stop comparing myself to the “old me” — the one without responsibilities. Now it’s about doing what works, not what looks good on paper.

Why These Tools Matter as a Founder

Courtney: As a founder, your nervous system affects everything — your decisions, your employees, your customers, your family. I think of breathwork, cold plunges, sunlight, and movement as maintenance. They keep me able to show up with clarity instead of reactivity.

Courtney: If I don’t take care of myself, the business feels it. My family feels it. Everyone feels it.

What She Wishes Her Younger Founder Self Knew

Megan: If you could go back and talk to your younger self — the 23-year-old spraying clients in your dining room — what would you say to her?

Courtney: I would tell her to trust herself more. I spent so much time second-guessing everything. Every decision felt so heavy, like if I didn’t get it perfect, everything would fall apart.

Courtney: I wish I had known earlier that you can make mistakes and still be successful. You can course-correct. You can experiment. You don’t have to have it all figured out to take the next step.

Learning to Live With Fear

Courtney: I was so scared in the early years. Scared of failing. Scared of disappointing people. Scared of making the wrong hire. Scared of raising prices. Scared of everything, really. And that fear didn’t go away — I just got better at moving with it.

Courtney: Now when I feel fear, I’m like: “Oh, hi. There you are. Let’s go.” Fear is information — not a stop sign.

Imposter Feelings Never Fully Disappear

Megan: Did you struggle with imposter syndrome?

Courtney: Absolutely. For years. Honestly — still, sometimes. When you build something from nothing, there’s this voice that says, “Who am I to be running a company? Who am I to lead people?”

Courtney: But what I’ve learned is: everyone feels that way at times. Truly — everyone. You just get better at not letting that voice drive the car.

The Myth of “Overnight Success”

Courtney: People see almost 40 locations now and think it happened overnight. They don’t see the 10+ years of long days, seven-day weeks, cleaning rooms, doing payroll at 2 a.m., crying in my car between clients, all of it.

Courtney: Success is slow. It’s unglamorous. And it’s not linear — at all. I wish more people talked about that.

Final Advice to Founders

Megan: Any last words of wisdom for founders — especially those in the messy middle?

Courtney: Take the next step, even if it’s small. Stop waiting to feel ready — you won’t. Don’t compare your year two to someone else’s year ten. And please — trust yourself more. There’s no substitute for that.

Courtney: Also: get help sooner. I waited way too long to hire. The moment you give a piece of your workload to someone who’s great at it, your whole world opens up.

Megan: Thank you so much for sharing your story — the messy parts, the proud parts, all of it. I know listeners are going to feel so seen by your honesty.

Courtney: Thank you for having me. This was really special.