When Laura Quick founded Good Grit Agency & Magazine in 2015, her primary focus was to showcase the stories of the South with honesty, heart, and grit. Fast forward eleven years, and the regional publication has now grown into a multimillion-dollar creative business that offers a variety of services to clients. It produces a quarterly magazine and operates a full-service agency that elevates brands, nonprofits, and entrepreneurs across the Southeast.

We recently chatted with Samantha Southerland, who was named Chief Executive Officer earlier this year, and Laura Kate Whitney, who serves as the Editor-at-Large for Good Grit magazine, to learn more about what the company has to offer and what type of work is available for freelance contractors.

Samantha Southerland is the CEO of Good Grit Agency and Good Grit magazine, where she leads strategy, storytelling, and growth across a creative agency and a publication built to spotlight people, businesses, and communities doing meaningful work. Her role sits at the intersection of brand, media, partnerships, and leadership, helping ideas move from concept to real-world impact.

Samantha’s background is in strategic operations, marketing, and communications, with more than a decade spent building teams, scaling initiatives, and leading complex, cross-functional work. She holds an Executive MBA from Auburn University and a PMP certification and is known for blending structure with creativity and strategy with story.

Laura Kate Whitney is the Founder and Chief Experience Officer of GOODco, an experience management studio based in Charleston, S.C. A master connector, passionate storyteller, and creative strategist, she leads experiences and campaigns for brands and organizations across the Southeast. Laura Kate also serves as Editor-at-Large for Good Grit magazine, a Southern travel publication for those who love and are curious about exploring the good South. Known for her strategic vision and creative edge, Laura Kate brings people together for experiences that leave a lasting imprint.

 

 

WOW: Welcome, Samantha and Laura Kate! Samantha, let’s start with you. What first attracted you to Good Grit Agency & Magazine, and what do you hope to bring to your new role as Chief Executive Officer?

Samantha: You know that feeling when something just fits—when you don’t have to stretch to be it, you just are? That’s what Good Grit feels like to me.

I’ve had a career I’m deeply grateful for: a communications and marketing degree, an MBA, owning multiple businesses, and serving as a VP inside a billion-dollar company. I learned a lot in those seasons. But stepping into Good Grit feels different. It feels like the most aligned version of who I am and what I’m meant to build.

This role brings together everything I care about, like building strong teams, serving people well, and helping organizations connect marketing, sales, and operations so growth is intentional, not accidental. And when you add the magazine—the storytelling, the culture, the South—it just makes sense.

Laura Quick laid an extraordinary foundation over the last decade, and it’s an honor to steward what she built. If I can bring anything to this role, it’s clarity, high standards, genuine care, and long-term vision. I want our team to love working here. I want our clients to feel supported and understood. And I want us to keep raising the bar while protecting the heart that makes Good Grit what it is.

That’s what excites me.

WOW: What are some of the current products the company produces that our readers based in the South can check out?

Samantha: What makes our company unique is that we’re both a magazine and an agency.

On the magazine side, we tell meaningful stories about the South—where to travel, who to know, what’s being built, and the people shaping our communities. It’s thoughtful, culture-driven storytelling that celebrates this region in an elevated way.

On the agency side, we partner with businesses of all sizes across the South who want to grow with intention. We sit at the table with leadership teams, learn their goals, understand their pain points, and build strategies that align marketing, sales, and operations in a holistic way. We develop brands. We map customer journeys. We build websites. We lead PR initiatives. We create advertising strategies. But more than that, we help organizations get clear on who they are and how they show up.

And you can actually see our work out in the world: when you look at the menu at The Essential, browse the Visit Dublin website, or attend the All the Hats conference, you’re experiencing Good Grit in action. Together, the magazine and the agency allow us to serve the South in a way that’s both creative and strategic.

WOW: Your website offers the following statement:

Whether you’re a bustling tourism board aiming to lure adventurers, a scaling business hungry for brand elevation, or a bold startup embarking on an entrepreneurial journey, we're here for you.

What are some examples of ways the agency has assisted clients in crafting and sharing their messages?

Samantha: At the core of what we do, we help people get clear and then we help them say it well.

For tourism boards, that often starts with defining what truly makes a place worth the drive. With Visit Mississippi, we created an immersive brand experience through the Porch Party in Jackson, pairing editorial storytelling, influencer engagement, photography, and video capture to position the city as soulful and experience driven. The event generated nearly 130,000 in social reach and strong engagement, proving that when hospitality meets strategy, people don’t just scroll—they plan trips.

We also believe experiences create momentum. For the State of the Industry conference, we handled branding, website management, content capture, on-site execution, and long-term strategy. We helped lay the groundwork to grow it from a one-day event, helping the event reach capacity and build demand for future expansion.

On the digital front, we partnered with South Georgia to create an international visitor website ahead of the 2026 World Cup. Through workshops, research, SEO-forward storytelling, and intuitive design, we built a website that unified 11 small towns under one welcoming digital front porch, making it easier for global travelers to discover and navigate the region.

For growing businesses and education initiatives, alignment is usually the starting point. With Story Arts, we helped bring a vision to life through brand identity, website development, social strategy, blog content, marketing materials, and video production. Driven by our work, the Georgia Department of Education selected Story Arts as its featured curriculum for public school teachers statewide.

And with Dublin, we led a full brand unification effort, aligning multiple governmental entities under one cohesive identity, refining messaging, and developing digital assets that strengthened both internal pride and external visibility.

Whether it’s a tourism board, a regional website, an event, or an education initiative, we’re making sure the story being told externally matches the experience being delivered internally. That’s what builds trust. And trust is what lays the foundation for growth.

WOW: What a unique scope of work! In addition to your core staff, Good Grit Agency is looking for individual contributors in a variety of areas. Could you tell us more about freelance opportunities with the agency?

Samantha: Over the past decade, we’ve had the privilege of collaborating with more than 200 freelancers across the South and beyond, and that’s something we’re incredibly proud of. While we’ve built a strong internal leadership team, we firmly believe great ideas don’t live only inside four walls. Some of our strongest work has come from bringing in the right specialist at the right moment, whether that’s a writer, photographer, videographer, designer, strategist, or event lead.

Our freelance opportunities span both sides of our business. On the magazine side, that might look like editorial contributors or visual storytellers. On the agency side, it can include brand strategy, website development, video production, social media support, or campaign execution. The needs shift depending on the season and our clients’ goals, but our standards stay the same.

What we look for is simple: people who are excellent at what they do, communicate clearly, and genuinely care about the work and the people it serves. We’re always open to building relationships with talented creatives and operators who want to collaborate on meaningful projects. When someone does great work and aligns with our values, there’s almost always an opportunity to build something together.

WOW: Laura Kate, what is the mission and philosophy behind Good Grit magazine, and where can readers find the publication?

Laura Kate: Good Grit exists as a field guide for those who love or are curious about the South. Every page in the magazine serves as an inspiration to explore the many charms and flavors found in destinations across the Southern U.S., a region known for its hospitality, natural beauty, and indisputable influence on music and cuisine. Our storytelling, photography, and insider tips invite readers to take a bite out of lesser-known destinations, discover hidden gems in some of the South’s most popular destinations, and get to know the creatives and change agents who are shaping the region’s current culture.

Adventure seekers can find our magazine at more than 1,500 retailers across the Southeast and online at goodgritmag.com. The BEST way to get your hands on Good Grit Mag, though, is by having it delivered straight to your mailbox: https://goodgritmag.com/subscribe/. 

WOW: How did you personally learn about the magazine, and what about it made you want to join the staff as Editor-at-Large?

Laura Kate: As a Southern native and lifelong collector of good stories, I caught wind of what Good Grit founder Laura Quick was up to back in 2015 when the magazine launched. I enjoyed consuming the brand throughout the years and, when Laura asked, “Do you want to dream big with me?” in the fall of 2024, I jumped at the opportunity to step into the role of Editor-at-Large to take this beloved, decade-old media brand into its next best chapter. I began working with the team in spring of 2025 and it’s been my focus since day one to grow from the good foundation that’s been built by the incredible team, and expand that shared space for our community to discover and celebrate this remarkable place where we live, work, learn, play, dine, entertain, explore, and rest. What I’ve been most delighted by is how many genuinely good stories there are out there - the South definitely has something to say, and I can’t wait to keep telling these stories for years to come!

WOW: As a fellow southerner, I wholeheartedly agree that this is an incredible area to work, live in, and visit! What do you think makes Good Grit magazine stand out from other competition in the print marketplace?

Laura Kate: Our cover, no notes. The Good Grit cover is textural - it feels, quite literally, gritty. So as soon as you pick it up and feel it, you know you’re in for a treat. We also dedicate every single page to stories about the American South that inspire travel, adventure, curiosity, and connection. While we enjoy the good company of other remarkable Southern-focused magazines, Good Grit has its own voice that’s rooted in people and place. Also, each issue is so beautiful that our readers tend to collect and display them.

WOW: What types of submissions are you looking for from readers for the quarterly magazine? How can a writer really “wow” you with their query?

Laura Kate: The incomparable Landon Bryant hosts his “Just Ask Landon” column in each issue. Readers are encouraged to send in their burning questions about Southern isms and idiosyncrasies. We collect those queries over on Instagram and he chooses which to answer. Those pages are some of my favorites in each issue. You can’t not smile when Landon is sharing his sweet tea-tinged Southern knowledge.

We love to hear from readers. Folks can drop a note to us on our website or send us a note via social. Our editorial team is always looking for inspiration and tips on where to go, what to see, what to eat/drink, and just how far that country lane goes… 

Our readers gravitate towards content that is both helpful and aspirational. Each issue covers everything from Good Finds (our favorite product picks), Good Times (seasonal events to see + be seen), Good Hospitality (individual stories of exceptional Southern service), Travel Like a Local (an influential insider’s take on a popular destination), and The Good Getaway (a comprehensive itinerary highlighting a featured destination) - not to mention all the other wonderful recurring features such as Good Reads, Good Sounds, and One for the Road (our playlist for the season, designed to be the soundtrack for your next, most epic Southern road trip).

WOW: Thanks again to Samantha and Laura Kate for introducing us to Good Grit Magazine & Agency this month! Be sure to check out them out and learn how you can get involved in reading about and sharing more stories from the southeast.

 

 

Writers! You can find a full set of writer guidelines for Good Grit Magazine here: https://goodgritmag.com/contributor-guidelines/

Creatives seeking to get involved on the agency side can learn more at this link: https://www.goodgritagency.com/careers

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Renee Roberson is a freelance writer, editor, and host/creator of the true crime podcast, Missing in the Carolinas, which has more than 8,000 followers on Spotify. For fun, she works as a bookseller at a charming independent bookstore in North Carolina. Learn more at FinishedPages.com.