Today we’d like to introduce you to Maddie Doan.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Maddie. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I started Maddie’s Market in February of 2016. It all began with my personal interest in all-natural skincare & I began to play around with making products for myself. The first product I ever made was body butter and I knew I had to share it with friends & family because I seriously loved it that much. Along with body butter, I started making body scrubs, coffee scrubs, & at this point, I was hooked. I wanted everything I used on my body to be handmade with minimal ingredients. Long story short, I started ordering my materials and ingredients in bulk online & expanding my repertoire of products even more. After a lot of trial and error with different ingredients & combinations, I created recipes that gave people the results they wanted and grew solely off of their feedback. I currently live and make all of my products in Costa Mesa, CA and sell products at various boutiques, pop-up shops, and online through my website. The main idea behind Maddie’s Market is that you should only put on your body what you put in it. Always read your labels & #begoodtoyourbody. 🙂
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I feel like my particular story is different than most young entrepreneurs. I was spoiled when I first started Maddie’s Market. I was living in a small town where word traveled fast so all I had to focus on was making the actual product itself, and the rest happened on its own. No marketing, no advertising; just selling products. Once I moved to Southern California, I had unrealistic expectations that it would be the same starting out on the West coast. That was not the case. Real-life hit and I realized I had to work hard to get my brand known & trusted. Maybe I’m wrong, but I feel like my experience is maybe the opposite of what others face when starting up a small company where they face most of the difficulties right away.
Please tell us about Maddie’s Market – what should we know?
I don’t look at Maddie’s Market as work, I never have. I can wholeheartedly say I love making each and every product, I love educating people on what I do and I love knowing every product I sell was made with love and all-natural goodness! I love connecting with people in person at pop-ups, I love shipping packages and leaving an individualized note with each order I ship out. I love cranking my music and making product for hours. I feel so lucky to get to this and that I know I have a quality product to stand behind.
We’re interested to hear your thoughts on female leadership – in particular, what do you feel are the biggest barriers or obstacles?
I have never personally felt that being a female has held me back in any way. With that being said, that doesn’t mean I don’t see it happen. I see it a lot in the corporate world, I am just not part of that world so I don’t experience it firsthand. I went to a college that was 60% female and I had an internship for a large company that was 60% female. Even now being in the skincare industry, there are a lot of women founded and run companies.
Pricing:
- All products are under $20, a big thing for me is to keep all-natural skincare affordable and accessible to everyone
Contact Info:
- Website: www.maddiesmarket.net
- Email: maddie.maddiesmarket@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maddiesmarket/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MaddiesMarketBodyProducts/
Image Credit:
all photos belong to Maddie’s Market, LLC
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