Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Madeline Hornung. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Madeline , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We love asking folks what they would do differently if they were starting today – how they would speed up the process, etc. We’d love to hear how you would set everything up if you were to start from step 1 today

This is the million dollar question! Here are a few things I have learned on my entrepreneurship journey:

1. Don’t say yes to every client just because you want to grow your revenue. This was something I really had to learn the hard way- there were so many times in the beginning that I was just shooting for a goal and would say yes to projects that just didn’t align with me or my agency but I thought that financial goal was more important. It’s NOT! If you say yes to the wrong clients or people who just don’t fully align with your mission you are missing out on the right ones who will end up being raving fans of your business and refer other amazing people like they are!

2. Reinvesting into my business is what grew it the most and I would invest MORE into my business earlier on if I went back and started over. The biggest example of this in my business was actually investing in hiring my team. I wish I would have invested in it sooner because it gave me the time and space to actual step into being the CEO AND our revenue and profit grew significantly because I had the time to network and connect with more clients. The expense of hiring a team actually paid off and helped us bring in more profit to the business.

3. Focus on just building relationships. In this world we live in where AI feels like it’s everywhere, people are craving genuine human connection. The cold calls, cold DM’s on Instagram, just aren’t a thing anymore. You HAVE to build relationships and connection so people see you as a human first and not just some sales machine. Trust me, it goes a long way when you just show people that you care and want the best for them- they don’t forget that and it naturally turns into business connections or referrals from them. My biggest clients connected with me because I was a single mom to my autistic son- it’s those human elements behind the business that actually matter. Now I not only have incredible clients but I have clients that have gone through similar things and we support each other on a personal level too. It just makes business so much better when there is a little humanity involved.

Madeline , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My business didn’t come about in a very traditional way. Back in 2021 I became a single mom over night and I had to figure out what I could do that would make enough to support my son and I and also give the flexibility I needed to care for him. I didn’t go to college for marketing at all but it was something that just came naturally and I learned as I built the business. I started by offering just some smaller projects based on things I knew I could execute on with my past retail management background and started to put the word out into my community and on Instagram. I didn’t let my foot off the gas and by fall of 2021 I had to hire my first team members because we were growing so fast from all of the referrals to the agency.

MadSavvy Creative Agency helps bad ass female founders bring life into their marketing with done for you options that range from social media management, content creation, podcast management, web design and graphic design! We have grown to a team of 9 women who support our clients now and we are so passionate about helping more women in business grow their audience and their revenue!

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I think the story of how my business even came to be is the biggest journey I have been on not just in building the business but my entire personal life.

In fall of 2021 I had just left an extremely abusive relationship and I had zero income coming in — on top of that I was now a single mom to my sweet little boy who was just a little over one at the time. I knew I had to take the leap into entrepreneurship and not go back to my past career of being in retail management. Any 9-5 job wasn’t going to allow me the time to raise my son and work remote to be present at home with him. I knew I had to get creative and I came up with the idea of starting out as a Virtual Assistant. It was a really tough first couple of months creating the business from scratch and then getting the word out- but as I networked in the community and people started sharing about me, my business exploded! I was beyond to determined to build the best life I could for my son and I and never took my foot off the gas.

By the end of 2021 I already had to hire my first team members because I had gotten so busy and by 2023 we pivoted into a marketing agency and our team grew again!

I am so proud of myself that I didn’t settle for going back to the “easy” option of a 9-5 because I knew deep down it wouldn’t have given me the time I wanted and needed with my son as a single mom. I don’t question myself anymore- I know that if I want something I can make it happen with enough grit and resilience.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

It’s ALL about the actual human connections. I built a huge part of my business on Instagram just from supporting other local businesses. I always gave advice or little bits of help for free in the beginning just to build my reputation and connect with others without expecting anything back. It didn’t take long for those efforts to pay off because people saw how valuable my expertise was and I never really had to sell them on booking anything after that because they were already sold on the relationship I had built with them. From there things kept growing and growing because we would get referrals and more and more people following, tagging and sharing about us on socials and just word of mouth.

Don’t underestimate the power of connection and conversations when you go into it expecting nothing in return but connecting with the human that’s on the other end of your DM’s.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.madsavvycreative.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/madsavvycreative

Image Credits
Kelsey Kurtis Photography (all photos except group photo) FemForce (group photo)