We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Maddison Fortuna a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Maddison, appreciate you joining us today. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.

I have spent my entire life dreaming of being a nurse. From watching, trauma life in the er, as a child, to not even batting an eye while getting shots, I knew the medical field was for me. Although I accomplished all my nursing goals, once I finally started working as a nurse my glamorized perception of this role was quickly crushed.

For years I worked a full-time job while going to college full-time, , sacrificing so much of my time & relationships with those around me for nursing school, to end up in a demanding job that left me depleted. When I was working as a RN, I am & was a single mother, I couldn’t say goodbye to lashing, in fact i cut my clientele in half, & would work as a lash artist from 9am-3pm, Take care of my kids from 3-6pm, then work a 12hr shift at the hospital from 7pm-7:30am.

I was addicted to energy drinks, used sleep meds during the day, & fought the grogginess of this new lifestyle to take care of my kids. I couldn’t keep up, my house was a mess & I wasnt taking care of myself. I thought theres gotta be more to life.

In just a few months of my new nursing role, I knew that in this season of my life, I couldn’t do bedside nursing without sacrificing myself. I didn’t recognize the person looking back in the mirror & decided to leave the medical field to pursue lashing full-time. It was a risk I was willing to take & I’m so happy that I did. My stress levels are lowered, I have energy to take care of myself, I have freedom of my time, & most important I’m present for my children’s life moments.

Maddison, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

In 2017 I picked up my first pair of tweezers and started practicing classic lash application on strip lashes (I didn’t have a fancy mannequin head, that would have helped so much) until I felt confident enough working on friends and family. I practiced every single day for 1-2 hours, whatever I had time for but made sure to practice daily since being a lash artist wasn’t my only job. Originally, I started my lash journey to supplement my income and have extra spending money on top of working full time as a gas station cashier, full time pre-nursing student, and being a mom to then my infant daughter. From 2017-2018, once I started taking clients, I only had clientele of 5 women and to be honest didn’t take lashing very seriously at all. I was going to be a registered nurse and decided that I would stop my “side hustle,’ once I completed the nursing program

2019 I started nursing school, quit my fulltime job because I had to (nursing school is so demanding its advised to not work at all), and focused on lashing. I knew if I applied myself, fine-tuned my skills, and offered a lash style that would set myself a part, I could make an income to support myself through school. I also used to wear lash extensions religiously, knew what it was like to pay for a fill still looking like I needed one, and wanted to create a customer experience like no one else. 2019 was the year I had to learn time management to juggle my personal life, being a mom, a nursing student, and now lash artist. It was also the year that the lash industry started to grow and became regulated. I don’t know about you but dropping out of nursing school to go into esthetician school was not an option to continue to lash. But I continued to build my business anyways as a completely self-taught artist with a perfectionist mindset, learned A LOT about business through trial and error, and once I mastered classic lashes went straight into learning about volume lashing. Although I don’t recommend this, there are a lot of free resources on the internet, so I dove headfirst into the lash industry, became a whittle sponge, and soaked up everything lash related.

2020 was my lash hustle era. I was repeating a semester in nursing school due to failing a few classes, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and I found out I was expecting again. These life circumstances in no way made my life easier but I did not let it stop me from growing as a lash artist and continuing to obtain a degree in nursing. I still lashed clients who felt safe to come to their appointments, invested back into my business, always tried to be a better artist than I was the day before, and since I was only taking in new client’s from referrals only, it gave me more time to focus on my craft. By the time the first social distancing regulations lifted I was booked and busy: I had a filled schedule, a waitlist of 15 girls, and I even opened after hour appointments resulting in me lashing until midnight at times. I want to mention that since I was a fulltime nursing student and mother, I did not have a lot of time to lash, but I grew a lash business by being consistent everyday in marketing, posting content, and focusing on making my fan work as beautiful as possible working 2-3 days a week.

2021 was a year full of wins. I gave birth to my son 3 weeks before graduating nursing school and celebrated my dirty thirty all within 1 month. I was enjoying being on maternity leave, thinking of new ways to elevate my business, and preparing to take my nursing board exam, NCLEX. But by the end of 2021, I felt defeated. I had attempted to come back to lashing 3 separate times after maternity leave and ultimately had to stop working until I found proper childcare for my children (9 months later), and I failed my nursing board exam. I had never felt more stuck in my life and often questioned myself about what I really wanted. Growing my family and career at the same time made me realize I needed to embrace slow periods in life, be still, and present.

2022: I thought 2021 was hard but 2022 had me in for the biggest rollercoaster ride yet. I went through a lot of life changes, had to get used to being in the role of a single mom all while juggling being a lash artist and studying for round 2 of NCLEX. On top of being in a new role and the challenges that came with that, I enrolled myself into esthetician school as a part time student and continued to lash so I can be a legitimate lash artist.

2023 is the year of the glow up. I finally graduated esthetician school in February and had my exam scheduled one week after my nursing exam in May (I don’t know why I keep doing this to myself). May finally came around and not only did I pass my NCLEX, I also passed my esthetician exam officially making me a double licensed baddie within one week. Now that I was legitimate on all aspects I started putting myself out there as a lash artist and networked. I became a vender at the first Cultivate Beauty Conference, and it was the first time I stepped out as a lash educator, meeting tons of other beauty professionals. I also attended a local med spa Beauty Bash Event, as a lash artist and educator vendor, took multiple lash courses including an official Mega Volume course to learn a new fanning method, and started a nursing position as a pediatric nurse.
Even though nursing was my original goal and lashing was only a means to an end to help me, I quickly realized that nursing was not for me. Within 2 months of starting my “dream nursing career,” I left to be a fulltime lash artist (which was something I have never done, I always lashed part time). Working over night as a nurse and part time lash artist left me feeling depleted and affected not only my health but my capacity to show up for my children. I knew something had to give and decided to put faith into lashing and pursue my real passion fulltime. Currently I am focusing on rebuilding my dream clientele, networking with as many people as possible, collaborating with other professionals, elevating my own artistry, and getting Adorn Atelier, seen and known within Fresno county.

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

Let me be the example of growing your business exclusively on social media and word of mouth. 7 years into being a lash artist and having a social media presence, I am still continuing to grow my community by showing up consistently, being authentic to who I am, and posting valuable content that my demographic enjoys. Advice I could give is to be yourself, post consistently, focus on ‘who’ your dream client is, then create content that your dream client would consume. People love authenticity so don’t get so caught up trying to be perfect for the internet and the right people will be attracted to that.

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

I turned being a lash artist from a side hustle having 5 consistent clients and maybe working 2-3 days out of the week, to having a fully booked clientele and leaving my role as a registered nurse to pursue lashing fulltime. I never thought my “hobby” would turn into my primary income but I’m living my dream and get flexibility being my own boss. I was not an overnight success, in fact it took me 2 years of perfecting my craft in lashing and many nights trying to trouble shoot business policies, products malfunctions, customer service, etc. It’s not easy at all, but by being consistent in my business, being better than I was the day before, and not being afraid to put myself out there, is how I slowly scaled my business. 7 years later, I am going from fulltime service provider to being a lash educator specializing in advanced artist trainings, being a vendor at local beauty expos, and creating lash artist community events to empower other artists just like me. Exposure, word of mouth, consistency, impeccable customer service, and networking is the best way to grow and being more awareness to any business.

Contact Info:

• Website: adornatelier.glossgenius.com
• Instagram: maddi.aastudio