We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Madi Elle. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Madi below.

Madi, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?

The shortest story is simple: M.N.Elle Studios is based on my name. My full name is Madison Nicole Langton and I have been going by Madi since high school. When I was in college, I read an interview of a female doctor who chose to practice under her maiden name. Her reasoning was simple and along the lines of, “My husband didn’t put himself through years of medical school. Why should his name have any ties to my success?” I absolutely loved her line of thinking! Although, I took it a step further. Why should anyone have a tie to my success? One of my sister’s friends actually suggested using the spelled out version of our last initial in lieu of our last name, hence Elle.
Now, why studios instead of salons? One of the last assignments I had before completing my hours at Paul Mitchell The School Denver gave me that idea. I would like M.N.Elle Studios to be an all inclusive space for the fashion industry. One side of the salon space is for hair – cuts, color, styling, anything hair! The other side is filled with makeup stations. Once a model has made it through hair and makeup, they can make their way to the dressing area and finally to the photo studio. I would like this to be a seamless space for anyone with a vision that needs models to use.
By keeping the name “studios,” it also allows me the flexibility to build other spaces that work with this concept under the same name. I felt “salons” would have been too limiting. And you know what they say, they sky’s the limit!

Madi, 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?

It was a long journey for me to get into the beauty industry, but it wasn’t for lack of desire. When I was in middle school, I wanted to be a makeup artists for movies and tv. Unfortunately, growing up in Montana, I couldn’t find any sort of mentor in that field or anything adjacent that involved makeup. At the time, there wasn’t even a makeup store! So I chose a more “practical” career. Fast forward to 2020, I was laid off from my job due to Covid-19 and was ready for another change. I chose to go back to school to be a makeup artist! But, I also felt I needed to think practically. This is Covid, what if I can never touch someone’s face again? What if this industry just completely goes away? I chose to go into cosmetology so I would also have the option of hair if makeup didn’t work out. Surprisingly enough, I actually fell in love with hair! I have no regrets moving in this direction and don’t see myself going back toward makeup anytime soon. I love the engagement I get with my clients and how different everything is from person to person. Every hair cut and color is different, even if it is the same on paper. I love the challenges and the creative freedom and wouldn’t trade any of it for the world!

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

The best source of new clients for me has been the old tried and true – word of mouth. My clients are essentially walking billboards for me. My work goes with them everywhere I go. When people have cool hair, you want to know who did it so you can get cool hair too right? I also offer an incentive for my clients to refer people to me: if five people come in saying you recommended me, I will give you a free cut! Keep doing it and we’ll start adding on other free stuff like treatments, products, etc.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

I work in an industry where clients have a vast selection of professionals to choose from. For me to stand out amongst everyone else, I need to have a good reputation and I need to maintain that. The best way I have found to do that is to actively listen to my clients. I cannot hear what they say but choose to do what I want and expect them to leave happy let alone come back! I also have learned honesty is the best policy: if I don’t fully know how produce the result a client is wanting, I will tell them and work through with them the best next action. Sometimes that has been researching how to do it, and others it has been referring them to another stylists that I am confident in with that service. I have learned it’s incredibly important to always treat people like humans rather than numbers. You earn trust faster that way which in turn helps your business.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://mnellestudios.glossgenius.com/
• Instagram: just.madi.thx
• Facebook: m.n.elle studios

Image Credits
Alex Yazzie Emalie Jeffrey Sierra De Jong