Hello, I’m Madison, but you can also call me Mads. I’m the founder and writer of With Mads and I’m so grateful you’re here. This space is part blog, part channel to start working with me, and your one stop shop for knowing what to shop, and how to wear it.
I’ve been a writer since I was 10 years old, using verse as a way to express my emotions that I didn’t know how to process. I fell in love with Jane Austen even before that–sneaking out to watch the six-set BBC VHS collection with my mom and sisters and falling in love with the story that Austen told. I convinced my mom to buy me a copy of Pride & Prejudice and kept the book in my room, opening it and smelling the pages, taking in whatever I could. Over the years I went from understanding the story from the movie, to slowly reading my way through the book; the prose making more and more sense each year. Once I got to the point of understanding the story I realized the impact Jane Austen had on my life, and I hoped one day even in a small way I could have that impact on someone too. And that was about the time I started working in retail.
I quickly moved on from a seasonal gift wrapper to salesfloor stylist and feel in love with helping women find new pieces. I was able to share my favorite denim while giving ideas for how to wear them, and even how to care for them (hint: wash your jeans less than you think). I realized I loved the way I felt putting together an outfit to wear to work, and I loved the way my clients’ faces lit up when they realized they could wear the item they had their eyes on. It was less about getting women to buy lots of items and more about finding a piece or two that helped them complete a look; and then find five more ways to style it that they didn’t expect.
After 4 years in retail and several more poems I found myself in college thinking I would start the journey to be a doctor. Growing up and seeing how much my dad helped people as a doctor I felt compelled to follow his path. To help people, to make a difference. While I loved some of the courses I was taking I found it incredibly challenging to study and then make it to my tests. It was a mix of thinking that studying by osmosis (putting the textbook next to your head at night) and my migraines crossing the line from inconvenient since I was 10 year old to completely debilitating. I physically couldn’t make it to many of my tests, and when I could I mentally struggled. Except one day during a Physics test I had an epiphany. I didn’t have to follow the path of medicine, I didn’t have to fit in a typical or expected mold for helping people, but instead I could do it my own way. So I did the most sensical thing–I wrote a poem on the back of the test, and turned it in blank, sans the words. I left the building and walked down the Washington State University Mall and felt free. I was free to write, free to express myself. There was an added bonus that I could write my papers when I was able to. I really felt like I owned my time.
After changing my major to English, and scaring my family a bit, I found my second love: nonfiction. Particularly creative or narrative nonfiction–the ability to take real stories and add my own perspective on them. To creatively recount something with all the layers and textures that added to the message or the purpose. Joan Didion became the second author I fell in love with. Who knew reading about the movement of the Santa Ana winds was interesting? As I made my way through all the Didions I drafted my first essays. My attempts at telling the stories of my life through the lens of someone that knew how to tell them, knew how to tell them to people who would listen. After graduating with my degree in English, and a few minors, I found myself in tech. It wasn’t the place that I thought I would be, but I was proud to be paid as Technical Writer (emphasis on the writer bit), and I cared less about the droll content, and more about the fact that I was exchanging words for dollars. But technical writing turning into design, which turned into management and I found myself 12 years deep in a career as a senior design leader in tech. It was something I was proud of, but not the same goal of writing a book, being an author. And all the while I had felt like I’d been hiding my love for fashion.
It seemed like the mature thing to do was to leave it behind, and in an industry that favored the masculine I created this notion that the feminism cultivated through a love of fashion and clothes made me weak. Sometimes in life you get to make pivotal decisions, and sometime you’re forced into them. After getting laid off from my last job in tech during the tech flattening I found myself lost. I spent a lot of online shopping which at first I thought was an unhealthy coping mechanism, but I wondered if there was something there. I had the time to start my book. Some friends paid me to write for their businesses, and then others began to take notice that my style was changing.
Pre-covid I had been known for my outfits in the office, but the work from home era turned me into a glorified sweats girl, and this phase felt the time to allow myself to be more expressive. And to frankly have more fun. I began to put together outfits, even if all I was doing was going to the grocery store that day. I’d have neighbors comment that I looked great while walking around the block, I had friends ask where I got certain items, and then I had people in the fashion world talking to me more about the behind the scenes of their businesses instead of treating me like a client. A lot of that pivot came from the shift in focuses on building outfit formulas that made me excited. ANd then the best part was being able to share those with my first clients. I developed the With Mads methods and saw women go from scared to confident. From uncertain to clear. They grew in ways they hadn’t expected, and I was able to be a fashion sherpa in their journey. So much of my story has yet to be written, but the forthcoming chapters are ones I’m excited to write. We’re going on this journey together, and I’m so grateful to do it with you.
