Member Spotlight: Madison Welch of RAW Bronzing Studio
Hey ladies! Welcome to another Member Spotlight, featuring our members — influencers, entrepreneurs, bloggers, and girl bosses alike! Next up: Madison Welch, Co-Owner and Director of Brand Development at RAW Bronzing Studio. RAW Bronzing Studio is revolutionizing the tanning industry + its perception, one tan at a time. No rays, no beds, no booths, just safe sun. Could it get any better?!
Read on to learn about how Madison got started, shifted career paths, and how she kills the work/life balance!
Q: Tell us a little about you, girl!
A: I am a designer + visual person at heart! After graduating college with an interior design degree, I quickly moved to New York to work with a corporate interiors firm. I absolutely loved the city, but wanted to experience the West Coast and after 2 years, relocated to Los Angeles. After being in LA for 3 years, the grind of corporate firms + the design industry led to a burn-out that had me searching for more work/life balance and a meaningful creative connection to whatever was next. That is when I joined the RAW Bronzing Studio team with my sister. She founded the company after being diagnosed with stage 2 melanoma skin cancer and wanted to provide a safe sun alternative. I am able to use my design background to help with new standards for the studio interiors, visual merchandising, and renovations. I also work to develop new media content (photo and video shoots), retail selection/buying, community development, and work with our team for events + promotions. Getting to do what I love everyday, be inspired by our clients, and see a brand develop over the past year has been so rewarding. When I'm not working, we are exploring our neighborhood (Cabbagetown), finding new restaurants or planning a trip somewhere new (next up: India!).
Q: What is your favorite part of your job?
A: My favorite part of my job is connecting with our clients and our community. When I work at the studio and see our clients leave feeling confident, glowing, and happy - it is the best. Our clients not only come for a great spray tan, they come to see their favorite tanner and chat about their week. We end up knowing all about their lives + have great connections with our clients and the surrounding community because of that.
Q: What’s the best advice you’ve been given?
A: "Start before you're ready." You will never really feel fully prepared for your next step in business (or life!). So just got for it with grit and a positive attitude and you can adjust along the way. Everything works out the way it should.
Q: What advice do you have for women wanting to start their own business?
A: If you are starting your own business, be prepared to do it all! You will have to take out the trash, learn accounting, or figure out how to be your own IT person. Being an entrepreneur can sound glamorous, so just make sure you think about the parts you may not expect.
Q: What’s the most rewarding - and challenging - part of your work?
A: The most rewarding part of my work is to know we are helping change the tanning industry. Healthy, organic spray tanning (and safe sun practices like hats, coverups, and UV protective clothing) is becoming so much more accessible. With the rise of skin cancer(s), tanning beds/sun bathing is slowly becoming taboo and a healthy glow is way more accessible. The most challenging part of my work (as silly as this may sound) is the ever-adapting social media game! Just when you think you have it figured out, they change the algorithm or there is a new app out there. It is fun and keeps us on our toes, but can set us back a little if we haven't done our research or don't understand why our engagement slips.
Q: Tell us about your most memorable career experience.
A: When I first started working for RAW, we didn't have any professional, original photos or content, just images that our clients took and we re-posted. So, we planned our first professional photoshoot. It was a big milestone for the company and was so memorable because of how we all worked as a team to accomplish it. We were able to collaborate with friends to help get models, makeup + hair stylists, and get creative about props and backdrops. What felt like a lot of prep + work, turned out to be so fun + a great way for us to finally share our brand, style, and images of healthy skin! It may seem like a small step, but it started to push us in a direction that finally reflected what we wanted the brand to speak to and aspired to be.
THERE YOU HAVE IT, LADIES
A little peek into Madison’s journey. Safe sun is such an important topic and we are so thankful for her expertise! Plus, who doesn’t love having a glow all year long?! Be sure to follow along with Madison and RAW on Instagram and check out their website here.
Who should we spotlight next?! Leave a comment below!
