Today we’d like to introduce you to Madyn Singh
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I started my social media management business when I was 18, a couple months after I graduated high school. I grew up creating videos on iMovie on my parents’ computer just for fun, but I never posted them anywhere. Content creation was always my creative outlet. I was a competitive figure skater when I was younger, and when I was a freshman in high school I started an Instagram account (@figureskating_) posting VideoStar edits of famous skaters.
By the time I was a junior in high school, I’d organically grown that page to 70k followers. I’m half Indian and half Polish, and in the summers we would go visit my dad’s side of the family in India, so the summer between my junior and senior year I did an internship at an ed-tech startup in India called Harappa Education. They sell online classes to students/companies teaching soft skills like communication, decision making, leadership development, etc. and I helped them start their company Instagram page from scratch. Then in the winter of my senior year, I did a social media internship with a med spa in Connecticut near my high school.
I graduated in 2020 when covid hit, and everything kind of came to a pause. I was still posting on my figure skating page, and I started getting on TikTok more. I came across a video from a creator named Mila Holmes, talking about how she was making $150-200 per week as an Instagram manager. I thought this was so smart and I was already doing it for free. It seemed so easy to get started and at the time that seemed like the perfect side hustle to make some extra money through college. I had a little warehouse job stacking boxes for $15/hr at the time, but I knew that I didn’t want to stay there, so I started reaching out to people in my network/cold pitching on LinkedIn to see if anyone would be interested in Instagram management. I also made a personal website in August 2020, a portfolio, etc. and started marketing my services on Instagram.
Then in October 2020, I went viral on TikTok for a video about my LinkedIn (it was just a silly video saying “my biggest flex is that this is my LinkedIn profile as a freshman in college”) and I got a ton of backlash of people saying my profile was too detailed/”try hard” but I also got lots of questions and interest from people who wanted me to edit their LinkedIn profiles. I started offering LinkedIn profile setup/audit calls as a service for $100 each. I was shocked when people actually booked these calls and I was making decent money, so I got my LLC. In November of 2020, I got my first long-term management client who happened to also live in Miami.
We began working together on LinkedIn management, and it’s since evolved into so much more including Instagram and TikTok strategy. I started my business with hardly any connections but I loved networking and putting myself out there, and was willing to do whatever it took to get clients. In 2o21 I got on Clubhouse, and that’s when my business really started to explode. I went from 2 clients in January of 2021 to 10 in June of 2021. That spring (so like April/May) I got so overwhelmed trying to balance social media management clients with schoolwork that I took a “gap year.” I ended up dropping out of college since it’s now 3+ years later and still have not gone back. I was a good student and always loved school, but I just could not pass up the opportunities I was getting and I truly loved what I did so much I just had a gut feeling that I had to go all in. So many people ask me now if I would ever go back to school and I think I will one day, but I want to go abroad somewhere and study something non-business related like a language.
I started offering full Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn management to my clients in 2021, and was working with mainly personal brands. I didn’t niche down on purpose, but from Clubhouse I got a lot of clients who were speakers, authors, business coaches etc. and kept getting referred to more similar people. I also realized I loved/was really good at writing video scripts and coming up with content strategies for service-based business owners who wanted to be the face of their brand. Now, I work with personal brands in a wide range of niches. My clients are doctors, medical professors, business coaches, leadership/corporate speakers, mental health professionals, real estate agents, real estate developers, relationship experts, etc. Basically any service-based personal brand who wants to show up in their content on social media.
Once things started to open up/go back to normal after covid in 2022, I came to Miami to do content for my first client who is a board certified dermatologist. The same client who reached out to me for LinkedIn help in November 2020. It’s so crazy because when I was younger Miami was my absolute favorite family vacation destination and I always felt drawn to the city but I didn’t know why. I just always saw myself living there and completely fell in love with Miami. I got referred to more clients in the city, and began coming to do more in-person content creation work throughout 2022 and 2023.
Also in 2023, I started to focus more on my personal brand. I was so lucky my social media management business was 100% referral/word of mouth based at that point so I didn’t really need to market myself to get clients. I wanted to give back and educate/start my personal brand teaching people how to do social media management, so I started my TikTok account @marketingbymadyn. In a year and a half, I’ve since grown that account to 34.5k+ followers. I’ve had the opportunity to meet with and coach hundreds of people 1:1, and I also started creating/selling digital products (templates and ebooks) to other social media managers as passive income. That TikTok account has also led to so many new clients/inquiries.
Up to this point I had lived in the Northeast my entire life. I was in an apartment in the small Connecticut town I’d grown up in, and throughout early 2024, so many things happened in my personal life that basically showed me I was outgrowing that environment and it was time to get out/move onto something bigger. So impulsively, I booked a one-way flight to Miami 9 days in advance, left, and I have not looked back. I’ve been hotel living in Downtown/Brickell ever since and I love it. Miami has been such an amazing city for networking, and there’s something about the energy here that I just love. Everyone is hustling, working on themselves, growing their careers, and people really understand the value of digital marketing/social media here. In CT it was so hard for me to find local clients, but in Miami, they are everywhere. There are so many fun influencer events, and businesses that need content creation/social media management on every corner. I love it here and am torn between getting an apartment in the Wynwood/Midtown area or Downtown/Brickell, but in even just the 2 months that I’ve been here so far, I’ve grown so much personally and professionally.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
For the most part I’ve been super lucky and I would say overall it’s been a pretty smooth road, but there have been some really challenging moments. These moments have taught me so much about resilience and moving through/having to think on my feet in high pressure situations. Here are a few of the major struggles I’ve gone through:
Towards the end of 2021/early 2022, I took on way more than I could handle, and ended up getting really overwhelmed/burned out. I was not taking care of myself and it really showed physically. I was gaining weight, not exercising, and not sleeping. As a result the quality of my work kind of went down and I honestly did not recognize myself. I felt so insecure physically which caused my business to suffer because I was not as confident when pitching myself, etc. I got through this because I had a moment of realization and I was like nobody else is going to pull me out of this. I have to get it together if I want to sustain my business and my health. So I started implementing a strict routine, going to the gym every single morning, setting deep work hours, and delegating/automating smaller tasks. I basically was like I have to do this now and commit because I have no other choice. I also realized I was spending way too much time on silly things like adding closed captions to videos for example, that could easily be automated. I was also undercharging by a ton, so raising my rates and taking on less clients but pricing higher definitely helped.
Raising my rates was another challenge that I wasn’t sure how to navigate, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t lose some clients when I first raised my prices, but it ended up being for the best. I was terrified at the time because my income was lower some months, but I just trusted that I was making space for new, more aligned clients to enter my life. It definitely didn’t happen overnight, but eventually it did, and now I am SO thankful for all the clients I get to work with.
Another challenge especially at the beginning, I dealt with a lot of difficult clients/clients who were not the right fit because I didn’t know who to target or how to set realistic expectations. It was very hard for me to set boundaries with my work. These difficult clients were usually super small businesses who barely had the budget to work with me and were so afraid/felt like they needed immediate results to make their investment worth it. They would always micromanage and they were super difficult to work with. I learned that to avoid this, I had to set realistic expectations in the beginning and be more clear on my target audience. I learned the importance of letting clients know that social media is for the long game, and started implementing a 3-month minimum commitment. Month one focuses completely on developing a social media strategy clearly aligned with each client’s goals, month two is testing out content and seeing what resonates with their target audience, and month three is really when things start to pick up/results start to show. Although it is possible and it has happened before, going viral overnight is not a realistic expectation especially for business owners who have a niche target audience. So setting expectations around that, and working with business owners who understand that/trust me and my work has been a game changer.
We’ve been impressed with Marketing By Madyn, LLC, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
My company offers social media management and strategy services, and we specialize in working with personal brands. My clients include doctors, medical professors, speakers, authors, business coaches, corporate leadership coaches, relationship experts, mental health professionals, real estate agents, and real estate developers. My most popular services are TikTok management, and short-form video content creation.
My clients are usually busy, service-based business owners who usually don’t have much time to create their own social media content, but they need to keep a consistent, professional social media presence. I help with video content scripting, photo content creation, graphic creation, editing, posting, and community management. I take an individualized approach and create custom packages/strategies for clients.
I’m very proud of the results I’ve been able to get for my clients, for example my client Selena Rezvani who is a speaker and author focused on leadership and advocating for yourself at work. When we started together, she had 400 followers on Instagram and 0 on TikTok. Now, she has over 279k on TikTok and 160k on Instagram. Also, my client Kimmay who has a background as a professional bra fitter and now focuses on confidence coaching, has grown from 0 to 82k. Some more client growth highlights are in my portfolio here: https://madyn.my.canva.site/marketingbymadyn
Another accomplishment that I’m super proud of is how I was able to grow my personal brand on TikTok. I held myself back from educating/teaching others about social media management for so long because I didn’t want to be grouped in with the course scammers who make all their money from courses but don’t actually have clients. That held me back for so long, but then I realized I can’t keep myself stuck/stop myself from getting to the next level because I’m afraid of how people might think of me. I just knew I had to start putting content out there, being authentic, and trusting that the right eyes would be on it. I have gotten so much positive feedback from people telling me my advice is genuinely helpful, I’ve gotten the sweetest DMs from people saying they got their first clients because of my content, that they’ve raised their prices and grown their business because of my advice, etc. I am so grateful and glad I finally went for it.
What was your favorite childhood memory?
I was a content creator before I even knew it. When I was 10, I created videos in my room on iMovie on my parents’ iMac and I just remember having so much fun using this as a creative outlet. I would get home from school and immediately start making videos. I made morning routines, night routines, makeup tutorials, back to school videos, outfit videos, etc. I was never allowed to post them but I always wonder if I was maybe I would be a viral YouTuber. It’s so crazy to look back now. I love creating video content for clients and for myself. It just comes so naturally to me, and I guess it always has.
Pricing:
- TikTok Management: Starting $1800/Month
- Instagram Management: Starting $2500/Month
- LinkedIn Management: Starting $2500/Month
- Strategy Consulting: $175/Hr
- Content Creation: Starting $1000 for 4hrs. Includes prep work, scripts, shot list, and editing.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://madynsingh.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marketingbymadyn/
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@marketingbymadyn
Image Credits
Aria Singh
