By Madi Mae, Creative Director + Branding Expert

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By Madi Mae, Creative Director + Branding Expert

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✧ Top-Rated Social Media, Web Design, and Brand Identity Services ✧

Specializing in Building and Managing Bold Brands with my marketing company, Skellydog 🦴❤️‍🔥

12/09/2025

I am a graphic designer and marketing agency owner who has three autoimmune diseases. Needless to say, it has been some of the hardest years of my life living with them. 🫠

2024 started off with me thriving.
I had just rebranded my business into Skellydog.
I had my beautiful son at the end of 2023.
I was back in the gym lifting heavy weights and beating personal records.
I was making art consistently.
I was running my business like a breeze.
I was back at networking and I was so happy.

And then about six months into 2024, I started getting severe pain in my hands and various other joints of my body.

It got to the point where one morning I couldn't open my hands.

My hands are literally my livelihood. 😞

After some time going to doctors and trying to figure out what's wrong, I eventually got referred to a rheumatologist because the muscles in my hands, wrists, and elbows were so tight that I had to pry my hands open every morning.

I literally couldn't wake up some mornings because the lethargy had taken over and my body was so inflamed that I was puffy and out of breath and couldn't do anything that I thought that I was able to do again after a hard pregnancy.

I had to wait six months to get to a rheumatologist to get any kind of answer.

Thank God my blood work was so bad because it was supposed to be twelve months.

So I had to wait. 🫤

Suddenly, all the muscle I gained slowly started going away. I couldn't hold my baby for more than 20 minutes. I had my business, relationships, and mental health rapidly declining, and everything hurt. I was in so much pain.

Coming around to my appointment I got diagnosed with NOT one, NOT two, but THREEEEEEE autoimmune diseases: lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, and Sjogren's syndrome.

Thankfully I am on a treatment plan, and I'm doing everything that I can right now, and I am okay.

But, my life now requires me to rest more and social media algorithms might hate me for that (whatever, it's fine).

That being said, I am ready to step back into content creation in a healthy way and connect with more people in my community - especially those who may be dealing with the same thing that I have. 🩵🦋

12/04/2025

I had the absolute honor of being featured in The Scoop Magazine for my article “Gratitude Is a Power Move: How Leading With My Heart Built My Business and My Team.”

This one felt personal in a way I didn’t expect.

In the piece, I talk about things I don’t always share online:

🐣 Starting my business at 18 and learning the hard way that “success” isn't just checking boxes
💡 The moment I realized I didn’t want to just do work — I wanted to work with people who shared my values
🦴 How rebranding into Skellydog, Top-Rated Marketing Agency helped me claim the kind of clients (and confidence) that aligned with who I’m becoming
🧘🏼‍♀️ How gratitude became the thing that grounded me through chaos, growth, burnout, rebuilding, and everything in between
💄 Leading a (mostly) all-female team completely by accident… and discovering how powerful it feels to build a space where women thrive

The core of it is simple:

Gratitude isn’t a soft skill. It’s a leadership strategy.

It’s what builds loyalty.

It’s what gets you through the messy seasons.

It’s what makes you a better human and a better business owner.

Read it here 👉
https://www.sherisesstudios.com/post/gratitude-is-a-power-move-how-leading-with-my-heart-built-my-business-and-my-team

(Also yes, I talk about how chaos follows me everywhere — but so does gratitude, so we’re balanced.)

Thank you again to She Rises Studios for putting me in this issue!

12/03/2025

One of my favorite investments every year as a graphic designer turned marketing agency owner is new brand photos every year!

Getting brand photos done has helped me:
📸 Become the face of my business
📸 Have photography that matches the rest of my vibe
📸 Gets me content I can use over and over
📸 Amplifies my brand assets
📸 Makes me feel like the baddie in business I am
📸 Helps me be confident in myself and in my biz

Highly recommend investing in some great photography for your business 🔥🔥

Super stoked to have been able to do this photoshoot with in Middletown, CT (at her studio, ) - she definitely understood my vision from the get go and was able to pull what I already had into fruition!

Eeeeek!!

12/02/2025

It’s funny how things are meant to be even from a young age.

Yeah design was always for me, but teaching became a calling for me too.

From the time I started college, all I wanted was to help people like me.

The people who stayed on campus till 2am working their little heart out.

The people who wanted to go above and beyond to have a brighter future for themselves.

The people who were full time working, full time school, and part time internship.

They’re struggling. They’re trying to grasp onto something to help them get through everything going on in their life.

At first it was an ember to help young designers, and now it is a fire that has engulfed me.

As a result, I’ve been a guest speaker for multiple high schools, multiple colleges, and chambers of commerce.

I LOVE being a mentor. I LOVE participating in my community and I LOVE sharing my story with people. I LOVE design.

If I can keeping doing just that in my career, I’ll be a happy girl.

🩵

09/22/2025

IT'S FALL, Y'ALL!!!! 🍁

Autumn is my second favorite season of the year, right after spring. The coziness of life settles in and the air gets crisp... you can pull out your hoodies and your sweaters... it's just the best.

Real question is... are you a pumpkin spice or an apple cider kinda person? 🍎🎃

Fall has been one of my favorite metaphors for life, too. The trees shed the leaves they no longer need to preserve energy for the winter. They get rid of what they need. It's a season of letting go of what is no longer needed and holding independence to keep up survival. 🍂

That's like the graphic design industry lately, isn't it? Shedding clients, projects, or stress that do not allow us to grow or cause much stress and looking at the simple joys in life in a person-eat-person industry...

I highly encourage taking part of what I am doing in the next few months and setting time aside to shed what truly isn't bringing you joy, allow people who do not lift you up to exit your life, and get in touch with what brings you joy.

Biggest thing for me to get back to is designing for fun.

Managing my graphic design and marketing agency is HARD. Life is HARD. It is so transitional for me and my family.

But I think the turning of the season is going to bring beautiful things - for both you and I. Just gotta retune yourself.

xoxo

(apple cider is the way to go btw)

09/18/2025

It's transparency hour here for me.

Running a female-owned marketing company has not been super easy (that's showbiz, baby). While our roster of male clients nowadays are incredibly nice and have never caused us issues based on our gender, it wasn't always like this.

I started my entrepreneur journey with Mae Creative, now Skellydog, when I was 18 years old. Since starting the business, there have been many hardships regarding my age and my gender - many times being associated with being too "fragile" or "just being a woman." Then there was one client a few years ago that told me: "You run a business like a girl" and fired me.

Why? Because I asked him not to cat-call me (and quite professionally, I will say).

You can imagine that went over well. 🙄

I vowed to always look out for the red flags I ignored for money and to never let it happen again.

Working on the Re-Vulva-Lution project, that same conversation came flooding back to memory. It wasn't until recent years that I realized that my "girl" traits are one of my biggest strong suits: confidence, charisma, empathy, and resilience have all gotten me to where I am today.

So yeah, I run my business "like a girl."
I fight "like a girl."
I build relationships and foster confidence in others "like a girl."

And that, my friends, is something I'll never take for granted 😙

Adieu, misogyny 😘

09/02/2025

What a great day we had for at in New Haven, CT! 🩵

I was so happy to be able to help out local nonprofits in Connecticut build their brands, update their marketing, and even make some sick merch 😎

All the participants did a fabulous job & so many heartfelt thanks were given to each of the Creatives that volunteered their time to give back to these organizations that help their communities so much.

Super special shoutout to my amazing, amazing team & here’s to forging new friendships and being energized for the week to come!

Also huge thank you to for putting this event together & rallying the talent to take a part, although I’m not an official member, I have absolutely loved being a part of the volunteer team through mentorship and now, Make-a-Thon! 🩵🩵🩵

08/15/2025

Happy Font Friday my lovelies 😘😉

Lately, I have not been able to stop thinking about a good vintage handwritten font. Like?! They make me swoon!

Also, I'm trying a new style of content I'm not sold on, so don't mind me 😅

ANYWAY how dreamy are these vintage fonts?! Filmotype Yale has a special place in my heart. These ones have sparked so much font inspiration the last few weeks and I realllyyyy want to make a brand based on these 😍

Shoutout to Envato , MyFonts , and Adobe for putting these on my radar 🩵

08/14/2025

A little August (the person) appreciation post for his birthday & our anniversary.🧡

It’s hard supporting someone who’s a business owner. Hard to be a partner, to go to bed at the same time, to raise a family.

And yet you make it seem so effortless.

You never shame me for staying up to meet a deadline.
You never treat me differently for having a down month.
You never tell me it will never work.

How did I get so lucky to have a great partner, my best friend, and a fantastic father all in one?

🧡

08/11/2025

Working with Carol at Blissful Blooms Studio has been nothing less than an amazing experience! 🌸

Her craft of farm to table florals and colorful arrangements have inspired me and make working with her incredibly pleasant!

Check out her new brand suite and website that Skellydog built for her at www.BlissfulBloomsStudio.com 🌸

08/05/2025

Y’all the last few weeks have been a whirlwind 😮‍💨

I had the opportunity to throw myself into maintaining my medical appointments, going to more networking, doing deeper work, and just building in general and while I took it… I forgot to make more posts 😅🤣😭

So here’s my biweekly post of a project my team and I finished up a few months ago for a florist here in CT. 😁

(ps I got a new microphone so we’re getting close to building out more contentttt!)

07/31/2025

Had fun making some custom type for my marketing agency, 🦴🩵

Sometimes, I like to just doodle with type whenever I have some creative juice but don’t know what to do with the energy. I’ve always loved type, so it helps me relax.

I pulled one of the ByMadiMae fonts into Procreate and just started messing with it by adding and subtracting pieces of the letters. All hand drawn, so the lines aren’t super crispy, but whatever 😘

Original font: Wild Star, found on
Program used:

Address

Mystic, CT

Telephone

+18604156180

Website

http://bymadimae.com/, https://bymadimae.etsy.com/, https://skellydog.com/

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