Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Madison Batman. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Madison, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?
I like the idea of calling it “my” resilience. Like it’s something I have acquired and maybe even something I can lose. To me, resilience represents the ability to accept change, let go of control, ask for help, and honor my strengths in the face of stress and adversity. But there’s periods of time where I feel less than resilient; I’m angry that I can’t control a situation to be more favorable for me, I dream of pressing pause on the world while I lay in bed because it means I won’t have to make any decisions, and I forget to express gratitude for the things I do have, instead, I long for the things I wish I could have.
It’s times like these where I begin to wonder if I’ve lost my resilience. But somehow those dark clouds fade and I am able to form a plan of how to get out of this hole, and I take one step at a time until I can look back on that period of darkness and feel gratitude for what it taught me, strong for how I handled it, and acceptance that something out of my control will come around again eventually. It’s then that I know with my resilience, I can handle anything.
If I had to guess, I would say I got my resilience from a bit of a rocky childhood. The twists and turns of my upbringing led to the acceptance of constant change at an early age and the ability to adapt to lots of unfamiliar situations. This mindset makes setting goals, both personal and professional, very important to my intrinsic self worth and gives me something to always work towards.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I’m a one-woman show, so I do a little bit of everything when it comes to my business, but I like to tell people that I mix fragrance + fun together and pour it into handmade candles for anybody who loves good smells and lots of color!
Scent and Spill is all about authenticity and bringing you a unique scent experience- one that explores the intersection between nostalgia, dreams, memories, and modern art. My candles feature names like cereal and cartoons (smells just like cereal!), lucid dreams, self love, and night drive, with scents that cover just about every fragrance family.
The motivating factor behind each handmade product is to help people to celebrate what makes them unique and to foster a sense of carefree curiosity. I would say the coolest part about my job is hearing people’s stories about what memories a scent evokes. The psychology behind fragrance is so interesting to me and it’s always fun to see what scents speak to some but not others. I even went so far as to create a scent personality quiz where you can match with a fragrance based on your lifestyle!
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Self care, a passion for learning, and fostering creativity were all integral pieces to this journey of entrepreneurship.
Prioritizing self care has made a huge impact on my ability to take an active role in my life and my business. I love incorporating lots of different self care practices into my day whenever possible. Some of my favorite ways to practice self care are the things you hear about a lot, like getting plenty of rest, journaling, and mindfulness. But I also really like to set boundaries with myself, especially when it comes to my business. I have to think realistically, can I accomplish this task, or is it gonna lead to burnout once it’s done? Sometimes that means turning down a good opportunity every once in a while. A friend once told me that saying no to one opportunity gives you more space to say yes to another one. Like they say, “if it’s not a hell yes, then it’s a no.” Self care is fun like that because you get to think about yourself for once and figure out what activity works best for you and you get to do that thing more. But if none of those suggestions work, I would suggest trying boxing. I recently took my first boxing class and there’s really nothing like throwing all of your frustrations from the day into a punching bag.
Aside from self care, I would say creativity and a passion for learning has made this journey both possible and extremely rewarding. The most important thing I learned from this journey is that you don’t have to practice these concepts solely within the context of your business. You should foster creativity and knowledge in whatever areas of your life you feel passionate about in that moment, because odds are, what you learn or create will naturally influence your business in positive and meaningful ways. Just like what you learn in the context of your business can translate into other, non-related, areas of your life. So learn or create in whatever way feels right for you, because something good will come as a result of it!
How can folks who want to work with you connect?
I have had the great fortune of collaborating with some really amazing creatives in the past and am always looking to connect with people who want to create a fun and unique scent experience for their brand! My work for Scent & Spill embodies those dream-like, bold, and nostalgic elements, with a foundation of self-care, so if you or your brand have similar interests, then let’s bring those dreams to life! You can reach out to me personally at any of the socials mentioned below. Thanks for reading about my journey!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://scentandspill.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scentandspill
- Other: Email: Scentandspill@gmail.com
Image Credits
Madison Batman
