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Madeline Hansen is owner and sole designer of Written In Sage Design Company. She is 24 years old and married to a loving and hard working cowboy and together they are raising a little cowboy of their own. They have planted their roots in sunny southern California alongside their animals and are building their dream home and life.

Sitting down with Madeline and talking about her business, growing her family and her heritage was such an honor and a life giving conversation. This girl has made such an impact on my life and I think she will on yours too.

How Written In Sage Was Born

Written in Sage Design Company started in 2019 and was born from a weird series of events in Madeline’s life. Her cat in college broke her laptop and she needed to replace it. So instead of getting another laptop she got an iPad instead. She was also going through a really bad breakup and lost one of her horses.

Basically, she was at a low point in her life when the business started. But Madeline says she has always been artistically inclined and used it as an escape. So with her new iPad she stumbled across the app Procreate and still uses it to this day. The rest is history.

What started off as making designs for her moms feed store, turned into creating apparel, and working with brides and businesses.

Graphic Designers For Brides & Businesses

In 2021 when I was getting married, I hired Madeline to design my wedding stationary and she truly knocked it out of the park.

To this day, the things she created for me remain some of my favorite details from my wedding day.

I asked her why she thinks it’s so important for people getting married and/or business owners to hire a professional designer for their specific needs and here are a few of her main points that stuck out to me.

• When you hire a professional, they are able to take the image you have in your head and bring it to life while still keeping it personal to you.

• Hiring a professional designer will add consistency to your business or wedding. If you are like me, you change your mind a lot. Anytime I design something on my own, I tend to second guess my decisions. But when I hire a professional, I am much more likely to stick with it since I have skin in the game.

• First impressions are important! If you are a business, your logo is the first thing most people see. If it’s not attention grabbing you could lose out on clients. I noticed this big time with my own wedding too. My invites really were able to set the tone for the day for my guests before they even arrived to the venue.

How Madeline Gets Inspiration For Her Designs

Madeline says her inspiration comes from many different places. Sometimes it can be as simple as Pinterest and other times it’s through music, or her daily life. But her biggest inspiration and the ground she built her business on is the rich Cowboy culture that lies in California’s history.

Hansen is a 10th generation Californian, and something she said that I thought was so fascinating is that her family received the first Spanish land grant in California.

So many industries are saturated but instead of seeing it as a problem, Madeline see’s it as an opportunity to bring something new and fresh to the table. For many, California is not seen as a place for Agriculture and rural living. One of Madeline’s goals is to shift that perspective and show people that there is so much culture and western lifestyle to be had in the golden state.

Stepping Into Motherhood As An Entrepreneur

Hansen says that one of the hardest things she has had to figure out is the dance you do when you first step into motherhood while also trying to manage running a business. For so many of us, our businesses are our babies, so to have to now care for a real baby is a big adjustment.

But Madeline says it has been the most rewarding thing she has ever done and has become a better person and business owner since the arrival of her son.

If she were to give advice to any new moms going through the same things she is, she would say to not be afraid to ask for help. Even though you are going to want to do it all alone, you cannot. Learn to say no to things, and give yourself so much grace in new seasons.

It’s also so crucial to spend time away from your baby and have alone time. Family will always come first to Madeline, but sometimes as a new mom you need those few minutes to feel like yourself again in order to be the best mother you can be.

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