Inside the Meteoric Rise of Maddie Brandon: The Seacoast’s Star Content Creator Talks MUST-HEAR Social Media Advice, Influencer Marketing, & Being Cringe

Maddie Brandon never felt like she fit in.

With no form of safe self-expression available to her growing up in-real-life, she turned to social media.

Fast forward 15 years, and she's quickly become one of the top social media creators on the Seacoast.

With 14,000 followers, the 27-year-old's Instagram page represents all of our collective fantasies: Luxury Airbnb stays, scenic helicopter rides, and cozy cabin weekends in the mountains.

Before amassing that following over the last two years, Maddie ran social media marketing for Seacoast staples Smuttynose Brewing and Island District Cocktails.

And now, beyond creating content for her own channels and producing content for clients, Maddie is determined to completely flip the influencer industry on its head.

From the West End of Portsmouth, Maddie and host Troy Farkas discuss how she fell into social media marketing during the pandemic, running social media at Smuttynose, social tips for small business owners, and how to create successful content in 2025. Plus, why she left Island District to pursue full-time content creation, how much money influencers actually make, her signature Airbnb campaigns, the problems she sees within the influencer industry, and how she hopes to address these problems through her business, The Creator Outpost.

CHAPTERS:

• Moving to the Seacoast (00:00)
• Maddie's relationship to social media (07:07)
• Running social media for Smuttynose (12:48)
• Must-hear social media advice for Seacoast small biz owners (16:48)
• Which Seacoast business has the best social media? (31:00)
• SPONSORS: Samonas Realty & JOBTALK LLC (35:48)
• The WILD world of influencer marketing (38:40)
• How Maddie blew up on social (51:07)
• Leaving Island District to pursue content creation full-time (57:20)
• The problems she hopes to solve in the content creation industry (01:01:45)
• Founding The Kindling Studio earlier this year (01:12:20)
• How do you want to be remembered? (01:15:50)

For more from Maddie, please follow @thekindlingstudio and @maddiebrandon on Instagram. To inquire about working with her creative studio, please visit thekindlingstudio.com.

THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS:

• Visit ⁠⁠SamonasGroup.com⁠⁠ or stop by Samonas Realty in downtown Portsmouth to learn more about how you can find the Seacoast home of your DREAMS!
• JOBTALK LLC⁠⁠⁠⁠: Get 50% off ⁠⁠⁠⁠JOBTALK Academy⁠⁠⁠⁠ courses with the code "SEACOASTSTORIES50" for the rest of 2025!

To support this show, please leave a review on ⁠our Apple Podcasts page⁠ and let us know what you think of the show!