Maddy Moore graduated in the spring of 2020 as a criminal justice major and political science and marketing minors. She was a member of the Sigma Sigma Sigma sorority while also working at a local Huntington boutique, The Hip Eagle.  

Moore began her small business by making and selling jewelry to friends and family. She created an Etsy shop called Live Unchained to start selling to a larger audience, which grew quickly.  

“After a couple weeks of selling on Etsy, I came past another Marshall graduate, Olivia Hutchinson and her sister Baby Goad, who started a marketing and branding business, Fetch,” said Moore, “After talking with them, I made the decision to take the next steps with my business  by creating its own website along with branding and marketing materials.” 

While running her small business from home, Moore works as an operations analyst for Greytek LLC, a security company in Maryland. Working a full-time job and making jewelry is how she has spent her days since graduation amidst the global pandemic.  

Moore creates new designs and jewelry pieces along with packing and shipping orders in her free time between her job.

“When I sit down to make new designs I think about what is missing in my wardrobe,” said Moore. “I take out all the supplies I have and play with the designs until I love them. Sometimes they come to me almost immediately, and other times it can take me days to make something I like.” 

She emphasized affordability while not sacrificing the cute and trendy styles. With many competing online shops Moore wanted to make jewelry that she would buy. 

She models this in her own shop’s prices, from the perspective of a recent college graduate when it came down to how much she was willing to spend on buying jewelry from other places.

 Live Unchained recently went through some major changes, switching from an Etsy shop to a self-hosted website, a new name and logo, with more to come. She hired a branding team, Hutchinson and Goad, to help her with this change. 

“As a business owner I think it is important to acknowledge your strengths and weaknesses, I knew I could not brand Live Unchained on my own,” said Moore, “After having a lot of success on my Etsy shop, I decided it was time to build my own website.” 

One of Moore’s favorite parts of owning her small business is that every day is different, bringing new orders and new customers. Some days are spent coming home and getting orders ready, while other days are spent designing and creating new pieces to put in her shop. 

Abby Hanlon can be reached at [email protected].