“The only journey is the one within.” – Rainer Maria Rilke
It was over a year ago I knew I had to find something to do with my life on this side of recovery. After a couple of years sober, I had all the training to become an ACLC (addiction counselor), a suicide prevention training certificate, and an uncompleted MBA with an emphasis on marketing. There was some experience in project management, networking, and development. Before sobriety, my professional toolkit was pastoral, restaurant management, and digital design.
The Journey Begins
Let’s rewind to February last year. There were a couple of seemingly solid opportunities that could have turned into full-time work and I already had two digital marketing clients. However, those “solid” opportunities ended up ghosting away. The place of life I was in was being fed up with all my past crap and ready to fully break everything holding me back – I’m kind of an all-in-or-nothing guy. So, I pressed ahead.
“The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle.” – Steve Jobs
To pay for pills, I was looking for jobs while also looking for clients. I had the Stigma Marketing business before managing Arby’s, plus past experience, but was also only a couple of years sober and had an awful history on paper. A former The University of Montana professor agreed to coach me. During our first meeting, I explained my situation and my goals. When he heard my answer to how much I needed to make, he frankly told me to go home, do the math, and get back to him.
I did – it was a lot more than I had assumed. It staggered me. There was no job that could pay someone like me that money. It sincerely felt like starting a business was my only option. Plus, I was really tired of not using my giftings.
The Birth of Stigma Marketing & Development
While I kept looking for jobs, eventually one thing led to another and I was full in on Stigma Marketing & Development. Below are some of the highlights from 2024 that helped me figure out what I was doing along the way:
2024 Highlights
The first client was Eastern Montana Bible Camp. Gavin was a student in my youth ministry back in Glendive so it was cool to talk with him again, especially as a leader. They wanted a redesign of their SquareSpace website. We did that and amped their SEO. As a first “sale,” EMBC was a pivotal early client.
Then Saddle Horn Custom Homes. We did a small business brand and a website that was crafted to produce quality leads. Within a short time after launch, Buck & Kelly had their first meeting and have since closed on the first house from the website, which already made their money back. They’ve since had further inquiries.
“The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.” – Peter Drucker
HAIRLAB-UK was a great chance to work with a fun professional, Lisa Gregory. She’s a hair designer who has been published in several magazines, has salons on both sides of the Atlantic, and has participated in Paris, New York, and now Miami Fashion Week. Lisa had sold Fabrik Salon and was transitioning to her post-salon plan. Her single-page website helped her connect her social media profiles and provides a web platform for her RESET coaching and training. Lisa and I are looking forward to working together for the next year, especially in tandem with Kitty from Fabrik Salon.
Evolving Partnerships
Speaking of Fabrik Salon, our partnership has continued to evolve. Currently, their Front Desk is now up and running on MailChimp, we’ve cleaned up several account issues, have been reworking their website all year, done some development and training, hosted the first suicide prevention training, done some special designs and projects, and amped up their content.
Recently, Stigma also took over the management of their sister shop’s website, Mirror Mirror Extension Lounge. Kitty (and Lisa) are working on a podcast and, while I’ve only helped with the techy side, we had a meeting about how to do the podcast. That’s going to be a fun project in 2025!
We also built a single-page website for my girlfriend and nail technician, Alex. Her website was a case study of what a single-page website, with quality design and local SEO strategy, could do for an independent professional like a local nail tech, hair stylist, contractor, artist, counselor, or professor. Alex has gotten a few clients from her website and continues to. She gets a couple of walk-ins each week just because of www.nailwitchery.com. Frankly, she doesn’t have to do anything to get this kind of traffic.
One of the key strategies in digital marketing is Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SEO is the practice of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic search engine results. This involves optimizing various on-page elements like content, meta tags, and site structure, as well as off-page factors like backlinks and social signals. By implementing effective SEO strategies, businesses can improve their visibility in search results, attract more qualified traffic, and ultimately increase conversions.
Expanding Horizons
Then Larry Weeks came along, wanting a website and social media for the birding guide business he was starting. This was a lot bigger of a project than I realized. We’ve done consulting, planning, training, accounts, advertising, and more. We’ve just launched www.montanabirdtours.com which features a booking system integrated with Stripe and Google Suite. Its search results are already giving page one results. We’ve designed a brochure for local distribution and two social media accounts live and ready for our Q1 2025 marketing management plan.
For brevity’s sake, I’ll just mention that Sierra Counseling & Coaching has been a constant partner and they will come up later. Then Sean with Big Sky Telecom and I connected. Aside from doing a small business logo for him, we’re talking about several ways he and Stigma can partner up next year.
“Marketing is no longer about the stuff that you make, but about the stories you tell.” – Seth Godin
Today, I have a few monthly partners I get to help with the marketing and development of their business. There’s a lot to be grateful for in 2024.
The Development Side of Stigma
Now, I want to rewind and talk about the other side of Stigma Marketing – the “& Development.” I never wanted to do just marketing. People have always been my thing. We were covering the 4/5 P’s of Marketing in class: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion/Purple Cow. I couldn’t help but wonder about the People behind all of that. ← That has become fundamental to Stigma’s Vision, Philosophy, Marketing, and Process. It’s also taken time to conceptualize and flesh out.
One thing I always knew was I’m passionate about people. It’s partly why they used to scare the heck out of me. Coaching, mentoring, counsleing, and teaching are natural skill sets. It took time to repurpose those into a website design or social media campaign with an authentic marketing philosophy.
Marketing was simply going to be the front-end of my business. At 39, after AI and only a couple of years sober, it took an exhausting amount of time just to find a marketing niche. At first, there was simply a lot to relearn and catch up on. Secondly, marketing is a huge field now and I wasn’t sure what to focus on yet. I was just finding my voice this side of recovery and wasn’t sure what my best options were.
On top of that, there was a lot of learning about customer relationship and audience, more specifically how I wanted to work with customers and who I wanted my audience to be. In the world of marketing, understanding your target audience is crucial. In business, understading your customers’ problems and how to meet it similar. It took me some trial and error.
It’s easy, especially as a start up, to think we can do everything or take everyone on. Learning my strengths and limits, my process, effective communication, and maintianing boundaries were all a part of the process. It took a lot of humbling to finally learn how to say “No” to paying customers. Honestly, any good marketer and enterpeneur would benefit from counseling.
Back to people, coaching and consulting were clearly things I was natural at and could offer, but needed the reputation and portfolio for it. That took time. This target customer, business model, and authenticity stuff all intersects with what we coach and consult on. I had to know more about myself and get in the game.
With everything in my background and narrative, it meant a lot of things had to be processed and worked through simultaneously. It was a bit much at times and worth it. There was a lot of unlearning and negative thinking that got at least challenged if not removed a long the way.
Gripping Purpose
After working my way through that, there was the other side of my business – “…& Development”. Development is what I want to be at the center of Stigma. It is also my strategy for producing long-term products and services, independent of marketing demands, that would be the beating heart of the Why, How, and What of Stigma Marketing & Development.
“The best marketing doesn’t feel like marketing.” – Tom Fishburne
However, if I was lost in Marketing, I had no idea where to begin with Development. I still had to try to keep up with my bills with marketing work. Then a bunch of things happened, especially in my personal life, and a couple of solid ideas were on my metaphorical whiteboard.
Suicide Prevention and Every Human’s Journey
The first was suicide prevention. I’m still a certified QPR trainer, and passionate about the matter. After a few trainings, and a few more meetings coming up, I’m excited to keep growing that initiative.
Then there’s Every Man’s Journey. I was working on a healthy masculinity project for Sierra Counseling & Coaching and a random idea from other research popped into my head. After a bit, I had a rubric and curriculum outline. It took most of the summer to find enough guys willing to give it a test run. But we did. A group of 5 guys have just erecently completed the beta-group and it was great. And that was just the “rough draft.” What excites me is the second and third version.
Part of the “secret sauce” of Stigma Marketing & Development is that we erase the gap between organization and marketing. It’s about authenticity and people. As such, Stigma’s “identity” and the stuff it puts into the world must authentically engage through brand and storytelling. It’s niche and meta.
In the realm of marketing and personal development, the concept of brand storytelling has gained significant traction. Brand storytelling is the art of using narrative to connect your brand to customers, with a focus on linking what you stand for to the values you share with your customers. This approach helps in differentiating your brand and creates emotional connections with your audience, leading to increased loyalty and engagement. For Stigma, we’re about people and authenticity, among other things. Working with where I was and to develop something, it was going to take time and practice. Still is.
The Evolution of Every Human’s Journey
There’ll be a lot more coming out about this in the next year but here’s an update about Every Man’s Journey:
If you don’t know, Every Man’s Journey is a group model that uses the Hero’s Journey as a frame to take indivudals through within a group context. It’s more than curriculum: the environment, rules, modeling, program, and relationship building are all a part of it. It was also never just a men’s thing.
As such, the whole program is called Every Human’s Journey, and will initially have a Men’s and Women’s version. There is a pilot group at a halfway house in Colorado, a women’s group starting in a couple of months, and a couple of targets on a list about approaching. We’re designing questionnaires and forms to collect evidence on the model. There are a few people now committed to being involved. A big goal to reach is having signups for the next round of guys groups in Missoula. It’s a process and intentionally so.
Currently, my focus is getting rough drafts done of the curriculum, group book, and journals. Then there is a website..then online courses. The base group kit will be a free resouce on the website so anyone can start their own group. There’s a plan to organically grow it.
“The most powerful person in the world is the story teller. The storyteller sets the vision, values and agenda of an entire generation that is to come.” – Steve Jobs
The Future of Stigma Marketing & Development
Back to the marketing side of Stigma Marketing & Development…about the Stigma website redesign. Between life and clients, I haven’t been able to make mcuh progress as I would have liked. It’s “started.” Aside from dancing around the obstacles life throws in front of us, there was also the issue that I was trying to finalize a business model. It was close but still couldn’t quite see it all yet. It’s there now and it’s exciting…just time + work again.
After completing this website, I’ll launch a newsletter on the intersection marketing and development, and then build a lead generation system. Key to that will be a Lead Magnet, which will be a Complete Authentic Marketing Guide for Small Busines Owners. It’ll cover the basics of marketing as well as what Stigma’s philosophy and approach is. After all of that happens, the next thing I thinking is a podcast casually interviewing random, interesting people around Missoula and deconstructing life’s stories with them.
Other focuses include building out web presence, while using the programs and client work Stigma has to fuel it. There are active plans and some spinning plates – that’s a good thing. A big mind set shift is slowing down and building on what is already there. I had moments when I feel like there’s been no progress or movement. A few times it felt hopeless and desperate. Most of these times, when I take the time to pause and zoom out, I find more reason to ground myself than to worry.
Personal Growth and Reflection
When everything was going down last year, at the center of it all was my kids. While three years of sobriety is nothing to take for granted, especially where I was last year, I wasn’t able to do anythng about the distance and circumstances keeping me from my children. I had to build a life I could have my kids in – something I squandered away with addiction.
Back in February, I was committed to doing everything I was afraid of to get there. There have been plenty of mistakes, dark moments, sleepless nights, and stressful finances. This journey has been unregretful…. it widdled off more things that weren’t needed and forced other parts to step up and grow. It was a crucible I needed to go through.
On the other side, with less excuses and a bag full of lessons, I have to pinch myself to when I think it’s been all for naught. The start up experience alone has been molding. One one side, it taught me a lot about what it takes to build something and to clean up past wreckage. On another, the business model I had no clue on less than a year ago is tangible now with opportunities.
There’s been networking and current leads thst I had to walk around town for 6 months ago. The roles are more comfortable. The skills that were rusty aren’t as anymore. It’s been more learning that anticapated.
Looking Up & Through 2025
2025 is going to be whatever year we make it. It feels like a good year to make some different things
“The best way to predict the future is to create it.” – Peter Drucker
As we look towards 2025, it’s important to remember that in the world of marketing and personal development, adaptability, continuous learning, and relationships are key. The truth is, we’re are just getting going. The landscape is constantly evolving, with new technologies, platforms, and consumer behaviors emerging.
Lean into your strengths, own your limits, and the human side of things – this is where we shine. By staying curious, embracing change, and focusing on creating authentic connection with others, we navigate changes and turn them into opportunities.
“Even in chaos, there is opportunity.“