STEPS Ministries Newsletter: Fourth Quarter 2019
Click on items that interest you to see what they are!
In 2019, we served many people, and we are building a great foundation for the future. Next year will be an exciting time of growth as we expand the number of people we serve and provide more training, content, and encouragement to help them improve their lives, grow closer to God, and prevent addiction.
Fourth Quarter 2019 Highlights
· Developed new vehicles to deliver content to serve more people effectively.
· Improved website pages to help find more in-person speaking events.
· Distributed Christmas gift product as an evangelical outreach.
· Wrote articles for Birmingham Christian Family Magazine to help parents.
10 articles with December 2019 and January 2020
· Created GoFundMe campaign as an experiment to augment fundraising.
“Help Parents Protect Their Kids From Addiction”
· Created new videos (in addition to those used in the blogs below).
Message from Richard E. Simmons III
Don Menendez on the promise of prevention
· Published blog articles (text, podcast, video) to serve our audience.
“5 of the Best Ways to Relieve Stress”
“What Every Teenager Needs to Hear”
“Preventing Addiction in Teenagers”
“What’s Missing From Wellness”
“What Teenagers Don’t Know Can Hurt Them”
“What Christmas is All About”
“How to Create a 1-Hour Life Plan”
· Created new content and managed the production of the assets shown above.
o All of this content was built in a way that promotes reusability for more impact with more people far into the future.
· Met one-on-one with dozens of people for a variety of purposes.
o Coaching, fundraising, content research, and networking to develop partnerships.
· Took 3 trips to Atlanta to develop partners to serve more people effectively.
o Met with Caron Recovery, Solutions Youth Program, Perimeter Celebrate Recovery, Prodigal Child, Kennesaw State Recovery Program, Ken Boa, and InterAct LifeLine.
o Presented to Caron parents support group.
o Established partnership with InterAct LifeLine to provide content they will use nationally with treatment centers and college recovery programs.
· Spoke to 2 meetings of Young Business Leader (YBL) group leaders.
o Built training for small group leaders that can be repurposed for groups anywhere.
· Recorded an interview being published on the national Truth at Work podcast series.
· Managed fundraising and spending to stay in budget and get the most done possible.
o Currently receiving support from 2 foundations, 2 churches, monthly giving, and one-time donations and our support base is gradually increasing.
o Managed fourth quarter fundraising campaign involving one-on-one meetings, videos, weekly emails, GoFundMe campaign, and other activities.
· Managed our team to get the most done with the resources we have available.
o Interns from Samford, contractors, digital marketing agency, and volunteers.
o The team managed through a transition from Susan Wood who has been our most valuable team member since we started STEPS Ministries.
o Tim Majors has joined the team and will be ramping up even more in early 2020.
o Investigated other possible resources with volunteers, GenM, and Positive Maturity.
o Continued to develop and document operational and digital marketing processes.
· On November 5, held a STEPS Ministries Board of Directors meeting.
o Board approved the strategy, plans, and budget moving forward.
o Also met one-on-ones with each member of the Board of Advisors.
· My wife and I took a great week-long vacation (hurray!).
o We saw our younger son in Washington DC, visited my brother in Maryland, and attended the Virginia Tech Homecoming (the Hokies won in six overtimes!).
STEPS Ministries Newsletter: Third Quarter, 2019
Hi, please check out this STEPS Ministries Newsletter for the third quarter of 2019.
A lot has gone on and gotten done. But I hope you will watch the short video and scan the highlights from this quarter and our first year in operation. We have served a large number of people already, and we are building an incredible foundation for the future.
Mostly, thank you for your interest and support of STEPS Ministries. We could not exist or do what we do without you, and your assistance is what allows us to continue our work to help people improve their lives, grow closer to God, and prevent addiction.
Sincerely,
Steve Ward
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I. Video of the New Content Portal and Blog
Content Portal Video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5N4fJj7How
STEPS Ministries Content Portal – https://lifeimprovementsteps.com/
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II. Third Quarter 2019 Highlights
- Examples of some of the ways we serve
- Steve continued what is an ongoing aspect of our ministry that involves one-on-one meetings and coaching discussions. Examples of recent real-life stories include:
- “Our son is vaping and may be doing other drugs, and we’re trying to figure out how to handle the situation.”
- “My spouse is an alcoholic, and I need help understanding what to do and how to take care of myself as well.”
- “I’ve messed up, and it has hurt my family. I want to get better.”
- STEPS was again featured in Birmingham Christian Family magazine.
- Published 9 blogs to our email audience on a variety of relevant, useful topics.
- Presented to a men’s discipleship group at Riverchase United Methodist Church.
- Presented to a parents group at Oak Mountain Presbyterian Church. This is part of an ongoing program including multiple speaking engagements, sharing the parenting assessment with parents, and promoting use of the online parenting course.
- Continued to participate with a number of addiction community coalition groups including Pelham, Homewood, Mountain Brook (in progress), and Vestavia Hills.
- Ongoing outreach included Facebook/LinkedIn blog posts, STEPS Facebook posts, social media, and free nonprofit Google Ads to deliver useful content to people.
- Attended education and worked in various ways with Mission Increase, Truth at Work, Freedom from Addiction Coalition, First Priority, ULECx, and other groups.
- Steve continued what is an ongoing aspect of our ministry that involves one-on-one meetings and coaching discussions. Examples of recent real-life stories include:
- New services to serve people even better
- Developed several new presentations to reach in-person audiences effectively.
- Improved elements of the website to prepare for more outreach communications.
- Launched the Next Right Steps podcast on the Libsyn platform, including significant technical and content preparation to develop this new capability to reach people.
- Expanded our YouTube channel with videos on a number of featured topics, Prevention Minutes, and other informational and deeper dive videos. This prepares us to use videos to serve a set of people we could not effectively reach before.
- Improved our online course environment in Kajabi which prepares us to deliver useful products to more parents initially, and then expand to other audiences.
- Created 5 Life Improvement Tool Kit products which help inform and train people with a deeper level of education in key life application areas.
- After testing with our audience, we launched the new blog with 2 types of short videos and podcast options included to reach more people effectively. This allows as to expand our outreach to a wider, more varied audience and serve them better.
- Designed, built, and launched the new STEPS Ministries Content Portal which offers a new level of service. Now, in one place, anyone can access a wide variety of useful content to improve their lives, grow closer to God, and prevent addiction.
- Growth of our Boards and nonprofit operations
- STEPS Ministries has been certified by GuideStar, a nationally recognized information service specializing in reporting on U.S. nonprofit companies.
- In 2Q19, we acquired our first foundation grant. This quarter in 3Q19, we received support from 2 churches and submitted 6 grant applications now in process.
- John Lovoy (Infomedia) is now on the Board of Advisors joining Richard E. Simmons III, Tommy Brigham, Don Menendez, Tom Mayfield, and Harry Pearson.
- Richard Mobley (Seven Four Group), Greg Werchanowskyj (Morgan Stanley) and Justin Worthington (Red Street Investment Company) joined the Board of Directors along with Tom Majors, Sheryl Matton, and Tim Bennett.
- At the July 19 meeting, the Board approved the budget, management of expenses, and fundraising goals and shaped our strategy, priorities, and goals moving forward.
- Accomplishments of members of our team
- Susan Wood led our work with WordPress, MailChimp, Kajabi, YouTube, Libsyn, GoogleDrive, and the development of landing pages, online tools, and other assets.
- We continued our use of Samford interns. Griffin Schou worked on videos, courses, an eBook, research, and wrote a blog. William Marlow continues to work with us on video and podcast production, Facebook management, and grant applications.
- We continued to use Electromagnetic Marketing to help develop processes for social media marketing and advertising, Google ad grants for non-profits, and more.
- Hadden Smith is a volunteer helping us with his video and podcast expertise.
- Tim Majors is joining our team to work on a variety of digital marketing projects.
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III. Year 1 Highlights (ending July 31)
- Value-add content to serve people
- 52 blog articles (over 275 now)
- Several new parenting seminars
- Several business presentations
- Talks for churches, groups, etc.
- 4-hour online parenting course
- 3 related parenting products
- Core content to help companies
- Business/coaching course (WIP)
- Content Library and other material
- Messaging and content architecture
- Face-to-face training and coaching
- One-on-one meetings (200+ people)
- Deeper personal coaching (20+ people)
- Parenting group seminars (350+ people)
- Business and civic groups (150+ people)
- Community coalitions (5 groups, meetings)
- Churches: 10 individually and 25+ in groups
- Event tables: 5 events meeting dozens of people
- Online training, communications, and outreach
- Weekly blog articles (700 people each)
- Facebook/LinkedIn blog posts (1200 people each)
- STEPS Facebook weekly posts (80 people each)
- Website visits (e.g. 1209 site visitors in May/June)
- Social media marketing (videos to 3841; blogs to 15,409)
- Google Ads (TBD as the Google ads are still in process)
- Birmingham Christian Family magazine (40,000 people)
- WXJC radio interviews (north Alabama)
- Other projects part of running a nonprofit
- Strategy and Business Plan
- 501(c)(3) submission process
- Websites and marketing assets
- Boards of Directors and Advisors
- Finance and operations processes
- Newsletter, emails, communications
- Research, education, talking to experts
- Content development, writing, and editing
- Managing the team: contractors, interns, etc.
- Digital marketing software and infrastructure
- Online course and video software and skills
- Meeting with digital marketing firms/experts
- OWLS relationship, training, and certification
- IAPRC relationship and course development
- Business development: churches, companies
- Fund-raising: 1-on-1s, campaign, content, etc.
- Collaborations: nonprofits, organizations, etc.
- Executing content and digital marketing plans
Please Like, Follow, and Share our ministry Facebook page.
STEPS Ministries Newsletter: May/June 2019
Below is a video newsletter update for STEPS Ministries, so please check it out right now.
You’ll learn interesting facts you’ve never heard before and find out what has changed about addiction. And you’ll see our unique opportunity to make an impact by building content and training that is universal and timeless, and which can be delivered to help anyone, anywhere, anytime.
STEPS Ministries is a unique nonprofit ministry to help people improve their lives, grow closer to God, and prevent addiction, and it’s important for all of us to understand the fight we are in.
Please watch the video below.
Thanks,
Steve Ward
STEPS Ministries Overview
STEPS Ministries Newsletter: March/April 2019
- Check out the blogs that came out in March and April. There’s one for men (women will want to know this secret too), several for parents, a couple related to the workplace, an update on addiction in general, and two on “What to Do if You Spouse is Struggling.”
- STEPS Journey Blog – https://lifeimprovementsteps.com/blog/
- We are about to say goodbye to the 2 Samford interns who have been working with STEPS Ministries for the last few months. Ally Prespare and Alexis Hawsey have each done an awesome job, and we wish them the best as they move forward. Soon, we will welcome 2 new Samford interns in late May, William Marlow and Griffin Schou.
- STEPS Ministries has entered into a strategic collaboration with Net Institute Center for Addiction and Recovery Education in Florida. We will create a course that Net Institute will offer to their international network of recovery coaches, people in related coaching roles, and businesses. STEPS Business Wellness will also market this course to businesses. It will be usable by companies and also help coaches operate in the workplace by integrating recovery, wellness, and resilience with a focus on addiction prevention. The course will be launched at the annual National Wellness Institute conference in Orlando in October.
- STEPS Ministries has reached out to community addiction coalitions in Birmingham. I am presenting at the first parenting event for the Pelham group in May and have met with the Executive Committee for that group. We have a proposal under discussion with Homewood and have worked with Vestavia Hills. Conversations are pending with Mountain Brook and a new group in north Jefferson. A meeting with the Mayor of Hoover has hopefully set the stage for future collaboration. There are several forms of collaboration possible, and we are emphasizing delivering the online course to parents through the coalitions.
- Facebook marketing for the online parenting course is being market-tested. We will review the results in early May and decide which way to move forward in those marketing efforts.
- Our Facebook page has been given regular posts and updates, and we will transition that role to one of the new interns later in May.
- The second blog for parents goes out every 2 weeks in parallel to the original blog.
- The Content Library has continued to be populated with a large amount of research material that will be used for future projects and content.
- STEPS Ministries manned a table at the Freedom From Addiction Coalition event, I have been to a number of conferences (in person and webinars) to stay up to date on key topics, and I do online research every week on various subjects related to our work.
- I have dozens of one-on-one meetings every month: business development with organization; collaboration talks with other groups; research with subject matter experts; and fund-raising. Virtually every one of those meetings also has value in terms of helping shape the strategy and plans for the ministry and to provide a listening ear and some coaching on personal issues which arise.
- STEPS Ministries was honored with its first foundation grant in March which will provide helpful funding each quarter for 3 years. We will keep this family foundation anonymous, but they have our heart-felt appreciation for their kindness and generosity. We will begin searching for other local foundations we can apply for starting in May with a desire to be accepted by two more by the end of 2019.
STEPS Ministries Newsletter: January/February 2019
This STEPS Ministries newsletter will come out every 2 months in 2019, sometimes a little more often if circumstances dictate. This is a very important version of the newsletter because we have some exciting news to report.
But, first, please click on the blue link to read last week’s blog article on “Writing a New Story” about our experience at the “End Heroin Bham” walk last week. It has some interesting and touching stories that remind us of the importance and urgency of our ministry to improve and save people’s lives.
Please Like, Follow, and Share our new ministry Facebook page.
Exciting News
The News section below provides more detail about what has been completed so far in 2019. Here, we’ll note the special significance of some of these accomplishments and what they mean in the big picture:
- We created a new Online Training Center that now makes training, tools, and other content available to people anywhere in the world at any time.
- This is an efficient way to add value to the most people. Our potential reach, scalability, and impact are virtually unlimited.
- This form of delivery is anonymous, so people can access material in privacy, it can be easily shared from one person to another, and it can be offered through organizations as well as to individuals.
- We now have 4 high-quality online products, including a full-length course, for parents on “How to Protect Your Kids From Addictions and Help Them Lead a Happier Life.” This material has been taught many times in person, and we have gotten excellent feedback from attendees.
- Check out the new online course here: StepsProactiveParentingCourse.com
- Our content is uniquely focused on the prevention of addiction, and it can also help people improve their lives and grow closer to God. It contains practical how-to guidance that is both universal and timeless.
We accomplished this at very lost cost so far, but this is just the foundation.
1 Minute Intro
Moving Forward
The ministry will require significant investments to build out the capability to reach the most people. The Board of Directors for STEPS Ministries approved a 2019 budget of $42,000 for content, delivery, and digital marketing. Over time, revenue from products and services will help fuel growth in the ministry, but we greatly need your financial help now as we are still in start-up mode:
- Expand our foundation of monthly giving:
- $60/month funds the ministry to serve 1 person every month.
- $200/month funds 5 parenting seminars for 200+ Moms and Dads.
- $500/month funds a program to reach hundreds of parents digitally.
- A $2500 gift will sponsor a church to offer training to all of their parents.
- A $5000 gift will sponsor a school to offer training to all of their parents.
- A $10,000 gift funds 6 months of outreach to thousands of parents.
January/February News
- Read all News here: LifeImprovementSteps.com/news/
- Presented 2 sessions at “The Struggle is Real” parenting conference with very positive feedback, operated an information table, and held coaching conversations with attendees.
- Presented at a church adult Bible study class a talk aligning STEPS to Biblical principles with guidance on coaching and parenting.
- STEPS Ministries was a sponsor for the “End Heroin Bham” Walk, ran a ministry information table, conducted on-site coaching talks, and collected email addresses for the blog.
- Held STEPS Ministries team meeting with web developer, 2 college interns, digital marketing agency, and bookkeeper. Hosted by Don Menendez, CEO of White Plume Technologies.
- Created the STEPS Ministries Online Training Center on the Kajabi platform to house and deliver products, handle related email communications, and conduct eCommerce.
- Produced 4 online products: parenting assessment, audio seminar, video seminar with charts, and full-length course. Packaged products into Bronze, Silver, and Gold offerings.
- Online course has 6 hours of education with 15 lessons and 43 videos, chart deck, 20 exercises, associated Workbook, pre and post-assessments, and landing page.
- For the online course, began “soft launch” and offered the course to a few churches. Will extend outreach with speaking engagements and schools and organizations. Based on that learning, will expand digital content delivery further with other products and audiences.
- Hired Electromagnetic Marketing to conduct digital outreach, run Facebook and Google ads, execute a new-client campaign with email nurture, and conduct analytics for the process.
- Improved related elements of our content and digital capabilities involving Kajabi, Camtasia, MailChimp, WordPress, YouTube, Evernote, SurveyMonkey, and other software tools.
- Launched a new blog specific to parents.
- Created a new ministry Facebook page and Facebook group for parents.
- Created a Content Library in Evernote which is being utilized to research and collect content that will be used in future blog articles, seminars, courses, eBooks, and other offerings.
- Published 10 blogs. Expanded the reach through Facebook and LinkedIn.
- Reached agreement for future speaking and promotional engagements with First Priority, UAB Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Convene, Chick fil-A, Young Business Leaders, WXJC, Birmingham Christian Family magazine, and Altadena Valley Presbyterian Church.
- Presented on addiction prevention in the workplace and making an impact in the community to the Kiwanis Club of Hoover Metro.
- Presented on what churches can to to help prevent addiction to a multi-state group of church leaders hosted by Liberty Church.
With the new capabilities we have established already this year, now is the perfect time to get the most impact from your donations. Please let me know if I can come meet with you to answer questions or discuss further.
Thank you and God bless,
Steve