We recently connected with Richelle Futch and have shared our conversation below.

Richelle, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What were some of the most unexpected problems you’ve faced in your business and how did you resolve those issues?

In 2017, my mental health practice was booming. I had a brick and mortar location outside of Joint Base Lewis McChord in Washington state which was perfect for serving a blend of military and non military clients. Being a Marine veteran and a military spouse, the location was ideal as I specialize in working with clients who have extreme emotional crisis, chronic stress, and self harm. My family was taking a vacation down the Oregon coast to watch the solar eclipse, but first we attended a children’s event on post through my husbands work. While at the first event of the day, another service member came up to my husband and casually remarked that he also was on the list for a Permanent Change of Station (PCS) next summer across the country to Fort Bragg in North Carolina. Our entire day was clouded with the uncertainty of what it would mean for our family to move from our home state across the country. What would it man for me to close my mental health practice of 6 years to move to a state I was not licensed in. No part of me wanted to give up all I worked for to start all over somewhere else. After a month or so of complete willfulness from me, I finally resolved that I would need to accept the inevitable. I was going to have to start over. I had about 8 months to plan and prepare for closing my practice, packing my family, purchasing a house, and pivoting my career. I symbolically raised my fist like Scarlett O’Hara in Gone With The Wind when she proclaimed “As God is my witness, as God is my witness they’re not going to lick me. I’m going to live through this and when it’s all over, I’ll never be hungry again.” For me, I would never be stripped of my ability to earn money again. I created a plan to make my work digital, virtual, and all things portable. I created a workshop, workbooks, digital course, and eventually started doing virtual therapy. It took 3 years of developing material, learning marketing, building relationships, to earn and surpass the income I was making before our move. Just in time to move again, this time back to Washington for another PCS.
One relationship I created during that 3 years was a community partnership with Safe Project. They adopted my program as their part of their Veterans Program. This meant, they sponsored me to teach my workshops within their program to the people they were serving, who also happened to be the same audience I was wanting for my message. It worked out perfectly. It meant I didn’t need to source locations, attendees, fund the curriculum, or find someone to pay my speaker fee. They do all that for me. This worked so well for me, it is what lead me to starting sponsor match. A digital platform that teaches others how to do what I did. Find, pitch, and land corporate sponsorships. If it wasn’t for that initial PCS, I could have comfortably stayed working in my private practice, exchanging hours for dollars and limiting my potential for greater income and personal growth.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I grew up in a small fishing town in Washington state. My dad was a logger and my mom was a para-educator working at the school I attended. My dad was in a horrific accident where a skidder rolled down a hill crushing my dad into the front of his log truck. It was very traumatic for my family and I believe his near death experience ultimately led to my parents divorce. This spun our family into a large separation and for my senior year, I was pretty much on my own. After high school, I was still unstable with little income, no permanent residence, and little to no prospects of anything dramatic changing my situation. Inspired by the Journey song of the small town girl taking a midnight train to anywhere, I joined the Marine Corps. The military was that train for me. My first ever plane ride was from Seattle to South Carolina for Marine bootcamp. From there, I went to school in North Carolina, and then off to Okinawa Japan for a year. My next duty station took me to Camp Pendleton California, and after my service, I returned to Washington State. I had a goal of finishing my bachelors degree and be the first in my family to graduate college. Washington State University had a distance degree program which was pretty cutting edge for the early 2000. Little did I know that doing my undergraduate degree online, would be a precursor for my future virtual professions. During this time, I volunteered as a CASA (court appointed special advocate), and it reconnected me with a purpose I hadn’t had since the military. I finished my degree in social science, and went on to counsel in the juvenile rehabilitation administration within the boys prisons in Washington. It was there that my passion for counseling and my education grew. I went on to eventually get my Masters Degree in Social Work from the University of Washington which led me into my private practice. I specialized in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), which is a treatment model formulated for highly emotional and self harming clients. Myself and 2 other colleagues took inspiration from DBT, and a couple other modalities and have gone on to create our own treatment model for caregivers called the Green Zone. In partnership with an organization here in Washington state, we have been able to implement our model into residential facilities serving individuals with intellectual disabilities, and are now also working with a leading state agency. We have done this primarily virtually while all maintaining our other jobs. My goal has to not be tied to only one revenue source. I have experience and expertise in multiple areas, and I’ve created pathways that allows me to benefit financially through my passion while also feeding my creativity. I have multiple workbooks, workshops, a children’s book, and digital courses. I have created e-commerce platforms, secured sponsorships, community partnerships, and consulted with organizations on prioritizing mental health in their organizations. It is really difficult to sum my work up into one brand. I imagine there are others like me who find it a challenge to identify themselves into one bucket.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

One of the lessons I had to unlearn early was it was better to be a solo entrepreneur because you couldn’t trust people to show up for your business like you do. This was a lesson I adopted myself after many failed attempts at finding partners who could commit. The thing is, I like working with people and it helps me stay motivated and accountable. Early on, I continued to find people who were enthusiastic about the potential and jump into the team without the grit it takes to show up every day and build. I had struggles with finding the right partners in different ventures because I continually opted for enthusiasm and energy (and people I knew and liked) over tangible skills. The most anxiety I have experienced in business is leading up to and the conversation I have had to have with friends or family members to let them know our partnership was no longer working due to their inability to do what needed to be done. This unease created a period where I just shut people out and went it alone. I mistakenly correlated that to not seeking mentorship as well. I spent hours and a lot of money on online courses, e-books, webinars, and the like trying to learn everything I needed to be all things to my business. Over time, I learned that it is okay to go it alone, with mentorship and community. It is also okay to have partners, but to be more strategic in who you partner with. Fill the gaps with individuals who excel in the areas you need. Ensure they have a good work ethic, especially if it is remote work. I would rather have someone show up and is teachable, than someone who has priorities in a bunch of different places and has not mastered how to block their time.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

I am a huge proponent of a lean start up. This means owner contribution and sweat equity to get to an MVP. I know a lot of people aren’t like that, but to me, it is really hard for me to take someone else’s money without ensuring first that my product is viable. For my ed-tech businesses, I often record a few lessons set it to a drip course, and start selling so I am building with revenue coming in. This funds further development, and I can also determine by sales and feedback how to proceed for the remaining lessons. I also have services I am providing to help fund the business. With Green Zone, we do consulting and offer in person trainings which has helped fund our design development. In Sponsor Match, we are fortunate to have executive clients where we create their pitch material, and or sell their sponsorships for them in order to help fund our costs until we raise a round for our next phase in our tech development.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.sponsormatch.us www.greenzonesupport.com www.richellefutch.com
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richellefutch/

Image Credits
Sabrina at lady brand boss https://ladybrandboss.com/