Marketing Red Deer, the Rogue Way: A Platinum First Year

Platinum in Social Media Marketing. Gold in Advertising, Digital Marketing, Marketing and Advertisement, and Web Design. Five CommunityVotes Red Deer 2026 wins in my very first year of business is something I am still trying to wrap my head around. The kind of marketing Red Deer businesses can actually trust starts with genuine care, not a a flashy pitch, and I am grateful the community saw that in the work Rogue Marketing put out this year. I did not start from nothing. I have been building social strategies since 2015, learning slowly what makes people stop scrolling and actually pay attention. There was a stretch where I nearly walked away from social media altogether, worn down from chasing a platform that changes its mind every month. This past year, using that same experience to promote myself and the business owners I care about, I fell back in love with the work in a way I honestly cannot describe. It still takes creativity to earn a click, a like, or a share, and I am thankful people gave that a chance.

Real Life Doesn't Pause for Good News

Life didn't exactly make room for this celebration. We were in the middle of moving, I was down bad with a cold, our dog picked that exact window to make a break for it, and I have a seven month old at home who has zero interest in anyone's schedule but her own. Somewhere between unpacking boxes, night feeds, and chasing down a runaway dog, five CommunityVotes wins and a Chamber of Commerce nomination happened, and I am just now catching my breath enough to say thank you the way it deserves.

What the CommunityVotes Red Deer 2026 Wins Mean to Me

Winning five categories with CommunityVotes Red Deer 2026 in a first year of business still feels a little unreal. Platinum in Social Media Marketing sits closest to my roots, the discipline where I cut my teeth long before Rogue Marketing had a name. Gold in Advertising, Gold in Digital Marketing, and Gold in Marketing and Advertisement remind me that the strategy work translates across different clients and different needs, which means a lot coming from people outside my own bubble. Gold in Web Design was a genuine surprise, since design has always felt like the part of the job I am still learning. Every one of those wins came from Red Deer voters, the community I set out to serve, and that is what I keep coming back to when I think about what this actually means.

My Marketing Red Deer Origin Story

Rogue Marketing exists because I care about getting every message right, sometimes to a fault. I think through the angles longer than I probably need to, because I want the people I work with to feel confident, not just impressed. I try to work with the algorithms instead of against them, building content that earns attention honestly instead of chasing a trend for a week. Clients have trusted me because I show up and pay attention, and because I have made enough mistakes along the way to know what actually helps and what just looks good on paper. That is what marketing Red Deer businesses can lean on, someone who has been doing this since 2015 and still takes it seriously. It is also part of why I nearly stepped away from this industry once. Burnout is real, and social media asks a lot of the people who care about doing it well. Coming back to it this year, on my own terms and for people I genuinely believe in, reminded me why I started in the first place.

A Finalist for New Business of the Year

The CommunityVotes wins landed alongside another moment I am still sitting with. I recently found out I am a finalist for New Business of the Year with the Red Deer and District Chamber of Commerce, with winners announced October 21, 2026. Just being nominated felt like more than enough. Being named a finalist in the same year Rogue Marketing picked up five CommunityVotes wins is more than I expected for a first year, and I do not take any of it for granted.

None of this happens without the people who showed up first. Every client who trusted me with their brand, every business owner friend who let me experiment on their behalf, and every single person who cast a vote, thank you. It means more than I can put into words, and it makes me want to show up for this community even more.

Year one is done, and I am still a little in shock about how it turned out. I am grateful for every bit of it, and I am looking forward to seeing what year two brings!