Misfit Story — dalton Speers
He spent ten years building other people's businesses.
Now he's building his own.
Over $5K in MRR
in his first three months running STIX full-time.
2x where he’d be on his own
Dalton’s own estimate of what Band of Misfits has meant for his business.
Half a dozen and counting
one-on-one conversations with fellow Misfits, each one adding a new perspective to how he builds.
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“There's just so much value that comes with Band of Misfits. I can't ever imagine myself leaving, if I'm being totally honest.”
He’s sat on both sides of the table.
As marketing director for a multi-state bathroom remodeler, Dalton helped grow it from two locations to five and an estimated $10 million valuation, hiring and firing agency after agency along the way.
“That's when I started thinking there has to be a better way,” he says. Seeing both sides showed him exactly where the gaps are, and why so many business owners walk away frustrated. That's the perspective STIX is built on, helping local service businesses like plumbers, HVAC companies, contractors, and remodelers grow with marketing systems built for how they actually work.
“I help local service businesses grow. Time and money is what local contractors need the most.”
The name STIX is a nod to both his small-town Iowa roots (“the sticks”) and his love for golf. Look closely at the logo and you’ll see a golf tee with a ball on top. For Dalton, the game is about more than a good round. It’s where relationships get built. “Where else can you sit with someone for four hours and have their undivided attention?” he says.
BOM in actioN: What BOM helped with
“The confidence I got from Band of Misfits, paired with my trust in God, was the final push to strike out on my own,” Dalton says. “I’ve got all these people who believe in me. I’ve got this support system. It’s time to just do this thing.”
Pulling back to pull them in.
Sharpening his positioning was one of Dalton’s biggest unlocks inside Band of Misfits. But one session in particular changed how he sells. The idea: open by telling a prospect, honestly, that you're not sure you can help them. Pulling back is what pulls the right clients in.
He put it to the test at a lunch meeting with a potential client. It was supposed to last an hour. It ran three. “I literally saw it in his eyes,” Dalton says. “When I pulled back, I could feel him lean in.” By the end, the prospect told him they'd fit STIX into their growth plans one way or another.
“I'm not a salesman. I just want to see if I can help you. That's been a pretty big unlock for me.”
The Shift
Dalton came from full-cycle sales, where every quarter resets to zero. Inside BOM, he traded the pitch for a posture of genuine help. The result wasn't more selling. It was more trust, earned faster.
A solo founder who doesn't feel solo.
Dalton runs STIX on his own, but he doesn't build alone. He's met one-on-one with at least half a dozen fellow Misfits, and he says those connections have been invaluable. Some are great at selling. Some are great at back-end operations. Some work in entirely different industries but are wrestling with the same challenges.
“Being able to learn from all of them and take pieces from all these highly skilled consultants is worth its weight in gold.”
The network reaches beyond the members, too. Stephen regularly brings in outside experts to lead sessions. Dalton was so impressed by one of them that he reached out afterward. She's now a trusted white-label partner who supports several of his clients.
The BOM result
Past $5,000 in monthly recurring revenue within three months of launch and more opportunities than he expected. Dalton attributes it directly to Band of Misfits and the advice of fellow members. Without them, he says, he'd be at half of that or less.
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“It's not like you're just joining a group of 50 people and hoping to get a little bit of value out of it. With Band of Misfits, there's so much value. It's crazy.”
Holding the keys to the castle.
After a decade of building other people's businesses, Dalton finally owns the work, and the upside. “In sales, you're always chasing your tail,” he says. “The quarter resets and you start all over again.” Now, when he does great work for a client, he keeps them, and what he builds compounds.
His next milestone is $10,000 a month, then $25,000, with $100,000 a month as the big dream. But the bigger goal is the one behind the numbers: freedom for his family and a legacy his kids might one day share in. “I'm holding the keys to the castle,” he says. “And I get to decide what I want to do with it.”
He'll tell you the decision to go out on his own wasn't only his. “It felt like God was pushing me for a while,” he says. “Like I'm on the edge, and he's got his hand on my back saying, jump, I'm going to catch you.”
The opportunities came faster than he expected. The hard part has been building the systems behind them. “I've never been more fulfilled,” he says. The Sunday scaries are gone. Now Sunday night is when he opens the laptop because he wants to.
Dalton Speers
FOUNDER OF STIX MARKETING ADVISORS
Specialty:
Marketing systems for local service businesses
Goal: Freedom for his family and a legacy his kids might one day share in
Recommends BOM: “I can't ever imagine myself leaving”
BOM tools he's worked with:
Category of One Positioning
Golden Rings (relationship-led growth)
LinkedIn relationship-building frameworks
What shifted: The confidence to bet on himself. A way to sell without selling. A community of experts that makes a solo founder feel anything but solo.