MCEC 2026

FOUNDER of Emma Jacqueline Design

Position your Brand for Success: Increase Perceived Value with Strategic Design

Emma has been a creative entreprenuer for nearly 10 years with experience as a maker of ceramics, art prints, jewelry, and most recently: a kick ass graphic designer. Emma has worked with dozens of small makers to create branding suites with longevity. Participants will leave with new knowledge on positioning their brand strategically to elevate their brand as. a whole- even if they don't change anything about their current offering.

FOUNDER, Boundless Copy

Copy 101 for Creatives & Makers: Using Words to Show Up, Stick, & Sell Out 

A fun, 101-style approach to writing words that help you show up online, stick with your dream customers, and sell out (your goods – never yourself). We'll explore the basics of damn good copywriting, talk about how to refine 'n' refresh your brand's sticky voice, and share you-can-do-this-NOW style writing tips that help you show up, sell, and sound like yourself when it comes to writing for your brand (Website words! IG captions! Launch emails! And beyond! 

SENIOR DIGITAL MARKETING MANAGER at Pintler Group


Digital Marketing Made Simple: Quick Wins for Creative Businesses


Ana works with creative entrepreneurs and independent business owners, from marketing executives to small business owners, to help them grow their brands and reach the right audience. She’s seen how a few strategic digital updates can create immediate results. Participants will leave with actionable steps they can implement in a single day to strengthen their digital presence, gain a hands-on introduction to digital marketing, and know exactly where to focus their time and energy for maximum impact.

FOUNDER of Soul Craft Media

Aligned Storytelling for a Human Centered Business Approach

Adrianna is a documentary lifestyle photographer for artisans and creative service providers. After working with 200+ businesses of various sizes and industries, her work has evolved into specific methodology that captures and communicates the embodied creative process of her clients. Attendees will leave with more conviction & actionable steps for how they can show up and market their work in a way that actually feels good.

FOUNDER, Liquid Lifestyle

Making Hospitality: Turning the Moment of Sale into a Moment of Connection

What if selling your work wasn’t a transaction but an experience, one where storytelling, curiosity, and hospitality transform a simple purchase into a moment of genuine human connection? Eli Brown has spent his career immersed in hospitality; over the years, he’s managed multiple restaurants and bars, ensuring exceptional food and drink, delighted guests, motivated teams, and profitable growth all while earning multiple certifications, including Level 2 Certified Sommelier and Bar 5 Day Ready. This talk invites makers to rethink selling not as a chore but as a moment for storytelling, where even the briefest interaction can create connection, deepen appreciation for craft, and leave someone smiling

FOUNDER of Bird Brain Creates

How to Add Interactive Elements to Your Market Booth and Why You Should

Marika spent the summer of 2025 doing something simple that transformed her business; she add an interactive element to her market booths. What started as a way to create inclusivity and connected became a cult-obsession and launched her businesses to the next level. Attendees will leave with confidence in engaging with their customers in new and interactive ways.

FOUNDER, Wonder-Gizmos: A Snail Mail Creative Writing Club and Whimsy Machine  

Demystifying Grant Writing 

Taylor Stein (she/her) is a writer and mixed media artist with an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Montana. She spent five years as a Grants Manager and Development Coordinator for a large nonprofit and now uses those skills to produce original plays, fund creative projects, and bring community arts programs to life. In this session, participants will learn practical strategies to craft grant proposals that stand apart and alchemize your ideas into action—without breaking the bank.

Licensed CPA

Tax and Accounting Basics for Makers

Kolten is a licensed CPA with close to a decade of accounting experience, and the husband of a full-time maker. Through his personal and professional experience, as well as serving on the Making Missoula board, he has seen the pain points of understanding tax and accounting for non-accountants, and especially for applying tax law and best practices to makers' specific situations. In this class, participants will gain a basic understanding of what goes into calculating taxable income and knowing what deductions are applicable to them, as well as best practices for organizing bookkeeping and financial information.

CONTEMPORARY ARTIST

How to Utilize Your Core Story for Strategic Networking

April Werle is a narrative painter whose work has been exhibited across Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver, and throughout Montana. By clarifying the core story behind her studio practice, she has built meaningful professional relationships that have expanded her opportunities beyond the Rocky Mountain region. In this session, attendees will learn how to define their creative practice’s core story and use it to build a network with clarity, intention, and purpose.

FOUNDER, High Mountain Creative LLC

A Step-by-Step Guide to Building your Own Pitch Deck

Margo runs a Missoula-based creative studio called High Mountain Creative LLC. For nearly 20 years, she has used her passion for design and nature to build a career around promoting the outdoors and protecting the Earth. In this workshop, Margo will walk you through the key elements of an effective and successful pitch deck and give you the knowledge and inspiration you need to make your own. Whether you're a product or service-based business, streamlining your prospecting process with a pitch deck will save you time and energy when approaching potential partners. It gives you an opportunity to present yourself with professionalism, confidence, and knowledge about your craft. You'll leave with a page-by-page outline for creating your own pitch deck and guidance on how to use your deck to answer anticipated client questions around your process, policies, pricing and schedule.

FOUNDER, Adorn Designs

Breaking Into Wholesale: A Beginner’s Guide

Ali Bierman is the founder of Adorn Glitter, a Montana-based brand she launched in 2021 that has since expanded into more than 85 retail locations across the United States. Drawing from her experience building a product-based business and navigating the wholesale world as a small brand, Ali will share practical insights into what it takes to move beyond direct sales and into retail. Participants will leave with concrete tools for starting wholesale, including how to create a wholesale catalog, price their products, and identify stores that are a good fit for their brand.

Artist and Content Creator

Social Media Content Creation & Building A Personal Brand

Brianca grew her art business quickly through social media, reaching millions of people and potential customers. Eventually she introduced herself into the videos and created a more personal brand that led to many loyal customers and created a secondary income as a content creator. Attendees will leave with a broader understanding of social media content creation and feel more confident with their online presence and marketing. 

FOUNDER, Montana Beerings

Create More, Hurt Less

Lexi Klawitter is a doctor of physical therapy and the founder of Montana Beerings. As both a clinician and a maker who spends hours using her hands, she understands the real physical demands creatives put on their bodies. Participants will learn hands-on exercises and simple strategies to relieve tingly hands, cranky elbows, and back pain so they can keep creating comfortably.

Community Organizer, Small Business Advisor, Making Missoula Board Member

Self-Worth Hype Fest

In this session, participants will be guided through the process of identifying and deconstructing self-limiting beliefs that impact their creative work. As the session leader, Sophie will utilize examples from the (many) pep talks they delivered to Missoula Makers Collective Founders during their five year revenue projection project ("You are amazing! You are talented! You deserve money and success!") Audience members will leave with a renewed sense of confidence and a path towards continued deconstruction of self-limiting beliefs.

FOUNDERS, Birdhouse Collective

So You Want To Be A Full-Time Artist: Three Artists, Three Different Journeys, One Honest Conversation About Making the Leap

Aubrey, Mia, and Maren started where a lot of artists do: popping up at markets and selling their work online. Today, one is launching a risograph print shop, one runs a monthly mail club with over 700 subscribers, and one is showing her work at fine art shows and galleries. As the founders of The Birdhouse Collective, they've spent years helping artists build sustainable businesses, and this panel is their most personal conversation yet. Attendees will leave with a realistic picture of what full-time creative life can look like and the reassurance that there's no single right way to get there.

SOCIAL MEDIA & BRAND STRATEGIST AND OWNER OF SUNDAE SOCIALS, LLC

Brand Yourself Like People Are Watching (Because They Are)

Erin is a social media and digital brand strategist who helps businesses and brands elevate their content for credibility and conversion across platforms like Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and LinkedIn. After years of managing multi-industry brands and building strategic approaches to connect with buyers, she’s learned what makes audiences actually stop scrolling and engage in 2026. Attendees will leave with a practical framework for positioning their brand online, creating authentic content that sells, and using social media strategically to turn followers into customers.

OWNER, 2L’s Marketing

Posting with Purpose: A Content System for Makers Who Hate Marketing

Amanda has spent over 20 years helping small businesses and creative entrepreneurs create and implement marketing strategies that work well and feel authentic and sustainable. She is passionate about using her experience and expertise to help creators, makers and entrepreneurs thrive doing what they love. This hands-on session is designed to give you permission to show up online in a way that actually feels like you, to understand what works, what doesn't, and why, and then roll up your sleeves and put it into practice together, so you leave with more than notes and ideas, but actual content.

Owner of Twin Home Prints

Let's Talk About The Failures

Max has dedicated over a decade to his craft as a professional illustrator and printmaker, specializing in the vibrant world of collectible gig posters. While social media often showcases a highlight reel of his finished pieces, this talk pulls back the curtain on the setbacks and failures that occur behind the scenes. Attendees will discover that failure is a universal part of the creative process and that our growth as artists is ultimately defined by how we learn from those challenges.

FOUNDER of Creative Reuse Montana and Craft Supply Swap, Livingston (Emily Yost)

FOUNDER of Packrat Creative Reuse Center, Helena (Nicollette Frank)

Enough To Go Around: How Creative Reuse Empowers Sustainable Practice and Inspires Community Connections

Emily and Nic, though from distinct professional backgrounds, found each other on common ground in the realm of creative reuse. Their distinct professional backgrounds--Emily in product management, media, and communications and Nic in education, art, and research--complement not only each other, but also their shared goals in sustainable and accessible creative making. From seasoned makers to novice creatives, attendees will learn how creative reuse connects people, supplies, and ideas across Montana. 

ARTIST + FOUNDER, Coyote West, Yucca Moon House

weaving a creative ecosystem: newsletter creation for multi-passionate humans

Kelsey is an artist and small business owner who works across many genres. Rather than dismissing as “unfocused,” she has found embracing the pull of many interests, mediums, and practices to be a strength, building a creative livelihood that is adaptable and expansive. The long-form container of her newsletter has served as the foundation for communicating and cultivating a multi-disciplinary practice with intention. Participants will leave with a clear map of the values and threads of inspiration that weave together their brand and creative life, as well as practical steps to build an engaging newsletter that brings others into the fold, generating support for their work.ere

FOUNDER, Short Walk Workshop

Beyond Social Media: 18 More Marketing Channels for Makers

Amanda is the potter and businesswoman behind Short Walk Workshop. She has studied marketing and business administration and is passionate about breaking the social-media-only mold that many small businesses get stuck in, because the best marketing strategy is often not one that everyone else is doing, but the one that reflects a maker's true personality and enthusiasm for their craft. Makers will leave this session with 18 ideas tailored to their business and a concrete plan to execute one idea in the channel that excites them the most.

OWNER, Sagebrush Collaborative

Bringing Sustainability into the Gift Shop World

Jess is the owner of a beloved “sustainable mountain town gift shop” in Boise, Idaho.  The gift shop world is rampant with unsustainable practices and mass-produced goods, but it’s truly not that hard to bring sustainability into your shop by working with small makers.

Jess will share how makers in her store practice sustainability, why she feels better stocking them, and how participants can do the same, even with just small changes.

Rewild Your Business: How to build a creative business that works with the seasons, aligns with your values, and actually fits your life without the hustle.

Chereen of Smeeny Made Wild is a maker, trauma-informed coach, and creative business mentor who has spent 8 years building a thriving handmade business and creative community from the ground up. After navigating burnout, grief, and health challenges, she shifted everything and created A Year of Rewilding, a framework for building a creative business that works with your natural rhythms, honors your values and capacity, and grows on your own terms. In this session, attendees will gain clarity on where they are right now, identify what success actually looks like for them, and walk away with actionable steps for the season ahead.

FOUNDER of Pause for Peace presents

Mindfulness for Makers: How to Find Inner Peace Even if You Can’t Empty your Mind or Sit Still 

Juniper is a writer and performer who has spent years studying techniques for peace, from acting to Zen. She’s learned an empty mind is not required and wants to show busy makers how they can combine their unique imagination with mindfulness practices to create calm. You’ll learn 3-4 short practices that boost creativity and reduce entrepreneurial stress, even if you don’t like to meditate

Showing up Naked: Visibility and Letting Yourself Be Seen

Christa Weathers won’t actually show up naked—but she will invite you to peel back the layers that make visibility in business feel complex, vulnerable, and uncomfortable. Drawing from her personal journey of learning to be seen in business and as a podcast host, Christa shares a simple, repeatable framework for building visibility as a skill—one that grows through small, meaningful risks taken over time. Participants will leave with a clearer understanding of what makes them stand out and a next step for connecting their story to their work in a way that builds trust and draws people in.

OWNER, J. Vader Consulting 

What Do I Actually Need to Earn? A Practical Cashflow Tool for Creative Businesses

Jennie is an operations consultant who helps small business owners turn messy, overwhelming numbers into simple systems they can actually use. Through her work with founders and early-stage businesses, she has helped clients build flexible cashflow tools that clarify what it takes to break even and move toward profitability. Attendees will leave with a simple, usable cashflow tool and the confidence to understand what they need to earn, and how small changes in pricing, sales, or expenses can get them there.  

FOUNDER, Young in the Mountains

Placement, Presentation, and the Practice of Selling Art

I started selling art at 17 right here in Missoula, Montana. Over the last 20 years, my jewelry line has been carried by the SF and NYC MoMA gift shops, five-star luxury resorts in multiple states, national retailers like FreePeople, as well as the top boutiques across the U.S. and internationally in places like Japan and Denmark. What I’ve learned is simple: selling is part of the craft. It’s storytelling, it’s listening, and it’s how you present the work. In this talk, I’ll walk through how to approach stores and galleries. How to navigate a wholesale versus a consignment relationship, and how to run the business side with clarity using line sheets, pricing, and simple systems that keep your relationships organized and scalable.

OWNER, My Disco Daydream

A Maker’s Guide to Markets: Set Up, Stand Out, and Repeat.

Nancy did her first market in 2021 and has completed over 100 since- each time leveling up her display, her products, and her sales. In this session, Nancy will show you how to maximize your sales with small changes that you might not even notice if you weren’t looking for them. Folks will walk away with a checklist of improvements to make in their booth to boost sales ahead of the summer market season.

OWNER, Work in Progress: Leather Shop & Montana Made Goods

Let's Get Ethical: Making your moral compass work for your business

As a small business owner, your business is a reflection of you and your values. Having a strong ethical voice in how you run your business is not only acceptable but it can be an asset. In this talk, Gilmore will tell you how to gracefully show your values and how it's positively affected her business.

OWNER, Warm House Designs

My Instagram Account Was Hacked and Held for Ransom. Here's What I Learned.

Last year, Bailey woke up to an email from instagram saying that multiple copyright violations had been filed against her account and she had 24 hours to appeal them or risk losing access to her account. Sleepy, panicked, she click the button to appeal, and was locked out of her instagram account in minutes. In this session, you’ll hear Bailey’s story of how she was hacked, what being ransomed looks like, and the way that who you know is sometimes your last option. Makers will walk about with some useful tips on how to protect their accounts and assets. and if nothing else, some good scare-tactic motivation to set up 2-factor authentication.