My name is Felipe Carreras. In 2022, I left a career in digital strategy and transformation to start Steps & Stops. I wanted to work directly with small business owners and nonprofits—people doing meaningful work but stretched too thin on marketing.

What I discovered quickly: nonprofits especially were understaffed and needed something prescriptive. Not theory. Not trends. Just actionable, high-performing systems that work for teams without dedicated marketing staff.

That insight led to the Marketer’s Compass—a framework that organizes marketing strategy into manageable pieces. It came from 20+ years of leading digital transformations and working with teams from Google, Adobe, and Amazon. I’ve seen what works across industries. This framework distills that into something any team can use.

I also built frameworks for myself—the Steps & Stops Strategy and Five Flames Model—because I believe in strong fundamentals over fly-by-night trends. The book was a passion project to share that philosophy. Everything here is rooted in the same conviction: real systems beat hacks every time.