Meet the Monument Team: Director of Operations & Vibes Aaron Riggs

This is our employee spotlight series where we pull back the curtain and shine a spotlight on the incredible people who make Monument Recovery a place of hope, healing, and big-hearted support. Each month, we’ll introduce you to one of our amazing team members - the movers, shakers, and difference-makers who bring their passion and personality to everything they do. Get ready to meet the faces behind the mission and hear their stories. Let’s dive in and get to know the folks who make Monument a true family!

What inspired you to work in the field of substance abuse treatment?

I was a very young drug addict. I never lasted in school, and for the most part I never lasted in anything. Yet, I was personable, and I’ve always had a kind heart. Working with those two traits, after the 11th treatment center, I finally took all the suggestions that so many people told me along the way seriously and started working in this field.

What do you find most rewarding about working at Monument?

What we’ve tried to create here is an environment that you can feel when you walk in.

Most people have experienced a place where they walked in and they felt an aura. That being said, most of the time, people's experiences related to a feeling being attached to a physical location are usually negative.

If you believe this, or don’t believe it; if you’ve felt this ‘thing’ before, or believe that the idea that it's possible for a physical place to have a feeling is hippy nonsense. Either spectrum you fall on, I hope you feel the energy that this place has when you walk in.

We are a tight knit group who have a real passion for what we do. It’s embodied through our actions and felt through our presence. This isn’t just hyperbole or generic rehab sentimentality. This idea, place, and group of people is an example of Love felt 24 hours a day, and 7 days a week.

How do you motivate yourself and stay positive in challenging situations?

I’ve always felt a sense of having steady hands in chaos. Calmness in the middle of a storm. Being the tree trunk and not the branches. Branches wither away, are blown away, are able to be agitated, broken, and trifled with very easily. The tree stump doesn’t move. When it does, it takes quite a lot of man power/machinery to get it moved.

These challenging situations also teach us our most powerful lessons after we’re out of them. When we make it through, if we process them correctly. They mold us into people we believe in. The people we’ve always wanted to be.

Our staff consistently have weekly meetings where we are able to process things, where we can have our own catharsis around events that happened at work, or in our personal lives.

What is a personal value or belief that you bring to your work?

Love. If we don’t bring that we’re lost. If we do bring that, we can help all, and get past any challenge. I can understand if this sounds like corny ‘generic rehab sentimentality’ but, I assure you it is not. It’s the only Value or Belief that I ABSOLUTELY have to bring. If I don’t bring Love, I’m fucked.

What’s one thing your coworkers might be surprised to learn about you?

I think we are a pretty honest group. Any good stories have probably been told to them by now. I enjoy writing, reading, baseball, my dogs, chocolate, my friends, and my girlfriend. I’m a simple man.

What’s the best advice you’ve received in your career, and how has it shaped you?

I’ve continually been encouraged to look for entrepreneurial opportunities outside of my job from the owners of Monument. Which is something that I believe is very rare. This job keeps me extremely busy. Busy enough to not try and build something outside of being an employee for the rest of my life. Despite that, I have been encouraged and have started businesses on the side where I can continue to build that entrepreneurial muscle.

If you could share one piece of advice with someone entering this field, what would it be?

BOUNDARIES. This is the biggest thing that takes people out of this field. We have the obvious physical boundaries. Which unfortunately aren’t always obvious.

The boundaries I’m focusing on though are the spiritual, mental, and emotional boundaries we have to hold between the clients, the job, and ourselves. I have seen so many people burn themselves out from not holding this close to their heart.

We have to have a life outside of this job. We have to have a solid foundation of sobriety outside of this job. We are not the best people we can be to ourselves and the clients we serve without properly enforced boundaries.

In three words, how would you describe yourself?

Always Steady Aaron

Any fun facts or hidden talents you’d like to share?

I enjoy writing stories. I tell a lot of stories out loud, and on paper.