We're the people who built Mr Mow.

Self Made is the consumer-facing arm of Involve Digital — a New Zealand digital agency that has been quietly building websites, running ads, and getting phones to ring for Kiwi businesses for thirteen years.

In that time we've watched two things change. The job market has stopped working for a lot of people. And AI has started doing the work that used to belong to anyone behind a desk. The same week we launched a website for Mr Mow— a Southland operator who had never run a business in his life — three people we knew lost their corporate jobs. Mr Mow's phone hasn't stopped ringing since week one. Theirs hadn't rung at all.

That's the gap Self Made fills. Same playbook we've been quietly running for trade businesses for years — fast website, real local SEO, AI-search optimisation, managed marketing— packaged and made obvious for anyone who's ready to stop applying for jobs that may not be coming back.

What we actually do

The hard parts of starting are the parts most people give up on: picking the right business for what you're good at, the government paperwork, the website that ranks on Google, the first ten customers. We do all four — and we keep running the marketing once you're live. You focus on the work. We focus on getting the phone to ring.

Mr Mow is one of our operators. He was ranking on page 1 of Google for most of his target search terms within a week of launching, dominates AI-search recommendations across ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity, hired his first staff member in month one, and is hiring his third now. He had no business experience and no marketing background. He just needed someone to set it up and run it properly.

Who's behind it

Involve Digital. 13 years in NZ. Same team that builds and runs websites for trades, professional services, and SMEs across the country. Self Made is what happens when we point that team at a different problem: helping Kiwis build the job they wish existed.

Founded by Michael Wilkins, Auckland. Powered by the Involve Digital studio, the same engineering team behind involvedigital.com and involvedigital.ai.

How to talk to us

The fastest way is the strategist on the homepage— it'll listen to your situation, work out a direction with you, and a custom plan and proposal will land in your inbox within 24 hours. If you'd rather submit the basics in writing, the application form takes about a minute.

For anything else: open the chat from any page on this site and the team will pick it up. Or use the Involve Digital contact form.