IAM2670 – The Importance of a Purpose-Driven Business in Digital Marketing

In this episode, Gresham Harkless welcomes Terance Redmond, Founder of IBI Marketing. Terance launched the firm to bring integrity and innovation to the digital marketing space, specifically targeting small and medium-sized businesses that lacked ethical and effective marketing partners.

Terance shares that his business is guided by his personal mission statement: to have a positive impact on everyone he meets, be kind, and constantly educate. This belief drives IBI Marketing to help everyone in its sphere of influence succeed.

Terance credits his “secret sauce” to his high-pressure experiences, including playing in three Rose Bowls and the NFL. His key takeaway is that preparation and effort are vital. He defines a CEO as a leader who wields their responsibility with the “utmost, loving, caring, non self serving aptitude possible”.

Previous Episode: https://iamceo.co/iam2663-financial-strategist-helps-business-owners-with-financial-planning-and-legacy-building/

Transcription:

Terance Redmond 00:00:

If you generally are who you are, you care and you prepare accordingly, that's where your confidence comes in. If you fail, it's okay. Because the thing about it is I failed way more times than I succeeded. But the issue is I just keep getting up, right? I keep getting back up and learning. I learn from my mistakes. I address it, I keep doing it. And so with that being said, as long as I continue to give myself that effort, you know, I'll be okay.

Gresham Harkless 00:58:

Hello, hello, hello, this is Gresh from the IMCO podcast and I have an awesome guest on the show today. I have Terry Redmond. Terry, excited to have you on the show.

Terance Redmond 01:05:

Thank you very much for having me, Gresham. I appreciate it.

Gresham Harkless 01:08:

Yeah, super excited as well too. Terry's doing so many awesome and phenomenal things. Been trying to get him on the show, so I'm super excited to have him finally on to talk about all the genius and awesome things that he's doing. But of course, before we do that, I want to read a little bit more about Terry so you can hear about some of those awesome things and Terry launched IBI Marketing with a clear mission to to bring integrity and innovation to the digital marketing space. Before founding ibi, he served as the vice president at a major marketing firm which gave him deep insights into the industry's challenges and opportunities. He identified a gap in the market, small and medium sized businesses, they lacked ethical and effective marketing partners and built IBI to fill that void. And I'm in a networking group with Terry and he's a phenomenal, phenomenal person. Has loads of experience and knowledge. I want to call him an OG within digital, digital marketing, especially in SEO, but I don't know if he, he wants me to date him there but he knows lots and lots and lots around things that can help you to be visible. And one really cool thing that I found out as well too, he was played in three Rose balls. He's a football national champion. He's a three year journeyman in the NFL. He played semi pro super bowl and was the mvp. Terry, excited to have you on the show. Are you ready to speak to the IMCL community?

Terance Redmond 02:20:

Man, I am thank you. What a great intro. I appreciate it, but. I appreciate it.

Gresham Harkless 02:24:

That was awesome. Yeah, absolutely. It's a lot easier to read those. Probably a lot harder to accomplish all the things you've been able to do, but I guess to kind of kick everything off. Let's rewind the clock a little bit, hear a little bit more on how you got started, what I call your CEO story.

Terance Redmond 02:37:

Thank you. Well, you already kind of said it. How I got started in this industry. I mean, I was actually at the time, I've been doing digital marketing on and off for a while. I was a manager for Johnson and Johnson, and because of big budgets, we had opportunities back then to advertise in digital spaces. But it wasn't really any competition, just doing that. Then I worked for iHeartradio. And then I'm showing you how my age here. And then we. We're doing stuff with MySpace and really crushing it, enjoying things with our morning shows. And that was unheard of at the time. Bottom line is by the time I left there, started working for Facebook and similar companies. So I got into social media. I helped launch the Check in app. Yeah, I remember guys remember that. So that tells you how long I've been doing it for.

Terance Redmond 03:27:

And loved it. I loved helping people. So that's kind of the core of who I am. I always love finding something that can always help and enrich one's lives. And so we realized at that time social media was a way that was helping businesses grow and small businesses compete with larger businesses. By doing something like that, can you.

Gresham Harkless 03:43:

Drill down a little bit more? Take us through how you're serving and working with the clients and customers you're serving now.

Terance Redmond 03:49:

My goal is get to know everybody. So I am just, I think to even say that let me the core of who I am. Right. I'm going to be a little vulnerable here and talk a little personal so you can see how it permeates you. My business, my personal mission statement. I wore this rubber band I've had since maybe 17, 18 years old that I keep switching out the same rubber band, switching out. But my. Imagine my personal mission statement have a positive impact on everybody I meet. Be kind and forgiving, patient and understanding. Educate while constantly being educated. All this will be done with God as my foundation.

Terance Redmond 04:28:

That is something that I see and read every day, if not multiple times a day. I touch it on the way out. When I go to the car, I have it up there like on a poster. So that also bleeds into my company's motto. Right so we have over 64 employees and contractors that work for us full time. We have about two to five that are part timers. But the bottom line is we want to help everyone in our sphere of influence. If we can help you, we also want to make sure that I can point you in a direction where somebody else can help you or we can give you advice that you can do some things on your own. We're here to make sure that you succeed. And by giving out that goodwill, it comes back. So when onboarding somebody, first of all, it's the initiation of that conversation on what they need, where they want to go, et cetera, and what we could do for them.

Gresham Harkless 05:15:

Yeah, absolutely. I love that you shared that. And you know, just getting the opportunity to kind of hear, I always say, like, of course it's important to know what a person does, but I think the most important thing sometimes is understand why they do it. And you having that reminder with the rubber band and being able to kind of touch that every time and every day, to know that that fuels not just you, but your business and your organization to definitely translates over to clients and customers and the conversations you're having, the realization of the thing that you're doing. Because I think when we kind of sometimes get through those challenging moments, like you referenced the pandemic or whatever time we might be going through in our businesses, our lives, sometimes that why ends up being that fuel that kind of keeps you going and keeps you kind of focused on understanding. There might be things changing and happening, but at the end of the day, this is what I'm doing and why I'm doing it. I almost wonder if that's part of what I like to call your secret sauce. It could be for yourself, your business, or a combination of both. But I wonder if it's that being fueled by excellence, you know, is that part of the secret sauce? And also being willing to say that, hey, I have this expertise, I have this knowledge and be able to kind of translate that to the gap for the small to medium sized businesses. Because I think so many times people could say, hey, I know all these things. So I'm going to work with the big wigs, the Fortune 1000s, which I know you have some of those, but still being willing to, for lack of a better term, translate that and be able to impact those small businesses. Do you feel like that's part of your secret sauce?

Terance Redmond 06:36:

So here's what I would say when it comes to secret sauce is I've had the pleasure of being on the field with 85 plus thousand, sometimes 90,000 people screaming, right. I've had the millions of millions, tens of millions watching on tv.

Terance Redmond 06:57:

You know, I, you know, also was, you know, in the Greek system at a big school, University of Washington. I was, you know, between the dorms and live ins and all stuff, people know this, but I was also homecoming king for that. There's like two homecoming kings, student body votes, and then like your leadership votes. So I wasn't the academic one. I was kind of like a social one that got it, which is pretty. But the point is it's pretty cool. So your, your eyes are on you playing football and that. You have a lot of eyes that are on you, right? The reason why I say this is also I had the opportunity for like the top donors in the state of Washington and across the board and some overseas. They had me, which I didn't like at the time, being 17, 18, 19 years old, made me have dinners with these individuals, right? And so at the beginning I probably didn't feel like I felt like I should be in the room or why and they're asking these questions, but now you got it. Four or five years I've been doing this. And then now you're also presenting and teaching. When I was doing mortgages, teaching first time home buyer classes to multimillionaires, helping them get properties, realizing that I'm educating them, right? I'm teaching in a class setting of like 3, 4, 500 people. My classes were so popular, right. Um, and, and so I felt the confidence build up over the years that I know I could be in that room. Right. Um, that's again, a lot of my friends are, they're not going to name drop, but are like superstars. You wouldn't believe who they are now, legends alive or passed away that are probably one of the most influential people in the world that I've met and known. I'm in the room with them, right? I talk to them, I know them, they know who I am. So now this goes back to what I said before, Secret Sauce is if you generally are who you are when you care and you prepare accordingly, that's where your confidence comes in. If you fail, it's okay. Because the thing about it is I failed way more times than I succeeded. But the issue is I just keep getting up, right? I keep getting back up and learning. I learn from my mistakes, I address it, I keep doing it right? And so with that being said, as long as I continue to give myself that effort, you know, I'll be okay. Yeah, so that's probably my secret sauce is just preparation and effort.

Gresham Harkless 09:22:

I wanted to switch gears a little bit and I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app, a book, or even a habit that you have. But what's something you lean on that makes you more effective and efficient?

Terance Redmond 09:35:

I. It's kind of repetitive, but I think what sets me apart is the mindset. So you kept saying, oh gee. So yes, I'm definitely one of the older people in the room here, right? Anybody over the age of 45 typically is the old OG in our industry. But I will tell you this, my mindset. So old enough to remember how traditional marketing is being done and what people are really looking for in that touch, but young enough to know that I was, you know, the first generation born in pretty much the digital age, right. Grew up with a, an Atari and had, you know, computer and computer classes, which we were one of the first one that I was the first. Our first school is the first school college to have actually email because went to the University of Washington. Okay. So it was like, think about that registering online. I never know what it was like to go into a classroom and register, right. That I hear about. But our freshman class is like that. So that hack, that mental hack I think that I have is, is having that being able to blend those two maybe generations. But more importantly, I think I'm telling you it all comes down to that work ethic. It is so simple, right? How to do SEO is literally in a manual that Google gives us. Social media, same thing, nothing wrong. Thousands of pages. I can ask him who's read it all. You gotta keep going. And then it changes. Whatever you learn yesterday keeps changing. That hack is work. That is work. And that hard work. And then by the way, when you come from a godly place, a faith based place, and you come from a place of loving and giving, it comes out.

Gresham Harkless 11:09:

You. You might have already touched on this, but I wanted to ask you for what I call a little bit more of what I like to call a seal nugget. So this is a word of wisdom or piece of advice. I like to say it might be something you would tell your favorite client or, or if you hopped into a time machine, it might be something you would tell younger Terry.

Terance Redmond 11:23:

I would tell you what I tell myself. This is the hardest part. I would tell myself nothing, just be. Because I wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for that. All right? This is God's plan. So the hardest Part for me is to see me go through all my life struggles, right, which was tough, and not be able to say anything.

Gresham Harkless 11:48:

I absolutely love that. So now I want to ask you one of my absolute favorite questions, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. Our goal is to have different, quote unquote, CEOs on the show. So, Terance, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Terance Redmond 12:00:

To me, a CEO is somebody who is chief executive officer. I mean, seeing those exact words is somebody who's a leader whether they want to or not. Right. And with that being said comes also the responsibility, whether they want it or not, are responsible for people's lives, responsible for people's feelings, you know, whether I wanted to or not. And I say 50, 50. I'm the CEO of my household. And so I have to be set to a different standard, unfortunately, than my wife and my son and my wife look forward to that protection that.

Terance Redmond 12:44:

The Support of them was to give the financial support in the family, right? Whether you agree with whatever is different. But I'm the CEO of my household. I'm CEO of many of our friends, definitely of that, because I organize a lot of things that go on with us and do CEO of, you know, our networking group. You know, four out of the five years I've been president of our chapter, that's typically unheard of, you know, so I'm typically naturally just like that. But a CEO to me means leadership and meaning is the responsibility and. And then a good CEO means that you wield this power with the utmost, loving, caring, non self serving aptitude possible.

Gresham Harkless 13:26:

Absolutely. Well, Terry, truly appreciate that time. Of course I appreciate all the awesome things you're doing. So what I wanted to do now was pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listener know. And of course, how best people can get out of you find about all the awesome things you and your team are doing.

Terance Redmond 13:43:

Well, first I want to say this social comment in general, like, hey, times are tough sometimes, right? But take a breath, breathe. Find that core person who you are. Surround yourself with positive people, right? Not just people supporting and saying what you want them to hear, but people that are supporting and make you better. Right? Mentally, physically and spiritually. Right? So I recommend everyone do that and that permeates to all aspects of your life, friendships, parenthood and business. Right? So that's part of something I definitely want to say with that. Get a hold of me Host. This is not alive right now as a recording so go down there, look down in the meta information there and it has all the connections there. You can do that, have that. But I'm on all the platforms, you know, Facebook, Insta, TikTok, LinkedIn, Twitter. So reach out to me asking our product or services. I'm here to help, here to serve, and that is it for me.

Gresham Harkless 14:46:

Awesome, awesome, awesome was Terry, truly appreciate you and all the awesome things that you're doing. I love that last point that you kind of left us with that nugget of like making sure to kind of take a breath and kind of like be more anchored or recalibrate or get, you know, repositioned and where we should be. And I think that's such a powerful thing. And you know, sometimes the times that we're living in, but frankly, sometimes the things that we're going through personally as well too. So thank you so much for mentioning that. Like you said so well, we'll have all the information in the show notes as well too. And as you kind of planted a seed on, looking forward to having you back again and again and again to talk about all the evolution of everything you've been building and your course are doing. But last and not least, I want to go back to that word steward. I think so many times we have an opportunity to go through and have experiences in life, to be able to sharpen this all get better at what it is that we do. But I think this speaks directly to who we are as individuals, to understand that those things aren't just for us to hoard, aren't just for us to put in our pocket and run away or walk away. It's for us to be able to give. So I just want to commend you for being able to do that. Thank you so much for doing that with us today and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Terance Redmond 15:47:

Thank you for the honor of being on your podcast, man. I can say that I have made it. Imco podcast with Gresham Harkless. I'm telling you guys, watch this guy and you're going to see things just go through the roof. He is going to be awesome. I'm looking forward to being part of your journey too, man. Thank you.

Gresham Harkless 16:03:

Absolutely.