Today we’d like to introduce you to Terri Hoffman.
Terri, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Like many business majors, it took me a little while to find my focus within the business world. I chose marketing because it was most suited to my personality. I have always been attracted to creative projects. Marketing is unique amongst other business majors like accounting and finance because of that creative element. It’s about engaging and learning what people like—what drives them to make decisions. Fundamentally, marketing is all about connection. I’ve always appreciated the tie to psychology, too.
Once I made my way into a marketing career, the only available option was traditional (I’m showing my age!). Then the 1990s happened and the dot-com revolution forever changed the marketing landscape for businesses. I knew I needed to shift my focus or risk becoming obsolete.
I sought out a job with an up-and-coming software company that was eventually purchased by Ameritrade (this was before they became TD Ameritrade), and I got my first real digital marketing opportunity. That experience gave me a big platform to experiment because they had a multi-million dollar budget and I got the chance to learn first-hand how digital marketing works inside and out.
After some time, and several other roles, I sort of fell into owning my own agency. I was looking for a full-time job at the time. I had been recently laid off from the last company I was working for. The recruiter that was helping me kept telling me that my real calling was to have my own business. Eventually, I took her advice and started freelancing and doing a lot of contract work. Starting an agency was a slow evolution. It was not my original intention. I have no plans for world domination, either; so if that happens it’s totally an accident!
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It certainly hasn’t always been as easy as having a business fall into my lap. I would boil it down to two major challenges that I’ve faced along the way: structure and process. These just so happen to be two of the most common for businesses so I’m always happy to share our story and reiterate how important these obstacles are to the success of a small business.
When it came to structure, it took a while for me to have the right people in the right seats as the agency began to scale. I functioned as a solo act for quite a while. Eventually, I started adding some freelancers and contractors. But it didn’t take long until it was clear I was going to need to grow the team.
The biggest challenge was to define roles with clear accountability and responsibilities. Assessing people has always been a strength of mine. In the beginning, I relied a lot on my intuition for my hiring decisions—this had served me well up until a point—but even I can make mistakes. I learned that I could reduce mistakes by utilizing tools like DiSC or ZERORISK Hiring System which have time-tested methods for measuring alignment and emotional intelligence.
I’ve also learned that you can’t let your ego get in the way when you’re the CEO. It’s my title and I have to deal with that, but it still surprises me that employees treat me differently because of the title after my name. A lot of these revolutions have come about since hiring a business coach this last year. He’s helped me identify repeatable processes for achieving my business goals—especially when it comes to employee fit. For us, culture trumps strategy.
At the end of the day, the most important thing for me is to create an environment in which my employees are treated well and feel motivated. It’s common to think the customer is the most important thing and what keeps you in business but how you get there is keeping your employees happy. Happy employees create several waterfall effects and one of those is happy customers. I’ve worked in a lot of marketing agencies and departments in which there is no work-life balance and it was really important to me to make that a core value at this company.
Speaking of repeatable, the second challenge was getting repeatable processes in place. This is not a strength that comes naturally to me so I’ve had to rely on others (this was a big part of getting the right people in the right seats!). Building out these systems allowed us to improve as an agency so that we could better serve our clients. This year our mantra has been “Do More, Better”—to be more efficient and better serve. Processes can be counterintuitive to put into place when you’re a creative thinker but they are important!
Please tell us about Marketing Refresh.
Marketing Refresh is set apart by our broad spectrum of capabilities. Our services range from traditional branding and print to SEO, to website design and content, all the way to paid search—even though we have a relatively small full-time team. We have a group of over 20 partners who are really an extended arm of our in-house team. The reality is, in this day and age, it’s not normal to find an SEO expert who can also pull together a soup-to-nuts branding strategy and incorporate that into your search campaign. It’s also common to find agencies at the other end of the spectrum—where a design agency may understand branding but doesn’t get digital at all. Branding is big for a lot of our clients but so is an optimized digital presence. It’s important to find a partner who can help you with both.
Another area that makes Marketing Refresh special is our clients. Of course, we have our favorites (it’s impossible not to!) but they all have one thing in common—they challenge us and push us to become better. The best clients expect us to be the experts and they let us do just that. We can respectfully disagree frequently and find a compromise together. They give us room to fail—knowing we’ll find a better outcome in the end. If there was only one way to market something, every company would end up doing the exact same thing. That’s what is challenging (and exciting) about marketing—there are infinite ways to market a product or service. We’re fortunate to have clients who trust us to find the best options.
When it comes to the future of Marketing Refresh, we want everyone to know that we’re in this for the long haul. I want to keep the culture of a small close-knit team. However, I think there is a good possibility that we could expand into other cities. It wouldn’t surprise me if we saw an office in Colorado at some point, for example. For now, I’m focused on hitting singles and doubles and getting the occasional home run. I want to create a stable environment that people enjoy working for. Success for me is if Marketing Refresh is the best place my employees have ever worked for and the best vendor my clients have ever worked with—you know, the small goals.
And you know what? I’m positive that I don’t have what it takes to succeed—alone. I rely on my faith and the team of people I’ve put in place. At the end of the day, I just have to trust that God is putting the right people and relationships in my life. When you’ve gone through hard things, you realize that how society measures success and how people measure success are two different things. When all is said and done, if I hear, “I’m happy with my day, and I love what I do, and I have time with my family”—we are a success.
After seven years of business with Marketing Refresh, I’m proud that I can look myself in the mirror every day and know that I’ve operated with integrity. I’ve won some and lost some. But every choice and action has been made from a place of integrity.
What were you like growing up?
People who know me now would probably be surprised by what I was like as a child. I was very hyperactive and intense. In fact, I had a horrible temper. You would also never see me without a basketball in my hands.
Growing up, I lived in Wisconsin where it gets pretty cold in the winter. It’s not exactly easy to play basketball in the snow. So I would shovel the driveway and have three warm basketballs in the house waiting for me (a basketball won’t bounce when it gets cold). That way, I wouldn’t have to stop playing—no matter the weather. All year long, I would finish my homework and run as fast as I could to the park to play.
Things changed when I turned 14. I was in a horrible accident with a three-wheeler. I crashed into a tree and almost lost my leg. I almost died. I had to be immobilized for three months. That was a life-changing experience because I was forced by my situation to slow down. No more running to the park or shoveling snow to play basketball. Everything that mattered most to me at that point was at a risk of being lost.
Looking back on this experience, it probably should have taught me patience. But while the accident slowed me down physically, it didn’t slow down my brain. I did, however, learn how to deal with frustration. I also learned determination. I worked hard every single day to get back on the court. I never did quite make it back to the level I was playing before but I did go on to play in college. Basketball still shapes a big part of who I am today and I’m grateful for every minute.
Contact Info:
- Address: 1502 Sawyer Street, # 125
Houston, TX 77007 - Website: www.marketingrefresh.com
- Phone: 832-356-9475
- Email: info@marketingrefresh.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marketing_refresh/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarketingRefresh
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/MrketingRefresh
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/marketing-refresh-houston
- Other: https://www.linkedin.com/company/marketing-refresh
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