Scaling Success and Spreading Kindness with Dennis Alejo & Alfredo Diamond

When adversity meets determination, extraordinary stories unfold. That's exactly what you'll encounter as I, Alfredo Diamond, sit with Dennis Alejo, the remarkable founder of Instant Web Tools. His narrative isn't just a rags-to-riches tale; it's an intimate glimpse into the power of human kindness, showcasing how a sponsored education sparked a lifelong commitment to service. Through Dennis's voice, you'll feel the pulse of a community uplifted by his company's success and the transformative work of his non-profit, Kingdom Legacy. His ethos of combining business with benevolence shines through, illustrating that even the smallest gestures, like sending a child to school, can ripple into a wave of change.

Prepare to be captivated as we journey through the mechanics of scaling a business intertwined with heart. Dennis Alejo doesn't hold back in sharing the secrets behind Instant Web Tools' growth, emphasizing the impact of strategic email marketing, savvy automation, and back-end system optimization. But beyond the tech talk, we celebrate the human connections formed through genuine networking and traditional marketing. You'll hear about acts of kindness that transcend transactions, including a surprising story of how a simple service led to the gift of a car. As we reflect on the evolving digital marketing landscape amid the pandemic, the episode becomes a masterclass in leveraging SEO and social media, underpinned by a steadfast commitment to integrity and community support.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:03

Welcome back to another episode of Our Community. I'm your host, local real estate agent entrepreneur, alfredo Diamond. Welcome, I'm here with a wonderful guest, a man that I had the privilege to connect with a few weeks ago at one of our chamber meetings. I'm so glad that we ran into each other and you spoke up and said hey, I'm Dennis. So I just want to shout out to you and welcome you. Dennis Alejo from Instant Web Tools, thank you for being here.

Speaker 2: 0:26

Dennis. Thank you so much, Al, for inviting me here. It's an honor.

Speaker 1: 0:31

Absolutely, and I couldn't think why not. So absolutely, I have you here. So, dennis, you know. Tell me a little bit about yourself, what you do, and you know how you got to our community.

Speaker 2: 0:41

Yes, so I'm from the philippines originally. I grew up in the city, where it's five million population, and my mom died when I was eight years old. My dad left and so I become like self-sustained and sometimes I work to go to school. I work, and then that pays my school and my food Sometimes.

Speaker 2: 1:09

Sometimes I remember my day that, uh, the last, the longest time that I haven't eaten real food is you know, four days, and so that keeps me, uh, from being like, okay, this is what I'm going to do. So, from the beginning, I have already in my heart I need to survive, and so this is at eight years old. Eight years old.

Speaker 1: 1:37

And so so your instincts. I mean, how did you get through? There's a lot to unpack there, but how did you get through that number one?

Speaker 2: 1:46

Yes, so for that. When I was in high school, I met a guy from USA and he was so great and he said, dennis, I'm going to sponsor you to school, so he bought all of my school supplies, he paid all of my fees and that's the reason why I succeeded in my school supplies he bought, he paid all of my fees and that's the reason why I succeeded in my school. After high school, he still considered sending me to Bible college and then after that, I joined called Youth with a Mission. It's a global mission organization where I met my wife back in 2012. And then we decided to get married, but 2014, we moved to Cincinnati and so we lived there until 2018. 2018, we moved here in Richmond because her family is 15 mile radius around Richmond, indiana. So that's how I landed here.

Speaker 1: 2:47

I mean you think about your experience, your upbringing and how it shaped you to who you are now. You know I'm just blown away. So you lost your mother at eight years old. Your father wasn't there. You went through life. I mean, how did you? I mean, I mean just kind of unpack some of that Like what you went through you know times where you haven't eaten for days how that shaped you into being such a positive person Today. You had to learn a lot early on to survive.

Speaker 2: 3:21

It is, it is, and that's the reason why I'm so thankful to everyone, or everybody that comes to my way, because without those guys, the community I call it community, even though we are like. I would redefine the community local community, I would expand it to it might be international community, and I call it community when the need is in your face, when you help somebody, and that's the reason why I want to like the Instant Web tools. We want to train or provide job opportunity for the people in the Philippines.

Speaker 1: 4:01

So let's talk about your Instant Web tools and how you plan to do that, and just a little bit how you do that now yes, so instant web tools was birthed a long time in the philippines.

Speaker 2: 4:13

When I do my mission organization and what I did because you have to pay, you have the bills. I learned to do the digital marketing because a lot of store doesn't have that online presence. That was 2011. And then fast forward. We need to learn that in the Philippines, no matter what you do, you only got $3 a day day. You work for entire day for three dollars. Wow, you stop over at the you know um coffee shop. You can only get two coffee for that, especially starbucks. Everywhere. Starbucks in the philippines is good and you think if you and I would have coffee in Starbucks and other people would see it, I would say, man, alfredo must be rich man.

Speaker 1: 5:11

I you know, we just get caught up in these things and these trends. I mean, I just paid 670 for a latte at Starbucks yesterday and I felt bad about it Like this, this is stupid.

Speaker 2: 5:24

That's why. That's why Starbucks is a billion dollars company. Yeah For coffee, for selling coffee, wow.

Speaker 1: 5:30

but it's good. But so you said so go back, take a step back. You talked about Cincinnati and you met this man that kind of helped you evolve into wanting to help people and give back. So kind of talk about this man and that situation and how you transpired into what you do as far as like maybe I think it's nonprofits and things like that.

Speaker 2: 5:51

Yes, so he helped me to get my education and stuff like that. I just realized that, man, my life can be replicated to these kids. I mean, there's thousands of kids in the Philippines that have the same story as me no parents or rejected kids and so every year we have also a non-profit called Kingdom Legacy. So this legacy is actually providing meals to these kids like me. So every month we feed. We feed 2500 kids a month. So the produce of instant web tools this is a digital marketing here the 10 of that will go straight to that non-profit to feed kids, to educate school. Now, next month we are going to send 100 kids back to school. Oh, wow, yeah, and you know how much to send kids in a school? $30. $30? $30. To send one child to school? Yes, for how long? And that's take care of entire school, which is the school fees, school uniform, school supply. $30 is package. That's the cost difference. Yes, it is. So dollar.

Speaker 1: 7:09

Us dollar is 54 pesos in the philippines so you're using, you're using instant web tools as a vessel to help, to get, to give back, to reach back and help children that were in similar situations and circumstances as you grew up in.

Speaker 2: 7:25

Yes.

Speaker 1: 7:26

Okay, so talk about, you know, 2,500 kids that you feed. Is that per month, per month?

Speaker 2: 7:37

And is it every day or just for? I mean, how long does that last? So that would be twice a week and we have seven locations in the area locations in the area.

Speaker 2: 7:49

There is called a dump site in the philippines where people would dump the you know garbage and these kids would run around their shirtless because they can't afford to buy you know t-shirt, t-shirt and stuff and so what we're going to do is go there and just help them to realize how valuable followable they are, and that's what I'm trying to, I'm doing my best to replicate, because without this guy or a person that helped me out, I don't know if I meet you today.

Speaker 1: 8:22

Yeah, yeah, that's so extraordinary. And you have an yeah, yeah, that's so extraordinary. And you have an amazing story, dennis, and I just can't imagine the situation, the circumstances and growing up with that upbringing, and then to see you here today and having a successful business and being a success. It's just a truly amazing story. So, with your business, you know and that's wonderful You're using the Instant Web Tools as a vessel to get back. What challenges do you face with your business or have you faced?

Speaker 2: 8:54

Yeah, the challenges right now is most of our clients are all over United States, right, and so sometimes they would say, hey, we'll use you for three years, okay, and that's a signed contract. And sometimes, you know, it's just like, oh, ben, we're going to change to another direction. Like we don't have full control of their finance, right, if they say, say, hey, we're bankrupt, like what would you do? Sue them? Yeah, and so it's. The challenge is it's like, okay, we have this contract, but then we're not gonna use you because of our you know circumstances that comes up, and so I think most of businesses, right, if you're just relying on few sources, that's the biggest mistake. We got back 2019. We have this massive client and then we have three years contract and then the second year they terminated it and I was like, oh no, what do we do? Like all of my guys is working every day with a task.

Speaker 1: 10:07

You mean like just being one dimensional? There's that one product focus on Right. And you're saying it's probably a good practice to have multiple products that you're good at to offer. Correct yeah, correct yeah.

Speaker 2: 10:26

That's the reason why, although we're the best of web design, web design is the first door people for your online presence, where you route all of the social media traffic, and but then if you're just focused on that, you need to. You know you lose businesses, because you need to have the search engine optimization where people can see your services, your product that you're selling, for instance, you as a realtor. If you want to repopulate your listings in Richmond, indiana, where it's not realtorcom or Zillow, you want to dominate the whole search in Richmond, then you have to have your own website and scrape all of those listings, repopulate it, index it in Google.

Speaker 1: 11:09

The research I've done, I've given up on. I've got a company-provided website and a domain. But the idea of me building a website for me personally in my field and trying to compete with your Zillows, your realtorcoms I just gathered that it wasn't it would cost me a lot of money, more than I have to compete with those guys. I wouldn't be able to compete. But doing some other research last night, I guess there's like maybe long keywords that you can that I can compete with, with with my SEO optimization.

Speaker 2: 11:42

Yes. So right now we're talking about SEO you have to get the long keyword. It's just because it's less competitive, and so there are, like Realtorcom and Zillow, all of those short keywords. It's already taken, but here's the route. There you can still get around the net. What you really need to do is, once you have the address of the house, instead of just like community enrichment listings or what you do, is you actually have to have this address as a keyword to your searches, to your query, and that way it gives you like searches, like a less competitive than the Zillow.

Speaker 1: 12:39

If you're listening and watching this show, dennis just gave us some great information to help you out with your business and gain an edge that he's dropped on us for free. So if you're not online, I suggest that you get online and work on your online presence, invest in your online presence, all right. So you said you had this hardship during COVID and things like that. So how did you overcome this with just having one product and realizing you needed more products to specialize, and how did you overcome?

Speaker 2: 13:11

So I overcome it by asking people. Company say what do you need? Because we already gave you a social post every month. We already give you social posts every month.

Speaker 2: 13:22

We already give you a CEO every month. What else do you need? And then they said, oh, I need email marketing. And so we craft the message. And then we'll say, hey, you can just get this one for cheaper version. And then we create some stuff that you don't have to go to constant contact. You can just create in the backend of your website where every time you post it would generate a email. Whoever subscribed to your whatever subscribers you put in, already put in it would just send directly them.

Speaker 1: 14:06

So you're not retyping all you're talking automation you're talking automation, basically creating like a personal assistant almost yes some of these tasks that cost you money to do it can we can automate them.

Speaker 2: 14:19

Yes.

Speaker 1: 14:19

Yeah, so that's amazing. That's where I'm trying to get my business to. I'm constantly evolving that. As you talk, dennis, I'm just thinking of other people in my mind that are in your field, that I should be connecting you all with, which is why I love to do this and why I love to network, connecting people and networking man. There's four or five people I can think of right now. That would be amazing for you all to connect if you're not already connected.

Speaker 2: 14:44

So yeah, that's amazing, that's good. And also, again, like you, everybody need a house. Yeah, hey housing find alfredo. Yeah, it's easy to find. He's friendly too. Yeah, he's the most nice guy that I ever meet. So final, fredo thank you, brother.

Speaker 1: 15:03

Thank you, uh, dennis, you know. So what was it like getting your business from an idea to where it is today? Then, then I want to step back and just talk more about instant web tools.

Speaker 2: 15:12

Yes, so how, from idea it actually grow from one products to now serving multiple products, and along with it is the nonprofit side, like I can do business while I'm touching lives to people, where you're not only solely making money but also part of that part of the profit will help people, help the community. And so having this idea it's like, is that even possible? And then I start working on it and so you have a business plan.

Speaker 2: 15:56

We don't have a business plan back then. Okay, so we're just like, okay, let's just make that happen. And in 2018, when I moved here, I went around and I used the traditional marketing. So we went out there every city, from Cincinnati, dayton, richmond, greenville, muncie and we distributed maybe a thousand flyers about who we are and what can we do to your company. And then it's a low again with my products digital products it's a low return when we use traditional marketing. But then here's one thing that probably never happened in history.

Speaker 2: 16:49

I went to Greenville. I met this guy and he said look, I have a friend that really needs your service. Could I connect you? And I said, sure. So I called him on the phone and then he said Dennis, I would love to. I have a coffee business and I would like to have this websites, but I cannot afford money. And I said, well, we can think this way. As I drive home, I said I could give him a free service for a year, enough for him to start his online presence. Wow, so I gave him a free service.

Speaker 2: 17:25

The next week he called me back and said dennis, since you do all of this stuff for me and I'm a stranger. I really feel that I need to give you my car. So I have have a car. Can you pick it up? In Greenville, what? And so I A car, A car, yeah, suburban. Wow, you gave him his car, yeah, so it's 2009, suburban. And so I said you can use it personally or you can use it, you know, it's up to you. The title is already ready for you to pick up what? Yeah, so never. You know, every time in day-to-day life I get those encounters. That is like crazy, because you're living right, you're giving back.

Speaker 2: 18:14

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 18:15

Yeah, it is. You're putting that good energy out there, dennis, it's coming back to you it is.

Speaker 2: 18:19

You're putting that good energy out there, dennis. Right, it's coming back to you. It is, and people can easily see who is serious or not. Oh yeah, people can discern, or people can know, having conversation, if you're honest or not. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 18:37

And I know you're just not. You wouldn't. Just you're trying to get your business going. So I see what you did there, but you wouldn't just you're trying to get your business going, so I see what you did there, but you didn't just offer that to anybody. You saw an opportunity there where you knew you could make this work for him. Yeah, you knew that. That's why and he's probably one of your clients still to this day- yes. Wow.

Speaker 2: 19:05

Wow. And so again, it's just like. It's just like when you help other people, you can sense that, man, these guys are thankful and we help other people that you know they're not thankful. That's fine too. What's important to us is that did we do our best? Yeah?

Speaker 1: 19:20

Yeah, yeah. So talk about you know your instant web tools and some of the services you provide, how you might be able to help some other businesses in the community. Kind of share some of those products with us.

Speaker 2: 19:33

Yes. So we have products from graphic design, we have web design, but we focus on web development and stuff like that, a web app and we do have search engine optimization, which is a hot place right now During COVID. The hot place I mean the hot products is the social media post. I mean the hot products is the social media post. But I just realized that the update of Google algorithm again ranking factor says almost 300 now pieces or items. It's hard to beat that one, but there is a new algorithm where it creates this social connect social network of when you post something in your website, the first paragraph you have to copy that post it in your social media with the link and that creates an SEO in a social media network.

Speaker 1: 20:38

He's giving you more free advice here. Great free advice here.

Speaker 2: 20:42

And then the good thing about that is that you don't have to recreate another thumbnail or design a graphic, because it would auto-populate the moment you paste the link where you are on your social media.

Speaker 1: 20:57

What you're talking about there is when you search, Search for a name, right, Like what you showed me. So I mean. So, Kevin, maybe we can pull up a search of me and add it to the and just blast it up here on the screen during the podcast.

Speaker 2: 21:09

Oh absolutely.

Speaker 1: 21:10

Yeah, so use me. For example, I am Alfredo Diamond. Yes, sir, kevin Shook the Diamond class kid. Yes, if that hashtag is on fire, oh yeah, sure you can see it in here, yeah. So, yeah, I know exactly what you're talking about there, dennis, and so how would this benefit a business by having this presence?

Speaker 2: 21:31

So this one has benefited me from, or for everybody. Okay, 2019,. I have a client from California. We met in cincinnati and then he said dennis, I know you're doing great things by search you online never found the same dennis that I'm talking right now. Why is that? If you're so good of search engine optimization, why another dennis come up? And you know, my mind went blank and I said, well, I'm not the famous one. I said no, that's a wrong answer. And here's the thing and I said well, if you pull Dennis Alejo, it's a football player, famous football player in Spain. And there's another Dennis Alejo is a chibrolet, you know owner franchise yeah like I can't beat this guy.

Speaker 2: 22:25

I said no, that's another wrong answer. And so the answer is so. I worked with it for since 2019 to establish my strategically, my brand. So strategically I, I want that whole entire page of Google to be me.

Speaker 1: 22:43

Yeah. So then how do you get the people? So how do you get where you know you have your, your referrals, you have your customers that know your client base, but how, how do you get it out there, that person that doesn't know? You but maybe needs your services? How do you get out there so they know to search Dennis Alejo? How do you do that?

Speaker 2: 23:02

It's not searching about Dennis Alejo. They're searching actually for web design, airbnb web design. Who is the best web design? Who is the guy who do search engine optimization For a? Particular area For a particular area and that is a reason why it produced two different. We got five clients in Florida, three clients in Georgia, atlanta, because we want to. What we did in that is that. So, once the search, and this is the, the trust, and that's the reason why I challenge everybody to have social um like the internet, you know, uh, branding established people would look at you and you know they didn't know you right.

Speaker 2: 23:56

But when they see your video, that and people hear your voice, people write your writings, people hear your audio, that establish 50 trust. Okay. Okay, one day, once they call you, yeah, the trust is already there. It's so hard to sell people that don't have 50% trust.

Speaker 1: 24:23

Oh, yeah, I mean, probably a couple times this week it got brought to my attention other products or services and they're like well, yeah, so I had a listing appointment and someone had got there before me and they had researched this. This not one person, but two, two different people and their online presence didn't show who they were selling themselves as and they got referred to me.

Speaker 2: 24:47

Yeah, so correct. That's. That's an advantage right now. And guess what, when? So they have now 50% right Trust when they say I will sign the contract and then when you deliver the products, the services that you promise, that's the fulfillment of 100% trust. Oh yeah, Okay, Now you can say well, you can give me a reviews or leave it.

Speaker 1: 25:15

I get people that reach out to me that are wanting to start businesses and things like that, and I give them just, really just two professional pieces of advice and I think your business will take off. Just do what you say you're going to do and do it on time.

Speaker 2: 25:33

Right.

Speaker 1: 25:34

I mean that goes a long way building trust with a client base.

Speaker 2: 25:38

Yeah, you do it redundantly.

Speaker 1: 25:39

Yeah. Yeah, consistently.

Speaker 2: 25:41

Yeah, and that's the reason why I challenged you the first meeting we have. Yeah. You remember that I challenged you to establish your online presence because that's just like meeting to Chamber of Commerce. You have the nice suit and necktie right. Yeah. For what purpose?

Speaker 1: 26:02

To that initial presence, that initial meeting, that initial point of contact. You want to look the part Correct.

Speaker 2: 26:13

So establishing your first gesture or whatever is that, but then also online presence is the same. The moment people hear your voice, the moment people read your email or blog, the moment people see your video like this, it also creates the same impact as having necktie yeah it's a, it's a personal brand that would allow people to distinguish you, who is alfredo diamond, and your last name is great value.

Speaker 1: 26:51

Diamond is expense the most expensive stone, so brilliant, but yeah, so, yeah, so yeah, it's like. It's like your initial um, you know presence that gets your foot through the door yes, it is because in my business 80 or more is they found us online yeah there are a lot of friends that I do and then they would say I'll refer you but never came through.

Speaker 2: 27:19

Follow through and so online. That's the reason why we invest a lot of time and strategy and planning in internet because that works for us. I don't know if I think like for me, it worked for everybody. If you want to, you know, dominate the search, people will do that to you. Well, let's go back to that.

Speaker 1: 27:45

Let's check him out.

Speaker 2: 27:46

Yeah, let's take out the Alfredo Diamond in here.

Speaker 1: 27:50

Yeah, let's go to the tape. Let's pull him up, kev. Yeah, yeah, we'll do it. We'll do an overlay. Yeah, all right, right, yeah, yeah, yeah, we'll do it, we'll do an overlay.

Speaker 2: 27:58

Yeah, all right. Yeah, so, as you can see, like in the overlay, like when you say alfredo diamond, like you have the realtor zillow there, and then that your website and then your linkedin, as we look at it, yeah, um, I think I still remember it. The LinkedIn, your Instagram, is actually good position too.

Speaker 1: 28:22

Don't tell all the secrets yet. Dennis, You're going to use me as a guinea pig. You're going to get me going.

Speaker 2: 28:27

No, I'm just kidding, let's do that. We'll be back on.

Speaker 1: 28:30

You can share me as a success story. No man, you speak my language and a lot of things that you talk about and a lot of services you provide. There's a lot of things I research and I can already tell how, once we get going, I'm confident you are going to help me evolve, continue to evolve my business and my local presence and my online presence. I'm just so excited and, even more importantly, growing our friendship. Man, I'm thankful that we connected.

Speaker 2: 28:57

Yes, yes, thank you, and next time I'll do, you know, I'll do reverse. Okay, yeah, today you're asking me questions. Do you want to interview me? Okay, yeah, and then the next time I'm going to ask you questions All right, I'm looking forward to that. Because people need to hear what Alfredo Diamond is up to yeah.

Speaker 1: 29:19

Right, yeah, yes, sir.

Speaker 2: 29:21

And you're helping, and thank you so much for this, because you're giving voice to the people locally here in Richmond, you're giving them a platform to you know, get their message out there, you know. That means a lot yeah, thank you.

Speaker 1: 29:37

Thank you for that is a lot. Yeah, thank you, thank you for that. Um, yeah, so, um, that means a lot, and appreciate you saying that. You know, dennis, is there anyone out there that you want to give a shout out to?

Speaker 2: 29:48

yes, so my wife is being awesome. Um, my wife emily has been, you know, really supporting me since in the beginning. Three years ago she quit her job and joined me and so she takes care of all of the bills, makes sure all of my guys get paid every Friday, and it's amazing. And I have an eight-month-old son and he's already a handful and so he might be, you know, again. He just like wants to go outside, like yesterday. I want to go outside Like he's just like happy when he's outside.

Speaker 2: 30:29

So I lose weight too, because I walk a lot with him. So it's a good exercise. Yeah, wow, wow.

Speaker 1: 30:37

Dennis, you're truly an amazing person. You have an amazing story. I'm thankful we got a chance to connect. I look forward to continue to grow our relationship and I wish you all the best, my friend. And.

Speaker 2: 30:46

I'll see you next time. Thank you so much. Thank you.