Tom Harness is a entrepreneur and business owner of Harness Digital marketing. With his skills as a marketing professional he has helped over 100 business and organizations use social media to engage their target audience.

After retiring from his 4 years of service in the army he decided to get his associates degree at J.A. Logan college later transferring to SIU to get a degree in elementary education. While at SIU he would teach fifth grade at Herrin and later computer sciences at Unity point. There he developed his communication skills which would allow how to effectively engage his community.

One day he was thinking about how he could expand his comfort zone and decided to put on a comical suit during various holidays. To his surprise many people wanted to take pictures with him in his suit. This led him to the idea of charging people per photo and using that money to help veterans in need. Over the course of the next 5 years he would raise $25,000 for local non-profits. Through this silly idea he would begin to understand the community around him leading him to start his company Harness Digital media.

“People are Emotional buyers, if you find what brings emotion you can grab their attention”

Starting his company in a small closet he would use this knowledge to help expand the businesses around him. He would then move the company online during Covid ,he found that it was a lot more effective for him to be able to work from anywhere.

Image of Tom Harness lecturing CEO students about the importance of marketing by Jasper Stanwood

When asked about his next 5 years he said he plans to focus on investing and the future of young entrepreneurs. He will continue developing the community to help create a better tomorrow for those around him.

“Entrepreneurs the lifeline of communities, we need them to grow and expand the world around us.”