Chief Executive Officer of Coldwell Banker Commercial TradeMark Properties
Billie Redmond’s list of accolades is substantial. She’s the owner of a successful real estate company that’s celebrating 25 years of business. She’s served in leadership roles with several community endeavors connected with education and health care.
With all of the passion Redmond has for those elements of her life, another part trumps them.
“I love to cook. It’s my favorite thing,” she said without hesitation.
“Here’s the thing I love about cooking,” Redmond continued. “Whether I’m cooking for two people or 200, it’s the issue of hospitality. When you think about the issue of fellowship, whether we’re having a cup of coffee or lunch, Thanksgiving dinner or serving 200 people, there’s a different feeling when it’s over food.
“I love the logistics,” she added. “I love figuring out how to serve that many people, where are we going to do the food and so on. My favorite thing is a Friday afternoon trip to Costco to get food for 200 people. It makes me happy.”
The process for determining logistics of culinary success can be transcended into Redmond’s professional life, too. She now is CEO of Coldwell Banker Commercial TradeMark Properties, but she began her career as a property manager.
“I liked the common-sense problem-solving approach to property management,” Redmond said.
“I am a people person. I love people,” she went on to say. “The best thing about real estate is you get to know a lot of people. I tell our staff here that we get the privilege of knowing the very best people and only occasionally do we come across some of the very worst. I’m very interested in long-term relationships. I like knowing our clients.”
Through the years, Redmond has gotten to know many more people in Wake County than just her company’s clients. She currently serves on the board of directors of Communities in Schools of Wake County, the Kids ’N Community Foundation, the Triangle Community Foundation, the Raleigh Area Development Authority, Paragon Commercial Bank and WakeMed Health and Hospitals. She’s been inducted into the YMCA’s Academy of Women and served unprecedented lengths in leadership roles with the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce.
“It’s the right analogy whether it’s about your business or personal life. We take care of the things that we value,” Redmond said.
“When you value where you live — it’s where you invest all of your energy and particularly financial resources — it makes perfectly good sense you would get involved and care about what’s going on around you,” she added.
Another place Redmond values and is quite involved in is her church, Pleasant Grove Church, which not long ago moved to a new site on Davis Drive in Cary. And not surprisingly, her connection to her church again has to do with cooking.
The church greatly outgrew its previous location near Raleigh-Durham International Airport. Redmond described the kitchen there as one with tight quarters. Now, however, the new sanctuary boasts a kitchen with commercial-grade appliances and preparation areas. Feeding hundreds of people at one time now can be done easily.
Redmond’s spiritual home resembles the track she’s taken both with her professional career and her community involvement.
“It’s a diverse church, all walks of life, all kinds of backgrounds. It’s a church of great spirit, very loving,” Redmond said.
Redmond credits a motto her grandmother shared many times as the reason her business has thrived and projects to benefit the community have been successful.
“My grandmother used to say, if you do the right things for the right reason all the time, it always works out. It doesn’t mean that it will be in the situation you’re in. But it all balances out,” Redmond said.
Such a mantra is why plenty of young professionals have sought Redmond out for guidance. She said that in an era of business plans and lots of analysis, simply recognizing an opportunity when it presents itself is vitally important. That’s how she ended up entering into the real estate field, getting involved in a myriad of different community endeavors and volunteering whenever possible to cook at Pleasant Grove Church.
“Find something you love and are passionate about. Almost everyone has something, something that drives them creatively and gives them a sense of joy,” Redmond said.
“Also be prepared,” she added. “Whether it’s about your work, what you’re studying where you are currently with your life endeavors, learn all you can about it. Be truly prepared.”
For Redmond, that’s been her recipe for success.
