Special Guest Expert - Marques Ogden: Video automatically transcribed by Sonix

Special Guest Expert - Marques Ogden: this mp4 video file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Brian Kelly:
So here's the big question. How are entrepreneurs like us who have been hustling and struggling to make it to success, who seem to make it one step forward only to find? Two steps back. Who are dedicated. And driven. How do we finally break through? And with that is the question. This podcast will give you the answers. My name is Brian. This. It's the mind body business. Hello everyone and welcome, welcome, welcome to the Mind Body Business Show. We have a phenomenal show lined up for you tonight because the one and only Marcus Ogden is here with us. He is in the green room, as we call it, and he's back there scratching at the monitor right now as I speak, saying, let me in, Brian. I'm ready. Let's go knocking away. We will get to him in just a moment. The mind Body Business show, it is a show that we had put together with you in mind. Who are you? Hopefully you are a business owner, an entrepreneur or someone who is a budding entrepreneur looking to get your business to that next level. And no matter where you are in your walk of entrepreneurship, whether you're just starting out, whether you're a seasoned vet pulling in seven figures or more, there is always something here that you will take away and be able to put into action and to take your business to that next level. I'm not kidding. I've been doing this show for over five years, interviewing successful entrepreneurs from all over the world like Marcus, and it happens every single show. So welcome to the show and I'm glad you're here. Be sure to get ready to take some notes. This is going to be a potentially a life changing moment for you, especially when you listen to Marcus and his story and where he's been and where he is now and how he can help you, quite honestly. And so it's going to be a fantastic show. And one of the reasons that we gave it the name Mind Body Business Show is that those three words mind, body and business are what I call the three pillars of success. And those came about by way of studying only successful people for a period of about a decade.

Brian Kelly:
I wanted to know, what is it that made successful people successful, you know, more successful than me? Did they run and jump and put both feet into their pants at the same time? Uh, and do something different than I did that made them somehow more special or more successful. And that's what happened as I studied mentors, authors, um, prominent, um, influencers, some who I knew personally and spent time with, uh, mentors who I spoke from stage on and trained their people and authors who I met and conversed with, like, uh, Michael Gerber of the E-myth Revisited. I met him in person. All of these incredible, amazing individuals, some that are no longer with us and haven't been with us for a long time, that I studied. To a person, what they had all done to achieve that level of success that they were at at that moment was they had really gotten into helping themselves perfect their mind by creating a powerful, a very, uh, flexible mindset that is the most important part, the one that most people don't think about. It's a powerful, positive and flexible mindset. And then body literally meant that each of these individuals took care of themselves. Now, it didn't mean that the guys were literal body builders that were out with a chiseled body. And the women weren't, you know, first class supermodels either. It meant that they just took care of themselves. They exercised on a regular basis, and they ate and drank. Well, that's all it meant. It's very simple, yet so few seem to follow that. And then there's business to a person. Each of these individuals had mastered the various skill sets that are necessary to build a successful business, and not just to build it, then to also scale it and grow it and continue, uh, in many skill sets that one must master, include ones like, uh, marketing, sales, team building, leadership, systematizing. I could rattle them off pretty much all night long. There's a lot. The good news is you personally do not have to master every one of these skill sets yourself. If you concentrate on mastering one of the skill sets that I just mentioned first, if you just focus on mastering the skill set of leadership, then you can leverage that skill set by bringing in others.

Brian Kelly:
Just as exactly what Marcus has done is bringing in others who have mastered the skill sets that are necessary, that you may never have enough time to master. Because to master anything takes a long time. And you, being an astute individual, know just that. And so I'm very excited for you being here for you to watch this magnificent man who has gone through a lot and has used what he has learned to help others to not make the same mistakes that he made. He's giving you a literal shortcut to success. And yes, I'm talking about Marcus Ogden, who is going to come on here in just a moment, real quick. Another phenomenal trait of the most successful people I've ever met is that also to a person, they are also very avid readers of books. Yes. And with that, I want to segue very quickly into a little segment I affectionately call bookmarks.

Announcer:
Bookmarks. Born to read. Bookmarks. Ready. Steady. Read. Bookmarks brought to you by Reach your Peak Library.com.

Brian Kelly:
Yes. Richard Peak Library.com a quick word of advice for everyone watching. If you're watching live, it's great having you here. We have a good audience here tonight live if you're not, if you're watching this as a recording or if you're listening to it on audio podcast and any of those cases, as you're watching and listening, you're going to hear various resources. You might hear a book or books that Marcus has authored, you might hear a website, and you're you're going to want to run off and go investigate that and study it while the show is running. And I would implore upon you to not do that, to resist that temptation, and instead do something that you did way back in school. Maybe you haven't done it in a long time, but that is, take out a piece of paper and a pen and write down these resources. And then after the show is over, go visit them. Why do I say that? Well, for years I spoke from stage in the very beginning. When I was first speaking, I noticed on occasion I'd be getting to that sweet spot. I know it's my presentation. I know the part that's the heavy hitting part that's going to possibly impact people in the greatest way. And I noticed back in those days where there might be an individual get up and walk out of the room, right as I'm getting to the best part, and they're holding their phone up in their face, they got that all important text message or phone call, or you might see another one get up and leave the room kind of quickly because they had to use the restroom real bad. And so I got in the habit of letting people know, look, the magic happens in the room. And with that, I know we're virtual here. I know we're on video and audio here. With that, all I mean is pay attention and keep your focus on Marcus and keep it there and just take notes and then visit these resources after the show is over. Live is where it's at. This is where, you know, as it's happening in the moment, whether you're watching a recording or listening to the recording that's still live for you, it is where it's at.

Brian Kelly:
You want to take in what you're getting in the greatest capacity possible. So real quick Reach Your Peak Library is a website that I had my team put together literally for you. It's a I it's not a money making website, but it does contain a literal library of books in it. And why are they here is because I personally did not take advantage of this wonderful gift called reading until about 12 years ago at the age of 47. I'll pause so you can all do the math, because everyone wants to know stuff like that, I get it. And, uh, I started reading at 47 and I realized, oh my gosh, this is this has a profound impact on my business and my personal life most often. And so I just started telling the team, I said, hey, I just finished another one, put it on the website, give them a link to go get it. Those links are all go to Amazon, go get them wherever you want to. You don't need to get them from this site. Look at a find a book on this site, one that jumps out on the page of the page to you, that talks to you, that speaks to you. It doesn't matter which one they're in here, in no order of any sort other than Grant Cardone. I happen to read all of his in one fell swoop. I just kept going, uh, but find one that really talks to you and just go get it wherever you like to get your books and read it. But don't just read it, then put it into action, just as you will do when you take notes from Marcus, what he's about to tell you here in just a moment. I'm telling you, it's seconds away. Uh, you'll want to take notes. And then the most important part is then take action after you take those notes. And I know Marcus would agree with me. And speaking of Marcus, let's bring him on, shall we? No more waiting. Let's bring on the man, the myth, the legend. Marcus Ogden. Here he comes.

Announcer:
It's time for the guest. Expert. Spotlight. Savvy. Skillful. Professional. Adept. Trained. Big league qualified.

Brian Kelly:
And there he is, ladies and gentlemen. It is the one. It is the only, Marcus Ogden.

Marques Ogden:
How are you, sir? What's going on, Brian? How you doing, man?

Brian Kelly:
Man, this is going to be so much fun. I had such a wonderful time getting to know you right before the show. Uh, very pleased and ecstatic to have you here to help others, to not make the mistakes that you have and others have from learning. Uh, life experience means a lot. It's worth a lot. And I appreciate you for being transparent in sharing things like that. And you've already done it. It's all out there on websites, uh, not pressuring you to do it here. I just know it'll come natural and you'll just do what has to be done. Uh, do you mind, Marcus, if real quickly I give you a formal introduction that you deserve. So people get a good glimpse and a background of you so we can set the table for the show.

Marques Ogden:
Sounds fantastic.

Brian Kelly:
I love it, all right. Marcus Ogden is a former NFL player turned inspirational speaker, author, and entrepreneur. He is the founder and CEO of Ogden Ventures LLC, a media and entertainment company that specializes in keynote speaking, business coaching, and consulting. Ogden is a three time best selling author and the host of the podcast called Get Authentic with Marcus Ogden. And it's up in the it's up high, high, high in the charts. In his speaking engagements, Marcus leads his audiences to understand why authenticity creates victory by sharing his personal story of overcoming adversity and achieving success. Marcus is on a mission to inspire CEOs and other senior leaders to maximize their potential to reach their personal and professional goals. Oh, I'm getting chills all over. This is awesome. Marcus Ogden, welcome to the mind body Business show, my friend. How are you.

Marques Ogden:
Brian? Thanks for having me on my friend.

Brian Kelly:
Oh man. So you have a very, very compelling story. And if you don't mind, if you could give us a quick glimpse in your journey, what brought you to where you are today? The good, the bad, the ugly, whatever you, whatever you feel free and sharing.

Marques Ogden:
Yeah. So for me, Brian, I'm from Washington DC. I went to Saint John's College High School, then from there went to Howard University. I played football for the bison. They were my only scholarship offer to go and play football after high school, went to Howard, had a phenomenal career, became a four year starter. I was a three time all conference, two time All American. I ended up really breaking a lot of barriers and actually combining my my mind and my body to actually make football a business. And so from there, I went to the National Football League. I was drafted by Jack Del Rio and the Jacksonville Jaguars, and that was phenomenal. I was able to play for somebody that I knew from a young age. I knew Jack when I was probably about 15 or 16, when he was a linebacker coach for the Ravens. So to go and play for Jack and have Jack be my head coach, and he was a rookie head coach at the time as well, was awesome. And you talk about mind, body and business. I remember Jack telling us that if we're going to be successful in the game of football and after the game of football, we have to become our own CEO, our own chief executive officer, Jack said. If you have to wait around for us to tell you what to do, where to go, go out in the community, meet the Jaguar fans, so on and so forth. You're not going to have a job for long. And so I had a lot of fun in the National Football League. I almost played six years, played against some great guys, played with some great guys. From there I struggled with, uh, addiction, painkiller, nightlife, women, gambling, all these things because I had no direction. Lost my father about a year and a half prior, so I really didn't know what to do with my life. And then I finally got into construction, built this massive organization. We became an eight figure company after about our third year, going into our fourth year, and we were killing it. But unfortunately, at the end of our fourth year, going into our fifth year, my attitude shifted from positive to negative.

Marques Ogden:
I went from being humble to being arrogant, went from grateful to being expecting everything. And as a result of that, Brian, I ended up being in a position where I ended up losing everything that I owned and then some in 2013, and I had to move to Raleigh, and I got down to about $400 to our name. After paying movers and taking this out, taking that out, you know, paying deposits and this, that and the other. And it was rough. It was really, really rough. Thank goodness. The NFL formed the Gene Upshaw Trust Fund in January 2013 through the new CBA. And that allowed them to pay our bills for our rent and for our health insurance and for our car and for our car insurance. So I didn't go homeless. I was able to do these things because four months of the bills got paid by this program. It's about $14,800, give or take, at the time. And that allowed me to get on my feet. I was fired from two jobs in the same week. After about two months of being at Merrill Lynch, got fired, went to a construction company the next day, got fired from that job five days later. The only job I could get along with coaching kids football. Brian I was a custodian working in downtown Raleigh. Hence one of our keynotes from eight figures to 825 per hour. I ended up, you know, having our rock bottom or my rock bottom moment when I was a custodian taking the trash out and somebody horrible, nasty, protruding garbage, stinking, stinky smelling trash got all over me. And that was my wake up call. And that made me realize if I don't take accountability and be responsible now, I'm going to always be here doing what I call the Al Bundy or married with Children al Bundy Syndrome, where I was a great this I was a great football player. I was always saying was past past tense and I wanted more for myself. So I started speaking. September 2013. Didn't get a first paid job until April 2016. So it's been exactly eight years this month that we've been a paid speaker. I got coached, got developed, learned how to be valuable, and not just go up there and say a bunch of things that have no bearing on what someone's trying to do.

Marques Ogden:
And we've worked for now, 55 fortune 500 brands in the last eight years. We've had massive success. Very, very grateful. Uh, I tell everybody, gratitude is the biggest crusher of ego, and it really kept us in a position to get where we wanted to go. And now we work for all types of companies speaking, coaching, consulting. Uh, again, we are a four time best selling author. You know, we have a podcast, you know, all these things. But I tell everybody I'm a guy now that has a lot. I'm grateful for that. I'm also a guy that's been through a lot and didn't have a lot. And you're only again, I'm recently divorced, you know, so two years, about two years ago, I filed for divorce. I had to move into a two bedroom apartment November 1st of 2022. Stayed in that apartment the first two and a half months. Brian was really bad. Feeling down and blue. Finally got my act together January 2023. Worked hard, bought a new home, had to start over. Had to fill that home from scratch. I didn't own anything. I bought my brand new home. Nothing. I had to start all from scratch. So my point is, is that I'm a guy that's been through so much. And again, when you combine mind body and you do your business, in my opinion great things happen.

Brian Kelly:
Um. That's our show, ladies and gentlemen. Good night. I'm kidding. That was very powerful. All of it. Uh, and there's one thing that really jumped out at me that is, you know, you talk about ego, and I've had many discussions with ego. I call ego the cancer of success. You know, it is a cancer to success in business, uh, going forward. But gratitude is the crusher of ego. That is the most powerful statement right there. When you exhibit an attitude of gratitude, as they say, it's almost impossible to have ego because ego, you're not thankful for anything. You're thinking you did it all. It's all because of me. But when you go to gratitude, thank you. Who are you thinking? You're not thinking yourself. You're thinking somebody else.

Marques Ogden:
Well, for us, we just thank our clients. We thank people that believe in us. We thank our podcast guests. We thank our podcast sponsors. We thank our podcast listeners. We thank people that are really have been supporting us from day one. And it's always about the people. It's not about me or our brand, it's about my team. It's about what they do. It's about what they've done and all these things. Right, Brian move us all in a forward direction. But it's not me, right? When I talk, I don't say I or me or my. I always say we or our or us. I just don't believe in the word literally. When I post things on social media, it never has the word I in it. Like never. I just I won't say it because I don't believe it's I, it's we, it's our it's us. And with that mentality, we've gone very, very far in our business.

Brian Kelly:
And I can imagine what kind of impact that has on the culture of your team and your business in the inner circle as well. You know, I have this moniker too, where I say, you never work for me, you work with me. We are a team similar kind of approach. And yeah, it's it's us and we and it's not I, I love that and that's something I'm going to see. I as a host of this show I get to learn more than anybody on the planet. This is like going to a one hour seminar once a week. I'm not. And it's it's even more powerful than that because of the laser focused, uh, strategies and hints and the experience you have. That's what comes off. And here's the thing with everybody out there listening, Marcus has been through it in, you know, up, down and then up down and then up down many times. But right now he is learning. He has learned from all of that experience. And he's taking that experience. He's encapsulated it, put it in a nice tidy package. And then it's called Marcus Ogden. That's the tidy package. And then he presents it to you. And then you simply all you need to do. It's really simple. Ladies and gentlemen, it's really simple. Success. There's no secret you find one person. Doesn't matter who it is that has achieved it to a level that you would desire. You grab on to them with both ankles. Grab onto both their ankles with your hands. Don't let go. Listen to them. Follow what they say. Write it down. Learn it, but then put it into action. That's the key. You have to put it into action. That's one thing I love, Marcus. Your business is literally about taking action because it includes a component that shows people all of the art form of public speaking. So if you wouldn't mind, uh, uh, if we can pivot a little bit and give us a little synopsis of what speaking from stage has done for you and your business.

Marques Ogden:
Speaking from stage, Brian has been our everything. It's been the foundation of our brand. We started speaking in September 2013. The first thing we got paid for as a facet of work that we deliver for clients again speaking, coaching, consulting, podcast, brand ambassador, so on and so forth. Speaking was the number one thing that we did. That was the first thing we did. That's what we got known for. Again, we went through two and a half years of either being told no on every paid job we went after, or everything we did at that time was free. So speaking has allowed us to be seen by people as an expert or a go to person, or someone that knows their respective industry or industries, someone that understands business, someone who understands how to grow a business. One understands what to look out for in business. And we have really been very blessed in the last, you know, as of eight years since our first paid job to grow, to get all types of clients, you know, finance, real estate, insurance, uh, you know, mortgages, tech, universities, you name it, non-for-profits. But again, speaking is what started this train back in September 2013. So without speaking in my opinion. Right, Brian, our brand would be nowhere near where it is with our coaching piece, with the consulting piece with the, you know, we're having we're doing some executive leadership masterminds come up here soon like virtual roundtables. We're going to start a couple different communities around how to elevate, if you're like at a three, 4 or 5, how to get to a six or a seven if you're at a 7 or 8, how to get to a ten. And we have some coaching in that regard, you know, one on one small group consulting, you name it. Right? We got we landed a very nice contract with, uh, one of the, uh, the fourth largest custom home builder in the United States that's going to be starting January of 2025. And again, speaking for them led to consulting for them because more times than not, especially for me in that regard, our speaking is always less than our consulting or, you know, in that regard. So with organizations, if you want to get in with them, in my opinion, can you go for the 100,000 to $1000 consulting contract?

Marques Ogden:
Of course you can. Right? If you're Tony Robbins, Brendon Burchard, some of the big boys, that's probably easier to do. But again, all those guys started somewhere too. But if you're trying to really go from where you're at to getting to that next level of speaking at that stage or speaking on that front, right? And you're like, hmm, let me go about this. Let me go about that. I believe people are much more inclined to pay you to go on stage to speak whatever that fee is, and then you do a great job. Then it's easy to talk about the, you know, six month or 12 month consulting engagement because they already know you, like you, and trust you.

Brian Kelly:
Exactly. They get a taste of you. They get to see you in action. They get to see what you're made of. What's your value system built on? What how do you how do you interact with the audience? So that would be how you would interact with their employees and their their organization. So many intangibles that that come out when they can see you right there in front of them on stage, speaking and interacting. It's so unbelievably powerful to speak from stage. And I'm curious, how many times have you met with somebody and they didn't know you were a speaker that day, yet you're chatting with them, you do your you go up and you do your presentation. You speak, you meet them afterward, and they look at you in a completely different way.

Marques Ogden:
Oh, absolutely. Oh yeah. Of course. I mean, because what happens is when you're speaking, you then if you're a really good speaker, you master the art of what, uh, Aristotle called metaphors. Or we can call them stories or storytelling. And great speakers, in my opinion, can captivate an audience for 60, 90, 120 minutes by mastering the art of. Storytelling. And I remember I had a job to do for South Dakota. I thought it was going to be 45 minute talk, and then about maybe 30 minutes before I was supposed to go on stage, they told me it was going to be an hour and a half talk. So I had to double my talk and all I did. Right, Brian, is I just focused on more stories that fit the theme. Right. And I tell people all the time, if you want to be great in speaking, understand that it's not about you, it's about the client. Your stories have to have some sort of alignment, some sort of tie in to what's going on with that client. And then once you do that, everything else will take care of itself. But I tell everybody, if you're just trying to go up there and say what you want to say and you're not sticking to theme and you're not staying on point, it's it's going to be a long day.

Brian Kelly:
Yeah. There's an art. There are many pieces to it. Um, I was trained by one of the best, in my opinion, uh, my mentor. And, you know, it's not like, to your point, it's not about having the perfect PowerPoint slides and the right bullet points and all that. The facts and figures are what will kill your your presentation if you don't have a story to back it with or multiple stories. And that's the other thing I noticed. So is it important to always the stories to be yours from a personal standpoint? Or have you found you can use stories that aren't yours, maybe even a made up one?

Marques Ogden:
No, I mean, I don't ever make up a story because honestly, it just in my mind, if I'm trying to make up a story right then from there, I'm just like, wow, does that make sense? Is that, I mean, you start questioning yourself. So if like for example, one of my favorite stories to tell is when I met Earnie Shavers in Las Vegas. So Earnie Shavers fought Muhammad Ali for the championship in I think it was 1974, and Earnie trained hard. And Ali even said the hardest puncher that he ever faced was Earnie Shavers. So Earnie Shavers corner was convinced if they could get Ali knocked down twice in around a single round, he would not get up. They had seen Ali get up from a single knockdown in a round, but never two knockdowns in the same round, so they were solely convinced if they could get that to happen that Earnie would walk out with a championship. Now, I believe it was round 5 or 6. Earnie told me that he knocked Ali down. Uh, that's what it was. He told me he knocked him down. I believe in round number five. One time he got up, he said round six. He knocked Ali down twice. And he said that his corner started to enter the ring. Pretty much everybody was in the corner just screaming and chanting. We have a new heavyweight champion. Like they were just all excited. The problem was, they didn't realize Ali had more perseverance than they ever could imagine. As a result of that, Ali got up and Earnie told me, he said, Marcus. When Ali got up, I knew at that moment I had lost the fight. I'm a I'm, I'm, I'm going to be I'm going to be probably sure that Earnie was winning on the card with those knockdown. And I'm sure he was probably ahead on the cards, but he said it didn't matter. He said. Ali's grit, Ali's spirit, Ali's perseverance broke his and it broke his mindset. And and Ali was not a knockout artist. Could he do it? Sure. Here are there. Absolutely. He wasn't a Tyson or, you know, a George Foreman or a Joe Frazier or a Ken Norton.

Marques Ogden:
He wasn't a knockout artist by any means. Muhammad Ali knocked him out in round number eight. He'd lost. So stories like that fit great for a mindset talk, a perseverance talk. Yes, overcoming adversity talk a great talk that will not work in a marketing and sales talk. It will not work in a leadership talk. So if I'm doing a marketing and sales talk, I'll talk about how with our current business, once we learn how to master building a CRM or different MailChimp and different things that we're looking to build and how once we mastered that, we were able to shine. Another story we tell in that regard is unfortunately, when Shannon Sharpe got fired from ESPN for I thought was crap reasons, unk, as we call him, went and started and marketed his own show, the Unk podcast. Right. And then that became such a sensation. And then he had an interview with Katt Williams where he had over 60 million views of that episode, 60 million and climbing. And now Unk makes more money than he ever did at ESPN. He has his own show. He gets to interview whomever he wants. I've seen on his show, from usher to, you know, to Will Smith. Uh, you know, I think Denzel's been on, uh, you know, he's interviewed all types of athletes, you know, you name it. He's done it. And he's making more money now than he did when he was at ESPN. Why? Because people are just they're just encapsulated by what he's doing and who he's bringing on. So that's a great story for marketing and sales talk. So the point is, as a speaker, you can't just start making up stuff, trying to throw stuff in where you think it belongs. You have to tell things that actually flow and align with your client base and what they know belongs and what they know they need to hear, and the audience needs to hear from you.

Brian Kelly:
Absolutely powerful and Yeah the power of speaking and how people view you. You know the you become an authority, a figure of authority instantly. And that's even before you open your mouth. The second you step on stage. That happened to me when I was working in backstage helping another, uh, organization with their speaking gig, and I was part of the crew, and I was back there, and this guy came into our space, the crew space. I'm like, what's this guy doing here? Who is he? You know, I was kind of upset internally. And then I later like two minutes later, one of my teammates is miking him up. My change, my attitude changed 100%. 180 all the way around, like, oh, okay. How are you, sir? And so it's interesting and the same thing with a book. And that was one thing I wanted to ask you about too. You have now four books. I guess you said there was three on the bio I read. That's fantastic. You're turning them out. Mine's going to be released, I think next week just so happens I have my final call with my editor tomorrow. But I wanted to ask you, I think I saw somewhere on one of the videos I was watching about you on your website, that that having that first book written was one of the things that helped to catapult you and break through the seal of the speaking, uh, the whole speaking industry. Is that true, or did that have any impact, or how was the experience of writing a book? What did that do for you?

Marques Ogden:
Oh, it was everything, you know. Sleepless nights came out October of 2015. My first paid client, Miller-motte College, reached out to me about speaking for them in April 2016. They reached out to me in November December of 2015, and they said they had found me on the site speaker match because my book was just marked New Release Best seller. So when the people read my story that I had gone through and it hadn't even really developed yet to anything like it is today, I was very, very much in the early struggles of that story, but it was enough to really whet the appetite of the ladies at Miller-motte College. It was enough to give them something to see that, wow, this guy can bring value to us. Wow, this guy can do what he's wanting to do for us. And again, it's not common to have a former athlete be a keynote speaker for the 100 for the 100th commencement graduation speech for a hair and esthetician school, which Miller-motte was, and I think still might be right. That's not normal. But the book, right? Brian gave them something to be able to gauge and get to know me off of. And then when they reached out to me, all they wanted to make sure that what they read was reaffirmed in the meeting. And once they did that, I remember them giving me a call. December of 2015 I was actually in New York visiting a football client. He was actually signing to go play college football at a college at, uh, Bryant University. And he was actually up in Albany, New York. I got a call from Miller-motte to my phone saying, Mr. Ogden, we have elected to offer you your the keynote speaking opportunity at our 100th at our 100th commencement graduation. We want you as our keynote speaker. This was 2016. I had never been paid before. They said, we're prepared to take care of your travel again. I was going to drive because it was it was in Wilmington's, you know, an hour and a half away. Plus, uh, take care of your food and we'll pay you $1,500 for your keynote. And I said to them, apps, I mean, I put the phone on mute, I start I started dancing like a dance you never see before.

Marques Ogden:
And I'm like, yep, I'll be there. And I remember right talking about stories. Right, Brian? I was so poor when I did that job, right? I was so poor, so just financial still and ruined because I had just been working and all these things and bills are getting paid by the NFL. But I was unable to save. I was there at the job and got fired and then trying to build and you know, and you still have to live life and all these things. So I remember I didn't even know if I had enough gas to get to Wilmington. Right. And I was afraid. I said I never asked them like I had never been paid before. So I don't like to like get a check, like right then and there. Do I get a check a week later? I mean, I had no idea. And I remember just praying that when I was finished, I was going to get paid because I needed that to get home. I could have cost my 20 bucks just to get home, but I didn't want to do that, and I prayed to God it wouldn't have to. I remember when I got to the job, the people said, Mr.. Thank you so much for your for coming. We're so excited, everybody. So can't wait. Oh, by the way, there's a bag underneath your chair on stage that has your your mug has your shirt. It has your gift. Your ticket for your food, for recover, for your food is $100 gift certificate. And it has your check for $1,500 in that bag. We're so glad you're here. I remember saying to myself, Thank God I don't have to call anybody. I don't have to ask anybody to come and make sure I get home okay. And that was the first time I had ever been paid for a job. I didn't even know how to ask when I was going to get paid.

Brian Kelly:
And that's what I love about everything about you, that that is a transparent story. It's also a powerful story, and yet it is another story. Everyone listening, I hope you're getting this. He has spent the entire podcast telling stories. I as the host, I am incredibly engaged and interested in everything he has to say. Because why? Because what he says works. That's how you do it. And I'm going to guess that your book, there isn't a whole lot of difference between speaking from stage and what you put in your book, because I guarantee that probably someone had written similar stories and or similar about similar topics. I should say that you did, but the difference between what you wrote about and what they wrote about is your personal stories and your experiences. Would you agree with that?

Marques Ogden:
Oh, absolutely. Because here's what happens when you take content. Everybody can take the same content and reuse it over and over and over again, right? We all can do that. What makes the content unique? What makes the content fresh? What makes the content where you want to pay attention is the stories that you have around the content. So again, like for example, leadership talk. I could tell you all the time now, today with my organization, we have a rule. The only thing that you are going to make me get mad at you at is if you don't tell me something that you think I don't care if it's right, wrong, or indifferent because I remember the story of being like that, where I literally, literally right? Ryan was pushing away my best people. I was an arrogant ahole. I was constantly a micromanaging, you know, just, you know, just creating. And because of that, I pushed everybody away. And the leadership story there is I remember when I was it was December of 2013. No, I'm sorry, December of 2012. I had just moved my my ex-wife in with me and I got engaged. I had a stepdaughter. The company was literally just in shambles, like we had lost everything. Money was gone and the bank was meeting, having a having like a four hour board meeting, trying to decide what they're going to get me, more extension on our credit, which was already maxed out, or pull the plug and shut us down. I remember sitting there and getting a call was like almost it's like 830 at night from my partner who had came into the company to try to help us, and he ended up talking to the bank. He got us our line, all these things, and he called me. He said, Marcus, it's over, it's over. The bank is not going to give you any more money. You are maxed out. They're going to call the loan. And if you don't have the assets you need, declare bankruptcy. Who can't declare bankruptcy? You're going to have to go into chapter seven. Or if you can't afford that, you're going to have to just pray that you can just hang on till you can.

Marques Ogden:
When I moved to Raleigh, I don't really talk about as much. This is a great part of the leadership story because it's the way I did it that was incorrect, which caused all of this. When I moved to Raleigh, I had again, after everything, I had about $400 to my name. Right after everything, it cost me $3,300 to file a chapter seven bankruptcy. God, I was so broke, Brian. I remember trying to file it, paying $300 here and then just piecemealing it like I if I got paid $1,000 for new for new football client, I would take $400 and go pay it down, pay it down, pay it down. Literally. It took me almost six months. I got here in what April? So also May, June, July, August, September. Yeah, it took me almost six months. In between September and October of that year, I finally had paid my bankruptcy attorney all the money owed for him to file. And when he filed, right. I had 177 creditors on the docket. Oh, over $5.5 million of debt. I was exposed to those creditors from April 2013 until October, September, October 2013, because I couldn't even pay. Hey. The $3,000 to file. No credit cards gonna get me any more. Any extension? I mean, none of that stuff was happening. So the leadership story is today. Because what happened then? I'm never going to get arrogant. I'm never going to get self-centered. I'm never going to get like, oh, here I am. Chess, chess, chess, pow pow pow. No, right. I'm not King Kong, I'm not Godzilla, I don't I don't know everything, I don't know, I don't know everything. I don't try know everything. So if you're listening to this, these are the type of stories that fit. But again, I'll say it again. Our book, our books have been a huge catalyst for us going to a beginning speaker, to an intermediate speaker, to a very successful, world renowned speaker, that we've done a lot of things for, a lot of big clients, a lot of big organizations, you know, in the last, you know, eight years.

Brian Kelly:
That is phenomenal. And I want to pivot, if we can, to literally to your company and how you help people to achieve what you have. And that's what I see, that you have assembled a good amount of incredible ways for people to climb that ladder to increase their business through keynote speaking, through coaching. Um, if you don't mind, I can pull up your website. And if you want to focus on one aspect, give people an idea of who is it that you help? Like what are what's your ideal client avatar, if you will? Uh, and then, um, given a description of what you do for your clients. And then finally, if you have a success story or two you'd like to tell about a specific client, then we'd love to hear that as well. Would that be cool?

Marques Ogden:
Of course. Let's go. Right on. Ahead. All right, let's do it.

Brian Kelly:
We'll pull it up and go ahead. Take it away.

Marques Ogden:
So, you know, basically here, right now what we do is, you know, we really just talk about all different services that we have. We have our speaking, we have our coaching. We have our consulting, we have our podcast. You know, this is talking about, you know, welcome to our website. We're very engaging with people. We're very opening with people. We want people to know exactly what we do, what we're about. We're big on videos. We're big on content, we're big on sharing. And for example, one of the things we love is in the speaking section of our business, right? I have a client and this client, his name is Patrick, and I've been with Patrick for a long time, and Patrick is a great speaker when it comes to faith and leadership. I've been working with Patrick on getting things done, moving things forward, and he's really done a fantastic job. But what Patrick needed most, right, Brian, was to create for himself and for clients signature keynote titles, which helped him to stand out from the competition. And when he did that, that's when things started to really move in the right direction. That's when they started to really elevate in that proper flow. And so I was able to then introduce him to C-suite for Christ, which is a faith based group, uh, owned by Mr. Paul Neuberger out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I was able to coach Patrick on the titles, on the deliverables, on the action steps, on storytelling. Patrick actually got a chance to be out at the same event. Speaking where Tim Tebow was speaking for C-suite for Christ, Patrick was doing a breakout session the day before. Then I got word from him a couple of weeks ago. He did so well, they've invited him back to their ministry summit to come and speak for them on faith and leadership, and how all the virtues tie in to help people move through adversity and darkness. And now Patrick is in great position. Right, Brian, to get a lot of work from not just that C-suite for Christ Home Office. They have franchises all around the country Austin, Denver, Atlanta, Baltimore, DC, you name it. So that's what we love. We really love doing what we're doing. You know in in that regard.

Brian Kelly:
Yeah. And that's that's a phenomenal story. And as you see, uh, everyone watching this show live and or after it's recorded, you can see all of the things scrolling up and they your organization has the full package, in my opinion. The way as I'm watching this go on and on and scroll up and up and yeah, look at this. There's a ton of objective evidence. So this is the one thing, uh, of many things that stands out about you to me, Marcus. And that is you're not one of those individuals that just talks the talk. You definitely stand behind and walk the walk for everything you're seeing and doing. There's, you know, objective evidence of you being on news, uh, being interviewed on the news channel like we just saw scroll by there are videos of you on stage. And that's how I learned a lot about you before I even brought you on the show. And so the evidence is there. And what I love is you have that example to train others by. Now and you've had it, and you've got the legs of, you know, a of a horse because of all of the trials and tribulations you've gone through. And I mean that in the greatest sense. They're super strong legs because you have a great foundation and all your experience you have used to your advantage to help others. And I just everything about you, you talk about our not I. And I'm hearing it as we are talking here right now. You are doing exactly what you say you do. And that's a rare commodity, which is a it's unfortunate to even say that out loud, but it is. It's a rare commodity. I appreciate you for your authenticity and your integrity and for pulling your you're pulling yourself up by your bootstraps and recognizing that there was something not right and fixing it. And now helping others by saying, please don't make that same mistake I did. I noticed that's one of your mantras, is like, I don't want you to go down that path. I did, and that's a big part of what entrepreneurs do. We solve problems. So I appreciate you, brother. I mean, my God, you're just you're an amazing guy.

Marques Ogden:
Thanks, Brian. And I love what you said, man. And our mantra is to help people succeed and become fulfilled in life where I failed and failure doesn't mean it's over. Warren Buffett says he will never invest in a business owner that hasn't failed three times. Failure is part of life as long as you learn from it, grow from it, and you better yourself from it. So if you're listening to this podcast, don't be afraid to take measured, calculated risk. Don't be afraid to try something new. Don't be afraid to go against the grain. Nobody thought I was going to become a successful speaker. They said, coach, football, stay in your lane. You're in Ogden. My brother is an NFL Hall of Fame. I play NFL for six years. I'm in Howard Athletics Hall of Fame with like with with my dad. All these great things stay in coaching. Well I didn't want to be in coaching. I didn't want to like do that. I didn't want to do that. I didn't want to like, be around my family very little and be working 11 months out of the year and like, you know, training camp. I mean, I was offered I worked at Campbell University in Lumberton, North Carolina for about a season, and then I left. And then I remember the head coach offered me the O line job. Actually, he texted me on my birthday in 2021, and I turned him down because it didn't fit where I was at. I didn't want to be coaching doing that. I love the game of football and I will coach kids probably to this day on my own time. But the the, the politics of college football, all those things, I didn't want to be involved in that. And so I made the decision to move on from football in that regard. So again, if you're listening, don't be afraid to go against the grain. It's okay as long as you know you're doing what in your heart of hearts you want to do, that's all that matters.

Brian Kelly:
Yeah, I always say, don't be afraid to fail. Fail fast, fail often. I grew up being a perfectionist and thought if I failed even a tiny bit, that I was a failure. And so I did everything in my power never to fail. So I took the cushy route all the time. Well, if I do this, there's no way I can fail. So I'm just going to stay safe all the time. Where did that get me? Absolutely nowhere. So it does you no good. And ego is what can keep you from doing that. If you have an ego, you'll never want to fail. And if you are able to get rid of that ego, we all have it. I still have one. But when you recognize that the ego is the one taking over, you can make adjustments and just be grateful. Like Marcus has so eloquently talked about in the beginning of the show is, you know, that will crush ego. Being grateful will crush your ego, right?

Marques Ogden:
Brian? Here's what I'll say about ego. Everybody has one. Live by this model. If your ego gets bigger than the good part of your soul, you're screwed. And remember this ego either 1 or 2 facets. My client, Marquita Woods, she's amazing. This is her acronym edging God out. That's her acronym, my acronym. And I love hers. Mine is exaggerated, glorified opinions, right? When you edge God out, you're all about the glory. It's all about what you want. It's all about lying about how great you really are. That was me with my construction company. Oh, I know construction, I know, no, I didn't glory. Oh, put me in the paper. Put my article. Me me me. Mark Marcus. Not, not not not ah or we I I I only me. And then when it came to opinions. Marcus let's try this. Well, that sounds okay, but let's go this way. And all these things kept happening. So if you're listening, ego, everybody has one. But if it gets bigger than the good. Part of your soul. You're either exaggerated, glorified, and you'll always want the last word or the last opinion. Or even worse off. You're edging God out. Check yourself, check your ego at the door, and never allow your ego to cause you to end up in a really bad spot.

Brian Kelly:
Oh my goodness, we're not done yet. Ladies and gentlemen, we are talking to Marcus Ogden. And if you want to get more information, you want to see that beautiful website we were just showing just a moment ago. You'll want to go to Marcus ogden.com. And that is spelled Marcus Ogden of course.com Marcus Ogden. And I was telling him before the show, I have an affection for that last name I had. My first grade teacher was Mrs. Ogden. So those are all that that will never go away. That's awesome. So I appreciate that as well. And so please everyone reach out to is that the best way for folks to reach out to you? By the way, Marcus, great question.

Marques Ogden:
Uh, Brian, I really appreciate that. So there's three things you can do. You can go to our website, Marcus Ogden Comm. You can go to our 360 link, which is Marcus 360 com. Or you can download our app. We have the Marcus Ogden app. And so if you have an Android or an Apple phone, type in my name Marcus Marcus Ogden Ogden. It'll pop right up. It's a free app. It's got great exclusive content on there. You can follow our podcast on there. You can connect to our website from there. And we're just trying to give you inspirational, free advice to help you move from good to great, great to legacy, legacy to eternity. Wherever you're at, we want you to go one level up and never, ever stop. If you ever have a finish line in life, you'll never get to your full potential, no matter what that is.

Brian Kelly:
I truly, honestly hope people are taking notes throughout this entire thing. I have been getting so many golden nuggets and I hope everyone is recognizing right after he just said how to reach out to him. Listen to this. He's written four books. Start with one, just write one. He speaks from stage they developed. They have two websites. Start with one. They have a podcast. So he's out there audibly for everyone to ingest as well. And they have a cell phone app. So that is a great lesson for everyone out there to say, look, this is how you reach people. This is how you make yourself available to be reached. This is how you get that exposure. He has his own podcast, and yet here he is as a guest on someone else's. Another phenomenal strategy, probably, and perhaps even more powerful than having your own, because you're getting into other tribes and other different avenues that you otherwise wouldn't have. And so this is phenomenal. I hope everyone is getting out of this at least 10% of what I am, because I'm like, filled to the brim with gratitude for you, Marcus. Thank you for everything. We're not done again. We're getting close, though. Um, but one of the things I wanted to, uh, let you know, we close the show with a very powerful question again. We're not there yet. Uh, very close. And that is it's a powerful question that it became profound. I used to ask it on occasion when I first started the show a little over five years ago, and I started realizing after I asked it several times, the answers were really jumping out. I'm like, wow, that was unbelievable and profound, I said, I finally decided, I said, you know what? I'm going to start closing every show with it because it's a heavy hitting right between the eyes. Beautiful, wonderful. Uh, not the question, but the answers that came back. It's not about the question, it's about the answers. And so I want to close the show with that. But before we do that, Marcus has offered a wonderful gift for all of you. And I'm going to pull it up on the screen and let, uh, Marcus describe what that is and how you can go about getting this amazing gift. And you don't want to take this lightly. Ladies and gentlemen. Take it away. Marcus.

Marques Ogden:
Yeah? If you want to. Reach out to me for a free 15 minute consultation, you can shoot me an email. Marcus Marcus at Marcus Marcus Ogden ogden.com and connect with me. Shoot me a message. Say you heard me on the awesome, uh, Brian Kelly, you know, Mind Body Business podcast. You would like to get a free call to talk about, you know, anything business related, mindset related, overcoming obstacles, developing perseverance, anything like that. We'd love to chat with you again for a free 15 minute call. Just email me and put into the subject line. Heard you on the mind body business show and I'll know exactly where you, who you are, where you came from, and we'll set up your free 15 minute call.

Brian Kelly:
Amazing. Please write that down everyone. Marcus at Marcus ogden.com. Take him up on his offer and I will add one caveat. Respect this offer, please. 15 minutes may not sound like a long time, and it's not actually. But it's going to go by very fast. Be ready. Know what you want to ask him and be on point. Be respectful. Be professional. That is how Marcus operates and if you approach him that way, then you will get the most out of that call and you will have really respected his time. And both of your time are valuable. We get that. But you want to go in and respect that time. 15 minutes. He could probably charge several hundred dollars just for the 15 minute consultation, so treat it as though it's costing you say $500. Really? You know, put that into your being. Integrate that into your being. Say this is a $500 call. I'm going to get everything I can out of it. Uh, and just be respectful, please. But at the same time, take action and take him up on this offer. You know, on the flip side, you might be saying, oh, who am I to go talk to someone like Marcus? Don't do that at just write this down. Email him, put in the subject line what he just told you and set that appointment up. And that is the way you grow getting out of that comfort zone. As he said so eloquently earlier, man, I could just parrot everything you've said. Almost. Marcus, this is freaking awesome. I appreciate you brother. You are an amazing guy. We have one more giveaway. I didn't even bring it up earlier in the show, but I do want to bring it up because we have a good number of people watching live, and I want to reward those who has spent their time with us here. Today we are giving away a five night stay at a five star luxury resort, and that's compliments of Reach Your Peak LLC seat up there. And this is no fly by night little thing where you'll get whisked away to the basement and they're going to water drip torture you in a strap down chair.

Brian Kelly:
Nothing like that. And, you know, try to pitch you on a timeshare. No, no, no, it doesn't do that. No. You get to go to a bonafide up to five. Star luxury resort, many of them around the world that you can choose from for one lucky winner. And to win, I'm just going to put it up on the screen real quick after we clear that and then you can enter a win, write this down, write it down. Don't go there. Here, don't go to this website yet. I want you to stick on for Marcus's final question, please. So please write this down. Enter to win after we go off the air. So you want to go to repeat I am forward slash vacation all lowercase. Repeat. I am forward slash vacation and that's where you will go to enter to win. We choose one lucky winner every show. Uh, again compliments of Reach your peak. So appreciate you for writing that down. Now enter later and we will have it monitored and choose a winner randomly after the show commences. After we're done. So Marcus, the question who baby? This is the this is the fun part. All of it's been fun. This is like oh wait, a good way to end it. So this amazing question, it's so amazing that there's no such thing as a wrong answer. It's not a test. It's not a quiz. In fact, the exact opposite is the case is the only correct answer will be yours. Ooh, intriguing. And the other thing is, it may take you a microsecond. It may take you several long seconds to formulate the answer. Even then, it's 100% perfect because it's your answer. So with all that wonderful build up, are you ready?

Marques Ogden:
I am.

Brian Kelly:
Of course you are. Yes, he is, Marcus Ogden. All right, here we go. Marcus Ogden. How do you define. Success.

Marques Ogden:
Success for me is our clients reaching and exceeding their goals. It's about everybody that we come in contact with and help or try to help gets excellent customer experience, which means from the time they meet us to the time the sales complete, it was efficient, it was professional, it was respectful, and it was done profoundly. So to me, success is our clients reaching and exceeding their goals and people that we come in contact with delivering excellent customer experience. So they know that if they work with us, it's the best decision they've ever made.

Brian Kelly:
Mhm. And right on point, as usual, there is not a single person. I've asked that question who said my definition of success is making X amount of money, not one, and you are no different. And yours was even more of it's all about clients. It's not about me. It's not about what I want from my life. It's what I want for other people's life. That is what defines you, Marcus. That's what makes you such a wonderful man, a human being that you've grown into. And I appreciate you for putting in the time and the effort because this just didn't happen overnight. You put in a you put in and went through a lot in your life. And kudos to you and for everyone watching. That's the kind of guy you want in your corner. He is the man that can help lift you up and pull you past the finish line. You're going to have to put in some effort and do some running as well. You got to put in the work. All you have to do is follow his direction and his his staff's direction. And you know, the recipe for success. He has it. All you have to do is follow it, listen to him, follow his instructions, connect with them. Get on that call. See if you're a fit during that call. That's a perfect time to do it. Just take action, please. And so before we close out for tonight, I just want to ask everybody to do two things. Two things, only two things. Number one, please go out there and crush it in your business. Why? Because when you do that you get to serve more people. And number two, above all else, and everything in between is please, everyone be blessed. That's it for us here on the Mind Body Business Show. On behalf of the amazing Marcus Ogden, I am your host, Brian Kelly and we will see you again next time. So long for now everybody have a great one. Thank you for tuning in to the Mind Body Business Show podcast at www. The Mind Body Business Show.com. My name is Brian.

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