E42: Discover the Power of Authenticity with Marques Ogden

Jim: What is up Remote Start Nation? Let's get something started. I'm Jim Doyon, your host, and I wanna welcome you to another episode of Remote Start. On today's episode, I'm bringing in Marques Ogden. He's the owner of Ogden Ventures, LLC. He's an international keynote speaker, business coach, consultant, brand ambassador, and he also has his own podcast, Get Authentic, which has done really well from the start, and I'm looking forward to continuing to follow it and see all the good things that Marques puts out through that. So, without further ado, I'm really excited to have this conversation with Marques today on getting Authentic and what that means. So, Remote Start Nation, let's welcome Marques. Marques, how are you man?
Marques: I'm doing well, Jim. How are you?
Jim: I'm doing fantastic, thank you for asking. Thank you for taking the time outta your busy schedule to meet with us, and I cannot wait to hear all the value you're gonna share with the Remote Star Nation today.
Marques: Look forward to it, man. Thanks a lot for having me on, I'm excited to get things rolling.
Jim: Sounds good. So let's get started. Tell me a little bit about yourself, how you got started on your journey and what you're up to.
Marques: So my name is Marques Ogden. I'm from Washington DC I live now Raleigh, North Carolina, I'm a former NFL athlete and after I got out the NFL, I got into construction and I built this massive business that unfortunately, Jim, I lost everything cause of my ego, my bravado moved to Raleigh, North Carolina with $400 left to my name after I paid movers and my rent and deposit, all the things you need to do to move. And I ended up working for Merrill Lynch for a short time, I got fired from that job, all my fault, went to a construction company the next day, fired from that job five days later, the only job I could get was a custodian working in downtown Raleigh for $8 and 25 cents an hour, which is hence why one of our keynotes is titled The Ego Mistake From Eight Figures to 8.25 per hour, I had an eight figure construction company that I lost everything, and I had a rock bottom spoiled milk moment where someone's trash and rotten meat and nasty protruding garbage going by my clothes, my skin, my body, and that was my wake up call, and looking back at that, one of my favorite quotes of all time is by JK Rawling, you know, JK Rawling, she's this amazing, you know, she wrote Harry Potter, the whole Harry Potter, you know, process and you know, book. And she says, rock bottom is the moment that I started to rebuild my life. And she wrote Harry Potter in her car, and what is absolutely insane is that thinking about my rock bottom moment, I was on the curb crying my eyes out, and I lost everything, everything. And I had completely no money, I had nowhere to go, I had nothing to lean on, it was just me, my fiance, and my stepdaughter. And I had to get up off that curb and realize that I'm gonna get my life back, it starts with me, which is accountability. So I started the train of speaking after going home and figuring out what three things I do best and I try to create opportunity for myself, start speaking in 2013 September, didn't get a paid job until April of 2016. So September, 2013, started speaking, didn't get a paid job until April, 2016, two and a half years, got my first paid job, klearned the business, learned how to become better at value, so the last six and a half you know, years, now almost going on seven years since I got my first paid job, it is really, really interesting that in this regard, we have now worked for 48 Fortune, 500 brands as a speaker. We are a coach, a consultant, we have a business, we own parts of different businesses that align with our brand, and we've worked really, really hard to get to this point. And now we have a podcast which is globally ranked, right Jim, in the top one and half percent worldwide, most popular. And we've been only out for six months total with our podcast, we got that achievement in the first two and a half months of our show being launched.
Jim: That's incredible. Thank you for sharing that, and to go from nothing to where you're at now is incredible. Something that you said really stood out to me, you said that you sat there on the curb, you thought of the three things that you were best at and you started to really, you know, it sounds to me like you sat there and it allowed you that time to focus on you and your best strengths before you can move forward. Can you hit on that a little bit more?

Marques: Yeah, so what I did was I ended up going home and I sat down at my Walmart broken flimsy table that was just run down and was just like on his last leg, and I said, okay, what can I do to get myself out of this position? I'm a good communicator, I'm a good storyteller, and I want to help people. That's what launched the speaking business. A good friend of mine named Gary Laney wrote a book and it's called Let Tie Write, the Power of Strategic Influence. It's called The Power of Strategic Influence, and he talks about in the book Opportunity, and he says that in order to really maximize opportunity, figure out what you do well and leverage that. And that's what I did. Now, Looking back on it, I would've totally approached it differently, you know, or how I do that, I wouldn't change anything of the trajectory, I would approach things differently at night, not trying to always ask for $10,000 or $20,000. I mean, all, and I had never done a job, paid it off in my life. I would've been a lot more humble, a lot more, starting at the bottom mentality, but I overpriced and overvalued myself like, well, I'm a former NFL athlete. I lost everything they're gonna wanna hear from me. And realizing today that where our value is we were top in the NFL, came down, lost everything, and then trying to go back up, hit a snag, problem is I was trying to do speaking as I was going back up, but I wasn't up yet. So trying to charge like you're at the top, but you're really like more like a level two or three, You're not at 10 or 11 or 12. You're not gonna get the value that you think you're gonna get. So I ended up having to really realign myself. Now, today I'll get the 10, 20, $30,000 speaking jobs. But again, it's really huge in that regard. So that's kind of where, you know, it is, it's gonna be, and all that kind of stuff. So yes, letting people know that you have to figure out your strengths, leverage them, and build from there.
Jim: That's excellent, I appreciate that. There's a lot of, you know, layoffs right now in the economy, there's a lot of, you know, talk of recession, there's a lot of things that, you know, I think a lot of people are scared right now. A lot of people might have just lost their job and they're looking at starting their own business or, you know, they're, business isn't where they think it, it, it should be. At this point, to your point that you just made about, you know, being humble and maybe taking jobs for, not at the top of the price range, but just getting your foot in the door. What advice can you give the remote start nation in regards to, you know, understanding your strengths and then utilizing that and, and really keeping that ego in check?
Marques: First things first, check your ego at the door, number one. Number two, figure out what your customers or potential customers problems, struggles, issues are. Third, come up with a solution to those problems. A lot of times what happens is, people do not check their ego at the door, then instead of trying to figure out what the potential client or their clients need, they give all these solutions, all these things that I tell you that I can do, I can do this, I can do that, that's great. I don't need that, I don't need you to help me with this or this, since you can't help me with what I need, it's not gonna work out. So I'm gonna give your audience some really great advice, figure out what the potential client needs first, what they want and what they need. Figure that out. Then come up with ways that you can create solutions and then if necessary, you cash in favors and then do what? Charge for your services, but again, trust me, I know it's scary out there, I get it. Economy, recession hard times and what we are trying to do with our brand is create multiple streams of income, speaking, coaching, consulting, books, brand Ambassador, Podcast sponsorships. We're always pivoting, creating ways of value, but what I tell people is the Brand's Foundation is built on serving our clients' needs, their wants, and giving them solutions. So what? That they can expeditedly, create revenue for themsleves, profit for themselves and achieve their targets. So I hope your audience gets, is that they need to be sure before they're going out, telling everybody what their services are, that they understand what the client or potential client's needs are first.
Jim: That's, I like to put as figuring out your perfect customer. Who do you wanna serve? And really, really, really understanding them, you know, and then and that you just hit that on the head. I mean, that's, that's absolutely great advice, and I appreciate that. Let's talk about being authentic. What does being authentic mean to you?
Marques: Being authentic means to me, being unapologetic and being okay with who you are and internally looking inside of you first. Go internal, then if you can't solve a problem, create a solution, then go external. So many people are looking for external validation, you look great, you have this, you have the nicest car, you have the nicest house. Great, it's awesome. But what do you think? So like for example, I'm in the process now of starting to buy a dream home that I want. Is it gonna be a little bit big for me? Yeah, probably, but you know what? That's okay, that's what I want. I'm not buying a home to show off for other people, I've always wanted a home that was big, so I have, you know, my daughters and I want now that we're, and here's the thing, I work from home, so I like to have my own office, I love to have a podcast room in my home, like, you know, I'm gonna use the space in my home because I work from home, right. And then I have two, I have a daughter and a stepdaughter, and they're always, you know, always, you know, with me or then I have friends over. So I've always wanted space and I wanted to have a nice pond in the back. I've always wanted, since I've grown up, I don't talk about a whole lot, but that was one of my dreams growing up. Well, now I have the opportunity to achieve that. So, I work really hard, I don't spend money on a lot of things, I'm not a, I mean, I am buying some nice things to myself now, clothes, things like that, but I'm very modest. I mean, I'll go to an outlet. I went to an outlet yesterday, Jim, or two days ago. I spent like two 50 bucks, I bought two pair Air Jordans, I bought six pair, shirts from Brooks Brothers, and a couple shirts from Banana Republic, for two 50. I mean, I'm never gonna get that anywhere else, right. So, but I shop really smart, ‘cause the one thing I've always wanted authentically was the home of my dream. I don't have to have flashy cars anymore, I mean that, that don't matter to me, right. So authenticity is knowing who you, what you want and being okay and not worrying about others, think they might judge you how they look at you, and don't seek validation from external people, ‘cause you're always gonna come up short.
Jim: I love that. And for new, for people starting a business, something, and even CEOs that have a business and maybe they need to take a step back, something that I always, you know, try to help un to understand is that a lot of times you have to, you have to understand yourself, and what you want before you even get to that customer point or understanding your customer and their needs because it, a lot of times I feel, and tell me if you agree with this or not, but if you can be happy and authentic with yourself and you're not seeking that validation, then you can truly find the customer that's the right fit for you because you're confident in what you want and what you're looking for, do you agree with that?
Marques: I agree with that, but also add, be confident in what you can perform, and don't try to conform to something that you're not capable of doing. Now, great quote by Steve Jobs. Someone asked you to do something, say yes. Figure it out later. Now, to a degree, I agree with that. Now, somebody asked me, Hey Marques, can you put together a coaching program for our, for our institution? Yep, I sure can. Do I have it now? Nope. Can I create it? Hell yeah. Marques, can you help us, you know, you know, create, an engine for the NASA spaceship. Absolutely not, no, I cannot, and I'm not even gonna try. So what I mean is, Jim, is that if it's in your stratosphere, but you don't have it like done today, do like Steve Jobs said, say yes, figure out how to get it done later, but if you really don't know how to do something and you really have no expertise at something, and you know, no matter how long it takes, you won't figure it out, let it go, move on. And I feel that when you're being authentic and know who you are, what you want, and what you can perform, that's when things get great, right. I know I have a lot of different things under the umbrella of our brand, but they all relate. Speaking relates to coaching, relates to consulting, it relates to our books, relates to only parts of businesses, it relates to a podcast. Now I'm not out here doing, you know, speaking and then running a restaurant, or speaking and then like, you know, trying to run a movie theater or speaking and then trying to like be a lawyer, I mean, or an accountant, I'm not gonna do all that because that makes no sense. So what I'm getting at is people need to just understand who they are, what they're capable of, and what they want. And when you have those three things, right, Jim, that's when everything will start to run smooth, and work itself out.
Jim: Absolutely. You have a keynote speech on that you call Drop The Poker Face, Selling Requires Authenticity, and it reminds me a lot of what you just discussed. Can you go deeper into that?

Marques: Yeah. This talk is teaching people how to market, and be unique, it's all about branding. So branding is who you are and what your brand is all about, it's the essence of who you are as a business, as a business owner, and that's what people recognize you as, like the golden arches is the brand for McDonald's, the swoosh is the brand, it's the bra, it's the bread for Nike, and that's what it's all. So again, what we really are trying to do is teach people how to authentically be themselves, don't try to be somebody else, don't try to compare yourself to the competition, don't worry about competitive market analysis, right? Don't focus on what everybody else around you's doing, know what you can do, and then authentically create your messaging, create your content around who you are, and be real and be vulnerable. People can tell if you're full of it. I've helped you all the time. I have failed many times, I failed in my construction business, I failed trying to start a clothing line. I failed, try to start a consulting company, and now here we are, but Warren Buffet says it best if a person hasn't failed three times. In his eyes, he won't invest in them. He said, because if you haven't failed three times, you haven't figured out how to be successful, truly because you really learned from failure, right? So again, I'm very honest with that. I mean, I hit rock bottom, had four dos to my name, I had a zero credit score having to start completely over from the ground up, I had to, I mean, it was everything you can think of that I had to go through. So that's where the authenticity and the vulnerability comes through through our speaking, coaching, consulting, ‘cause a lot of coaches or speakers out here, unfortunately it's gonna tell you the good, but I'm the guy's gonna tell you everything. Cause again, if you haven't gone through the bad in my eyes as a coach or consultant, then honestly I probably don't wanna hire because if crap hits the fan, you're not gonna know how to handle it.
Jim: Yeah, that's great advice. And you travel all over to give these keynote speeches. Is there, do you have anything coming up in the near future that, is it all private that through, companies?
Marques: it's a little bit of everything. So I've got a private job for a big client, it's not a company, it's like a private dinner this weekend in San Antonio. I've got a couple big jobs coming up next month, actually I've got another job coming up for Gray Bar this month, they're a Fortune 500 company, they do like, fiber optics, I'll be heading up to, Louisville, Kentucky for a large realtor company, it's a Remax, premier properties, franchise owne, I'll be heading to St. Augustine, Florida for a big private group, it's called The Power Room, talking to their team, I'll be heading to Washington, DC for NAIFA, which is the National Association of Insurance and Financial Analysts. That'll be in Washington, DC, I've got a couple big jobs for company called Buckingham Strategic Partners, I'll have one job that's gonna be in, Colorado Springs, Colorado. The other job is gonna be in St. Louis. I've got a big job for a company called, oh, the Carson Group, speaking for them in Nashville, you know, at their big conference. So, I mean, very, very fortunate, right now I've got a big job in, St. Petersburg, Virginia for a company called LX Council, and we're always just out marketing and we're always out grinding because no matter, I would say all the time, if no matter how hard you work, if you stop marketing, people will forget you.
Jim: That is so true, you have to stay relevant, always.
Marques: Always.
Jim: What's one piece of advice that you can give, we're gonna go through these three ways, like, number one, for someone that's just starting out, for someone who is looking to start their business, they don't know, you know, maybe they have an idea what's the one key piece of advice that you can give to someone in that position?
Marques: Figure out what you do well and then create your business off that strength, like Gary says in his book, the opportunity is gonna be created off the strengths you possess, figure out those strengths and build from there.
Jim: Now, let's look at someone who has a business, they've started, they're generating revenue, let's just say they're doing, you know, maybe, you know, six figures high, six figures low, seven figures in their business, and they're looking to take it to the next level, what advice would you give?
Marques: Make sure that you are scaling the business with these four areas, strong marketing, sales, operations, finance. If you wanna scale any business, if all four of those are super, super strong, then you can scale especially the operations side because that is the execution of the business. So you wanna make sure all four of those are tight and ready to roll if they are, scaling is much more achievable.
Jim: That's, that's great advice. What about the third case where it's an enterprise level and you've got a lot of teams and you're just looking at building and building strength from within your organization. What kind of advice would you have for that leader?
Marques: Hire the right leaders. When you're big like that, it's out of you hailing everything yourself. If you don't have the right people, if you don't have the right leadership in the right positions, it will come back to bite you in the ask. So be sure that you've got key players in the right positions to continue to grow and scale your enterprise to the levels that you.
Jim: Excellent. Thank you so much, Marques. Marques, where can we have the Remote Start Nation find you? If they're looking to listen to your podcast, if they want to book you for a keynote speaking engagement, what? Where can they find you?
Marques: And go to our website, www.marquesogden.com. They can also shoot me an email, Marques@marquesogden.com or check out our podcast, Get Authentic with Marques Ogden. We're on Apple, Spotify, Google, iHeart, Stitcher, Pandora, we're also on YouTube. Check us out, get in touch with us, we would love to connect with you. 
Jim: Excellent. Thank you so much for that. Is there anything else in closing that you'd like to say before we go today?
Marques: One of my favorite quotes by Aristotle, in times of extreme darkness, focus on the light. And what I believe he meant was, we are the light, we need to focus on what we can do to get out of darkness. Again, look internal first, then go external second.
Jim: Excellent. Thank you, Marques. From the bottom of my heart, I appreciate you hanging out with me today and spending time and for all the value you, dropped from myself and the Remote Star Nation. So thank you so much.
Marques: Thanks for having me on, Jim. Appreciate it.
Jim: Absolutely. Remote Star Nation, remember, leave a comment, subscribe and share this episode with anyone in your community who you think can learn from what you heard today. Until next time, go start something, start today and go build that lifestyle you desire by taking action!