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From NFL Glory to Entrepreneurial Grit: Marcus Ogden's Journey Through Adversity and Success
What happens when an NFL star's career ends, and the reality of life after football hits hard? Marcus Ogden, former player for teams like the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Baltimore Ravens, shares his awe-inspiring journey from the gridiron to the challenges of entrepreneurship. Starting from his college days at Howard University, Marcus paints a vivid picture of his dynamic NFL career and the tumultuous period that followed. Struggling with depression and addiction, he founded Caden Premier Enterprises, only to face leadership challenges and bankruptcy. His story is a testament to resilience, highlighting the highs and lows of life both on and off the field.
Marcus's journey didn't end there. A transformative moment in 2013 while working as a janitor catapulted him into a new life path as a keynote speaker and author. Discover how he leveraged his communication skills to inspire others, leading to the success of his books "Sleepless Nights" and "The Success Cycle." In our conversation, Marcus shares invaluable insights on ambition, drive, and hard work, underscoring the power of internal motivation. He also provides practical advice on maximizing outreach for personal and professional growth. Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur or looking for motivational fuel, Marcus's story offers powerful lessons on overcoming adversity and achieving success.
all right, marcus? Good morning morning. How are you, sir? I'm doing good. Thank you for for stopping by appreciate your time absolutely um. So, marcus, I wanted to, I wanted to talk, to get, get into it and and talk to you about um, you're an and you left the NFL. Well, actually, you know what I'm going to? Let you tell the story. Tell us a little bit about yourself.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, I'm from Washington DC. I went to Howard University and I ended up having a five-year career there. I redshirted my first season. I ended up getting drafted to the National Football League in 2003. I'm still, to date date, the only offensive lineman ever drafted from Howard University to the National Football League. We've had about 13 guys total get drafted 13 or so, maybe a little bit more. It was a great experience, though, man. I was drafted by the Jaguars and drafted by Jack Del Rio, who is now the defensive coordinator for the Washington football team. They've been struggling a little bit, but Jack's a good guy. I can help get him on the right track, and I played for Jacksonville, baltimore, buffalo, and then I finished up my career in Tennessee with the Titans under Jeff Fisher, played for some great coaches, man Mike Malarkey, dick Geron, brian Billet, of course, jack Del Rio. So for me, man, it was absolutely awesome to have that type of uh coaching pedigree to learn from throughout my uh career okay, now you only played in the nfl.
Speaker 1:For what? Five years? I think it was almost almost six years. Yeah, six years, okay. And then from the nfl, now you um, well, well, before we go on to that, your brother, jonathan, also played in the NFL. How was it getting drafted, man? How was that for the family when you got drafted as well? I'm assuming he's an older brother.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he is. So I'm 40, he's 47. So it was unreal man. Because I went to Howard to become an investment banker and work on Wall Street. I majored in business finance. I interned at Merrill Lynch in downtown Washington DC, right by the White House or probably about maybe a five-minute walk from the White House, and for me that was really what it was about. It was about going to school, getting education and going to be a professional businessman after I left the NFL and going to be a professional businessman after I left the NFL I'm sorry, after I left Howard University, but the NFL had a different plan for me and I was able to get drafted into the National Football League out of Howard. So it was an amazing.
Speaker 2:It was great for our family, because to have one son playing in the NFL and then you have two that are brothers, it's really a very rare. It's a little bit more well, it's common. It's happening more today. You've got the Long brothers did it. You've got the McCourty brothers that are doing it. You've got oh God, what was their name? I can't remember their name, but there's been a couple of the McDougal brothers that play NFL Stocker and his brother, jerome. So it's a couple of guys that are doing it, which is great to see, but it's not very common.
Speaker 1:I know. Ok, all right. So you left the NFL and then you started Caden Enterprises. So how did that transition happen and how did you start Caden?
Speaker 2:enterprises. So how did that transition happen and how did you start Caden? So for about six months, man, after I ended up leaving the NFL, deshae, I got to a really deep depression, dark depression, alcoholism, addiction, gambling, nightlife, and I was really just lost. You know, football was my whole identity for my entire life. I've been playing since I was 13 years old and then I'm there here, I am almost 28. So basically for 15 years, more than half my life, I have been playing the game of football, and when you don't have that anymore, it's kind of like gee, what do you do next? So after I stopped feeling sorry for myself, I ended up finding and starting Caden Premier Enterprises. We became the largest African-American subcontractor in the city of Baltimore and the state of Maryland in the area of site work. So we did site work clearing, grubbing concrete, some demolition, sediment erosion, control and we had some bumps along the way the first couple of years, but right around that third year mark we hit our stride and then we became an eight-figure business after that. So things were looking up.
Speaker 2:But unfortunately, as things look up, sometimes your ego can follow right up with you, and that's what happened to me, deshae. I got really ego-driven. I became very just egotistical. I became very self-centered and I became an individual that could not be talked to. You couldn't tell me how to do things, how to change things, how to look at things and, as a result of that, I made some really really bad mistakes and I lost some really really good people. That, in conjunction with a really bad job that I did, I ended up having to file a chapter seven complete bankruptcy in 2013.
Speaker 1:Wow. And so one of the things that I heard you say in one of your videos, marcus, was that you, you know, with the ego part coming into play and your business being successful, you was like man, you know I go in the late to the office and you know you weren't really setting the example for the rest of the people around you. So, so how much of that also, uh, played a role. Like you said, there was like complete mutiny or, you know, the people just started doing whatever they wanted to because leadership weren't there oh yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Leadership started with me and the the ability to not lead the company in a very inclusive, holistic, very welcoming environment started with me and it ended with me.
Speaker 2:And once I turned into that individual, like you said, that came to work late, left early, you know, I was more concerned about getting dollars in the door, not my people, not my people. I was more concerned about, you know, what we're going to make our next bug or get our next job, not about how to finish the jobs that we had and take care of our existing clients. And because of that, I ended up really just being in a bad, bad place and, like you said, that's you know my culture, how to say this, my lack of a healthy culture disposition that I brought to the office every single day ended up literally having everybody else pick up that same mentality and then they were just gone out the door. And then, you know, once everything hit the fan and that job really crippled all of our finances at that point was writing on the wall that we were going to be going under. Wow.
Speaker 1:So I can't imagine what that did to you from a mental standpoint as well. So you had that struggle when you left the NFL, then you started this company and then did you go through kind of the same emotions after when the company ended.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, you hit the same type of you know, that downward spiral, that victim mode, that poor Marcus, feel sorry for Marcus, poor this, poor that.
Speaker 2:And yeah, that's exactly what happened. And because of that, my mentality was I was somebody that was looking for people to make me feel like I was a good person that has made a bad mistake. In reality, I was a bad person that made an even more horrible mistake. So it wasn't like a good person made a bad mistake, I was a bad person who made a horrible mistake. So it was like to that next degree, to that next level and as a result of that man, you know, looking back on everything today, I was the main culprit in why we failed and I can honestly say that. And I was the main culprit in why the business hit such a negative downward spiral, because I was the individual that was having the mentality that Marcus is the best, Marcus knows everything. In reality, Marcus didn't know anything at all about the business. So there's two types of ethics you have personality ethics and you have character ethics.
Speaker 2:So character ethics are things like you know joy, you know humility, courage, patience, you know humility. You know things like that. You know love. You know all these different types of really strong character ethics. Then you have personality ethics rage, you know wrath, jealousy, envy, you know intimidation. These were all the traits that I exhibited.
Speaker 2:I was a personality ethic driven individual at that time. So I would yell at people all the time. I would try to pick fights. I would, you know, try to make my presence known. I'm also a big guy. I'm almost 6'6". I'm a big guy. I would really try to make that. I would try to intimidate people, deshae, because I knew deep down that I didn't know what I was doing. The intimidation was trying to get people to not look at my lack of knowledge in the business. It was trying to get them to focus on wow, marcus is really just a stern, tough leader. I was trying to be more of a stern, tough leader and it ended up backfiring because my people didn't respect me and I ended up losing a lot of my really trusted staff.
Speaker 1:Like I said, that was the beginning of the end at that time really trusted staff and you know that, like I said, that was the beginning of the end at that time. Yeah, interesting market Cause I just I was just having a conversation about, uh, leadership styles and because I'm I'm actually um, I have a team of 40 people, um, at a at the company I work for, so and there's a different manager and we were just I was someone was talking to me about that. We were just talking about the different leadership styles where this person feel the need to lead from a fair standpoint, where their employees have to fear them, and I said, you know, for some reason I don't want anybody to fear me. You know, I'd rather leave from a different place, but you know they say fear lasts longer, but it doesn't necessarily always work out that way.
Speaker 2:No fear will. It's kind of like this Fear will motivate people for a short time to get things done and you're somebody that people know they can come and talk to. That's inspiration for them to breathe life over a whole period of time. So you're breathing life into them for the whole time. They work for you, or really they should be working with you. So when you have that mentality, it's going to help you on a larger scale, which is exactly what I can tell you from a leader who tried to lead with fear, intimidation, rage, wrath Again, those personality ethics.
Speaker 2:It worked for a short time until my team got tired of it and then that's when they said okay, this is not the way it's supposed to be. I'm going to find another place to work today in our business. We have a business, we have a brand and we have about 10 people that work with us. You know with us as consultants, or you know our 1099 employees that you know they're not EW2 employees. They're not EW2 employees but they get paid every month a consulting fee and they're part of our team because we pay them every month and they work for us many hours a month to help our brand. And with those people. With those 10 people, there's never any rage, there's never any wrath, there's never any yelling, there's never any trying to intimidate anybody. We all come to the table trying to figure out what needs to be done to get better and I tell my team the only idea that you give me that's bad is the one you didn't tell me. That's it. There is no bad idea. And I've learned since the last, really the last two years, since the whole pandemic hit.
Speaker 2:You know, 2020, january. It'll be two years, oh, actually, almost it'll be almost two years January of next year. We went full-time in the business at January. I'm sorry. We went full-time in the business January 2022. Excuse me, we went full-time in the business January 2020. No, 2020.
Speaker 1:We went full-time in.
Speaker 2:January 2020. And so now it's almost been two years. So, the way that which we have because, again, man, like you know, I started this business of speaking in 2013. But, you know, I had, you know, when you just start out, you're not going to make any money. I mean, I started speaking, man, for you know, and for two and a half years two and a half years, not one paid job, not one. And so what I've learned is is that everything that I did in that time was to help me get you know, like I say, you know, build up the resume, build up, you know, my credibility. But I still had to work other jobs Custodian, I worked as a runner for a construction company.
Speaker 2:I worked teaching kids football, you know, in private lessons. I ran seven-on-seven camps. I did, you know, big man camps. I worked at a place I'm sure you've heard of Lifetime Gym. I worked at a Lifetime Gym here in our area during trackout camps, because in our area you can do what's called track out. You're in school for nine weeks, out for three and for nine hours. There's no summer break. So I worked there teaching football, all this stuff. I was a birthday clown at birthday parties, you know. I've done all these different things and I did that so I could continue to make money to pay the bills. And I did that so I could continue to make money and pay the bills.
Speaker 2:But in 2020, january, it was the decision that when COVID hit, I was like I really don't feel like I want to train people this time. And you know, this time they were saying you know, you can come in contact with somebody, the closeness, all that, and so I was teaching a lot of, you know, specific football position training. So I didn't want to do the interaction like that. And so I ended up doing was I said, okay, time to move out of that. And once that happened in January, at that time we full launched just doing this full time, which is speaking, coaching, consulting. We've written two bestselling books, we own parts of different businesses, you know, brand ambassador, we have our own podcast. So that's why I made the decision when COVID kind of became a big thing what was already a big thing in 2019. But when we knew more information about it January 2020, I decided to go full-time in this business.
Speaker 1:Okay, and your first book was Sleepless Nights Correct, sleepless Nights, okay, and you wrote that right about the time because I want to talk about the when you became a janitor right after your business failed, and so you, you had that moment with, like, tell us about that moment when you were a janitor and you went into this I guess the garbage and stuff like that.
Speaker 2:So in 2013, april, I moved here. I had a job at Merrill Lynch. After two months I was fired, all my fault, got a job at the next data construction company. Five days later, I was fired because they shut down the sales store to their operational part of their business. I'm out of a job.
Speaker 2:I ended up coaching kids football, like I said, as an entrepreneur doing football-specific training, and in August of that year, I realized that a lot of the kids were not going to continue to come because they had football season practice. So training was more of a luxury, not a necessity. And so, in September 2013, one of my clients had a custodian business, needed help and I couldn't find another side job. At the time, everything was like well, you know, fill out an application, we'll get back to you and this, this and this, and nobody was really hiring on the spot. So I took this job because she was hiring on the spot and I made $8.25 an hour, working from 10 PM till 5. Till 5 am on the graveyard shift.
Speaker 2:Now, in September 2013, near the end of that month, I ended up having my rock bottom moment of clarity, where somebody's trash rock me nasty banana pills got over my body, my skin and my clothes in my clothes. And that was my wake up call to make me realize if I don't get my life turned around today, I will be here for the rest of my life always blaming somebody else for my mistakes and my failures. And that's when I said, okay, what strengths do I possess? And I figured out I was good at communication, I was good at wanting to help people and I was good at communication. I was good at wanting to help people and I was good at storytelling. So that made me say, all right, let's try to be a keynote speaker. Launched the keynote speaking business in September 2013. Didn't get any paid jobs for two and a half years. During that time.
Speaker 2:We published our first book, sleepless Nights. We started working on it in October 2014. It was published exactly one year to the day later, october 2015. That following month, we got a call for a speaker inquiry from Miller Mott College in Wilmington, north Carolina. We're through the process. And my book well, our book was the lead generator because someone that was on the committee heard about my book, read my book, and then they contacted us for a potential opportunity. Met them, like I said, in November of 2016. I'm sorry, we met them in November of 2015, and we went through the whole process and then he agreed to hire me in February 2016. And the job took place April 2016.
Speaker 2:And then after that, I got coached a little bit, learned a little bit and now in the last five and a half years, we've worked for 27 Fortune 500 brands and of those, I think 13 are Fortune 100, several are Fortune 50, and a couple are Fortune 25. Financial planning, insurance, technology, food product education we have a very diverse, robust client group real estate, mortgages, titles and we're very fortunate that the story that we share that's my authentic story gets people's attention to capture their. From a stage presence perspective, it engages them where they're looking at what we're saying and they're listening to every word. And then what I also stress to people is, every time I give a presentation, there's going to be several action steps that you can use to educate you, to help you become better than what you were when you walked in the door.
Speaker 1:Okay, good stuff, man. And then you wrote the success cycle just recently.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was published January 28th of 2020.
Speaker 1:Okay, good stuff and that's available on Amazon and Barnes Noble.
Speaker 2:And it's also available in every Barnes Noble bookstore across the country. In the business section.
Speaker 1:Amazing, all right, and pretty much there's. I think that you said that there's three things you focus on for this particular book, which is ambition, drive and hard work.
Speaker 2:Let's creating your own picture your own process, your own design for your life. If you go through life with no ambition, no purpose, you're going to live a very not fruitful, not rich life, dry. It's all about being inspired, over motivated. Don't look for external motivating factors to push you forward. Money, fame, notoriety that will eventually burn out. Yes, celebrities have these things, but I've met a lot of celebrities that still have everyday problems like anybody else. They may have more money than people, but money does not mean you won't have problems. So if you're doing something for what I call the external motivating factors, not the inspirational giving hope to people, breathing life into people perspective, you will burn out. So that's drive, being inspired or motivated, and then hard work, focus on yourself, not the competition. How can you do things? Do these three things outpace, outsmart, outperform your competition. It's a Saturday morning. I'm going to be finishing up here with you in a moment, but I'm going to go with my daughter get something done for an appointment. But I'm here doing a podcast Started at 8.45 in the morning on a Saturday. That's outpacing people. It's like getting things done and not finding excuses.
Speaker 2:We had a chance to interview on our podcast 11 Market Show Coach Tom Ryan, who's the head wrestling coach at the Ohio State. He said champions find a way to get it done. People who are not find excuses. It's that simple. He wrote a book called Chosen Suffering, saying when you make the decision or the choice to be great in life and to have what you want and be the best of the best, you are signing up, whether you realize it or not, for chosen suffering, because you're going to have problems along the way. It's going to be struggles, it's going to be ups and downs, but you chose that when you chose the decision to go for greatness. So that's why I call this book Chosen Suffering.
Speaker 1:Wow. So you know what, marcus? I think what something you said in there is key, because I find that in today's generation, like with old, young, it doesn't matter. Today's environment, with the internet and social media, and you have the celebrities or guys who have some level of success posting their cars and all of this stuff, like one person said, they can make salt look like sugar, and so everyone now just wants to microwave success and they want to go from being, you know, having that job at McDonald's straight to driving a Ferrari because they see everyone doing it. What is that mindset you think they shift that we need to have for people to understand the hard work part of getting to success?
Speaker 2:They need to understand that every road to success has a road of going through difficult, hard times, and that's what it is Like. Here I am today, speaking for all these companies. We just bought a new home. On Monday, I'm in my new office in our new home. We've been renting man forever. When I moved to Raleigh in 2013, we were broke, almost homeless, bankrupt. I never thought I'd own a home again because I was just that defeated, that deflated. That was 2013. This is now 2021, almost 2022. And here we are today in our new home. Didn't happen like that. That's almost as.
Speaker 2:Between eight and a half and nine years of hard work Started the business, ups and downs, made some money, did this, did that, but nothing has been a straight line, nothing. And I feel people want to get the end result without putting in the hard work. Everybody's like man. I want to be the next Dr Dre and I want to be worth almost a billion dollars and sell my product to Apple Great. Do you want to be like Dr Dre when he was like trying to get out there and just starting Apple? And trying to get out there and deal with all the haters saying this will never work and people saying what are you thinking? Stick to rap, stick to music. You know, you got a career in there. You know, and he's like no, I want to do this, I want to do that also.
Speaker 2:You know, just like a guy I know who owns a company called Grunt Style, daniel Alaric, who now has a couple hundred million dollar a year company. He started selling t-shirts out the back of his car, of his trunk, going to military bases with grunt style and getting it onto soldiers and their families and basically giving it away right Then there he is and here he is today. But again, that's what, 20 years later, you know I'm now. You know it's kind of like. I remember the quote. I don't hope I'm going to uh that, uh, the um. The rock said that Bob eager told him building a brand takes 40 years to do so 40. So think about that. So if you want something quick and overnight and successful, go play the lottery.
Speaker 1:but that's why, when the lottery.
Speaker 2:Usually they don't. If they're not prepared for it, they end up burning out and blowing their money as well.
Speaker 1:Yep, that's true. Well, one of your quotes that I really like is the best leadership is learned through failure, because that is very true If you don't go through the process and you don't have some failures, you're not going to learn from them, and I think that it's key for anyone who's trying to build an independent business. Oh yeah, marcus, I know you got to run man, but I really want to say is there anything that you want to leave us with before you go and then tell people how they can get in touch with you if they want you to speak at their businesses?
Speaker 2:So I'm going to leave you with a quote from Aristotle and then his five keys to success. His quote in times of extreme darkness, focus on the light. Okay, now I'm going to tell you one thing real quick. How we in society today say you should succeed at sales is the following Establish an emotional connection. Sales is the following Establish an emotional connection, build trust, provide logic.
Speaker 2:Aristotle's five keys to succeeding at sales that he said over 3,000 years ago are the following. Number one is your character what people know you by your ability to show up and be a good person. Number two is going to be emotion. People need a reason to connect with you, like you, and if they do that, they're going to trust you. Number three, he said, was reason. What need are you filling for me? What problem are you solving for me? That's what you need to think about when you're trying to succeed at sales, as we all are trying to grow our own brands or for a company. Everything moves off of sales, but you have to provide the reason to why they should work with you or with somebody else.
Speaker 2:Number four is metaphors. People relate, he said 3,000 years ago, to stories, and he is 100% correct when people hear what I call the hero's journey. Everybody I know I don't know one person alive that doesn't know Rocky Balboa, because Rocky is that hero's journey. He fights different fights, gets beat up, gets knocked down, comes back. He wins. Those are the metaphors that people need to hear from you. What's your hero's journey, what's your saga? And five be concise. People have no time to waste. So his quote in times of extreme darkness, focus on the light, the way we say you should do sales today. Establish emotion, build trust, provide logic.
Speaker 2:Aristotle said over 3,000 years ago your character, bring emotion, establish a reason, use metaphors, be concise. So Aristotle, saying that, saying that then, and we're saying it today till the end of time, it will be this way. So I hope you take away from this interview that in life you must set a process to succeed. But I'm going to lean on Aristotle and I'll let you close out. Your character is the number one thing people need to see. Every relationship, deshae, starts out on faith. Through time you build trust and then, as you have trust with somebody, it goes forward. So again, you know, be sure that your character always shines through and if you're having a difficult time or hard time, which we all do focus on the light Amazing.
Speaker 1:All right, Thank you so much. So do you want to tell people where they can reach out to you? They can go to our website wwwmarcusogdencom.
Speaker 2:You can choose an email at Marcus at MarcusOgdencom. Follow us on all social platforms LinkedIn, marcus Ogden. Instagram at Marcus Ogden. Facebook Marcus Ogden. Twitter at Marcus underscore Ogden, and connect with us. We're an open book. We like to chat with people and let's have a conversation, see if we can help you or your company reach new levels and reach your goals and make those goals become accomplishments.
Speaker 1:Thank you, marcus. I'll be definitely following and I'll be reaching out again, man, thank you so much. Don't forget, follow us at the Daily Brag and we're again born, ready to achieve greatness. Man, this was amazing. Thanks again, marcus, and we'll catch up you.