NFL to Business : Marcus Ogden's Journey, struggles and transformation.

Ever wonder how an ex-NFL player could successfully transition into a podcast host, best-selling author, and sought-after business coach? Meet Marques Ogden, intriguingly candid about his rocky journey from the glitz of the NFL to the brink of financial ruin and then, a triumphant resurgence. This episode is an incredible peek into his radical transformation, how he beat addiction, overcame serious money issues and reshaped his life, all thanks to effective time management and an unwavering discipline to live by a schedule. Marcus generously shares his insightful strategies, unveiling how he juggles his various roles without dropping the ball, pun intended.

But this conversation isn't just about one man's journey. It's a treasure trove of wisdom about the power of alignment, capitalizing on strengths and balancing the personal with professional. Marcus provides valuable nuggets on identifying and aligning with the right people, understanding the value of a robust support system, and creating a cohesive strategy to maximize what you already possess. He also divulges his unique tips on creating a harmonious work-life balance without compromising on either front. So, whether you are an entrepreneur or just someone seeking motivation from a resilient figure, this heartening and enriching interaction promises to inspire you to instigate positive changes in your life. Tune in and come away enlightened!

Until next time... Follow on Instagram @buytimepodcast
Follow Jacob K. Mead on all the socials @jacobkmead

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Hey everybody, this is Jacob K Mead and this is the buy time podcast, where we discuss everything there is to know about buying back your time. Be sure to like and follow and share with somebody who needs to buy back their time. Enjoy today's episode.

Speaker 2: 0:15

Welcome back to another episode of the buy time podcast. I'm your host, jacob K Mead. I'm super excited that you're here today because we have an excellent guest, marcus Ogdenin. He is a former NFL player, host of the Get Authentic Podcast, his podcast that's ranked globally in the top 1% of all podcasts. He is a speaker, a three times bestselling author, a business coach and a consultant. He does it all, marcus, thank you so much for coming on today. I really do appreciate it.

Speaker 3: 0:46

Jacob, thanks for having me all. My friend, I'm excited to be here.

Speaker 2: 0:50

Wow, your story is just so inspiring. I was looking a little bit into it. Why don't we start with what brought you into what you're doing today? How did you go from being a NFL player to becoming a successful podcast host, an author and a business coach and consultant? I think that's such a great story. Let's start there.

Speaker 3: 1:12

Jacob? Great question. I got out of the National Football League after about six year career. I struggled immensely with addiction, alcohol, nightlife, gambling, other issues. I then put the bottle down and I found the Cayden Premier Enterprises. We launched as a small concrete contractor in Baltimore City. We grew to the largest African-American owned subcontractor in the area of site work. For two years in Baltimore City in the state of Maryland, we just were crushing it.

Speaker 3: 1:48

Unfortunately, jacob, as the company was skyrocketing, my ego also was going right up with it. I became very self-centered, very arrogant, very all about myself, all about the money. As a result, jacob, I ended up losing my best people, my money, my business, everything. It crashed and burned in 2013. I moved to Raleigh, north Carolina, where I currently live now. Today. I had $400 to my name and I was just trying to do anything and everything I had to make up just to make ends meet with my family.

Speaker 3: 2:27

I remember getting fired from two jobs in the same week and I took a job as a custodian working in downtown Raleigh for $8.25 per hour. When I took that job, I still had no accountability, no responsibility in my life. I ended up at that moment saying, wow, what's going on? I needed to get into a better place, but I still wasn't there yet. God said, okay, well, here is your rock bottom moment, with somebody's trash and rotten meat and nasty garbage right, you've got it on my body, my skin and my clothes. That was my wake-up call. At that time. I said if I don't change, I'm going to be here for the rest of my life.

Speaker 3: 3:14

Went home, broke down my three-figure strengths. I said oh, let's become a speaker. I was speaking in September 2013,. Got not one-page job for two and a half years. Got my first-page job April 2016. I got coached by the right coach, with the right blueprint, with the right plan, with the right steps. Now we've worked for over. We're close to signing our 55th Fortune 500 client. Now those 53 or 24 or Fortune 100, new York Life, metlife, the mutual insurance, intel, goldman Sachs, home Depot, equitable, jb Morgan and Chase Bank of America, just name a few. We are a three-author. We are a four-time best-selling author, we are a business coach, a consultant and, of course, a podcast host of Get Authentic with Marcus Ogden. What happened is what happened. You're right, jacob is. I had to finally wake up from my own mistakes, my own mishaps. Once I did that life got a lot better.

Speaker 2: 4:32

Oh, my goodness, that is so inspiring. I love that you just talk about how you got the mess of it all. You were in the mess and you were able to come out from that. It kind of goes to show you that no matter where you're at in life, no matter how down you're feeling and in the dumps, there's always a way out. Sometimes it's making it for you, or sometimes it's a door, or walking through that door and just going for it. I love that you did that, especially with your speaking.

Speaker 3: 4:59

Yeah, because here's the thing, right, jacob In life you only have one real chance, I feel. Once you find your calling to really pursue it, where you won't get up on yourself, can you go back to something? Of course you can, but most times when you do that you're a little bit frustrated, you're a little bit upset. When that happens you're not going to go in your best game, like me. Once I finally got the ability to be accountable and responsible, that's when things for me change for the better. But again it took that accountability and that responsibility shape down through the spoiled milk moment to get my life back on track. Once that happened, that's when greatness happened.

Speaker 2: 5:51

Oh man, I just love it. And now you have you know people that work for you. You have this whole team. So talk to me a little bit about time management. I know someone with your set of roles. It's very diverse, and so you're doing speaking, you're doing consulting, you're a coach, you're an author. So how do you manage your time? How do you go about that?

Speaker 3: 6:13

I live by my schedule, jacob. So if I have to be somewhere, it goes into my calendar on my phone. Or I live by my calendar or I live by my appointments. If it's not, in my calendar.

Speaker 3: 6:27

It doesn't happen. And I tell people all the time most athletes that I know, mainly in FL kind of a lot of those guys that I know other sports too, but mainly in FL from my experience that don't do well after the NFL are guys that don't have a calendar or a schedule to live by. So I've learned, jacob, to never, never, ever let my calendar run me. I'm always running my calendar and by doing that I'm always in position to be where I need to be and what I need to be, because time waits for nobody. I don't care who you are, how much money you have, how much fame you have. You can't stop the clock. You can't stop it. So if you're not going to be prepped and ready to execute when the time comes, time will pass you right on by.

Speaker 2: 7:20

Oh my gosh, I just love that you talk about that. I mean, one of the things that I talk about a lot is buying back your time and making sure that you have time to do the things that matter most to you. So, in your experience, how can you work with a lot of companies? And I know you do a lot of consulting. So how important is it for a business owner to understand the concept of really buying back their time, getting them to a point where they're working on their business versus working in it? I think I see so many times business owners. They're coming to me and they say I'm doing it all. I'm super stressed, I don't know how I'm going to keep doing all of this and they're just busy, busy, busy. And when I tell them, hey, like there's a process of getting your time back and it starts with relinquishing control, it starts with letting go and trusting your team. But how important is that?

Speaker 3: 8:08

Everything, because the human mind can do a lot of things but it can't do everything and the minute you try to do everything, all the time, something will get missed. So if you are listening to this podcast, you have to set aside money throughout your journey to invest in a team, because if you were trying to do it all by yourself, you won't make it Right. I was talking to my own. My podcast said there's a company that's three people and it's a billion-dollar business. It's run by three people. They have a lot of AI stuff like that, but still three people in a billion-dollar a year company. So everybody needs somebody. So if you're listening, you have to take time. You have to be sure to build the right people around you, otherwise you're going to at some point crash and burn. So if you want your time back, it starts with hiring and or bringing on the right people to give you your time back.

Speaker 2: 9:19

I love that and I mean it really is true. You have to make sure you have the right people on the team, but then you also have to make sure you have them in the right seat, because that's just as important. I had some of my podcasts while back and he said it's like it's like a bus. You know You're the bus driver. It's important to make sure you have the right people on the bus, but then it's more important to make sure you have them in the right seat. So I love that you talked about that and it's so true. For the longest time, I wanted to try and do it all on my own, and then that's when it clicked that hey, if I ever want to have time, freedom of time, I can't do it. It's impossible and I'm only setting myself up for failure trying to go at this all alone.

Speaker 3: 9:58

Oh yeah, and again, I love what you said people have to be in the right seats. So my exit. My internal manager, dawn, good friend of mine, one of my best friends, she was my first hire. Dawn did everything for me when she first came on New service, blogs, website, this that you know video photos I mean, she was a jack of all trades, the master of nut.

Speaker 3: 10:25

Over time we brought in George Website SEO. We have an app, the Marcus of the app. They came in right. Then we bought in Albert Trademarking patents, helps with leads, it helps how to close sponsors, and that was awesome. Then we brought in Ben and Ben helps as our external manager, right Outside stuff, looking at stuff on the website, writing press releases, going after PR, helping us with social media. She was awesome.

Speaker 3: 10:57

Then we brought in Donovan videographer health and photos, videos this that no, you name it right. Then we brought on social media team, then we brought on a caption writer. Then we have our account, that we have our bookkeeper, that we have our lawyer. I mean like so we have built this team since 2017, always bringing in here there, revolving new people there, but now we have our solid foundation virtual assistant. Helps me with all the things I need to do with, like the podcast Descriptions you name it right. But the point is right, jacob, is that we have finally found the right foundational rock pieces of a great business. We will build around them Constantly. We ball will pivot, will make adjustments, but I know my core team and they know me that we have, of course, our amazing podcast team and our podcast Production team multi-format network.

Speaker 3: 11:58

There's a result of that, hey, jacob, I am busier now Managing and leading people because I talked to 19 members, every single one of them individually, every week. More work for me. But that's the art and that's the beauty of being a business owner. Right, it's you gonna do it right, do it right. And so I don't have team means anymore because, again, we're a big team but not that big. So it's better for me to meet everybody individually, get what they need to get, take they can minimize their time, but we minimize what we maximize when we're together. But I'm not talking to them, like you know, for hours or promise. You know it's five, ten, fifty minutes max each week. Each person. Just stay in line, and so if you want to get there, better realize how important is to have the right people in the right seats. Oh.

Speaker 2: 12:50

My goodness, it's so true and I think something for our audience to understand is you don't always figure out who the right people are. You may make the wrong hiring decisions You're. You may hire someone that you thought was gonna be a great fit for your team and if it doesn't work out, it's simply that it doesn't work out. Don't feel bad, don't beat yourself up over it and say you should know them better. I think that's something I did early on in my my career is I didn't want to let anyone go because I felt like it was a reflection on myself and Learning that now, looking back on it, like it's not a reflection on myself. Some people may work out, some people might not work out, but figuring that out is important in an early aspect of your business.

Speaker 3: 13:26

Oh, my god, I've let go of several people right there, were actually good at what they did, but were cancerous or toxic. And did you know my team, or the people on the team of people that were always Constantly wanting to argue, constantly wanting to cause Problems, always wanting to constantly be negative, and I was like man can't do this. So I've let several people go from the team. You know who weren't off, who weren't really about the mission, the mantra Working together, building together, growing together. So, yeah, if you're listening, if you have to make somebody go, that's not something that you can say oh, wow, I wish I could saw that coming. Well, you know what, you didn't. You know I, there's time. I just see it coming in business. Okay, you know. So what? Right, but you see it now and that's all you can do.

Speaker 3: 14:14

Right, the old saying hindsight is 2020. Right, everybody could be a great Monday morning quarterback. Right. Again, it's life. Don't try to don't be yourself up where you did incorrectly. I have a saying right, jacob, you make a mistake, you own it, you fix it, you move on.

Speaker 2: 14:33

Yeah, oh my god, I love it. I own in your mistakes, especially if you're a business owner or you're in a lead position. It's one of those things where you have to own a mistake or own the responsibility. It falls on you, and it's okay. It doesn't necessarily mean that you're a poor leader. It means that we are all human, we all make mistakes, and I think the hiring thing was one that took me a while to understand it. And I love that you talk about toxic people and poisoning the well, because I've been there. I've had the same thing happen and it's like someone could be really good at their job, but if they're poisoning the well, then they're doing more harm than good, and that was hard to me understand. It's like you don't want to let go somebody that is doing a great job in their work but horrible when it comes to the work environment, and you know just the negativity. So I love that you talk about that. It's so true.

Speaker 3: 15:25

You know what, jacob? We were talking about this earlier, about the person you were chatting about. That's a prime example of someone who is not part of the culture of where Jacob wants to go and think about it Right. That's why Jacob is not where he really wants to be, because, culturally, around the aspect of the business and the aura and how you feel and where you're trying to go, you don't have that alignment, you don't have that support. We don't have that right, jacob, you're never going to hit optimal, maximum value and worth. It's impossible.

Speaker 3: 16:05

That's what tell my clients. What do you want? If I can help you, I'll sign you. If I can't help you, I don't want to work with you because I don't want. Now again, it's not no matter who has to be work, but if you're gonna work with me, I'm gonna help you, I'm gonna teach you, I'm gonna open up my resources to you, my network, my people, my friends, because that's how I do business.

Speaker 3: 16:29

Right, my clients become family. Good, I don't. If I can't like you as a person and I'm working with you, I don't want to work with you either. Right, I don't need to take on these Tom Vick or Harry or Sally, jessie or Mary to work with. We can do what we want. Like we're very selective. People love our show. Like I can be very selective. So again, right, jacob, in your situation the cultural aspect is not aligned. And because it's not aligned, you're pulling and he's pushing, or you're pulling and the other side, or you're pushing and he's pulling, it's never going where you guys are working together in a smooth motion. And until that happens, jacob, you won't hit optimal value. If you're listening, if you're around, people who are not aligned with you, not going where you want to go, are not trying to really help you, are opening up their resources to you beyond what you paid for to help me get maximum value. Those are people you should not be doing business with and or be hanging around.

Speaker 2: 17:33

I absolutely love that you talk about that because that's kind of the way I, you know. I like to make sure my business people that come on and my clients that they feel like they're getting more value than what they paid for. I want them coming to me after and goes, wow, you changed my life, you changed everything that I thought was possible and you made it a reality. Like that's what I long for, because I'm yeah, people might say you're a people pleaser. I am, I'm a people pleaser and that's the person I am. I've owned it and I've owned it to this day. Like I am a people pleaser.

Speaker 2: 18:05

I want to make sure that people are happy, but I also like fixing things. So I like fixing businesses. I like getting them to a point where they're turning around from, like always working in their business, so now they're working on their business and they have more free time, they can spend more time with family or they can spend more time doing what they want to do. So I really love that you talk about the alignment, because it's so true. I mean, I think about my clients if they're not aligned with the value of wanting more time back or they're not aligned with the value of what they're going to do with more of their time, then it's hard for me to coach them because I don't know what they really truly want.

Speaker 3: 18:42

So I love that you talk about that, because if you don't know what people want and where they want to go and what their weakness is and trying to get there, how can you help? Right, right, jacob, I know exactly what I would do to get you where you want to go, because you already have a lot of the great pieces in place, but what you need is a blueprint and a cohesive strategy to take advantage of what you already have, and that's what's missing. And once you do that and you execute, you know what you want to talk about. Do work with, work in, work on. Now we're getting somewhere, right. So, again, that's the part of a good coach, a good consultant, a good speaker. You know what your clients needs and you say, okay, I know what you need. Here is the plan to get you there. And, like I said, if I am not in full alignment with you, then I don't want to work with you, because I don't want your money if I can't help you.

Speaker 2: 19:46

I love it. It's so true. I mean money. Money is powerful, yes, but you know those connections and actually truly having that feeling of helping someone is so much more. I mean so much more. So let's talk a little bit about some advice for our audience. So you've obviously been in a lot of different roles throughout your career, and what's some advice you can give our audience who's really looking to take it to the next level? They don't entirely know what that looks like, but they're listening and saying, hey, I think I want to try something different, but I don't know. And they have all these fears and anxiety that overwhelms them. What's some advice you can give to our audience, because I think it's so important? I think there's people out there that are listening and they're saying this is something I want to do, or I've always dreamt of doing this, but they don't make a move because fear and anxiety overwhelms them. So what's some advice you can give our audience?

Speaker 3: 20:41

So what I would tell them is to follow right. You need to truly, truly know and figure out what you do best, what are your strengths, and build off of that. Fear comes into play when you really don't know if the skill sets you have will help you do the job you are about to do. So if you're struggling or trying to get ahead or trying to move out of that paralysis phase, figure out what you do best. Once you do that, then take it and reverse engineer backwards to what you want to do with your life. Once you do that and find what we call your passion, your calling or your purpose, now you can live life much more fulfilled because you understand what it is that you need to do to get where you need to go.

Speaker 2: 21:39

That is. That's so true. I mean, I just thought thinking back. I did an episode on my podcast called embracing your strengths and I talk. I talk about how you need to embrace your strengths and let your weaknesses be your weaknesses and outsource and hire people that can help you in your weakest area. And it took me the longest time to learn that, because I'm the person that if I'm not good at something and it's a weak spot, like, I want to try and fix it and I want to put all my energy towards that because I want to get better. And then I realized that you know what, if I'm not that person but that's not truly who I am then I'm spending so much time, so much energy to try and change the person that I am into someone that I'm not. And so I started focusing all my time on my strengths and saying this is my strengths and anything else that's not my strength. I hire out for it, the outsource, and I've come a long ways that way. So I love that you talk about embracing your strengths.

Speaker 3: 22:35

Yeah, you have to. And again society tells us well, what are you weak at? Let's fix that. Every client I work with first call tell me your story, Tell me your strengths, what are you good at? Then tell me, what do you want to improve on. So we build from there. But I purposely start with everybody what is your strength, what are you good at? I'm a first engineer From there.

Speaker 2: 23:14

Oh, so good, Love that stuff. So let's talk a little bit about balancing time. We have our personal life Everyone has a personal life out there and then we also have our work life, and for me, I have work life, which is my business, and then I also run a second business and I have a family, and then I need the me time that everyone talks about. That never happens. But talk a little bit about what's some advice you can give our audience about balancing personal life work. What's some things that you found that work?

Speaker 3: 23:50

For me, I live by my schedule and I get my work done. And then I put in my schedule my personal time with my daughter or friends, or going out or doing what I want to do for me Right, I live by this. If I'm working, I'm working. If I'm with family or with friends, I'm with family or friends Right, I don't mix the two that I used to. And today I'm a lot happier because I can understand how to live by that calendar, quote, unquote. And as a result of that, that's when I'm always putting myself in a position where I'm never, ever short changing myself, either on the work side or on the personal side, because I'm not interminable in the two. And again, I'm in St Louis State for a big speaking job for an awesome client, buckingham Strategic Wealth. I'm working, right, and I do have a little bit of time here. After this podcast I've got a couple of work calls. I'll do?

Speaker 3: 24:53

I'll check with some of my team, all that. I speak today at 2.45 central. I'm done at 3.45. I may go to Puttshack with my client and call that work to network, meet people and all that which I'll have to think about by, probably. Well, for a little bit. But I got to fly out tomorrow back home to Raleigh and I've got things to do where I then come five o'clock tomorrow night. I've got in there. Okay, I'm going to do this and I have a, then I have this and I have that and I'm putting in there on my purse. I've got a date. I've got a date tomorrow night. That's in my purse.

Speaker 3: 25:25

Life I'm divorced, getting myself back out there, boom, I'm done with my schedule. Once it's time to have that date, I'm done. I'm with that date. I'm having fun getting to know her, getting to experience what's going on, see if we can connect. Boom, you know what I'm saying. I'm home, I give it a morning. The gym I'll be up at 4.30 in the morning for basketball hall and fight with 4.45 for basketball, 5.30. Lift the other thing, work back to work.

Speaker 3: 25:50

I have another day on Thursday night, right, and you put it into your schedule and that's what I live by and by doing that I can see that in my schedule all the hard work of the day leads me to actually having fun in my personal life being a great dad with my daughter or being out with friends, and by living that work-life balance, I never feel that I'm missing something or I'm not showing up when I'm supposed to be somewhere.

Speaker 2: 26:19

I love that and I think I'm guilty of it because I will, I believe. I try and leave all my work at work and go home and have family life, but then I also find myself oftentimes not grabbing my phone and spending a half an hour or an hour back on my phone doing something work-related. And I love that you sit there and you separate it and you say, hey, work's work, family's family, and when you're at one, you're fully focused on that. So, whether it be work or whether it be family, that's where all your energy is at that time. So I really do appreciate you talking about that.

Speaker 3: 26:56

Oh yeah, you don't want to miss something when you're there 100%, and that's how I feel.

Speaker 2: 27:02

I don't want to miss out, especially on my kids. They're young, they're four and one year old, so I don't want to miss out on that opportunity. But then part of me, I feel like I am because I get pulled away from work. So I think I could do a better job at that. I'm thinking most of our audience could do a better job at that. Probably why they're listening is how to get their time back and how to actually manage it better, and this is one way is, guys, I'm being honest with you.

Speaker 2: 27:29

All right, I'm not perfect. I make these same mistakes as all of us do, but this is why we come together and we learn the tricks, we learn the traits of what we can do to improve so we can actually be like you were talking about, in alignment with what matters most to us and to me, that's family, and to me, that's being able to wake up and not worry about the day and just know that I can conquer the day. So I love that. Hey, marcus, I just wanted to say one more time thank you so much for coming on the podcast. You know you've shared so much great knowledge what some things our audience can do to support you. How can we help you?

Speaker 3: 28:10

A great thing, jacob, is go check out our podcast. Get Authentic with Marcus Ogden, apple, spotify, google, iheartstitch or Pandora. Give us a five star rating and a review if you enjoy the content, and also you can download our new app, the Marcus Ogden app. It's on Apple phones. Google is going to your app store. Boom. Type in my name M-A-R-Q-U-D-S-O-G-D-E-K. It'll pop right up and, yeah, connect with us and there and reach out to us and check out our podcast, download and follow us with our app and just connect with us anytime.

Speaker 2: 28:51

The Get Authentic podcast. Go download it, follow them, give them a five star rating if it helps you out at all. I know it's helped me and I know it continues to help me. I always look forward to the episodes whenever they pop up on my iPhone. So definitely go give it a follow, give it a like, give it a share and again, thank you so much for coming on today's podcast and just sharing your knowledge. We really do want to thank you and we want to support you as much as we can. And, guys, if you are struggling with time management or you're struggling with wanting to get working on your business versus working in your business, that's what I'm here for. Reach out to me, connect. I'm on all the socials at JacobKMead and until next time, thanks for listening to today's episode.

Speaker 1: 29:33

My name is JacobKMead, and until next time.