Blaze Your Own Trail - Episode 3: Life After The Gridiron with Marques Ogden

Episode Date: January 13, 2020

In this episode, Marques talks about: The NFL Teams & Coaches he played for. What he did after a career ending injury. How his first business failed. What his pivotal moment was. What he is up to now. Growing up in a single parent home with a father that inspired perseverance and fairness, Marques Ogden learned how to define his values and set goals. Ogden attended Howard University from 1998-2002 where he played Division I football. He then followed his dream and his brother Jonathan’s footsteps, eventually getting drafted into the NFL in 2003. Overall, he played for 5 years as an offensive lineman with the Titans, Bills, Ravens and Jaguars. Even during the off season, Ogden helped train football players in Europe, both physically and mentally. Website: https://marquesogden.com/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marquesogden/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarquesOgdenSpeaker/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marquesogden/ Installing strategic sales systems & processes will stop the constant revenue rollercoaster you might be facing which is attainable through our 6 Week Blazing Business Revenue Coaching ProgramBook a discovery call with Jordan now to learn more! Are you an entrepreneur?Join my FREE Group Coaching Community where we have live calls, Q&A and more! Our Trailblazer Ecosystem also enables you to network with other entrepreneurs and creator hub eliminates multiple subscriptions and logins creating a one stop shop to take action!Use code: FOUNDING100 for 12 months access FREE and Founding pricing for life! (While Supplies Last)Join now! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this episode, we talk about the NFL teams and coaches that Marcus played for, what he did after a career-ending injury, how his first business failed, what his pivotal moments were, and then what he's up to now. So I really hope you enjoy. This is such a awesome conversation. Hey, welcome everyone to the Blaze Your Own Trail podcast. I'm your host, Jordan Mendoza. And today I've got a very special guest. His name is Marcus Ogden. And I'm going to live. let him take just a couple minutes for those you that don't know the Ogden name and let him introduce himself. Thanks a lot, Jordan. Again, my name is Marcus Ogden. I'm a former NFL athlete played for almost six years in the National Football League. I have an older brother, Jonathan Ogden, who was the Ravens' first draft pick ever. He's actually their first ballot Hall of Famer ever as well. And we're from the Washington, D.C. area. Grew up in a household with both our parents, and then around the time I was eight years of age, my brother was about 14, our parents divorced, and we were raised by a single

father for the remaining of that time. And I tell them all the time, being raised by single dad was phenomenal because we learned a lot of life lessons about how to respect ourselves, respect women, how to be hardworking. But most importantly, we learned how to blaze our own trail and take advantage of opportunities that life gave us and not just always sit around and complain about what you don't have. Go out there and take advantage of things that come your way and stop talking about what never ever drops in your situation or doesn't even come your way. Know what I mean? That's awesome. And I'm so glad that you brought that up and being raised by, I was in a situation where I was raised by my mom and my stepdad.

And I actually didn't meet my dad until I was 12 years old. So I didn't have that strong role model. So, you know, it's nice to hear that there are people out there that it was the opposite, right? It wasn't mom that raised you. It was dad. And when I got the opportunity to meet my dad who actually lived in D.C., strangely enough, 28th Street, Northwest. I'm very familiar with Metro D.C. he actually lived over by St. John's High School.

Over on Military Road, you familiar with military. That's why I went to high school. Oh, really? Okay. Yeah, so I spent most of my summers from 12 years old up until about 21 in that area. And, you know, he came from the Philippines in the 80s, wanted a piece of that American dream. He worked for a landscape company and then decided to start his own business, which he's had for 40 years. Wow.

And so, you know, so let's talk about life after football, right? Because you're in the league and and for the audience that doesn't know your story. Can you just tell us which teams that you played that you played for? Sure. I was drafted by the Jaguars by Jack Dario, who I know since I was about 17 years old, he was the Ravens linebacker coach. Then I would play for the Ravens under Brian Billock, a phenomenal team that I went to the Bills and played under Mike Malarkey. and Dick Duran, which was phenomenal. And then I sat out for a little bit because our father passed away, came back, and then went to the Titans,

and I actually blew my back out, and then that was the end of my career. So, again, I played for, you know, those four teams throughout my six-year, almost six-year career, and it was great. I mean, it was phenomenal. But just like anything else, man, it's just always your body takes such a beating,

and it's so hard to sustain a high level when you're, you know, when you go through a lot of things I was going through with my father passing away, some other difficult things going on. Still, you don't make it because you have a job to do. But still, that's why I tell you all the time, you need to understand that if you're playing sports, which is great, it's not going to last forever. So you have to start preparing for that next move. So you can actually start to blaze your own trail and know what you want to do with your life whenever that sport that you're playing is over. And that's awesome. And, I mean, the people that you just name for the listeners out there that are sports fan, I mean, these are Hall of Fame coaches.

Like, these are people that, I mean, I look up to as a fan and the fact that you were able to get that knowledge from them. I mean, how much is that meant to you in your business career? Oh, it's been phenomenal. I mean, Jack DeRio told me this. Always be your own CEO. That's what I got from Coach Del Rio. Brian Billock always said, nothing good happens on the street. after 12. So I learned about accountability, being, being dependable to myself and always not putting

myself in a bad situation. Coach Malarkey always talked about you're going to practice like you play. And we were in pads until week 16, you know, each year. But that's the way it was. And that's the way he ran the company, the football team. But that's how I ran my construction company when it was successful. That's how we are running our business today as a speaker, consultant, you know, author, trainer. We work every single day. I mean, today's what? It's Saturday at 2 o'clock.

What are we doing? A podcast to help your brand and help our brand. That's work every single day. And then Coach Fisher was really about getting things done, but having that mental mindset adjustment to know exactly what you need to do when you need to do it. So about having that quick mindset shift to get things executed at a high level. Again, the same things that I've done in football, construction, and now speaking are now in my second book, which we'll talk about a little bit called the success cycle. Every time I put the success cycle into my life, which is ambition, drive, and hard work, joy.

Jordan, every time I did that, I've had success. So those four individuals taught me so much, along, of course, you know, Coach Geron as well. And Geron was all about just accountability. Like, you know, if you're going to say something, you're going to do it. I mean, if you don't say, if you say it and don't do it, don't think anybody to take you at your word ever again. Since that's simple. It's like Belichick says, do your damn job. Like, that's his saying, do your job. That's it. That's awesome. So, you know what I mean? So that's kind of the things I learned, Jordan throughout my career that really helped me transition into my business career. That's awesome. And so I know a little bit about your story. And a couple minutes ago,

you said with the construction company, and this is very important, you said when it was going well, because there was a time, right, Marcus, when it wasn't going well. And so can you tell the audience a little bit about what happened, you know, I mean, and I want to, I want them to hear the lows because this is where growth happens, right? So let's hear about what happened, you know, was going well, and then it wasn't. So can you give us a little insight on that? So in 2008, I went to Morgan State University and I heard a phenomenal congressman who just passed away about three months ago speak, Congressman Elijah Cummings, who was a huge, huge advocate and a huge benefactor. And he loved and supported Obama.

And he just loved anybody that supported the cause of helping people, especially all minorities, just kind of have an opportunity to succeed. So I got a chance to hear him speak at Morgan State, and he said, someone in this room will take advantage of the economic growth that's coming into Baltimore City and build an empire. And I said, wow, why not me? And I remember after hearing him speak, Jordan, I went up to him, I shook his hand, I said, Congressman Cumming, thank you very much.

I appreciate that. He said, Marcus, I know who you are. Baltimore knows the Ogden brothers. I want you to know you could be that person. Why not? Why not? You're smart enough. You have what it takes.

Why can't be you? And that, Jordan, I took it and ran with it. Built a business from scratch. Nothing I had. There was no prior business. I got a business partner. And in 2008, we launched. By the end of 2010, beginning of 2011, I was the largest African-American subcontractor in the city of Baltimore and the state of Maryland in the area of site work, which is dirt moving, grading, all that type of stuff, digging out the ground to lay the concrete to build a building, to build a building pad.

We had phenomenal success, making lots of money, millions of dollars. it was all great. But the problem is I lost sight of what all of my coaches talked about, which when you're making money and you're not in a situation where you have a good mentor, which I did not have, you can easily make a lot of mistakes, which I did. So the company grew rapidly, so did my ego, so did my bravado. You couldn't tell me anything.

I didn't allow inclusion. I didn't allow anyone to speak their mind. I didn't allow anyone to say anything. I was not appreciative of anyone helping me. I was all about myself and the dollar and my partner, and that was it. So eventually, my staff picked up on that, and a lot of my teams started to kind of go away. But in 2012, we hit a really bad job in Baltimore,

working for a client that I had worked for prior. And that's something I took up all the time. in business, every job is individual and do not expect a company to watch out for your bottom line over theirs. So I ended up doing a job for a company. I ended up spending between two to three million dollars of my money from my company, bank line, my own personal money, credit cards, business equity lines on my home, taking out money from investors, harmony lenders. And I got the project completed Jordan and I the client shook my hand and said Marcus don't worry about we'll get you pay on the do all the work the change doors coming we're not going to hurt you

you're you're our guy you're our company I finished all the work Jordan sat down with them and a developer at the table right across from the job site I'll never forget what they said Marcus Caden fantastic job getting the site under control and dried but we're going to deny your change order. We feel that you bought this with the package of the entire site work package, and we don't feel your change order for over $2 million. They didn't know the exact number. It's warrant and valid to pay as a change order, so we're going to deny it. And as soon as they said that, I looked at my partner, I said, this is going to be the end of us. We try to do a couple things. We tried to get another invest. We tried to even get my part of our sell a part of this business,

and we were close and it didn't happen. January comes around. The bank shuts down our line of credit. Next thing you know, middle of January, poof. We're done. Doors are shut. Employees aren't paid. People stealing trucks from the office, vandalizing, taking laptops, you know, vandalism, all kinds of stuff happens in that time period. And in February, I start processing to move. And April 15th of 2013, I moved to Raleigh. I mean, what an amazing story. And, you know, to think you were on top, right?

And because of the mindset that you let take over based on all of the success, but like you said, you just stopped listening, right? Because you decided that you knew it. you were at the top of your game and whatever anyone else said, you were just going to do your own thing. And so, you know, what is the biggest lesson? Because I heard a keynote that you did at Bunker Labs in Raleigh, Durham. And I remember part of the story that you said that you were down to your last $1,000. So how did that feel? So when I got to Raleigh, I was actually after paying the movers, paying the deposit on the place, and the only reason we got that place was because I had a job with Merrill Lynch, I could show them proper work verification.

And it's crazy. I was fired for Merrill Lynch about six weeks after we had moved into the place. But what I got down here with me and my fiance now who's my wife and my stepdaughter, after paying the mover, everything else, deposits, yada yada yada. We had like $5 to $600 in the bank. That's it. That's all we had. And I was literally about to be out of a place to stay. But the NFL, by the grace, ended up granted me the Gene Upshaw Trust Fund

and paid four months of my bills to the creditors, and I was able to get on my feet and work. but Merrill Lynch had let me go. The next day, Jordan, I get hired to a construction company, company truck, phone, laptop, first week's pay $1,000 a week. Here you go, Marcus, you're going to be our guy to get our sales division going. And what happens? They fire me five days later.

So literally, I then started coaching football to the youth, and the only job I could get was a custodian making $8.25 an hour on the graveyard shift. That was what I did. I was a football coach, worked my butt off during the day, and then at night I worked as a custodian from about 10 p.m. till about 4.30 or 5 a.m., office buildings, condos, workplaces, mixed-use rental, and that's what I was, a custodian. And that's exactly where I had let myself go because I still, at that time, had not taken accountability for the mistakes that I had made with my business.

Man, such an amazing story. And so what was the turning point? You know, there had to be a turning point. And I know you talked a little bit about it. You decided to write a book, right? If I remember correctly, you started to write an autobiography. And so can you tell us a little bit about it? you know, what sparked that, you know, what kind of clicked, you know, and what I'm interested to find

out is, you know, was it something that, you know, that you remember your dad talking to you about earlier in life? Like, what was it that just where you had a paradigm shift and said, you know what, I'm not staying here. I'm better than this. I can do other things. And, you know, my pivotal moment, and I tell people all the time, people's pivotal moments are dear to them. It could be financial loss, loss of a spouse, a loved one, a child. It doesn't matter. It's not a competition. Everyone's pivotal moment is their pivotal moment that makes them say, I've had enough.

When I was a janitor, a custodian, I was grateful for having a job. But the pivotal moment was when I was taking out someone's trash around 4, 4.30 in the morning, and I had taken my gloves off because I was off the ship. I was going to throw the trash in the dump and get in my truck and go home. And the bag had a rip on the other side because I wasn't paying attention. Through the trash into the dump. And because the bag had ripped, all the trash had came right back on me. My body, my skin, rotten meats, banana peels.

You can imagine everything putrid and a horrifying smell from people's trash got on to my body. Through the trash away, clean it up. sat down, put my head in my hands, cried for about two minutes. I said, what's going on? Marcus, you were an NFL athlete. You had a successful business. What the heck has happened? And I said to myself, Marcus, the problem is you. You have not taken accountability and said it was your fault. The business went bad. You blamed your partner, the contract of your employees. You blame everybody, but like Michael Jackson says, the man in the mirror. And once I did that, that was my turnaround point, came home, wrote down my goals to be a speaker.

It still took me a lot of hard work, took me about two and a half years, get my first paid job. I did write my book in that time. My first book, Sleepless Nights, which came out in 2015, got my first paid job in 2016, and I haven't looked back since then. I've worked for 13 Fortune 500 companies of the 13. I just signed my contract officially on Thursday to work for my eighth Fortune 100 company. I've done consulting.

I've done executive coaching. My second book, which is coming out in 17 days, The Success Cycle is a roadmap for anyone that wants to achieve success in their own personal life and their business life. I don't care what you want to do. You want to be a great podcast to join. Go from where you are to the higher level. There's stuff in there for you.

If you're someone who has a restaurant, you want to open more restaurants and know how to grow a business, something in there for you. If you want to be a writer, you want to learn how to market a brand yourself or set goals, something's there for you. This book is an action-filled information roadman. book to help anyone that wants to buy it, turn the pages, read, and learn the information, achieve the goals they want to achieve for themselves. That's awesome. And you can count me in for a copy. I'm definitely going to, definitely

going to support you, definitely going to get one because, you know, I think we can all grow, right? We can all learn from each other. We can all learn from people that are around us. And like your story, it literally is from stardom. I mean, you're, you're six-fifference. at six. Like when you're in your NFL prime, probably what, 320, 340, something like that. Round that, yeah. And like, I can't picture you being a custodian because you're, you are a big guy. Like, that's, you know, that's challenging work, right, for anybody. But like being an NFL lineman that's doing that type of work, but you went from, you know, the NFL to a custodian to a CEO. I mean, and if that's not blazing your own trail, you know, for the audience listening, I don't know

what is. And I know that you've got to run here here at a minute, but one thing that really stuck out to me in your keynote that you did at Bunker Labs was your four-step process for real leadership. And so for the audience that hasn't seen that keynote, you know, step one is to develop. Step two is to ignite. Step three is inspire. And then step four is rinse and repeat. And so I wanted you just in the time that we've got left to just give the audience a little bit of context into those four steps and how you came up with them. So you have to first develop the idea, develop the vision of where you want to be as a leader. You have to know where you're wanting to go. And we talk about this also in the book. Develop and set up some type of goal or vision

and get the idea primed in your head out on paper and then start moving towards the goals out. That's developed. You have to ignite like you get into a car, you can't go anywhere. What's what? You turn on the ignition. If you don't ignite the passion or ignite the greatness inside of you,

don't expect anyone else to follow your lead. Third, you have to inspire. If you're not inspiring people to make a systemic change with your actions or with your leadership, your business will never survive because they'll eventually get burnt out. And there's rinse and repeat. But I'm going to share one more thing with you in the audience as well. There's five things that you need to do to persuade people to know who you are and persuade them to want to work with you. Number one is going to be your character. What is it about you that stands out and how are you looked at by people when you don't know it?

And it's always about your character shining through when nobody's watching. Second is emotion or passion. If you're not lively with good physiology, don't expect anybody to follow you. Third is a reason. What is the reason people should work with you? Are you going to make them more money? Save them time, combination of both. That's important. Four metaphors. Talk to people in a language that they understand. If you're talking to a football team using baseball terms, it won't work. You're talking to a basketball team using basketball terms, you've got a chance. So whoever your target audience is you're trying to sell to or get in front of, talk metaphors that they understand and can resonate with. that will give you the best chance to succeed at sales.

When I do about my keynotes for clients and my workshop and consulting, that blows people's mind. Like, well, Marcus, really? Wait a second. I can talk to me their language? Well, yeah. If you're talking to them and something they don't understand, we're not going to buy your product because they're going to be lost. And then five is be concise. People have one thing they cannot buy no matter how much money they have.

And that's time. don't waste people's time. Be concise to the point. So again, character, emotion, reason, metaphors, concise. If you can execute those five steps or those five characteristics, you can succeed at persuading people to want to work with you in sub-capacity. Wow. Yeah, I love that. And what great nuggets to wrap this up with. And so, you know, I really appreciate your time. We've been connected on LinkedIn probably for about a year or two, and I've enjoyed your content.

You know, you create a lot of content on there. So what are your thoughts on the LinkedIn platform? And you've been able to see this evolve, right? Like video just came out a couple years ago. And now it is really acting like Facebook was in 2011 with the content creator. So what are your thoughts on LinkedIn and for anyone listening that wants to maybe grow their professional network?

Is this something that you recommend? Absolutely. Yeah, LinkedIn went with video about 12 to 18 months ago, somewhere in that range, and they were just tired of people going to Instagram or Facebook to post, and they open it up, and it's been a game changer. If you are to grow a brand, you better put out content that makes you stand out from everyone else. And if your content's all about you, you, you, and you're not inspired people with the words

or the actions or challenging people, my goodness, don't expect anyone to buy what you're selling. So many people on LinkedIn, when I get on there, they connect with somebody and they send this huge, like, eight paragraph note, I'm the perfect person for you to work with, buy my product. I'm like, dude, I don't know you. Like, why don't want to buy something? I don't even know who you are, right? So learn to really do the value at. Let's just get to know people, be authentic, you know, build relations.

shift. Like I'm putting out different things about my book coming out. And I haven't said, by, so please buy. I said, if you want to pre-order, here's the link. I haven't told one person buy it. Buy it. I'm just saying, thank you for supporting my book, you know, Marley-Kernard from the Buffalo Bills. You guys, send me some photos, right? It's all about putting out marketing that is strategic and it has great value and knowledge, but you're not in people's face telling them buy this or I'm not going to be your friend or I'm not going to talk to you, It's about really being that value add that people know when they go to your content, it's going to help them with their everyday life. That's why I'm excited about the success cycle.

My first book, George was my autobiography. It's more of a story. This one is for people that want to advance in their own life. Awesome, awesome. And that's exactly right. And that's how I use LinkedIn, right? You know, you want to create content that inspires, it educates, and it entertains. you can if you can really get on those three wavelengths and you can do it with with the mind frame that

you're there to build contextual relationships because the engagement that's where it's at right because real engagement sparks engagement and as you start having those conversations then start you know maybe sending a message and talking right because you can't have dessert before the appetizer right and you know i get i get people all the time and i'm sure you're the same way. They connect with you and then they say, can you write me a recommendation? And I'm like, I don't even know who you are. Like, how about like I learn about you for six months to a year? And then maybe once I have context, then maybe I can write that, you know, because it's almost like I'm lying for you, right at that point. If I'm just going to make something up, it just doesn't

make any sense. And so if you're listening and you're trying to build a network, the nuggets that he just shared with you, which is don't pitch people like, right, it was. when they first connect? Because like, is it going to work? Maybe. I would say there's probably a small percentage of people at works with. About 5% maximum. Yep. But your wheels are literally spinning when you do that. And so from what you said, you know, all these things that have been amazing, you know, the tips from your keynotes, the five characteristics to persuade people. And I want to just thank you so much for your time. I know you've got such a busy schedule. My podcast is new. You know, I've got a few episodes in post-production.

My goal this year is to interview 50 people. So I set a big goal for 2020, just launched on the first. I'm so thankful that you decided to be a guest, and I can't wait to continue to follow your journey to support you. I definitely want a copy of that book when it comes out. So we'll stay in touch there. And is there any parting words you want to say to the audience? No, I'll just say, anybody wants to find me.

I'm on LinkedIn, M-R-Q-E-S-O-G-D-N. I'm on Facebook at Marcus Ogden, Instagram at Marcus Aubton, and Twitter at Marcus underscore Ogden. And I'm going to leave with this. Remember this when you're trying to be a very good salesperson or grow your brand and get people to want to hire you. Even the best salespeople don't like being sold to.

Think about that. Even the best salespeople don't like being sold too. They like to buy the value ad that, they see from your content and your interactions. This is why I tell you all the time. You have to always be marketing, marketing, marketing. If you're not marketing through different channels, which I talk a lot by my keynotes and with my coaching clients,

then when someone gets on the phone with you, you're desperate for that sale. And then that's when someone sees or feels you're desperate, game over. So again, marketing is critical. to succeed in sales. But again, even the best people that are in sales don't be sold to, and if they don't know you exist,

they can never buy your product. So market, market, market. That's it. Yeah, brand is synonymous with reputation, right? So, you know, if you want to build your brand, then you've got to build those contextual relationships and don't be salesy. So, man, this was amazing, Marcus.

Again, I really, really appreciate your time. I can't wait till this. airs. I'll definitely do some promoting, you know, as we get ready for launch. And I will make sure I post all of Marcus's social links, the link to his website. So, you know, if you're thinking about getting a coach or hiring a keynote speaker, you don't have to look any further. This is Marcus Ogden that we just had, folks. Have an amazing day and we will chat with you all soon. Hey, everybody. Thanks so much for listening. What an impactful story. I mean, here's a guy that was in the NFL, things were going great, got injured, and then things were going great in business

until they weren't. And to be able to climb back out from where he was at that, you know, five to $600 to his name. I mean, what an inspiration. If you ever need a keynote speaker or someone for your event or just need someone to help coach you along your journey, definitely make sure you reach out to Marcus. He's an awesome guy. I hope you. you enjoyed that episode and I can't wait to share future episodes with you here soon.