Business Innovators Radio - Marcia Martin - Author - Mark Stephen Pooler

Episode Date: March 11, 2026

Marcia Martin is the author of Sex, Power, and Transformation and a pioneering force in the Human Potential Movement, with more than five decades of experience as a renowned speaker, executive trainer, and transformational coach.An international expert in leadership and communication, Marcia has personally trained over 300,000 individuals and consulted for major brand companies, including Hard Rock International, Warner Bros., Capital One, Evian Water, DANONE, and InterContinental Hotels. Marcia’s personal mentors include world renowned thought-leaders Buckminster Fuller, Peter Drucker, Jerry Weintraub, Oscar Ichazo, Warren Bennis, and Werner Erhard. Her work bridges corporate leadership, personal development, and human potential.Contact:Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcia-martin Website: marciamartin.com Email: [e-mail] Phone: [phone] Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/marcia-martin-author-mark-stephen-pooler

Welcome to Business Innovators Radio, featuring industry influencers and trendsetters, sharing proven strategies to help you build a better life right now. TV conversations with leading experts in business. I am your host, Mark Stephen Pula. We have an incredible guest on the show today. A long-term friend, a really inspirational, inspirational friend of mine, the incredible Mark. Martia Martin. So I'm looking forward to a conversation with her. We are streaming live on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube. We're also on the 360 TV network. We're also on business innovators radio network, MSPNewsglobal.com, and many more. I'll probably forget because it's my first show back in a while. So let's bring in our incredible guest, the incredible Marsha Martin. Marsha, welcome to Brilliant Business TV.

Thank you so much, Mark. It's just a joy to be here. I'm so pleased and grateful to be on your show. Thank you. Well, I've interviewed you quite a few times, Marsha, and we've knew each other a long time. And I know you've got this new successful book that I'm seeing it all over the internet.

Look at this. Incredible. Power and transformation. And it's doing so well as well, Marsha. So I'm really looking forward to talking about that. And I've seen some really big influences sharing it for you as well. So let's get started with the show. Share a bit about your background and why you wrote the book, Marcia. Well, as you know, Mark, I was one of the key architects and early pioneers of the human potential movement, which is the precursor to the self-help industry, which is now a 48 billion.

dollar industry, and I was there at the beginning when it was still raw and real and dangerous with possibility. And I was the vice president of an organization that started with a small seminar of 30 people, Esd Earhart Seminars Training, and we now have in the landmark, which it now is called graduate body over three and a half million graduates. and I took the company from inception to it's almost the first 10 years. So I was responsible for communication and registration besides being the vice president. And I filled the auditoriums.

I was in charge of sales and marketing. And the organization went from those 30 original graduates to around almost 800,000 to a million before I left. It was over a 10-year period. So I have that history. and as a result, then was very influential in the self-help industry and it's building it. I work with Tony Robbins and I ran his company for two years in the early 80s, took him national and helped him launch his first book Unlimited Power. I work with Jack Canfield and co-created the Transformational Leadership Council with him.

I work with John Hanley and helped him expand Lifespring. I worked with Bob Proctor and helped him market the Hoffman process worldwide. So I've been an influential kind of architect of the whole self-help and personal development industry for some time. And I decided I wanted to write this book because I thought it was time for people to know their history. How it all started. I love it, Marsha. And also I've been part of your network. I've done many, many of your workshops, trainings.

And just brilliant. Like if anyone wants to go and check out Marsha Martin.com, I highly recommend. Mend presentation skills, communication is absolutely incredible as well. So, so many great trainings and workshops. So I just wanted to mention that, Marcia, because we won't be discussing a lot of that today. But there's so many great trainings and workshops in your platform. So that's something I think is really important as well. What can readers expect to get from reading the book, Marcia?

You know, Mark, this book has become magical. I think it kind of wrote itself. First of all, it's my memoir. It's my story. It's a story of a young girl who comes into womanhood in a man's world and the challenges of that for women. And the upsets, the downfalls, the victories, the successes, the losses, the losses of how a woman deals in a man's world. And so I think it's very valuable for that.

It's also a story about patterns. You know, we all have patterns. When we're young, we make decisions when we're very, very small children about how to get love and how to get attention. And one of my patterns was that I needed to be approved and wanted to be approved very much by my father, who was a powerful man. But he had a lot of demons. He was an alcoholic. And so I found out throughout my life with many of the powerful men leaders in the transformational movement that a lot of what I was there for was to get approval.

I was running out my patterns. So it's also a reflection of what you need to know about yourself in terms of how to be aware of patterns that you have, what to do about them. And it's also an amazing story of learning to use your voice. voice and to follow your own truth. Because a lot of times we find there are charismatic gurus and leaders in the world. And it seems like sometimes everybody else has a better answer for us than we do for ourselves. And sometimes we forget that we have our own answer. And we follow blindly to leaders with power and money and fame and success. And sometimes we end up doing things that we wouldn't

really do if we followed our own truth. And it's the challenge of knowing when you're in the right place at the right time, when you're following your own truth and the way that it was meant for you to be and not to say that the ends justifies the means. So it's a very powerful book in many ways. And great point about patterns as well. And it does take you being in conscious awareness. I think that's one of the main things. If you're going to look at your It does take being aware, getting into consciousness and awareness so that you're even aware that you're following like an old program or an old pattern and also going within yourself to do that inner work to look at where you need to heal those parts of yourself as well. I've had to do a lot of this, Marcia, so I'm quite clued up on this. Well, you know, I also think, Mark, that it's the capacity to be willing to listen to another point of view.

Because if you're going to discover some of your own patterns, it's good to have people giving you feedback. And if we're unwilling to listen to any other point of view except for the way we think it is, we won't be able to listen to feedback. So it has many dimensions in the book. And you know, Marsha, that is a brilliant point. we make so many assumptions about others, about ourselves. And I had to do a bit of CBT work on a lot of my stuff, just like writing down real evidence and challenging things. And eventually, when you look at the evidence

and you challenge these beliefs or these false assumptions, you start to realise that some of those patterns or these assumptions, your perception was totally off. And so when you get the real healthy perspective, you're like, oh my word, this was true all along and I was blind to the truth. Does that make sense, Marfashka? Absolutely.

And one of the things that I have been working on my whole entire life and part of the work that I do in the world is helping people learn to access their own inner power and to find their own higher truth and the voice that lives within them that has so much wisdom and knowledge and to be able to trust oneself and come from one's own wisdom rather than giving up our power to somebody else just because they're famous or they seem to have a lot of money or a lot of power. But it's a job in itself to be aware. It takes a lot of work. And also recognizing the ego because that's not your true self.

and that part of you, you have to really be aware when it's your ego or if it's your true self as well. What are some of the lessons you learned about being a woman in a man's world in order to be successful, Marcia? Oh, there are so many, many lessons. You know, I think as a little girl and many of us that are my age, we grew up thinking the man was the head of the household. and the man was supposed to provide, and the man was supposed to know the answer,

and the man was supposed to be powerful, and we were supposed to be subservient. So it's different now, which is nice, is people really realize the value of women and how much power we have and knowledge and wisdom. So I have patterns that go back to that kind of belief, and I needed to get strong within myself and discover who I was and be able to trust myself and to be able to get in touch. with some of my own talents, and then to have the courage to speak up, because it was so ingrained in me that you be quiet if the man is talking or you do what the man says. And so I learned

that I can trust myself and that it's okay to tell somebody that you're not sure if that's the answer, but you'll process it and consider it for a while and get back to them. So I learned a lot of lessons in that area for sure. And that's a good lesson in how to respond so that you don't have to make a quick decision and agree to something. So I like that little way of doing that as well, Marsha. What are the danger signs that tell you that you are giving up your power or that your organisation is becoming court like? I think some of the danger signs are that you realize you're doing things that you wouldn't normally do, but you're doing it for some justified reason. Somebody said, oh, it's okay because we're saving lives or we're making a difference or we're

transforming the world. And so then you say, I guess it's okay if I do something that I don't really think is the right way to be or the right way to treat somebody else because, after all, we're saving the world or we're transforming people. lives. And so to really look to see if you're going along with something, even though the action that you're taking is not the action you would normally do, but you're going along with it because of some other purpose. You know, the end doesn't always justify the means. I love it, Marcia. You're full of so much wisdom. So before I come to our last question, let's talk a little bit about

your platform Marsha Martin because just because Marcia I did take so much from doing I remember I've been part of your your monthly thing for years now and and when I first joined I did most of the workshops and things but I think there's such a hidden history there of so much value that people probably paid thousands to come in person where you can come and get all of this training. Talk a little bit about that, Marcia. Well, I have a platform. My website is Marcia Martin.com and it has access to all of my products and services. And one of the things that I offer is a membership club. And I've been leading seminars and workshops and personal development courses my entire life, which is really over five decades now. And usually they

were done in person live, but I videoed them all. So I thought it might be good to upload them and create a digital library of workshops, seminars, podcasts, different interviews, keynote speeches that I've done over the years so that people could listen or watch at their own leisure and their own time. It's very inexpensive. It's $10 a month or $100 for the year. So you get a little discount if you by a year at a time. But you can go into the library and click on each of those workshops, seminars, trainings, different podcasts and interviews that I've been involved with, and listen and learn. And they're everything from how to build better relationships to how to be a better communicator to training on sales, training on leadership, training on communication. And people

tell me it's life-changing and that it's fun. It makes them laugh. It makes them laugh. It makes them learn, it makes them have new insights, and that they get different results in their life after just listening to a few of my workshops. And then in a... Very powerful. Oh, thank you. In addition, there's a way in the website where you can get courses as well. And you can find out about my corporate training and my personal coaching.

So it's a great wealth of information if you go to marsha martin.com. And the lovely Marsha also is. introduce me to the incredible Jack Canfield and allowing me to get an interview with Jack and to do a big collaboration with him. So I was really grateful for that as well, Marsha. It's not what you know, it's who you know. So, Marsha, what is the work you are doing now, this moment in this world? Right now, I'm continuing my writing and I'm working in corporations on changing corporate culture. I work with senior executives. I also do personal coaching, individual coaching, private life coaching or executive coaching. But I love my work in corporations. I go in and I do one

day, two day, and three day seminars and courses for senior executives. And the results are amazing. I just finished one for a $40 million company who's an AI digital marketing company in New York. and I took their top about 30 senior executives. And before they did the three-day training with me, they were isolated, they were blaming each other, they weren't in good communication, they didn't support each other. And the CEO said it was like a miracle. After the three days with the training that I delivered, they were a team, they were aligned, they were committed, they were supportive of each other.

the blame game was totally out of the company. And instead, it was support of each other and really taking ownership, not just being concerned about the results of their own small department, but really acting as an owner of the whole company. So it's really amazing the cultural change that can happen. And that was what I did take from your platform, the communication skills, even the presentation skills, if you want to be a better speaker on stage.

It's just totally incredible, Marsha. And for the monthly fee, you could charge so much more for it as well. Now, Marsha, who should connect with you? Who would you love to reach out to you? How can people get a copy of your book? Is it on your website or do they have to go to Amazon? Well, they can go to Amazon and it's sex, power and transformation. It's the inside story behind the rise of the self-help empire.

by the woman who helped build it. But it's much more than that. It's much more than a history. It's really, it's a life-changing book. It will make you reflect. It'll make you laugh. It'll make you cry. It'll get you angry.

It'll have you look at yourself in so many ways. So you can get it on Amazon. You can also go to my website and just click the tab, the book, and it'll show you how to order it. And also, you can find lots of different things on the website there. for sure. And then you can get a hold of me by going to the website and connecting. You can write me an email or you can get a discovery call. You can find out about individual coaching. You can find out about the work that I do in corporations. You can bring me into your corporation. I like to work with CEOs who want their teams to be transformed. And the results are amazing. Profits increase,

accidents decrease, support increases. People feel more passionate. about their job and they're more loyal. And so the attrition rate goes down, it's quite remarkable. So all of those things. I would encourage everyone to connect with Marsha. You won't be disappointed. Go to marcia martin.com.

That's Marcia martin.com. Marcia, I thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed having a conversation with you today. lovely to have you on the show and it's my first show back as well from um from i lost my father just before christmas and i've had to change all platforms and everything and so it's it's getting used to a new studio and things like that and so you're the lucky one to be my first guest on after all of this time away and i can't think of a better guest to have as my um my opening um show from having some time off. Well, I'm so grateful, Mark, and you make such an amazing contribution in the world and the work that you do and the people that you showcase. So thank you for having me. It's been a joy.

I do hope people go to Marsha Martin.com, which is M-A-R-C-I-A-Marton.com. And I love that I'm your first guest after you've come back and welcome back. We missed you. Bless you, Marsha. Thank you, everyone for joining us for brilliance business TV conversations with leading experts in business until next. Thanks for listening to Business Innovators Radio. To hear all episodes featuring leading industry influencers and trendsetters, visit us online at business innovators.com today.