Marques Ogden learned a lot about leadership, teambuilding, and overcoming adversity when he played for the NFL, serving five years as an offensive lineman with the Titans, Bills, Ravens and Jaguars. But after being cut in 2007, going into business on his own, and suffering a severe business failure, he had to learn a lot more.
Today, Marques is a successful keynote speaker, business coach, podcaster, and consultant who shares the tough lessons he’s learned with the business community. He also heads up several mission-driven organizations, and I wanted to catch up with him to chat about them and also discuss how he helps people struggling with career changes.
RIFs (Reductions in Force) are very much in the news these days and Marques agrees with me that this unfortunate development has a silver lining for employers looking for good people. We discuss his approach to content development and how he chooses guests for “Get Authentic,” his popular podcast (“Get Authentic” is now globally ranked among the top 1 percent most-listened-to podcasts).
Marques advises those he consults that a strong social media presence is a necessary prerequisite for business success. Another essential ingredient are strong testimonials from those who one has personally worked with (an element that many unfortunately fail to include). As Marques notes, “what you say about yourself builds your self confidence; what others say about you builds your book of business. So if you don’t have a good ability to have others speak about you: your work, your service, how you help them — can sales be done there? Of course they can. But you’re making it harder on yourself in that regard, when you’re not saying ‘hey, here’s what others are saying about me, so this is why you should work with me too.”
Marques is a strong advocate of podcasting. “If you’re not trying to get onto podcasts right now, ladies and gentlemen, shame on you, because that is where so many people are consuming content these days, and the more you’re out there, being seen as a thought leader, then instead of ‘you coming to them,’ they start coming to you.”
If you’ve ever gone through a major life/career change and need useful advice about how to bounce back and leap forward, this interview is for you.
