Welcome back to Get Obsessed. This is Jules and today's episode is super juicy because Meek and I dive into all things Marcus Ogden, his riches to rags conversation. And while there's so many lessons packed in this one, if you haven't listened to last week's episode with NFL great Marcus Ogden, go back and listen to that episode first because this conversation will hit completely different after hearing his story firsthand. And just to be clear, Meek and I are not judging, we're just obsessed. So listen in and let us know what you think. Now on with the show. Amazing conversation with former NFL star Marcus Ogden. He is such a powerful voice. He's so vulnerable with his story, right? Don't you think Meekah? Oh yeah, his story was amazing. I feel it's a mission for him, Jules. Like as he's sharing his story, he is able to speak from a place of wisdom. It doesn't have any emotional charge. Like this story from, you know, from 2013, his fall. And so he's able to speak from a different perspective and he's able to relive it, but not embody that those emotions and those experiences. And it seems like he's doing it almost like a mission. It's almost like a mission work to tell the story because it looks like it changed him in such a pivotal way that to have an ego be that big, it has to been brought down. It was kind of like, I don't know if it was charismatic or just it was something that, I don't want to say needed to happen, but for his fall. Yeah, that rock bottom for him was a way, it just showed the height of where he was, multi eight figure years. And then to all of a sudden making $8 and some, and 15 cents an hour, that's a huge gap. That's a huge drop for him to come back from that. It's almost like, yeah, I'm willing to share my testimony because this is like, this is like a mission. It's more than just about me. It's like, I am called to share this. It's what I'm getting from him. I don't know, what do you think? Yeah, I'm putting on my intuitive cap right now, thinking about how he trained his whole life to be an NFL player. And I'm just having four boys. I know not my boys necessarily, but how much work you put into practicing and how much work to get to that level of an elite athlete. And then he went to Howard University, I'm guessing on a scholarship, and then getting drafted to the NFL and then leaving the NFL. I don't know exactly how he left, but that. Maybe retired, it could have been a, I'm not sure, a certain night there. He was on a bunch of different teams. He was on a bunch of different teams. I know that. Having probably so many people cheering him on, never knowing who his friends were, who his real loyal community was, getting dropped. And again, I shouldn't say getting dropped because I'm not quite sure how he left the NFL. And then starting up a new business, he had a little dalyans with addiction, which kudos for him for conquering that. Starting a construction. Going number one again, getting the number one government contract for construction, which is amazing. And then I think the cockiness, the ego taking huge risks and losing everything and becoming a janitor and cleaning toilet. Like that is a roller coaster of huge proportion. Yeah, humbling. There are some celebrities you hear about where they had that type of fame, that level of notoriety that Marcus had, and then they had addictions, drugs, alcohol, et cetera. And then they're homeless or living on the streets or they're working at Home Depot. No shade to Home Depot. We love Home Depot. We love Home Depot, sponsor us. Yeah, sponsor us Home Depot, right? And so now, and some people don't really come back from that. You don't hear those comeback stories as often. But when you hear one like Marcus and you hear this comeback story, it's like he's got to share it. If I kind of get from him, that he feels compelled to share this because it comeback stories are rare. It's like a Cinderella story. I call you Cinderella. I saw you. What is the man version of a Cinderella story? Marcus Ogden. Yeah, Marcus Ogden, right? Yeah, and it's so great that he is sharing it and he's working. Because Cinderella did cleaning up works. He was cleaning up toilet things like that. So there you go. The male version of Cinderella. And it's true. And he found his friends, I guess. I don't know how we stood that, Cinderella. But the truth is, is that when he really got vulnerable and had time to figure out who he was in the depths of his rock bottom, he had the gift of reinvention. And what he always had was confidence in himself. You can tell he has confidence, but he has humility now in his story. That is what I learned from talking with Marcus. Wow. I mean, it's a terrific story. It's a terrific story of what the power of the human spirit. Because overcoming addiction is a feat all in itself. That is challenging because we're talking about it's in your system, it's in your chemistry. It's in your DNA. It's in your DNA. And then to overcome the drugs and then the alcohol and then to make this multi-eight figure year company and then just that ego. Yeah. And can we call ego a drug? And alcohol is a drug. It's a dopamine, dopamine more money. Like having that money, it's a dopamine rush, right? Yeah. But then the identity. So it's the money, but it's more like, oh, I'm number one. I've only been, I'm the number one minority contractor for Baltimore and I'm less than four years in. I'm untouchable. You know, it's a drug, that dopamine is that drug. The same as alcohol, the same as... Yeah. It is. It changed. Substitution. Yeah, the substitution. It was another form of alcoholism, another form of... I get that. It could be shopping. It could be some eating. Yeah. And it makes you, how many entrepreneurs that do this? Cause there's a lot of ego in business. And I have to check myself though too, you know. I check myself. You wanna hear my story? Yeah. Okay. I'm so humbled, I own a vegan cafe. It's for some of you listening to... The Vegan Monarch Cafe in Wintermagen, by the way. We'll have everything in the show now. Thank you, Queen. When you are, when you're a small business, because you've got these, you've got some challenges around you, ahead of you, you've got in front of you. And so you make sure that you are doing your most excellence on your craft. And so that is for what we're doing, making amazing craft, like vegan desserts and meals and entrees and all this other stuff. And so when people are complimenting you on what you're doing and they keep telling you, like, no, this is the best I've ever seen. No, this is the best, you know, can you imagine, Joel, that someone's saying, you know, like, Julie, like, I love what you wrote in Entrepreneur Magazine. I love when I see your blogs, like, you're the best writer I've ever seen. Like, I, and you know, and all of this, when you keep hearing it over and over, you can start to be like, well, you know, like you, well, you know, yeah, you know, you kind of like, you put your chin up in the air and be like, yeah, yeah. And so I remember feeling that, right? I remember feeling that creeping in and for me, and then I think some events happened, something humbled me. I think life happened. And I can't remember if it was some events, 2021, can't, I can't pinpoint it exactly, but yeah, I think it was that. It was, it was less than a year of having obsessed over a year, yeah, first year after obsessed. Baby pop casters? Baby, we were baby pop casters. And I had trauma that affected me. And so it was my, yeah, adult trauma. It was life-changing in every degree. And that brought me down to my knees and that it, it, it helped me to where I could never have an inflated ego in business, like that, or in life, that event changed me forever. It's good to make sure that you're grounded and that you're checking your ego, because when you're in business, you're doing it to be like the best of the best. You are your brand and what you're doing is your brand is important. That ego, a lot of entrepreneurs, they, some of them have too much of it. Yeah, and you do have to check yourself because the universe has a way of recalibrating. That is for sure. If you are not, even if you're not an entrepreneur, you can't ever rely on the easy button because stuff in life is always changing. What we're obsessed with talking, so grateful for my bestie here, Mika Altador. And guys, make sure you keep sharing this podcast. We love meeting new people, learning new stories. We're looking for new guests all the time. These stories are changing lives. Reach out to us, leave us a review. We will start reading reviews. If your review really touches us in a certain way, we're gonna be sending you some swag. We wanna hear from you and follow us on Instagram at Get Obsessed podcast. We're totally obsessed with you guys. Until we meet again, guess what? Get obsessed with your life. With your life.
