We are on, and I have Mark Scarborough with me and I've known Mark - how long Mark? We have known each other for a long time.
Marc Scarborough (00:11):
It was probably 14, 15 years I would think
Veronica Jeans (00:13):
So, as I said, we worked together before and then each of us went our own way and I actually reinvented myself after my last company. So I ended up in e-commerce but you have recently decided you're going to sell something online. You are going to change your life and do something different completely. Although you're still staying sort of in the sales situation.
Marc Scarborough (00:43):
We are going to talk about that here in a second.
Veronica Jeans (00:45):
You lost your job and you decided, well, hell what are you going to do now? So take it away. Tell us all about it.
Marc Scarborough (00:58):
Where's my new sandbox.
Veronica Jeans (01:01):
Yes, exactly. Where's your new sandbox? I like that analogy.
Marc Scarborough (01:05):
Well, you know, the truth is is how many people, my age, you know, 60 plus, they're cooking along. They're doing great in the job and life is good. And then all of a sudden you get this call out of the, out of the clear blue one day and said it's over.
Veronica Jeans (01:24):
Yeah, go, go, go.
Marc Scarborough (01:26):
You know, my job was going good. I been with that company pushing eight years now. Had gone from a part-time rep to a VP. From managing myself, to being responsible for 550 people across 20 plus States. I was exciting. I was really into what I was doing. But when I got that call and they were like, "Marc, we've lost a lot of business and unfortunately we have to cut back. That means you". And my response was, "I didn't cause us to lose that business. Why me?" And HR were like, "Well, you know we don't have an answer to that. Today's your last day". 20th of December. And so after I got through being mad, which took a couple of days, I started thinking, okay, now, again, where's my new sandbox going to be.
Marc Scarborough (02:22):
And my wife and I talked about it. And the one thing that I realized is at my age, I can't give somebody else another eight years and then let him pull this down on me again. So it really needs to be mine. Something that nobody can take away from me. And so, you know, I was in the process of trying to answer that question and succeeded in breaking my ankle on a ladder. I fell off a ladder, broke my ankle found myself in the hospital, went tthrough two different surgeries. It was quite a break and it's interesting, you know, how the good Lord will tell you what you really need to be doing. You know, he'll answer the question for you if you can't come up with it yourself.
Marc Scarborough (03:14):
One of the first things I found out from the doctor was that the break that I created with this fall, he'd only seen one time before. He said, most people don't break those bones in their ankles. And interestingly enough at the time that I broke my ankle, I was in the process of training to run a marathon. And so every morning I was out there, five miles, Monday to Friday and 10 miles, Saturday and Sunday, every week. And the interesting thing is I enjoyed every minute and I had my headset on, I was in my little cocoon and down road I went. And when I told the doctor, he chuckled, he says, "Well, your days of running a marathon is probably over.
Veronica Jeans (04:02):
Especially with the weak ankle, you can't do that. I've got weak knees. I'm definitely not running marathons.
Marc Scarborough (04:11):
So you know, at first I accepted his answer and then a good friend of mine said, "Well, you know, Mark, a bike is a good door prize. Get a bike and when you get to where you can move that ankle, instead of running and walking, now cycle". I thought I think that I can get no that.
Marc Scarborough (04:54):
You know, what was the epiphany. And it was when I talked to a good friend of mine, Chuck interestingly from work or from my previous job, I should say. And Chuck actually was the one that ran a marathon first and inspired me to get off my butt and start doing the road work myself. So he was the impetus for all of it - except me breaking my ankle. But he was the one that said, well look, if you can't run, you (can't / can????????) cycle. I've thought Okay, I can get into that. But at that time I was still in the recovery mode. I was not even able to walk at that time when Chuck told me about this. So I started doing some reading and just, you know, while I'm sitting there not able to get out of bed because of my leg just started doing some homework and understanding, you know, cycling and the different kinds of bikes and stuff like that.
Marc Scarborough (05:55):
And how you train and then, where are there bike clubs here in the North Houston area that I might want to get to be a part of And then I was talking to another friend and he was like, "Well, what if you fall off that bike Marc?" Whoa I haven't thought about that. I'm no longer bom proof. I have to quit thinking I am. And so that started the conversation about the trikes. And there are some competitions type bikes. So it was just one conversation after another one piece of information after another. And then it occurred to me that I am not the only guy, my age or gal for that matter - ladies are included in this conversation - that are challenged physically some way. For whatever reason, whether they were born with it or caused it, didn't matter.
Marc Scarborough (06:52):
And and I'm finding out all this cool information and just getting inspiration from people, stuff I'm reading, blogs I'm reading. And then it occurred to me, you know, this is an interesting story to tell. And because the doctors telling me, I can't run a marathon, I'm going to prove them wrong. And I've got to get back to health, but I don't know how yet. I don't know what the pace is going to look like. I don't know which bike to ride, which one not, but I know I want to do this. And so that was what created this whole idea of why not blog the journey. And, you know, the two questions came up is - we've got a great story to talk about,a fantastic story to talk about but there's going to be an awful lot of expense here. Can I monetize this. So that it pays for itself and help me in my retirement days. And, you know, the interesting thing, and this was the part that I kind of got stumped with the first time we talked about this, was you know, I worked for a living. I chose to go to work for my previous employer to pay my bills. And that was the beginning of the relationship. I've got bills to pay. I have a responsibility.
Marc Scarborough (08:20):
But now, as I looked at this, this conversation, this journey that I'm going to have to go through to get myself as healthy as I possibly can. The doctors and therapists are saying, you know, it could be any percent, it could be 90%. We don't know. The therapist even said some of it, it's kind of up to you Marc. And so you know, responsibility accepted. I don't have any qualm with that. And I'm sitting here thinking, okay, now this is really going to be cool. I'm going to be doing something I want to do anyway. But if I put it out in the public realm, what I'm doing, then that becomes a motivation to me because I can't be inconsistent and expect success with my blog. Every morning when I get out either on my stationary bike here in the house or the bike that I'm going to buy and get onto the street. So there's got to be a certain expectation from my audience, from my tribe, the followers, that I'm?????????????????? the story every day,
Veronica Jeans (09:30):
But I'm still coming back to the question - how are you going to monetize it?
Marc Scarborough (09:36):
This is a part I need to explain my way, and then you'll understand what I'm getting at. There's going to be that expectation that every day I'm out there. So the interesting thing is to decide on a bike that I'm going to use. Whether it's my stationary or it's my street bike, either one, I'm going to have to do some homework on that. And what I'm finding out is the costs are just huge. I mean, these bikes, trikes are not cheap.
Marc Scarborough (10:14):
And so people like me are finding out the same thing. So one of the things that I will do is I will create a buy/sell section of my blog where you can go get your bike. This is my headset. And I have a, a little - what amounts to a fanny pack that I wear under my shirt, because I don't want anybody to see me wearing a fanny bag, but I put my smartphone in there. And there's a couple of apps I have on that phone and my Apple watch and and so they tell me all the information I need from pace to distance to heart rate, all of these things. But, you know, Veronica, I had to go through about a dozen different apps to finally land on the set that I'm using.
Marc Scarborough (11:12):
And I'm confident that once I start this conversation, somebody else is going to point out something else to me. And so I can help people save money on their bikes. If somebody is going to get healed one day or tired of their bike and want to get rid of okay. And I will be the place to go to, to help sell that. So I will help my audience save on bikes. And there'll be charges for that - it won't be for free, but there'll be an opportunity there. Again, back to these headsets. This is now my second set of these. And the interesting thing is there is a name brand version of this very headset. It's like 120 bucks. I paid $15 for these things.
Marc Scarborough (12:09):
And I've had them for about 2 years. Same perfect sound, everything. I've discovered a lot of those kinds of things. That fanny pack you heard me mention. I saw something really cool out there at a 5km that I ran a couple of years ago. There was this gentleman, he was several years older than me, but he had this patch on the back of his shirt that I never forgot. It had a car - 46 Chevy - And it said - 46 model still running. And I thought that is cool. And I want everybody to have their t-shirt. I want everybody to announce, "I'm 50, I'm 60, I'm 80", whatever the heck I am. I want them to put that on and let everybody know - BOOM, I'm happy!
Veronica Jeans (13:01):
And I love this idea. One of my other client, Meg Staples, has Her Tribe Athletics, who creates her own designs for her t-shirts, leggings, hats and all sorts of weird, wonderful stuff for her runners, because she started running, she lost 40 pounds and it's a viable business. And she's actually thinking about giving up her job to actually run the business. Well right now she has to start maybe running the business properly. She's a teacher with no work. But but so she has to make it work. That is such a great idea for you too. But also the best thing is creating that tribe and getting them excited before you even start.
Marc Scarborough (14:04):
I'm going to actually get to have the best of two worlds now. I'm going to put myself in a situation where I must perform To 1: help myself and strengthen my leg to the best that I can possibly get it and 2: to inspire and grow an audience or tribe. I won't go into detail on this right now, but there's a book that I would tell anybody that's thinking about creating a blog and it's called 1000 True Fans.It is written by Kevin Kelly. He's the name to remember - Kevin Kelly. If you read that book, you'll find out real easily, real quick how - I hate to use the word profitable - you can monetize a blog very easily.
Veronica Jeans (15:09)
Monetizing a blog is not a new concept. It's been around for awhile. I mean, that's how people started with blogs and then making it work, but it's having the right product. And then also, as you say, you've got to be consistently getting that blog online and writing so that your customers expect something is coming out every Wednesday or every Thursday or something like that. And I liked the way that you are also doing your lives online already, just by speaking to people about your experiences. I always say that you got to stay in front of your customer and having your face in front of your customer on Facebook right now having a video and being in front of your customer is priceless. You can't buy that type of marketing and awareness.
Veronica Jeans (16:00):
Hence I'm always online. We are doing this in our workshop right now. We're talking about blogging and what to blog and how to blog. Even if you have an e-commerce store. I mean, that's even more essential to blog if you have e-commerce store, because then you can sell stuff. So tell us what is the next step forward - we've got about four minutes left. What's the next step forward that you're going to do in your timeline, because I know you have a timeline.
Marc Scarborough (16:36):
Right. Now my goal to launch is basically 1 January. Kick off your 2021. It's the prime time that the most people are considering health, going on, diets, buying your peloton. All of those things are going on between now and the end of March. So I plan to launch right smack in the middle of it. It's a great way to kick off the new year. Again I've got new year's resolutions of my own, right?
Veronica Jeans (17:10):
December resolutions going into new year.
Marc Scarborough (17:14):
Everything from, you know right now I'm cycling every day. Right now, I'm doing the exercises my therapist tells me every day. I'm going to get back on the street. I just stopped the last couple of weeks because my foot really hurts when I walk. Back to the cycle - I don't want to get too far off track - my schedule for the next 9/10 weeks left in the year, is to start getting some of the basic foundational content created ready to go. To get the website itself up and ready to go. And even do some some light campaigns on Facebook. To start creating that tribe and announcing the launch day. And why are we here? What the heck are you doing?
Marc Scarborough (18:05):
Invite your friends. And in the meantime doing some homework on such things as these headset and the bikes. And getting my Shopify stuff set up.
Veronica Jeans (18:17):
But you're going to have your blog as well.
Marc Scarborough (18:20):
And so basically I'm up and running literally in January. That's the plan.
Veronica Jeans (18:25):
Well, that's fabulous. And I love the way when we were talking in the workshop about the blogging, you had your list up already, you know exactly what you're going to talk about. You've got all that scheduled and that is so important is to have that plan ready to go. So you don't have to think, every time you launch a new week, oh, what am I going to talk about? What am I going to do? But you have your list, already, ready to rock and roll.
Marc Scarborough (18:53):
Well, I want it to be a continuing story that builds from one week to the next. And, let's face it, you know, two things - I want my audience to see a progression of the story of the information they're getting. And I'm just that kind of organized person that my notes are organized, I'm organized, my message is organized. And people listening to me can keep up with me.
Veronica Jeans (19:20):
And they know where you're going. You can tell them where you're going. What are you going to do? And what's new on in Marc's world. So thank you so much for popping in Marc and telling us about it, because I think this is so important, especially now that so many people have lost their jobs and they're going, you know, what's next? It does take a little bit of time to decide, okay so what's my next sandbox, right. I say is, what am I going to do when I grow up? So I had to, it took me a few months also to decide, well, you know what I need to do e-commerce right. I want to sell something. I'm still not selling anything, but I am teaching about it. Thank you very much. And we will be having our next speaker up on the hour. And we will see you in the questions and answers if anybody has a question for you. We will put all Marc's connections and his tribe in the comments or in the descriptions. So you know where to find Marc, if you want to see what his journey's like, where he's going, and you'll actually learn a lot of stuff, if you stick to them. Thanks Mark for popping in with us.
Mark Scarborough
Marc Scarborough is president/founder of the Get Marc group of companies. Marc has been recognized as a top producer in sales, management and leadership who has helped develop top producers across multiple industries and markets. As a graduate of Perdue Global University, he also holds master’s degrees in Management and Organizational Leadership from Colorado State University.
He is at the stage of his life he wants to be his own boss. So he is going to talk about how he reinvents himself.
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