Marc My Words

Marc takes some time to reflect on the achievement of doing 100 episodes of Marc My Words. It's not quite a celebration and it is also not quite the 100th episode. That's ok, life is busy. Every once in awhile we need to pat ourselves on the back. Especially when we are working hard on our own to make a show like this a reality. Although produced by Marc, he does have plenty of company and plenty to be thankful for due to all of his amazing guests and the people who inspired him along the way. All of this plus more is summarized in this solo edition of Marc My Words.

Although Holly Porter has been a successful entrepreneur for several years (she has founded 11 startups to this date), it wasn't until she had COVID and a near death experience that she found her true calling. Holly's NDE gave her the inspiration to start Retreat RnR, an Saas platform designed to focus on business retreats as well as a non-profit called "Adventure Bucket Wish Foundation." Although Holly's pre out of body experience resume is impressive, her recovery and resilience since this life changing experience is truly inspiring. It just so happens that Marc has become interested in NDE stories in recent years so this made for a fascinating conversation when combining entrepreneurship with inspiration from such a profound life changing experience. 

Zhe Scott is an IT professional who is known for being the "SEO Queen" but this is only one side of who she is. In this episode of Marc My Words, Zhe tells the story of how she became interested in entrepreneurship and IT. Marc and Zhe also a little bit about how to use SEO strategy as well as the role AI plays in SEO tools as the technology evolves. Diversity and finding the will to keep striving to accomplish your dreams despite the obstacles life may throw at you are also discussed. Zhe has gained a ton of wisdom due to her experiences and accomplishments which made for a really fun and interesting discussion.

Brady's journey into entrepreneurship has followed an unconventional route. After one particular event that related to his dog's behavior, Brady decided that he wanted to take more control over the way he was training his dogs. However, rather than become frustrated and resort to negative behavior, Brady became inspired and how positive ways to communicate with and relate to his dogs. After suddenly losing his job right before the pandemic, Brady decided to start a business that applied some of his philosophies on dog training. What started out as a rather unstructured business model has turned into a full fledged opportunity to become self employed. Brady spoke with Marc about the challenges he has faced, triumphs he has experienced, and how working in fast food and retail has taught him valuable tools that have helped him to become an effective dog trainer.

Narrowing down Dr Judy Morley's job title as an entrepreneur to just one thing is hard to do. Judy has done way more than run her cookie business. Not only did she start 9 businesses over 20 plus years, Judy also used her previous experiences in education and entrepreneurship to help and inspire new generations of professionals and aspiring entrepreneurs. Judy is a highly successful speaker, author, educator, coach, and mentor who has a number of stories and experiences that have helped to enrich the lives of others and inspire others to walk in her footsteps. Marc and Judy had a very interesting inspiring chat about her journey and all of the changes and obstacles she faced along the way. A lot of things happened between becoming the point Judy graduated college and became Dr. Judy Morley through the founding of The Gettysburg Cookie Company. 

Shannon Houchin, Chief Roadie at Roadside Republic has taken what might seem like an outdated idea for self employment and has turned it into a profitable business venture. Not only did selling peaches turn out to be a smart decision for Shannon and her son, it also became an opportunity to combine old methods of making money with many of today's modern tools for building her brand and reach new audiences in the process. Although her son runs the operations side of the peach stand business they started years ago, Shannon is still very much involved in building their business by helping others to learn the art of starting their own roadside fruit stand business. Marc and Shannon discuss her journey to entrepreneurship, the influence of growing up with a parent who was also an entrepreneur, and how others can achieve the same type of success.

Leanne Linsky spent years building a career in corporate America by utilizing her dynamic personality and people skills in order to connect and help staff and management build camaraderie and find success together. However, along the way, Leanne discovered that she also had the ability to make others laugh. Combining her speaking skills with a great sense of humor, Leanne worked on her passion for comedy and built herself up as stand up comedian, improvisor, actor, writer, and producer. Although building her own career was fulfilling, Leanne saw that there was an opportunity to help other comedians to build their career and connect. After going back in to school in order to learn skills that would help her make Plauzzable, her entrepreneurial dream come true, Leanne again applied all of the experience and skills she's built throughout her life in order to make her dream a reality. Marc and Leanne have a few laughs and discuss her path to building a platform that helps comedians to earn income, try out new material, perform in front of a virtual audience, and create a following.

Tina Lopez's passion is to help content creators create their own passive income. She wants to help content creators of all skill levels and employment statuses turn their passion into something that can also help them make money. Tina not only wants to help content creators make money, she also wants to help them save their time. Tina understands that creating content can take time. Especially if you choose to do it alone. She also understands the work that goes into outsourcing responsibilities as well. Tina and Marc discussed these topics plus the important role AI can play when it is implemented into content creation and creating passive income. Tina wants to teach others the same principles that have worked for her and share her wisdom on how to make your life a little easier and create more flexibility by using her philosophies.

John Hewitt, CEO of Loyalty Brands and co-founder of tax company Jackson Hewitt discussed his journey from Math major at the University of Buffalo to running very successful income tax preparation companies. Although highly sucessful, John's journey came with its same of obstacles and challenges. Marc and John discuss all of the phases of his career, his latest book, and all of the wisdom he has gained along the way. The journey lead him to found a new company called Loyalty Brands. This company aims to help up and coming franchise buyers to find their way through his franchise services.