On a recent episode of The Sales Hunter Podcast, Mark sat down with former NFL player and resilience proponent Marques Ogden to unearth the real stories behind what it takes to bounce back whether you’re in sales, business, or life. From the highs of playing in the NFL to hitting rock bottom, Marques Ogden shared how resilience, accountability, and discipline powered his journey back to success.
Resilience Isn’t Optional, It’s Essential
Sales is never a straight path. According to Mark Hunter, being successful comes down to resilience. Marques Ogden knows this firsthand. After a career with teams like the Jacksonville Jaguars and Baltimore Ravens, he left the NFL and built a multimillion-dollar construction company, only to lose it all due to ego and poor decisions.
“I ended up crashing and burning and losing everything that I owned in 2013.” — Marques Ogden
Losing both cars to repossession, being fired from two jobs in the same week, and taking a custodial job at $8.25/hour gave Marques Ogden what he calls his true wake-up call. The lesson? You don’t stay down. You get up, own your story, and steer the course forward.
Authenticity and Vulnerability: Competitive Advantages
It’s tough to talk about big setbacks, especially in public. But Marques Ogden flips the script, embracing vulnerability as a superpower in business and leadership.
“When you are vulnerable and you are authentic and you’re real, people flock to you.” — Marques Ogden
Vulnerability, he explains, isn’t weakness—it’s connection. People want to know leaders and sales pros are human. Success comes from owning mistakes, sharing lessons, and being real. This authenticity has fueled his acclaimed podcast, Get Authentic with Marques Ogden, where guests from all walks of life share powerful, honest stories.
Focus on Solutions, Not Problems
Every sales career will face setbacks and rejection. The difference is in the response. Marques Ogden credits his upbringing for teaching him not to dwell on problems but to focus on solutions. Raised by a single father, he and his brother (NFL Hall of Famer Jonathan Ogden) were taught that integrity and education always come first.
“Our dad…integrity was the foundation… Respect women, respect yourself, education over sports.” — Marques Ogden
He urges leaders to avoid sugarcoating failures. Sharing adversity doesn’t repel people, but builds trust. In every keynote, he makes sure to talk openly about being fired, bankruptcy, and starting from zero, because it’s what makes him relatable.
Failure Sets the Blueprint for Success
One of the biggest takeaways from Marques Ogden: failures aren’t for hiding, they’re for teaching. “Your failures, slash lessons learned, help others to set up their blueprint for success.” By opening up, leaders can help their teams grow, take risks, and bounce back faster when things go south.
Lead by Example: Actions Over Words
In sales, leadership, and life, people watch actions, not speeches. Marques Ogden urges managers to go first when it comes to authenticity. Teams won’t open up if leaders hide their own struggles.
Aspirational leaders create the vision. Inspirational leaders get people excited to chase it. The best do both, and true inspiration starts with honesty, not perfectionism.
Practical Steps for Building Resilience
So how do you coach people to move past their fears? Help them first get real with themselves. Marques Ogden reminds everyone that pretending and “holding back” only erode your potential. Instead, use failures as fuel for other people’s growth.
Mark Hunter :
Being successful in sales is all about resilience. Okay, it’s easy to talk about, but if we’re going to talk about it, you got to talk about it with somebody who has lived it with me today. Marcus Ogden. What am I talking? Let’s get the show going.
Marques Ogden :
Right now you’re listening to the Sales Hunter podcast with Mark Hunter, where the focus is to help you as a salesman sell with confidence and integrity. And now, here’s your host.
Mark Hunter :
Did I tell you that our guest is an NFL player? Hey, I’m going to let him set the stage for you. Marcus, welcome to the show. Thank you for making time. Tell the audience a little bit about your background and you don’t talk resilience. You lived it and overcame it.
Marques Ogden :
Mark. Thank you. So my name is Marcus Ogden. I am from Washington D.C. i now live in Fuquay Marine, North Carolina. It’s about half hour outside of Raleigh, North Carolina and I am a former NFL athlete. I played for almost six years in the National Football League. Drafted by the Jacksonville Jaguars, played for the Jaguars and then I went to the Ravens, played for the Bills and I retired Tennessee Titans.
Marques Ogden :
After my career in the National Football League, I struggled immensely with addiction and other issues. Gambling, nightlife. I finally got my act together and I built a construction company from the ground up. About resilience. Didn’t know anybody, didn’t have any resources, didn’t have any contacts, just a desire to want to help people and bring construction to the Baltimore city area. We started in 2008. By the end of 2011, we became the largest African American owned subcontracting company and in the city of Baltimore and the state of Maryland and we just grew rapidly and we were just crushing it. But unfortunately, Mark, my ego got the best of me and I ended up crashing and burning and losing everything that I owned in 2013.
Marques Ogden :
I remember. I remember like it was yesterday, Mark. The bank called me December 23, 2012 and told me after meeting for five hours, they were shutting Kaden down. No more. They were shutting it down, closing the doors, everything gone. They made me file a Chapter 7 bankruptcy the next year. When I got to Raleigh, my home was foreclosed on in Baltimore. Both cars were repossessed in the same day when I got here and I only have $400 to my name.
Marques Ogden :
Fired from two jobs in the same week. I took a job, Mark, as a custodian working in Downtown Raleigh for $8 and 25 cents an hour. After NFL career, after a multi multiple eight figure construction company that was built, I Ended up losing it all and making 8.25 an hour. And I finally hit rock bottom, Mark. When I was on my shift and somebody’s trash, rotten meat, nasty protruding, horrible smelling garbage got all over me, that was my wake up call. And I said, if I am going to get my life back, I have to be resilient. I gotta be accountable and I gotta be disciplined. And I started my career speaking in September 2013 after all that happened, everything gone, starting over from the bottom, no money, no resources.
Marques Ogden :
And I jumped into speaking and I started out again at the complete bottom.
Mark Hunter :
Wow, what a story. And I love what you said. Resilient accountability and discipline. Correct?
Marques Ogden :
Yes. Yes, sir.
Mark Hunter :
Those are three powerful words. Now I’ve got a back up the bus here because you’ve had more than a few times in your life, you had a rough childhood. I mean, you. I mean, what’s been this ability to. Because again, it could have been very easily to say, screw it, I’m down, I’m out, I’m over. How did you stay in the game, Mark?
Marques Ogden :
I read your book, Integrity First Selling. And you talk about how integrity is not a tool that you pull out of your toolbox every once in a while. Integrity is 24 7. And what happened is, Mark, every time in my life when I have hit rock bottom, when I’ve struggled, when I’ve lost, when I’ve had to go through hardship, overcoming obstacles, going through adversity, I’ve learned something about myself. Because every time I face something, I just figure out a way to keep going forward. Because I was raised in a house where integrity was everything. Our dad who raised us as a single parent. I have an older brother, Jonathan og, who was the Ravens first draft pick ever, ever.
Marques Ogden :
He’s their first ever first ballot hall of Famer. We were raised by a single dad and integrity was the foundation, Mark, of everything. Respect women, respect yourself, education over sports. I have been learning about resilience pretty much since the day I was born. And so anytime I face an obstacle, right, Mark, I always say to myself, okay, there’s the problem, but focusing on the problem is going to do nothing. Focus on the solution. How can you apply what you have or what you have as far as your network or other people in your circle to help you get things done. And Mark, that’s how I live my life.
Marques Ogden :
And this is how every time life knocks me down, every single time I
Mark Hunter :
get back up and you don’t get back up in the same thing. Because again, I. I’m surprised you didn’t say when you got down, you started another construction company. Why not?
Marques Ogden :
That’s a great question. I got into construction for the wrong reason. I got into construction to chase money, to chase fame, to become famous. I didn’t have any experience in it, really didn’t like it, but I didn’t know what else to do. And then when I started speaking, right, Mark, for two and a half years, two and a half years, 30 months, not one paid job, not one. Got my first paid job April 2016. I then got my second paid job ever in 2017 for the Buffalo Bills NFL football team. One of my great friends, Marlon Kerner, who just got the job as director of player Engagement, brought me in.
Marques Ogden :
It was amazing. And then in 2018, I met Mel Robbins. I was on her audiobook Kick Ass with Mel. And Mel told me, in life, Marcus, be inspirational, not motivational. When I learned that, Mark, that’s when I said, okay, I now understand how I can go that long without being paid. And now I understand why I’ve been struggling in this journey for so long. I’ve been focusing on the short term instead of focusing on the long term. And when I did that right, Mark, that’s when, like in your book, you talk about, are you doing things for people for their best interest or for yours? Are you the kind of person that’s going to tell a client, you cannot serve them, here’s a competitor that can serve you better.
Marques Ogden :
You know how to bring value to people and not try to cut corners or do this or do that, bring maximum value. And I love what you said in your book, right, Mark? Can you be honest with somebody if you can help them or you’re going to do something for somebody you know you can’t help just to meet your sales quota? And I realized I’ve been doing it the right way, but I never understood the foundation of it. Once I learned that Mark speaking got more consistent, it got more plentiful, it got more larger paying fees to where we are now. And we’re very fortunate to have some amazing clients like MassMutual, True Cordia, Taylor Morrison, like all these companies we work for multiple times, Paradiso Insurance, so on and so forth. And people love what we bring to the table.
Mark Hunter :
And I’ll tell you what, you bring a lot to the table. Your podcast. Tell the audience real quick about your podcast as you are crushing in terms of the message that you’re delivering.
Marques Ogden :
Thank you, Mark. The podcast is called Get Authentic with Marcus Ogden, is globally ranked in the top half percent most popular podcast Worldwide. It was actually ranked in the top 20 business podcasts in the US and we focus on authenticity and integrity and helping people by showing them your superpower of vulnerability. People have to understand when you are vulnerable and you are authentic and you’re real, people flock to you. And that is the entire basis of our podcast, Get Authentic with Marcus Ogden. You can find it on every major streaming platform. Spotify, Apple, YouTube. And people absolutely love it, Mark, because again, we interview all kinds of people.
Marques Ogden :
Celebrities, business own. Mark, we’re having you on the podcast here shortly. It’s everybody. Everybody you can think of, from business owners, executives, to celebrities, music, musicians, artists, you name it. As long as you’re authentic and real, you have a place you belong on our show.
Mark Hunter :
Now, you said something else. You said a word. Vulnerable. That’s a hard word for people to grasp because we’re in a society where you can’t be vulnerable. People will take advantage of you. Is that a superpower?
Marques Ogden :
Yes. Because here’s the thing, right, Mark. Vulnerability, Being honest about the mistakes that you made, being real about your journey, telling people. For example, I took all the time you talk about construction, right, Mark, I chased money. I chased external motivating factors. I’m the one that caused my demise for my construction company. Not my partner, not the client, not the developer, not my employees, not my team. Nobody but me.
Marques Ogden :
I did a bunch of extra work without signed documentation because I was too full of ego and masculinity to think I could ever get hurt by a client. I thought I was too bim. I’m a multiple eight figure business. Nothing’s going to put me out of business that next year I’m out of business. When people hear that, right, Mark, you know, if one or two choices or three, one, you go, ah, either here, there, two, ah, you know, here’s a guy that, oh, he failed. I want to talk to him. Or three, like, wow, Marcus, I fail too. Thank you for sharing.
Marques Ogden :
That allows me to connect with you. People do business with who they know like and trust. And that’s how I found you, Mark. I found you because Damon Lempy, who’s a dear friend of mine, one of our first sponsors of our podcast at the Learning. And I helped. I was the one that told him to start a podcast. I was the one that encouraged Damon, Damon, you’re too talented. You’re too awesome.
Marques Ogden :
Police start a podcast. And he did. You were on there. His book he had on his. On his page was your book. I saw it. I said, damon, how’s the book? Awesome. Now here we are, right, Bart? And that’s vulnerability.
Mark Hunter :
Wow. Hey, I tell you what I want to. I want to put the focus on you, because I’ll tell you what, you are being so genuinely authentic by talking about your failures. And again, this is what people struggle with because they don’t want to talk about it. Was that hard for you to begin talking about that?
Marques Ogden :
You know, Mark, what I realized is when I started talking about allowed me to really connect with people. And what it did was it made it easier for me to always just go and just talk and not worry about trying to be perfect or polished or this or that. Now I’m a lot better. To think I’ve been doing for so many over a decade, 12 and a half years. But once I started telling people, Mark, what I realized is more people were actually saying. This really resonates with me. But what you have to do, people have to get by their own fear. You cannot worry about what other people are going to say about you.
Marques Ogden :
People are going to talk about you whether you talk about yourself, vulnerable or not. They’re going to. Right. There’s a great quote by Jack Canfield. E plus R equals O. Event plus response equals outcome. You can’t control the event, but your response, your behavior, your thoughts, your images, now you can control that. When you control them, the outcome is usually more favorable.
Marques Ogden :
And so when I did work, I just started to control my response. I say, you know what I can’t control? People think about me or say about me. At least I can control what I think about myself, what I say. And I was just real, you know what? I lost my company. I went bankrupt. I was broke. I was almost homeless. I was basically.
Marques Ogden :
You know, we didn’t have a car for about a week. You know, I did. Both cars were repossessed in the same day. I was fired from two jobs in the same week. Somebody asked me that question, Mark Marcus, what was the lowest part of your journey? And I said, being fired from two jobs in the same week. And every time, Mark, I go and speak that is in my presentation because it’s part of my journey. I tell everybody I moved to Raleigh fire from 2000, same week, bam, Bam. And they’re like, what? I’m like, yep.
Marques Ogden :
But again, right, Mark, People like, okay, this guy who’s an NFL act because people can’t relate much like the NFL unless you played in it. You can’t relate to that. You can watch it on tv, but you can’t relate to that. NFL light stadiums. All I can Relate to that stuff. Very few people, but everybody can relate to some sort of failure or challenge, obstacle, hardship or learning lesson. But what happens is, right, Mark, we have to stop thinking, thinking about ourselves and start thinking more about helping others. Right? I was telling you, right, Mark, Be interested in others.
Marques Ogden :
Stop trying to be interesting to others.
Mark Hunter :
Oh, I’ll tell you what. There’s so much power of what you said because it is so true. It’s so easy. We can dwell on our own challenges. Best way to get off of that facet is to just put yourself in the service of others. And it’s amazing what will happen. Wow. Powerful.
Mark Hunter :
How do you, how do you coach people get past their personal fear?
Marques Ogden :
I coach people by saying, if you are not going to be real with yourself, then you’re not ever going to reach your full potential. Oh, Marks, what do you mean? What do you mean? Like, well, think about it. If you know something about yourself and you’re trying to help others, but you’re sugarcoating it, you’re holding back, you’re not telling the full truth, they’re not going to know it, but you will. And what happens is you’ll start to. It’ll eat away at you because you realize, and you know that you’re not doing people any favors. Ladies and gentlemen, get this lesson, what you’ve gone through. And I, and this is a great quote, somebody put this on my social media yesterday. Your failures, slash lesson help others set up their blueprint.
Marques Ogden :
Your failures, slash lessons learned, help others to set up their blueprint for success. When you realize that when you can come from a place like that, that’s when you reach full potential. Which is exactly why, Mark, people hire us because they know they’re not just going to get the fluff. They’re not just going to get the glitz and the glamour. Not because it’s going to get. People say, you know, people say, Marcus, you know, one of my best friends, his name is Chris, and he has a guy that works for him named Christos. And Chris told him, man, you gotta come here. Marcus speaking, Christos.
Marques Ogden :
And he actually was very honest about authentic. He said, oh, man. Like, I went to listen to Marcus, I wasn’t sure how I was gonna like it. I can’t wait to the NFL, I’m not an athlete, blah, blah, blah. Right, Christos, Christos said, marcus, by the time you were done, I related more to you than any speaker I’ve ever heard. Because your failures, your lessons learned, your journeys were so much like mine. So much. Not one, not Too many multiple.
Marques Ogden :
And he said that drew me in. I was hanging on your every word. Again, he said, I’ve related better to you than any speaker that I’ve ever heard, he said, because your superpower, being vulnerable pulled me in. And that was it. He said, I was hooked. So, ladies and gentlemen, you have to own your story. Your failure, slash, lessons learned. Set others up for having a blueprint for their success.
Marques Ogden :
And when you look at it like that, you start to say, okay, this is exactly how it’s supposed to be.
Mark Hunter :
And it’s regardless of your profession, regardless of what you do, I think of managers, if you could just open up and be a little more vulnerable about your story, amazing what your people would be able to do.
Marques Ogden :
Ah, ladies and gentlemen, people are gonna follow what you do, not what you say. If you say all the time, be vulnerable, this, that, and the other. But you don’t talk about stuff. You. You’re not real. You hide stuff. You try to seem perfect. Your staff that you’re leading, it’s gonna follow your actions, not your words.
Marques Ogden :
People don’t care about your words. Words mean nothing to people because you can say anything but the action, what you do, and that’s everything. So if you want to change the culture of your business, if you want to be more leader, people follow. You want to be an aspirational and inspirational leader. An aspirational leader creates the vision for the organization. An inspirational leader gets the team fired up to win. If you want to do that, start with being authentic, real, and vulnerable. Trust me, it will work greater than you could ever have imagined.
Mark Hunter :
Wow. How do people get in touch with you? You got your podcast. Say the name of your podcast again. And how else can people get in touch with you and learn?
Marques Ogden :
Get Authentic with Marcus Ogden again. It’s on Spotify, Apple, YouTube. I heart. We’re very blessed. People love it. And again, reach out to us. Subscribe, check us out. And again, there’s lots of great information.
Marques Ogden :
We always ask these three questions, what does authentic mean to them? Right? Tell us about your background and your story. And three, how does being authentic help you to excel in your chosen career path? Boom, boom, boom. So check us out there or go to our website, www.marcus as m a r q u e s ogden o G-E-N.com or shoot me an email. Marcusarcusogden.com what an incredible episode.
Mark Hunter :
Thank you, Marcus. Authenticity. So powerful. Hey, you’ve been listening to the Sales Hunter podcast. Two episodes a week, one like this, where we do a deep dive with a subject matter expert. Second, just me, where I unpack a single topic. Why do we do the podcast? Is because want to help you see an achievement you didn’t think was possible. Do us a favor.
Mark Hunter :
Leave us a review on your favorite podcast app. I’m Mark Hunter, the sales hunter.
