Unpacking Success: Marcel Clarke on Ego, Accountability, and Building Generational Wealth

We explore what it takes to build durable businesses across franchises, real estate and investing, and why humility, people and discipline beat ego every time. Marcél Clark shares how sacrifice fuels momentum, how leaders stay accountable and how to build teams that win.

• people first leadership and culture
• startup sacrifice and the myth of balance
• going all in versus part-time mindset
• learning the science of your business
• systems for accountability and metrics
• hiring smarter and checking your ego
• building trust through consistency and clarity
• mentors, networks and avoiding costly mistakes
• turning around a failing territory with a plan
• focus, anti-complacency and generational wealth
• practical advice: one step at a time and never quit

Continue to tell your friends and your colleagues. If you know someone that's interested in being a guest, we'd love to hear some insight

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Disclaimer:

The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the speakers and guests and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any organization or entity. The information provided in this podcast is intended for educational and informational purposes only and should not be considered as professional advice. Listeners should consult with their own professional advisors before implementing any suggestions or recommendations made in this podcast. The speakers and guests are not responsible for any actions taken by listeners based on the information presented in this podcast. The podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional advice or services. The speakers and guests make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the information, products, services, or related graphics contained in this ...

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Mission
• 1:08 Meet Marcél Clark
• 3:17 Family, Faith, And Sacrifice
• 4:29 Startup Reality And Balance
• 6:03 All In Vs Part Time Mindsets
• 8:21 Born Or Built: The Entrepreneur Debate
• 9:28 Learn The Business Science
• 10:25 People First Leadership
• 12:03 Ditch The Ego, Hire Smarter
• 14:32 Work Hard Stay Humble
• 15:30 Continuous Learning And Networks
• 17:06 Finding Mentors With Intent
• 18:20 Systems For Self Accountability
• 20:03 Building Trust Through Consistency
• 21:05 Turning Around A Failing Territory
• 23:14 Fighting Complacency And Focus
• 25:05 Best Advice: One Step Forward
• 26:26 Why A Coach And Final Lessons
• 28:16 Never Quit And How To Reach Marcél
• 29:28 Closing Gratitude And Sign Off

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:00

Welcome to Unpack Podcast with your host, Leadership Consultant, Ron Harvey of Global Core Strategies and Consulting. Ron believes that leadership is the fundamental driver towards making a difference. So now, to find out more of what it means to unpack leadership, here's your host, Ron Harvey.

SPEAKER_02: 0:20

Good afternoon. This is Ron Harvey, the Vice President, Chief Operating Officer for Global Core Strategies and Consulting. And we're based out of Columbia, South Carolina. And our business really is about helping leaders be better connected to their workforce and the people that actually make them successful. So we're all about taking care of people at the end of the day. You know, we got core values, we got mission statements, but we truly believe that people are the foundation of your business and they make or break you. So we try to help leaders be effective at doing the right thing with them, through them, and by them to be successful in business. But we always pause and we release an episode or a podcast with a leader from around the world, um, from all over, quite honestly. And we've been doing this now about 18 months, and we are super excited that we bring so many people from different backgrounds, different industries from around the country to talk about leadership and people and the difference that it makes. So I'm super excited to have Mark Marcel on with us, and I'm going to invite him to introduce himself. You guys know I don't introduce anyone. Um, I don't want to mess it up, and who knows them better than them? So I'm going to invite Marcel to come on in. Man, welcome to the show, man, and thank you for saying yes.

SPEAKER_00: 1:23

Ha ha, thank you, Ron. I really appreciate the the platform. So anytime I get a chance to reach out to you know successful people in in the business world, I'm always hopping on the opportunity.

SPEAKER_02: 1:35

Yes, yes. So, Mark Marcel, before we dive into it, I'd love for people to know who you are, if you in your services, your products, or what you do, you know, a little bit of background about you. What would you share with us that you want us to know about you? You know, so I always invite people just to share. You know, we promote businesses here, we talk about products and services here, and we talk about leadership. Um, but tell us a little bit that you want us to know about you that would be helpful.

SPEAKER_00: 1:55

Yeah, I'm incredibly diverse at this point. So, uh generational entrepreneur, real estate developer, stock market architect, cryptocurrency investor. So I do a lot of different things um in the world of business. I've been an entrepreneur for over two decades now. So well versed in a lot of different areas. I spend a lot of my time trying to mentor uh young youth these days, and I also try my best to uh coach young professionals that may have been doing the uh whole nine to five thing all of their lives, but now they want to own a business. So I do a lot of business coaching um in that area. But yeah, I have a pretty diverse palette. If you want to learn a lot more about me, just go to marcelclark.co. So you'll see it's all lined up for you guys, and it's a great website, but it talks about all of my ventures. I'm a recent author, I just published a book, High in the Plain View that I think is incredibly motivational. So I believe a lot of people will benefit from that book. But yeah, I have a I have a diverse palette at this point. I also just signed a deal with Marcos Pizza for a three-unit deal there. So yeah, I'm just I like I like I started with generational entrepreneur, do a lot of different things, um, but never too much. I would try to keep it within you know the conglomerate that I'm building, and I'm really just happy to be able to be in business because that's what I do.

SPEAKER_02: 3:12

Awesome, awesome. So, really quick, I mean you shared a lot, and I'll I'll unpack some of that as we go through it.

SPEAKER_00: 3:17

Family man, children, you know, yeah, yeah, family is everything. Yeah, every everything, family and God is everything. So family is I have uh I have two, I have two daughters and one son. My daughter lives in New York, um, and she's doing really, really well. My son is just starting, he's just finished wrapped up his first year of college, and then my daughter is trailing him. She's um in the 11th grade, going to be in 12th grade next year. So, yeah, have a nice, nice family. Everybody's doing their thing. Um, but yeah, all of them, you know, when they're under my tutelage, all of them are motivated to be great. Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_02: 3:53

And I reason I ask that because you know, you're doing a lot. And and one of the things about, you know, when you're you're successful and and it doesn't come easy, you got to put a lot of work in. How do you balance making sure that you don't you don't lose out on no, you're working hard for your family, but you also want to make sure you're spending enough quality time. How do you do that balancing act that entrepreneurs, because they can suck you in? You can find yourself, you know, burning the kennel on both ends when you got a family and be an entrepreneur. How did you manage to to to do well and still tutor the children?

SPEAKER_00: 4:20

You know, I've always been all about family, but I do have to concede that when you when you're doing a startup, you're gonna be all in. Like the first franchise I ever purchased, the Maids Home Services, when I would be around a lot of the veterans, they were like, Okay, Marcel, you're about to go underwater for two years. I was like, What does that mean? They were like, Two years, you're just not gonna be able to do anything or see anybody, you it's gonna be all about the business. I would be inclined to say that they were absolutely right. So I don't know initially if you're gonna have balance. I don't I don't I think people try to promote that, but I'm not, I don't believe that's true. Uh, but again, you know, I was raised understanding that you know sacrifice is required, right? My mom told me that you're gonna have to sacrifice. So I think the sacrifice is worth it because I did play a little catch-up. Uh it they were real small anyway when I started my business. So I mean, two, three years old, they don't remember much anyway, right? So when they started to get older, I was already my companies were starting to mature, so I did have a chance to kind of like level the playing field, but yeah, it's going to be challenging for any true entrepreneur to kind of like have balance initially because it's like anything else. You you have to give it 100% if you really want to win.

SPEAKER_02: 5:31

Yeah, I love it. I mean, and you're being transparent, which I tell everybody on the show, though, we're gonna be honest, we're gonna tell you, hey, here's here's what we unpacked is that you had to be on the water for two years, like, hey, this is what you're trying to get done. It's gonna take you, it's like going on Shark Tank when they ask them all the time, hey, are you really in this business or are you treating this as a hobby? Because they don't want to invest if you're not really in the company. Um, and so I was, you know, I love that you're sharing that. Hey, I had to, I got to make a decision and make a sacrifice and have that conversation with my family, which is important to have it so they know what the expectation is.

SPEAKER_00: 6:02

Absolutely. And I tell people all the time, like, I have a lot of realtors that work in my in my portfolio, but you can there's a clear difference between a part-time realtor and a full-time realtor. This right off the break, you know, full-time realtor has everything laid out, portfolio, they know exactly what they have. 100 contacts, they can take care of almost anything. Part-time is a kind of like they just in it trying to make a quick dollar. Can they get the commission? It's just two totally different mindsets. And if you're not 100%, it's it. I just I really try to gravitate away from that because I need somebody that's fully dedicated because it tells me that they really are gonna be about it every single day. Part-time, again, I'm not knocking knocking anybody that does anything as a side hustle, but they just aren't as invested because clearly they have something else that's you know providing them some level of income. So that level of desperation isn't there when when it's what you do every day, and this is how you're gonna basically obtain your income, then you're all in. But when you kind of like, uh, you know, I had this check next door, you know, uh so it's like you're not really, it's okay, but they're not going, Oh, I'm going, I got I have to get after it. It's just too totally mindset. So I I agree. If you're not 100% in, I'm not really, I don't understand. Yeah, I just don't do it.

SPEAKER_02: 7:14

Wow, yeah. And and and so for those that are listening, it is so important. You're talking about something on here though, Marcel. You talk about mindset. So when you look at your mom pour some stuff into you, you're you're doing uh multiple things, and and you're you're juggling, you know, and you got them in the air and you sound like you're doing really, really well there. What mindset did or where did you develop the mindset to to come in, roll up your sleeves, put the work in? Where does that come from? Because it it's not an overnight thing. Uh, I don't know if you're born with it or not born with it. Where does it come from?

SPEAKER_00: 7:42

Oh, that's a lot. So, so two things. My dad was an entrepreneur. So when I was a kid, I actually had a close-up one-on-one look at what entrepreneurs entrepreneurship looks looked like. So we owned it, he owned the fish market, and then when we moved to Philly, he owned a bunch of corner stores, they're like 7-Elevens, and that's where you could get those incredibly uh worldwide popular cheesesteaks. But that up, that upfront schooling, first of all, was there. Two, I I think you know that question, are you born to be an entrepreneur? is kind of interesting because honestly, I started out in the nine to five world of appeasing my mom, right? Because once I got once I obtained my graduate degree, it was kind of like, well, you felt like you had to go and do the nine-to-five thing. So I did that coming out of college and I wasn't happy. I was always a leader, no matter what environment I was in, but I still had to learn how to be an entrepreneur, right? So I think it's kind of like a trick question because to me, it's both. You can't teach leadership, either you're a leader or you're not. It's either in you, you have these traits that basically they just show themselves or you don't have them. That's just one thing. But in anything, when you're trying to become great and you're trying to learn, you have to learn. You have to be, you have to be in, you have to really be like immersed in the education of that field. So you you still have to learn regardless. There's no way that you could just say, Oh, um, you I can't just own Marco's pizzas and I'm just gonna be successful. No, I literally have to now dive into the science of pizza, right? I like I leave I need to know every single thing I possibly can about making a pizza if I want to be dominant in the field. So it's it's a it's a I think it's both, if you ask me that question.

SPEAKER_02: 9:24

Yeah, I mean, I appreciate it. Let me let me unpack for a second, though. You said, hey, you know, I if I go on go into Marco's pizza, I gotta understand the sci, I gotta understand everything about this business, other than the fact that we're we're putting a pie on on a box and someone's gonna come buy it. How important is it for anybody, regardless of industry, to understand everything about the business in your industry to be successful? How important is that to for you for us?

SPEAKER_00: 9:52

It's key. So fortunately for me, I've owned the franchise in the past, but there's it's an intricate system to it, targeting what type of customer you you need that you're you're going after. The households, how what areas have the most households? Where should you actually plant that first location? From the science of freshness of the food, how long do they have to deliver it to a household? All of these things are already kind of pretty much understood within the realm, but you have to learn it, you have to understand it yourself. You can't just think you're just gonna walk in there and just sell pizzas and get them out the door and it's gonna work because it won't work that way. When you deal, especially when you buy franchises, you have to follow their methodology because already proven that's the reason why they've been able to expand. If you can't execute on everything that they're gonna teach you, again, see, learn it, you're not gonna win. It's just I I've I've seen um McDonald's that have gone out of business, you know. I've watched a couple of different franchises go out of business. So just because you receive a franchise model, or just because you know you could be an owner, that's not a uh a guaranteed formula for success.

SPEAKER_02: 11:00

Can you tie that for you? I mean, I love where you're going at with I want to unpack a little bit here on the leadership aspect of it. So when you go in, yeah, you may have this idea, I'm gonna do pizza, or I'm gonna do McDonald's, I'm gonna do a UPS store. How important is it for the franchise owner, the leader, to make sure that they take care of the people that are actually gonna do the work in the organization? Because it's not enough for you to go around, and you can't you can't really make that organization work just by your own hands and feet anymore. Your success is more than just the work that you can do. How important is it for you to do a really good job of taking care of people?

SPEAKER_00: 11:34

People, people are people, they are everything. And it's interesting that you could you brought that up. When I bought my first franchise, it residential cleaning is all Latinos, like almost 100% Latinos, as your uh your front-end, front-based workers. So when I was there, I'm I'm like one, I'm an I'm obviously clearly American, but I was in training with a couple of owners that were from you know Latino countries. Literally, they they they automatically figured that I would most likely not be as successful as them based on the fact that they felt like it was gonna be a language barrier. All I truly did was found me a really, really, really good field manager that can basically articulate what I wanted to articulate. And this in the bottom line is I grossed way more than them over the over the first five years because I put more of my emphasis on my management staff. I hired people that were more like me, people that are definitely bilingual, but when I talk to them in our pro in our business meetings, they could translate that to my employees. So, and I never ever had a meeting with an employee without a manager there to make sure that our communication was clear. So, communication and teams mean everything, but that's a perfect example of where you would you would have thought that yeah, they probably are right. I mean, I'm not Latino, so I'm not gonna have that cultural connection and we're not gonna work out. No, that wasn't true at all. Again, I ended up grossing way more than them because the structure of my organization was different, but again, leadership skills or leadership skills, when people feel like you care about them, when people feel like they're invested in what you're doing, they're much more, they're gonna be much more motivated when they walk through the door. And I knew that was important, and we were able to achieve that, and and and we will subsequently we were we were pretty um successful.

SPEAKER_02: 13:15

How much thank you for unpacking that? How much of it when you first go into this, you know it, um, you know you can be successful. How often, you know, um, or dangerous is it for you as an entrepreneur or a leader in in that aspect to make it about you and let your ego get in the way? I mean, you know, you see people that that walk in and it's hey, I own the company, blah blah blah, whatever. How dangerous is it for you to let your ego get in the way? You're in any leadership role?

SPEAKER_00: 13:40

Yeah, that's a rookie move. Anyone that lets business go to their hand and they feel like they're too successful, that's that's a recipe for disaster. You're only as good as the people that you're around. Uh even in my real estate development uh projects, I hire people that's much smarter than me. Much smarter than me. They they have me beat on every level. I am not the person that thinks that I know the most in the in the room. They'll tell you when I'm in there, I'm mostly learning. You know, I I can I can admit, yeah, I'm the font, I'm the funding behind the deal. My name is on these projects. Yes, I'm the developer, but at the end of the day, my general contractor can run circles around me. I would never treat him any just based on just humanity and just me as a person, I would never treat anybody differently, regardless. I don't believe anybody's on some level when you're above levels. That's just ridiculousness. But at the same time, you know, I was raised to just treat people well. That's it. It's not hard. This is not a hard, you know, concept. Just treat people well, right? And just and you know, and hold them accountable. When people make mistakes, you know, talk to them and and and make sure that you clarify where you want to go in the future. But it's it's not, you you're never, you're never the biggest person in the room. It's that's impossible because you can't grow under those circumstances. You have to surround yourself with people that know more than you, they're hungry, they can guide you correctly, and they can make really good decisions. And that's me. I'm all about empowering people. I'm not about trying to you know dominate all the conversations. I don't like hearing myself speak. I'm really more about okay, what's the what how do we resolve this problem? What's the next step? When are we gonna get there? What does success look like in this realm? That's it. But yeah, no, you're never you're never the biggest person in the room. You know, owning a business is nice, but a lot of people own businesses, to be quite honest with you. A lot of people back in the day had business cars that could say, Oh, I have a business. That's not that is not the same as creating a conglomerate, creating a successful company, creating something that's going to be long-lasting, generational uh wealth, like that can that's gonna be a pillar of generational wealth. It's not the same. So, like, always humble yourself, always humble yourself and relax because things change like this. We saw what happened with the pandemic. We could that could that could take up the whole show over here, you know? And that situation was very scary, and a lot of businesses didn't survive for a lot of different reasons, but it shows you that things can be great in business one day, the next day things could take, and that's that's the world I live in.

SPEAKER_02: 16:11

Wow, wow. So on the wall behind you, you got work hard, stay humble. Where did you get is that where the what what why behind the wall and what what do you put that up for? And how do you live by that?

SPEAKER_00: 16:22

Um, I I I put that up there to remind every person that walks to my office that that's that's the way my mindset is, and I definitely, you know, I live by it, like work hard every single day. You every day isn't promise, you know, you don't know what tomorrow's gonna bring. So give it a hundred percent every single time you walk through the door. At the same time, stay humble because you'll you'll experience success with that with this mindset. But I always feel like I got I have further to go. Now I like to enjoy you know the success of my ventures. So I'm telling people, yeah, you should definitely do that too. But never feel like, okay, like like okay, I'm the man, I made it. Ah, uh I'm in the building now. Everybody everybody be quiet. Like, nah, that's just not okay. Life's not that's not what life's for. So always be humble, appreciate where you are, and you and always get after it. So that's that's why it's on my wall.

SPEAKER_02: 17:11

Yeah. So for you, you're in the business, you're doing multiple things, and what you're doing, so much stuff. How do you stay current and continue to grow yourself? What is it that you're doing for your own professional development?

SPEAKER_00: 17:23

Well, I'm always in tune with everything that's that's happening every day. So I'm in the I'm in the markets, right? So I'm always looking at C NBC first thing when I wake up. Then I'm hitting the gym, and then I'm looking at articles. I my feed is full of things that are industry standards. So, whatever industries I'm involved in, that's coming through my feed. That's ongoing education. That's why I love technology now. Really, if you tie into the right organizations and the right feeds, you'll get ongoing information constantly. Obviously, I like to um attend network events, but I'm real strategic about that now. I don't just attend anything, right? It has to definitely be in the lane of something that I'm actually doing and where I'm going to meet like-minded people there in the industry. So there's a lot of ways to stay education that to stay educated now because of the technology. This is just a stream now of this information that you can get from anywhere. So it's up to you to customize what kind of information you want to take in, honestly.

SPEAKER_02: 18:24

Yeah. How do you how do you know, Marcel? How do you make sure that you you come as you're growing? Who are you looking for now or looking to to mentor you and be almost like this guy because you've done a lot, you're doing a lot. How do you find a mentor?

SPEAKER_00: 18:38

I from industry to industry, uh, again, like real estate development is my one of my really big projects right now. So we're doing a huge project in DC. And my general contract, the lane, is really cool. So I'm always when I again, when I'm in a project or if I'm going into an industry, I always try my best to find top leadership. So even with DeMarcos deal, I know two of the owners there in the region already. We've already done lunch a couple of times. I'm already getting to know these people ahead. So it's not really hard to find mentors if you know if you put yourself in the right position and again, humble yourself, let them know listen, I'm just trying to learn what this business is all about, what are the ups and downs, the do's and don'ts? A lot of people are really open. They're there, they they just want to see you win too. So it's not hard. You just have to seek those people out, and again, just present your genuine self, and and normally that falls in line.

SPEAKER_02: 19:36

Yes, yes. You mentioned earlier on there, uh Martel, hold yourself accountable. What are the most difficult things can be to hold yourself accountable? It's it's easier to tell somebody else what they've done wrong and what they need to do, and and you follow up with them. But one of the most difficult things in my journey is self-accountability. You know, in the work that you're doing, how how do you how do you get how do you do it? Make sure that you're following through and doing what you got to do. How do you hold yourself accountable? What are the what are some things that you can share with the audience that's looking at you know, from a leadership role, once you get to a certain level, there's a responsibility for you to make sure that your audio matches your video, that you're doing what you expect others to do. How do you do it?

SPEAKER_00: 20:16

Yeah, a lot of times with anything that I'm involved in, I'm really goal-oriented. So I already have like set measurements and standards across all of my businesses where we need to be at a certain time uh to make sure that we're going to be successful. So I'm definitely looking at the the technicals of those parameters. At the same time, holding myself accountable means every time we have any kind of issue in any of my companies, first thing I'm trying to analyze is what did I do that you know led to this situation, if I had any involvement at all. So that's just being able to check yourself on every level all of the time. Again, it goes into what we were talking about earlier. You can't always have the ego because if you can't check yourself and you can't take responsibility for mistakes and go, yeah, I could, I should have made, I should have done this. But but you can't evolve, right? So if I do make a mistake, the thing about it is the way my mind works is it's recorded and it'll come back, it'll be it'll be a different version somewhere down the line, even this five or ten years down the line, I already know how to handle it. So it's about evolution for me, right? Like actually taking responsibility means, okay, what happened in this situation? What could I have done differently and moving on? For me, when when I'm as a leader, specifically for people that are working within my organization, a lot of times, you know, when they when they come into my office, it's kind of like, well, this is the problem, this is the problem, this is the problem. And early on, I really set the tone and was like, listen, Mr. ABC, I'm already paying you to resolve these problems. So I'm paying you to deal with these issues, not bring them into my office, but to actually deal with them. And if you want to run, run, if you want to run it by me, what your resolution to the issue was, I'm totally on board with that. But think about it before you come talk to me because this is what you're paying for, right? You're a manager, handle problems, issues, resolve them. You're not, you're not, I'm not paying you to come tell me what your problems are because I I have a lot to deal with already. So, like letting people know where they are and giving them the empowerment to make the right decisions, that's the other thing that can I can kind of help you avoid, you know, huge mistakes. But yeah, I think accountability though, it's across all levels. That's my point here. Like, I hold myself accountable, but I definitely make sure that everybody within my realm is held accountable too. And I think it keeps it it avoids a whole lot of nonsense down the road. Everybody in our in my in my conference calls, in my meetings, it's it's really like their move forward type of meetings. If it's a problem that they want to throw out to the group, it must be a real problem. But a lot of times my managers are really um perceptual and they know what they know what they perceptive and they know exactly what they want to do. So again, it's about the organization you build.

SPEAKER_02: 22:55

Awesome. How do you so you you're you have a team, you're doing multiple things. How how have you what have you done that's that's allowed you to build trust within your organization? So I'm a new entrepreneur, I'm a new leader on the team, and I need to build trust so I can I can get out of the way. Um, and I can empower people and not look over my shoulder all the time. What have you done in the in the past to help build trust within your teams?

SPEAKER_00: 23:15

Personal relationships, just actually getting down and and getting to know each other on a personal level, knowing each other's families, knowing where our past experiences, our um past careers, how do they end up in my space, how how I ended up in their space, just getting to really know people and letting them know that what I say, my word is my bond, right? People love to people love people that they know when they're talking to you. When I'm talking to you, I'm I'm being as honest as I can be, as transparent as I can be, and my word is my bond. Whatever I say, I say, and I stand behind it and I'm gonna do it. When you do that and you're consistent in those areas, it's it's all it's automatic. It's automatic.

SPEAKER_02: 23:57

Yes, yes. Is there a time you know, as you've been on many journeys, I'm sure you had you've had some from failures um that didn't go the way you wanted it to? How did what what's something that that didn't go the way you wanted to, and how did you recover from it?

SPEAKER_00: 24:11

Uh early lesson when I bought my very first franchise. If you notice, I call I keep on going back to that. We had a deal where um when I when I bought the franchise, it was in a really good area. However, some of the zip codes weren't performing well at all. I think I may have been about$80,000 into the deal, and I and I was talking to the to the owners, and they kind of weren't really giving me really good feedback. My business coach wasn't giving me real good feedback, and it was just going south. So I took it into my own hands. I created uh a business plan, uh I created a business plan to expand my territory. So created a business plan, expanded my territory. So I want I had to fly out of Nebraska, pitch the CEOs on it, and because normally when they have you locked into a deal, you locked to a deal. They usually don't let you buy any additional territory. But my pitch was listen, I need this additional territory to leverage this section that's just not really working out. These codes that aren't working out. Before I even was on the plane, they were shaking my hand. They were like, all the years that we've been running this franchise, I've never had an owner come out here and pitch us anything on that level. They were like, nobody has ever written a business plan for expansion. That was, you know, it was it was like, okay, and it was and it was it was a game changer because they saw my level of commitment, and they were just all in after that. So it really, I was able to turn it around based on the expanded territory that they sold me. Um, and it became a real winner. But yeah, it was it was taking it into my own hands and going, hey, listen, this has to, this has to help, which goes back to what I was telling you earlier. At that moment in time, that was the own, that was my only franchise. It was my first business. And the level of desperation that tells you, I have to win here. Like this has to work, right? That's my mindset. I'm like, this has to work. So I don't know what's going on and why this isn't working out right now, but how do I fix it? Because I have no other options. That's when you when you you when you become successful. Because I was just, it was just it what I wasn't gonna let it fail. You know, like I don't, I didn't care. I had to walk on my hands and and deliver and go to houses, hand out flyers. I I was gonna do it, right? It was I had no choice. Young kids, family at home, come on. That's what I mean. Like that level, when you had that level of desperation, it creates something inside you that makes you go, go like it's go time.

SPEAKER_02: 26:38

Yeah, you got you gotta you gotta get up and do it. How do you make sure that once you become successful, that you don't become complacent? You know, as you talk about, you know, the story you shared about those people that have never ever presented a business plan, have been there forever, never talked about expanding the territory. And sometimes success can make you too comfortable that you stop doing the things that got you there and the things that's necessary. Um, how do you make sure you don't become complacent?

SPEAKER_00: 27:01

Um, you know, once you become successful, you know, I think that breaks down the individual personality and character, right? So it's funny, going into 2025, I said, based on everything that I've explained, I was like, I'm not doing anything else new, right? I was like, I'm not bringing on any new business. I said, I'm going to focus now on my conglomerate. Like, I'm going to now focus on building these aspects of my my uh organization, but I'm not going to bring on any new business. So for some of us entrepreneurs, because I'm always getting into everything, right? You know, author, franchise deals, commercial cleaning service, like it could it can also be a detriment, right? You can all you can also do too many things. So that's what you I said it comes down to an individual and their and their aspirations, because sometimes there are owners and there are entrepreneurs that are really cool and complacent with getting to a certain level in their business, and they're like, you know what, I want to enjoy my freedoms now. It's time for me to you know fly all over the world. I totally get that, and I actually agree with that concept. But there are those of us that are always trying to really like now, it's all about generational wealth, right? When I watch my kids, where they are in life, where I am on the planet, how long I'm gonna be here. My thought process is I need to build something that's gonna last, and they'll be able to have the the level of financial freedom that even I haven't had, right? So that's my that's my motivation, right? So some people aren't motivated for that though. So I think it always breaks down to individual personalities and the type of entrepreneur that you are. But again, I I clap for everybody that even steps into the realm because entrepreneurship is is is incredibly uh challenging, is it's difficult, like you mentioned, you're going to fail, you can't take things personally. It's just a lot that comes along with this world that I'm in. And if you step into it and you're and and you've been able to survive and you're successful, kudos to you and handle it whatever way you want to handle it. Quite honestly.

SPEAKER_02: 29:03

Yeah. So you you've walked through, you've done a lot. What's some of the best advice you've been given that you still live by today?

SPEAKER_00: 29:15

Um I think the the best, some of the best advice I've been given was to always focus on one step at a time, right? Don't don't don't be too concerned about what's around the corner in two weeks from now. Just put one foot in front of the other, regardless of what you're doing. Just one step at a time. If you're if you're moving the ball in increments every single day, you're going to find yourself at the other end of the football. It's in the uh football field, it's inevitable. So really taking that day to day um look at what you're doing and really appreciating every moment and just focusing on pushing the ball one step at a time. I think that's the way you do achieve like true overall goals because you're always moving in. Right direction. You're not distracted. You're incredibly focused and you're just taking it one day at a time. So that's how I am. It's just one day at a time. And I'm always just trying to push the ball forward in with at whichever field it is that you know I'm I'm focusing business on, but I'm just trying to push the ball just in increments. I don't need touchdowns every single day. I just want to take, I just want to push it forward.

SPEAKER_02: 30:22

Awesome. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you. As we kind of get ready to wrap it up, you know, you mentioned earlier, you know, having a business coach. Um, and you know, that one didn't work out, but I'm sure you'll probably still, you know, you got someone that you have the, you know, their ear, you know, as you continue to grow your business. So you mentioned business coach earlier. What's the value of you having a business coach as you went through and you've grown over time and you continue to grow? What was the value of you having a business coach to get you there?

SPEAKER_00: 30:49

You always want to have somebody that has expertise specifically in the field that you're thinking about going into or you're in, just because they've already experienced certain things and they can help guide you and help you avoid certain mistakes. Because mistakes not only can be cost costly, but they can be costly financially too, right? So mentally and financially, mistakes could be costly. So mentors are really good at helping you not only avoid those mistakes, but most mentors have really good connections. So you want to be able to tap into their networks. Very important because again, those networks are established networks because they've been in the field for decades. And when you can take advantage of those things that I just mentioned, it could definitely help you, it can help propel you forward easily.

SPEAKER_02: 31:34

Yes, yes. Thank you, thank you. So as we get ready to wrap up, any any last-minute advice you um you'd like to share, and then I'll actually if you can give out your contact information, you know. All right, I think I'm back again.

SPEAKER_00: 31:44

Yeah, you're back. Yeah, um, I quote your question though. Okay, never give up, never, never quit. Never never never uh concede to that that inner part of you just ask you, why are you doing it? Every last one of us entrepreneurs go through that. Like, why am why did I start this? Why am I doing this? Is it worth it? Uh never quit. It's always worth it. The the the reward on so many different levels when it comes to financial freedom, uh mental freedom, um every freedom that I could ever put together is is is on the other side of success when it becomes to being an entrepreneur. Uh I wake up every day and I'm I'm incredibly pleased. I have no no reason to be not happy, right? Like I'm happy to go to work, I'm happy to handle my business, I'm happy to be in my my environment because I'm doing what I love to do. So yeah, never quit. Always if you if you if it's really in you, get after it every single day. Let's get after it. And and you'll you'll end up where you want to be at some point.

SPEAKER_02: 32:50

Yes, yes. Thank you so much, Marcel.

SPEAKER_00: 32:52

Best way to reach you. Best way to reach me is Marcel Clark.co. So that's plug me in Marcel Clark.co. But honestly, at this point, if you just plug in Marcel Clark Entrepreneur in a Google, I take over the whole page. Like everything. You want to find me, it's easy to find me. So yeah, Marcel Clark Entrepreneur, plug it into Google, Google, and you'll you'll find me. You catch me anywhere.

SPEAKER_02: 33:16

Appreciate it, man. Thank you so much for coming on the show. And for everyone that's been with us and you you you have supported this podcast. Thank you so much. Continue to tell your friends and your colleagues. You know, if you know someone that's interested in being a guest, we'd love to hear some insight. Our goal is really to add value to our community, add value across the country about what we do, how we learned it, the mistakes we've made, but to really share. And so we're we're we're really honored for the opportunity to give back something that we've learned and that's working for us. Um, we don't have all the answers, but we're pretty transparent. So thank you to to Marcel for coming on. Thank you for staying with us for you know a couple minutes just to let us drop something into that may help you be successful. Um, so Marcel and I will sign off. And until next time on Unpack with Ron Harvey, we will see you on next Monday as we drop another podcast. Have a great one, everyone.

SPEAKER_01: 34:04

Well, we hope you enjoyed this edition of Unpack Podcast with Leadership Consultant Ron Harvey. Remember to join us every Monday as Ron Unpacks Sound Advice, providing real answers for real leadership challenges. Until next time, remember to add value and make a difference where you are or the people you serve. Because people always matter.