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Case Studies

Case Study #1

Client Name: Ryan Schachtner, A Must Win Financial Literacy

Ryan works in the financial industry as a Certified Financial Planner (CFP®). He is very good at his craft and one of the best at servicing his clients. Ryan is also the creator, founder and CEO of A Must Win Financial Literacy, an organization designed to help high school collegiate and professional athletes understand the importance of financial literacy and gain more knowledge of the investment and finance world. What is so great about Ryan’s work is that he is purely an educator. He does not represent the athletes he works with through A Must Win as their financial advisor but instead acts as a mentor to them if they desire and helps them find the right financial advisor to work with. But even if they do not work with him in this capacity, he still educates them. He gives them the tools needed to have basic knowledge of finances, investments and how to handle their money more efficiently and effectively. A Must Win is working in a very tough industry trying to get the attention of athletes to help them understand why it is so vital for them to have basic financial knowledge. What A Must Win does very well is they align themselves with other athletes (former professional and collegiate athletes) to help give them a competitive edge in establishing themselves in the marketplace. This approach is brilliant as it creates a sense of TRUST between A Must Win and the athletes they are engaging, giving them a much better chance of reaching the athletes to help make a positive impact in their lives.

A Must Win needs to get in front of as many sports teams as possible, trying and doing the best to positively impact the world of sports. Today, so many athletes in our country are playing high school and college sports. There is a tiny percentage of professional athletes in our country today. Still, all athletes need to have the basic knowledge of financial literacy to be in the best position to succeed in life during and after their careers. With the growing number of athletes playing sports today, now more than ever, organizations like A Must Win need to position themselves in the marketplace as a thought-leader regarding working with athletes to help them increase their basic knowledge of financial literacy. Along with positioning themselves in the market as a thought-leader, they also need to build partnerships and alliances with organizations that athletes respect and value. Doing this is crucial to their long-term success. Without these partnerships and alliances, A Must Win will not have a solid competitive edge to create a business edge over other groups. So, this is why A Must Win needed to create and execute a sustainable marketing strategy to help them be optimal in getting in front of as many athletes as possible.

Marques was hired by A Must Win for several different reasons. A Must Win hired Marques to help increase Mr. Ryan Schachtner’s ability to communicate better with his target audience of athletic directors and coaches at the high school and collegiate level and players, former players and coaches at the professional level. Ryan is an astute, educated and hard-working individual but has never been a professional athlete. Not being a professional athlete gives Ryan a more challenging road to connect with them as he cannot speak their language and relate to them as quickly. Marques playing football in the NFL has an excellent understanding of how to communicate with athletes at all levels, which is a massive benefit to Ryan and his brand as they are on their crusade to “crush financial illiteracy!” A Must Win also hired Marques to help make introductions for A Must Win to his network of influential individuals in the sports industry. Due to Marques’ background, this is something that he could do for Ryan in a much more efficient and effective way. Marques has the connections that could expedite Ryan’s timeline of getting A Must Win in front of the right people to help him turn his goals and aspirations into accomplishments much faster. This is why Marques was hired by A Must Win to be their business and executive coach.

Marques was able to help Ryan and A Must Win with the two primary tasks he was hired to achieve. Throughout the coaching, Marques worked diligently with Ryan on strategic and tactical ways to help him improve his communication skills with athletes, so he could speak their language more effectively to build TRUST. Marques improved Ryan’s communication skills by teaching him how to communicate through Business Value Drivers. Business Value Drivers was a program taught to Marques at Penn State University. Athletes learned how to take specific lingo from the sport of football and translate that knowledge into the language used in corporate America. The Business Value Drivers have been an important part of the foundation of Marques’s brand since he learned them in March 2018. Once Ryan learned these Business Value Drivers, it vastly increased his ability to communicate with athletes, which is essential in his business growth and production. Along with the Business Value Drivers, Marques also taught Ryan things like how to improve and strengthen his elevator pitch, enhance his leadership skillsets to be more effective in showing athletes he is a strong leader, communicate with athletes in a way in which they could comprehend financial literacy terminology more simplistically and much more. The second task Marques was able to help Ryan and A Must Win accomplish was expanding Ryan’s network to help him increase his influence in the financial literacy space. Marques opened up his Rolodex and introduced Ryan to many of his professional athlete friends and friends that work in athletics in high school, college and professional sports. He also introduced Ryan to a large amount of his corporate network, which has drastically helped Ryan and A Must Win grow their brand and increase their revenue and profits. Many coaches are unwilling to open up their network to help their business clients achieve success. Marques did this for Ryan without hesitation, which genuinely helped Ryan and A Must Win Financial Literacy on a multitude of different levels!

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Case Study #2

Client Name: Doug Elks

Doug works in two different industries as a corporate professional. The first industry is in the health and wellness space. Doug is a brand ambassador and travels all around the country doing different speaking events, corporate training, workout videos and other forms of educational enhancing activities to help people understand the importance of taking care of themselves mentally, physically and emotionally. Doug is one of the best at his craft and lives what he teaches, making him more relatable and impactful when speaking to his target audience. The health and wellness industry is such a crowded space, but Doug does an excellent job with his discipline, focus and energy to stand out from his competition. The other industry Doug works in is the podcast industry. Doug and his business partner have a well-respected podcast that focuses on health and wellness, leadership, mindset, business strategies and personal development. Doug is gaining a ton of traction in this space because he has some amazing guests on his podcast, which helps gain more listeners, downloads and subscribers. The podcast space is very crowded as there are over 3 million podcasts worldwide, and to get the "ears" of your listeners as a young podcast, which Doug and his partner are, is not easy. But they do a great job of being consistent, hard-working and delivering excellent content, which is why the podcast has been experiencing some early success right out of the gate.

Doug hired Marques to help him improve his podcast, so it could be better positioned to increase its audience reach and gain more listeners and popularity. Doug and his brand also hired Marques to help them get podcast sponsors. When Doug hired Marques, their podcast had not secured a sponsor in the 18 months since they launched. Doug and his partner are excellent at setting up all the podcast logistics. They are good at getting awesome guests. They excelled at marketing themselves on social media to help them gain more traction and following from their target audience. But setting up the podcast as a business entity was something Doug and his partner did not have any expertise in. They did not have experience creating compelling marketing collateral to help them attract sponsors. They did not have expertise in how to have dialogue and effective communication with sponsors so they could close sponsorship dollars. Doug needed help with the overall business strategy of being an entrepreneur, such as setting up an LLC for his podcast business, setting up a business bank account, getting a bookkeeper and accountant to help him stay in good financial standing, marketing his business, increasing sales conversions and other key foundational pillars of being an all-around successful entrepreneur.

There are several different reasons why Doug hired Marques to be his business coach. The first reason is that Marques is the co-host of The Lev and Marques Show. The Lev and Marques Show is a sport, business and entrepreneurship-based podcast co-hosted by Leverett Ball and Marques Ogden. The show launched on all podcast platforms in June of 2021, and within the first six months of launching, The Lev and Marques Show reached a global ranking of the top 1.5% of all podcasts most listened to worldwide in that time. The Lev and Marques Show has secured 165 out of 165 5-Star Ratings, surpassed 50,000 downloads in under a year (usually takes podcast over three years to hit that kind of number of downloads) and secured over 20,000 subscribers in under a year. The show is fast-paced, growing in downloads, subscribers, amazing guests and much more. Due to the show’s success in such a short amount of time, Doug thought that was a great reason to hire Marques as his business coach. The second reason Doug hired Marques was to help him learn how to close sponsors more efficiently. Doug had not secured any sponsors for his show since its launch. Since August 2021, The Lev and Marques Show has closed 34 sponsors. The show has different sponsors ranging in various business industries: mortgages, real estate, technology, consulting, financial literacy, sports, insurance, finance, and more. Due to our podcast being so successful at growing our audience and our podcast being so efficient at closing sponsors, Doug decided to hire us as his business coach.

Marques spoke with Doug on pertinent information about his podcast from the very beginning. This includes what makes them unique, their reach, how he is leveraging and cross-marketing with his guests, his mission, mantra and competitive edge, and what value listeners can gain from tuning into his podcast. Once Marques was able to get that information from Doug, he created a strategic plan to get Doug in front of more people to increase downloads, audience reach and subscribers. This plan took about four weeks to execute, and the show downloads, subscribers and audience reach increased by about 40% at the end of the four weeks. Along with helping Doug in those areas, Marques helped Doug create a sponsorship deck and other marketing collateral he could use to help him be in a better position to close his first sponsor. After about four weeks of gathering the needed information from Doug and compiling that data, Marques helped Doug create a fantastic sponsorship deck and improve his communication skills when engaging sponsors. Within three months of working together, Doug secured his FIRST EVER SPONSOR for $2500. Doug was so elated with Marques’ services in helping him that he referred many clients from his vastly impressive network to thank Marques for his work with his brand!

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Case Study #3

Client Name: Rachel Rosenburg

Rachel works in two different industries. The first is in the health and wellness space working for a brand called Arbonne. Rachel is very good at building teams, and she is an amazing leader who is selfless, patient, humble, kind and genuinely cares about the advancement and success of others. She’s been in the industry for over a decade and has had tremendous success in her professional career. The other industry Rachel works in is keynote speaking. Rachel has a powerful story of overcoming adversity in her life because of her ambition, drive and hard work ethic. She does keynote speaking in-person and virtually all around the country. She speaks on an array of different topics that she has had both educational and life experience with. These topics include servant leadership, mindset, overcoming obstacles, women’s empowerment, stress reduction, mental clarity and focus, healing, spirituality and equity. Now more than ever, the keynote-speaking industry needs champions like Rachel who are not afraid to share their stories to inspire others. Many keynote speakers aim to motivate their audiences, which is not as effective since the audience will “fizzle out” after a short time if they are only motivated. Rachel is an INSPIRATIONAL keynote speaker. She shares her powerful story with her audience and then action steps they can implement into their everyday lives to start living the most prosperous and enjoyable life possible.

Rachel hired Marques to help her create the blueprint so she could elevate her keynote speaking business and brand to the next level. Rachel is very passionate, driven and focused on being the best keynote speaker. But there are some things Rachel struggled with in setting up the critical areas of her business and brand. No matter the industry, every business should have three key components set up well to operate at a high level. Marketing, sales, and operations are the foundational building pieces from which you should build any successful business. Rachel had bits and pieces of these pillars but did not have an efficient system for all three. There were gaps in her marketing efforts in social media, marketing content and other key elements. There were gaps in the sales conversion cycles she would put her clients and potential clients through, which resulted in her not having one paid speaking job in her career. There were some gaps in the operations part of her business regarding presentation creation, communication with meeting planners and event coordinators and a few other areas hindering her from really maximizing her talents as an inspirational keynote speaker. Rachel had all of the passion, drive and focus working in her favor; she just needed help with the business side of being a successful keynote speaker.

As a result of having gaps in her marketing, sales and operations, Rachel decided to invest in Marques as her business coach. Along with helping Rachel in these three foundational areas of her business, Rachel hired Marques to help her strengthen and improve her content to elevate to a higher level of keynote speaking to engage entry-level audiences up to advanced audiences. Rachel also hired Marques to help her strengthen her mindset. Being a speaker in the keynote speaking business can take a mental toll on you, especially if you have not secured any paid speaking jobs. Rachel hired Marques because she was fully aware of his story on how he went from being a former NFL athlete to an alcoholic to an eight-figure a year business owner to a broke, almost homeless custodian, to a national/international keynote speaker. Since 2016, Marques has done keynote speaking for 37 Fortune 500 brands (13 of the 37 are Fortune 100) across multiple industries like retail, food service, technology, sports and education. Due to Marques’ success as a keynote speaker, Rachel believed there was alignment and synergies to help her elevate her business. Marques helped her attain her first paid keynote speaking job so she could eventually pursue keynote speaking on a more full-time basis.

Marques has immensely helped Rachel improve her business’s three key areas: marketing, sales and operations. With her marketing strategies, Rachel has developed a whole new approach to market herself due to working with Marques. She uses social media a lot more frequently and is doing a fantastic job inspiring her followers with content and messages of hope. She developed a CRM (Client Relations Manager) tool to stay in front of her network systematically and efficiently. She started recording more high-quality professional videos, which she has utilized to help market herself to her target audiences. She got much more streamlined with her sales processes when talking to meeting planners and event coordinators. She uses the streamlined process of S.A.L.E.S, which has helped her convert more speaking leads into jobs and improved her confidence overall regarding her ability to do well in this business as a keynote speaker. Rachel has gotten more process-oriented around creating presentations and collateral for her brand. She has also improved at creating a follow-up system to grow her keynote speaking through referrals and word of mouth. After approximately six months of working with Marques, Rachel booked her first paid speaking job!

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Case Study #4

Client Name: Nathaniel Brown

Nathaniel works in the technology business (IT specialist) and the keynote-speaking industry. Nathaniel is excellent in tech as he is a professional in every sense. He understands how to value and treat his customers and is strong at communicating with others to make difficult situations and scenarios very simplistic to process and comprehend. Nathaniel is an excellent keynote speaker who is passionate about touching the lives of others through his words, actions and messages. Nathaniel does a lot of keynote speaking on topics like spirituality, health and wellness, mental clarity, focus and entrepreneurship. Like one of my other clients, Rachel, Nathaniel is very passionate about what he does with his craft. He aims to inspire, not to motivate. He delivers easily applicable action steps that his audiences can take and apply in their everyday lives. Nathaniel makes things as simplistic as possible when speaking, which is why he is so good at his work. Keynote speaking truly needs more people like Nathaniel who are open to sharing their authentic stories to help others achieve success and prosperity in their lives. When speakers focus on living by the law of value, which states to give more in value than you take in payment, great things start happening for that individual.

Nathaniel hired Marques to help him create the blueprint so he could elevate his keynote- speaking business and brand to the next level. Nathaniel is very passionate, hardworking and determined to be the best keynote speaker to help his audiences have success in their everyday lives by sharing where he failed so they can learn from his mistakes. No matter the industry, every business should have three key components set up to operate and succeed at a high level. Marketing, sales and operations are the foundational building pieces from which you should build any successful business. Nathaniel had bits and pieces but did not have an efficient system for all three. There were gaps in his marketing efforts in social media, marketing content and other key elements. There were gaps in the sales conversion cycles he would put his clients and potential clients through, which resulted in not having one paid speaking job in his career. There were some gaps in the operations part of his business regarding presentation creation, communication with meeting planners and event coordinators and a few other areas hindering him from really maximizing his talents as an inspirational keynote speaker. Nathaniel had all of the passion, drive, fire and focus working in his favor. He just needed help with the business side of being a successful keynote speaker and businessman.

As a result of having gaps in his marketing, sales and operations, Nathaniel decided to invest in Marques as his business coach. Along with helping Nathaniel in these three foundational areas of his business, he hired Marques to help strengthen and improve his content to elevate to a higher level of keynote speaking to engage entry-level audiences up to advanced audiences. Nathaniel also hired Marques to help strengthen his mindset. Being a speaker in the keynote speaking business can take a mental toll on you, especially if you have not secured any paid speaking jobs. Nathaniel hired Marques because he was fully aware of his story on how he went from being a former NFL athlete to an alcoholic to an eight-figure a year business owner to a broke, almost homeless custodian, to a national/international keynote speaker. Since 2016, Marques has done keynote speaking for 37 Fortune 500 brands (13 of the 37 are Fortune 100) across multiple industries like retail, food service, technology, sports and education. Due to Marques’ success as a keynote speaker, Nathaniel believed there was alignment and synergies to help him elevate his business. Marques helped him attain his first paid keynote speaking job so he could eventually pursue keynote speaking on a more full-time basis.

As a result of having gaps in his marketing, sales and operations, Nathaniel decided to invest in Marques as his business coach. Along with helping Nathaniel in these three foundational areas of his business, he hired Marques to help strengthen and improve his content to elevate to a higher level of keynote speaking to engage entry-level audiences up to advanced audiences. Nathaniel also hired Marques to help strengthen his mindset. Being a speaker in the keynote speaking business can take a mental toll on you, especially if you have not secured any paid speaking jobs. Nathaniel hired Marques because he was fully aware of his story on how he went from being a former NFL athlete to an alcoholic to an eight-figure a year business owner to a broke, almost homeless custodian, to a national/international keynote speaker. Since 2016, Marques has done keynote speaking for 37 Fortune 500 brands (13 of the 37 are Fortune 100) across multiple industries like retail, food service, technology, sports and education. Due to Marques’ success as a keynote speaker, Nathaniel believed there was alignment and synergies to help him elevate his business. Marques helped him attain his first paid keynote speaking job so he could eventually pursue keynote speaking on a more full-time basis.

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Case Study #5

Client Name: Laquita Monley

Laquita is in the real estate industry, working for her business enterprise, and in the keynote speaking industry and the ministry. Laquita is very good at building teams and is a selfless, patient, humble and kind leader who truly cares about the advancement and success of her real estate investors so they can achieve the financial goals and aspirations they desire. She has been in this industry for over 15 years and has had tremendous success in her professional career as a real estate investor and entrepreneur. Laquita has an amazing story of overcoming so many obstacles in life because of her ambition, drive and hard work ethic. She does keynote speaking in-person and virtually all around the country. She speaks on various topics that she has had both educational and life experience with. These topics include servant leadership, mindset, overcoming obstacles, women’s empowerment, stress reduction, mental clarity and focus, healing, spirituality, equity and faith. Now more than ever, the keynote-speaking industry needs champions like Laquita who are not afraid to share their stories to inspire others. Many keynote speakers aim to motivate their audiences, which is not as effective since the audience will “fizzle out” after a short time if they are only motivated. Laquita is an INSPIRATIONAL keynote speaker. She shares her powerful story with her audience and then action steps they can implement into their everyday lives to start living the most prosperous and enjoyable life possible. Her work as a speaker and her ministry is truly an inspiring and powerful testimony.

Laquita hired Marques to help her create the blueprint so she could elevate her keynote speaking and real estate investment business to the next level. Laquita is organized and driven to be the best business leader to help the audiences she speaks to and the investors she works with start to succeed in their everyday lives. But there are some things Laquita struggled with in setting up the critical areas of her businesses. No matter the industry, every business should have three key components set up well to operate at a high level. Marketing, sales, and operations are the foundational building pieces from which you should build any successful business. Laquita had bits and pieces of these pillars but did not have an efficient system for all three. There were gaps in her marketing efforts in social media, marketing content and other elements. There were gaps in the sales conversion cycles she would put her clients and potential clients through, which resulted in her not having one paid speaking job in her career and not getting involved in the larger real estate investment deals she wanted. There were some gaps in the operations part of her business regarding presentation creation, communication with meeting planners and event coordinators and a few other areas hindering her from really maximizing her talents as an inspirational keynote speaker. Laquita had all of the passion, drive and focus working in her favor; she just needed help with the business side of being a successful business leader and growing two businesses simultaneously.

Marques has immensely helped Laquita improve her business's three key areas: marketing, sales and operations. Laquita developed a whole new approach to market herself with her marketing strategies from working with Marques. She uses social media a lot more frequently and is doing a fantastic job inspiring her followers with content and messages of hope. She developed a CRM (Client Relations Manager) tool to stay in front of her network systematically and efficiently. She started recording more high-quality professional videos, which she has utilized to help market herself to her target audiences. She got much more streamlined with her sales processes when talking to meeting planners, event coordinators and real estate investors. She uses the streamlined process of S.A.L.E.S., which has helped her convert more speaking leads into speaking jobs and convert higher dollar real estate projects, improving her confidence overall with her ability to do well in the business world. Laquita has gotten much more process-oriented around creating presentations and collateral. She now has systems in place to work in her real estate investment business. After approximately nine months of working with Marques, Laquita booked her first paid speaking job, which she was ecstatic about. Within the first 12 months of working with Marques, Laquita got involved in her first seven-figure plus real estate deal as a General Partner, which is fantastic for her and her company. They have worked hard, and they deserve all the success ahead!