Janice Porter: Hello, everyone, and welcome to this week's
episode of relationships rule. I have a mazing guest with me
today someone again, I think I met on LinkedIn, I'm not even
sure if it was at a networking event online or not. But we did
meet through LinkedIn, we had a zoom call, we hit it off right
away. And I'm so excited to have her on my show. So first of all,
welcome to the show, Aaron Marcus.
Erin Marcus: Oh, thank you. I'm excited to be here. As much as
I, LinkedIn makes me crazy. At the same time, I've met the most
amazing people.
Janice Porter: There you go. Exactly. Right. And I know that
we are aligned in that we both we both think that relationships
are key. And I just, I think I'd like my audience to know first
from you, I was going to read a little bit about your company's
conquer your business and all of that good stuff. But tell me how
you got here, at least.
Erin Marcus: Because origin story
Janice Porter: in a way, because I got a sense from reading your
bio, that that you were one of those problem children in school
that you didn't like, probably ADHD or something like that,
where you were so busy wanting to do things that you want to be
active, they couldn't sit still in a desk, I kind of got that
sense. I don't know how that
Erin Marcus: I don't even know that it's ADHD. I was bored and
had other things to do. Yeah, I was a total problem child. But
at the same time, basically, if you look at my high school, I
didn't go. But I aced all the tests, which back in the 70s and
80s. Before they tracked everything you did online meant
you graduated Chicago public schools, because I aced all the
tests because the books were interesting. I'd read the books.
I remember what I did listen, but by high school, eight other
things to do. I'm not good things. That came later, by
senior year of high school, I was honestly working 60 hours a
week. Oh, your high school. I was just working in a pharmacy,
I was a pharmacy. Okay. It's making me and surviving. And the
hysterical part is I was a pharmacy technician, which meant
I was, you know, distributing drugs, both legally and it is
what it is. But it's not the scary version that you see now.
Right? It was a little bit more innocent version of it. But what
I've always done is been very, very self reliant. So I wasn't
one of those kids who always knew what I wanted to do, and
then set out to do it. But I did always know that if I wanted to
have something, I had to do it myself. I think that's a big ad.
You know, that's a big Gen X thing anyway, right? If I wanted
to do something, I could do it myself. And in high school, I
wanted to live on my own terms. I didn't want to go to school.
So I earned a living so I could live on my own terms. Right.
College became more interesting. I literally went to college to
get out of the house. And by the way, before we get all dramatic,
my mother and I have a great relationship, right. But at the
time part of my part, me part her, I really did go to college
to get out of the house because they didn't know what else to do
next.
Janice Porter: Do you grew up in Chicago, right? I
Erin Marcus: grew up in Chicago. Yeah. And college got more
interesting. Right college got more interesting. So I got good
grades there because now it was more engaging. And the topics
were more challenging. And, and that was what it was. And the
rest of my life really has been do a good job so that the next
opportunity opened up for me, it wasn't setting my again, it
wasn't me setting out to do this one thing that I was interested
in. I'm interested in so many different things. But that
independence as Gen X, you know that we grew up with the knowing
that if I wanted something I had to provide it for myself. The
undying drive to learn I just cannot cannot stop. I know.
periodicity. I'm the weird person that reads all the signs
at the museum.
Janice Porter: I do that too. Yeah. rules in the game to
Erin Marcus: know because I don't follow any rules. Here
what they are. Yeah, no, that's another thing I never you know,
if you mix this drive to learn with truly a Midwestern good
work ethic because like I said, I work 60 hours a week as a 17
year old right? I'm with not thinking the rules applied to
me. I just really didn't I don't mean that in a chip on my
shoulder way. I just they didn't. They never have but you
Janice Porter: for quite a long time, weren't you? I
Erin Marcus: did but I wouldn't looking back now, looking back,
I realize my success and delivering allowed me a breath
of freedom, even in corporate, that's probably not normal. It's
probably not average. In the last job that I had before I
went out on my own. I was there for 12 years. And I oh my god,
like, I realized now I was really, really allowed to be an
intrapreneur. I did, I mean, I created an entire department, we
I helped change the entire business model, I was brought
into rooms that were so above my paygrade. And it really goes
back to this work ethic, do a good job, take complete personal
responsibility, because you I have zero entitlement, there's
nothing that's going to be handed to me. And that opened
the next opportunity. And I also think the intrinsic thing about
I actually like people, I love learning about people, and
figuring out why they do what they do, so that I can do a
better job at what I'm doing. And, you know, again, looking
back the skill I needed to grow up self reliant in Chicago
public schools, with people from 22 different countries, which
means nobody knows how to communicate with each other, are
the exact same skills that allowed me to be so flexible in
my corporate life. And it just all, you know, this crazy
background that at the time didn't seem like it made sense
at all. Right? It just comes together to go, Okay, this is
why I'm doing what I'm doing.
Janice Porter: So when you were you went from corporate, I think
was Do you consider your franchise piece part of
corporate? Or was that the No,
Erin Marcus: oh, God? No, I call it jumping halfway off the
cliff. Okay. So, right. So I had my job, and we fool ourselves
into thinking that our paycheck is secure. Because we have a
job. That's, you know, we know better now, truthfully. But so I
had a job at a great job, by the way, with great, amazing people.
But I got to my late 30s, early 40s, and I'm like, There's got
to be something else. Right, you hit you start thinking about
things differently. And so the first leap I took was purchasing
a franchise. And it wasn't a physical franchise, like it was
a it wasn't like a subway or something where there's a
vocation to it, it was a service. And again, it was kind
of a baby franchise, it was only been there for a couple of
years. So I had this mixture of a framework of what it was that
we did. So I didn't have to invent what we did. But I had so
much room to create, how we did it, how we marketed it was not a
step 123 So it was a really good mixture for me,
Janice Porter: I can see that it would be because you wouldn't, I
can't imagine you having like a box type of like, military ties
where everything has to be done the same? Yeah,
Erin Marcus: I don't play I can't do things, like more than
three times. And it's a problem. I mean, the problem with men the
problem, like,
Janice Porter: Oh, that's funny. So, franchise, I think you ended
up becoming a trainer for other franchisees, right,
Erin Marcus: yeah, because again, the drive to succeed God
only knows where they're at. We really can't say I don't know
where it comes from, it comes from that self determinating you
know, I want to have that self determining strength or
opportunity, flexibility, work ethic, lack of attention span,
ridiculous bandwidth.
Janice Porter: Identify because, I mean, I, I was, I was a school
teacher in my first life and that in the public school system
is very bureaucratic. And I can't do the point even that
when you go in the lunchroom every day with the same people
the same teachers the same support so God forbid if you sat
in the wrong seat in the lunchroom, like I couldn't do
that for so I had to get out so
Erin Marcus: I have to be free i can't handle the rules of who
tell you know who I need to be don't need to be with I can't I
wasn't even like that in high school. I think one of the
benefits of going to a high school with people literally
immigrants nobody spoke English from 22 Different countries is
no one had any money. Yeah, everyone was just trying to
survive and so I never had that click experience that you see in
the movies.
Janice Porter: Yeah. So okay, so from Franchise the franchise
world, then you made the leap out to the name of your company
now is yes,
Erin Marcus: that's totally right. Because what happened
was, so the franchise was The subject matter of the franchise
the work that we did was working with families with aging
parents.
Janice Porter: Okay. Oh, if your time? Well, um, there was a lot
of people I know that got into rural too soon.
Erin Marcus: Yeah, well, I want to say, I was on the cusp of it,
because when I started the franchise, it was amazing. And I
did get that business to the top 10 out of 200 franchises in
about 18 months. Hence, like what you said the franchisor
would hire me to help, you know, grow new franchises and train
them. What happened is six years later, within about six years
later, when I left and I closed my office, you had a situation,
a two fold situation where there's no barrier to entry in
that industry. There's zero barrier to entry in that
industry. And at the same time, the estate liquidation side of
that business that was originally helping pay for the
services, right, the state sales and the resale side of that
business had gone completely bust. Nobody was buying us
things anymore, you had an oversupply of stuff and an
absolute lack of demand for that stuff. And when you put those
things together with the fact that I was in the city of
Chicago, where they were raising the minimum wage, the taxes were
going up, workers comp was going up, and 90% of my competition
was working under the table while I was running a legitimate
business, when you put all that together. And at the same time.
I'm talking at my cheat, you know, when it's my turn as the
entrepreneurs at the chamber to take my turn and talk about my
business. The people are going, yeah, yeah, we know you have
that business. But why are you making money? How are you doing
that? Your business growing, the thing that people wanted from
me, wasn't what my business did. It was what I knew how to do,
because of my corporate experience, my MBA that I had
eventually gotten right. And so after a while you decide, Okay,
do I want to stay over here where the logistics of the
business are a nightmare? The profit margins are horrendous.
The trauma that my clients are going through is creating
caregiver burnout for me, there's right there's just so
much trauma and problems, or let's see, I know how to grow
businesses. I have an MBA in marketing, I have a corporate C
suite background, I know business strategy. That's where
I'm actually helping people. I don't know which way do you want
to go? And kind of like, you know, before we hit record, we
were talking about how the beauty of entrepreneurs that
it's been a good five years since I've even interacted with
someone I don't like. The other piece of that puzzle is this
business. And the way that I've created this business has
allowed me to make my job. Interestingly enough, more and
more narrow, so that the only thing I do are my favorite
things that I'm great at smart. Write my favorite things that
I'm great at in delivery to the clients and in service of
growing the business, hire people who only work in their
genius zone. And the things they're amazing at that they
love doing complementary to each other. Right?
Janice Porter: That's smart. And so I read somewhere in one of
the things I got about you that you had a year though, in 2018
That was you called your failure year. And then in less than two
years, you went from calling yourself the number one pinball
and barely making any money to multiple six business six
figures in your business and having fun so you're not
stressed out because you've got a good team around you. You're
doing what you love to do. What happened? What what?
Erin Marcus: Yeah, explain that.
Janice Porter: Great marketing. So
Erin Marcus: what the heck, what really happened is I
underestimated how even though I know business and I know
marketing and I know strategy, I really underestimated how not
having even the external framework of a franchise brand
was going to affect Aaron the human and how I could close a $3
million deal as my parting gift to corporate how I can be how I
can be running a half million dollar franchise when the next
person below me isn't like 35k And yet when it was the flag in
the ground with my name on it and my picture on it, it really
fell apart for a year because I couldn't figure out what I
wanted it to be. I wanted you know that's where that loving at
different things kind of hurt me for a while. And very kind
person who did has renamed errands, your failure to Aaron
zero of reflection. Thank you for that. But it took me about a
year a little over a year to get my feet underneath me. Because I
leave before I look, that's just my personality and I leave
before I look. And so that year that it took me to figure out
what is it that I'm great at doing? What is it that I love
doing? Who is it that I want to do it for, and putting the ducks
in a row enough. But again, once you figure that out, if you
stick with it, that's how you can launch and leverage very
quickly. So what
Janice Porter: if you love more than one thing?
Erin Marcus: Not everything you do has to make your money. Okay,
this is a really big problem I am watching happen today I have
this conversation all the time. Not everything you love doing
has to make you money. I volunteer with wildlife rescue.
I sit in the dirt in my yard and garden. I don't need a side
hustle for either of those things.
Janice Porter: No, but if business wise, you know, you
have two or three lanes that you that you go in that they all
kind of go together. If they go
Erin Marcus: together, that's fine. Okay, if they go together,
that's fine. If they go together, then what this that,
honestly, is what a lot of my clients have they have like two
or three things that in their mind are completely separate.
But truthfully, if we can find what I call the umbrella, that's
what I got. Yeah. So your umbrella? Yeah, we can sign the
umbrella then there's absolutely no problem having more than one
aspect, like when I talk about multiple streams of income,
build multiple streams of income in a way that doesn't confuse
the marketplace. That makes sense. Right? I'll give you I'll
give you an example. In my business, when I started out
coaching and coaching, and we added coaching and consulting,
which is a little bit different. But then I saw a really big gap
in the marketplace of implementing on what I was
teaching people. It was a really big gap in the marketplace.
Because we would have these great conversations. But when
they would go to do the things. They didn't have my team, they
didn't have my background, they didn't know they were already
out of hours in the day and days in the week. So this year, we
added that. And there's four or five different things now where
we will do it with you and for you, instead of just teaching
you how to do it. That's an umbrella it goes together. Yeah,
Janice Porter: that makes sense. I don't know whether I saw this
in yours or not. How do you feel about? Yeah, I did see it here.
Because you say something about, you know, there's no such thing
as a single funnel that will earn your course with just one
email, just do this one thing, just just just you that kind of
fits with what we
Erin Marcus: were just talking about. I mean, and so I call
those instant haptics. And it's not Do not get me wrong, it is
not that the tactic is wrong. Correct. Okay, in and of itself,
most of these tactics have value. But if you run your
business and are growing your business, starting at step one,
you become susceptible to believing one of these instance,
haptics will solve all your problems. And this is exactly
what I do with my clients, we have to start at step four. And
step four for me, like if we create my funnel, my version of
a funnel. Step four is a business that's on solid
footing. We have good offers, we know what we're doing, and we
know who we're doing it for, and we know how to talk about it.
That's Step four, that's the foundation that you have to
start with that first. And then based on that information based
on what you know, you want to grow. And by the way, knowing
what you want to grow is not $1 amount, that's only one piece of
it, because there's a million different ways to make a million
dollars. So we have to know what is it that you're trying to
grow? And then then we go back to step one, and we look at what
are the marketing strategies that we need to have to grow the
audience that most people don't do the work before they go out
to work. They don't set their foundation. They just go well, I
want a million dollar business. That's as far as they get. And
then they go looking for tactics that'll get them there. And
again, it's not that that tactic is necessarily wrong, but it
might not be right for your strengths. It might not be right
for your business. And that's the other piece of it. We buy
into these Institue optics and then And when they don't work
for us, because they have us believing we need to do
something we absolutely hate doing. We feel like a bigger
failure because their marketing will have us thinking it's
working for everybody but us. Yeah. And
Janice Porter: that's, that's the kind of pull me push you
thing around, is I know, the marketing is so good, that they
hook you in with something that isn't you.
Erin Marcus: Right? And it's not their fault, by the way. No, I
know, I know. Right? Their marketing is good, because they
did their work. That's right. That's right.
Janice Porter: But it's not necessarily going to work for
you. So not necessarily gonna work for you. I do understand
that, that you think as I do, that, networking, building
relationships, networking, let me say networking done properly.
And building relationships is something that that is key to
growing your business, more than one sort of funnel, so to speak.
Right? Can you speak to that, from your perspective,
Erin Marcus: I've started to phrase this a little
differently, because just to hit this home even harder. Don't
confuse networking with building your network. I think people see
right like, people, I'm going tomorrow. In fact, I'm going to
a networking luncheon in downtown Chicago, I'm really
looking forward to it. They always have a great speaker,
they always have great people, they always have great food. But
networking is different than building my network. So one of
the things I ask people is, who's in your phone? Yeah. Who
is your actual network? Who do you have? That will answer your
DM? Who do you know that when you need a trusted resource, or
your next client that you can reach out to I used to say call
but let's face it, I only answer the phone. If it's my mother at
this point. Nobody else calls me everyone else, just text or DMS
rate. But who is in your network versus networking? Now they're
both very important. So I now from being more involved with
seven figure businesses. Networking is brand awareness.
Building your network is relationship based.
Janice Porter: And you got to do both. Yeah, you do. Yeah. That
makes total sense. I love it. So you have a saying in your
business, your tagline being charged, take action, get
results. That speaks to you. So well. I love it. And you have a
podcast as well tell me tell my audience the name of your
Podcast, the
Erin Marcus: podcast is called ready yet, right? That's right.
The tagline is, you'll never do it. It takes until you become
the person it takes to do it reflecting back on my year that
I had to figure out who I needed to be in order to do the things
that I wanted to do.
Janice Porter: What do you what do you love about podcasting?
Erin Marcus: Oh, my God, the relationship right? Here's,
truthfully except for this monthly luncheon. That gives me
a reason I have to like get fully dressed, not just upper
half dressed and get out of my house. The only way I'm
currently networking is by podcasting. Because think of it
this way, by the time we have a connect call, and you are on my
podcast, and I am on your podcast, we have now spent a
really good two and a half hours together easily. And it's such a
great like, we know if we're each other's people. I know
right? We know so much about each other personality, not just
personals. Yeah. And I love the truthfulness in the real story.
And I also really the thing I like about podcasting is the
more truthfulness of it, at least who I choose as my guests.
Because marketing is what you do to grow awareness of your
business and inspire your audience to become your clients.
But we all know, marketing is not the reality of everything
you're experiencing as a business owner. And there is
such a needed safe space for sharing the truth of the
entrepreneurial journey. Like you heard me say, I went from
multiple six figures in corporate to tap 10 out of 200
in my franchise to $11,000 which if you've ever had a business
$11,000 Gross is not a positive number net by the end of the
year. Right. And so to be able to share the reality of it with
people because the Gary V's out there they're 20 Robbins, right.
They have their purpose and I want you to be motivated by
them. But they're so far removed from where most of us are it
becomes hard to actually learn from that.
Janice Porter: Well, it's funny, something you just said, though,
reminds me of kind of the difference between Instagram,
and some a little bit. And LinkedIn, because nothing on
Instagram to me is real. And so you can if you choose to get to
the realness of you, you know, and I have to say, my
generation, I'm a little bit older than you, my generation is
not as good at doing that as your generation then if I'm not
Yeah, you know, it's it's harder to, to, you know, but I'm
starting to give little bits of things that I talked about that
I'm okay with. But the thing about it is that I know I
digressed from what we were talking about, but oh, that,
that when you when you start to build relationships by having
these conversations, whether with the red.on, or not with the
red.on It's just so much more real. I had a podcast, I want to
share a little bit of a conversation I had yesterday
with I was on this girl's podcast. And she and I had done
a little training exchange. And so we've gotten to know each
other that way as well. And I knew the first time I talked to
her, she's a entrepreneur, true entrepreneur, she's got a couple
of businesses, she's, she's a CPA, as well, as well. And
bright young woman, I really was impressed with her. And I kept
thinking about this other woman that I knew here that I really
thought she should meet. So I had said to her after the first
conversation, that I would love to introduce her to someone, but
I needed to check first whether this person had the bandwidth
was available to speak to her because that person was the
person in my phone. And I don't want to just, you know, put
together without asking. So anyway, that took a little bit
of time, but it worked. And I did the introduction. And
yesterday she said to me, oh my goodness, she said, I can't
thank you enough for the introduction to this woman. She
said, she's gonna be a lifelong friend, like, yeah, this woman
was a true entrepreneur, who has done very well she was on
Dragon's Den, which is the Canadian version of Shark Tank.
Got a huge deal with her business. She's super
successful. And anyway, it was just such a great feeling to
make that happen.
Erin Marcus: It's a great feeling. But you just said you
just gave an example of the number one thing required to
build your network. Give before you got if you want more
referrals, give more referrals. If you want more partners give
Janice Porter: give. Yeah, I didn't know why I wanted them to
meet. But to me, it's, well, it's
Erin Marcus: also not linear, right? You didn't do that show
that she gave you a referral back, I will tell you that for
about 75% of the people who are on their podcast, or they're on
mine, some people it's not the right fit, but for at least 75%.
I get them at least two more podcasts that they can record.
That's how I network.
Janice Porter: Well, and I just realized that that's something
that I actually don't do enough of which I will today I will ask
you afterwards, you know, and where do you need to me to do
that? You know, but if you're not for networking, that makes
sense. You're right.
Erin Marcus: And one of the reasons one of the places it
falls apart, it's amazing to me how many people when I say what
do you need? Who do you need? What do you want? How can I help
you have nothing? They have nothing as they don't know,
they're unprepared for that. People want to help each other.
We need us you need to have a prepared specific ask.
Janice Porter: Okay, yeah, that's good to know. Right? In
first impression, connections, you know, I know what to ask for
and everything. But sometimes it's about really putting this
thing into a system, right? Oh, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
Um, before we wrap up, I do want to ask you a couple of questions
off the grid, so to speak. Are you a reader or a listener or a
video watcher? Where
Erin Marcus: do you reader, a reader
Janice Porter: real life books like touch and feel book?
Erin Marcus: I love touch and feel books. I was the happiest
person in the universe when the Kindle came out. Because I used
to travel for my corporate job. And my biggest fear was being
caught on an airplane with nothing to read. I can read we
went on especially if it's like just fiction for you know.
giggles and you know, entertainment. I went on
vacation for seven days and I think I read eight books. Oh my
goodness. I can just tear through, I can tear through
things I can sit. Like as active increases, I can sit and tear
through books. And were they all thick nonstick, those are just
fiction for fun. My current pattern is nonfiction Business
Growth books in the morning and fiction at night to chill out.
You don't watch TV. Not I haven't watched TV in a while.
Okay, I used to I'm not I am a big fan of TV. I even but what I
learned is I don't actually watch TV. I look at it. I watch
the same stupid stuff over and over and over. It's NCIS Los
Angeles. And CBS NCIS New Orleans. Big Bang Theory. Yeah,
now. That's it. That's like all I watch. And it's not it's
because it's mindless. It's mindless. So I'm coming down
while it's on.
Janice Porter: Fair enough. Thanks for sharing that. And I
know that you mentioned earlier in this my favorite piece that I
like to ask everybody I know you mentioned curiosity, because you
said you're a lifelong learner. And you're you thrive on that.
So would you say that curiosity, in your opinion, is innate? Or
learned? And then what is the most thing? What's the thing
you're most curious about today? Gosh,
Erin Marcus: I think it's nature and nurture. I think some people
are more curious than others. I think a lack of curiosity stems
from being taught fear and scarcity. Right? It takes a
certain amount of courage to be curious, because people fear
things that are different from them. And curiosity would just
solve that problem. Right? So I think some of us are more
naturally curious than others. And I think what leads to a lack
of curiosity is fear and scarcity. What am I most right
now I'm curious about plants and gardening. Yeah, I'm in the
process of trying to, I don't know, get this whole patch of my
garden to be better. I can't even I don't even know the word
right to cultivate and so and the
Janice Porter: song flowers or vegetables,
Erin Marcus: that flowers, there's so much wildlife here.
It would be an exercise in frustration to grow anything to
eat and be gone before we got it. But I have a pollinator
garden that I'm growing in the one sunny spot. I live in a
wooded area. So we have one sunny spot, and I'm trying to do
a pollinator garden and fix the soil. So currently very curious.
Like that's what I want. That's
Janice Porter: interesting, because my sister who lives in
LA, she spent a lot more time out in her garden through COVID.
And she did this whole project with creating mosaic tile tiles
from it's amazing, but she also has an LA they have to have like
cacti and things like that. Right. But she has she started
learning about I think it's like the pollinator thing where the
butterfly the caterpillars come and you're almost there and then
the butterflies come and then they feed off the sin difference
Erin Marcus: here is they freeze during in Chicago, right? I
mean, I think for me, it's very much an aligned with the
wildlife rescue that I did. And we're on an acre and a half year
of a wooded lot. I've got every animal under the sun here. So it
just and again, an acre and a half. I'm trying to create
something that doesn't isn't going to add work, right? If
enough work to
Janice Porter: to create projects. I'm fascinating,
actually. Well, Erin has been a delight. Thank you so much.
Before you go two things, one, let my audience know and I will
put it in the show notes how they can find you. And secondly,
what's what's the one maybe business tip or, or favorite
thing you'd like to share with my audience.
Erin Marcus: So make it really easy to find me. It's all at
conquer your business.com if you just go to conquer your
business.com. The podcast is they're reaching these they're
the socialists. They're the everything you need conquer
business.com. And the one thing that has really been inspiring
me. How can I put this like, be a little more brave? If I have
to look back at why I didn't achieve things I wanted to
achieve? It's never because I wasn't smart enough. It's never
because I didn't work hard enough. And that is the same for
99% of the people that I meet.
Janice Porter: Just be more bold. Go do something that
scares you. Yeah, that's great advice. Thanks, Erin. Thank you
so much for being here. And thank you to my audience again,
for being a great loyal listeners. Please let us know
that you enjoyed the podcast episode by leaving a review and
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