Killing It Online with Former Broadway Musician Marc Ensign – Episode 85

Thanks to Dave Conrey of Freshrag.com, I got introduced to this really cool guy and just had to have him on The SHUT UP Show to share his story with you. In this episode, Marc Ensign let’s Phil and me “RENT” his brain for 30 minutes to take us through the early part of his career when he did whatever it took to get on Broadway and how those lessons have helped propel him to do the amazing work today helping companies be more human online. It’s a deeply inspiring story and yet such a simple message for all types of marketers who want to kill it online and offline.

 

Watch the show (uncensored & unedited)

Share Some Shut Up Love –> I didn’t get what I wanted until I let go of what I wanted in order to give somebody what they wanted. – @MarcEnsign #shutupshow (click to tweet)

Fun Facts:

  • Marc Ensign has 15 years of experience as a digital marketer and 41 years as a human being.
  • He is a speaker, author, writer, marketer, consultant and all-around creative guy “doing it” by helping companies succeed online being human.
  • His stage experience started 20 years ago as a very successful professional musician performing on Broadway with the show RENT.
  • Marc has been featured in The Huffington Post, Forbes, Jezebel, PR Daily, The New York Post, MSN, ProBlogger and other online and offline publications.
  • In the past 13 years since Marc founded re:think, he has worked with amazing clients from local mom and pop businesses to Fortune 500 companies like Nike and American Express.
  • In August 2013, re:think was honored by Inc. Magazine for reaching number 370 on the Inc. 500 list of America’s Fastest Growing Privately Held Companies–an award that stems from “doing it.”

Defining Shut Up Moment:

ON DOING WHATEVER IT TAKES TO GET WHAT YOU WANT: I always had this dream of working on Broadway. I was too young, too inexperienced. I wasn’t good enough. I didn’t know enough people. I needed experience, but I couldn’t get experience without experience. This is when everything changed for me. Here I am begging people to give me something but I’m giving no value. So I reached out to each bass player on Broadway and said “Hey I’m writing an article for Bass Player Magazine about what it’s like to be on Broadway, would you like to be in the article?” Every one of them said yes. But the problem, I didn’t write for Bass Player Magazine. So I contacted the magazine and I wrote this article. Over the course of a month or two, I highlighted all these bass players. Shockingly nothing really happened.

ON AMPLIFYING SOMEONE’S STORY BECAUSE IT’S THE RIGHT THING TO DO: When I was completely unattached to the outcome, this guy’s dad deserved to have this article written and when it was just about that–oh my God–everything came together. When I got the gig on Broadway, I never worked so hard in my life for one 2.5 hour show. I worked for a month and a half, 6 hours a day in preparation for it. And, because of that, I killed it. It wasn’t because I was more talented than anyone else, I was just more prepared. When I apply those lessons to something I want, you can’t stop it. I’m getting it. I know what the outcome is already. The ball is in the cup already. Now, it’s just technically how am I going to get it.

Shut Up Tips:

It’s all about the human voice. If you end up talking to everybody, you end up talking to nobody. – Phil

If it’s not real life if you don’t have people disagreeing with you. – Marc

The way I found my voice is I got rid of the filters. I allowed myself to be extremely vulnerable. – Marc

I was a very successful musician for a while and then I started this business to fill the gaps. – Marc

When I get negative comments, I always respond with a nice warm hug. I don’t respond from a defensive place of pushing back because I believe if there’s no defense, there can’t be any offense. How can you take it any further than that? You can’t. – Marc

I see online is just an extension of who you are as humans. So if you treat someone that way where they show up on your site and they like the proverbial bag of dog poop on your front lawn and run, what is chasing them down and beating them up gonna do? Nothing. – Marc

There’s absolutely nothing you can’t accomplish if you do whatever it takes. – Marc

I didn’t get what I wanted until I let go of what I wanted in order to give somebody what they wanted. – Marc

When I apply those lessons to something I want, you can’t stop it. I’m getting it. I know what the outcome is already. The ball is in the cup already. Now, it’s just technically how am I going to get it. – Marc

Have a blog because you have something to say. My biggest fear is not being heard. Whenever I publish a blog post, I only do it because I have a pain in my chest and I know it’s right. – Marc

Marc Recommends:

Marc’s BEST OF archived blog posts

Find Marc:

MarcEnsign.com