Podcast Intro: Are you ready to change your habits, sculpt your destiny, and light up your path to greatness? Welcome to the epicenter of transformation. This is Mick Unplugged. We’ll help you identify your because so you can create a routine that’s not just productive, but powerful. You’ll embrace the art of evolution, adapt strategies to stay ahead of the game, and take a step toward the extraordinary.

So let’s unleash your potential. Now here’s Mick.

Mick Hunt: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another exciting episode of the Mick Unplugged podcast. And today, we’re honored to host a figure whose life story is a beacon of transformation and hope. Our guest today empowers young minds through leadership, through mentoring programs. He is a best selling author, an international award winning speaker, and the engaging host of the Vitalize podcast, trained by some of the most influential voices that we know, including Trent Brown and my mentor, Les Brown. His insights illuminated the pages.

And are you ready for this? LA Weekly, Wealth Insider, USA Today, and Forbes reaching audiences worldwide. Yet he will tell you his most significant conversation is the one we’re about to have right now. Ladies and gentlemen, giving up for my man, mister Marcus Black. Marcus, welcome to Mid ConPlug, brother.

Marcus Black: Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. I’m super excited to be here with you, brother.

I appreciate the incredible introduction. Thank you to the community for allowing me to be a part to speak life to you all. Looking forward to a fabulous day, my brother.

Mick Hunt: Man, me too. You know, I’ve been following you for a while. We connected several weeks ago. I happened to be in Oklahoma City when the Super Bowl was going on. That’s your hometown.

That’s where you live now. And you know what’s crazy? There was a threat of snow that Monday after the Super Bowl. So when I woke up, I’m watching the news and every school shut down. I was like, there must have been a snowstorm here in Oklahoma City.

I look out the window, and there were some microscopic amounts of snowflakes out there. But all of Oklahoma City was shut down, man. Like, that’s my Oklahoma City story for the world today.

Marcus Black: You know, man, it’s like that. We don’t get a ton of snow. So when we do, it cripples the community, but, it’s glad to have you here for sure.

Mick Hunt: My man. My man. So we’re gonna go right into it, man. Like Marcus, again, your story, your journey has inspired many, you know, going from mega church pastor to the urban missionary. Right?

That’s a unique and inspiring moment. Like, what sparked that transformation in your life’s mission, man?

Marcus Black: Ultimately, I feel like all of us have a an inner voice. It’s an inner knowing. And you know what is pulling you. Right? Something’s pulling you, but a lot of times that voice inside of you, you don’t listen to it.

You listen to the voice of them and they and he and she and everybody else who told you, you can’t do it. It’s not possible. And so I have gone through all of these years of learning to trust that intuition that that I’ve been afforded. And so I while I was at the megachurch, it was really good. It was really big.

There’s lots of people, happy feelings in the air, happy people everywhere, and it was a really good situation. But I remember sitting there one day and it was like Easter weekend and it was like 10,000, 12,000 people. And I saw happy families and children laughing and and I still my my heart felt heavy. And I felt like as good as this is, as good as it gets here, there are going to be people in existence on the planet who will never experience that love, that joy, that peace either because they don’t believe in anything. They don’t believe they don’t have a faith.

They don’t feel like they want to tap in or invest in any type of environment or community. They’ve been hurt by religious leaders or religion. Anyway, there’s all a myriad of reasons for why but I found myself wondering well what about those people? Do they not still need love? Do they not still need hope, inspiration?

And so that set me on this path and this voice telling me, like, okay. If they’re never coming here for whatever reason, somebody has to take this message of hope and light and love into the community, into the neighborhood, to people. And I trusted that voice. I started out on a twofold mission trying to build this platform that didn’t exist of life giving, loving, caring, personal and professional development as well as, becoming an urban missionary where I could really get my hands dirty with the next generation and giving them the tools and the principles and the tactics and strategies to help them change their situation.

Mick Hunt: I love it, my man. I don’t know if you’re listening folks, but do you hear the love and the positivity and the energy that Marcus has? That’s what that’s what attracts me to him. And and if you haven’t listened to his podcast, I promise you go do it. You will be inspired just like I am.

Marcus, man, like, one of the things I love about you is your message of love, hope, and positivity. It’s more necessary now than ever. Right? Like, when we look at today, it’s definitely necessary right now. How do you maintain this outlook?

And then what advice do you have for those struggling to find positivity during challenging times?

Marcus Black: Yeah, man. You’re so correct. You don’t have to look for negativity. It’s gonna come to you. If you live in this world, the technological age that we live in today and you open your eyes, you open your eyes to chaos, drama, and trauma.

You open your phone. You don’t even have to go looking for it.

Mick Hunt: It’s gonna come to you in the form of

Marcus Black: notifications, social media notifications, news network notifications. You turn on the TV everywhere you turn, there is chaos, there is trauma, there is division, there is hatred. And so we kinda live in a perpetual state of overwhelm. I feel like people are just kinda deer in headlights at all times because we’re being overloaded with all of the negativity of the world. So you have to be intentional to seek out and find positive voices like this situation.

Like Mick, in this place, you gotta you it’s not gonna fall in your lap. You gotta go get it. And so I’m intentional about it. I surround myself with people like Les Brown and Trent Shelton, and I am constantly fueling my mind and my heart with positive messages. But then I also every single day have a moment where I disconnect and I silence the noise.

So there is no phone. There is no TV. At least 30 minutes a day. Most days, it’s an hour. No TV, no phone, no outside distraction, just me and my prayer meditation time.

I typically go to the lake, and, in that moment, I’m able to stabilize my mind, silence my own thoughts. And once I get my thoughts calm enough where they’re not ping ponging everywhere, then I start talking about the things I’m grateful for. Making a gratitude list, and that just totally shifts my mind and my heart into the space where I wanna be so that I can function and be fueled and replenished the way I need to be to complete the mission.

Mick Hunt: I love that, man. I love that. And and you hit on something when when I go out and speak, I always say this. One of the least favorite people that I like in the world are people that brag about their ability to put out fires. Right?

Like, I’m a I’m a problem solver, and I put out fires. Because I always warn people, if you’re great at putting out fires sometimes, you’re just seeking fires to put out. Right? Or or you’re putting out fires when fires don’t really exist. Like, what are your thoughts on that?

Marcus Black: Man, I think that’s a powerful assertion, and I think it’s absolutely true. You know, sometimes there’s such a need to because some people do thrive in that. It’s an adrenaline rush. So I’m a make a fire so I can have a fire to put out. I’m gonna manufacture some situations that I ain’t gonna have to because I feel needed, I feel necessary, and I feel validated by my ability to step in rather than just living in a state of peace and being.

But I think you’re absolutely right. And if you’re listening to us and you find yourself in that place, you really gotta revisit your personal why and ask yourself, like, what am I really here to do? What really is the point of me being on this planet? What am I hoping to accomplish, and how is that really adding value to your life? That’s right.

Are you creating unnecessary stress that over time will catch up to you? It doesn’t matter how great you are at it.

Mick Hunt: Amen to that, brother. Amen to that. So one of the things I know you’re passionate about is generation y. Right? Tell the folks a little bit about generation y and how you’re touching the lives of young individuals on a daily basis.

Marcus Black: Man, that’s amazing. Generation Y w h y is a nonprofit that was birthed out of a knee in the state of Oklahoma where we live at. It rapidly shot from 32nd in the nation to the 3rd leading state in the nation, 14 suicide. It was just all bad for a while. And so the executive director of the organization said, you know what?

Kids are dying and people are just talking about everything else other than kids dying. So you know what? We’re going to pull our little minimal resources and go out here and create impactful experiences for these kids and remind them that they matter, to remind them that they have purpose and to point them back towards their why because their why and that purpose is the foundation of the life that they’ll build. And so I get to play an incredible role in the organization and we stand in front of normally 20,000 kids a year between school assemblies. This year we’ve already hit 30,000 in half the time so it’s a record setting year but that just shows the need.

Our state’s numbers have improved, but suicide and, self harm is still the number two cause of death for kids in America between the ages of 12 17. And a lot of the time, they haven’t learned. They matter. They haven’t learned positive coping skills. They haven’t learned emotional resilience.

They haven’t learned and a lot of times they haven’t learned it because we haven’t learned it because the adults and the parents haven’t learned it. So now they’re just in this perpetual state of overwhelm with the dark cloud of negativity hovering over them and then just snapping and chaotically yelling at the kids and it just breeds this situation that we’ve seen ourselves in, but we are on the front lines of saying not on our watch. We’re gonna educate parents. We’re gonna educate kids. We’re gonna equip them with tools and resources and and help them find life saving, life changing measures.

Mick Hunt: Man, I I love that so much, and I’m passionate about that as well. And I I wanna unpack a couple of things, man, that you said. Going back to as parents, as adults, as leaders, we gotta look ourselves in the mirror. What are some of the resources and tools when you speak to these parents, when you speak to these community leaders? How can they get involved, and and what are some things that they can be doing to slow this problem down?

Because you’re right. It is a huge problem, and we have to start addressing it and having those conversations.

Marcus Black: So the first thing as it pertains to parents, and we hear this from straight from the horse’s mouth, the kids tell us nobody listens to us. Nobody listens. And you it’s not that you don’t wanna listen. It’s just as a parent who has matured to a certain level in life, you hear a kid and you feel like that’s silly. And you say it and you’re not even thinking, not realizing that is that child’s entire world right now.

You told them it’s silly. What you’re telling them is what you think is invalid, what you feel isn’t important, and you don’t even mean it. You just mean there’s better things to focus on, but they need to be heard and validated first. That doesn’t mean you’re telling them what you feel is right. It just means, okay.

What you feel makes sense. But now let me show you the reality. So we listen to the kids and they open up about all type of crazy scary stuff. The world they live in is wild. But after that, we earn trust because they know we care and then we can speak life.

Mick Hunt: Right.

Marcus Black: Once we have done that and fostered this relationship, now we’re able to bridge the gap between other community agencies, like the actual mental health association in our state. We have a great relationship and partnership with them. We have a great relationship with Crisis Intervention hotline and able to partner them because they have resources to give you, like, practically what to look for. What are the signs to look for Right. In kids who are struggling.

Mick Hunt: Wow. And then the other part of that is when you’re talking to these kids, like, aside from having parents and adults listen, what are some of the other feedback that you’re getting from from young people?

Marcus Black: Man. They acknowledge that they hear the stereotypes.

Mick Hunt: Mhmm.

Marcus Black: So there’s all of these Gen Z, Gen Y, Gen, all the generation, millennials. They hear what people say. They’re lazy. They’re crazy. They have been labeled, rebellious.

They hear that stuff and it makes them feel hopeless. Like, if the people, the powers that be, the leaders have already decided in their mind, this is what I am. Why even try or aspire to be anything different? So, yes, I’m going to act belligerent. I’m going to act more angry.

I’m going to be all the things you said because you’ve already decided that’s what I am anyway. So why even give effort to be anything different? And so we get to actually practically teach them that’s not the solution. I understand where you’re coming from, but let me show you a better way. And so we’re able to have these conversations with them.

I mean, things they talk about, the things that are on the Internet. There’s probably things that parents don’t even know on the Internet. Like, really be tapped in to your children and do the best you can. This isn’t easy, but do the best you can to create an environment of safety where your child can talk to you. And you might hear some crazy stuff but if they talk to you then you don’t have to worry about them leaning on the understanding of a 14 year old.

Yep. Because they gonna talk to somebody whether it’s you or not. If your first response is you wanna do bodily harm to them like no not really but you wanna you get really angry and you wanna yell and you wanna reprimand and rebuke be careful with that. And I’m not saying discipline isn’t necessary because it is, I’m just saying allow them safety to share with you so you can be in the know, so you can know what’s going on, so you can be privy to and know how to help them process better so that you can help them grow and develop appropriately.

Mick Hunt: Totally agree. Totally agree. And and when I talk to parents, I’m always telling them, have that download daily with your kids. Right? Like, you don’t know what their day at school was like.

You don’t know situations where they may feel uncomfortable or they may feel bullied, where you can be involved as that outlet for your kids too. Do you see that a lot where sometimes you just got to have those conversations with your kids? Because maybe that’s the outlet that they need because at school, they don’t have that or they don’t have that voice or they don’t have that ear.

Marcus Black: A lot of kids feel like and I’m telling you again straight from the source. And when I say a lot of kids, I’m not just talking about because I have a we have a residency at one school, a class that we’re at every week, but we hear this consensus across all the schools that we go to. That kids feel like they’re parenting themselves. They feel like their parents are too busy. And so without having that download, you are exactly right.

You have to create an intentional time daily because the greatest gift you have to offer your child is your presence in the present. The greatest gift is your presence

Mick Hunt: Yep.

Marcus Black: In the present right now. Yep. And if you can be with them and you can listen to them and you can sit with them, you build that connection, you deepen that intimacy and trust, and you’ll have a lot higher success rate at knowing and preventing crisis for them.

Mick Hunt: Absolutely. All day, man. All day. I love that stuff. Marcus, again, tremendous.

If you’re not following Marcus, definitely follow because he can unpack a whole lot for you as a parent. Excuse me. You see how emotional I get. He can unlock a whole lot for you as a parent, and then having your kids listen and follow to him also freaking amazing. You know, Marcus, you’ve been trained by a lot of icons.

Right? Like Trent Shelton, you just brought up Les Brown. All of that had to be very transformative for you. Can you share some significant lessons that you’ve learned from them that you’ve carried into your own profession?

Marcus Black: I laugh not because it’s funny, but this story right here is the epitome of, like, that was overwhelming in the best way because these guys are legendary but I’m literally in Texas I’m headed to Trent Shelton’s house but I’m on the phone with Les Brown I’m like what is happening? What is this? And so I’m I’m figuring out how to get to Trent’s house. I don’t know where he lives so I have to type his address into GPS. So I’m verbalizing this to Les Brown.

Tell him, okay, I’m typing the address in but it didn’t give me one route. It gave me multiple routes. It said, if you would like to get there in the shortest amount of time, I have a path for you. However, comma, it will come at a cost. Then it said, there’s a medium option that, you know, to get you there a little slower, you might have some construction but you’ll get there just okay just a little slower than you would have it’s not the accelerated path but it’s free.

And then there was a third option that was it’ll take you till Christmas but you’ll see some sights and scenes and sounds along the way. So it gave me multiple options in the GPS. Well, I said time is money, and I would definitely like to get there in the fastest time possible. It meant I have to go on the tollway. So, like, I’m gonna take the tollway, and I’m gonna go and I wanna get there.

Well, that’s the first lesson because as I’m talking to this list, it brings out, like, that’s just a metaphor, a microcosm of life. Like, you there’s an accelerated path to your purpose, to your destiny, where you wanna go, but it’s gonna come at a cost. Are you willing to incur the cost in order to get there in the shortest amount of time possible? And that’s what those guys did for me. They opened doors.

They created relationships. They gave me insights and wisdom over years that it took them to learn to help accelerate my process.

Mick Hunt: Right.

Marcus Black: And then he, you know, Les, he’s just going and and the next thing he said is, and the next thing is I always hear people say that the experience is the best teacher. And he said, I beg to differ. He said, experience is a substitute teacher. I get his voice saying it.

Mick Hunt: Right.

Marcus Black: He said, because why would you wanna go through all the pain, the trauma to hell and back of learning this the hard way when there’s somebody who’s already blazed that trail, crossed that path, who can share with you and call and save you all the trouble?

Mick Hunt: Right. And so

Marcus Black: I was like, man, that was profound. Thank you. As I’m headed here to do so all the things. So some of the lessons they taught me is just to, number 1, like, be confident in your gift. Believe in your gift.

Understanding the power of communication in spoken word. How to communicate effectively and what that can do. The doors that can open. It’s learning to believe in you and your gift and to believe that you belong believe that you belong in certain spaces and to be able to effectively build relationships, mutually equitable relationships where it’s not, I’m just looking for something from you. I’m just wanna take, take, take, take, take for relationships where both sides are fueling one another and growing together and mutually beneficial.

So that’s some of the greatest lessons I learned from those guys.

Mick Hunt: I’m telling you, man. I talked to Les, like, literally every week. And every conversation, he gives me something different every time. Like, something that I’m like, how come I didn’t think about that? Or how come I didn’t see that?

Right? You know, to your point with Les, he told me, you can take the stairs or you can take the elevator. Right? You can take the stairs or you can take the elevator because success is always at the top. It’s are you willing to invest in yourself?

And and and one of the things that I love about you, Marcus, is this. Like, you invest in yourself, and I hear you say this a lot. Right? If you want something, right, it’s not just gonna fall in your lap. Like, you’ve gotta be you you don’t meet it halfway.

You gotta go get it. And if you’re not willing to internalize, if you’re not willing to invest in you, and and sometimes a lot of times, that investment isn’t money. Right? Like, are you willing to study? Are you willing to sacrifice hanging out with your boys?

Right? Are you willing to as a parent, are you willing to my child is my biggest asset. Am I willing to spend time with my kid? Like, I’d love to hear some of the things when you’re talking to people about how to invest in yourself. And then what have you done to invest in yourself?

Marcus Black: Man, that’s an incredible question. And now you, speaking my love language because I lived as an inferior version of myself for a lot of years because there was abuse in my past. There was trauma in my past. There were these things that caused me to look at myself less than. And I lived that way for a long time, and all I did was cry and whine and complain about what other people had and what other people were doing and what I didn’t have, the opportunities they had, and the opportunities I did not have.

And it was like a broken record. And I hear that and I see that a lot. And that was me. I lived that for a long time. And it wasn’t until one day well, it was two things.

A James Baldwin quote first that I heard where he said it took me many years of vomiting up all the filth that I had been taught about myself and even half began to believe before I was able to walk about this earth as though I had a right to be here. And when I heard that it’s like, yo, like, you belong here too And where is here? Wherever you are, there’s not a space on the planet. There’s not a human being better than you or worse than you. Everybody’s equal.

And if you move with that, then it gives you the confidence and the courage to show up in any space. So now with that given, then it became, okay. Then I’m gonna start showing up big, and I’m gonna start showing up bold. And I started reaching out, and I started going to things, and I started and what happened was my life literally changed. Everything that I always dreamed of.

It’s crazy. I have a podcast episode. I don’t remember what season it was, but I went back. I wrote out my goals and my notes. When Trent Shelton became my first official coach, I sent he asked for my goals.

I sent them to him. I was able to look at that whole list three and a half years later and have walked down every I achieved everything on that list from when I started, and that is a result of being intentional and taking bold action. So many people, I don’t have this and well, I don’t have what you got. I don’t have a podcast. I don’t have influence.

I don’t have community. Guess what? Neither did anyone when they started.

Mick Hunt: We all started. Y’all had to step. Step 1.

Marcus Black: So it’s about taking action intentionally towards what you want. Don’t say you want it. You can say that all day till you turn purple. It won’t give it to you. It’s not going to become real until you really go get it.

And if you rather talk about it, then take action steps to go get it, then you don’t really want what you say you want. It just sounds good. It’s a idea. It’s a pipe dream. But the minute you put it on paper and you take one step in the direction and you get a little bit closer every single day, now it’s becoming reality and your dreams can be your reality and I stand on that and so you ask how did I how have I done that?

I reached out to people, I served people, I invested in coaching and programs and getting to know people. I now am building this community with this incredible fitness community so I’m investing in my physical health because I’m not gonna be able to sustain the gift if I’m not taking care of this side so it’s just, it’s always a pouring into yourself. Courses, training development and going places getting in the room go to where people are if there’s people you admire and they have events and you see that stuff advertised and you say well I can’t afford it but the ticket’s $500 to go to this thing but over the course of a month you’re gonna

Mick Hunt: spend

Marcus Black: $500 on how to eat food and fast food. So it’s like a priority. What is it really? Can you not afford it? Or are you prioritizing something else that’s not gonna return dividends?

Because I can tell you everything that I have invested in from, programming and coaching standpoint, I have made more than 10 fold easily. So there you go. What do

Mick Hunt: you really want? Man, where is the collection plate? I’m I’m ready to put it in. That was amazing. That that was Marcus Black.

Right? Like, that’s who I hear when when I listen to you, when I see you, like, that that passion, that energy, bro, like, that was that was it. That is Marcus Black. As a best selling author, as a speaker in what you do, and and storytelling is undoubtedly a tool that you have in your arsenal. Right?

How do you craft your stories to connect deeply with the audience that you’re speaking with?

Marcus Black: Well, that’s funny. That’s the, that’s another, you know, Les Brown is the master storyteller and he always says, never let what you wanna say get in the way of what they need to hear. So of course, I wanna say certain things, but I go to events and I’m there early. And I’m get I’m gathering the pulse of the room. Right.

I’m I’m talking to the leaders of the initiative. I’m talking to the business owners. I’m talking to the leaders of the school or whoever’s bringing me in, and I’m getting a pulse. I’m connecting with the people in the crowd. They don’t know who I know, even know I’m a speaker.

I’m just kinda gathering where they are. Okay. Right. This lets me know what you need. Once I know what you need, I have a myriad, a plethora of stories that are just in my notes, and I gather those.

So if you guys are like, how do I tell better stories? Number 1, find people who tell great stories and learn how to do that. But when you think of stories from your life that have really practical application, great lessons, write them down. I I write them down. I will pull over on the side of the highway to write down a story idea and then I’ll flesh it out later and I develop those.

And now it’s just I get to plug and play based on the audience, need, based on what our goal is. But that’s one of the most powerful skill sets because people see themselves in stories because it hits the entertainment button that people need to feel and it also keeps their interest because they wanna know what happens but it also connects deeply because if you can tell it the right way, you can get them to see themselves in the story is you can move people wherever you need to move them to help them actually grow and get where they wanna be.

Mick Hunt: I love it. I love it. Last thing, you’ve accomplished so much, but I know Marcus. There’s more. Right?

What are some of the the current or future projects or goals that Marcus blackouts?

Marcus Black: Man, this year has already been bananas, but, I’m actually working on book number 2. So book number 2 is in the works, almost done. And this time around, I got some connections and some powerful places. And so we’re gonna go to bat and look at a a bigger, like, book deal. So that’ll definitely create a nice situation financially for my family as well as my podcast has been growing rapidly.

And so I’m interviewing different networks to host with a, with a network conglomerate where that’s other ways to monetize. They have where I don’t have to create no ads. They take it. They post it. They put the ad they run all of that and just send me a revenue share.

Like, I like the sound of that. So working on really growing that. And then my ultimate goal is to speak life in all 195 United Nations countries, full translator and all. That’s my big, hairy, scary life goal. So that’s, all the countries, you know.

And I’ve already crossed off a a few of those, but I wanna hit them all and really spread the message of hope, love, life, and inspiration all over the world. But this year, my immediate goal is along with the book and the podcast to really stabilize, like, my life as it pertains to the speaking. So with the speaking, I I normally have about 2 engagements a month. They’re pretty good. But this year, I’ve had 8, including 1 I’m about to head to in in an hour from now.

So and we’re about 8 weeks into the year. So that’s 1 a week. So that means we have more than double and it’s been consistent. Like, it’s not sporadic and there’s a long line of people. So I’m like, okay.

It is stabilizing. It is building and then setting up the digital assets to scale. So there’s people who are helping me place the knowledge and the things I teach into digital courses so that people can have access to that without having to work with me 1 on 1 because that’s way 2 different price points.

Mick Hunt: There you go. There you go. Marcus, where can people follow you? What are the websites? What are your social handles?

Where do you want people to go to find Marcus Black?

Marcus Black: Yeah. If you wanna talk to me, I’ll talk back. I you can find me, on Instagram is the best place to communicate at mblackspeaks, but I’m everywhere you wanna be, like Visa. So if you wanna be on LinkedIn, Twitter, TikTok, wherever, you know, YouTube, I’m at m black speaks on all of those and as well as there’s a website m black speaks dot com. There’s some free resources there if you wanna check that out.

Some morning and meditations. I also have a motivation album on Apple and Spotify. You can check that out if you want. It’s Embrace Your Ambition by Marcus Black. So it’s just me yelling all gas, no breaks over some epic sounds.

So it’s pretty cool. I love it.

Mick Hunt: I love it. I will make sure I drop all of that in the comment section on all of the platforms so everyone can go follow Marcus like I do. You won’t be let down. I promise you. Ladies and gentlemen, mister Marcus Blackmon.

Marcus Black: appreciate you, brother. Thank you for having me.

Mick Hunt: You got that. And as always, remember, your because is your superpower. Go unleash it.

Podcast Intro: Thanks for listening to Mick Unplugged. We hope this episode helps you take the next step toward the extraordinary and launches a revolution in your life. Don’t forget to rate and review the podcast, and be sure to check us out on YouTube at Mick Unplugged. Remember, stay empowered, stay inspired, and stay unplugged.