IAM2156 – Founder and Author Helps Entrepreneurs Share Their Story and Build Their Brand

Mark has over 25 years of experience interviewing successful individuals and posting the interviews online. He believes in sharing people's genius and facilitating interactive, improvised live events and video interviews for marketing and training.

Mark shares his transition to turning his hobby into a business, helping people share their stories and his book research process.

Mark highlights the importance of asking open-ended questions to elicit powerful stories.

Youtube: Mark J. Carter
Website: Mark J. Carter
LinkedIn: Mark J. Carter

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Transcription:

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Mark J. Carter Teaser 00:00

And now it's helping people share their stories. If they need video for marketing, whether it's a 2 minute video or longer videos, I've found an amazing producer with 30 years experience. And I interviewed them. I do what I do. I pull their stories out. I pull their genius out. There's no scripts. It's not robotic. It's just them talking into a camera.

Intro 00:19

Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresh values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 00:45

Hello, Hello, Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO Podcast, and I have a very special guest on the show today. Have Mark J. Carter on the show. Mark, excited to have you on the show.

Mark J. Carter 00:54

Thanks so much. I'm excited to be here. Looking forward to a great interview.

Gresham Harkless 00:57

Yes, I'm excited as well too. And Mark is doing so many awesome things. I can't wait to dive right in. But of course, before we do that, I want to read a little bit more about Mark so you can hear about some of those awesome things. And Mark believes everyone has genius to share and we can all learn from each other's geniuses. He facilitates these experiences through interactive, improvised, live events and video interview content for brand new marketing and training.

Mark has always been curious about how successful people got where they are in life, and he has been interviewing successful people for over 25 years, posting interviews online for 12 of those years. Each interview is a how to live interview, which means as a viewer, reader, and listener, you can get actionable advice on how to grow professionally and personally. Mark's other projects include events and marketing initiatives.

He has collaborated with Ted founder Richard Saul Warman to create a world-class conference and helped with branding for the world's largest chapter of meeting professionals and internationals MPI. His launch book tours and events for New York Times best-selling authors helped them share their big ideas with the world and Mark still enjoys interviewing people and post many of the interviews on his YouTube station.

His idea coming podcast and idea climbing internet radio shows. Mark interviews culminated in his recent book, Idea Climbing: How to Create a Support System For Your Next Big Idea. And one of the things I read when I was preparing for this is Mark says, forget about me, let's talk about you. And I think that's the greatest thing that you can say as an interviewer. And he has over 22 years of experience conducting interviews, researching successful individuals, companies, and he believes professional interviews can be transformative for personal and professional growth when done with a strategic intent.

But I love the fact as well too that he has that background in improv because I can't imagine that comes out a lot in business and a lot of great conversations. And Mark, I'm so excited to have you on the show. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

Mark J. Carter 02:53

I'm ready to do it, let's go.

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Gresham Harkless 02:56

Let's get it started then. So to kind of kick everything off, I know I touched on a little bit. Let's hear a little bit more on how you got started, what I call your CEO story.

Mark J. Carter 03:03

As far as getting started, it was I still remember my senior year in college, I started to really get into business books, self-help books, read a Tony Robbins book, decided I wanted to do something in coaching. And so I really didn't have a plan. I just something, public speaking, whatever it might be. And thankfully it was just in my DNA. I don't even think I knew what mentoring was at the time. I said, if I want to be successful someday, I need to be around successful people and learn from successful people.

So I just started cold emailing at the time, cold calling. It was 99 pre-social media. Anyone that would give me 20 minutes on the phone, or I lived in Ypsilanti, Michigan, which is near Ann Arbor, Michigan, if I could meet people I have coffee with, I would meet with them. And the goal of every conversation was to get at least one piece of actionable advice. I stayed away from, and there's a time and place for this, but I stayed away from the daytime TV fluff, talk about your childhood. You're like, New York pizza better than Chicago pizza.

The stuff that makes no difference in my life and no difference to anyone else's and got right to the meat of it and how to, and I started doing some trainings. And my first times I was speaking to high schools and colleges, a lot of it was based on what I learned from these successful people. And like you said in the introduction, now I just put them up on YouTube. I put them on my podcast. I have on YouTube 800 minutes we're bringing back. So I get to share the genius with it. I still do research writing another book right now.

So I'm back on the research trail, interviewing people whenever I can, but all along the way, I mean, that's one thing I would tell anybody. Just if you're getting, whether you're getting started or you're pivoting in your 40s, whatever it might be, man, talk to other people, interview them. These, some of these people are so gracious with their time, especially when I got started, I had no, I had nothing to give them. Let's just call it for what it is. They still would give me 20, 30 minutes on the phone with no expectations. And it's just been an amazing learning experience.

Gresham Harkless 04:52

Yeah, I never really thought about it. So I wanted to drill down a little bit more, hear a little bit more on how you're working with serving your clients. And of course, I wanna hear more about your book. Could you take us through a little bit more on what that looks like and how you're making that impact.

Mark J. Carter 05:03

With the interviewing projects, what I do now, I just recently, it was a pivot away from a hobby, turning it into a business, and now it's helping people share their stories. If they need video for marketing, whether it's a 2 minute video or longer videos, I've found an amazing producer with 30 years experience and I interview them. I do what I do. I pull their stories out. I pull their genius out. There's no scripts. It's not robotic. It's just them talking into a camera. It's virtual right now and getting to share their stories that they normally wouldn't share because a lot of people thought of writing, reciting, writing, memorizing and reciting a script. It's just not the cup of tea and there was genius left on the table. So up to video libraries that we're talking about right now, everything involves me interviewing other people.

And for the book, the first one was idea climbing, how to build a support system for your next big idea, the logical follow up because I'm living it. I hired the coach, I've got some awesome mentors. I'm monetizing the big idea now. And the next one is idea scaling, how to monetize your next big idea with passion and purpose. And a lot of the interviews, I do have some that were on my podcast, some that were on video interviews that made it into the book. I do have some with people say, well, I'm not really big on being interviewed, but I'll give you some, let's just keep the recording private, use it for your book. I do that now. I do book research and it's just amazing because I think the quality of the book is better because I'm sharing, you know, at least dozens of perspectives and finding common threads like I did with the first book.

One example, almost everyone mentioned mentoring. Guess what? There's a chapter in mentoring in the book because most successful people had mentors. I've only come across one that said, no, I never had a mentor. Blew my mind, but hey, it is what it is. But I find the common threads, and like the fifth, sixth time I hear it, I realize, okay, there's a pattern here. These need to go in the books and it's their stories, not just mine. So they're not learning from one author's perspective, they're learning from dozens of people's perspective. Some of its research for the first book, I would read entire biographies and autobiographies, Michael Dell, Home Depot, Napoleon Hill, Think and Go Rich, just to get one story from the book. But I learned a lot along the way.

Gresham Harkless 07:08

Yeah, that makes so much sense. Do you feel like that's part of what I like to call your secret sauce? The thing you feel kind of sets you or the business apart and makes it unique is your ability to be able to tap into that, that human part, understand and see that genius, but also be able to make that into an interactive experience. You feel like that's part of your secret sauce.

Mark J. Carter 07:28

Most definitely. That's why I'm looking forward to getting back into live events where that's the word of mouth. Do a couple of good ones. Just like my podcast, I'm actually, we're getting the guests for episode 100. It's going great and that's one of the things that once it starts out, guests refer me guests. And meeting planners, getting back into live events, once they experience it, I like what you said, secret sauce. That definitely becomes a word of mouth. Because when people think of fireside chats, they think of someone coming with like 10 canned questions, which is what a lot of people do.

Or someone who's not an interviewer, but they say, well, all you have to do is ask questions I'll just do it myself we don't need to hire someone. 10 cam questions is what they expect when they see an actual dynamic immersive experience that's when the word of mouth kicks in that's like oh that's what you mean yeah that's what I mean look how much fun we had too. The energy stayed up. It was fun. And it just carries in 50, 55 minutes. We'll fly by in a scenario like that. So they're like, oh my God, when is he or she going to be done? It just booms. Everyone's involved the entire time.

Gresham Harkless 08:29

Yeah, that makes so much sense. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack so this could be like an app a book or even a habit that you have but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient.

Mark J. Carter 08:40

With interviewing everyone talks about stories so what you want to call it a hacker or a golden nugget? There's two questions and two words that can change. I, this is what I teach up and coming podcasters, interviewers, how and why basically whatever, if you start to feel stuck, whatever the person said, whatever they said, and I'll say realistically, this is at least 90%, if not 99, but let's say, okay, fine. 10%, maybe not, but 90% of the time you can ask oh, really? How did you start your podcast or why did you start your pop? Oh, that's great how did you get that funding or why do you why are you so good at sales?

That is one thing if you want to carry on the conversation and how and why are not yes and no questions stay away from those that's a big one is don't ask yes and no questions because you can get trapped really quick It's with them to saying yes or no but how and why that's my favorite thing to talk to people that want to do interviews. And even if they're not doing interviews, getting that person comfortable on, I'll say on camera because there's so much virtual meeting, there's so much virtual meetings and networking events these days.

But asking them how and why, you can get them right into their stories. You can connect right into their passion and you're eliciting a story. And it's just, that's one of my favorite. Like I said, whether it's a hack or a golden nugget or something like that, that's one of my favorites right there is how and why.

Gresham Harkless 10:00

Yeah, that is a being so powerful. And I love that how and why because I think so many times we think that we have to say something but I feel like sometimes the biggest part of communication is not actually saying it's actually being able to ask those open ended questions and getting those answers.

Mark J. Carter 10:14

Absolutely, I heard I'm not going to get it right because I read it and that was one of those I was going down rabbit holes with learning and books but it's something to the effect that most of the genius isn't in the answer it's in the question and I hit me like that's if you ask bad questions, you're gonna get bad answers that's why some people like oh, I'm not a good. Well, if you learn how to ask better questions you get better answers from people. So I really do think, and it's something that's just a proud, I'd love to say there's a perfect hack that the how and why is the closest I can come to saying, well, anyone could start using this.

Gresham Harkless 10:42

Yeah, that makes so much sense. So I wanted to drill down a little bit more on something that you said, you talked around like people being able to find their own kind of voice, their own kind of flow. Like, do you think like the repetition of like having those interviews kind of leads to that? Or what would you consider to be like one of the big ways that people can find their voice if they're podcasting or they're YouTubeing or vlog whatever it is like how have you seen that people have been able to do that?

Mark J. Carter 11:07

First pick a target market and for I know sometimes people like well anybody in business if you're talking to anybody you're talking to nobody so find a target market and the key here is pick something that you're passionate about. It doesn't have to be this, oh, I'm gonna be the next Joe Rogan or I'm gonna have whatever number of dollars. Pick something that you're passionate about that has a target market and this is for business podcasts. What we're talking about, continue that conversation with the how and the why, and go after people that can help that target market.

One of the best things when people say, well, I don't know if I have enough time for a podcast. I'm an entrepreneur. Start a business. I mean, start a podcast around your business. If your referral sources are fractional chief marketing officers, make a podcast for fractional chief marketing officers. You're interviewing potential referral sources. You're doubling down. You're not only getting content, you're not only establishing your brand, helping your genius, sharing their genius. Pick the people that you wanna talk to anyways and build a podcast around them.

And even if it's just audio, my first like 80 or something were audio. I then I bumped it up and now we do the video podcast along with it, but start with your target market, clearly define it and give plan on giving them something. The purpose of the podcast is to help them grow as and again this is for business podcasts I don't get into the sports or the personal ones but for business podcasts pick a target audience you want to talk to even if you're young and getting started maybe it's mentoring about how to start a business. Go interview entrepreneurs or serial entrepreneurs, and maybe they've built one or two really successful companies. Build a show around them. You're learning and growing, and you're sharing their genius with your network.

So it would definitely be pick a target market, use how and why, and know that you want to get good stories to teach and educate your target market to help them solve problems and that's what's gonna bring them back. That's the word of mouth they're gonna share it with their friends and I think that's the day, but even if you switch gears, switch target markets, just keep going. And one thing I didn't do in the beginning that I'm really big on now is consistency. If you start, it can't be one, 1 month and 4 weeks later, 1 week later too. And I was guilty of that when I started. Now I'm up to at least bi-weekly, weekly getting back into the weekly groove.

But even if you say once a month and they expect it, then fine, do once a month to get started. And I would say, well, I'm not a technical person. There's so many sites out there like Fiverr, F-I-V-E-R-R.com or Upwork or other ones where for very little money, you can have someone if it's a video, they can clean up the audio and video, they can make a video look pretty with like the name at the bottom of the screen. Just something published is better than something planned. So I would say just make the leap and get started some way, shape or form.

Gresham Harkless 13:51

Nice. I appreciate you sharing all those those nuggets because they're golden. So now I want to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And our goal is to have different quote unquote CEOs on this show. So Mark, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Mark J. Carter 14:05

As I grow, I believe CEO is building and leading a team. That's some word that I'm moving into that with business with everything going on. But I think a CEO, the official title of CEO is you're building and leading a team. The chief marketing officer, chief operator, whatever it might be. But that's at least, and that's what I believe it is. You're building, I should say building and leading and motivating a team and helping your team grow. That's what I think at least a great CEO does is they help their team. They don't just build a team. They help their team grow personally and professionally. Everybody wins when everybody's growing personally and professionally.

Gresham Harkless 14:42

Nice. I absolutely love that. But I think if you have that same energy and spirit and passion maybe for lack of a better term, it starts to cross over in every aspect of your life and your business and hearing that definition, it kind of range through with me, with everything you've been able to kind of build and do.

Mark J. Carter 14:57

You know what, I'm just gonna add value. If someone's working with me, for me, however you want to say it, I'm going to do something to make an impact on their personal and professional lives. I want to help them grow and I think that's a huge part of just leadership as a whole.

Gresham Harkless 15:10

Yeah, I absolutely love that and I love that point of like even if you don't quote unquote have the title of CEO, you can think like a CEO, you can act like a CEO and do things like a CEO to bring impact to people's lives. So Mark, truly appreciate that definition. And of course, I appreciate your time even more. So what I wanted to do now is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know and of course, how best people can get a hold of you, find a bunch of podcasts, books, all the awesome things that you're working on.

Mark J. Carter 15:38

For me, if you wanna see all the videos, everything in one place, markjcartertv.com. Again, markjcartertv.com will redirect you right to my YouTube station. You don't have to remember the URL, just markjcartertv.com. And then as far as the podcast, radio show, all this stuff is under the media tab on markjcarter.com. Again, that's markjcarter.com for all things idea climbing, podcast, radio, blog, interviews, things like that. Those are the best two places to  go.

Gresham Harkless 16:06

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Well, thank you so much again, Mark. Of course, we're going to have the links and information. The show notes as well, too, so that everybody can get a hold of the YouTube, the book, the podcast, all the awesome things that you're doing. I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Mark J. Carter 16:16

Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it.

Outro 16:19

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by CBNation and Blue16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co. I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcast, and everywhere you listen to podcasts. Subscribe and leave us a 5-star rating. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless Jr. Thank you for listening.

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