September 21, 2025 • 25 mins
Steven Clark grew up so poor that some days, his family "did without."
But his mother taught him something that would eventually change everything: "Always give and help other people first."
It seemed impossible. How do you give when you have nothing? How do you help others when you can barely help yourself?
Steven didn't understand it then. He was too busy escaping poverty through hockey, building a successful advertising empire, and accumulating the wealth his childhood lacked.
Then his mother died. His rock. His foundation. The woman who raised him with nothing but somehow gave him everything.
"My mother had passed away and she was my rock. And so I wanted to always, I still do today. It was always about, is my mother going to be proud of me?"
In his grief, Steven realized something profound: his mother hadn't just taught him values. She'd given him a blueprint to solve the world's biggest problems.
"My company was really built around the premise that she brought me up with, even though we didn't have anything to give... she was always talking about giving and helping other people first."
Today, Steven's revolutionary business model - built on his mother's poverty wisdom - is disrupting industries and creating sustainable solutions for hunger and homelessness. What started as a poor woman's philosophy has become a system he believes will last "hundreds of years."
Discover how a mother's wisdom from the depths of poverty became her son's mission to change the world.
Connect With Stephen here
find out more about Social impact https://www.rtggroupusa.com/
Timestamps:
[00:00] Introduction and Welcome
[01:15] Steven's Background and Early Life
[03:22] From Hockey Player to Advertising Executive
[07:45] Building Brands for Entrepreneurs
[12:30] Challenges in Business Growth
[18:15] Navigating Competition and Market Entry
[22:40] Learning and Adapting in Business
[28:10] Legacy and Purpose
[32:45] Closing Remarks
If You’ve Been Hooked on These Episodes… This Is for You
If this podcast has been landing deep… if each story feels like it’s peeling back something raw and real in you… then don’t ignore that.
Every guest you’ve heard made the same decision: to stop performing and start healing.
Now it’s your turn.
Take the Silent Collapse Diagnostic. It’s not a quiz. It’s a wake-up tool for women who are done pretending they’re fine.
No fluff. No journaling prompts. Just a straight-up mirror into where you’re silently collapsing behind the mask of success.
If you're serious about reclaiming your energy, your clarity, your life start there.
Because breakthrough doesn’t begin with doing more. It begins with finally seeing what’s been stealing your power.
Learn more about Baz Porter at www.bazporter.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Baz Porter (00:01):
ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to
another episode of rise from theashes podcast.
I'm your host, baz porter, andI'm so privileged to announce my
next guest.
We've been friends for a while,since before covid, I think
steven, but his name is stevenkark.
He lives in canada at themoment, but he bounces all
around the world.
His primary mission is helpingpeople.
(00:23):
Stephen, I am so honored tohave you as a guest today.
I'm excited to share yourmessage with the world.
Can you tell the audience whoyou are and a little bit about
yourself?
Stephen Clarke (00:34):
Yeah, first of all, thank you for having me.
I appreciate it, baz, and Icertainly appreciate our
friendship.
I'm a Canadian.
As you mentioned, I live inToronto.
That's my home base.
Anyway, I do travel around quitea bit and I come from a very
humble background.
We weren't very well off that.
We did without at times, butfor whatever reason, the good
Lord blessed me with athleticability, pretty powerful mindset
(00:57):
as well.
Once I put my mind to doingsomething, I was able to do it.
So that's really what got meout.
I signed my first professionalhockey contract.
I was a professional hockeyplayer and that was really the
turning point for me.
I got to see the world.
I started my career actually inSweden rather than going to the
minors here, and that was justan eye opener.
(01:18):
I got to see all of Europe, andthis for somebody really, right
up until 18, 19, didn't reallytravel very much, we didn't have
the money to do it as a family,but it was a great experience,
things that are still lifelongfriends that I managed to meet,
that we still stay in touch, andso I had that hockey career I'd
ended abruptly after signing apretty big contract, blew up my
(01:42):
knee and that happens.
So I can't really complain toomuch about that.
But then I got.
I was again blessed.
I got introduced to thewonderful world of advertising
and it really was back then.
I'm not sure some would agreeit still is today as exciting as
it was back then.
But we had a lot of fun thereand I had a lot of fun and I
(02:03):
ended up building up my own,exiting to a very large company.
Then it was now.
What's the next thing?
I tried retirement.
I didn't think it was going tobe for me.
I've been in my whole life.
I was a serial entrepreneur.
I was always into doingsomething, but we did try it.
It lasted about six weeks forus to doing something, but we
(02:28):
did try it.
It lasted about six weeks forus and we said, no, this is not
going to work.
We did take a little time off,but not that long before we
started that.
We just it had to be somethingthat was really going to make us
happy but also make us veryproud, and my mother had during
this time.
My mother had passed away andshe was my rock.
So I wanted to always.
I still do today.
(02:50):
It was always about is my mothergoing to be proud of me.
So that's one of the drivingforces I have today and I think
it's made me a much betterperson, because, even though we
didn't come from we came from avery humble background but my
mother was always there and, infact, which we'll because, even
though we didn't come from, wecame from a very humble
background but my mother wasalways there and, in fact which
(03:11):
we'll find out, I guess, laterbut my company was really built
around the premise that shebrought me up with.
Even though we didn't haveanything to give, she was always
talking about giving andhelping other people first.
So that's how I got to where Iam today, which is I'm obviously
very excited about this newjourney.
I'm on Some of the great thingsthat are happening and I truly
believe there's an interventionthere, divine intervention,
(03:33):
that's helping me do what I'mdoing.
It was just recently, on a trip,that I realized that my legacy
is not to do all these greatthings that I'm doing right now.
The legacy that I'm going toleave is the actual model that
I've created that I think willgo on for hundreds of years,
(03:54):
because it's one of those modelsthat just is very collaborative
Everyone wins and there's noreason for it to ever stop,
because it actually solves theproblems.
Baz Porter (04:04):
And that's what you do is so unique and
entrepreneurs around the worldget this bit back to front.
You've seen a lot of easy beingencountered so many
entrepreneurs and businessowners of all different levels
but they have this idea thatit's got to suit them first.
It doesn't have to be that way.
Going back to what your mumtaught you as a kid and the
(04:28):
origins of what you're buildingtoday, what is the advice you
would give to entrepreneursthese days?
Sort of just breaking or tryingto break into whatever industry
they're going into?
you have this concept of aframework of.
I must be this.
A lot of the very successfulentrepreneurs framing it in
(04:49):
success is designated in thisbox, but it doesn't have to be
that way, does it no?
Stephen Clarke (04:54):
I think that one of the things that's missing,
that I've seen missing in someof these new things coming out.
The first thing is that andthis kind of propelled me to
success in my earlier careerswas I realized that if I could
solve someone else's problemthrough something that I could
do, that was actually the key tosuccess, because everyone's
(05:17):
sitting with specific problems,whether it's in the business
world or personally, or sportsworld, whatever.
And if you can come up withsomething that will solve their
problems, you're going to besuccessful.
And then, by the way, the keyto that was not only solving
their problems, but making surethat you put that first, but
also making sure, whatever youwere going to suggest, that you
(05:41):
are also going to win as well,because if you didn't, you would
end up regretting it and notwanting to do it anymore.
And you have to be excitedabout it yourself.
And I think people know that.
People tell me all the time wow, you've got all this energy and
everything.
This is how I get up at fouro'clock in the morning.
This is until I go to bed at 11.
This is how I am and it'sbecause of what I do and how I
(06:05):
do it.
So I think that that's thefirst thing understanding that
other people have problems, andit's not about you, it's about
solving their problems.
So that's the first thing.
And secondly, make sure you puttogether win programs.
Everybody's got to win.
Someone once said to me aboutsustainability not the stuff
they're talking about today inclimate I don't know how they
(06:26):
stole that word, but anyway.
And how do you create truesustainability?
And for me it was always simpleMake sure every touchpoint wins
more than they put in.
We have expressions like and Ithink I've shared this with you
before, baz when I was leavingto start my own advertising
company, the advice I was givenby the president at the time.
(06:47):
He said to me make sure thatyou understand that you're only
as strong as your weakest link.
And so, as I was walking, mybrain works and it jumbles
things around.
It's almost like a jigsawpuzzle.
And if it doesn't fit in there,I'm trying to come up with why.
And by the time I got to thedoor, I turned and his name was
Alan Purvis, great guy, greatmentor of mine.
(07:09):
And I said to him Alan, whywould anybody build a model that
had a weak link?
And he looked at me for asecond he started laughing.
He said you're going to do justfine.
He said good luck.
I'm sure I'll be seeing you asthe president of a large agency
one day which turned out to bemy own, of course but so I think
that sustainability, that wholething is just making sure we
(07:33):
build programs today, reallyinteresting programs, and people
will say how did you come up?
I said I got this big chart onthe wall and I come up.
And once I come up with thisidea, then I start mapping out
the touch points and if everytouch point doesn't win more
than they put in, I will eitherwork on it until I can make it
happen or, in some cases, Ihaven't been able to and we
(07:56):
scrap it.
And even our team our team saidwhat about that one?
I said, yeah, that's not.
I couldn't really make that onework because there was too many
variables that people are goingto get in the way of not making
.
I did a great one for someemployees of a company and the
management just said oh no, wecan't do that, we can't let them
do that.
And then we can't do it becauseif they're not winning more
(08:19):
than they put in, our modeldoesn't work.
That's how I would recommend topeople who are doing it today.
And the other thing is today,baz, I don't know where this
comes from, I don't know why.
There's no explanation to thisbut make sure you have all the
data before you go.
I talked to people today aboutbuilding the charity world, for
(08:40):
example.
All these people building thesetech technology, and 94% of it
is to help them raise more money.
And every time I talk to a CEOabout that, I'm like do you know
how much they raise right now?
No, what do you mean?
No, like, why wouldn't you knowthat?
Before you decide to build awhole company around helping
(09:03):
them raise more, I tell you Iget some really strange looks.
That's kind of logical, isn'tit?
Yes, it is obviously with AIand everything right now going
on.
But wow, just be creative.
Lack of creativity is reallyone of the things right now I'm
noticing quite a bit.
They're just taking thingsthey've already done and doing a
(09:26):
little twist on them orwhatever, and now they've got
something new.
It's not quite that easy.
Baz Porter (09:31):
You talk about one of the things that I discovered
in my journey.
Everything was the same,everything was watered down.
I watched a version ofsomething that's been done
before you start creating anddiving deeper.
You're like that doesn't match.
Exactly Nothing adds up.
(09:51):
So what I love about you and theway you actually work and
actually give back to people isyou've not just got a bigger
vision of what's coming, you'vegot a value system of what's
coming.
You've got a value system thatis the core of this, absolutely
coming.
It roots back in coming homenow from a child yep, and that
isn't heard of.
(10:12):
There's not a lot of that thesedays.
Oh, this will map in and thatsounds good to everybody else,
but you've scrapped all thecommon threads of this and gone.
What do I want to build thatreminds me of home and drives my
mission, my passion?
What were some of thechallenges you got?
(10:32):
With some of the growing yourbusiness?
We have to go growing pains.
I know there's probably many ofthem.
Name ones if you've got to gowith growing pains, there's
probably many of them.
How many ones if you've got twoor three?
Stephen Clarke (10:40):
First one is you're disrupting, even though
it's a positive disruption andit's starting to be recognized
as that.
When you come into an industrythat basically has been around
100 years and there's been nochanges, it's tough, it's very
tough.
We had I probably should have,especially as a strategist.
(11:00):
I should have foreseen some ofthem, but I didn't foresee them
to be at that extent.
It was mind-boggling.
And we didn't even get thechance in the beginning to
explain our model and tell themwhy everybody was going to win.
Nobody wanted to listen to that.
Being a for-profit in that worldis just like the two bad words
(11:22):
right, stay away from us.
And we had problems witheverybody in that, that's with
the governments both governmentsin North America saying you
can't do that.
It got down to the point,basically, when the lawyers just
said tell them to mind theirown business.
And we did and we just said andall of a sudden, 90 days later,
we get this letter sayingyou're absolutely right, it is
(11:42):
your money, you can do anythingyou want with it.
So we got a lot.
We still from time to time get.
But the good news now is, aswe've broken in and we're
starting to deal with the world,people are starting to
recognize.
I get calls often.
In fact I'm speaking at somemajor conferences of nonprofits
and charities and volunteersI've been asked to be a guest
(12:05):
speaker at, and I'm certainlyaccepting, and it's still an
education process.
I would suggest, though, thatdisrupting any model, especially
one that's been around for 100years and not been touched, even
if it's a positive, you'regoing to get what we're going
through.
I'm sure other people who havedisrupted the model have had the
same thing.
(12:26):
It's tough, but I can tell andI'll give this one tip to
everybody listening today isthat the formula for success, as
my mentors used to tell me, isa consistent effort over time,
but actually I don't.
I believe that, certainly, butI believe, more importantly, the
formula for success is thebelief system, your belief
(12:48):
system in yourself and whatyou're doing, because when you
can develop that, you becomeeven.
My wife said to me a coupletimes how do you put up with
this?
And I'm like what she said,this and everything.
I'm like in one ear, not theother, whatever, who cares, it
didn't bother me.
I developed that.
I didn't even know I had that,and then, as I started to look
(13:13):
back over my even my hockeycareer and everything I had that
for some reason, even my hockeycareer and everything I had
that for some reason.
I don't know where that cameinto play, but that has really
been the secret to any successI've created in sports or
anything else is I justdeveloped an unwavering belief
in myself.
It didn't matter what anybodysaid, I knew it was one of those
(13:35):
things where you just know howdo you know?
I don't know, I just know andthat was it.
That's how it ended up.
So that's certainly somethingthat's served me very well.
Baz Porter (13:44):
I deal with people's belief systems,
psychology, a lot within what Ido.
To reiterate a point you justsaid if you don't believe in
yourself, you will never besuccessful in whatever your
endeavors are, because thereisn't a drive there.
And if you aren't believing intruly what you do the product or
(14:06):
the mission or whatever youwant to call it you start up on
the road on your back footanyway, because you're always
writing this and I love thatadvice believe in what you do.
You're building a business.
It's not just straightforwardnow, is it because you've got so
many?
Whatever industry you're in,you're going to be in a red,
what we call a red ocean, mainlymost of the time on the unicorn
(14:29):
side of things, you're verylucky and you enter a blue ocean
.
These are the people like uberon the first up, the dot-com
sequence, chat, gtp, ai thesewere the new revolutions in the
world.
When you're into the Red Ocean,you've got a lot of competitors
and a lot of people who arehungry.
(14:49):
They don't share the samevalues as you most of the time,
because that's why they're there.
What would you say to them?
That person just entering thatmarket now going oh my God, what
do I do?
Stephen Clarke (15:05):
I'd say the first thing is which is what I
did?
Is I really getting all thisflack was?
Is this really the right thingto do?
I asked myself that five timesa day at least.
Is this the right thing to do?
And I get instinctively, I getthe answer and I know if it's
the right thing to do, thenthat's it.
It's not always that way, bythe way.
(15:26):
Sometimes it's no, that's notthe right thing to do, and so I
say okay, then I've got tofigure out a way to get that
done by doing the right thing.
So you have to ask that.
Once you come to that, thenyou've just got to keep going
and I'm going to talk about Icall it course correct.
Most people refer to it as pivot.
When you're in that situation,you've got to be pivoting all
the time.
(15:46):
I talked to somebody I hadn'ttalked to in six years on
LinkedIn and he reached out tome and said we're due for a
check.
It was 19, 2019 or something.
I said, oh sure, it's still thesame calendar link.
So you got it.
So he gets up and so we starttalking about it and he's this
isn't the same company.
(16:08):
Then I'm like yes, it is.
He's.
What the hell?
When did the homelessness cometo play?
I'm like, in and around thetime when you were after we
finished talking, it was alwaysabout hunger.
We added this because we neededto, and it went hand in hand
and we could do it through thismodel, but it was nothing.
I pivoted.
I don't even know how manytimes we've just gone down the
(16:28):
road and said, no, that's yeah,that doesn't work.
And the great thing I thinkabout my life experiences, baz,
is that I've made so manymistakes and I'm still here, but
, for whatever reason, insteadof getting angry or the typical
thing when you screw up orwhatever, I've been okay with it
(16:51):
because I know that's how I'mgoing to learn, that's how I'm
going to get better, and I'vegot this mentality that I always
want to get better, and I usedto.
And some people listen well,and this is really important
because when people start tobecome, when they start to
question what you're doing orquestion how you're doing or
(17:12):
whatever, the instinct of anentrepreneur especially is to
get defensive we get our back up.
What the hell do you know?
You don't know what I did.
I used to be that guy, honestto God, but not anymore.
Now I'm saying I did ityesterday to a lady who was
talking about this and she saidshe was talking about the
investment thing for this newwomen's company that I'm
(17:35):
involved with, that I createdfor them.
And she was talking about thisand everything and saying I
think that you should do thistwo and three year deal and you
should also do a chart andeverything like that.
And and I could see the coupleof other women that were on the
part of our team, they weregetting a little.
I could just tell and rightaway I said, listen, hey, thanks
very much.
I really appreciate that I'mgoing to put another slide or
(17:57):
two in that deck so we couldactually address that, because
that's a great suggestion If wecan help explain this better and
everything.
And when we finished, these twowomen got back to me and said I
thought you were going to tellher to go to hell or whatever.
I said maybe 15 years ago Iprobably would have, but now I
learned from those things andwhy wouldn't we?
She's somebody who wants toinvest and she didn't get this
(18:19):
information from the first setwe sent to her.
So let's change it, knowingthat A this will get her
involved, but also anybody elsein that same situation will
answer the question, and I thinkthat you've really got to learn
the pivot.
You've got to learn, as I said,I call it course correct.
I'm constantly doing it and Ithink that I'll probably always
do that, because I think you canalways get better.
(18:40):
I said that earlier.
I think I can always improve,always get better, and so can
the model.
So why wouldn't we always wantto do that?
Baz Porter (18:46):
100%.
I love what you just said aboutcourse correcting and in many
people certainly in my ownexperience in growing from
literally nothing, $7 is what Ihave.
It's an incredible journey, butI didn't do it alone.
One of my mentors his name isPeter Swain, heavily in the AI
space, incredible marketer hewas the guy that actually shut
(19:10):
down the version of Yelp in theUK and he grew.
He shut down Yellow Pages,sorry and then built the
equivalent of Yelp.
So incredible guy.
And one of the things he saidto me was when producing a
webinar, reverse engineer it, sofilm it first, put it how you
(19:33):
you think you want it and thencreate all the copy, all the
emails, all the advertisementfrom that recording.
Based on that, I was like I'lltry it and I did and all of a
sudden my attendance rate wentup 73.
It was like that works yes and Ididn't need to dissect and
(19:55):
understand why and all I neededto know, because I don't want to
know that.
Because I'm not a marketeer.
I can market and do all theother stuff.
It's part of being anentrepreneur, but that's not my
speciality.
All I need need to know is itworked?
Keep it simple, to the pointand when it comes to slide decks
, it's the same thing.
You've set an excellent examplethere.
(20:17):
Learn off other people, becausethe people that are asking
questions is the gaps in thepresentation or in whatever it
is.
It could be a sales call.
Another thing on sales calls, Ilearned the hard way ask
questions, just keep askingquestions until they say I
haven't got any more questions.
Okay, how are we going to payfor this?
Stephen Clarke (20:40):
There you go exactly.
Yeah, absolutely.
Baz Porter (20:43):
This is excellent advice you're giving here, thank
you, but there's one piece thatwe will always come back to and
that's the why you're doing itand it's not like you've.
I've come across a lot ofcompanies, a lot of
entrepreneurs, a lot of businessowners, and you have as well
but you always stand out to mebecause your why isn't just the
(21:06):
generic.
I want to do this because Iwant to get rich or I want to be
somebody who will be noticed.
You mentioned something earlierabout legacy.
I know the reason, but I wantto share what that legacy
actually is before we go intothe next part.
I want for people to understandwhat that legacy truly is and
(21:28):
the reason behind it.
Stephen Clarke (21:30):
Yeah, as I mentioned, my beginnings were
not when I was growing up.
We were happy, we had food toeat, but that's about it.
It wasn't good.
So I grew up constantlysearching for kind of my purpose
in life.
I think that somebody wants todo a quote is there's two.
The two most important thingsare when you're born and when
(21:52):
you find out why, and thatalways stuck with me.
I can't still can't rememberwho actually said that.
I'm sure I'll look you, maybeyou could look it up anyway.
So I always thought, every timeI went through a different phase
or career, like as a hockeyplayer or advertising guy, I
knew instantly that this wasn'twhy I was put here.
(22:13):
The minute I started doing whatI'm doing now, I knew this was
the reason I was put on thisearth, my purpose.
This is the why.
And again, as I resort back tomy mother, making her proud, I
knew that was it.
She was proud of me being ahockey player.
She was proud when I built upthe big company and everything.
(22:35):
But today, what I'm doing todaywould make her really proud.
And so my why is really what Ibelieve fulfilling my commitment
or what I was put here for tothe world, to leave a legacy and
to really make a positiveimpact in the world.
Not anything specific eventhough right now we're focusing
(22:56):
on the hunger and homelessnessbut just to leave a positive
impact.
And my mentors always said tome what do you want on your
tombstone?
Of course I used to joke withthem.
I hate that question, but I'dalways say that he made a
positive impact on me, just thatsimple, and that I would be
remembered as that.
And the funny thing about that,baz, is I really struggled
about how many people we wereand all the other stuff, until I
(23:18):
realized that it wasn't aboutthat we're going to do millions
and all that other stuff.
It was about the model I'vecreated, a model that will live
on.
Be honest to God, I think thiswill go down and other people
will duplicate it, but it's themodel that will really leave the
legacy and will be able tosolve a lot of the issues that
(23:40):
we're facing today.
Baz Porter (23:42):
And that's why I love having conversations with
you and I love learning from you.
I learn from everybody that Ispeak with.
Thank you, Mark Twain was theguy who had.
Stephen Clarke (23:51):
Oh, was it Mark Twain?
Yeah, that's typical.
I loved his quotes.
Baz Porter (23:56):
But you've adopted it in a magical way Because it's
like you just said, it wasn'tabout you.
It's about what you're creating, not just for yourself, but for
decades to come.
Yeah, absolutely.
Ladies and gentlemen, if youwant to get a hold of Stephen,
he's on LinkedIn, is that'swhere he always hangs out and
(24:19):
I'll drop out of the website, sothere will be links in the
comments below.
Look out for our next interviewwith him in the part two is
coming in, probably on aWednesday, from myself and
Stephen.
Thank you very much for joiningus and I will see you very soon
.
ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to
another episode of rise from theashes podcast.
I'm your host, baz porter, andI'm so privileged to announce my
next guest.
We've been friends for a while,since before covid, I think
steven, but his name is stevenkark.
He lives in canada at themoment, but he bounces all
around the world.
His primary mission is helpingpeople.
(00:23):
Stephen, I am so honored tohave you as a guest today.
I'm excited to share yourmessage with the world.
Can you tell the audience whoyou are and a little bit about
yourself?
Stephen Clarke (00:34):
Yeah, first of all, thank you for having me.
I appreciate it, baz, and Icertainly appreciate our
friendship.
I'm a Canadian.
As you mentioned, I live inToronto.
That's my home base.
Anyway, I do travel around quitea bit and I come from a very
humble background.
We weren't very well off that.
We did without at times, butfor whatever reason, the good
Lord blessed me with athleticability, pretty powerful mindset
(00:57):
as well.
Once I put my mind to doingsomething, I was able to do it.
So that's really what got meout.
I signed my first professionalhockey contract.
I was a professional hockeyplayer and that was really the
turning point for me.
I got to see the world.
I started my career actually inSweden rather than going to the
minors here, and that was justan eye opener.
(01:18):
I got to see all of Europe, andthis for somebody really, right
up until 18, 19, didn't reallytravel very much, we didn't have
the money to do it as a family,but it was a great experience,
things that are still lifelongfriends that I managed to meet,
that we still stay in touch, andso I had that hockey career I'd
ended abruptly after signing apretty big contract, blew up my
(01:42):
knee and that happens.
So I can't really complain toomuch about that.
But then I got.
I was again blessed.
I got introduced to thewonderful world of advertising
and it really was back then.
I'm not sure some would agreeit still is today as exciting as
it was back then.
But we had a lot of fun thereand I had a lot of fun and I
(02:03):
ended up building up my own,exiting to a very large company.
Then it was now.
What's the next thing?
I tried retirement.
I didn't think it was going tobe for me.
I've been in my whole life.
I was a serial entrepreneur.
I was always into doingsomething, but we did try it.
It lasted about six weeks forus to doing something, but we
(02:28):
did try it.
It lasted about six weeks forus and we said, no, this is not
going to work.
We did take a little time off,but not that long before we
started that.
We just it had to be somethingthat was really going to make us
happy but also make us veryproud, and my mother had during
this time.
My mother had passed away andshe was my rock.
So I wanted to always.
I still do today.
(02:50):
It was always about is my mothergoing to be proud of me.
So that's one of the drivingforces I have today and I think
it's made me a much betterperson, because, even though we
didn't come from we came from avery humble background but my
mother was always there and, infact, which we'll because, even
though we didn't come from, wecame from a very humble
background but my mother wasalways there and, in fact which
(03:11):
we'll find out, I guess, laterbut my company was really built
around the premise that shebrought me up with.
Even though we didn't haveanything to give, she was always
talking about giving andhelping other people first.
So that's how I got to where Iam today, which is I'm obviously
very excited about this newjourney.
I'm on Some of the great thingsthat are happening and I truly
believe there's an interventionthere, divine intervention,
(03:33):
that's helping me do what I'mdoing.
It was just recently, on a trip,that I realized that my legacy
is not to do all these greatthings that I'm doing right now.
The legacy that I'm going toleave is the actual model that
I've created that I think willgo on for hundreds of years,
(03:54):
because it's one of those modelsthat just is very collaborative
Everyone wins and there's noreason for it to ever stop,
because it actually solves theproblems.
Baz Porter (04:04):
And that's what you do is so unique and
entrepreneurs around the worldget this bit back to front.
You've seen a lot of easy beingencountered so many
entrepreneurs and businessowners of all different levels
but they have this idea thatit's got to suit them first.
It doesn't have to be that way.
Going back to what your mumtaught you as a kid and the
(04:28):
origins of what you're buildingtoday, what is the advice you
would give to entrepreneursthese days?
Sort of just breaking or tryingto break into whatever industry
they're going into?
you have this concept of aframework of.
I must be this.
A lot of the very successfulentrepreneurs framing it in
(04:49):
success is designated in thisbox, but it doesn't have to be
that way, does it no?
Stephen Clarke (04:54):
I think that one of the things that's missing,
that I've seen missing in someof these new things coming out.
The first thing is that andthis kind of propelled me to
success in my earlier careerswas I realized that if I could
solve someone else's problemthrough something that I could
do, that was actually the key tosuccess, because everyone's
(05:17):
sitting with specific problems,whether it's in the business
world or personally, or sportsworld, whatever.
And if you can come up withsomething that will solve their
problems, you're going to besuccessful.
And then, by the way, the keyto that was not only solving
their problems, but making surethat you put that first, but
also making sure, whatever youwere going to suggest, that you
(05:41):
are also going to win as well,because if you didn't, you would
end up regretting it and notwanting to do it anymore.
And you have to be excitedabout it yourself.
And I think people know that.
People tell me all the time wow, you've got all this energy and
everything.
This is how I get up at fouro'clock in the morning.
This is until I go to bed at 11.
This is how I am and it'sbecause of what I do and how I
(06:05):
do it.
So I think that that's thefirst thing understanding that
other people have problems, andit's not about you, it's about
solving their problems.
So that's the first thing.
And secondly, make sure you puttogether win programs.
Everybody's got to win.
Someone once said to me aboutsustainability not the stuff
they're talking about today inclimate I don't know how they
(06:26):
stole that word, but anyway.
And how do you create truesustainability?
And for me it was always simpleMake sure every touchpoint wins
more than they put in.
We have expressions like and Ithink I've shared this with you
before, baz when I was leavingto start my own advertising
company, the advice I was givenby the president at the time.
(06:47):
He said to me make sure thatyou understand that you're only
as strong as your weakest link.
And so, as I was walking, mybrain works and it jumbles
things around.
It's almost like a jigsawpuzzle.
And if it doesn't fit in there,I'm trying to come up with why.
And by the time I got to thedoor, I turned and his name was
Alan Purvis, great guy, greatmentor of mine.
(07:09):
And I said to him Alan, whywould anybody build a model that
had a weak link?
And he looked at me for asecond he started laughing.
He said you're going to do justfine.
He said good luck.
I'm sure I'll be seeing you asthe president of a large agency
one day which turned out to bemy own, of course but so I think
that sustainability, that wholething is just making sure we
(07:33):
build programs today, reallyinteresting programs, and people
will say how did you come up?
I said I got this big chart onthe wall and I come up.
And once I come up with thisidea, then I start mapping out
the touch points and if everytouch point doesn't win more
than they put in, I will eitherwork on it until I can make it
happen or, in some cases, Ihaven't been able to and we
(07:56):
scrap it.
And even our team our team saidwhat about that one?
I said, yeah, that's not.
I couldn't really make that onework because there was too many
variables that people are goingto get in the way of not making
.
I did a great one for someemployees of a company and the
management just said oh no, wecan't do that, we can't let them
do that.
And then we can't do it becauseif they're not winning more
(08:19):
than they put in, our modeldoesn't work.
That's how I would recommend topeople who are doing it today.
And the other thing is today,baz, I don't know where this
comes from, I don't know why.
There's no explanation to thisbut make sure you have all the
data before you go.
I talked to people today aboutbuilding the charity world, for
(08:40):
example.
All these people building thesetech technology, and 94% of it
is to help them raise more money.
And every time I talk to a CEOabout that, I'm like do you know
how much they raise right now?
No, what do you mean?
No, like, why wouldn't you knowthat?
Before you decide to build awhole company around helping
(09:03):
them raise more, I tell you Iget some really strange looks.
That's kind of logical, isn'tit?
Yes, it is obviously with AIand everything right now going
on.
But wow, just be creative.
Lack of creativity is reallyone of the things right now I'm
noticing quite a bit.
They're just taking thingsthey've already done and doing a
(09:26):
little twist on them orwhatever, and now they've got
something new.
It's not quite that easy.
Baz Porter (09:31):
You talk about one of the things that I discovered
in my journey.
Everything was the same,everything was watered down.
I watched a version ofsomething that's been done
before you start creating anddiving deeper.
You're like that doesn't match.
Exactly Nothing adds up.
(09:51):
So what I love about you and theway you actually work and
actually give back to people isyou've not just got a bigger
vision of what's coming, you'vegot a value system of what's
coming.
You've got a value system thatis the core of this, absolutely
coming.
It roots back in coming homenow from a child yep, and that
isn't heard of.
(10:12):
There's not a lot of that thesedays.
Oh, this will map in and thatsounds good to everybody else,
but you've scrapped all thecommon threads of this and gone.
What do I want to build thatreminds me of home and drives my
mission, my passion?
What were some of thechallenges you got?
(10:32):
With some of the growing yourbusiness?
We have to go growing pains.
I know there's probably many ofthem.
Name ones if you've got to gowith growing pains, there's
probably many of them.
How many ones if you've got twoor three?
Stephen Clarke (10:40):
First one is you're disrupting, even though
it's a positive disruption andit's starting to be recognized
as that.
When you come into an industrythat basically has been around
100 years and there's been nochanges, it's tough, it's very
tough.
We had I probably should have,especially as a strategist.
(11:00):
I should have foreseen some ofthem, but I didn't foresee them
to be at that extent.
It was mind-boggling.
And we didn't even get thechance in the beginning to
explain our model and tell themwhy everybody was going to win.
Nobody wanted to listen to that.
Being a for-profit in that worldis just like the two bad words
(11:22):
right, stay away from us.
And we had problems witheverybody in that, that's with
the governments both governmentsin North America saying you
can't do that.
It got down to the point,basically, when the lawyers just
said tell them to mind theirown business.
And we did and we just said andall of a sudden, 90 days later,
we get this letter sayingyou're absolutely right, it is
(11:42):
your money, you can do anythingyou want with it.
So we got a lot.
We still from time to time get.
But the good news now is, aswe've broken in and we're
starting to deal with the world,people are starting to
recognize.
I get calls often.
In fact I'm speaking at somemajor conferences of nonprofits
and charities and volunteersI've been asked to be a guest
(12:05):
speaker at, and I'm certainlyaccepting, and it's still an
education process.
I would suggest, though, thatdisrupting any model, especially
one that's been around for 100years and not been touched, even
if it's a positive, you'regoing to get what we're going
through.
I'm sure other people who havedisrupted the model have had the
same thing.
(12:26):
It's tough, but I can tell andI'll give this one tip to
everybody listening today isthat the formula for success, as
my mentors used to tell me, isa consistent effort over time,
but actually I don't.
I believe that, certainly, butI believe, more importantly, the
formula for success is thebelief system, your belief
(12:48):
system in yourself and whatyou're doing, because when you
can develop that, you becomeeven.
My wife said to me a coupletimes how do you put up with
this?
And I'm like what she said,this and everything.
I'm like in one ear, not theother, whatever, who cares, it
didn't bother me.
I developed that.
I didn't even know I had that,and then, as I started to look
(13:13):
back over my even my hockeycareer and everything I had that
for some reason, even my hockeycareer and everything I had
that for some reason.
I don't know where that cameinto play, but that has really
been the secret to any successI've created in sports or
anything else is I justdeveloped an unwavering belief
in myself.
It didn't matter what anybodysaid, I knew it was one of those
(13:35):
things where you just know howdo you know?
I don't know, I just know andthat was it.
That's how it ended up.
So that's certainly somethingthat's served me very well.
Baz Porter (13:44):
I deal with people's belief systems,
psychology, a lot within what Ido.
To reiterate a point you justsaid if you don't believe in
yourself, you will never besuccessful in whatever your
endeavors are, because thereisn't a drive there.
And if you aren't believing intruly what you do the product or
(14:06):
the mission or whatever youwant to call it you start up on
the road on your back footanyway, because you're always
writing this and I love thatadvice believe in what you do.
You're building a business.
It's not just straightforwardnow, is it because you've got so
many?
Whatever industry you're in,you're going to be in a red,
what we call a red ocean, mainlymost of the time on the unicorn
(14:29):
side of things, you're verylucky and you enter a blue ocean
.
These are the people like uberon the first up, the dot-com
sequence, chat, gtp, ai thesewere the new revolutions in the
world.
When you're into the Red Ocean,you've got a lot of competitors
and a lot of people who arehungry.
(14:49):
They don't share the samevalues as you most of the time,
because that's why they're there.
What would you say to them?
That person just entering thatmarket now going oh my God, what
do I do?
Stephen Clarke (15:05):
I'd say the first thing is which is what I
did?
Is I really getting all thisflack was?
Is this really the right thingto do?
I asked myself that five timesa day at least.
Is this the right thing to do?
And I get instinctively, I getthe answer and I know if it's
the right thing to do, thenthat's it.
It's not always that way, bythe way.
(15:26):
Sometimes it's no, that's notthe right thing to do, and so I
say okay, then I've got tofigure out a way to get that
done by doing the right thing.
So you have to ask that.
Once you come to that, thenyou've just got to keep going
and I'm going to talk about Icall it course correct.
Most people refer to it as pivot.
When you're in that situation,you've got to be pivoting all
the time.
(15:46):
I talked to somebody I hadn'ttalked to in six years on
LinkedIn and he reached out tome and said we're due for a
check.
It was 19, 2019 or something.
I said, oh sure, it's still thesame calendar link.
So you got it.
So he gets up and so we starttalking about it and he's this
isn't the same company.
(16:08):
Then I'm like yes, it is.
He's.
What the hell?
When did the homelessness cometo play?
I'm like, in and around thetime when you were after we
finished talking, it was alwaysabout hunger.
We added this because we neededto, and it went hand in hand
and we could do it through thismodel, but it was nothing.
I pivoted.
I don't even know how manytimes we've just gone down the
(16:28):
road and said, no, that's yeah,that doesn't work.
And the great thing I thinkabout my life experiences, baz,
is that I've made so manymistakes and I'm still here, but
, for whatever reason, insteadof getting angry or the typical
thing when you screw up orwhatever, I've been okay with it
(16:51):
because I know that's how I'mgoing to learn, that's how I'm
going to get better, and I'vegot this mentality that I always
want to get better, and I usedto.
And some people listen well,and this is really important
because when people start tobecome, when they start to
question what you're doing orquestion how you're doing or
(17:12):
whatever, the instinct of anentrepreneur especially is to
get defensive we get our back up.
What the hell do you know?
You don't know what I did.
I used to be that guy, honestto God, but not anymore.
Now I'm saying I did ityesterday to a lady who was
talking about this and she saidshe was talking about the
investment thing for this newwomen's company that I'm
(17:35):
involved with, that I createdfor them.
And she was talking about thisand everything and saying I
think that you should do thistwo and three year deal and you
should also do a chart andeverything like that.
And and I could see the coupleof other women that were on the
part of our team, they weregetting a little.
I could just tell and rightaway I said, listen, hey, thanks
very much.
I really appreciate that I'mgoing to put another slide or
(17:57):
two in that deck so we couldactually address that, because
that's a great suggestion If wecan help explain this better and
everything.
And when we finished, these twowomen got back to me and said I
thought you were going to tellher to go to hell or whatever.
I said maybe 15 years ago Iprobably would have, but now I
learned from those things andwhy wouldn't we?
She's somebody who wants toinvest and she didn't get this
(18:19):
information from the first setwe sent to her.
So let's change it, knowingthat A this will get her
involved, but also anybody elsein that same situation will
answer the question, and I thinkthat you've really got to learn
the pivot.
You've got to learn, as I said,I call it course correct.
I'm constantly doing it and Ithink that I'll probably always
do that, because I think you canalways get better.
(18:40):
I said that earlier.
I think I can always improve,always get better, and so can
the model.
So why wouldn't we always wantto do that?
Baz Porter (18:46):
100%.
I love what you just said aboutcourse correcting and in many
people certainly in my ownexperience in growing from
literally nothing, $7 is what Ihave.
It's an incredible journey, butI didn't do it alone.
One of my mentors his name isPeter Swain, heavily in the AI
space, incredible marketer hewas the guy that actually shut
(19:10):
down the version of Yelp in theUK and he grew.
He shut down Yellow Pages,sorry and then built the
equivalent of Yelp.
So incredible guy.
And one of the things he saidto me was when producing a
webinar, reverse engineer it, sofilm it first, put it how you
(19:33):
you think you want it and thencreate all the copy, all the
emails, all the advertisementfrom that recording.
Based on that, I was like I'lltry it and I did and all of a
sudden my attendance rate wentup 73.
It was like that works yes and Ididn't need to dissect and
(19:55):
understand why and all I neededto know, because I don't want to
know that.
Because I'm not a marketeer.
I can market and do all theother stuff.
It's part of being anentrepreneur, but that's not my
speciality.
All I need need to know is itworked?
Keep it simple, to the pointand when it comes to slide decks
, it's the same thing.
You've set an excellent examplethere.
(20:17):
Learn off other people, becausethe people that are asking
questions is the gaps in thepresentation or in whatever it
is.
It could be a sales call.
Another thing on sales calls, Ilearned the hard way ask
questions, just keep askingquestions until they say I
haven't got any more questions.
Okay, how are we going to payfor this?
Stephen Clarke (20:40):
There you go exactly.
Yeah, absolutely.
Baz Porter (20:43):
This is excellent advice you're giving here, thank
you, but there's one piece thatwe will always come back to and
that's the why you're doing itand it's not like you've.
I've come across a lot ofcompanies, a lot of
entrepreneurs, a lot of businessowners, and you have as well
but you always stand out to mebecause your why isn't just the
(21:06):
generic.
I want to do this because Iwant to get rich or I want to be
somebody who will be noticed.
You mentioned something earlierabout legacy.
I know the reason, but I wantto share what that legacy
actually is before we go intothe next part.
I want for people to understandwhat that legacy truly is and
(21:28):
the reason behind it.
Stephen Clarke (21:30):
Yeah, as I mentioned, my beginnings were
not when I was growing up.
We were happy, we had food toeat, but that's about it.
It wasn't good.
So I grew up constantlysearching for kind of my purpose
in life.
I think that somebody wants todo a quote is there's two.
The two most important thingsare when you're born and when
(21:52):
you find out why, and thatalways stuck with me.
I can't still can't rememberwho actually said that.
I'm sure I'll look you, maybeyou could look it up anyway.
So I always thought, every timeI went through a different phase
or career, like as a hockeyplayer or advertising guy, I
knew instantly that this wasn'twhy I was put here.
(22:13):
The minute I started doing whatI'm doing now, I knew this was
the reason I was put on thisearth, my purpose.
This is the why.
And again, as I resort back tomy mother, making her proud, I
knew that was it.
She was proud of me being ahockey player.
She was proud when I built upthe big company and everything.
(22:35):
But today, what I'm doing todaywould make her really proud.
And so my why is really what Ibelieve fulfilling my commitment
or what I was put here for tothe world, to leave a legacy and
to really make a positiveimpact in the world.
Not anything specific eventhough right now we're focusing
(22:56):
on the hunger and homelessnessbut just to leave a positive
impact.
And my mentors always said tome what do you want on your
tombstone?
Of course I used to joke withthem.
I hate that question, but I'dalways say that he made a
positive impact on me, just thatsimple, and that I would be
remembered as that.
And the funny thing about that,baz, is I really struggled
about how many people we wereand all the other stuff, until I
(23:18):
realized that it wasn't aboutthat we're going to do millions
and all that other stuff.
It was about the model I'vecreated, a model that will live
on.
Be honest to God, I think thiswill go down and other people
will duplicate it, but it's themodel that will really leave the
legacy and will be able tosolve a lot of the issues that
(23:40):
we're facing today.
Baz Porter (23:42):
And that's why I love having conversations with
you and I love learning from you.
I learn from everybody that Ispeak with.
Thank you, Mark Twain was theguy who had.
Stephen Clarke (23:51):
Oh, was it Mark Twain?
Yeah, that's typical.
I loved his quotes.
Baz Porter (23:56):
But you've adopted it in a magical way Because it's
like you just said, it wasn'tabout you.
It's about what you're creating, not just for yourself, but for
decades to come.
Yeah, absolutely.
Ladies and gentlemen, if youwant to get a hold of Stephen,
he's on LinkedIn, is that'swhere he always hangs out and
(24:19):
I'll drop out of the website, sothere will be links in the
comments below.
Look out for our next interviewwith him in the part two is
coming in, probably on aWednesday, from myself and
Stephen.
Thank you very much for joiningus and I will see you very soon
.
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