March 11, 2025 • 28 mins
Did you know that nearly 50% of product-based businesses fail within their first five years? The key to survival isn’t just competing; it’s innovating and telling a story that sets you apart. In this episode of Spark and Ignite Your Marketing, host Beverly Cornell sits down with entrepreneur Marc Sauer, founder of Urban August and International Tie. Marc shares his journey from CPA to business owner, how he turned a personal problem into a thriving brand, and his strategies for battling knockoffs and standing out in a crowded market. If you’re looking for inspiration on how to carve your niche, build brand trust, and scale your business, this episode is a must-listen!
Three Key Topics Discused:
- Turning a Personal Struggle into a Business Opportunity: Marc shares how a problem his family faced—securing refrigerators from his younger brother with Down syndrome—led him to create Urban August. His journey highlights how identifying a unique problem can spark a successful business idea.
- The Power of Brand Storytelling in Marketing: In today’s world of copycats and commoditized products, Marc emphasizes how storytelling and authenticity help brands build trust, connect with customers, and stay ahead of competitors—especially in the eCommerce space.
- Overcoming Business Challenges: Competition, Copycats, and Scaling: From dealing with overseas knockoffs to expanding internationally, Marc talks about the challenges of growing a business and why diversifying sales channels and marketing strategies is critical for long-term success.
Follow Marc:
Marc Sauer | LinkedIn
Urban August | Facebook
Urban August | Instagram
P.S. Ready to spark your unique opportunities and ignite your marketing? Here are three ways to work with us.
1. 📞 Schedule a Complimentary 15-minute Call and let’s delve into your goals and answer any questions you may have.
2. 📘 Read Beverly’s book Marketing for Entrepreneurs a quick guide filled with actionable steps to help make your brand and business shine even brighter. 🎙️ Listen to Beverly’s Marketing Podcast where she interviews entrepreneurs to get inspired and gain new business and marketing insights.
3. 🎓 Learn more about marketing and Enroll in Our Marketing Courses designed to bring clarity to your business efforts. They’re easy-to-understand and self-paced, perfect for busy entrepreneurs like you.
P.S. Take the first step (will only take you 3 minutes) to awaken your brand magic with our personalized Brand Clarity Quiz
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Beverly (00:00):
Did you know that nearly 50 percent of product
based businesses fail withintheir first five years due to
market saturation andcompetition from copycats?
But what if the secret tosurvival isn't just about
competing, but innovating,storytelling, and thinking
outside of the box?
Welcome to another inspirationalepisode of the Spark and Ignite
(00:21):
Your Marketing Podcast.
I'm your host, Beverly Cornell,and today we are peeking into
the world of e commerceinnovation and brand.
Differentiation.
Our guest today is Marcus Sauer.
Marc, the founder of UrbanAugust and International Tie.
From CPA to entrepreneur, Marcushas built a thriving brand,
identifying a unique problem,securing refrigerators and
(00:44):
cabinets, and creating aninnovative solution.
He's battled knockoffcompetitors, scaled
internationally, and foundsuccess by telling his brand
story.
Marcus, I'm so excited to haveyou in the show.
Welcome.
Marcus (00:56):
Yeah, thanks.
It's good to be here.
Thanks for having me.
Beverly (00:59):
So take us back to the beginning.
I am all about origin stories,the OG stories.
You started with a Chicago flagthemed necktie.
Marcus (01:09):
Yes.
Beverly (01:09):
But things did not go as planned.
So talk about how that happenedand how you got here.
Marcus (01:15):
Sure.
As you said, I was a CPA in thecorporate world and every time I
try to do something in thecorporate world, nothing would
work.
There was just a million layersof bureaucracy that just stopped
me.
And after trying that about 10times I just said, I don't feel
like I'm being judgedappropriately.
I'm going to try to start abusiness.
And the next question of course,is when you start a business.
(01:35):
Like someone with the CPA in thecorporate world, that's not
really a good position to starta business with.
It's not like an architect andyou start their own architecture
firm, for example.
And so I I spent a week, Ithink, and I called it sick and
I just researched what to do.
I was in Chicago.
And then I noticed people lovethe Chicago flag on their
apparel.
I noticed people like neckties.
Oh, Chicago flag, necktie.
(01:57):
An idea, not the best idea, butI'm like it's an idea.
I'll just start.
And I tried it and I tried a fewother flags for neckties and I
got some sales.
I would consider that a failuretoday, but it was somewhat of a
validation.
I eventually stopped sellingthose, but I use the flag theme
and I adopted the hats and thatexpanded drastically.
That's international tie hatcompany named after the tie idea
(02:21):
today.
And I saw several hundredvariations of hats, so that's
survived, but it definitelyevolved ties by itself were not
sustainable, but I wasdeveloping that idea.
I had my entrepreneur hat on.
And I was at my parents houseone weekend that they didn't
live in Chicago area.
And my youngest brother has downsyndrome.
And since I can remember, kidswith down syndrome, not always,
(02:46):
a lot of the time they develophabits where they want to eat
something and they have to eatit now.
And they only like specifickinds of food.
And this led to over a longperiod of time, my youngest
brother living with my parents,just like rating their fridge
Late at night and just takingwhatever he could find.
And my mom had complained aboutthis for so long was his
background noise like an accent,your own accent.
(03:08):
You don't hear it.
It's like a fish in the water.
And then with my entrepreneurhat on, I'm like, wait a second,
my mom's been complaining aboutthis for years.
There's gotta be a problem tofix it.
There's gotta be a safe for afridge or cabinet I can make
just for food.
And at that time there wasn't.
So literally within 10 minutesof realizing, Hey, this is a
problem.
(03:28):
I went from there to realizingthis is a business.
This is going to work.
There's no competitors.
I'm going for it.
Beverly (03:34):
Yep.
There's a Market.
There's a need.
Marcus (03:36):
And it's just something you don't even realize.
It took 10 minutes of just likeprocessing that, okay, this is
happening.
And it's going to happen.
And pretty hardcore.
I'm going for it.
Beverly (03:44):
So your brand is like super niche.
It's locking French doorrefrigerators and cabinets
Marcus (03:51):
And locking food.
But yeah, that's the lockbox.
Beverly (03:53):
Did you ever worry about it being too specific or
did you immediately know Beingspecific is the best thing that
could possibly happen.
Marcus (04:00):
That's a really good question, because part of your
whole solopreneur like Marketingtheme is trying to work out that
message.
And it's very specific.
For example, like one of ourbiggest clientele are kids with
autism, for example, parentswith kids with autism, but some,
Parents with kids with autismwill swear by our products.
They're just obsessed with it.
They can't believe this neverexisted, but at the same time,
(04:24):
other parents with kids withautism, they might be offended.
For example, that we would makea lock to lock their kids from
food.
So it's Even though you can gostraight to the niche.
That's the main problem oh,that's offensive.
Why would you lock food up fromyour kids?
So that definitely adds a layerof complexity to it for sure.
Beverly (04:41):
I see the need because as a foster parent, we've had
several children who have foodhoarding tendencies because of
trauma based on not havingenough food.
So we have done things wherewe've given them like bins and
anytime they want something outof this bin, they can have it,
like giving access to that.
But it's just not in their bestinterest as little kids to have
(05:02):
that kind of access to food.
It's not healthy for them.
It's actually quite theopposite.
You want to protect yourchildren.
And I imagine from a Downsyndrome perspective, they're
not able to control it, right?
You want to protect them fromdoing something that's going to
really harm them or affect themat that moment.
And even right now, I have anine year old who likes to get
(05:23):
into things that he's notsupposed to.
In our garage, we have an extrabeverage fridge.
My husband on the top only havea couple beers or whatever up
there, but the rest of it's justall kind of soda and Gatorade
and water and my son will comein and have a water.
He'll ask first, but he'll justgrab a water.
One day he said, yeah, I gavethe kids all beer and I was
like, what?
And he's yeah, I gave them allbeer.
(05:44):
And we're like who did you givebeer to?
We're like trying to like, Mom,it was a root beer.
And both my husband and I werelike, gosh, maybe we need to
lock on that just to be safe.
So I can see lots of reasons whythat would be really beneficial
to have.
Obviously parents, caregivers,teachers, nursing homes, like
I'm thinking of all thedifferent areas that you would
need something like that.
(06:04):
So how is it grown from that?
My mom needs it to like allbusiness
Marcus (06:10):
That's probably one of the biggest challenges we've
dealt with.
Cause I don't know, somebodythat makes a diapers last longer
for theoretically, like who canyou market that to?
All parents with babies, likeyou can't market to everyone.
You have to market the smallniches.
And actually I'm glad youmentioned the foster parent
thing.
Cause we've had a couple offoster organizations reach out
to us for larger orders.
(06:31):
And that's been the strategy isjust have specific organizations
reached out to us.
And then we have an idea whatkind of organizations to reach
out to for like business andbusiness sales, for example,
because for directed consumer,like it's of hard to market that
we've tried, some Google andmeta ads before.
And like I said, we get somecomments like that should be
illegal, walking the kids out offood or.
(06:52):
A lockbox for the food
Beverly (06:53):
I totally get it.
It's a very real concern.
It is so unhealthy for childrenand people who have disabilities
who cannot control that.
It's very unhealthy for them forlots of reasons.
And I can see their concern Idon't think, there probably are
people who use it for nefariousthings, but for the most part, I
think people just need it for anextra safety just like child
(07:15):
locks on doors and child lockson cars and child locks on your
cabinets and things like that.
So all beneficial.
In your bio, you said somethingabout defending against
knockoffs how is that?
What does that look like?
Cause you said like before youdid it, like a search and there
was not nothing there, nocompetition.
And all of a sudden here comesthis knockoff.
(07:36):
How have you battled that?
That's a whole nother level ofbusiness.
Marcus (07:40):
I'll back up a couple of steps.
So our first idea was.
A lockbox that goes into therefrigerator that did not exist.
At that time, there are a few inthe market now, but when I had
that idea, there's nothing likeit.
And as a CPA, okay, a lockbox.
What do I do?
I did not know anything aboutwhat kind of plastic to use,
injection molding, how tocontact the factory.
(08:00):
I knew nothing.
And that's a lot.
Yeah.
So my parents had a French doorrefrigerator, the side by side
where it opens in the middle.
Instead of making a lockbox andspending all this time and money
at first, I will just.
Make a lock for it.
And the original lock was aluggage lock, a luggage strap
lock that goes around like yourluggage.
Shortened to 12 or 14 inches.
(08:22):
And I put that in the market andit sold so well, like there was
nothing like in the market, it'ssold so well.
We got a badge on Amazon, forexample, like hot new release
and sales were good.
Like we had a good price.
Profit was good.
We're not paying a penny foradvertising.
Probably my biggest businessmistake is I got so comfortable
with these sales and profitspretty quickly.
(08:43):
Someone in China saw that thesesales and they made a two pack
for cheaper, but I had so muchinventory because sales were so
good.
My mistake was Wanting to sellout of that inventory before
converting the two packs.
What I should have done is Ishould have just done two packs
first immediately and just throwthe rest of the stuff away.
But from that idea of a luggagestrap lock people want something
more secure.
(09:04):
Why not a cable lock, like abike lock that's shortened for A
refrigerator.
So we did that a bike lock witha combination.
We did black, we did white, wedid small for cabinets.
We did limited keys again,black, white, small for cabinets
two pack, three packs, a sixpack key.
Pretty much we added as manyvariations as we could.
(09:24):
And we were the first to marketand we market them pretty
hardcore.
So in our strategy there workedbecause we had so much
inventory.
We had so many variations We hadso much capital in it because we
put all of our profits back intoit.
That the product that anyonetrying to copy us would have a
hard time copying off everysingle variation.
And that worked, but that's justone step of stopping copycats.
(09:47):
I have this point capital andoffering tons of variations that
no one, like a beginner couldnot really match.
We marketed, we marketed theheck out of it.
Our listings in Amazon, we havefor example of everywhere, just
American owned company.
We put my face everywherereferences the story.
Like we go every references wecan do a story.
There's a reason why we have it.
And I didn't say this earlier,but when I was designing the
(10:10):
lock, I was living in ST louisat the time.
I went to every.
Best Buy, Home Depot lowe's,every appliance store and major,
the refrigerators handles to getthe right fit perfectly over
200.
And that fact's in there too.
To show an American flags andthat stands up against the
competitors who are all fromChina.
And so to this date, once, afterthe mistake with the two packs
(10:31):
no one's been able to catch upwith us.
There've been some, a little bitof progress on their end, but
not much.
Cause we just really laidheavily on the branding.
Beverly (10:39):
So this season's big question is all about awakening
your brand magic.
Tell us about a moment whereeverything aligned or the unique
magic that either you Marc oryour company offers.
What does brand magic look liketo you?
Marcus (10:53):
For both my brands, international time and urban,
you see your brand offeredsomeplace where you least
expected it, where you nevermarketed it, where you just know
you did something right, andsomeone sought somewhere and
bought it and just was so proudof it, they decided to present
it.
Just last week, a friend of minesent a picture of some
influencer.
(11:14):
I forgot his name.
Like millions of followers.
Wearing my hat, one of my hats.
And I went back and I searchedmy shipping records and sure
enough, it was him that was onethat's magic.
Cause he liked the hat and hewears it quite a bit.
I didn't market it.
He just found it.
That's a major success.
I'd say the magic would bedesigning the product and
knowing that you like it andsomeone else will like it.
And with urban August, thebiggest moment there would have
(11:36):
happened.
If you buy a Fridgelock andyou're proud of it, you're
generally not going to telleveryone in the world.
Beverly (11:40):
I don't know.
If you really struggled withsomething and it solved that
problem and there was a hugetransformation in your life
about it.
I think people are going to talkabout it, Marc.
Like it just depends, but yeah.
Marcus (11:51):
Yeah, it happens.
Some influencers on Amazon andTikTok, for example, with
affiliate accounts, We'll talk,they also have affiliate
accounts.
So I guess it makes them feelbetter, but they have that
financial incentive as well forsure.
I think it was in 2023.
I had woken up.
We were living in San Franciscoat the time we moved.
And my brother, a couple hoursahead was showing his kids a
(12:11):
movie on Netflix and it was spykids I think.
And the opening scene of thatfilm.
Was a kid, this family, theytake their electronics and just
say they lock them away atnight.
And of course they use mylockbox for it.
There's a whole scene basedaround like figuring out a way
to break into my lockbox and toget the electronics out.
And that was pretty cool.
they thought that whoever was incharge of product or prop
(12:34):
designer, thought my lockbox wascool enough to buy and use it.
Beverly (12:39):
That's very cool.
One of our clients is a pet foodstore in Michigan and they were
doing a lot of filming.
At the time there was a lot ofmovie credits and stuff for
people coming to film in Detroitand Henry Cavill.
was shopping at that pet foodstore.
And I was so excited because itwas like Superman buys food from
this pet food store that Imarket.
(12:59):
Like that's there's suchvalidation in your work.
When you see those kinds ofmoments happen, like people get
it.
People are understanding likewhy you work so hard.
Your passion is so big in that.
What is the hardest thing aboutMarketing for you?
Marcus (13:14):
I would say the hardest thing with International tie, my
apparel hat brand, hats go 25,30 bucks a piece.
So you're on Amazon to advertisethat to market it, which can get
expensive paid advertising, butat the same time, meta and
Google ads are not set up toreally market or effectively
have paid advertising forsomething that cheap on those
(13:34):
margins, because, it's like theysay minimum like 50 60 for paid
advertising.
So I said paid advertising offof Amazon for that brand.
Beverly (13:41):
Okay.
Marcus (13:42):
For urban August, the hardest thing is would be as I
said earlier, it's a verysegmented market.
We have a lot of differentclient bases.
And it's hard to really marketto one of those.
It's hard to market to one ofthose in particular, it's just
so scattered.
There's not one, it's hard torun ads, it's hard to target
people and it's really hard tofigure that equation out.
(14:02):
We put a lot of effort into thatwith influencers, with paid ads,
I hired a PR person for a bit,and she reached out to a lot of
publications that are relevant.
And definitely mixed reactions.
So it's a portion of like thesmallest demographic, smallest
target market you can think ofand how to really target that
effectively.
And I guess what's worked outfor me for urban August is
(14:24):
people will take type of problemin Amazon and then they will
find our locks at the top.
And then if we're lucky, if it'sa bigger organization, they will
reach out to us.
And so we have the websitedirect sale, which the margins
are astronomically much betterfor that.
So figuring out how to likereally segment the market would
be the biggest issue for them.
Beverly (14:45):
There's just a lot of complexity and figuring out who
exactly you want to serve andhow you can help them.
That's something we work with alot with our entrepreneurs the
clients that we work with.
So it's, you're not alone, Marc,in your struggles.
So you said that in your guestapplication that you love
storytelling and you've talkedabout the American flag, you've
talked about the story of yourbrother.
(15:07):
How does storytelling help buildtrust and grow your brand?
Marcus (15:10):
I would say, especially in Amazon these days, cause I
started selling in Amazoninternational tie in 2017 and
geez, it's been eight yearsalready.
And It's changed fromestablished brands with stories
to just nonstop, foreignsellers, just putting up a
generic AI Photoshop picturelisting, trying to get money.
And Amazon, it's definitelydegraded into that.
(15:32):
But at the same time, if you putyour foot in the sand and say
Hey, this is who I am.
This is my brand.
This is my story.
That's part of the magic.
What I think helps sustain thebrand.
Part of international tie for awhile was license plate frames.
It was just put a flag on thelicense plate frame.
What story can I possibly tellwith a license plate frame?
No one cares, a hat, maybe thelicense plate frame.
(15:53):
No.
And so that segment gotabsolutely inundated with
Chinese sellers and I prettymuch gave up on it.
Like, how can I tell a storythat anyone would possibly care
about for something?
It's a commodity that's going togo in their car.
And if you can't tell a storyabout it, like there's a good
chance it's going to becommoditized out of existence.
If I had solely focused onlicense plate frames.
This wouldn't have worked atall, but then I quickly saw that
(16:16):
you can't commoditize that muchand expect to survive.
Some people can, but from myexperience, it's pretty hard.
And urban August has a nicecrisp story that a lot of people
can relate to.
That shows I'm a real person.
I'm a small business owner.
A couple of times a month, I'llget emails from someone saying,
thank you so much.
I love your story.
And when enough people reach outto you, to write that and say,
(16:38):
thank you.
There's a lot of people whoappreciate it, who aren't
writing out.
And there's a lot of people whojust read it.
So I think that's definitelyworked.
It's harder to analyze and put anumber to that, but I've got a
lot of vibes coming in that it'sdefinitely worked and seeing how
competitors have failed and notbeen able to work throughout the
eight years, I'm prettyconfident in that.
Beverly (16:54):
So I have a lightning round, but it's not a lightning
round.
And I think you're going toreally like this because it's
actually called the magic hatround.
Marcus (17:01):
Ooh,
Beverly (17:02):
it's super sparkly for my listeners.
It's purple and it's sparkly andthere's sequins, but in the
magic hat are lots of questionsthat are like lightning round
questions.
And I also have a magic wand, soI'll put it over top and get the
best questions for Marc.
Okay.
So the first question is, What'sone book, podcast or
entrepreneur that has made alasting impact on your
(17:23):
entrepreneurial journey?
Marcus (17:24):
Absolutely.
Entrepreneur on fire.
I haven't listened to it in along time, but when I was in the
corporate world and I'm like, Ihate this, I want out.
What do I do?
Yeah.
I just searched it entrepreneuron fire because then it was like
every day, a very set number, acouple of questions, a different
entrepreneur, their story, whatthey do.
And I just listened to as manyepisodes as I possibly could.
(17:47):
And just, you learned a littlebit by a little bit by a little
bit.
There's ways out of mypredicament.
There's ways to get out of thecorporate world.
There's ways to start abusiness.
And I'd say that was probablythe most influential.
Beverly (17:58):
I Think that's one of the reasons why I like my
podcast is very similar.
People get inspiration and thinkof this is possible.
And I think that's lovely.
How do you keep yourentrepreneurial spirit alive and
what do you feed it?
Marcus (18:08):
That's a great question.
I always think what the nextmost rational move is going to
be, and I strive towards that.
You have to take bigger steps toget to that point.
And I knew a while ago I wantedto expand my production to the U
S from overseas.
For international tie and IDecided to buy an embroidery
(18:29):
machine, a very high endembroidery machine.
And that just gave me a lot moreoptions.
And this gave me lots of optionsto, grow on Amazon and grow off
of Amazon.
So I look for the next thingthat's going to add that next
extra layer and take it to thenext step.
Beverly (18:42):
Love it.
How do you want your customersto feel after working with you
or your products?
Marcus (18:48):
I want them to feel like there's someone who has been
through their shoes and theyunderstand what they're going
through and they made this greatbrand and these products to help
them with it.
Who's just not some facelesscorporation.
And if they have any problems,then I'm always here to help.
Beverly (19:03):
Yeah.
You're like human.
You're not that a robot.
Marcus (19:06):
Exactly.
Beverly (19:07):
What core values guide your business decisions and
interactions with yourcustomers?
Marcus (19:12):
I would say regarding urban August, what's going to
make them the most safe and havethe most peace of mind.
Because a lot of these parentsand caregivers, they've never
experienced anything like this.
It can change everything reallyquickly.
I try to think from theirperspective.
I got a four year old and 11month old now, and that's
definitely added a new dimensionto everything that I do with
(19:34):
Urban August.
Beverly (19:35):
Real life stories, right?
Marcus (19:37):
Exactly.
Beverly (19:38):
When we had foster kids.
We've adopted we're not doingfoster right now.
We've adopted and they're allours now, but when we had them,
there's a lot of medical safetythings requirements as well.
When you talked about thelockbox, like all the medication
had to be locked up.
I had never thought about someof those safety factors either.
So when you start thinking aboutit from a foster care or a a
(19:59):
teacher or a person who's inlike a facility type person,
like Number one is safety,period.
Like it doesn't matter.
You need to make sure you keepthem safe, period.
And those little ones, they'refast and they are so curious.
And so it just takes a minute.
Do you have an unconventionaltool or app that has become your
(20:20):
secret weapon?
Marcus (20:21):
That's a great question.
Beverly (20:23):
Any tech, even like things like meditation or
journaling or like it can betech
Marcus (20:27):
Photoshop, yeah.
Everyone uses it, but I knew itpretty early.
I was in photography in college.
And so I knew Photoshop like theback of my hand.
I don't do it now because it'supdated and people are better
than me.
But yeah, that actually paid alot of dividends starting the
business and just like makingpictures and just like social
media and website.
That really paid a lot ofdifference.
(20:48):
When I was afraid to spend moneyin the business, that was
definitely.
In a secret weapon early on now,I'm not so much.
I still use them time to time,but that really helps.
Beverly (20:58):
What fear have you had to overcome to grow your
business?
Marcus (21:03):
Money.
In the corporate world, forexample, you work a day and I
don't know how much you make ahundred, 200 a day take home.
And but then you're going tostart a business.
And it's okay, this inventorywill cost X thousand dollars.
It's this number of days workand that kind of mentality.
It's hard.
It's hard to go from working formoney to that, that's right.
And once you get enough profit,that changes.
(21:24):
It's easy to change.
Starting from A to B, like thatwas tough.
That was really hard.
And looking back, having a lotof money, if I would have just
put a good chunk of money to theside, just for the whole sake of
investing in the business, itwould have paid a lot more
dividends.
Beverly (21:38):
I think money mindset's huge and like the ability to
forecast and some of that kindof stuff.
The first investment I made wasin a CPA bookkeeper for sure.
Cause I wanted to make sure Ihad control over that.
Plus I didn't want to make anymistakes.
I didn't want anyone else tocome after me.
So that is the magic hat round.
It's so fun that you have hatsand I have a hat that was
totally not done on purpose.
But with the wand, I am going toactually do some time travel
(22:01):
now.
I want to wave the wand and Iwant to take you back to Marc
and your graduation day fromhigh school.
What advice would you give Marc?
Marcus (22:11):
I would say in four or five years, there's going to be
something really nasty.
Just work everything around,which is the financial crisis of
2008.
Whatever you do, it's going toget wiped out.
No.
I would tell that Marc to getinto something that's recession
proof and.
To understand that the marketcan collapse sometimes and be
prepared for that because no onehad ever seen anything like
(22:31):
2008.
And you don't prepare forsomething you've never seen
before.
So just.
Be prepared for the unexpected.
Beverly (22:38):
There was 2008, then there was COVID, there's all
kinds of things we did notexpect There's always a
challenge and to be preparedthat it's not going to just be
perfect.
There's going to be ups anddowns, and that's part of, I
think, entrepreneurship forsure.
Marcus (22:52):
Before this, we were in five years in the Bay Area, and
I would say Think bigger becausepeople in the Bay Area is the
world capital of startups andpeople have the biggest vision.
They don't always succeed.
So think bigger.
The sky's the limit.
I was lucky to start this when Idid, because if I try to start
what I'm doing today, it wouldbe super hard.
So think bigger and be prepared.
Beverly (23:14):
I think be bold in what you believe in, right?
Think big, anything's possible.
I love that.
Okay.
I'm going to wave my magic wandand we're going to go into the
future.
Many years from now.
And someone is, reading youreulogy.
What do you think will be yourmost significant legacy or
impact?
Marcus (23:29):
Hopefully being a good father and husband, but also
being able to start a businesswhich helped a lot of people.
Beverly (23:35):
Yeah.
Keep people safe.
I love that.
So the season's theme isawakening your brand magic.
Oh, actually I'm going to wavemy wand because we're come back
to present time I don't want toleave us in the future.
But this is a theme that I thinkis really important.
One of our taglines is awakeningbrand magic.
And I would love for you toshare one tip or one strategy
(23:58):
that you think that anentrepreneur can put into action
right now that could help awakentheir brand?
Marcus (24:04):
I would say diversify your sales channels and
diversify where you post becauseyou don't know what kind of
people are going to be.
Shopping where and viewing theircontent where I would say that.
Absolutely.
Some videos on Tik TOKabsolutely blow up.
You have the right clientelethere.
And other things like evenPinterest, like some people
might like certain productsthere.
So just diversifies.
And if one goes down, you mightbe able to depend on the other.
(24:25):
So diversify your sales channel,diversify where you post your
social media ad.
Beverly (24:29):
We say consistency and persistency a lot.
You need to take the channel andreally own it because you never
know when it's going to hit.
Consistency and persistency.
And I think when you start off,it needs to be one channel, but
once you get there, then you doanother channel.
Like you do need to diversifyfor sure.
But just.
don't spread yourself too thin.
Marcus (24:46):
One thing we are doing this summer for sure.
We're going to hire an internthis summer.
We're going to make sure thatintern is very Social media
savvy because in ways that I'mnot, it's not a strength of
mine.
So I'm definitely hiring towardsthat for sure.
Beverly (24:59):
So just like the bookkeeper and the CPA, that's
what you get to a point whenyou're getting your business
that you need that help, right?
You need someone to do it.
That knows it really well.
Yeah.
You have to trust other peopleso that you can.
Work on the business and not inthe business, which is a huge
way to scale.
Yeah.
So Marcus, it has been aninsightful and lovely
(25:19):
conversation.
Thank you so much for sharingyour story and your journey and
the challenges and some of thosestrategies with us today.
Can you tell our listeners wherethey can learn more about your
businesses and connect with you?
Marcus (25:31):
Yes, absolutely.
The websites are urban August,like urban and August the month,
august.
com.
And the other ones,international tie.
com, I'd say the best way toconnect with me would probably
be linked in
Beverly (25:44):
wonderful.
Marcus, thank you again forjoining us today.
We really had fun.
Marcus (25:47):
Yeah, Beverly, it was a good conversation.
Thanks for having me.
Beverly (25:50):
And to all our listeners, remember your brand
magic isn't just in what yousell, but in the story that you
tell.
So stay tuned for more inspiringconversations and actionable
tips on future episodes of theSpark and Ignite Your Marketing
podcast.
Until next time, keep sparkingand igniting.
Did you know that nearly 50 percent of product
based businesses fail withintheir first five years due to
market saturation andcompetition from copycats?
But what if the secret tosurvival isn't just about
competing, but innovating,storytelling, and thinking
outside of the box?
Welcome to another inspirationalepisode of the Spark and Ignite
(00:21):
Your Marketing Podcast.
I'm your host, Beverly Cornell,and today we are peeking into
the world of e commerceinnovation and brand.
Differentiation.
Our guest today is Marcus Sauer.
Marc, the founder of UrbanAugust and International Tie.
From CPA to entrepreneur, Marcushas built a thriving brand,
identifying a unique problem,securing refrigerators and
(00:44):
cabinets, and creating aninnovative solution.
He's battled knockoffcompetitors, scaled
internationally, and foundsuccess by telling his brand
story.
Marcus, I'm so excited to haveyou in the show.
Welcome.
Marcus (00:56):
Yeah, thanks.
It's good to be here.
Thanks for having me.
Beverly (00:59):
So take us back to the beginning.
I am all about origin stories,the OG stories.
You started with a Chicago flagthemed necktie.
Marcus (01:09):
Yes.
Beverly (01:09):
But things did not go as planned.
So talk about how that happenedand how you got here.
Marcus (01:15):
Sure.
As you said, I was a CPA in thecorporate world and every time I
try to do something in thecorporate world, nothing would
work.
There was just a million layersof bureaucracy that just stopped
me.
And after trying that about 10times I just said, I don't feel
like I'm being judgedappropriately.
I'm going to try to start abusiness.
And the next question of course,is when you start a business.
(01:35):
Like someone with the CPA in thecorporate world, that's not
really a good position to starta business with.
It's not like an architect andyou start their own architecture
firm, for example.
And so I I spent a week, Ithink, and I called it sick and
I just researched what to do.
I was in Chicago.
And then I noticed people lovethe Chicago flag on their
apparel.
I noticed people like neckties.
Oh, Chicago flag, necktie.
(01:57):
An idea, not the best idea, butI'm like it's an idea.
I'll just start.
And I tried it and I tried a fewother flags for neckties and I
got some sales.
I would consider that a failuretoday, but it was somewhat of a
validation.
I eventually stopped sellingthose, but I use the flag theme
and I adopted the hats and thatexpanded drastically.
That's international tie hatcompany named after the tie idea
(02:21):
today.
And I saw several hundredvariations of hats, so that's
survived, but it definitelyevolved ties by itself were not
sustainable, but I wasdeveloping that idea.
I had my entrepreneur hat on.
And I was at my parents houseone weekend that they didn't
live in Chicago area.
And my youngest brother has downsyndrome.
And since I can remember, kidswith down syndrome, not always,
(02:46):
a lot of the time they develophabits where they want to eat
something and they have to eatit now.
And they only like specifickinds of food.
And this led to over a longperiod of time, my youngest
brother living with my parents,just like rating their fridge
Late at night and just takingwhatever he could find.
And my mom had complained aboutthis for so long was his
background noise like an accent,your own accent.
(03:08):
You don't hear it.
It's like a fish in the water.
And then with my entrepreneurhat on, I'm like, wait a second,
my mom's been complaining aboutthis for years.
There's gotta be a problem tofix it.
There's gotta be a safe for afridge or cabinet I can make
just for food.
And at that time there wasn't.
So literally within 10 minutesof realizing, Hey, this is a
problem.
(03:28):
I went from there to realizingthis is a business.
This is going to work.
There's no competitors.
I'm going for it.
Beverly (03:34):
Yep.
There's a Market.
There's a need.
Marcus (03:36):
And it's just something you don't even realize.
It took 10 minutes of just likeprocessing that, okay, this is
happening.
And it's going to happen.
And pretty hardcore.
I'm going for it.
Beverly (03:44):
So your brand is like super niche.
It's locking French doorrefrigerators and cabinets
Marcus (03:51):
And locking food.
But yeah, that's the lockbox.
Beverly (03:53):
Did you ever worry about it being too specific or
did you immediately know Beingspecific is the best thing that
could possibly happen.
Marcus (04:00):
That's a really good question, because part of your
whole solopreneur like Marketingtheme is trying to work out that
message.
And it's very specific.
For example, like one of ourbiggest clientele are kids with
autism, for example, parentswith kids with autism, but some,
Parents with kids with autismwill swear by our products.
They're just obsessed with it.
They can't believe this neverexisted, but at the same time,
(04:24):
other parents with kids withautism, they might be offended.
For example, that we would makea lock to lock their kids from
food.
So it's Even though you can gostraight to the niche.
That's the main problem oh,that's offensive.
Why would you lock food up fromyour kids?
So that definitely adds a layerof complexity to it for sure.
Beverly (04:41):
I see the need because as a foster parent, we've had
several children who have foodhoarding tendencies because of
trauma based on not havingenough food.
So we have done things wherewe've given them like bins and
anytime they want something outof this bin, they can have it,
like giving access to that.
But it's just not in their bestinterest as little kids to have
(05:02):
that kind of access to food.
It's not healthy for them.
It's actually quite theopposite.
You want to protect yourchildren.
And I imagine from a Downsyndrome perspective, they're
not able to control it, right?
You want to protect them fromdoing something that's going to
really harm them or affect themat that moment.
And even right now, I have anine year old who likes to get
(05:23):
into things that he's notsupposed to.
In our garage, we have an extrabeverage fridge.
My husband on the top only havea couple beers or whatever up
there, but the rest of it's justall kind of soda and Gatorade
and water and my son will comein and have a water.
He'll ask first, but he'll justgrab a water.
One day he said, yeah, I gavethe kids all beer and I was
like, what?
And he's yeah, I gave them allbeer.
(05:44):
And we're like who did you givebeer to?
We're like trying to like, Mom,it was a root beer.
And both my husband and I werelike, gosh, maybe we need to
lock on that just to be safe.
So I can see lots of reasons whythat would be really beneficial
to have.
Obviously parents, caregivers,teachers, nursing homes, like
I'm thinking of all thedifferent areas that you would
need something like that.
(06:04):
So how is it grown from that?
My mom needs it to like allbusiness
Marcus (06:10):
That's probably one of the biggest challenges we've
dealt with.
Cause I don't know, somebodythat makes a diapers last longer
for theoretically, like who canyou market that to?
All parents with babies, likeyou can't market to everyone.
You have to market the smallniches.
And actually I'm glad youmentioned the foster parent
thing.
Cause we've had a couple offoster organizations reach out
to us for larger orders.
(06:31):
And that's been the strategy isjust have specific organizations
reached out to us.
And then we have an idea whatkind of organizations to reach
out to for like business andbusiness sales, for example,
because for directed consumer,like it's of hard to market that
we've tried, some Google andmeta ads before.
And like I said, we get somecomments like that should be
illegal, walking the kids out offood or.
(06:52):
A lockbox for the food
Beverly (06:53):
I totally get it.
It's a very real concern.
It is so unhealthy for childrenand people who have disabilities
who cannot control that.
It's very unhealthy for them forlots of reasons.
And I can see their concern Idon't think, there probably are
people who use it for nefariousthings, but for the most part, I
think people just need it for anextra safety just like child
(07:15):
locks on doors and child lockson cars and child locks on your
cabinets and things like that.
So all beneficial.
In your bio, you said somethingabout defending against
knockoffs how is that?
What does that look like?
Cause you said like before youdid it, like a search and there
was not nothing there, nocompetition.
And all of a sudden here comesthis knockoff.
(07:36):
How have you battled that?
That's a whole nother level ofbusiness.
Marcus (07:40):
I'll back up a couple of steps.
So our first idea was.
A lockbox that goes into therefrigerator that did not exist.
At that time, there are a few inthe market now, but when I had
that idea, there's nothing likeit.
And as a CPA, okay, a lockbox.
What do I do?
I did not know anything aboutwhat kind of plastic to use,
injection molding, how tocontact the factory.
(08:00):
I knew nothing.
And that's a lot.
Yeah.
So my parents had a French doorrefrigerator, the side by side
where it opens in the middle.
Instead of making a lockbox andspending all this time and money
at first, I will just.
Make a lock for it.
And the original lock was aluggage lock, a luggage strap
lock that goes around like yourluggage.
Shortened to 12 or 14 inches.
(08:22):
And I put that in the market andit sold so well, like there was
nothing like in the market, it'ssold so well.
We got a badge on Amazon, forexample, like hot new release
and sales were good.
Like we had a good price.
Profit was good.
We're not paying a penny foradvertising.
Probably my biggest businessmistake is I got so comfortable
with these sales and profitspretty quickly.
(08:43):
Someone in China saw that thesesales and they made a two pack
for cheaper, but I had so muchinventory because sales were so
good.
My mistake was Wanting to sellout of that inventory before
converting the two packs.
What I should have done is Ishould have just done two packs
first immediately and just throwthe rest of the stuff away.
But from that idea of a luggagestrap lock people want something
more secure.
(09:04):
Why not a cable lock, like abike lock that's shortened for A
refrigerator.
So we did that a bike lock witha combination.
We did black, we did white, wedid small for cabinets.
We did limited keys again,black, white, small for cabinets
two pack, three packs, a sixpack key.
Pretty much we added as manyvariations as we could.
(09:24):
And we were the first to marketand we market them pretty
hardcore.
So in our strategy there workedbecause we had so much
inventory.
We had so many variations We hadso much capital in it because we
put all of our profits back intoit.
That the product that anyonetrying to copy us would have a
hard time copying off everysingle variation.
And that worked, but that's justone step of stopping copycats.
(09:47):
I have this point capital andoffering tons of variations that
no one, like a beginner couldnot really match.
We marketed, we marketed theheck out of it.
Our listings in Amazon, we havefor example of everywhere, just
American owned company.
We put my face everywherereferences the story.
Like we go every references wecan do a story.
There's a reason why we have it.
And I didn't say this earlier,but when I was designing the
(10:10):
lock, I was living in ST louisat the time.
I went to every.
Best Buy, Home Depot lowe's,every appliance store and major,
the refrigerators handles to getthe right fit perfectly over
200.
And that fact's in there too.
To show an American flags andthat stands up against the
competitors who are all fromChina.
And so to this date, once, afterthe mistake with the two packs
(10:31):
no one's been able to catch upwith us.
There've been some, a little bitof progress on their end, but
not much.
Cause we just really laidheavily on the branding.
Beverly (10:39):
So this season's big question is all about awakening
your brand magic.
Tell us about a moment whereeverything aligned or the unique
magic that either you Marc oryour company offers.
What does brand magic look liketo you?
Marcus (10:53):
For both my brands, international time and urban,
you see your brand offeredsomeplace where you least
expected it, where you nevermarketed it, where you just know
you did something right, andsomeone sought somewhere and
bought it and just was so proudof it, they decided to present
it.
Just last week, a friend of minesent a picture of some
influencer.
(11:14):
I forgot his name.
Like millions of followers.
Wearing my hat, one of my hats.
And I went back and I searchedmy shipping records and sure
enough, it was him that was onethat's magic.
Cause he liked the hat and hewears it quite a bit.
I didn't market it.
He just found it.
That's a major success.
I'd say the magic would bedesigning the product and
knowing that you like it andsomeone else will like it.
And with urban August, thebiggest moment there would have
(11:36):
happened.
If you buy a Fridgelock andyou're proud of it, you're
generally not going to telleveryone in the world.
Beverly (11:40):
I don't know.
If you really struggled withsomething and it solved that
problem and there was a hugetransformation in your life
about it.
I think people are going to talkabout it, Marc.
Like it just depends, but yeah.
Marcus (11:51):
Yeah, it happens.
Some influencers on Amazon andTikTok, for example, with
affiliate accounts, We'll talk,they also have affiliate
accounts.
So I guess it makes them feelbetter, but they have that
financial incentive as well forsure.
I think it was in 2023.
I had woken up.
We were living in San Franciscoat the time we moved.
And my brother, a couple hoursahead was showing his kids a
(12:11):
movie on Netflix and it was spykids I think.
And the opening scene of thatfilm.
Was a kid, this family, theytake their electronics and just
say they lock them away atnight.
And of course they use mylockbox for it.
There's a whole scene basedaround like figuring out a way
to break into my lockbox and toget the electronics out.
And that was pretty cool.
they thought that whoever was incharge of product or prop
(12:34):
designer, thought my lockbox wascool enough to buy and use it.
Beverly (12:39):
That's very cool.
One of our clients is a pet foodstore in Michigan and they were
doing a lot of filming.
At the time there was a lot ofmovie credits and stuff for
people coming to film in Detroitand Henry Cavill.
was shopping at that pet foodstore.
And I was so excited because itwas like Superman buys food from
this pet food store that Imarket.
(12:59):
Like that's there's suchvalidation in your work.
When you see those kinds ofmoments happen, like people get
it.
People are understanding likewhy you work so hard.
Your passion is so big in that.
What is the hardest thing aboutMarketing for you?
Marcus (13:14):
I would say the hardest thing with International tie, my
apparel hat brand, hats go 25,30 bucks a piece.
So you're on Amazon to advertisethat to market it, which can get
expensive paid advertising, butat the same time, meta and
Google ads are not set up toreally market or effectively
have paid advertising forsomething that cheap on those
(13:34):
margins, because, it's like theysay minimum like 50 60 for paid
advertising.
So I said paid advertising offof Amazon for that brand.
Beverly (13:41):
Okay.
Marcus (13:42):
For urban August, the hardest thing is would be as I
said earlier, it's a verysegmented market.
We have a lot of differentclient bases.
And it's hard to really marketto one of those.
It's hard to market to one ofthose in particular, it's just
so scattered.
There's not one, it's hard torun ads, it's hard to target
people and it's really hard tofigure that equation out.
(14:02):
We put a lot of effort into thatwith influencers, with paid ads,
I hired a PR person for a bit,and she reached out to a lot of
publications that are relevant.
And definitely mixed reactions.
So it's a portion of like thesmallest demographic, smallest
target market you can think ofand how to really target that
effectively.
And I guess what's worked outfor me for urban August is
(14:24):
people will take type of problemin Amazon and then they will
find our locks at the top.
And then if we're lucky, if it'sa bigger organization, they will
reach out to us.
And so we have the websitedirect sale, which the margins
are astronomically much betterfor that.
So figuring out how to likereally segment the market would
be the biggest issue for them.
Beverly (14:45):
There's just a lot of complexity and figuring out who
exactly you want to serve andhow you can help them.
That's something we work with alot with our entrepreneurs the
clients that we work with.
So it's, you're not alone, Marc,in your struggles.
So you said that in your guestapplication that you love
storytelling and you've talkedabout the American flag, you've
talked about the story of yourbrother.
(15:07):
How does storytelling help buildtrust and grow your brand?
Marcus (15:10):
I would say, especially in Amazon these days, cause I
started selling in Amazoninternational tie in 2017 and
geez, it's been eight yearsalready.
And It's changed fromestablished brands with stories
to just nonstop, foreignsellers, just putting up a
generic AI Photoshop picturelisting, trying to get money.
And Amazon, it's definitelydegraded into that.
(15:32):
But at the same time, if you putyour foot in the sand and say
Hey, this is who I am.
This is my brand.
This is my story.
That's part of the magic.
What I think helps sustain thebrand.
Part of international tie for awhile was license plate frames.
It was just put a flag on thelicense plate frame.
What story can I possibly tellwith a license plate frame?
No one cares, a hat, maybe thelicense plate frame.
(15:53):
No.
And so that segment gotabsolutely inundated with
Chinese sellers and I prettymuch gave up on it.
Like, how can I tell a storythat anyone would possibly care
about for something?
It's a commodity that's going togo in their car.
And if you can't tell a storyabout it, like there's a good
chance it's going to becommoditized out of existence.
If I had solely focused onlicense plate frames.
This wouldn't have worked atall, but then I quickly saw that
(16:16):
you can't commoditize that muchand expect to survive.
Some people can, but from myexperience, it's pretty hard.
And urban August has a nicecrisp story that a lot of people
can relate to.
That shows I'm a real person.
I'm a small business owner.
A couple of times a month, I'llget emails from someone saying,
thank you so much.
I love your story.
And when enough people reach outto you, to write that and say,
(16:38):
thank you.
There's a lot of people whoappreciate it, who aren't
writing out.
And there's a lot of people whojust read it.
So I think that's definitelyworked.
It's harder to analyze and put anumber to that, but I've got a
lot of vibes coming in that it'sdefinitely worked and seeing how
competitors have failed and notbeen able to work throughout the
eight years, I'm prettyconfident in that.
Beverly (16:54):
So I have a lightning round, but it's not a lightning
round.
And I think you're going toreally like this because it's
actually called the magic hatround.
Marcus (17:01):
Ooh,
Beverly (17:02):
it's super sparkly for my listeners.
It's purple and it's sparkly andthere's sequins, but in the
magic hat are lots of questionsthat are like lightning round
questions.
And I also have a magic wand, soI'll put it over top and get the
best questions for Marc.
Okay.
So the first question is, What'sone book, podcast or
entrepreneur that has made alasting impact on your
(17:23):
entrepreneurial journey?
Marcus (17:24):
Absolutely.
Entrepreneur on fire.
I haven't listened to it in along time, but when I was in the
corporate world and I'm like, Ihate this, I want out.
What do I do?
Yeah.
I just searched it entrepreneuron fire because then it was like
every day, a very set number, acouple of questions, a different
entrepreneur, their story, whatthey do.
And I just listened to as manyepisodes as I possibly could.
(17:47):
And just, you learned a littlebit by a little bit by a little
bit.
There's ways out of mypredicament.
There's ways to get out of thecorporate world.
There's ways to start abusiness.
And I'd say that was probablythe most influential.
Beverly (17:58):
I Think that's one of the reasons why I like my
podcast is very similar.
People get inspiration and thinkof this is possible.
And I think that's lovely.
How do you keep yourentrepreneurial spirit alive and
what do you feed it?
Marcus (18:08):
That's a great question.
I always think what the nextmost rational move is going to
be, and I strive towards that.
You have to take bigger steps toget to that point.
And I knew a while ago I wantedto expand my production to the U
S from overseas.
For international tie and IDecided to buy an embroidery
(18:29):
machine, a very high endembroidery machine.
And that just gave me a lot moreoptions.
And this gave me lots of optionsto, grow on Amazon and grow off
of Amazon.
So I look for the next thingthat's going to add that next
extra layer and take it to thenext step.
Beverly (18:42):
Love it.
How do you want your customersto feel after working with you
or your products?
Marcus (18:48):
I want them to feel like there's someone who has been
through their shoes and theyunderstand what they're going
through and they made this greatbrand and these products to help
them with it.
Who's just not some facelesscorporation.
And if they have any problems,then I'm always here to help.
Beverly (19:03):
Yeah.
You're like human.
You're not that a robot.
Marcus (19:06):
Exactly.
Beverly (19:07):
What core values guide your business decisions and
interactions with yourcustomers?
Marcus (19:12):
I would say regarding urban August, what's going to
make them the most safe and havethe most peace of mind.
Because a lot of these parentsand caregivers, they've never
experienced anything like this.
It can change everything reallyquickly.
I try to think from theirperspective.
I got a four year old and 11month old now, and that's
definitely added a new dimensionto everything that I do with
(19:34):
Urban August.
Beverly (19:35):
Real life stories, right?
Marcus (19:37):
Exactly.
Beverly (19:38):
When we had foster kids.
We've adopted we're not doingfoster right now.
We've adopted and they're allours now, but when we had them,
there's a lot of medical safetythings requirements as well.
When you talked about thelockbox, like all the medication
had to be locked up.
I had never thought about someof those safety factors either.
So when you start thinking aboutit from a foster care or a a
(19:59):
teacher or a person who's inlike a facility type person,
like Number one is safety,period.
Like it doesn't matter.
You need to make sure you keepthem safe, period.
And those little ones, they'refast and they are so curious.
And so it just takes a minute.
Do you have an unconventionaltool or app that has become your
(20:20):
secret weapon?
Marcus (20:21):
That's a great question.
Beverly (20:23):
Any tech, even like things like meditation or
journaling or like it can betech
Marcus (20:27):
Photoshop, yeah.
Everyone uses it, but I knew itpretty early.
I was in photography in college.
And so I knew Photoshop like theback of my hand.
I don't do it now because it'supdated and people are better
than me.
But yeah, that actually paid alot of dividends starting the
business and just like makingpictures and just like social
media and website.
That really paid a lot ofdifference.
(20:48):
When I was afraid to spend moneyin the business, that was
definitely.
In a secret weapon early on now,I'm not so much.
I still use them time to time,but that really helps.
Beverly (20:58):
What fear have you had to overcome to grow your
business?
Marcus (21:03):
Money.
In the corporate world, forexample, you work a day and I
don't know how much you make ahundred, 200 a day take home.
And but then you're going tostart a business.
And it's okay, this inventorywill cost X thousand dollars.
It's this number of days workand that kind of mentality.
It's hard.
It's hard to go from working formoney to that, that's right.
And once you get enough profit,that changes.
(21:24):
It's easy to change.
Starting from A to B, like thatwas tough.
That was really hard.
And looking back, having a lotof money, if I would have just
put a good chunk of money to theside, just for the whole sake of
investing in the business, itwould have paid a lot more
dividends.
Beverly (21:38):
I think money mindset's huge and like the ability to
forecast and some of that kindof stuff.
The first investment I made wasin a CPA bookkeeper for sure.
Cause I wanted to make sure Ihad control over that.
Plus I didn't want to make anymistakes.
I didn't want anyone else tocome after me.
So that is the magic hat round.
It's so fun that you have hatsand I have a hat that was
totally not done on purpose.
But with the wand, I am going toactually do some time travel
(22:01):
now.
I want to wave the wand and Iwant to take you back to Marc
and your graduation day fromhigh school.
What advice would you give Marc?
Marcus (22:11):
I would say in four or five years, there's going to be
something really nasty.
Just work everything around,which is the financial crisis of
2008.
Whatever you do, it's going toget wiped out.
No.
I would tell that Marc to getinto something that's recession
proof and.
To understand that the marketcan collapse sometimes and be
prepared for that because no onehad ever seen anything like
(22:31):
2008.
And you don't prepare forsomething you've never seen
before.
So just.
Be prepared for the unexpected.
Beverly (22:38):
There was 2008, then there was COVID, there's all
kinds of things we did notexpect There's always a
challenge and to be preparedthat it's not going to just be
perfect.
There's going to be ups anddowns, and that's part of, I
think, entrepreneurship forsure.
Marcus (22:52):
Before this, we were in five years in the Bay Area, and
I would say Think bigger becausepeople in the Bay Area is the
world capital of startups andpeople have the biggest vision.
They don't always succeed.
So think bigger.
The sky's the limit.
I was lucky to start this when Idid, because if I try to start
what I'm doing today, it wouldbe super hard.
So think bigger and be prepared.
Beverly (23:14):
I think be bold in what you believe in, right?
Think big, anything's possible.
I love that.
Okay.
I'm going to wave my magic wandand we're going to go into the
future.
Many years from now.
And someone is, reading youreulogy.
What do you think will be yourmost significant legacy or
impact?
Marcus (23:29):
Hopefully being a good father and husband, but also
being able to start a businesswhich helped a lot of people.
Beverly (23:35):
Yeah.
Keep people safe.
I love that.
So the season's theme isawakening your brand magic.
Oh, actually I'm going to wavemy wand because we're come back
to present time I don't want toleave us in the future.
But this is a theme that I thinkis really important.
One of our taglines is awakeningbrand magic.
And I would love for you toshare one tip or one strategy
(23:58):
that you think that anentrepreneur can put into action
right now that could help awakentheir brand?
Marcus (24:04):
I would say diversify your sales channels and
diversify where you post becauseyou don't know what kind of
people are going to be.
Shopping where and viewing theircontent where I would say that.
Absolutely.
Some videos on Tik TOKabsolutely blow up.
You have the right clientelethere.
And other things like evenPinterest, like some people
might like certain productsthere.
So just diversifies.
And if one goes down, you mightbe able to depend on the other.
(24:25):
So diversify your sales channel,diversify where you post your
social media ad.
Beverly (24:29):
We say consistency and persistency a lot.
You need to take the channel andreally own it because you never
know when it's going to hit.
Consistency and persistency.
And I think when you start off,it needs to be one channel, but
once you get there, then you doanother channel.
Like you do need to diversifyfor sure.
But just.
don't spread yourself too thin.
Marcus (24:46):
One thing we are doing this summer for sure.
We're going to hire an internthis summer.
We're going to make sure thatintern is very Social media
savvy because in ways that I'mnot, it's not a strength of
mine.
So I'm definitely hiring towardsthat for sure.
Beverly (24:59):
So just like the bookkeeper and the CPA, that's
what you get to a point whenyou're getting your business
that you need that help, right?
You need someone to do it.
That knows it really well.
Yeah.
You have to trust other peopleso that you can.
Work on the business and not inthe business, which is a huge
way to scale.
Yeah.
So Marcus, it has been aninsightful and lovely
(25:19):
conversation.
Thank you so much for sharingyour story and your journey and
the challenges and some of thosestrategies with us today.
Can you tell our listeners wherethey can learn more about your
businesses and connect with you?
Marcus (25:31):
Yes, absolutely.
The websites are urban August,like urban and August the month,
august.
com.
And the other ones,international tie.
com, I'd say the best way toconnect with me would probably
be linked in
Beverly (25:44):
wonderful.
Marcus, thank you again forjoining us today.
We really had fun.
Marcus (25:47):
Yeah, Beverly, it was a good conversation.
Thanks for having me.
Beverly (25:50):
And to all our listeners, remember your brand
magic isn't just in what yousell, but in the story that you
tell.
So stay tuned for more inspiringconversations and actionable
tips on future episodes of theSpark and Ignite Your Marketing
podcast.
Until next time, keep sparkingand igniting.
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