When Marlon first joined Explore ProTech he was fully aware that his target market wasn’t in our tribe at that point in time. He predominantly works with Small to Medium Businesses that want to increase their Return on Marketing Investment – businesses that already have marketing strategies in place, but want better results.
Mr. Super Sales then swoops in and helps them improve the effectiveness of their marketing strategies thereby increasing their bottom line. When Marlon joined Explore ProTech, our tribe was predominantly made up of early-stage start-up entrepreneurs that couldn’t afford his fees, services and solutions.
He joined anyway. In Marlon’s mind, we were the up-and-coming future of entrepreneurship. He reasoned that the way we help and support each other would soon result in a lot of our entrepreneurs evolving into his exact target market. He also valued the opportunity to work with, collaborate and bounce ideas off B2B professional service-based entrepreneurs from around the world.
“I realised it’s more of a slow burn. My customers weren’t in the pool at the time I joined. It was more of a collaboration space than a space I could earn out of. I could see where you were going – wait let me rephrase that – you’re messaging was all over the place, but I could feel where you were going. I felt that this is a space in which I could be of service. Everybody wants to be needed. When Dawid Dorfling passed away for example, and we all came together, that was such an awesome moment and one I won’t ever forget.
I decided to start meeting all these awesome people. In this space, I could define the type of business I wanted to create. I could spend time talking to other big thinkers – people who also want a lot more and who are also willing to do what it takes to get there. People that are willing to risk time, money, and effort in order to build the business of their dreams.
I realized these were up-and-coming entrepreneurs who could soon be doing really well – and it just takes one.”
It wasn’t an easy decision for Marlon to join our Tribe, because back then finances were tight. He had just invested a large sum of money in becoming certified as a Story Marketing Expert and he needed to make that money back, and quickly. However, he couldn’t shake the feeling that Explore ProTech felt like home.
It wasn’t an easy decision for Marlon to join our Tribe, because back then finances were tight. He had just invested a large sum of money in becoming certified as a Story Marketing Expert and he needed to make that money back, and quickly. However, he couldn’t shake the feeling that Explore ProTech felt like home.
He still remembers joining us at his first-ever Global Online Speed Networking Event. Everyone was so welcoming, warm, open and ready to share ideas and collaborate.
One of the first people that left a lasting impression on him was Steven Westwood. Steven is a copywriter and marketing strategist. In any other setting, Marlon and Steven would view each other as competition, but in our environment, Steven welcomed Marlon with open arms.
Steven said, “Finally, someone that understands what I’m on about!”
“I met Steven Westwood for the first time at Global Online Speed Networking and we were both immediately like ‘I would really like to get to know you’. GOSN was very different to most other places I’ve networked in before. Entrepreneurs from the same industry in most other networking groups would not want to connect with each other.
This is a pity because when you’re around different business industry professionals long enough, you can immediately see who does what and who would be a great collaboration partner. Not only was Steven Westwood an epic find in terms of collaboration partners, but he was and remains to be an AWESOME DUDE.
That really struck me, as at most other places you don’t really get that. People aren’t really eager to meet, connect and get to really know each other. They say they are, but what they actually mean is they’re just checking everyone out so they can find that one person in the room that wants to buy from them. This means that their real intentions are just to sell to each other. My experience of GOSN was very different to that.
This space achieved something I had been looking for but couldn’t find anywhere else. It made building relationships and really getting to know other entrepreneurs and business people ridiculously easy. Everyone in this space has the intention of really building relationships first. Business is just an awesome by-product of the relationships built. It’s the “Coffee First, Business Later” principle Peter keeps preaching.
It also fits in very well with my personal value system. I don’t do business with people I don’t like. I don’t have to, so I don’t.”
It was a match made in heaven. Marlon and Steven became friends and started collaborating on projects together. Marlon had never experienced this type of competition/collaboration environment before.
Our whole space was built on the “Coffee first, Business Later” principle, which at that time in Marlon’s journey seemed quite counterintuitive. However, he decided to take a chance on us and invested his capital in joining our community.
One of the first people he collaborated with was Linda Dent, founder of Just Ask Linda Business Coaching
“Linda connected and we exchanged energy. It kept me working, and I knew it would help with referrals somewhere down the line. It wasn’t an easy decision. At that time I was more or less desperate financially speaking, but I was making it through.
One year after our energy exchange agreement I got a job with an incubator. I told them they needed marketing, but not yet. – they needed Linda first. I knew she would be able to inform their business model in such a way that I could then come in and do my best work in terms of the marketing strategy.
However, I only knew this because we had exchanged energy before. If we hadn’t done that I would have no context. I would never have experienced what Linda can do for a business, and how she can set me up for success in doing my work if I wasn’t open to exchanging energy.”
Then Linda introduced Marlon to Janine Lingenfelder, who is a Global Virtual Sales Assistant. Janine joins the tribe and that opens up a whole new world of possibilities. Marlon hires Janine to do some sales calls for him and although they learn more than they make in this first round of working together, this sets them up for success in another super exciting project for a medium-sized company they’re currently working on together in which the earning potential is massive.
Janine brings Natasha Ungerer into the tribe and now Marlon has access to an awesome graphic designer and artist. Because of Marlon’s track record with getting value from energy exchanges, he is one of the first people to approach her for an energy exchange and that leads to more business.
“Natasha and I swapped services. She revamped my logo and brand and I worked on her marketing strategy, and now we’re doing business and making referrals. I know exactly what I’m going to get with Natasha. I know I’ve got a direct channel to a skilled graphic designer who can deliver the quality of work my clients are looking for.”
Marlon starts working with René Bresser shortly after we put out an emergency announcement to the tribe that Rene has been retrenched and needs help growing his business – FAST.
Marlon was one of the first people to reach out to René and involve him in some of his projects. Now they work together like fire on fire, and Kraft Digital Design is flourishing.
And just the other day, while he’s spending time with Sommerville Lombard, the VA extraordinaire who he is mentoring in the first 6-month cycle of our mentorship program, they’re busy talking about everything but business, when one of them mentions something about animation videos and that leads to the potential for more business.
“People in this tribe give you ideas. I was chatting to Sommerville when she told me that she can do animation videos. I ask her to show me her work. She shows me. I ask if I give her a script will she be able to do the rest? She says yes. I’m pretty sure out of some of my retainers I can give her some money in exchange for generating this stuff. How easy is that?
Our conversation had nothing to do with business, it was about how we can help each other be better entrepreneurs and people and there was instantly something created.”
At this point, it’s like Explore ProTech has turned into Marlon’s personal entrepreneurial playground and the people in the community are the resources. The more tribe members he meets, the more opportunities there are to exchange services or collaborate on projects, and the more his business grows and scales. It’s the stuff that entrepreneurial dreams are made of.
Fast forward to today and that initial investment has paid off big time. Marlon has earned himself the nickname “Mr. Super Sales” in our community. If anyone in our community is struggling with marketing it’s become a no-brainer – send them to Marlon. Marlon is mentoring Sommerville on our Official Explore ProTech Mentorship Program. Marlon is being mentored by the one and only business and leadership legend – Mr Steven Levy.
He says that being a part of our community has helped him get super clear and laser-focused on his business vision. It’s also helped him improve his skills and scale his business.
” Being in the group has helped me clarify the business that I’m trying to build. It has also helped me to get better at what I do, because there are people that have purchased from me, that I share work with, that have helped me without any money involved, and people that I’ve collaborated with. Some of us have even put money into joint ventures together.
Before I would’ve had to do all of that stuff by myself. Now I’m with a Crew. There are people I can call. I didn’t have reliable people that I could outsource to – which was a massive problem for scaling.
It was difficult for me to find people that got my process and wanted to work with me. I found one person, but when she left, I was left floundering and I just couldn’t find the right people that got what I do, where I’m going and were willing to support me in getting there.
The entrepreneurs in this group just kind of got it. And because Peter picks each of us for our ability to get along with, and work with others in this group it was so easy to work with them.
Before, when I was on my own, because I didn’t have access to the right people to build into my processes, I was spinning in circles at times. I wasn’t able to make a part of my business work without me being involved 24/7, and then when I tried to move on to create the next part of the business., things kind of fell apart and I would be pulled back into processes I’ve already created that should be functioning without me.
Now, because I’ve got access to the right people I can create processes, building the right people into them from the get-go. That means I can create and grow my business a lot faster than before.”
One of the major moments in Marlon’s journey with us was when he said yes to doing a live coaching session with Wolfgang von Geramb and Steven Levy. The session was titled “So you think you can scale your business?” It proved to be a pivotal moment in Marlon’s journey.
“The “So you think you can scale your business?” session opened up my eyes/ mindset to dream even bigger than I was dreaming at the time.
Usually, you share your dreams with other business people and you don’t really get tangible feedback that can help you get there.
In this session, however, the two coaches weren’t only encouraging me to scale my business, but they set out a practical, workable strategy I could execute to get there.
That put me on a course of sharing my ideas with even more people in the tribe. I thought it would take a lot of time to implement my vision, however, a lot of the tribe members seemed to think that I could do it faster than I even thought possible. They helped me crunch numbers, examine scenarios, and come up with even more tangibles I could implement in order to make this happen. This made me believe that it was possible to execute these strategies and achieve my vision. It was an accelerated way of strategizing about my business that I hadn’t experienced before, but it worked.
I came up with some tangibles during the session itself. After that I continued meeting up with other tribe members, sharing the vision and finding the right people that could help me build this dream business.
Today Marlon’s business is doing better than ever. He’s getting tons of work from referrals and tribe members. He’s completely unpacked his vision, with a lot of help from his current mentor – Mr Levy and he’s well on his way to building a 10 billion dollar business.
The strategies are in place. The vision is clear. And the right people keep just showing up at his door as they date and join the tribe. Explore ProTech has allowed this solopreneur to operate like a corporate conglomerate, with the ability to call on individual tribe members in the way that you would be supported by various departments within the corporate world. It’s a fabulous space to be in.
Some of the new offers he’s got in the pipeline that you can look forward to include his $10 per month marketing coaching plan and a suite of courses entrepreneurs can enroll in on a self-directed basis. This suite of courses won’t only include marketing resources and content, but the skills and learnings from more than one of his fellow tribe members. It’s part of his strategy to make his services more accessible and serve our whole community so that we can scale entrepreneurs in our space even faster than what he’s witnessed over the past two years.
Marlon is also expanding his income streams by getting involved in select small businesses’ growth and marketing strategies – exchanging skills for equity. This strategy will enable him to build up to the point where he has copious amounts of capital to invest in other promising small businesses. When Marlon talks about this stuff I can already imagine us launching the Explore ProTech version of Shark Tank or Lion’s Den and it excites me SO MUCH. This is exactly the type of entrepreneurial spirit we dreamt of empowering when Peter and I founded the Explore ProTech Haven.
Marlon also plans on making himself more available to be part of all the events and everything else happening in the community. He is keen to make a specific effort to be more available to new tribe members just coming into our community. It’s part of his key growth strategy that now has various pillars – largely thanks to Mr Levy.
When asked what makes Explore ProTech such a powerful space for the entrepreneurs that are invited to join, Marlon explains it in a way that just warms my heart. He says, let me explain it like this…
“One of the best #tribelife moments I’ve experienced was being at the December Global Online Speed Networking Event where we did the ‘Food Drive for Entrepreneurs’. At this event, we had the real bearded Santa dressed up in full gear participating in the event. Now, I love my nieces and nephews. That was the very first time that I could make them smile and meet Father Christmas. Even the older one. She was watching the screen over my shoulder and she was like… “Is that…?” and I was like “Why yes it is… would you like to meet him?”
And just like that, we paused the whole event so my niece and nephew could meet and talk to Father Christmas. It’s very rare to find those people in other spaces. It’s those types of moments that most business events will not be able to replicate. That’s the glue.”
Explore ProTech also provided Marlon with resources that he wouldn’t have access to outside of our community. Some resources he’s particularly excited about are the Tribe Training sessions that take place on a weekly basis where he’s learned invaluable skills, strategies and ways of growing and scaling his business, and the BlueCap Software.
Marlon, along with all our other entrepreneurs, received a special 4-month subscription from BlueCap shortly after the two co-founders joined our community. This software has empowered Marlon to be able to work through an hour of footage in 10 minutes and construct marketing materials and testimonials faster than he’s ever done before. It’s also given him insights into extremely detailed sentiment data that he can use to improve and perfect his sales calls and marketing strategies. Since he received the robot, they’ve been pretty much inseparable and it follows him onto all his Zoom and conference calls.
We asked Marlon if there are there any connections in Explore ProTech that he’d like to give a special shout-out to, that contributed more than others to his success. He asked us to mention two very special tribe members, along with those already mentioned before.
“Steven Levy, we didn’t even do business – we just had LONG chats. When we do talk we talk for LONG. He’s a master at business and I’m so grateful to be able to work with him as my mentor on my business. And definitely Rene – not just to pick each other’s brains, but it’s also about the way that we do business with each other. He’s part of the crew. It’s a very special relationship.”
Marlon’s Marketing Agency currently provides services and products that include sales funnels, marketing strategy, brand messaging, and social media ads. Reach out to him if you’d like to increase your current return on marketing investment. Book via his website.
If you’d like to get in on the $10 per month marketing coaching plan you can register your interest over here.
And if you’re a new tribe member or haven’t yet had a chat with Mr Super Sales, you’re more than welcome to book yourself a coffee with Marlon over here.
Marlon is also one of the coaches in our flagship Fempreneur program, our KILLER course for Fempreneurs (Women and some cool men seeking business success) just like you.
Join our Fempreneur Freebie Facebook Group if you’d like to earn yourself some awesome freebies.
And if you’d like your story to be as successful as Marlon’s turned out to be, join us on our Full Flagship Fempreneur Course. Seats are limited, but we’d love to show you what we can do for your business.
We hope this success story gave you goosebumps, reminded you of why you became an entrepreneur and has given you some insight into how you can use our community and its resources to grow your own business. It definitely has reminded me of what entrepreneurship is all about. It also reminded me of how much I love the entrepreneurial spirit and just what is possible when good entrepreneurs work together.
I’m signing off this blog post feeling super grateful for the awesome community I belong to and I hope you’re feeling inspired too! With awesome entrepreneurs like Marlon in our community, how can we not succeed in getting onto the Forbes 500 list with our 499 best friends in the whole world?
Lots of Love and May all your Wildest Entrepreneurial Dreams Come True!
Nestene & Peter
Marlon is from a long line of entrepreneurs. Everything he knows he’s learned through doing and experiencing. He’s always been either self-employed or working in a family business.
His Grandfather was the original super successful entrepreneur. His family is originally from Mozambique. Whilst travelling through Mozambique his grandfather dreamt of a set of lotto numbers. He bought a ticket with those numbers on it and won the lotto.
He used that money to come to South Africa and ended up working as a chauffeur for the family that owns Sun City.
He later got a job as a police officer and was one of the people guarding Nelson Mandela. Some of Marlon’s earliest memories was spending time in Nelson Mandela’s company since his grandfather became Nelson Mandela’s friend.
Whilst this was all happening Marlon’s Grandad was extremely careful with investing his money in the right property and ventures, learning more and more about business along the way. He later went back to Mozambique and ended up being one of the people that took Bidvest to Mozambique.
Marlon’s parents ended up incorporating an import and export commodity trading company. They would buy and sell anything from iron ore to electrical equipment, massive cold rooms and whatever else is a hot commodity at the moment. That’s where Marlon learned and developed his love of sales.
Even more interesting, when Marlon describes him finding his passion for Marketing and Sales Strategy as “kind of falling into it.” When he first started out in business he started out as a life coach, NLP practitioner and certified hypnotherapist. It was only through travelling A LOT, dreaming a lot, and learning more about himself that he figured out that he was destined to build a marketing empire.
“I kind of fell into it. I always enjoyed business. I used to travel a lot. I would always find entrepreneurial opportunities wherever I went. And I would daydream a lot. I wanted to be able to make money just out of my ideas alone. It developed into marketing strategy. I have a background in NLP and understanding the human mind. I’ve always been enamoured by human psychology. So I figured out that if I can create environments in which people spontaneously start to shift whilst helping people figure out how to craft their marketing messages and where to display these messages, I could make a real difference in the world.”
I think it’s a beautiful illustration of how fluid the entrepreneurial journey is. And this is one of the key reasons why we encourage all our members to explore and try various things until they find their niche and what they actually want to do as entrepreneurs. There’s no cookie-cutter approach to entrepreneurship. It’s all about finding your best self and your best business fit through experimentation. And when you’re doing that in a safe environment with tons of entrepreneurs around you that have done or are busy doing the same, it’s just so much easier. That’s also why we encourage building relationships with the actual human behind the business. We’re not attached to brands or business models. We’re interested in who you are and how we can help you be more of who you were destined to become.
