Bio:
Angela Marshall, is a motivational speaker, professional writer, columnist, bestseller author, creative consultant, ex-NFL wife, and business owner of “In Other Words, By Stone.” Also known as “Author Stone,” Angela is an Augusta, Ga., native, entrepreneur, and positive words powerhouse that utilizes her personal life experiences of struggle, strength, and success to captivate audiences and readers abroad. She speaks with positive purpose and passion to motivate others while encouraging them through challenges. She is also a community advocate, youth mentor, and supporter.
Get In Touch:
706-726-0461
https://www.facebook.com/wisewordswoman
https://twitter.com/wordsbystone
https://www.instagram.com/inotherwordsbystone/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/angela-marshall-402004124/
Resource List:
Find a Way: Three Words That Changed My Life
Transcript:
Speaker 1 (00:06):
You’re listening to the hustle, Nomics podcast, a podcast, all about inspiring female creative entrepreneurs, their stories, experiences, and life lessons here from women working in creative industries who are breaking the rules and doing things their way, learn from their challenges, struggles, failures, and successes, and get an inside. Look at their top tools and resources that help them along the way.
Angela (00:31):
Hi, everyone tuning into the Hustlenomics podcast. I’m your host, Katie. And today I am so excited to be talking with Angela Marshall. She is a motivational speaker, a professional writer, columnist bestselling author, creative consultant, ex NFL wife, and a business owner of in other words by stone. So Angela, thank you so much for coming on the show today.
Angela (00:51):
Hey, thank you for having me on this amazing platform. I am so stoked and elated for Hustlenomics.
Katie (01:09):
I would love to dive deeper and learn more about your background and kind of how you got to where you are today.
Angela (01:14):
Absolutely. Thank you again for having me. I am a woman who has just been up against walls and folders as well as I’ve experienced, you know, top of the mountain. I’ve, I’ve done a lot. I’ve seen a lot in my lifetime and I just decided really that I needed to have a platform that would help others to live vicariously through themselves.
Angela (01:39):
And also give them an opportunity to understand that, you know, your riches are things in life that you can’t replace, not necessarily materialistic or monetary value. So with that being said, I set out on this journey because I was having a lot of people ask me about one particular period in my life, which was when I was married to a former NFL player. So he played for the New York giants. He played for the Denver Broncos and not just have so many people that would always admire my life or I’m sorry, would admire that lifestyle. And, you know, their perception was a little off because yeah, while it was built around a lot of extravagance and it lead and just extra different glitz and glamor, it also provided like an enormous amount of, I guess, saw role for myself, for me to be able to look within myself, to see how much I really needed to grow and then just some inner work that I needed to do for myself. So with that, I just decided, you know, I’m going to start a pinning, I’m going to start journaling telling my story and hopefully it will be able to spread it to other people and help them to live vicariously through themselves instead of through others. Yeah, that’s wonderful. So how long ago did you start your business? So I started the business in 2016. Prior to that, I worked for a very good pharmaceutical company from 1999 on, up until March of 2016 when I resigned.
Katie (03:11):
Oh, okay. So you have a background in the corporate world as well?
Angela (03:15):
Yes, absolutely. So I was a former NFL wife stay at home mom. We have two amazing adult children now, and then after our whole demise with the divorce and everything, I went back, you know, went into the corporate world. So I was there from 2000 to 2016 and I just never really was fulfilled or settled. So I just decided, you know, there’s other things that I need to be doing that will help me to be a better person and to just enjoy life more because prior to that, I just, honestly, I was just merely being robotic and just kind of be navigated by others, you know, the societal pressures and the societal trends. And I just decided, Hey, you know, I love to write, I love to speak. And so starting in other words by stone was kind of my niche, my baby, and I just took a leap of faith. I write about it in my book where I actually counted the steps as far as how far I walked, what the last day that I bashed out of corporate world. And it was a hundred, four steps that I took to what I now call my freedom.
Katie (04:22):
That’s amazing. And so that link from the corporate world to becoming a business owner is a big one and it can be scary, but it’s exciting, very exciting as well. So when you decided that you were wanting to take that step and move on from your position, what were some of those first things that you did to kind of establish your business?
Angela (04:41):
Well, I will say this a lot of what I do in my business today. It actually came from corporate different things, different responsibilities, roles, and response responsibilities that I had to take care of in corporate is now helping me to run my own business. You know, I have had my own, my own company. The first thing that I did though, and I’m going to be honest is I established a very good support system because I knew that there was a lot of things as far as business-wise that I had no idea what I was doing or even if I could do it. So I knew that I would need a really, really good support system to be in my corner and help me during those moments of, I just want to give up, or I don’t know what I’m doing. So the very first thing I did was I made sure that I had, and I called him my forward five. So he’s or five people in my life that I’m accountable to, that they are, you know, they give me constructive critique as well as they give me the love and the support, the tough love you know, just to help me to survive.
Katie (05:47):
Yeah, absolutely. Have that friends of yours in business, community or other entrepreneurs that you connected with, how did you kind of build up that, that support system in that group?
Angela (05:59):
So it was two family members and three friends, three very close, three, very close friends of mine. Now, since then I’ve grown and you know, anyone that is, that has a mindset for business to do business in a way where everybody wins, you know, cause there’s, there’s different, I guess, formulas, there’s different formats that people use in business and I’m finding that more and more, but for me, a good business deal or good partnership is always I win and you win. So I try to make sure that when I’m linking arms with people that I’m linking arms with with people that have the same business mindset that I have. So yeah, it was two business two very close family family members that were in my four or five and then three friends.
Katie (06:48):
That’s wonderful. And so moving forward, you had those people kind of there to support you. And did you have to start deciding on like branding and your website and all that kind of stuff? How, what was that journey like?
Angela (07:01):
I’m going to be honest with you, Katie. I just wrote a book and I honestly thought that I was going to write this book, publish this book. People would buy the book and then I could go away silently. Like I never really had aspirations to do what I’m doing as far as being a motivational presenter, being able to speak on different platforms. I had not thought that far, you know, it was, it was mainly write a book, Angela, put it out there. And then also from the creative writing consultant side. So I help people with their resumes, bios, essays, anything editing document, creating, maintaining documents. That is my business side of it. So, you know, I was making money from clients personal sector as well as private sector. But I honestly did not know that I needed a full business plan. I needed a business model.
Angela (07:53):
I needed all this. It was just like, all of this started from me writing, journaling a book and saying, okay, I’m going to put this book out there and then that’s it. I’m gonna tell you the truth. Probably about four or five months later after the book was published and I started getting asked to speak and then I started getting paid to speak out. I thought about it. I said, huh, that might be a good hustle to use your platform also Nomics. So I said, well, that may be a good, a good, a good side hustle for me. And since I love to speak and my life really, you know, it’s no different from anybody else’s, it’s just that I have the courage to stand up and talk about it and to be truthful and to be honest. So, you know, that’s how a lot of what I’m doing now was birth and was born into in other words.
Katie (08:43):
Right, right. That makes sense. What about your book and kind of the process of writing it and getting it published. So did you decide to go the traditional publishing route? No, I self published
Angela (08:56):
And for good reason, because I pinned another book prior to that, it was just a poetry book, different thoughts and things that I had done over, over like an eight year period. I pinned and I just kind of wanted to get my feet wet. So with that book, the first book I went, the traditional route and it didn’t fare well with me. There was a lot of, you know stuff that was going on behind the scenes with the publishing company, with advertising marketing. I lost a lot of money. I lost a lot of faith within myself, but by the time I got to my autobiography, which has propelled my business even more, it was like a no brainer because I learned a lot. And again, it just goes back to linking arms and connecting with those that can help you do what you want to do. So how am I did that? It was just, you know, I put those people in place and then, you know, decided that I was going to be just as much of a, a student as I was a teacher. And it just kind of took off from there
Katie (09:55):
Writing a very unique experience. And I, I can only imagine it makes you look inward and makes you really realize some things about yourself. So that during the process of writing that book, did you learn things about yourself that kind of surprised you?
Angela (10:09):
I sure did. And I’ll tell you, it was like, I call it all of the emojis on the Facebook. Like you’re mad, you’re happy. You’re sad. You’re wow. You know, so yeah, once I started penning about my life and about my journey just from everything and it wasn’t just that period of being an NFL wife, it was things that I needed to really go back and dig deep in when I was a little girl. So being able to process all of that, get all of that out of my system and move forward, you know, whether it was healed, forgive myself, forgive others. It was, I just, let me tell you this. After I wrote the book, one of the first things I did was call my ex-husband and apologize autobiographies, or anytime that you are truthful with yourself, because even to this day, sometimes I look in the mirror, certain things that I’ve done in relationships or business partnerships. And when I realized that I could have done something a little better, or maybe there’s some growth deficient areas there where I need to take a harder look. Yeah, I am the first one that goes within to say, okay, I need to make a change and I need to do some things differently. And that autobiography, Katie did that for me.
Katie (11:20):
Fantastic. You’re writing because writing a book is a huge task and you kind of have to set up some, some things for yourself to actually get to writing. So did you have a specific writing process?
Angela (11:34):
I’m going to be honest with you because I journal, I have a diary and then I have like a gazillion other journals that I write my daily thoughts in any way. It actually was not hard because it was like the book was already put together. All I had to do was take those thoughts from many, many, you know, from different journals and put it together in a format to make it into a book. So, and I know a lot of people like, Oh, well, you know, that’s not everybody’s writing process. No, it’s not. But for me, because all of the topics that I write, write about are non-fiction is, I mean, it’s true to my life. Like I lived it. So it’s not difficult for me to tell my story, if that makes sense.
Katie (12:16):
It does. It does also do engagements. And that’s something that I’m really interested in maybe doing myself in the future. So how did you get into start speaking? Did it come out of publishing the book?
Angela (12:29):
Yes. And it came out of left field. So one of the things, I guess, because of the topic, which is the story, the platform is a story in life of an ex NFL wife. So automatically that raises curiosity with people. And it, it, it gives me a little bit of an edge over someone else who is a motivational or inspirational speaker or presenter, because that lifestyle is so glorified, I guess, if you would, for, for some, you know, so once I wrote the book and then people, it started getting a little traction, as far as I went on different websites posting it, I like eBooks book club, different ones. And that’s how people started really taking notice of the book. And then different organizations called me, contacted me and asked me, you don’t request me to speak.
Katie (13:20):
Right. Right. That’s fantastic. So what are some of your favorite topics that you like doing with our sharing and your speaking engagements?
Angela (13:29):
So one in particular that a lot of people request is live vicariously through yourself. I came up with that topic solely because I’ve had a lot of people that tell me, I’m just going to live. I’m going to live vicariously through you. I wish I had your life. And I mean, you know, even me as a little girl and as an adult, I’ll admit, sometimes I’ve looked at other people’s lives and was like, God, I wonder what that will be like. Or I would like to have her life, or I would like to have his money or, you know, this particular situation that was with somebody else’s life. But then I realized that that’s not really conducive for me as a person to look at somebody else’s life or lifestyle and covet because knowing what I know now and knowing that even though I once was in a particular lifestyle that people view as you know, so awesome.
Angela (14:23):
I know that it was not without problems. So I’m the first one who, you know, is I’m there to tell them all that glitters is definitely not. Goal is not that during the NFL lifestyle is not that, you know, my life was so great that I did not have any problems. The only problem, the only problem that we did not have was money, but other things were, you have other things, other issues that are coming at you. And I really wanted to drive that point home to people, because I think a lot of times we look at people where they’re celebrities or people in positions of power, even just, let’s just say social media, Facebook. And we see people posting all these fabulous pictures and these, you know, just as glorious lifestyle supposedly. And we think that their life is so much better than, than ours.
Angela (15:10):
And it’s not, you know, they’re only posting like snapshots of their life. They’re not posting you the bad or when they’re crying or when they’re sad or when they’re going through certain things. So yeah, I wanted to make sure that I could tell that part of it. So live vicariously through yourself. And then another topic that a lot of business training workshops request is success is a dish served only to the bowl. So I talked to people about, you know, just the different things that you have to do in order to be successful in business, or just be successful in life. So those are, those are two topics that usually people,
Katie (15:46):
The request me for and for people listening, who might be interested in getting into doing some speaking engagements, do you have any advice for them if this is, let’s say their first time doing a speaking engagement and they’ve never done it before, they don’t know how any, you know, how any of it works. Do you have any advice for them to kind of prepare?
Angela (16:04):
I would say two things, one take deep breaths and just realize that the people in the audience are just like you seriously, just like you, you know, maybe they’re not going through some of the things that you’re going through, but they’re going through something. So, you know, take deep breaths, realize that they’re just like you. And then the other thing is that has really helped me is I speak out loud as much as possible. So when I know I have a speaking engagement or I have a training workshop that I’m doing, I will go over my notes or I will go over whatever I’m going to say. And I, I say it out loud as opposed to just kind of rambling the thoughts through my head, or if I have paper or if I have an iPad or, or a tablet in front of me, I always speak out loud because I want to make sure that I’m articulating.
Angela (16:53):
And then you know, it gives you a sense of what you want to convey, how it’s actually going to come across to people. So those are two of the practices that I, that I utilize before I actually step out on stage. And then the other thing, well, but I guess the most important thing is make sure that you are not, you know, afraid to stand in front of an audience, or you’re not fearful of standing in front of an audience if you want to go to speaker route, because once those curtains come up or once, you know, the lights blink on, it’s like, okay, now it’s game time.
Katie (17:30):
That’s great. Fantastic. So what’s coming up in the future for you and your business that you’re kind of looking forward to any big plans. Yeah.
Angela (17:38):
So I actually have a fourth book that I’m working on right now, and it’s going to be a compilation of inspirational and motivational quotes and sayings. Also, I have a lead program children and, and for the youth and lead is listened to education, ambition and determination. And what I’m going to do with that is simply go around globally, incorporating how our youth can be good leaders, as well as I also have an anti-bullying initiative that we talk about that we discuss. So I want that program to be broader. I want it to be bigger and I want it to be more global right now. It’s just where I’m at in the CSRA. And then I’ve done some work in the Atlanta and Columbia, South Carolina area, also speaking to different youth organizations, but I want to really focus and hone in on that because I know that even though the topics that I usually speak to, to empower uplift or encourage people, you know, it’s kind of like an older demographics that we target, but being a once rebellious teen and, and you know, curious youth myself, there’s a lot of things that I believe that we need to be open and we need to be up front with, in speaking with our youth about, and I want to get those programs up and off the ground and running.
Angela (18:54):
So in the background that that’s what I’m doing right now. I’m focusing on my lead program for youth,
Katie (19:01):
Fantastic to have for anybody listening. This is kind of a broad question, but most of my listeners are either in the beginning stages of right. Of starting a business, or they’re still doing the side hustle thing. But do you have one or two pieces of advice for them? Just if we’re listening and needing some inspiration to keep working at their passion and get their business.
Angela (19:25):
Yes. I would say, do not give up no matter what, I don’t care what your bank account looks like. I don’t care what, you know, any situation that is presenting itself that may cause you to have just momentarily a defeating mindset, because those are things that once you overcome that obstacle is going to be a stepping stone for you and help you to you know, to be better and to serve better in your purpose. When I first started out in what I’m doing in 2016, Oh my gosh. There was so many times that I was shaking my boots because it’s just so many unknown and so many factors that kept coming against me. But here’s the thing is not that those things don’t still don’t come against me. It’s just that I’ve gotten stronger and I’ve gotten better at being able to process and also you know, just take care of those small battles. So then I can ultimately win the war. So don’t give up and don’t think that those situations are just about you, you know, cause this is hitting every entrepreneur, even people in corporate people, working for other people, it’s just, you know, that’s just the way life is. It is actually preparing you for you to be your absolute best while you’re walking in your purpose. And you, you know, you’re pursuing your passion, so don’t give up. Absolutely. And as
Katie (20:48):
Business owners and creatives, you know, a lot of us are kind of not consumed, but we were thinking about business a lot and we’re boots on the ground all the time. So I love to ask this question. Is there anything in your life that you do outside of business that is kind of self care helps you recharge and helps you kind of not think about business for a little bit?
Angela (21:07):
Absolutely. I do meditation and I also incorporate family time in with my day to day 24 hours. And I think that’s really important. Some people, I guess they feel like, well, if I’m top heavy on the hustling and the grinding, then I’ll have time later on for the family. You know, no one really knows if you’re going to have time for the family in two years and two weeks and two months or whatever, you know, by the time you feel like you have achieved, whatever it is you’re trying to, if you’re trying to get to a number, if you’re trying to do something spectacular in business, you don’t really know what your next breath of what your next day will bring. So I always just try to make sure within my 24 hour period that I have time for family, I have time for friends.
Angela (21:55):
Now with that being said, sometimes it gets a little rough that schedule can, can get rough with the wonderful world of technology, having FaceTime and Skype and so many other avenues to where I can easily just pick up a phone, talk to my grandchildren, talk to my children and my friends. I tried to do that. I haven’t been as good as a Katie as far as time management, because you’ve mentioned it at the start of your question. It’s like thinking you have to do something every minute, every day with your business and which I think, you know, to a certain, certain degree, certain extent you do, but you also need that time in there where you can just disconnect. And I do that, you know, when I go into meditation or when I exercise, I don’t take my phone with me, I leave my phone. So that way I’m not, you know, worried about the beans and the deans and the notifications. I can just really just kind of reset and focus on Angela is very, very important and detrimental to us that are entrepreneurs and business owners. Yeah,
Katie (22:58):
That’s fantastic. Do you have any recommendations that you would like to share, whether it be books or podcasts or courses, anything out there that you found helpful that the listeners might want to check out?
Angela (23:10):
I will say two books in particular one, I just finished reading probably about two months ago. And then I’ve started highlighting certain things from his book. There is a phenomenal former NFL athlete. His name is Merrill Hodge. He has a book and the book is titled, find a way. And it is what every, I believe what every entrepreneur needs find a way, his stories in there from a little, a little kid and just growing up and then different things that he’s adversity and adversaries that he was able, able to overcome and then just share them what he’s still going through. Now. It changed my life. I mean, that book is phenomenal. So find a way by Merrill Hodge. And then as far as like affirmations and just to give you that extra kicking your butt from time to time, there’s another young man. He is a phenomenal speaker.
Angela (24:05):
His name is Billy Brooks and his book is titled blessed and unstoppable. Another phenomenal book is a 31 day book where, you know, each day you read a couple of pages and he gives you little nuggets about, you know, where there’s entrepreneurship or just life in general, motivating, uplifting, encouraging, empowering. And I’ve found that those two books just within a span of, cause I started reading Billy’s book probably about two, two years ago, three years ago. And then as well as listening to his, his his stuff on YouTube. So it’s been phenomenal, but those two are books. I think every every entrepreneur, every business owner really needs to have in their you know, on their bookshelf. Perfect. Everyone’s going to want to check you out and follow your journey. So can you tell everyone how to find you online? Absolutely. For the wonderful world of Googlers, you can Google Angela Marshall on social media.
Angela (25:04):
I am the story in life of an ex NFL wife. I am all over the place, different media outlook outlets, Angela Marshall. And then I also have my personal website, which is www dot. In other words, by stone.com. I am like a true a hustler in hustle mode. I’m not going to say 24 seven because again, I’ve, I’ve learned to kind of make some adjustments, but anyone that wants to reach out, even if it’s just to give some constructive critique to help me to get better in all of that also. So thank you again for the consideration opportunity to be on your show. I appreciate it absolutely
Speaker 1 (25:46):
Coming on today. Hey guys, I hope you enjoyed today’s interview. Don’t forget that you can check out previous episodes as well as all the show notes@wwwhustlenomicspodcast.com. If you want to support the show, you can head over to iTunes and leave a rating or review. Each review means so much to me, and it really helps the podcast on the business end. If you want to find another way to support the show, we’re also on Patrion. You can find a link to our patron on our website. If you have any questions or you have a topic you would like to hear covered on the show, feel free to DM me on Instagram or send me an email. Thanks again for listening. And I’ll see you next week. Thank you for listening to the hustle Nomics podcast. Be sure to visit www hustlenomics podcast.com to join the conversation, access the show notes and discover bonus content. If you enjoy today’s episode and want to hear more, just head over to iTunes, to subscribe, rate, and leave review for questions about the podcast, or if you want to apply to be a guest, use the contact form found on our website. Thank you for listening. And until next time, keep hustling.
