This week on the Engaging Marketeer, I’ve had the pleasure of speaking to a frankly extraordinary man, Marshall Townsend II. Marshall is a business leadership coach and mentor for companies, whose methods derive from his days teaching tank warfare in the United States military. If that seems like a slightly odd career pivot to anyone, Marshall is on hand to explain how he went from teaching tank warfare to teaching business teams. We’re discussing topics such as the nature of his teaching methods, the factors that have influenced his techniques and the results he’s seen from some of his mentees.
Check out the full interview on our YouTube channel, which features these particular highlights:
Marshall on the differences between the ‘driving range’ and the ‘golf course’
Marshall: I keynote speech I delivered was called ‘Mark Your Ball’. It was pretty much based on the idea of being on the golf course compared to being at the driving range. I’m not sure if you’re much of a golfer, but at the driving range, you don’t have to mark your ball. You go to the machine, you get a load of balls to hit, you’ve got a flat level surface to hit from, and you don’t have to worry about where your ball actually ends up. In life, when you stop playing on the driving range and you have to do the real thing, you need to mark your ball, you don’t have any more time for practice shots.
…on pre-recorded teaching vs live teaching…
Darren: We have pre-recorded stuff and it’s okay, but the live stuff for me, it’s seeing the reaction of people, particularly when you’re in the room as opposed to live online.
Marshall: It takes me back to a night where I had 100 kids in the room, all really good golfers, who had in fact flown into Boise that day. They were all worn out, they’d just eaten dinner, and they were all engaged. Everybody, including their coaches, were engaged. In fact, that’s one of the topics I talked about, the magic of being live. Again it goes back to the difference between the driving range and the golf course. At the driving range, you know you’re not going to play that shot.
…on speaking at interesting venues such as air force bases…
Darren: As somebody that tries to do as much speaking as I can, how are people coming to you personally and asking you to talk at venues such as air force bases?
Marshall: I met a guy called John Maxwell in around early February, and we was in charge of bringing keynote speakers to the air force base, so it was kind of a perfect match up. I do also do lunch and learns as well, but I got to make sure everybody understands this, I bring the learning, I do not bring the lunch!
Darren: Haha
…on his methods of coaching and speaking to businesses…
Darren: How do businesses (or their teams) react when you come in to speak to them? If it was in the UK, I imagine that many people would be quite scared about what you’re going to do with them, but I know America’s got a different attitude!
Marshall: One of the key things I did was I had the luxury of taking my boots off back in 1999, so that allowed my personality to come through but I left the uniform behind, I learned not to tell people what to do, but to ask them questions and learn FROM them.
Darren: What kind of businesses are you helping?
Marshall: I’ve been working in the last couple of years, especially through COVID, with a lot of local companies, solopreneurs and small companies. I’ve been doing a lot of Zoom stuff too, but now I’m working more to get up to the larger corporations and work with them. I can work with the CEO, the key members of staff, but I can also work with the sales teams that need to just work on engagement with customers.
…on the success stories of his teaching…
Darren: What are some of the best successes that you’ve had? What sort of transformations and success stories have you been able to achieve?
Marshall: Just last week, we had a woman where we said okay, let’s sit down, walk me through everything you’ve been doing since you’ve been working with me. She’s up 50-60,000 dollars from the year before. And all of its based on not what I’ve done, but what she’s done based on the questions that I was asking her.
If anybody is looking to get in touch with Marshall for his keynote speaking or other training programs, his company MT2Leadership can be reached at www.marshalltownsend.com, which you can use to join Marshall’s email list and stay up to date with all of his upcoming events and talks.
Thank you very much to Marshall for coming on the show, it was a pleasure to speak to him. Be sure to never miss another episode of the Engaging Marketeer, by following us on your preferred podcast platform, and subscribing to us on our YouTube channel. Have a merry Christmas and we hope to see you back again for next week’s episode.
