Episode 20: Marcylle Combs | The Power of Risk Taking and Authentic Leadership

Wow. What an amazing conversation with Marcel Combs who is a dynamic leader with over thirty years experience growing a health care company into a multimillion dollar enterprise across three states. So definitely stick around for this podcast.

After selling her business in 2018, she launched Mac Legacy, the Marcelles company, and Mac Legacy Investments where she leads as president. A certified John Maxwell speaker and trainer, Marcell passionately mentors others through consulting, coaching, and speaking worldwide, founder of the nonprofit 2612.org. She combines business savvy with a heart for service.

A wife, a mother of five, a grandmother of six, Marcell lives to inspire others to lead boldly and live purposely. So without further ado, Marcell Combs.

Hi there, and welcome to the Power Up Your Life podcast. I'm Kelly Resendez. And I'm Mady McAllister. And we have the distinct pleasure of bringing my friend Marcel Combs onto the show. I got to meet her through my dear friend John Maxwell, and just blessed to to have her here with us. So, Marcel, without further ado, would you give us a little bit of your background?

Yes. And thank you, Kelly and Mandy, for having me on today. I'm so excited to spend a few minutes with you.

I, you know, I'm going to give you the short version because I have a very long life, but I was a nurse, and I just kinda went to work for a little home health agency, which is people who go into homes and do skilled care for mostly elderly and truly just fell in love with it, and through a whole revolution. I didn't have any money, didn't know anything about business, had my bachelor's degree, but never, didn't didn't grow up with entrepreneur parents. And I just knew the business was gonna sell, and by some miracle of God, I talked the owner into selling to me truly. I I said when you have no money, it's easy to risk, a lot of money. And so I went to work, one day and was not in debt really, and the next day I woke up and I was in a million dollars of debt.

So that that was a long time ago. And so during that whole tenure, I bought and and started probably six or seven different companies, grew to about 70,000,000, and then sold that company six years ago and started two more companies because, truly, I don't have enough sense to retire.

So I I I love, getting up every day and doing something different, and I think that's that's the challenge in life. So there's the short story of that.

Wow. That is incredible. You know, I'm sure along that journey, there were times that you felt like you were a little stuck and you didn't know which way to go.

Do you have, like, a way that you make decisions? Is it intuition? Is it data? Like, when you considered making that first investment, because like you said, you went from zero to a million. That's a big risk. Right?

And yet you wouldn't be where you are today had you not taken it. So how do you get through that yourself?

I think, in that journey of be being a nurse and then being put in a management position, I was fortunate enough to have a young man who was actually my age, that mentored me in business. And I so by the time I really bought the business, I knew how it worked. I I would love to tell you I had, an accountant and an analytical team to evaluate that, but that's really not the truth. I just felt compelled that this was a decision I needed to make. And I I felt, with truly with God's grace that I can make it through that.

Now, again, I did have, which for my business, in all essence was a government contractor, a very smart advisors around me, but I I tend to be a big risk taker when it comes to business. Not with my physical body, but with business. Yeah.

So now as I sold the next company and formed another one, I I will say I did really look. I did have, more data to take a look at, and I knew I can make it work based on the numbers and also based on what I thought the margin could be for the company I sold to, because I sold to them and then a big hospital system and then formed a management company and managed that entity for them, which was some of my greatest leadership lessons.

I think I I Kelly, I know you said earlier, I had the opportunity and the privilege of interviewing you, And some of my best lessons were probably taught by some of the worst leaders that I had ever worked for. So I I I will say, you know, that.

Yeah. Definitely. Thank you.

I really I I love that. I I love this idea of buying a business because if we know most startups fail, if you buy something that's preexisting, your chance of of having tremendous success is much, much higher.

So it sounds like the bulk of your business was in this kind of home health care, home health space. I I worked in medicine before leaving my W2 to to be in real estate full time. And we know about this silver tsunami that's about to hit.

So so our our people are getting older. I'm curious from your vantage point, these businesses like yours that serve seniors, you know, what are some things that you're doing to make sure that you have the bandwidth to take care of everyone?

Let me just say, as I said, six years ago, I sold, the as a direct provider of that care. It's a wonderful business, and if you see private equity, you'll see we have gotten the attention, especially in the last ten years or so of private equity. You know, and I have good friends who work in that space, but there's nothing like an individual owner.

I think the whole would would you say, oh, if a silver tsunami, which I don't ever plan to have silver in my hair. I know that's very stylish, but I won't be one of those. No. I won't be one of those.

So, but I will tell you, my goal as an employer and as a person was to be the employer of choice. And I can frankly say, that I had the opportunity and the privilege to become that in my market. So people wanted to work for me. That's not always the case. I think you you have to when you're new in an area, nobody knows you, and they don't know this little girl who obviously little girl then, didn't know what she was doing.

But I just tried to put forth, truly for me, I'm a person of faith, biblical principles in a secular world. And if you take biblical principles, and you take what Jesus, how he treated his disciples and his friends, then it's pretty straightforward with how you should treat other people.

You do have to, in our world, electronically, especially in the last even five or six years, that I've worked, will have to get thousands of resumes off the Internet. It is very hard to decipher those. I still personally love when I have a recommendation of someone. And if you're listening to this, let me tell you young people, when you put your resume out there, it's one of a thousand. And if you don't have some way, to become that as an old book, The Purple Kell, in the midst of cows, you, you won't get noticed. You might be the greatest person.

So I will say, Mandy, there's a lot of different ways to recruit, but the number one way to make sure you have enough people to take care of patients is by becoming the person people want to work for. Oh, that's amazing.

Amazing. What would you say like, you were you were a leader. Like, you were running your own company. I also know you have children and grandchildren. What advice would you give to the people out there? You know, I I have adult children now, but Mandy's got littles at home. Like, how did you really make sure that you felt successful in every area of your life?

Do you know I have five children? Yeah. I have four boy I know. Good grief. I have a whole litter of children. But, I have four boys, all two years apart, and then our life was blessed through, not by birth, but by choice. We, we adopted a little girl, who is now grown. All my children are grown now, and I have six grandchildren.

I think that, I I don't really believe in balance. Let me just say this. I think balance is a hopeless guilt ridden pool to roll around in. Mhmm. I think it's it's, it's a matter of priorities, and I will say, fortunately for me, I had a husband who was very supportive, and I had a lot of friends who were supportive in that because I am I'm very energy prone. I feel less energized these days, but people tell me, you know, in my old age, I'm still that.

But if something was important for my kids, then it had to be important for me. Oh. I tell the story of getting, I live in the Dallas Fort Worth area. I was at a conference I was speaking at. I had to get on applying, get in a taxi before the Uber days because it was senior night in the football field, and the moms walked their kids on there. I could not miss this, but I had already committed. You know, the school system didn't wanna they didn't contact me to see what my schedule was before they made senior football night. I got on a plane, changed in the back of the cab, walked on the field because, you know, I was in my zoot suit from, you know, speaking, got back in the cab, went back to the airport, and got back on. I I would tell you that it was essential that I be there.

You know, and so because of that, I I know that sometimes work wins and sometimes home wins. And your whole one, if you're gonna be a, in my opinion, which you asked, Kelly, in my opinion, you can't be everything to every person. And you can only get your priorities straight, but home can't always win, sometimes work has to win.

And, you know, last week I was privileged to get invited to, an expense paid event in Puerto Rico, but my daughter had a miscarriage. And so I had to, which I'm not gonna talk about that because I'll surely cry, but, I had to get on a plane and go to Florida because not one part of my being could go and sit on the beach in Puerto Rico if my adult child needed me in Florida. And those are the kinds of choices you can't write out a recipe book for. Right. You have to make at the moment.

Yeah. I love that idea of prioritization rather than balance. Because the mom guilt stuff so I'm I have a nine to a 15 year old. So I'm I'm in it right now. You know? You're in it. The way I get away from the mom guilt is by I I know that I'm teaching them that mom deserves to go chase her dreams. Yeah. Mom deserves. Mom needs to help these other people with her speaking engagements and all these other things. Right? So there is that other side of the coin, and I make sure that I'm home when the things matter.

Totally, totally agree with that. As a business owner, we are kind of unconventional thinkers in many ways. And you talked about being a risk taker, not with your body, but with your businesses. Tell me about some unconventional strategies that you've got that some people might not agree with.

Oh, gosh. What what a question. I think that I probably just breed unconventional. I, always say what I lack in brains, I make up in creativity.

So I think that the flex, the interesting thing, because we went into 2020 and all of a sudden the world had to change to this remote worker. What we have been doing, one, home care automatically lends itself to that, but we have been doing remote type work before it became cool. We had employees that would leave us that, did quality assurance, which is a job that you could do remotely as well as in the back office. And so we we had to jump through laws for w twos.

What I would encourage, all business people, not just women, to do is think about why you're doing what you're doing. And if you have a great employee, can you modify their work? The other thing I I love to ask people even today is what's your dream job? So if we grow this company, what would you like to do?

Now, again, there's a lot of work that has to go on their part to that, but but what would you like to do and how can we grow to meet that so that you aren't just churning and burning employees, that walk out the door.

I I think that's a female I think we I I think we tend. Not that I don't know a lot of great creative men, but I think we tend to be more creative in our approach.

Oh, that's awesome. I I believe wholeheartedly, like, you know, I I wish we could take you and get you in front of so many other young people to just show what's possible.

How do you think that we do unlock some of because I know you're you you're really in your feminine power. Right? I've met you. Like, you're you're lovely. Like, how do we show so many younger people what's possible?

Like, what what would you do to solve that crisis right now? Because I think a lot of people are not authentic and out there hard charging trying to get what they want. I

I would say one thing. I think we have a, and I've spoken a lot on generations, I think we have a crisis of mental health in this country. I think part of that comes from, we have instantaneous news. We instantaneously know something that happens across the world, and it's stressful. We we knew immediately with the whole conflict in The Middle East. We and so their anxiety is really high.

If I could do anything with my magic wand, I would try to teach young people the difference between stress and anxiety. Stress is something we all deal with. We we deal with it every day. And I I had a college professor tell me this, that they had a college student call them up and say they had a flat tire and they couldn't come to class all week because they had a flat tire. Well, that's, you know, we're we're putting that in the anxiety category and really stress. I mean, I gotta figure out how to get my I mean, that's a silly answer, but it shows the the the problem is that they they're they're living in the same world. And how do we speak to them in a different world?

I'll I'll add one more thing, Kelly, just to try to make sure I clarify. I believe, especially in my generation, women that succeeded had to be they had to take on all male qualities. They had to become the tougher, the meaner, the and and I don't believe that that's true. I believe, that you can be a really strong woman and and be a feminine woman. Don't don't mistake my kindness for weakness because you will not find it in this woman. So but I'm going to be kind and polite, and I'm going to do all those things.

I I you don't want me on your golf team. And I'm not I don't drink well, so you sure don't want me drinking out of the bars with you. Plus, I had a whole litter of children. I gotta go home. Yeah. So someone said to me early in my career, Marcel, you need to go out with the girls. I said, are you kidding me? My youngest child is two, and then they're four, six, and eight. I I can't you barely get this job done and get home. I can't go out with them. If that's success, I cannot I I cannot make it that way. But I would tell you, you don't have to do that, to be Yeah. A strong woman in the workplace.

I 1000% agree with that. I think, you know, capitalism when it started, it was started by by men, and that's why it has this significant masculine energy associated with all things capitalism. And the generation before us, the one woman who was in charge had to take on masculine qualities. But now we are setting the table that these feminine qualities of empathy, of inclusion, of of, you know, nurturing each other. Like, those are the things that take businesses further faster now, the addition of these feminine energy things. You know, I love that.

So in building a business, you know, we are largely female entrepreneurs at GoBundance Women. Many of us are also investors. But in in scaling these businesses, you always come out you always hit some time that you don't have clarity.

Tell me something that when you're talking to a person who doesn't have clarity, specifically a female entrepreneur, what's something that you do, that next action that helps you find clarity?

Well, as I said, I'm a person of faith, so, you know, prayer is at the at the top of that list. But after that comes a logical evaluation of the situation. One, does it, am I I've really never had a partner, but I believe that scripture on unequally yoked, I have to make sure my partner, even if they're from the same moral faith, you know, driven perspective I am, do they have the same philosophy toward employees? I've always done mostly service type businesses.

And, you know, one, then does the numbers work? Do the do the numbers get you you have to make a profit. There's nothing wrong. I mean, if you're gonna stay in business, you have to make a profit. And, you know, do you have a team that can help you with that? So and again, I, you know, I never wanted to do accounting. I can pay someone to do accounting. Really, ChatGPT and some other of the AI programs, they're they're running, they're running circles around evaluation of things these days. So how can I evaluate whether this is a smart decision?

But in the end, Mandy, in the end, you have to have the guts to jump. You you have to say, I'm willing to go bankrupt. I have friends who have done really, really well in the big corporate world. I'm not a big corporate girl. You don't wanna hire me for that because I don't do what you tell me to do. So it's a problem. And I I've told people that when I sold my last business, you don't want me because I I'm you know, I I know you don't want me, and so I'm not gonna put me or you in that situation.

So, you know, I I think that evaluation, prayer, thoughtfulness doesn't meet your goals, but in the end, you just gotta do it. And, you know, some of our our best lessons have been learn from failures. You want was it Walt Disney that said you want to fail small early in your career, so that helps you later. I I would say measure failure. That's what I I didn't want a big one. Yeah. Big one. But measure failure.

I love it. Well, Marceau, you have been an amazing guest. Just some things that really stood out for me, you know, don't confuse my kindness for weakness. I literally had the chills because I can feel your power.

And a lot of people, you know, that's that's the thing. They're afraid. They're afraid that if I show up authentically and I'm not this, you know, persona that's expected in the workplace. So just, you know, just that reminder to be very, very authentic has been great. Mandy, what about you?

Oh, I and I wrote that down too. So good. I love the idea of being the employer of choice because if you're taking care of the people that are taking care of your customers, that is a formula for big success.

And one that I really, really love that I kinda bang tables over to is balance sucks. Balance is unattainable. We're looking for priorities. Yeah. Like, what is the thing that matters right now? And when I'm playing Legos, I'm playing Legos. Yeah. Right. I love it. I love it.

So more so, one thing that we always wanna make sure of and we do in GoBundance is, like, how can we support you? What's, like, a resource or connection that might change the ball game for you?

Well, I have a new book out. In fact, I have it right here. Shocking. It's about, hiring your friends and working with your friends and and my whole take on friendship management. And anyone who, wants to buy the book, they can get it on Amazon. It's never hire your friends, but the never is marked out. So, that's that's the number one way you could support me.

Of course, I have a podcast, 50% with Marcel Combs, and then it's marcelcombs.com.

If you spell my name right, you can find me. I love it. I love it. Beautiful. Thank you so much for your time and generosity and wisdom and just, you know, for for anyone out there listening, definitely share this so that we can we can share Marcel's message with the world. So thank you for joining the Power Up Your Life podcast brought to you by GoBundance Women.