https://youtu.be/OCiicuFI_Wg In episode 27 of the Rocket IT Business Podcast, we have the pleasure of speaking with Marlon Allen, founding partner of Ramp Marketing. While, on the surface, Marlon and his team are giving student athletes the tools to pursue their dreams, the organization’s underlying mission has proved to be so much more. In this segment, we learn how Marlon is working to help people see their tremendous potential to win in every aspect of their lives. In this episode, you’ll hear more about: How a career in baseball helped launch a business Key differences between sole ownership and a partnership The challenges of launching a sports apparel marketing company The importance of community involvement How coaching can be applied to every area of life Concepts for staying relevant in the consumer marketplace Contact Information Marlon Allen | marlon@rampmarketingco.com Resources Mentioned RAMP Marketing Rotary Club of Gwinnett County Leadership Gwinnett Gwinnett County School Board Foundation Rowen Task Force Shoe Dog by Phil Knight Nike TRAINED Podcast Host: Matt Hyatt Guest: Marlon Allen Show Transcript Matt Hyatt (00:00:00): Hello everyone, and welcome to episode 27 of the Rocket IT business podcast. I’m your host, Matt Hyatt. And today we’re talking with Marlon Allen, founding partner of Ramp Marketing. Ramp provides apparel to youth athletic teams, and they do a great job. But what I really love about Marlon is the way he approaches business and life. His purpose driven approach and servant heart are an inspiration to me and many others. So let’s get started Marlon, welcome to the show. Matt Hyatt (00:00:32): Well, Marlon, welcome to the show. We’re glad to have Marlon Allen (00:00:34): Glad to be here, Matt. Matt Hyatt (00:00:36): So I want to, we’re going to dive in a little bit about how we got to know one another, but before I get started, I want to hear a little bit about your marketing company. Ramp Marketing, which most people, when we hear a little bit about what you actually do, probably wouldn’t think marketing, but there’s absolutely a marketing element to it. So let’s dive right in and tell us about Ramp Marketing. How’d you get started? What do you do? Marlon Allen (00:00:59): Well, the core business model or, or what we do most is, is produced youth sports uniforms. And so that that’s really, and the marketing side of it came about because we, we really wanted, or, or felt that if we took the, the Nike model, which they have created and I’ll probably refer to it pretty well, they’ve done decent, you know, they were right on the heels. But, but when you take their model, you look at a phenomenal business and what they’ve done in the world of sports. They, they took a team, they took Oregon university and say, you know what, we’re gonna, we’re gonna create a brand that’s robust, that’s dynamic. That’s very different from whatever what else was done. And so the marketing side of our business came because when we met with a customer or really a sports team, a youth sports team, you know, the name Ramp, we said, we want to Ramp up your marketing efforts or your branding efforts or who you are as an organization. Marlon Allen (00:02:08): And, and we’ll do it through, you know, custom apparel, whether was uniforms, t-shirts, you know, yoga pants, hoodies, whatever it is we want to, we want to Ramp up the organization. And so when you, when you hear the term marketing, it’s not your traditional marketing company, but it’s that it’s really more about how can we take a youth organization because there most people don’t understand the ins and outs of, of youth sports to the point of Eric, tons of folks working behind the scenes, sure. That are working to really create a credible organization and respectable organization. One that is organized. And so a part of what we do outside of even producing uniforms is really if I, if I want to use the word consult, but really, really just advise companies on best practices and ways that they can even, you know, organize their sports, you know, from registrations to, you know, whether it’s online registrations and making sure that, that seamless for the parent or even, you know, trying on uniforms when that, when that kid gets to a uniform fitting to make sure that when the product comes back, that it fits properly. So sure. Quite a bit that goes involved in it, right? Yeah. Matt Hyatt (00:03:29): You know my, my kids are grown now, but they played some sports growing up and we would take them to the ball field and they’d try all kinds of different things. I think soccer and basketball, probably the ones that they spent the most time on, but it’s a production, you know, it’s absolutely production. It’s those kids running around, especially when they’re small, right. The front around, all over the place, the parents trying to figure out, alright, how do you know, how did I get signed up? Where do I need to be?. And then you get into it. We’re actually playing. And you know, we’re bringing pretty much everything we own to the ball field. Marlon Allen (00:04:05): Which is a whole nother business. Think about the times before. I wonder, what do we do before there were the carts that we will around now, the wagons. I mean, whoever created that they’re, they’re making a killer. I missed out on that opportunity, but you can’t go to a sports field without seeing all the wagons. I wonder what did my parents do? Matt Hyatt (00:04:29): Well, they probably weren’t bringing nearly as much stuff. That’s for sure. Now that we’ve, now we’ve got our carts and stuff, we can bring a lot. So tell me, how’d you get started in that business? What was the attraction there? Marlon Allen (00:04:40): It was really more out of some people call it frustration that you’re frustrated with something that happened. So in 2015, my nephew was essentially frustrated because he was getting charged $80 a wap for a t-shirt design. Now graphic design is a huge business and it’s, it can be costly. He calls me up. Oh, Hey man, do you think you can do some t-shirt designs? And my degree in computer information management has, has kind of led me to be self taught in different areas, hence the Adobe creative suite. And so I get around and mess around and that Matt Hyatt (00:05:21): I’m making a note. If that doesn’t work out for you. Let me know Marlon Allen (00:05:24): There you go, right. So yeah. Hey, I’m keeping my options open, but he calls me up and I say, yeah, I can help you out. So started doing some t-shirt designs for them. Wasn’t even thinking about it as a business. But then the beginning of 2016, about January of 2016, 1 of his, his t-shirt customers, which he’s out in Fort Worth, Texas and his son was playing youth sports. So football at the time. So one of the coaches or someone called him up. Hey man, can you do basketball uniforms? He picks up the phone. Hey Unc, can we do basketball uniforms? I said, well, there’s a lot of online resources. I’m sure we can get some blank uniforms and find a screen printer and, and, you know, and make a couple of hundred dollars. So, still wasn’t even really thinking about a business at the time. So we turn around that order, fulfill that order. Marlon Allen (00:06:18): And, and while from November of 2015, up until about February of 2016, my nephew was doing some research and I didn’t even know about it for international apparel suppliers. Oh wow. So he was doing all the research on that. He tried to figure out before, before we even discussed starting a business. Well, about November, about the time he calls me, I was starting my son’s travel baseball team. Reached out to a past college teammate who was a rep for a big baseball company. I man, I need some uniforms. So he said, I, I can outfit you. So we ordered the uniforms in November, Matt of 2015. I get a call from him in February of 2016 saying, Hey man, these uniforms won’t be until the end of March. So now I got, you know, 12, 12 parents that are looking at me like where, you know, where, where, where our uniforms? Marlon Allen (00:07:24): Right? So I call up my nephew and says, Hey man, do you think, you know, you, you got contacts with anybody that can do these. He says, yeah, I think so. So that was the first time that, that, that I used a, an overseas supplier to do uniforms, custom uniforms for us. And the frustration that I had with my roommate, college teammate, who didn’t, it wasn’t his fault, the company just, and this was, think about it is COVID was nowhere around, right? You didn’t have COVID excuses. It was just the fact that custom uniforms just took quite awhile to get, for that company to fulfill. Right. So we got those done and then May, so that happened March of 2016. So now we started, we started these discussions about really starting the business and may of 2016 is when we started it. Matt Hyatt (00:08:21): Wow. Happy five-year anniversary. Marlon Allen (00:08:25): Yeah. It’s big for us. We’re five years old. We are, we’re now eating whole foods, you know, solid foods right now we’re off the Similac, you know, walking around. Matt Hyatt (00:08:39): I think we’ve talked about that. Raising up a businesses is somewhat like raising up a kid. Marlon Allen (00:08:43): Absolutely. We’re still, still got a rocket to sleep at night, take a bath and five. They probably still need a lot of help. We’re still cooking for him, you know. So that’s where it came about. And so the name Ramp, which is folks say, you know, where does that name come from? Well, it’s actually my initials and my, well, first of all, my wife came up with the name. She was sitting there. We were just throwing out all kinds of stuff. And she says, what about Ramp? He says, why Ramp? She says, well, that
