Oral History Program Marci Barker Interviewed by Amy Sather 26 January 2018 Oral History Program Weber State University Stewart Library Ogden, Utah Marci Barker Interviewed by Sarah Tooker 26 January 2018 Copyright © 2023 by Weber State University, Stewart Library Mission Statement The Oral History Program of the Stewart Library was created to preserve the institutional history of Weber State University and the Davis, Ogden and Weber County communities. By conducting carefully researched, recorded, and transcribed interviews, the Oral History Program creates archival oral histories intended for the widest possible use. Interviews are conducted with the goal of eliciting from each participant a full and accurate account of events. The interviews are transcribed, edited for accuracy and clarity, and reviewed by the interviewees (as available), who are encouraged to augment or correct their spoken words. The reviewed and corrected transcripts are indexed, printed, and bound with photographs and illustrative materials as available. The working files, original recording, and archival copies are housed in the University Archives. Project Description The Weber State College/University Student Projects have been created by students working with several different professors on the Weber State campus. The topics are varied and based on the student's interest or task for a specific assignment. These oral history assignments were created to help Weber State students learn the value and importance of recording public history and to benefit the expansion of the Weber State oral history collections. ____________________________________ Oral history is a method of collecting historical information through recorded interviews between a narrator with firsthand knowledge of historically significant events and a well-informed interviewer, with the goal of preserving substantive additions to the historical record. Because it is primary material, oral history is not intended to present the final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a spoken account. It reflects personal opinion offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it is partisan, deeply involved, and irreplaceable. ____________________________________ Rights Management This work is the property of the Weber State University, Stewart Library Oral History Program. It may be used freely by individuals for research, teaching and personal use as long as this statement of availability is included in the text. It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows: Barker, Marci, an oral history by Amy Sather, 26 January 2018, WSU Stewart Library Oral History Program, Special Collections and University Archives, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, UT. iii Abstract: The following is an oral history interview with Marci Barker, conducted on January 26, 2018 in her home, by Amy Sather. Marci discusses her life and experiences as a minority leader in Northern Utah. AS: This is an oral history interview with Marci Barker conducted by Amy Sather on January 26, 2018 at 3 o'clock in Ms. Barker's home. In this interview, Ms. Barker will discuss her recollections, recollections and experiences with Marci Barker Fitness. Welcome, Marci. MB: Thanks for having me. AS: Thank you for coming. Please start by telling us about your background, your childhood, your teen years, values, etc. MB: So, I am one of eight children. Number six out of eight. My mom had all of us kids by the time she was thirty. We're all very close and my mom is still sane. I grew up having a lot of stuff to do. I feel like I kind of got forgotten in the mix. There was always something to do. As I grew up, I got married very young. I got married at eighteen—engaged in high school. I've been married for 10 years and we have four children—Leila, Lexi, Liz, Leia and we never got Lewis and I'm done. I'm not having no boy. But all throughout pregnancy and having kids I always taught fitness classes. That stemmed from when I was 13, my sisters were trying out for soccer and the coach said, “Hey kick that ball over here.” I kicked it and he was like, “Oh okay, you need to be on the team.” And I was like, “Okay.” And then I got put on the team. I always played sports. I had a lot of siblings to play with and it was really good. Then I went into high school and continued to play soccer—that was my favorite sport. I always 1 was like, “I'm just going to get married and be a mom. I don't really care about college.” But, because I got married so young, my in-laws were like, “No, you need to go to school.” So I was like, “P.E. is probably easy. I'll just do that.”—because I played sports and that's what I ended up doing. I got a degree in physical education and health. For some crazy reason, I went to school for an extra year and got my teaching license. While going to school, I always taught fitness classes and I became a personal trainer about three years ago. My husband is a computer programmer. When I became a trainer, he's like, “You got to train on the internet.” I was like, “That's a really dumb idea—like personal train without seeing people in person.” He said, “You know you got to do it.” I said, “I'll start with what I know and that's how to lose baby weight.” That's where it started. I've gained a lot more clients of all different ages, background and lots of different circumstances. I’ve been doing it for two and half years now. My programs are in almost every state in the country and I have a blast doing it. I'm a little bit selfish in the way that I work—I like to have fun. Sometimes I'm like, “I'm just going to work. I'm not going to do all this other stuff because I enjoy working.” So that's where Marci Barker Fitness started. AS: Okay. MB: I'll be in it for the long haul—be here forever. 2 AS: What experiences did you have in your youth or childhood that led you to believe that you could be a leader? MB: I think gained a lot of strength from the fact that I was married so young. That's from anybody who knew me—knew that that's what I wanted to do is get married and be a mom. Because I did that and fulfilled that goal, I was kind of like, “Okay, I'm awesome. I did something.” I married into a family that really valued education. I felt really good graduating college and I tell everybody that was a bonus because I didn't plan on doing that. I think leadership kind of just stemmed from my dad—my family. My dad was a state legislator for a long time. I also had a little sister that copied me with everything. That's why I was like, “Okay, I'm doing something right.” I was the student body president in eighth grade and that came from out of the eight kids in my family. All of us, but one were student body officers. We just had a knack for leading people and speaking our opinion and getting to know people. That was something that my dad always taught us. We'd go out on campaign. We'd hand deliver all of his fliers and we'd talk to whoever was outside. I really liked that. Being a mom at eighteen— I had all these four little ducklings following me. I had to step into it. I like it. AS: Okay, what are your core values? MB: My business is around fun and sustainable. I really think that anything you do in your life should be enjoyable and something that you can do for a long time. My core values are of course my family. That's something that's going to be here. It's constant. I'll be here forever. I include my family in everything that I do. 3 Another core value is service. Helping other people, because having four girls, people are like, “Oh I feel so bad for you.” I'm like, “It can't be that bad.” I have to find some way to teach my girls that it's not about them. That life is not going to revolve around them. I didn't want selfish daughters. I get out and serve. That's something that I really love to do. I love to do that with my kids— service but also hard work. Growing up, because there were eight kids in my family—it's not that my parents didn't want to help me, they just couldn't do it. I worked four jobs at one point and paid for all of my sporting events, my car, my insurance and all of that stuff. Hard work has definitely made me who I am. It's kind of fun to be running a successful business and being like, “Hey, I'm a mom and I have four kids.” Family, service, hard work—it's what I love. AS: How have they influenced your leadership experiences or abilities? MB: I think if you can educate people first and serve them, then they'll naturally gravitate towards what you do. I find that that's really been beneficial for me in my business is just being who I am. If people like it, they'll join in. If they don't, I don't need those kind of people around me anyway. I like to serve and help people and have fun at the same time—and you know making money on top of that is just a bonus. Money creates opportunities for me to continue to do that— more often and in bigger ways, AS: Name a person who has had a tremendous impact on you as a leader. 4 MB: I worked with a man at my church and he was a really good leader. The biggest thing that made him such a great leader is he always pointed out the good in people and sandwiching it with something they needed to work on. He always had another perspective of how something could be done. He always led with love, you never felt like you sucked. You never felt like you were failing. You always felt like, “Okay, I can do that and I can do better.” That was something I really loved about it—not saying that I have mastered that at all. But, I would love to, and I just remember always feeling loved in that situation. That's something that I try to do with people that I work with and my clients. Because nobody is getting anything done unless they really want to, and they love it and want to move forward. AS: Why and how did this person impact your life generally and your leadership abilities specifically? MB: One, he was kind. It's kind of crazy. His wife was the exact opposite. When I interacted with them, I felt like there was two different extremes in the way that I felt. I realized that if I could create an opportunity for somebody to feel amazing around me. Then I don't need to tell them what to do. They already know what direction they need to move in, based on how they feel. Because, you don't want to work with people who are forced to do something. It's never going to work out in a good way anyway—being forced to do it. In my leadership, I try to be the kind of person that makes people feel good. Hopefully I do that. I like to think I do a really good job with that, but I'm not everybody's cup of tea 5 AS: What do you see as the biggest challenges of being a woman leader in Northern Utah? MB: Specifically, in this area I feel like it's very easy to just say I 'm just going to be a mom. I don't have any problems with people who want to stay at home and be a mother. However, I feel like there are so many more people you can impact than just within the walls of your home. For me, I think a challenge is the pressure to be a stay at home mom. Especially being young and having all of my kids here—so young. Sometimes I'm like, “What if I was just a stay at home mom?” But, then I could never imagine my life that way because I'm so outgoing and I love talking to people and I thrive in that area. I really need to go out and use it. I could see how some people are like, “She's too busy.” But, I include my kids. I love it. AS: What do you do to overcome these challenges? MB: I tell myself I'm awesome. I recognize that I can do great in so many areas. It doesn't have to be just one thing. That's really what I do though. I tell myself I'm the best mom and my business will speak for itself. If you're doing well, then you know you're doing something right. Same thing, if you're doing it well, it will speak for itself. My kids just need a little bit of training. I've trained them to say, “You're the best mom.” That's what gets me over it. If, I felt like I was failing in one of those areas, I would definitely have to take a step back but I feel like I'm doing a really good job. It feels really good to be successful at both. But it doesn't happen on accident. I'm doing good. 6 AS: What advice would you give emerging young women leaders in order to be successful? MB: You have to love it. I think whatever you go into, you definitely need to love it. Just because I have a degree in physical education and health, doesn't mean I'm going to be successful at that. I definitely did not love it. Also, you got to have a support system because there are some many things that I am successful at, only because I have help. I mean a clean kitchen, I had somebody come and help me yesterday. If kids would behave—like I have a friend that helps me out. Because, I can't do everything. If you want to grow and progress in any area, there's no way you can possibly do it all on your own. Because you don't know what you don't know. My number one tip is get support and understand that if you want to grow, you're going to need help. AS: What other insights can you share about being a woman leader in Northern Utah? MB: There's so many resources out there. All you have to do is research them. Talk to people, it's all about who you know. I go to business meetings quite frequently and sometimes I don't even know the purpose of them. I'm like, “I'm going to go learn something. I'm going to meet somebody new.” So I've become a mentor that way. Somebody noticed my skills and they said, “We really need your help but you should really come to our meetings.” That was a good way for me to grow my business and grow my skillset. When I did a huge event for my business, there were people that spoke at my event that I had never known ahead of time. Like, I went to a meeting, we networked, we talked, and then I 7 said, “Oh, this would be a great fit for what I'm doing.” The biggest insight or tip I could give is just research. There’re so many resources out there that want to help people grow a business. You're never in it alone, even though sometimes it feels like it. There's always somebody out there can help you. AS: Ok. Well, thank you for sharing memories with us. We appreciating you letting us come in and visit with you. MB: Anytime, I’ll always be here. 8