About Brent and Marker 90

A little about me

I’m Brent DeRidder, a business strategist, sales trainer, organizational developer, writer and hands-on problem solver based in Hampstead, North Carolina. I grew up in a commercial fishing family. I’m a husband, a father and a country boy who was born with a silver tongue—and eventually figured out how to put it to work.

Most Marker 90 work is handled directly by me. When a project needs extra hands or specialized experience, I bring in a small trusted team and stay personally involved.

Marker 90 starts with the owner—not a list of services.

Most small-business owners are focused on turning their passion into a paycheck. They know their work and the life they’re trying to build. What they often don’t know is whether they need marketing, better organization, legal help, stronger sales, more visibility, a website, better systems—or something they don’t have a name for yet.

I don’t begin with a generic audit and a stack of recommendations. I get to know you: why the business matters, what you want it to become, what you’re great at, where you struggle, what you’ve already tried and what the business can realistically support. Then we identify the real need, decide what should happen first and help build it.

I learned this work by doing it.

My experience includes record-setting sales, business development, political and grassroots organizing, nonprofit leadership, disaster relief, training, writing, public communication, coalition building, events, fundraising and organizational development.

During the first week of my first sales job, I broke the company’s monthly sales record and reached an entire regional monthly quota within five days. The company raised its quotas the following month. I later moved into supervision, employee training, performance coaching and team development.

I’ve built organizations and local chapters, led political and grassroots work at local and state levels, advised national campaigns, trained organizers across multiple states, built coalitions across deep disagreements, developed curricula and operating systems, organized conventions and public events and written speeches, articles and white papers.

I’ve also managed nonprofit operations and fundraising, supported volunteers and donors and still lead a disaster-relief organization working in situations where the plan has to survive contact with reality.

Business problems rarely stay in one lane.

A business may ask for marketing when the real problem is the offer. It may ask for organization when the owner is carrying work nobody else has been trained to handle. It may think it needs “to get out there” when the message is unclear or the follow-up is broken.

My strongest work is understanding people, finding the problem behind the problem and turning a plan into something useful: an offer, sales process, website, content, workflow, training program, event, partnership or operating system.

Serious help should be available before success makes it affordable.

Businesses often can’t afford the help they need until they no longer need it. That’s the gap Marker 90 was built to close.

Pricing is intentionally flexible for small businesses. That may mean reduced fees, smaller projects, payments over time or performance-based arrangements when the outcome can be measured fairly.

Corporate clients and larger, well-funded organizations pay fair market value. Their work helps cover the time and expertise that lets Marker 90 offer dramatically reduced pricing to small businesses with more passion than budget. In plain English: larger clients help pick up part of the tab.

A little more about the person doing the work

Outside my white-collar life, I’ve been a commercial fisherman, canine behaviorist, animal rescuer, shelter manager and furniture mover. I’ve built, landscaped, demolished, cleaned, farmed and taught. That range keeps me grounded in the lives of the owners Marker 90 was built to serve.

Unless it’s raining, my office is a plastic folding table in my backyard. My uniform is blue jeans, a T-shirt, a Wrangler cap and boots. When I’m not consulting, I’m usually helping my wife or father with their businesses, my daughter with her farm or my community through disaster relief and homeless outreach.

I like to serve. I like to show off a little too.

Start it. Fix it. Build it. Grow it.