Marissa Levin is 27 year. Entrepreneur speaker globally recognized growth strategists Renaissance lifetime legacy mission is to educate, equip and empower a hundred million entrepreneurs and leaders with the skill sets and mindsets. They need to reach the greatest potential. That’s a good thing. That’s what we’re doing here with this.

We’re going to help you reach your greatest potential here at the GPG. So Marissa is the author of the number one bestselling book, built to scale. How top companies create breakthrough growth through exceptional advisory. Except we don’t have an advisor, I guess, you know, there’s a couple of us or advisory board, I guess we put together our own advisory board ran a, you also authored, my company rocks eight secrets to a growth driven culture and is contributing author to you at work, unlocking human potential in the workplace.

Finally, Marissa is a leadership columnist for Inc magazine and is the co-host of the culture podcast where CEOs, leaders, and employees. Learn how to create exceptional work environments and successfully adapt to external shifts that impact organizational cultures. Additionally, Marissa has been recognized with a number of awards for success as a CEO.

In fact, at Marrissa, I was looking at all your CEO words you like in the CEO hall of fame. I thank you. It’s like, it’s just ridiculous. I can’t read them all. It’s nuts. So listen, there’s a lot of things I want to talk to you about personally. But the objective here is to see what we can do to help real estate agents, sales professionals in a changing world.

I call it a post pandemic world. I don’t think I made that phrase up, but we’re talking about sales in the post pandemic world. And there’s a lot that we can focus on today in terms of your career, the success you’ve had, you know, the importance of PR, you know, in talking to you and getting to know you, the importance of purpose, value, mindset, all that kind of stuff.

But you know, we can focus on process, which we do a lot here on the mastermind meetings and spoken up focused on process, how you’re doing things, you know, when you’re doing them, all that type of stuff. But it’s more important to focus on this and this for sure. And what’s in here and what’s in here.

Yeah. So we’re going to do that. And I think he can give us a lot of perspective on this. So, Marissa, I know I said, I read part of your bio there, but can you get us silver barista just real quick. Can you give us a brief overview on your story and your journey as an entrepreneur and now. As a mentor to business women, which you are, you absolutely are.

Yeah. So why don’t you give us just a brief overview? I don’t need to go too in depth, but just, what your journey looked like as an entrepreneur. Sure. So thank you for having me. I’m really happy to be here and excited to be able to kick you off with a strong mindset going into 2021. So I, 53 and, about 30 years ago, I decided to start my first company.

I have an undergraduate degree in English and a master’s degree in organizational development and curriculum design. And I started my first company about 30 years ago because the, the boss that I worked with. he kept my worth at $34,000. When I went in and I asked for a raise, I had, quantify what my worth was.

I did a business case. I learned how much he was making on me by triple billing me on clients. I realized what my value was in the market. And you know, my mom, left me with a very important message and she said, you never let anyone else determine your value or your. And so when he kept me at $34,000, that was the lesson that flooded my mind at that moment.

And I was an undergraduate degree, English major with a concentration in Shakespeare. I literally had no business experience, but what I knew was that I didn’t want to work for someone who didn’t value me. I didn’t want to allow someone else to determine my worth and we have that power. We own that. Right.

And that decision to not let others dictate to us what we’re worth in the marketplace, what we’re worth in this lifetime. So it was really in that moment. That I just decided if I’m going to build the life that I wanted to build, I had to own that I had to take responsibility for that. And it truly was in that moment that I knew I was going to start my own company.

And this was 30 years ago. There was no LinkedIn, there were no amazing mastermind groups and. You know, Facebook groups and there was really nothing for women either. I was, you know, a 23 year old woman, who has been marginalized routinely in the, in the, in the workplace, both the place where I worked as well as with customers and, you know, stepping into my power at that point at 23 was a really bold thing.

But what was my alternative to work somewhere where I wasn’t valued, where I was going to be capped monetarily as well as intellectually, emotionally, where all my growth was going to be kept. So I chose to step into the unknown because at least in the unknown I could create what I wanted. Right.

So it was at that moment that I started my own company. And, my first contract, when that company, I made more in that one, a four month contract, $35,000, that what my boss had kept me at my worst for my annual sales. And so that really was what my motivator was, I knew, I didn’t know what I really wanted, but I knew what I didn’t want.

And I knew even back then, you know, the work that we do now and the way I built my first company, information experts, which I built about $15 million before I exited that 10 years ago. I knew that my core value system, my moral compass, my true north, what I felt inside my heart and my soul and how I made the decisions in my life.

I knew that that is what was going to drive me. I didn’t learn that in business class. I didn’t learn that in an online course. I took that from my soul. What did, what mattered to me? What did I stand for? Why was I not willing to come? And that became the foundation and the basis of my first company.

It was those core values of how I wanted to show up with the people that I eventually were going to hire. And the people that are eventually going to support the people I was going to work with and work for it all started with my core value system. And then from there I went onto my mission. Why am I here?

What drives me? What’s more important to me than. What’s my vision, what’s the impact that I can be making in the world. And so it was all about the core values, the mission and the vision. And that was really the foundation of building information experts. And that company, when I was running it for almost 20 years.

It took so many twists and turns. There were times where I had to pull it back from bankruptcy or the brink of bankruptcy, because we were in the government space and when you’re in the government space, you’re at the mercy of presidential and government and congressional agendas. And so if you’re not ready to pivot on a dime and remain relevant, you can go out of.

And I had to pivot that business seven different times in order to stay relevant. The thing about being a visionary, it isn’t just about being a visionary for how you see your company and where you see yourself going, but being a visionary about where the world is going and how can you stay two steps ahead of that?

Because it doesn’t matter how great. Your product or services. It doesn’t matter how great you are at your job. If you’re not relevant in the marketplace, you’re going to be obsolete. You’re going to go out of business. So the ability to adapt and to be flexible and to not get too attached. To your own secret sauce to not drink too much of your Kool-Aid is really important for you to be able to be pivot, to be able to pivot and to be flexible and to stay relevant and current.

And I think if there’s one thing that 2020 has taught all of us, it’s that. The world has a way of pulling the rug out from under us when we least expect it. And our ability to accept that change as quickly as possible in that moment to release what we no longer can hold onto to release the vision that we had for ourselves to release those ideas.

And embrace the new reality, our ability to step into our new reality in any moment that is going to make the difference between whether you sink or whether you. And a lot of what we went through in 2020 followed the grieving process. I’m sure many of you can relate to that, that we were all chugging along and you have to remember that what was going on in 2020 from an economic standpoint, we thought that was the normal.

That wasn’t normal. That was the best job market. In 50 years, college graduates were getting five and six different job offers. My oldest son graduated last year. He had multiple job offers. She’s working for Deloitte now, but he had multiple job offers, which is not normal. We were in a very elevated environment.

And what 2020 did was give us a pretty harsh reset. And so what we have to remember if there’s anything that we take away from 2020. It’s that life can pull the rug out from under us at any time. And how can we be ready to not only pivot, but to embrace the changes that are super important. And I learned from, Brian Buffini, who is in your space as well.

I listened to one of his podcasts about Phoenix rising and rising from the ashes. And he said something so brilliant. And it was as a 27 year business owner. I can vouch for this, that life is going to throw his curve balls. And we have to look at our businesses, even when things are going well, as if we’re only in between crises, like we’re all going to come out with.

Right. And we’re going to emerge and we’re going to be stronger. And you all learn that you’re a lot more resilient than you thought you were. You’re a lot more innovative. You’re a lot more creative. You’re a lot more adaptable. You’re a lot more flexible than you ever thought you were. This is not going to be your last rodeo.

When it comes to having the rug pulled out from under you, we don’t know what it’s going to look like. It might be another pandemic. It might be a recession. It might be a housing crisis. We don’t know, but what we can be a hundred percent certain of is that the shit’s going to hit the fan again at some point.

We know that. So how are you going to take the lessons that you learned from 2020 and make sure that when it happens again, you are ready. Remember we are only just in between crises and as long as you do take that perspective, which means putting money away for a rainy day. One of the things that we noticed with a lot of the clients that we were working with when this pandemic hit is they were.

They were not ready financially. They had not put reserves away. They had purchased Lino. They were renting space and they had leases that they could afford based on the level of revenue they were bringing in like these trophy office spaces. And they were right at the level of their revenues that they were bringing in.

So that means when their revenues disappeared. They were screwed. They had the hustle to try and just stay afloat. You never want to be in a place where you were just hustling to stay afloat. You want to be in a place where you’ve got a little bit of reserves. So in the event that there is another correction or a separate one.

You’re good. You’ve got a cushion and you’re ready to pivot, and you’re not going to be in a place of desperation when you’re making decisions, because we can’t make good decisions when we’re in a valley. And we should never make decisions when we’re on a peak. Either our best decisions are made when we are in the middle of, we are even when we are stable and we are, we are centered when we are in the, in the valley.

When we are in a place of desperation and feeling. Worst time to make a decision. So how can you fortify yourself? How can you strengthen yourself so that you’re not in that position ever again? So that’s just, you know, those are just some of the lessons moving into 2021. What are you going to make? Sure.

What are you going to do to make sure? That you are fortified that you are strong financially, emotionally, spiritually, physically, intellectually. What are you going to do to make sure that you are strong? That’s gotta be the driver for 2021. Yeah. Okay. Hold on. There’s a lot to break down here. There’s a lot to break down here.

There were a couple of lessons there. One is that, you know, you, you talked about. You know how you, how you started your own company, because you didn’t want somebody else to determine your worth. The funny thing is, that’s why most people get into real estate. You know, everybody on this call today is in that very position, right?

You control how much money you make. Right. Being a real estate agent can be very lucrative. You can be average, you know, it doesn’t matter, right? Point is we control our destiny as sales agents. So hopefully you’re paying attention to what Marissa is saying here, because there’s a million takeaways there.

No, honestly like that, that’s a really good breakdown now, w I, you kinda glossed over this a little bit, but you, you started your company with $35,000 and it grew to an eight figure. No, at 35 grand and it grew to an eight figure. Right. Not breaking down all the challenges you had, but what would you say was the biggest contributor to your success and building a business from the ground up?

Like, you know, what are maybe one or two things that were the biggest contributors to the fact that that was a successful business starting here and then. Not quitting. That’s right. Yeah. And like my book talks about, surrounding yourself with exceptional people is really, really important. You know, the thing about building your first company.

I always say it’s like building a plane while you’re flying it. I mean, you’re literally. Hearing it every day, every minute of every day. And like, you’re just hoping the wind doesn’t fall off or that you’re going in the right direction. Because you were really figuring things out as you’re going along.

But reaching out, I mean, I am so passionate about reaching out to the right mentors. I, I mean, I used to say if I could, you know, I live in the DC area and if they had billboards around the beltway, If I could put a billboard up that said, I need help, I would do it. I’m constantly reaching out for help.

And when I have a question and there’s no ego in it, I just want to know how other people have solved the problem. Tony Robbins has a great quote that it’s never a lack of resources, but a lack of resourcefulness that holds us back. Never a lack of resources. It’s a lack of resourcefulness. I just truly believe that everything is figure out-able, you know, it doesn’t matter what the problem is.

We can figure it out. And when we are in a tough spot or a challenge, I can promise you, you are not the first person that is solving this problem. You are not. So how can you go out and find the people that have already overcome what you’re trying to overcome and achieve what you’re trying to achieve?

They are out there, but you won’t connect with them. If you don’t put it out. So that’s why it’s so important to be comfortable with asking for help. And, you know, I’m a member of so many different, extraordinary communities. I’m a member of Maverick, run by Yanik silver. I’m a member of the cadre. EO, if you’re, you know, EO has so many forums online and I’m always on there.

You know, as soon as I have a question, whether it’s, Hey, I need this type of expert, or has anyone ever been in this position? I go straight to my EO communities for everything. Now the clubhouse, you know, I mean, I think we’ll figure out the best strategy to use. But there are some really powerful conversations going on in the clubhouse.

And like I said, follow me on that Marissa Levin. I was able to grab my name. So follow me on that, and because I’m going to be leading a lot of the different conversations too, and I’ll take you out with me. So having, you know, having the mindset of, of asking for help. We will never know all that we need to know to be our best.

We just, we just won’t, we won’t even know what we need to know to be our best and our mindset and the way we look at things, it’s just one truth. It’s one story. And so we have to make sure that we’re surrounding ourselves with enough people that can fill in the blanks for us. That’s really the most important thing.

Yeah. A good point. The, yeah. It’s interesting. When you talked about everything, what did you say? Figure out-able I think, yeah, TM, TM there. So along the way, I mean, how did you handle adversity in doubt? How did you do that? And I’m, I’m really, really transparent with my journey. So, I’ve always born.

On a spiritual path. It’s not something that I embarked on because I had a crisis of identity or crisis of consciousness, or, you know, found myself in a difficult place. I was just born with a high intuition, higher level of consciousness, highly empathic. And so the spiritual realm and that, and that way of just existing, has always been.

Kind of in my essence. But my spiritual journey on my spiritual path has been a lifeline for me without a doubt. I mean right here, these, these are my buddies, right. I have two little Buddhists sitting right next to me. They don’t go anywhere. So I, that’s just something for me, the spiritual realm, but also, and I’m very public about this, you know, I’ve been, I have been in and out of.

Therapy with the same therapist for almost 20 years. And I’ve written about that. And the reason that I do that is because my sessions with her, they provide a lot of insight into my pattern. My conscious unconscious patterns and the way I approach things. And she gives me a lot of strategies on how to handle things when things get difficult.

And so I’m a huge proponent of making sure that our mental health and wellbeing is protected to take a very proactive, preemptive approach to it, not waiting until we’re in a crisis mode, but, you know, it’s kinda like. We don’t want to just go to a bank when we need a loan. Right? I mean, banks like to lend us umbrellas when it’s sunny, right?

We’d want to have that relationship when we don’t need money. We want to make sure that that is in place. So in the event that we do need to access additional funding, we’ve got it at our fingertips. I kind of look at therapy in the same way. We don’t seek out a therapist when we are in a crisis.

We align ourselves with a really good therapist counselor, when we’re feeling really good and we go in there and we say, look, you know, because it takes a while to establish that relationship, right? I mean, we want to go to a couple and we want to make sure that we’ve aligned with them emotionally and philosophically.

And you know, that we, we feel comfortable with them. So doing that again and getting back to what I said, not making major decisions when we’re in a valley or on a peak, but in the. And establishing the really important relationships, those lifelines doing that when we’re in the middle of night, when we’re desperate.

So it’s the same thing with hiring people. You know, I, when I ran my company, I was all about 24 7 consistent hiring because I wanted to know who it was, who was out there when I didn’t need them so that I could make decisions, not based from a place of need or emotional. But based on a place of does this person align with my values, right?

So, and where I’m taking the company. So the therapist, we want to do the same thing. You don’t need to be in crisis to go find a therapist. This is, this could literally be one of the most important relationships of your life. And so. Establishing that, I mean, you know, I can remember on my birthday one year, my therapist said, you know, our next appointment is supposed to fall on your birthday.

Do you want to skip it? And I looked at her and I said, why would I want to skip it? That’s the best present. I’m going to spend a whole hour talking about me. I definitely want to come on my birthday. You know? So this is how I moved through my challenges. Spirituality therapy reaching out for help. I do a lot of work on myself, just, you know, coming home, like self love and self compassion and trying to be easy on myself and love myself as much as I love others.

And it’s just, we’re all a work in progress, you know, it’s, none of us are perfect and just peeling back the onion all the time and, and being willing to do that. Yeah, I hope everybody is paying attention to this. You know, as real estate agents are sales professionals, you know, some of us are in leadership positions and things like that.

You know, sometimes we’re playing head shrinks too. Right. We are the therapist for our clients. But what Marissa is saying is like, think about your own mental state, right? And you, you know, the holistic approach to your business, the whole body, right? The mind and heart, it’s really important. And we’re going to be talking about this a lot more in the coming weeks at our mastermind meetings.

Cause I think, I think our mindset, our motivation, or why, all that, you know, our core values, our principles, all those things are gonna come into play, over the next year. I think that’s super important now. Marissa. Here’s the question, the question that everybody wants the answer to: work-life balance, does it even exist?

And if so, can you tell the mothers, the fathers, you know, the spouses out there that want to be successful real estate agents and at the same time, not neglect their family responsibilities, what they can do to handle the demands of that? That’s a great question. I would say it’s work-life integration.

Yeah. No work life balance because when we use the word balance, we think of the need and I’m a Libra. So I’m really, really attuned to balance with the scales. But when we think of balance, we think 50 50 has to be even right. Work-life integration is much more attainable because that gives us the room and the permission to know that one day you might be all work and no, no family, right?

Like if you’re traveling for. You’re all work. Right. But then there might be another day where you’re taking off because you’re spending the day with your family, right? So it’s about work-life integration. Now, my kids are 20 and 23 and I get asked this question all the time, because you know, my first business is I’m 27 years old now.

So I literally was raising my children as I was building my business. And there’s a lot of parallels to that, but, you know, What’s really important. First of all, is that we don’t compare ourselves to others because what we see on social media and what we think other people are doing, we don’t know that whole story at all.

We do not know what goes on behind closed doors. We do not know the challenges that other families faced. We have no idea. We’re only comparing ourselves to the best version of what we’re seeing that they’re putting out there. And so we have to be okay with making the decisions that are best for us. I can tell you that when I was running my company, I sacrificed a lot of growth for the development of my children.

That was the decision I made. I had to decide, am I developing my To the potential or am I developing my children? And for me that meant that I, you know, I had some childcare on and off, you know, I had a little bit of part-time help, but there were times where I thought, okay, I’m going to outsource my children.

And I even tried it a few times and it just crushed. Like it crushed my heart to think that a nanny was picking up my son after TaeKwonDo. And I wasn’t going to be the first one to see him after his day or my older son, when we were driving him to the orthodontist I wanted at the time with him in the car.

I didn’t want to outsource that because it’s in the car that those magical conversations happen. Right. So. It’s making those decisions and being really intentional and being really cognizant of what is important to you in that moment. And knowing that eventually you’re going to be able to give back to your business.

I mean, my kids are 20 and 23, right. It’s my time. So they’re raised, I did it, but when you’re in the middle of it and you also don’t know what challenges you’re going to have with your kids. So. Giving yourself permission to, mix it up and to change, change your mind. And to know that, you know, if you’re not a hundred percent present with your business, because you need to be with your children or you choose to be with your children, that’s great.

But when you make a choice, when you know that you’re with your children, be with your children, be with your children, don’t be on the phone. Don’t be holding a conference call while you’re on the sidelines at a soccer game. If you’re going to choose to be where you are, be there for them. B they’re fully present.

Otherwise don’t be there because you’re, you’re, you’re just, you know, you’re sacrificing your time. I mean, choose, choose where you are in that moment. And that was one thing that I really learned how to do, you know, like if I was with my children, I wasn’t working. I was not available. I was with my children and if I was working, my children knew that I was working.

So rather than torture yourself by saying, okay, I’m going to be with my children at this birthday party, or I’m going to be at this activity, but I’m going to take a conference call from the sidelines. That’s not, that’s not multitasking. Well, that’s not being present. And there’s. Yeah, that’s interesting.

I think, I think you’re right. I think some, some, you know, entrepreneurial, you know, entrepreneurs, parents that we, we, we do torture ourselves sometimes. Right? We do. We, yeah. But yeah. So being intentional, I think that’s a good takeaway for sure. Now, listen, this is interesting. There’s, there’s a lot of, you know, agents on the call here who may be brand new to the industry or they’ve pivoted.

Right. They’ve pivoted the brand of the industry, but you know, or they’re changing careers, the brand new here, like we have a couple of new agents on which we’ll introduce the end, my bad for not doing it at the beginning, my bad. But, you know, they’re new here or they’re starting a new career. They’re, you know, they’re in the, you know, the first few years of their new career.

What advice would you give these ones about reinventing themselves or pivoting from a previous career or starting. Like reinventing now. Okay. Again, getting back to surrounding yourself with people that can, right. Mentorship is, and I actually wrote an in column about how to know that you’re ready for a mentor and how to approach a mentor and how to find a mentor.

So, Dave, I’ll make sure that I send that to you and you can send that out. Okay. you know, being, and this comes from my spiritual practice because I’ve been a student of Buddhism for 15, 20 years. I approach everything with a beginner’s mind. Beginner’s mind. And it’s a beautiful thing because it keeps you open to learning so much.

It’s a beautiful thing to reinvent and rebrand. I’ve done it multiple, multiple times. It gives you a full, clean slate. So, you know, if you’re new at this industry just lean into it, embrace it, know that you have so much coming at you. That is so good. You have so much goodness to look forward to and so much growth to look forward to and know that the people that surround you.

They reflect who you are. And if you’ve got people in your life who are kind of like the naysayers, and I’ve written about this a lot, what I call the haters, you know, the people who say, why are you starting over now? Don’t, you know, they were 30 years old. You shouldn’t be starting over and you should be having a stable job and you should be doing this.

None of that matters. It’s just all noise. We all decide how much we empower the haters in our life. That’s all up to us. There will always be people that don’t believe there will always be people that don’t think like you think, right. I tell my kids life is not a popularity contest at all. It never has been, and it never will.

It never will be. And you know, if, if some people think that you are too much and you will be too much for some people, they’re not your people, not your people. So it’s fine. Let the haters hate, feel compassion for them. You know, put your energy into strong, into, into strong people, positive people.

Another thing that I do, has really gotten me through the pandemic. I mean, I’ve always done it. It is. I’m very cognizant about my content diet. I don’t want to be. I can tell you right now, I’ve never seen Trump in one speech, one debate, one, anything. I literally have never watched him. Ever ever, ever, I just, why would I do that to myself?

Right? Why would I inject that negativity into my aura and into my mind? You know, I just wouldn’t do that. So I’m really cognizant of my content diets. When I’m walking, I’m always listening to great books on audible. I’m listening to a great podcast. I’m really looking for opportunities at any moment to be able to expand in a positive way.

I’m very cognizant about who I surround myself with. So, you know, oh, every moment in our life is sacred. Every moment is an opportunity to grow and to improve and to get in touch with who we are and our soul. And we have to make sure that we don’t allow the noise to come into our realm that is going to disrupt that.

Yeah, it’s funny. I’ve been more intentional about this. You know, people that didn’t know me or Nathan or whatever, like we just consume content like crazy. Like we can’t get enough of it. Like right now I’m literally reading four books right now to sell Nathan this the other day, I’m reading four books, shutting off the news.

Like you really need to control what you’re putting in here. Right. What your bandwidth is carrying. Right. Like it’s super important, you know, the podcast, books, everything. So like, listen, it’s okay to stay, you know, you know, paying attention to what’s happening in the world around you. But, you know, I don’t know if it’s because I’m older now.

Marissa. I don’t know if it’s because I’m older, I’m really paying attention to what, you know, I’m feeding my mind with. So that’s going to be really important. That’s one of the lessons from 2020 is pay attention to what you’re putting in here. I mean, that’s super important. Okay. This next question is interesting because it’s about, you know, so going from, you know, transitioning, reinventing yourself, maybe new in the career.

Now you’ve been in the business for quite a while, right? You’re a sales professional that might’ve stalled or plateaued, or you’re looking for inspiration or motivation in your real estate career. What advice can you give someone, with regards to that, I would say, to listen to yourself, to allow yourself to be silent, even do like maybe a retreat to give yourself the time and space to really pay attention to, what, you’re, what you’re telling yourself.

One of the advice, one of the, exercises that I frequently do. Suggest to my clients, I coach CEOs. And that’s one of the things that I do. And, one of the things that I do with my clients is whenever they are at a crossroads, and I actually, just re I just recorded something on LinkedIn, on the Mar one on LinkedIn.

I just did a five minute video about when you’re at a crossroads and the questions that you should ask yourself and the, and like the things that you should look at. But one of the exercises I do with my clients, Is a stream of consciousness exercise. So when we find ourselves being stuck, take 30 minutes, literally put a timer on 30 minutes where you sit down and you write non-stop, there’s no judgment, there’s no right or wrong.

You write non-stop for 30 minutes about what your challenges are. And you will see that so much will come up both consciously and unconsciously that may be holding you back, or, you know, you may get some epiphany, but this is a great exercise to do. I mean, I’ve even done it with clients when they’ve made the wrong hires.

And I’ve said, well, what have you learned by making the wrong hire? And they’ll tell me some things that are the obvious, you know, like. Oh, well, you know, we’re really a process-oriented organization and, you know, they’re, they don’t like to follow a process or, you know, they’ll they’ll, they came from a large company and we’re a small company.

Like the, the things that are obvious. And I’ll say to him, let’s do this exercise. I want you to take 30 to 45 minutes and tell me everything that went wrong with this hire because in order to prevent it from happening again, you need to know what to look for so that you know what to avoid. And he came back with like three pages of no.

And that all came from the subconscious and the unconscious. And so forcing us to write for 30 minutes when we’re feeling frustrated or we’re at a crossroads so much will come up for you. But, anyone who’s at that point right now, you’re feeling like you’ve hit a plateau or, you know, you’re not sure what direction you should be going in.

How you can get to the next level. I really encourage you. I can send the link to you, David, to look at the five minute little video I did on what happens when you’re at a crossroads. And I actually reference a book called decisive by the brothers Chip and chip and Dan Heath, and they talk about four different.

Like, monsters or for, you know, for different types of people or, or situations that can get in the way of making the right decisions. It’s really, really good. So, yeah. Cool. Interesting takeaways are you were talking about, not internalizing it right when you hit that plateau on the newest podcast guys with Charlie tuna.

Yes. I’m segwaying into Charlie tuna here. You talked about when he has writer’s block, which is similar, he just starts scribbling. And he said that was one of the processes. He was taught. One of the methods he was taught is that when he stopped and he can’t get through a writer’s block or his creativity stalled, he starts to like, X, you know, externalize it, not internalize it, but he starts to scribble and write things down.

That kind of sounds like what you’re talking about, where you write it all down, almost like a, you know, like a diary. Right. And then, you know, like, yeah, you can turn, realize this stuff. You gotta like, get it out and see what you know. And that’ll lead to the inspiration or, you know, you put your thoughts down on paper and that it’s amazing what comes out of that.

I mean, I journal daily and that’s huge. Like I’m sure many of you can relate to this. Like you’re lying in bed at night and you can’t sleep and you’ve got like things going through your mind and. You know, you’re anxious and you’re holding all of this energy, you know, in your body and, and, and you need to get it out somewhere.

I promise you, if you turn on your light and you reach for your journal and you just start writing all of it, everything that you’re feeling and everything that you’re thinking, if you get it out in a journal, you will be able to go to. Like you will just get it out and, and when we’re able to get it out, it’s not nearly as scary, you know, it’s much more manageable and, oh shoot.

I wanted to show you. I have, but it’s in the other room. There’s a great journal. Yanik. Silver has a journal out and it’s the cosmic journal. It is so good. It is so good. And I highly recommend getting that on Amazon. Awesome. Okay. So we got two questions, two questions. We, we, we touched on it at the beginning of our discussion.

But no matter what profession you’re in or what you do, how important is it to live with intention and stay true to your core purpose? Or, you know, as Simon Sinek would call it, why? Like, why is this so important? Like why do we get up in the morning and make those calls to our clients? Why do we close?

You know what I mean? Like how important it is to pay attention to your core principles and purpose. It’s just everything. It’s our essence. Right. I’ve actually created a whole life vision document and what my core values are. My rules of engagement for life, which I follow by Wayne Dyer.

He’s got five different principles. And then, Don Miguel Ruiz, which is the four agreements. I talk about what I need in my life. You know, I need to be in nature. Strong connection. I need to learn. I need to explore other cultures and get to know other people. Like I need community. I wrote down, I did a whole life vision journal, documents.

And then for this year for 2021, I came up with eight or nine different affirms. I came up with eight or nine different intentions, and then I created affirmations behind all of those. And then I talked about the elements of my life. Spiritually intellectually, emotionally, physically, financially, what, what am I going to do to create those outcomes that I want?

And how is it going to manifest? So like for spirituality, right? What am I going to do? I’m going to spend more time on my cushion. Right? I meditate daily, but I want to even increase the number of minutes and hours on my question everyday. I do retreat. I, I’m constantly learning whether it’s through the podcasts or through reading or through, you know, engaging with different online communities.

What are the things I’m going to do to continue nurturing my spirituality? And then how will it manifest? My intuition will expand. I will feel a greater connection to the source. I, you know, my consciousness will be raised. So like, that’s an example of how that. That will manifest. And so I did that for everything.

For spirituality, intellectual development, financial prosperity, my physical health, you know, physical health. I will make sure that I work out every day. I will drink a certain amount of water. I will get a good night’s sleep. I will eat healthy. You know, all those things, I will make sure of that. I’m going to all my doctor’s visits.

I’m very proactive about my health, right? Health is our greatest wealth. So how will that manifest? I’ll have more energy, more vitality. I will not get sick. My immune system will be stronger. So what are the areas in your life? How is, you know, what are the things you’re going to do to hope to mate that and nurture that?

And then how will it manifest? It’s a really good format to use, to create a life of intention. Yeah, that’s awesome. I mean, you talked about community, there, the GPG is like really proud of its community. Our support group. Yeah. Like, this is what we do every week. We know there’s a lot of like, you know, I was talking to somebody yesterday, you know, and they were saying that, you know, they’re new at their company, their brokerage, and they could be given no direction.

They don’t have these weekly, they don’t have any of that stuff. They’re like, they’re frightened, you know? They’re frightened. So I think that sense of community is super important, so stay close. And, and as we say all the time, you know, success leaves clues, you know, the most successful. Are always on these calls, right?

They’re always taking knowledge from, you know, leaders and creatives and visionaries like Marissa. So I think that’s really important. Don’t miss these meetings and they’re going to be even more important this year. Guys. They’re going to be more important. I cannot stress that enough. Okay. Now here’s the final question.

Rissa, what advice would you give a real estate agent going forward ? And the shoes of a real estate professional in 2021 going forward, a post pandemic world, what do they need to think of? Or what advice can you give them? Oh, I know. And I coach many, many realtors, and I’ve also been on the receiving end of buying multiple houses.

So I’m going to step into that place. You know, you’re in the beautiful position of helping people achieve their Jean dreams. Like, I mean, you’re, you’re allowing them to have home ownership. You’re allowing them to create a space to raise a family or, you know, the, I mean, the work that you’re doing is sacred.

And I would say that I would recommend that you never forget, you always remember the sacredness of what you’re doing. Like state acts and, and, you know, I’ve coached so many realtors and I understand the difficulty and the hardship of your, of your profession. I mean, you know, you have to work 24 7.

You’re dealing with emotionally volatile clients. You. You know, dealing with the ups and downs and the under-predictability of the marketplace. And you’ve got to be at the mercy of other vendors and of other realtors. And, you know, you’re dealing with so many difficult things, but the work that you’re doing is truly sacred.

I mean, you’re helping people step up and step into a whole different life. For some people. It may be the first time they’ve ever owned a home. And so I would say that when things get difficult, go back to why you’re doing it. Why you’re doing it and remember the important role that you’re playing in someone’s life and the trust that they have, you know, turn over to you.

They’re entrusting you with one of their biggest decisions. And that’s what I would recommend is that when we can give back to our why, and we stay connected to our mission, that is what propels us to get back on course. What you’re doing, guys, if you paid attention to Marissa there, pay close attention.

Write this down. What you’re doing. Is what you’re doing sacred? And if you talk to agents that have been in the business a minute, you know, one of the most rewarding things that you can do is help someone with the biggest purchase of their life. You know, the biggest sale of their life, you know, their livelihoods tied up in their, their equity, you know, memories, things like that.

And always think, you know, we talk about this too, you know, when you’re marketing properties, you know, when you’re in the professional marketing, Business think of the benefits, not the features. You know, we tend to focus on the features of a, of a property or, or, you know, the features of this for our clients, but think of the benefits for your clients, what you’re doing to help them.

Right. So what you’re doing is sacred. Marissa. I can’t. Thank you enough for your perspective, going into 20, 20, 21 big round of applause for Marissa. That was awesome. Thank you so much for this. I really.