18. From Stressed & Disconnected To Peaceful & Free with Marisa van Staden

In this week’s episode I have the pleasure of talking to one of my Money On Purpose alumni, Marisa van Staden. Marisa is an entrepreneur, a wife, and a mother of two who felt that the day-to-day grind of being all things to everyone had worn her down. Even though she had everything “on paper”, she wasn’t enjoying her life.

It took deciding to prioritise her own wellbeing and taking a chance on doing the Money On Purpose program to turn things around for her, and so today we discuss:

·       How she changed her belief system that had her always putting herself last

·       How honesty with yourself is the game-changer in getting what you truly want 

·       The one practice that is producing better quality of her creative work

·       How she’s now getting drastically more done in less time  

·       What has made her a better mom and enjoy motherhood to the fullest

·       The priceless result of a healthy, happy family life being her new normal

·       How she manifested a holiday beach house that felt out of reach

So many of us will recognise ourselves in Marisa, which is why I′m so excited for you to hear her story. I′m inspired by her courage, her honesty, and in awe of what she has manifested for not only herself, but her whole family. Please join us in this most inspiring conversation.

Did you find this episode valuable? Share it on social and tag me @karenc.powell and Marisa @chillipinkcreative

Love the show? Leave a 5-star review and let me know what resonated most with you.

Resources:

Money On Purpose 

Marisa’s website: www.chillipinkcreative.com

Join my in-person facilitation of The Artist's Way in Windhoek, Namibia.
Click here for details.

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Transcript

Episode #17: From Stressed & Disconnected To Peaceful & Free with Marisa van Staden

Welcome to the Make Money Living Your Purpose Podcast, I′m Prosperity Coach Karen Powell and this is the podcast for heart-centred leaders, innovators and creatives who dream of leaving their nine-to-five to pursue their passion project, but don′t know where to start. I′m sharing my proven process that will help you heal your money mindset and figure out your own unique purpose in life. Let′s go!

Karen: Hey there, welcome back to the show. I am doing something special for you. For the next few weeks I'm interviewing members of my Money On Purpose community so that you can get some insights on what it means to clear out your money blocks, open yourself up to more prosperity and abundance, and learn how to create and manifest your most meaningful and fulfilling lifestyle. 

What does it take? How does it happen? What do you need to learn? What do you need to do? Each interview is showing you a unique experience and unique results, and it's my hope and my intention that you get inspired and motivated to go for your own dreams and explore what's possible for you. So whether you join us for the upcoming round of Money On Purpose or not, my wish for you is that you get the courage to dream bigger than you've ever dreamed before and that you get the support and the encouragement that you need to make those dreams come true. 

I'm very excited to talk with Marisa van Staden today. You're going to see Marisa's energy is contagious. She is so much fun to be around and I always love chatting with her and just soaking up her beautiful positive energy. But Marisa didn't always feel so positive and energetic and she'll be sharing some of her story and her transformation from the Money On Purpose journey. So I just want to welcome Marisa to the show and let's hear a little bit from Marisa. Welcome!

Marisa: Hello, thank you for having me here. I'm Marisa, I'm married and a mommy of two and I am a creative. I used to work in agencies and then in corporate and now I have my own creative design studio and that is me.

Karen: Awesome, thank you so much for being here. I appreciate you so much. You know, I was looking at your testimonial earlier on the Money On Purpose page on my website and it says I was feeling lost, tired and disconnected. In short, not alive. And I was wondering where on earth will I get the time to do this program? But I knew this was the time for me now. 

Now here's the thing, people come to Money On Purpose for different reasons. Some to clear out money blocks, some to clarify their purpose, some to help them transition from their current job or career into something more meaningful and fulfilling. Marisa, why did you come to Money On Purpose? Tell us what was happening in your life then. How were you feeling? The belief system you were operating on? What was the impetus to come to the program, especially when you said, I don't know how in the world I was going to find the time to do this.

Marisa: Wow, that quote takes me way back. I already had my own studio and that was, I think about a year after my son was born and somehow, my route was quite a hectic experience for me at first, and I worked really hard and at that time.I looked at my life and I have this beautiful business supposedly doing what I love. I had two beautiful children. I had a husband. I had a home and I couldn't enjoy any of it. I didn't feel anything. I felt empty. I was at a stage where I was really looking for help and I didn't know where to go. And then your course came by and I'm like, I just had this feeling in my heart, this is the thing I need to try.

Karen: So it's just a feeling of what was going on in your life at the moment, you just wanted a change. You just wanted something different. And if you think back, what was your belief system back then that was getting you into that kind of, I don't know if you want to call it a rut or a, just like you said, you had everything on paper. 

And I think that's so much, you know, the story of so many of us. We are successful, we're doing things. We're creating these lifestyles and this life and the success. And then we're wondering, why does something feel like it's missing? Was there something going on in your life at that time? When you look back at the old you or the former you, what was allowing yourself to do or to believe that was causing those results that you were unhappy with?

Marisa: I didn't think or allow myself to look after myself. I believed I have to be ready for everyone that asks something of me, needs to get that. That's a belief system I used to have. And it was, I did that to such a point that there was nothing left of me. So I had everything on paper, but I couldn't feel it, I couldn't enjoy it, I couldn't appreciate it. 

One of the biggest things in my growth journey was to really understand that I need to look after myself, and not just look after myself, but also heal myself to be able to do what I need to do for others, because that's also important to me. I'm a nurturer by nature. I want to look after everyone, I want to sort out your problems, I want to help where I can. And that was one of the biggest growth points, I think, for me.

Karen: Yeah, giving, giving, giving. Gosh, this is a recurring theme that I'm seeing in some of these interviews that I'm doing is just this giving, giving, giving and putting ourselves last. And if there's any time left over, or any space or any energy left over for anything else, then we try to squeeze something in for ourselves. And of course, that's not going to go very well, is it?

Marisa: Exactly. No, it doesn't, because I can actually see that the quality of my creative work is better since I'm looking better after myself. I am mind-blowingly getting more done in less time workwise. I am definitely a way better mom, more the mom I wanted to be in the first place. It was really a journey for me to embrace motherhood. And now that I have, I really want to be there and I want to be present. And I don't want to be overtired and stressed and snappy all the time. And by giving myself some space and time, I'm a better mom, I'm a better wife, I'm a better creative. And I would not, my belief system just didn't allow for that before.

Karen: So let's get into a little bit of your journey then. How were you able to shift the belief system? Let's talk a little bit about the Money On Purpose journey or anything else that was going on in your life at that time that you were able to intentionally change your beliefs or change the way that you interacted with your life. What can you put that down to?

Marisa: Well, it really is a journey!

Karen: Or maybe the question is what was needing to be healed?

Marisa: Well, it boils down to self-love and self, what's the word? Self-love, self-worth. And I obviously didn't have too much of that. I actually was under the impression that I'm quite a confident person and now in hindsight I can see that that was not the case. I do really start to love myself to be able to make it a priority to care for myself. Does that make sense?

Karen: Yeah, absolutely. And that is the first part of the foundational part of the Money On Purpose journey. So much of it is self care. And we tend to overlook that and say, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll get to the self care once I've got more time, or once I feel better about myself. And it actually is the opposite. We have to look at our life as a holistic sphere and that it's not a pie that gets cut into slices and I'll do some self care over here on the weekend or I'll do a little bit of meditation here or there or I'll take some time for myself when I have some time after everything else. 

It's really, we have to put it into our life first. We've got to start putting ourselves first as a priority so that we can give to others in a more energetic way that serves everybody.  It's a major thing that we do on the Money On Purpose journey is the self-care and one of first things that we do is this fuel and drain exercise. What is fuelling you right now in your life? What is draining you in your life? And to get really clear and honest with yourself. 

Did you find that honesty part surprised you? Because people often say, gosh, I thought I knew what was going on. I thought I knew what was happening in my life. I thought I knew what was draining me. But when I really sat down and got honest with it, a whole lot of other things were revealed to me. Did that happen for you at all?

Marisa: Yes, definitely. First off, putting aside a whole week for self-care. I remember when I was in the program, I'm like, thank goodness, an easy week. And then I realized it's not easy because it's not a habit for me to look after myself. And I think that definitely had an impact. I squeezed out small little spaces there and then I grew my self-care regime, I want to call it almost, over time. 

Where now it's beautiful. I've created a beautiful morning routine for me. I'm a morning person, my day starts way better. I still have my weekend baths, unlimited time, no kids. I have my little walks around the block. 

I just believed there's no time. And like I said, I believed I was quite a confident person. And then being honest about what fuels me and what drains me, I realized I'm not, because I can't say no. I can't say no. I can see I spend absolutely no time on myself and I can't say no to others.

Karen: Yeah, we think we know ourselves until we really take time to turn the focus inward and be honest, really, really honest with ourselves. What other ways were you needing to be honest with yourself back then? Because one of the things that I find people really have a tough time with is, one of the first things we do, which is writing our ideal Money On Purpose story, which is really, in all areas of my life what do I want my life to look like?

And this becomes such a stumbling block for people because they can't actually see that end result yet. So it's hard to write it down. It's hard to connect with it. It's hard to be really, really honest about it. Did you find that that was a difficult exercise as well? Just like, well, okay, so here's where you are. We always start with where you are. Now where do you want to be? What do you want for your life? 

This is one of the most important parts in terms of creating an extraordinary life, a fulfilling life, a creative life. How did you find that exercise and were you able to really connect with what you're experiencing now, with what you've created, or did it take some time to move into allowing yourself to dream bigger?

Marisa: It was one of those exercises again that seemed really easy. I mean, I can just pull out everything I want. And when I had to sit down, and I think I'm not alone in this, a lot of people are unhappy or they feel they're not in the right place, but they don't actually know what they want. I remember the first round, I did it and then as the program progressed you kept telling us, don't water it down. Don't water it down. Don't water down your dreams. And I know for the first time writing that story, I had to go back a couple of times. And I rewrote it a couple of times until I got to, yes, this is what I want. This is what I want. It's audacious, it seems scary, but this is what I want. 

When I started the program, like many people I just knew I wasn't in a good place. I wasn't in the right place and there must be more, and I must be able to mean more to the world than what I'm doing now. But knowing what you want, and for me most of the things in the program was, but this as well, sometimes I hear people having like a big aha moment. I had lots of small ones and I'm always still up-levelling and up-levelling. But that getting to what I really wanted, don't feel bad if you sit and you listen to the podcast and you're like, oh, I'm actually one of them too. I don't know what I really want. 

Take some time and figure it out. Take some time for yourself and figure it out. And one of the tools that you teach in the program is free writes, basically journaling. That still helps me to this day. I journaled a lot after you said, don't water down your dreams and in that way, bit by bit, I figured out this is what I want. This is what I want, instead of staying in what I don't want.

Karen: Yeah, staying in what we don't want. And then we are attracting more of what we don't want. We're focusing on what we don't want and we're just staying stuck in that place. I don't know if you listened to the interview I did with Nelao, but Nelao talks about the same thing, how when I kept saying don't water down your dreams, keep bumping them up, be honest with yourself. 

She really wanted to find true love, but she had thrown that out the window and said, no, I'm just here for the money blocks. I just want to get my money blocks sorted out so that I can become the rich auntie and then I can just be with my sisters and their families, and I'll just focus on their kids because it's never going to happen for me. So I might as well just create a successful business and focus on that. 

But then finally, she said she was being delusional, you use the word audacious, very similar words, and actually putting it out there and saying, no, I want this thing that feels very audacious. I want this thing that feels delusional, like I'll never have it. Because when you say that, when you connect with it, that's where the magic starts happening. 

I'd love to hear about the things that you've manifested from doing that exercise. I know one of them is the beach house. I know you can tell that story if you want. But what are some of the things that you've manifested that you've created from dreaming bigger and not watering down your dreams and actually connecting with them and saying, okay, this is really what I want, even though I don't know how I'm going to get it.

Marisa: Oh, I forgot about that! Well, the absolute main one that is something that you can't see or buy or get is my whole family life changed. And like I said, I went on this journey where I could embrace motherhood, where I can embrace being a family and it doesn't feel like a chore. It's not supposed to. And I believe I manifested a beautiful, healthy family life for us that we all enjoy. So that is definitely one and I'm quite proud of that. Yes, the other one is the beach house.

Karen: That's big. That's big. And you can't put a price on that, can you?

Marisa: No, you can't. So that is definitely my number one. It's like a total opposite shift from when I started to where I am now. I'm also at a place with that growing, I'm at a place where I can see the different seasons for what it is and embrace that. Because with motherhood comes also different seasons in your life where you are more involved, where you are less involved. I'm now in a season where I have two kiddos in grade school, so there's twice the math and there's twice the extracurricular activities. 

Instead of it draining me, I can really enjoy it. I enjoy every chat we have in the car. It's something that, if I was still working in the office, I wouldn't be able to have. So my family life is definitely number one. Number two is definitely the beach house that also ties in with a journey of caring for myself because I work from home for the creative studio. I want to work from home to be able to do my passion and my income and also be present for the kids. But as you can imagine that is quite a tricky balance to keep. And part of that was me and my husband had this dream of a house in Henties Bay where we can go and relax, where I can get out of the house where I work and live and really go and relax. 

And we had a list for this one, we got really specific. We had a tick list. It had to be walking distance from the beach. It had to have three bedrooms to have enough space for everyone to visit. I can't remember, but there was like a tick list of about five things, five major things. Open space living area. We want to be all together. The old houses in Henties all have different rooms. 

And we actually started looking before we had the budget for it. And when we saw the right one, I just knew. I remember we were having coffee in the morning, a Sunday morning, and we were browsing on the internet. And we came on this picture of this little corner house, walking distance from the beach, with this open living area, and tears coming to my eyes. I told my husband, this is the one. This is the one. I knew, I knew, this is the one.

And by hook or by crook we could make a plan and we could buy the beach house with everything inside, already inside so we didn't even have to furnish it, because that's a whole journey on its own. And since then, that is really where we go to rest, and using your energy in blocks and resting. It's a recipe I've been following for three, four years now. And that is also part of the self-care overhaul that I created in my life.

Karen: Oh, that's so beautiful. I love it. Congratulations on that beach house. And I want to focus a little bit on that money aspect now because Money On Purpose is about clearing out money blocks because so many people don't go for their dreams because they think it's a money issue. Well, if I just had the money, I would go buy the beach house. If I just had the money, I would quit my job and just become a life coach or travel the world or do whatever I wanted. It's always because of the money. 

What I love to show people is that it is not because of the money. It is because of your thoughts about the money, your beliefs about the money, your limiting beliefs around what you are allowed to have in your life. So we really look at it from a different angle. And many people would try to first get the money in order and save it up and then dream about the beach house and then start looking for the beach house. 

And what we do differently is we start dreaming about the beach house first and getting very specific and bumping up how many bedrooms, open space, you know, even though most of the homes in that area that you're looking are lots of little rooms, you wanted open plan saying that even though it's probably not available, it doesn't seem to be available. This is what I want. I want open plan. I want walking distance to the beach, all of those things and saying what you want and suspending your belief that the money has to be there. And that's one of the how’s of it. It comes and falls in place. 

So how were you able to, let's talk a little bit about money blocks and limiting beliefs around money and how those have shifted for you so that you can make these changes in your life and get these manifestations in your life. Do you remember your beliefs about money before and if they've changed, if they've shifted into something more freeing now, something more expansive?

Marisa: Yes, I'm definitely one of those persons. I was one of those persons in the past that would have first saved up for the beach house and then, okay, honey, we've got the cash in the bank. Let's start looking. It is, it still feels a little bit like magic. Does it make sense? How this, the different angle that you teach.

Karen: It is magic, haha.

Marisa: It still feels a little bit like magic because we could not have foreseen beforehand. And because of the program, rest and rejuvenation was part of my wish, and we identified that I don't get out of the house because I live here and I work here. And we anyway had that wish for the beach house. I would never before have browsed around, never, ever, ever before. And everything that was necessary fell in place once we got there, once we saw the perfect one. There was only one tick and it had wooden window frames instead of aluminum ones. That was the only tick that was not on there, but there were about five, six other ones that were there. 

So it feels a bit like magic now. Sometimes I still need to remind myself of first knowing what you want, then believing what you want and taking the little steps towards what you want and everything starts to fall in place. Sometimes it takes longer, sometimes it's easier. Everything just falls in place, also with the beach house because the people selling were under financial pressure. So they were willing to negotiate about the price and we could have it fit into what we qualify for. I mean, we couldn't have known that beforehand. If I waited for afterwards, it might possibly not even have happened.

Karen: Yeah, exactly. We do things from the opposite angle because that feels like the logical way to do something. And that's why it feels a little bit like magic because it doesn't make sense to the brain. The brain doesn't understand magic. The brain is like, no, we've been taught to do things very methodically and safely and look ahead and plan it out. And life actually wants to show you that your dreams are valid, you get to have what you really want in your life. And if you suspend that belief that you have to first make it all happen and then you can claim it, then you can actually go down this path of very magical feeling. 

It's fun. I think it's really fun to look at houses before you're ready to buy. I've done that many times where I just look at houses, I go into them and it's not even that it's something that I'm ready to do right away, but it just feels exciting. It feels like you're throwing your wish out ahead of you and you're walking towards it to catch it. And taking these little steps is so simple. It's so simple. And yet we fight it until we learn this new way of being in the world, this new way of trusting and being patient. Like you said, some things take longer, some things happen very quickly, much quicker than you thought that they would have happened. But taking those small steps also helps with building our trust in ourselves, building our trust in life and allowing ourselves to feel enjoyment in the process. It's not a stressful thing to take a small step.

Marisa: I love your small steps. Again, I had to change my belief system about that, because I believed you have to go into big strides, go for it, gun for it, and you don't feel ready for it. And you teach us small little steps. And what I've learned, if I put out a big step for myself I just don't do it. Then I break down that step even smaller until it's a little step that I'm willing to take.

Karen: Yeah, love that. Anytime a step feels overwhelming or stressful, I can guarantee it's too big of a step. You need to break it down. Like you've just said, break it down into a small, tiny step for today. What can I do towards that step today? Just break it down into a much smaller action. And it actually feels so good. It feels so good. 

I've got my little checklist. I teach you guys this right from the very beginning in the training where you plan out your year, your quarters, your weeks, your days, and you don't do it all at once. You do it in little chunks. I love my daily checklist. I just love it. I'm so in love with my daily checklist. If I don't have it, I start to feel like, oh my gosh, where is it? I need it right next to me. It is the small steps during the day that just make me feel so nurtured even. They make me feel so calm just taking those small steps.

Marisa: Let's take the beach house example. You sit, you realize this is your dream. It′s so big and it feels like you need what, one or two million? It is overwhelming. But a small step is making coffee and browsing. That's doable. That's doable, I can do that. But it's one of the steps we had to take to manifest that dream and it works wonderfully.

Karen: Yeah, it's amazing that way, isn't it? So let's talk about your career, if you want to. Talking about doing more creative work was something that you wanted to focus on. You're a very creative person, and you are creating different things in your life now. Do you want to talk a little bit about that?

Marisa: This one we can try. It is currently still a work in progress. This is my current project. It's a pivot in the direction I go with my studio. I studied graphic design and before that I always used to do art classes, like fine art classes, drawing, painting, working with ink and, quite early in my career, I started missing that. And it's just something I push back because you're building your career, you're working, you're working, you're working. 

And then a couple of years ago, it really started shouting at me that I'm really missing the fine art part of being creative. So my current project is working on more art. That is also one of the things where really I didn't know how, but I kept feeling that wish and that dream in my heart. And it was a whole journey and a process and the right things coming at the right time where I found surface pattern design, where you draw or paint or whatever you want to do and then you digitize that and create patterns in different color palettes. 

I'm used to, with graphic design specifically working for brands, with the colors, the fonts, the logos, all given to you, I miss that part where I choose what I want to do with it. Yes, and I'm busy with that process of working in more of the pattern design into my studio business, instead of just the graphic design for brands. At this stage and I'm currently doing it one step at a time.

Karen: That's so beautiful. So you are kind of reinventing your career in a way, still doing what you've been doing but making it more creative for your own self and your own enjoyment. This is what I call transitioning gracefully, transitioning gracefully into what's calling you more. And you said that it was shouting at you. And that's the thing, our dreams will shout at us. Our creativity will start shouting at us and say, please look this way. Please start giving me some attention. 

And we don't have to throw the baby out with the bath water. You can transition gracefully from one thing to the next and have fun doing it and enjoy that and do it with the least amount of stress as possible. So maybe tell us about that part of your journey now, becoming more creative in your work and doing things that feel very exciting and fulfilling for you.

Marisa: Yes it was actually I think about two years ago where I realized, ah, this is the perfect in-between because I like the design on the computer, but I also like the being creative, like in a fine artsy way, if that makes sense. And this is the perfect match. At first I was looking for that answer and then once I got that answer, I started investigating. I did a three-month course on it. I'm reading up a lot of it. I'm in communities learning about it. 

And this is currently about a two-year project for me, this pivot. And it's fine because this is not my only priority in my life at this stage. Being a very present mom is. Still doing my graphic design for my income is. So this is a third priority and I'm just cracking away at it one little step at a time. And I can, if I look back, I can see the amazing progress and sometimes it gets frustrating. Sometimes I want it to be faster. And this, it's unnecessary. It's unnecessary. You just keep going. You just keep going at it one step at a time. 

And I think maybe it helps me because this project takes a bit longer than some of my others because I have manifested beautiful things that I really, really wanted. I know it's there for me. I just need to keep trusting, keep taking my small little steps and it will all come at the perfect time because I also believe in perfect and good time for certain things in our lives. We need to heal and change mindsets and adjust to be able to receive the perfect thing for our heart. And I believe I'm in the process of doing that with my career.

Karen: Yeah, and it's always a process. Always. We need to understand that it is a journey to our dreams. It is the process to our dreams. It is not, I just want this thing now. We're learning so much about trust and patience in this process. What do you think you've had to heal in order to get to this place that you're at right now, Marisa? Can you kind of pick out one or two things that have healed. 

And I don't know if you want to talk about the healing process at all. You're welcome to that, it's different for everybody. But I'll just start with this question, and that is, what have you healed within yourself that's allowing you to live a life that feels gentler, feels more creative, feels like you're, in your words, able to adjust to the seasons and be in the seasons of motherhood and just really flow with life more than you were before?

Marisa: I don't know. I just know there was a lot of healing but I'm not sure if I can word it out. 

Karen: Yeah, the healing process is an interesting part all on its own, isn't it?

Marisa: Yes it is, it is. The crux of it comes down to really loving myself, but there's obviously a lot of limiting beliefs around not loving myself and not caring about myself.

Karen: Yeah. And you know what I'm loving about this, that you're even having to think back to the healing process, is there is this new normal now that we embrace and that we live and we kind of forget that gosh, I used to live this way. I used to believe these things. And there is this new normal now. 

I've asked a few people this question and they kind of stumble like you are, like hmm, let me just think about this because it's been so long, it feels like a lifetime ago. And I've got this new normal and this new way of being now that I don't actually recognize my old self. I don't recognize the ways I used to be in these patterns of stress and anxiety and control and all of these different things. It's just not my way anymore, so I'm focused on forward. I'm focused on how I'm living now and moving into new things to come.

Marisa: Exactly, exactly. I remember we had a chat sometime earlier this year and you told me, Marisa just think back, just think back and wow! Like you said now it's changed so much, little bit, little bit, little bit at a time. It changed so much that you almost can't remember what your old belief system must have been like.

Karen: Yeah. What would you think about just for a second? We don't have to stay here too long, but think about what would your life look like today if you hadn't healed these limiting beliefs, if you hadn't prioritized your self care and learned how to implement that in your daily life? If you hadn't learned how to dream bigger, if you hadn't learned how to trust the process of manifesting and creating, what would your life look like right now?

Marisa: Wow, way different, way different. Still running around sweating, stressing about everything, feeling like all this running around for the kids. It's so exhausting. I definitely would not have had the beach house and the lovely holidays I schedule in for myself. I would not have allowed myself to dream and actually action on. Oh, I enjoy what I'm doing, but I've been doing it for 20, I can't even, I can't even! It would definitely would have looked way different that it's looking now.

Karen: And one of the things I love to help people focus in on is essence, and this is how things feel. So, we just talked about how it might have looked, how different it might have looked and I could feel actually what some of those feelings would have been like when you say sweating and running around for the kids and not taking time for yourself. I can kind of get the essence of what that feels like. But let's talk a little bit about essence and what kind of essence you have in your life today? 

What's important to you? Like for me, my essence words that I'm constantly coming back to every year when I refocus on this are freedom, peace, joy, fun. This year expansion is one of my essence words. So what are kind of your overall essence words that you are embracing? Because this is one of the parts of the Money On Purpose journey that we really hone in on every day. And I think that this is what makes the big difference to help people bridge that gap between the life that you've got that is not feeling quite right to the life that you want, which you can't see yet. But what is the essence of what you want? How do you want to feel in your life? Do you want to share some of your essence words with us with us?

Marisa: It's very similar to yours, actually. You teach us to develop a lighthouse statement. And my lighthouse statement is I'm free, at peace, and happy. And I've tried to change it actually in the past, and it just doesn't work. And so I'm embracing keeping this lighthouse statement. As I work on different projects, the overall essence of what I want to feel is free, at peace and happy. 

And then I got really audacious this year. Outside of that, I also use the practice of choosing a word for the year or an essence for the year. And I took joy to delight, really delighting in my children, delighting especially in my work. I really want to enjoy my work. I wanted to make an impact and make a difference, but I want to enjoy doing it for making an impact, if that makes sense. So those are my biggest essences.

Karen: Oh, that's so beautiful, Marisa. I love that word, that delight is bringing joy. I think you're bumping it up to delight and being just so audacious and saying, you know, I want it. I want even more for myself and for my children, for my family. And I have to say that I was on your website yesterday and I was looking around and I was just kind of scrolling through and I just smiled and even got a little teary in my eye. It just like kind of hit me like, oh my gosh, this is really making me feel emotional when I read this. 

What you wrote in the what makes me tick section, you said, I value relationships, communication, truth, and silence. I believe in a body, mind and spirit rhythm and being a force for good in the world. 

And that just really touches my heart. It embodies your essence. It just shows the kind of person that you are and how you're living now. It just was so beautiful. I loved stumbling upon that.

Marisa: Thank you. Yeah, I actually put quite a bit of thought into that little summary. So I do believe that it boils down nicely to what I stand for and what I believe.

Karen: You said it so beautifully. So would you like people to connect with you if people want to learn more about what you're doing and maybe they want to have a look at your website? Can we link that in the show notes? Is that fine? Or what would you like to? How would you like people to connect with you?

Marisa: Yes please of course. You are more than welcome. I do have a website on my project list. I′m redoing that this year. So let's see if my small little steps will take me there. I do believe it will. chillipinkcreative.com if you want to have a look there. And then I'm also on Facebook and Instagram as chillipink.creative

Karen: And chilli is C-H -I -L -L -I pink, right? Two Ls in Chillipink?

Marisa: Yes, that's correct.

Karen Powell: Okay, awesome Marisa. Is there anything else that you want to share before we close off today? Anything else that you'd like people to know that we maybe didn't cover?

Marisa: What I do want to say specifically about the program is that I love the support. We don't have to walk this road alone. We are in a community with lots of other people experiencing the same things at different levels. We learn so much from each other. It's years since I did the first version. I still get support calls. I still go to every monthly support call. And a lot of programs promise support and I don't always experience it that way once I do the program. But for this one, I can really say there is support all the way from others, from you. The whole program is set up in such a way that you always feel supported and you never have to be alone.

Karen: Thank you for mentioning that because that is important to me because of the nature of what this program is helping you with. It's not a one and done thing. It's not a six-week, learn some skills and then go do something thing. It′s an ongoing way of life really, the Money On Purpose journey. I think of it as a way of living and being in the world. 

And we're always going to be creating, we're always going to be healing, we're going to be up-levelling, we're going to hit challenges at certain points. It's not about a smooth road going forward, but it's about being equipped to go along a road that has maybe some bumps in it. And that's why I made sure that I built in what I felt was robust support in the group and I'm really glad that you feel that and that you experience it. 

It's also a lifetime access program so you can come through the live journeys anytime you want. We do them at the moment once a year and they last for three months, the live versions. So you can come back anytime and join the group for the live version. But you're getting support every day in the Facebook group if you need it, every month with a call. 

We've got the Facebook group where you can ask any questions. I sometimes do some lives in there, so there is never a reason to feel alone. You are always supported on this journey and there's always something more to learn. There's always a new person to connect with. 

It's such a beautiful community of people who want to be forces for good in the world. And that's who I love to connect with, is people who want to make a difference and want to make an impact and give something of their life into making other people's lives better. And that's what you're doing, Marisa, and that's what everybody in the program is working together to create for themselves and even as a community. So, thank you so much for being here. I appreciate you so much.

Marisa: Thank you very, very much for having me, it was fun chatting with you.

Karen: It was so much fun. Thank you so much for being with Marisa and me today. I hope you are also inspired to heal your money blocks, step into your life's purpose and become a force for good in this world. I'll see you next time.

If you’re ready to start creating the lifestyle of your dreams, I want to invite you to join GPS, my Gratitude Practice for Success program where you’ll learn my unique and proven manifesting process. It’s simple, it’s powerful, and it’s already helping hundreds of people go from thinking their dreams were impossible, to making them happen quickly. Whether you want to manifest your dream home, your soulmate, a brand new career living your life’s purpose, or even financial freedom, it’s yours to claim now. Just head over to kcpowell.com/gps and I will show you how.