Episode 2: Murisa Harba

Hi there. Welcome to the Power Up Your Life podcast. I'm Kelly Resendez. And I'm Mandy McAllister. And we are so thrilled to welcome our guest today.

Award winning actress and director Marissa Harba lives in her life to push boundaries. She's a leading acting coach, international best selling author, thought leader, and speaker in Los Angeles, passionate about empowering actors and speakers to elevate their truth in storytelling, ultimately unlocking their creative genius.

Her and her certified team of coaches really share their approaches through the chakra approach and the macro method. And so we are just, again, thrilled to have you here with us, Marissa. Welcome.

Welcome, Marissa. I'm so excited to be here.

We are excited to have you. Thank you so much. Well, we're super interested to to dig into your journey. You know, you've become this huge expert in the world of cinema, a a film director, an actor, a method creator. Before you became all of those things, when you felt stuck doing something, what's something you would do to help you get out of that funk?

Oh, boy. Feeling stuck, gotta get the creative flow going. Stuck to me feels like just rigidity, and, you need to get that energy moving to flow to, get things rolling again.

So, I mean, I've had so many setbacks over the years with films that didn't go, that had huge names attached. And you just gotta get back on the horse and keep moving and doing other creative things that can focus your energy.

Even I mean, at one point, I even did a triathlon as a way to distract myself, from one of those setbacks. So you just gotta keep moving towards a goal.

Mhmm. Yeah. Yeah. What advice would you give somebody else that's stuck right now then?

Find a focus and go towards it no matter what it is. It can be something small in your personal life. It can be something big in your professional life. But, having those small measurable goals that you can achieve every single day, gives you these little wins. And inside your body, you feel good. Like, oh, I did that. I'm capable of doing that, and it just kind of propels you forwards.

And, you know, even that triathlon that I did, I would go to the gym, and then I would time myself. How are my swim laps? Like, okay. I did really well. I did better than yesterday. That's a win. Who cares if that film fell through? I I beat my time from yesterday, and it's just that small little thing gets you going. And and and that kind of energy, it it snowballs,

and everybody around you feels it. Yeah. So one thing, you know, you and I really connect on is is, you know, really raising consciousness. Right? And so which is so important to let go of that old programming that so many of us are held back from. What's one unconventional strategy or or opinion that maybe you have about life or success maybe some other people might disagree with? Oh,

that's very interesting. I think that, you know, over the years, I've I've practiced a lot of Tai Chi, and that is the art of slowing down, going within, really being aware of your breath. And that can feel, like a waste of time to

someone type a's out there slowing down. I already am having a visceral experience.

Yeah. Absolutely. And and I remember I was very, kismet the way that my Tai Chi master came into my life. And, it was hard for me at first. I I would get nauseous trying to just stay present with him for one hour a week that we worked together.

And we we worked on the spiritual side of things. So it was really just about, breath, feminine energy, masculine energy, connecting your body, and and the energy in your spiritual battery, your tension. So if you can focus all of that, things in your life start to happen, and you don't even realize why good things are coming your way. And bad things are seemingly repelled also from your path.

Yeah. So, you know, it does ray raise the consciousness at which you you are operating, but then also those around you as well because they're drawn to you.

The clarity. Fascinating. Yeah. Love it. I I'm super curious too. Do you have any daily rituals or recipes that help you achieve success?

Yeah. So definitely, I do, the miracle morning, and I I do my Elrod. Oh, yeah. 100%. Got me through some really tough times.

Mhmm. You know, when you're working when you run a company and you have team members that can be difficult sometimes or you have to navigate clients in a way, you know, you have to kinda learn how to keep your cool, but also be constructive in a way that you can stick up for yourself and what you need and what the company needs, but do it in a way that serves everybody so that even if you do have to let somebody go, it's on amicable terms. And they might come into your life in another way in the future, and and that's okay too.

It sounds like really tapping into emotional

intelligence in a big way.

Yeah. Absolutely.

Well, you know, I've really loved, you know, getting to know you and being, you know, buds with you and also your time here today. I I really feel like one thing that you, spent a lot of time talking about was this, getting centered and going within because the answers are usually within you in the first place. Right? You just gotta allow yourself that opportunity to be quiet, to get quiet, and really finding a goal and finding a win in whatever it is that you're doing. Absolutely love that.

Tell me this. You spend so much time giving of yourself. What is something, an introduction or a resource that would absolutely change the ballgame for you or something you're working on?

Yeah. So, so right now, I'm currently in production on a feature film, called Metbeth. It's a modern day, Macbeth, Shakespeare's Macbeth. Yeah. And Love it. So we we shot the first 25% of the film, on a cross country trip. We had to go on location in New York, in Boston, Austin, and a few other cities as well.

And now we're looking for finishing funds for that film and that, you know, we're we're gonna get the rest of the film in the canon. I'm so, so excited. We have big dance scenes that I'm gonna choreograph, like a huge tango.

So, yeah, if if there's any investors out there that are interested in being in a in a film even as an extra to come play with us in Hollywood, we can definitely make that happen. You can come see what we do and kinda step into the Hollywood life

with us in the incredible, minus the dancing part. I think you know I will not be doing the tango with you anytime soon, but certainly, we'll help you try to connect with people that are out there. Tell us a little bit about you, your history, your journey.

Yeah. Absolutely. So, I'm an actress, director, dancer. I own two businesses here in Hollywood. One is an acting studio, and the other is a ballroom dance studio. I'm also a international Latin, competitive champion in my sad life. Amazing. But, yeah, all things creative.

And, I also published a book in 2021 called acting with energy, which outlines, one of my two methods, the chakra approach that uses the energy system in the body to create compelling performances that are repeatable for actors and speakers all over the world.

That's absolutely brilliant. Say a little more on that.

Yeah. So, the way I describe it is, when you when you learn how to play an instrument when you're a kid, you get this instrument and you learn how to play the notes on it. Right? And then you start playing scales, and then you can play songs. Right? Chords and then songs.

Well, as an actor, you know, there's there's a bunch of techniques out there, but for whatever reason, they all didn't work a 100% of the time for me, maybe 80%, 82%. But if I was gonna you know, I'm from New Jersey originally. I left my hometown to come out to Hollywood to pursue the dream. Right? Acting and directing in Hollywood. So if I was gonna leave now. Oh my god. So if I was gonna leave my family, I wanted to make sure that it was worth it because I was putting myself out there a 100%. So eighty, eighty two percent wasn't gonna cut it for me. So I needed a technique that was gonna get me there every single time, that I could count on. Right?

And on set, when you're, performing a scene, you have maybe three, four takes, and then they do a you know, they'll do a wide shot. They'll do a medium shot, an over the shoulder shot, a close-up. Maybe if you have to drop to your knees on the floor, they need a low shot. So and then if there's two or three people in the scene, we have to do the turnaround and do their coverage.

So if you're doing an emotional scene, like I was in the shattering, which is, I'm not sure if you guys have seen that one yet, but it's a doozy. I dropped to my knees I'm still scared of you, by the way. Oh my god. But I literally I dropped to my knees in in, like, devastation. 42 times, I had to do that Oh my gosh. Over over the course of twelve hours. And if I didn't have this technique, I would have been hysterical in the bathroom, mentally because it's just if you're replaying emotional recall in your in your mind of, okay. Well, I know this gets me sad. I'm gonna think about that 42 times. Well, that's not sustainable, and that's not good for your mental health either.

So back to the instrument, your body is your instrument when you're an actor or a speaker, anybody who's communicating on a stage. Right? Mhmm. So if you understand the notes, you know, the the, the notes on your instrument, you can play them at will, and then you can start to play them in chords and then play beautiful songs that you can repeat over and over again. And, when you have that kind of confidence to know that when I step out on this stage, I'm gonna nail it every single time because I have a process. Like, that's confidence that you can't you can't question that. Mhmm. And people are drawn to confidence. So because of this method, I have thousands of actors around the world booking gigs because they know how to harness and focus their energy.

Yeah. And, you know, it actually sounds like all of us could benefit from this. You know, most of us that wanna create massive success wanna build influence. And and, you know, as we've talked about, it is an inside out job. Does this does this work really transcend kind of the the, you know, bounds of just acting? Or Oh my goodness. I'm so glad you said that, Kelly, because,

personally, this work for my own life has changed the way that I show up in my personal relationships. It's helped me understand how other people, are reacting or behaving and and understanding that, okay. Maybe they they're coming off and showing up in this way, but, really, they're scared, and I can see it because I can see the energy in their spine.

So when you have that level of incredible awareness to see in somebody's spine that, actually, they're really scared right now. So even though they may be barking at me, I have a choice. I the old me or the unevolved me could get upset and bark back. Or now that I have this insight with the energy, I can see, okay, in their spine. They're really scared right now, and they're just behaving this way because they're kind of terrified.

So I can have compassion for that and realize, hey. You know what? This isn't about me at all, and then I can hold space for them. And if everybody had that superpower, this world would be we would all evolve. Different. Oh my goodness. Completely different.

And this is this is sort of my huge dream, is that everybody understands, our own emotional capacity, not only in ourselves, but in others because that's when we can really have compassion for others as well as ourselves. Because if you can even recognize in yourself that, hey. I'm barking right now, but really it's because I'm scared. You can hold the space for yourself. So it's it like, to answer your question, Mandy, it totally transcends on the quantum level.

And I love it. I love it. Obviously, I love this stuff. I'm peeking out. Absolutely. And I think that's one thing, like, you know, we've heard that if you're not growing, you're dying. Mhmm. And really just figuring out how do I learn, you know, more self awareness and awareness of others so that I can make the world a better place. So Yeah.

You know, Marissa, one of the challenges that we see out there in the world are a lot of people are really frustrated that they don't have clarity about what's next in their life. And for someone like yourself who you built two successful businesses while being a mom and a wife and also dancing and acting and producing and directing. Right? Like, you've done a lot simultaneously.

And so for our listeners out there that really wanna power up their life, but they're struggling with figuring out what's next, like, how do you how do you recommend that they get started today? What are some action steps that you'd recommend they take?

Yeah. So I think that it getting quiet is really the first step. And just, honestly, connecting in with what you really, really, really, really want. Yes. Five reallys because understand. Because sometimes we lie to ourselves, and we think we want something because that's what somebody else wants for us, or that's what somebody else would be proud of us if we achieved that thing. And so it can derail us, and we can chase the wrong thing for twenty years.

And I've known people. I've been that sometimes myself. You know, you just get off track, and that's okay. It's normal. Life happens. And to be forgiving with yourself, but then also saying, you know what? I thought this was my path. I actually, deep down, deep deep deep down in my heart, in my gut, in my intuition,

I wanna go this way. Yeah. Mhmm. I love it. And girl, you gotta go this way. You gotta go. Yeah. You gotta but you gotta get quiet enough to hear it. Yeah. I I heard one one time that, praying is like trying to talk to your greater figure, but meditating and getting quiet and listening is waiting for that answer, the opportunity to take in that answer. Yeah. Yes. And it's just challenging.

It's it's challenging. And we have a lot of women in GoBundance that have, you know, gone to school to be doctors or lawyers. And then all of a sudden, they've heard that knock over and over again, and they've left that to really pursue their true passion, whatever it is. So I I just it takes so much courage and bravery Yeah. You know, to break break through a lot of those things.

So, well, I just cannot thank you enough for bringing your energy to our show and just to, you know, to recap a few things that really hit home for me, first of all, is really, you know, taking a little bit of a breath and slowing down so that you can allow clarity to come in. You know, you emulate feminine power. Like, you absolutely just emulate it so beautifully. And so really sinking into that, knowing that everything's gonna work out okay for you, that this next level is gonna be there soon.

And then really to do the work. You know, maybe check out Marissa's work as well and and really just see how it might apply to, you know, the level of influence that you have in your life as well. And then just take some of those action steps right away. Like, you know, let go of the old programming. And when you can't let go anymore, let go a little bit more so that you really can tap into, you know, your your higher purpose.

So, Marissa, I know that we have lots of listeners that are gonna wanna get in touch with you and find out more about how you might be able to, you know, help them in in their lives. What's the best way that they can reach you?

Yeah. Email is great. M u r I s a

that? Share that with us. Do tell.

So my first name, spelled a little differently, murisa@about-the-work.com. That's the best way to get in touch with me. I'm also on Instagram as Marissa Harba. And, yeah, let's chat.

That's absolutely amazing. And I know, you know, like you shared, Marissa is looking to connect with amazing people out there that might be in the film industry. I know that she's also got a female film fund maybe up her sleeve. So always looking to connect with anybody else that wants to change the world. So wrap us up, Mandy.

Marissa, so grateful for your time with us. Love seeking out the goal. Love getting quiet. Love all of these actionable steps you've left us with. What is something that we can do or listeners could do, a resource that could change the ballgame for you? Oh, yeah.

I actually have a resource. I can send it to you guys later. It outlines, feminine and masculine energy and how you can use it in your in your work life, in your personal life to really understand how energy can flip and those you can find that compassion. It's a step by step guide on how to do that.

And then also my book is available on all major platform, yeah, platforms, Amazon, etcetera, Barnes and Noble. And that's how I book again, please? Acting with Energy.

Acting with Energy.

Thank you, Marissa, for helping women power up their lives. We're so grateful to you.

Thank you, guys.