“No” Means “Next”: Big Dreams and Bold Wealth Moves

When I first met this next guest, I knew quickly that she was gonna change my life and everyone that I knew. So we're just so excited to bring her to you on this podcast.

Marissa Nielsen is the founder and CEO of a debt free 8 figure financial firm managing over $1,000,000,000 in assets over 46 states As a North Dakota farm girl turned powerhouse entrepreneur, almost like our friend here, Mandy, she's built five self managing companies and coached thousands to make their best employee. Author of Live Life Rich, a sought after, keynote speaker as well, she blends over thirty years of practical and intentional experience to help people create wealth and purpose. As cofounder of the Foundation of Latin America, she champions global impact through women's entrepreneur and sustainability.

She's based in Saint Petersburg, Florida. I know I met her through John Maxwell, and I know she does a lot with his organization as well. She also hosts retreats in Costa Rica. So excited to share this next episode with Marissa with you.

Welcome, everyone, to the Power Up Your Life podcast brought to you by GoBundance Women. I am Kelly Resendez.

And I'm Mandy McAllister.

And we are joined just by a rock star, a friend, and and mentor to me, Marissa.

Just welcome. How are you? Hello, man. I am so excited to be here with you guys today. This is amazing.

Awesome. Well, share a little bit about your background with our listeners.

Well, I'm a farm kid from Max, North Dakota. That's where I grew up. I'm a rural rural farm kid. So I grew up, you know, poor. And, you know, there was rich farmers and there was poor farmers. And you could tell the difference between rich farmers and poor farmers. Rich farmers had rock pickers. This was equipment that would go through the fields and pick out the rocks. Poor farmers had kids, and then we'd go through the fields and pick out the rock. So that that is that is where I come from.

I did not come from money. I did not come from, I did not come from a business world that was successful. I did not come from that kind of folks. But I've learned a lot about what not to do and then, you know, how to how to take back your power as part of that. I love, love, love, what you are doing in this in this community. I love what you're doing with female entrepreneurs just everywhere.

As business leaders, we wanna go from being technicians to owners, and I talk a lot about going from a from a technician to an owner. And that's a that's a huge part of some of the areas that are important to me. But I think let me give you some quick background.

My mom and and dad got divorced in the late eighties. We we were extremely poor. There was a a drought through that area. And when that happened, my mom moved all of us eight kids to town because we were in an extremely abusive household. And my dad, when he lost the farm and he lost the family business that was a generational family business, he really lost everything. And and when I say lost everything, including his mind. And so he, he became very abusive with my mother and my brothers and my sisters and our family.

And and my mom took us out in the middle of the night with, with our backpacks and the clothes that we could pack in that. And then we moved into a two bedroom trailer house in Minot, North Dakota with no heat that first winter.

So my mom I come from strong, strong, strong woman of faith background. And, and she just and I say women of faith, I'm not talking about, like, that religious, you know, we we just stand and raise our hands and, you know, it's a show faith. I'm talking about it's a show up faith. It's a show up faith that you do this is how you this is how you win in your business. If you wanna take back your power, you gotta have a show up faith for your business. And I I'm not talking about a religious faith. I'm talking about a show up faith, and we gotta do whatever it takes. And, and I I I just learned that from my mother.

I mean, we were eight kids, no heat that first North Dakota winter. And I remember her saying to me as I was complaining, I was 14, and she's and I I said, mom, you know, like, the we're like those poor people you see on TV that they're save the children. They're bringing home send them all this money. You know, they're sending money, save the children. And and I said, but they're they're sending these people money and food, and we don't have money or food or heat. We're we're nestled around a kerosene heater, and she's sleeping on an old brown couch we fished out of a dumpster.

And my mom said to me in one moment, by the way, ladies, all of you that have have people in your life that you can influence, whether this is team members, employees, whatever you call them, family members, children, your mates. And I would just say this is extremely important for your inner circle of people around you. You can speak life into them or you can speak death over them. Life or death. It is 100% choice what comes off your lips.

And in that moment, my mother changed everything for me. And she said one thing that is I've carried it's carried me through every good, bad, and ugly thing in my world. And, and I know that no one's immune from that. We don't just get to go tiptoeing through the daisies, you know, with no manure on our feet. Right? We all have some kind of manure in our history and our past.

And if I had a half hour just to talk with you about tell me your story, I'd ask you to tell me your story because I wanna know what made you who you are today. What kind of internal power do you have? What's at your core? And at my core, my mother said something to me when I was 14, and she said, Marissa, you have a choice to make today, tonight, right now. It's a decision. It's a choice, but it's a decision you must make. You could be a victim or you can be victorious. You could be a victim or you can be victorious. What will you choose?

And it has carried me through every business decision, every relationship decision, every health decision, every money decision, every every spiritual decision. It's carried me through. And I I would just share with you that that's where I come from. I come from nothing but everything.

Yeah. That's so beautiful. And tell us a little bit about what you do now in the financial world.

Yeah. So I I, I own I own seven multimillion dollar companies. Six of those are self managing organizations. The first one was in financial services that I started over thirty three years ago. That organization manages well over a billion dollars. We have clients in 46 states.

We we work to help people, really do this, which is the main point. It's the Mayo Clinic of Finance. It's it's where when the question I ask is this, when's the last time your accountant, attorney, financial advisor, insurance person, banker, coach, mentor got in the same room and talked about your plan? Coordinated your plan, built your plan, came together as the as the board you could never really afford, but you are paying these people and you gotta demand more.

And so that's what we do. We coordinate that with our teams. We say, listen. We need to wrap our arms around their vision, their purpose, their goals. What what is attainable, attracted, and ready for these women that are in business today, and we wrap our arms around that, and we help them mobilize and monetize and get financially free.

And in that freedom in that freedom, that's where I'm at today. I've been financially free for about fifteen years. And, and I'll just say in that freedom, freedom is options. Freedom is is that ability to you know, Lending is just a tool. So we teach people about that.

That's one of the companies, but I I love, love, love business, and I love to lead teams in that. I'm also the financial mentor for Maxwell Leadership certified team worldwide. We've got about 62,000 coaches worldwide in, over a 150 countries, 160 countries, I think, actually. And so I get to do that with, doctor John c Maxwell and the Maxwell leadership team.

And so I I had a lot of stuff that I like to do. And and I you know, when you're free when you're free, you can make your yes a yes and your no a no. So we gotta get you free as quickly as possible.

Love it.

Oh, I so many things you said just hit me in every possible way. I too I wasn't the rock picker, but I was the bean walker, so I totally understand what you're talking about. And our women our our primary listeners here is as many members of and aspiring members of GoBundance Women, women who are entrepreneurs or investors and want to get free.

This idea of going from technician to owner. I've got to imagine as you're you're coaching many, many people, you've seen many, many different journeys. There has to be some common missteps or some common things to, to overcome. Tell me maybe the the top few things, to overcome or things you help people get through on that process.

Yeah. I I'd say there's some really practical, tactical things.

The first thing and let me give you a book. It's called The Millionaire Mindset, by T. Harv Eker. It's an old book, but it's an amazing book. And the first thing is you gotta overcome you. And I I'm just talking really practical. We think too small. We need to think bigger. You know, Kelly talks about this big voice or this little voice. Right? Love that book, by the way. You just, like, kick butt with that book. You should read that book. You ever read that book? You need to read that book. It's a good book.

But that that for me is we have to stop agreeing with small. Mhmm. We have to stop agreeing with that. So really practically, what are you agreeing with that is getting you the results that you have today? Because we're getting exactly the results, and I and I friends, I'm not being unkind when I say this because I know that there's all sorts of conditions and circumstances that you are living in today. Me too. Yep. Been through divorce. Yep. Been through drug and alcohol kids. Been through, you know, cheating husbands. Been through partners who steal. Been through been through been through. Right? We all have a through it. But the question is, what are you gonna do through it? Because Because you can be a victim or you can be victorious. Right? So that's the first one, practical, tactical.

The second one is you gotta have real clarity in your plans. Fuzzy targets rarely get hit. Fuzzy targets rarely get hit. You've gotta decide, This is the one thing I'm gonna work on. And so I I teach about something called the ODP, an organizational development plan. And it's really breaking this thing down into what are my wildly important goals? What are the things that I want to achieve in this short period of time for the big picture and then the small picture? What are the daily actions that I need to do to get there?

And it's a no excuse. 25 ago, I listened to John Maxwell do something on a tape set. Okay. So for those of you who are 40, this a tape a cassette tape, just go Google it. Okay? It's cassette tape. So I listened to this guy, John Maxwell, talk about whatever it takes, and I was broke. I was broke. Twenty five years ago, I was broke. And he said, you gotta do whatever it takes. And so every day, I got up and I had a plan, and I would work that plan.

That that's the third thing. You got to have a plan on how to get there. What where in your business, in your I'm gonna talk really practical tactical. What's your marketing plan? What's your sales plan? What's your operations plan? And what's your finance and legal plan? There are four departments that you must have. You must have them.

And you gotta start learning about money and wealth build. How to protect yourself, how to make money, how to keep it, how to multiply it, and how to pass it with purpose. Those are the four core. Oh, so good. Make money, how to keep it, because it's not enough just to make it. I know a lot of people who make a lot of money, and they're they're just living paycheck to paycheck. You're telling me you make $500,000 a year in your paycheck to paycheck? Sweet baby Jesus, we gotta figure that out. Like, what are you doing? Like, what what are you doing? Like, it does not, like, help me here, sister. Like, you do not need that nineteenth pair of Valentino shoes. I love them. God love them. I love a good pair of Valentinos. But I also know you ain't never gonna get rich doing that until your money starts multiplying for you. You can't live like it's an endless resort until it becomes.

So you have to have a freedom plan, and the freedom plan consists of three numbers. What are my freedom sources? Where's money gonna come from? What's my freedom, number? How much do I need to support my lifestyle? 100,000, 300,000, 500 whatever your number is. And then what's my freedom date? That's when my freedom sources and my freedom number collide. That's when I have enough resources that my money has multiplied so that it can create income stream for me. Active income streams and passive income streams.

And there are three questions you must ask. Write them down. This is really important. What is required of me? Where is my greatest return? And where's my greatest reward? Where am I gonna get my return, my reward? Because you don't want to you don't wanna you don't wanna climb your ladder up the wrong building, baby girl. Friends, I have done this. I've climbed my he looked so good. I climbed my ladder up the wrong banister. Okay? What are you doing? He looked so good. Girlfriend, stop it.

We've got to take control of certain areas of our life emotionally, relationally, spiritually, physically, and financially. And so when I start talking about this, it's how you do everything is how you do everything. Right? It's a system for your life. You gotta have systems. So when I talk about a freedom number, a freedom date, and a freedom plan, all of those things, those freedom sources, those are systems of wealth building. I'm a wealth builder. And then I start a company, and I figure out, okay, who's my freedom team? I gotta have a freedom team because I wanna sit there every day and do that same thing over and over again. I get really bored, so I I just gotta keep moving. What's the system? Do you have a system for building wealth and managing wealth?

So, again, how to make money, how to keep it because it's not how much you make, it's how much you keep that matters. But let me go one step further. What you keep, how did you multiply it? I wanna take my money babies, and I wanna say grow up, go out, procreate with other money babies, and bring my grandchildren home. I'm loving it. That's what I want in my life. And then I wanna pass that a favorite. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then and then we wanna pass that with purpose. So I wanna bring other people with me. I wanna teach. I wanna grow.

I'm in a space today where I'm 100% all about impact. You know, I could live on a boat or live on an island. I own a couple mountains in Costa Rica, and I'm not being arrogant when I say that. It just I just do. So I could sit there and do that, or I could do this. I could pull out my water pistols today and say, we're all gonna charge hell together and bring your dreams back. How can you live life rich? Live life rich to me means emotionally, relationally, spiritually, physically, and financially. And so grab your water pistols, ladies.

Because we gotta think bigger, and we gotta shoot our ways out of hell sometimes. We got hells that we have put ourselves into. Sometimes it was a good pair of jeans. Right? He looked good for five minutes. Sometimes it was a wrong decision at work. We partnered with the wrong person. Sometimes we made a bad money move. We gotta get over it. We gotta say that was yesterday. Today is a new day. I woke up above ground. If they are not throwing dirt on me today, if I can still look up and breathe up, I could do something different.

And every day that you wake up above ground is a gift. Every day. Every day. Every day is a gift. Every day. And I will not waste this day. I will not waste this day.

Oh my gosh. There was so much in that. Holy moly. Thank you so much.

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You know, you obviously haven't gotten where you are without some unconventional, I would say, habits or or things that you've done to be able to get here? What would you tell the women? Because so many of us are are looking at other people, trying to emulate what they do, but I think some of the unconventional things are what get us to the next level. What would you say those are for you?

Yeah. One, write it down. No means next. No means next. And so what we're taught is we're taught, well, you know, we we just, you know, gotta give people time to decide and figure it out. Not me. Friend, I love you. You're either on the bus or you're not, but the bus is leaving the station in five minutes. If you are not on the bus, I'm not waiting for you to decide. I'm going. And you're either on the bus or you're not on the bus. And that's not me being unkind. It's just knowing whom a tribe is. Yeah. Right? Preach.

Some of the other con unconventional things is, I put myself in other rooms intentionally. I get out of my industry. We go to these sometimes when you're in an industry, let's say you're in real estate today, you only go to real estate conference. I think it's a massive mistake. You need to get out of those rooms and get into other rooms where people are thinking on a different level. Maybe you need to get into a tech room. Maybe if you're a tech person, you need to get into a finance room. Maybe if you're this, you need and I and I also believe very, very strongly that leadership matters, self leadership matters.

I'm a massive fan of personal development. We have got to ask better of ourselves than anybody could ask of us. Now when I say that, don't beat yourself up. Right? Because I'm a work in progress. I have a work in progress list. I have it right here. It's sitting it's sitting on my wall right over here. Work in progress. Work in progress. Stuff I failed at stuff I failed at, and stuff I will master. Mhmm. Because if I fail at it, I will master that sucker until. I will figure it out until.

The word until is part of my language, and that isn't part of the language that we have today. How long are you gonna give it? That's my question for you. How long are you gonna give it? Are you gonna give it three months? You're gonna give it three days? You're gonna give it six? I talk to people, entrepreneurs that say, god. I've been working this. I have just been grinding. I have been grinding. How long you've been grinding for? Seven months. I'm like, sweet baby Jesus. When you've been grinding seven years, you call back.

Mhmm.

Now we've gotta have mentors around us. And, also, here, just let me just tell you, I never take advice from people who are not where I wanna be. So You are on your sixteenth failed marriage, friend. I'm not taking advice from you. I'm not. Now maybe you figured out on number 17. Okay? Maybe you did. God bless you. I'm happy if you did. I don't wanna talk to you. I wanna talk to the person who's been married fifty years. I I wanna talk to the person who has failed in business and made it. Yes. And made it. And by the way, not made it ten years ago is making it today.

Yeah. Yes. Three of my multimillion dollar companies have been launched and built in the last ten years. Self managed multimillion dollar companies. Now I don't say that out of arrogance. I say that because I know how to do it. I know how. And when you know how, it's wash, rinse, repeat.

So those unconventional methods, you can't just read a book. You gotta get into a room, and then you gotta be you gotta be in the figureoutable stage. Everything is figureoutable. And by the way, I think everything will work if it's figureoutable. Mhmm. Right. It's just what's for you and what's not for you. Mhmm. Does this set your soul on fire? Would you do it if you had a billion dollars?

I see, I don't have a billion dollars yet. I'm close. Getting close. Yet. Yet. Not yet, but I'm getting close. But in a couple $100,000,000, by the way, you're financially free. Okay? Mhmm. Yeah. Figure that out. There's not a lot you can't do. Yeah. You can't you know, like, they're like because, you know, there's you can do what you kinda want. Right? Yeah. And I don't say that. Again, it's not an impressive thing. It's a it's an options thing.

What would you do if money was no object? And I ask myself questions like that. Would I partner with that person? Mhmm. Would I get on that plane? Is this worthy of my life? Every one of us every one of us are going to meet our maker. You're gonna meet Jesus or the other guy at some point. You And now just take a deep breath. If you don't believe that way, just relax. I'm not spreading my way. If they take a pill, everybody freaks out about you. You can't say anything anymore.

This is why I own my own companies because we we are not we're we're not going public for that exact thing because I wanna stay what I want. And I just tell people at some point, you're gonna leave this planet. When you leave the planet, was the trade you made today worth it? And if you knew you had six months or one year to live, what would you do different right now? Would you quit your job, give it everything? What would you do? Honestly, what would you do? And I and and I asked that because that is literally the unconventional way that I live, and I've lived that way for thirty years.

Well, good. It's so important to do those thought experiments so that you really know I always say you gotta have your ladder up against the right wall. You gotta make sure if you're gonna it's worth the climb. You gotta make sure you know where you're going and you like where you're going.

You know, kinda one last thing that is a super common thread of a lot of members of GoBundance is we have, you know, financial affluence in a way that maybe we didn't grow up with, and it sounds like that's your story too. How do you what are some maybe tactics to raise your kids or to instill that work ethic in that next generation? Because if you're flying first class, you didn't grow up flying first class. Right? How do you how do you treat teach that gratitude and work ethic to your kids?

Yeah. So you can pass on a mess or a masterpiece is my first thing I would share with you, and your mess is your kids. Your masterpiece is your kids or or your nieces and nephews or whoever it is that you're mentoring, Whoever it is that's gonna get the keys to your kingdom. And I believe that the more that flows to me must flow through me so that it can make a difference for everyone around me. Say it with me. The more that flows to me can flow through me so it can make a difference for everyone around me. Right? I'm a difference maker, so I need to bring them with me.

My daughters have come with and built sewing schools with me in Costa Rica, community centers. They have my daughter one of my daughters works with me in the companies. She's an integrator between the seven companies. She comes with me every meeting. When I signed on as the financial mentor and that all the o's come to your table, and I said, first of all, I'm not coming to your table. You come to mine because I have this three day window, and I'm gonna be home for those three days. And if you can't come, that's okay. Then it just isn't for me. Mhmm. Because because I'm good with it not being for me. It's okay. I love you. I wanna do I wanna do this with you. But it's either I have a yes, no list, and my children watch my yes no list.

So when they came that day, all the o's from that team that I was signing on with contractually, right, as a partnership, she sat at the table. She asked questions. Before I did anything, I turned to her and I said, what do you think? What are we missing? What are you not hearing from them that we need to hear? Now she's 25, and they're looking at me like, did she just ask the 25 year old in the room about a multimillion dollar deal here? Is that is that just happen? Yep. Because she's been with me since she's 13.

So I'm asking questions. Are you prepared to steward, not manage, steward my legacy? Because a steward not only protects it, but helps it grow. And I need you to help it grow. My grandchildren are doing this with me now. My youngest is seven. If they were here, they'd probably be sitting next to me in the podcast. And they're listening and they're hearing it. Hazel is listening to it and hearing it. Hazel's brilliant. She knows questions to ask today.

Are you preparing them? You know, I start talking with really high level leaders. They aren't sending their kids to, they aren't sending their their kids to math and sciences schools. They're they're sending them to places like leadership. They're sending them to communication because the person that can communicate the ideas will rule the world in the next generation.

That's so amazing. Later.

Yeah. That's key. Take them with you. Take them with you.

I love it. Marissa, we could absolutely talk all day. So we have to have you back just to share more goodness and just thank you for the light that you bring into the world.

Like, one of the biggest things that you really shared on this, there were so many, but, like, that you have to really have that focus where you know exactly what you want and then build the plan in the systems to be able to support it. And that is such an important an important message that you shared today.

Mandy, what about you?

There were two things I loved. You're a victim or you're victorious, and my personal journal prompt for after this is gonna be stop agreeing, with small. Like, where am I agreeing to stay small?

Okay. We we love the opportunity to support our guests because you've given so much to us and our audience. We wanna know, is there a resource or an introduction that changes the ballgame for you? How do we support you?

You know, I I'm getting the word out about Live Life Rich. I have written a book this last year. The forward was done by doctor John c Maxwell. He's the goat of leadership. And and I I'm just super excited about it. And I you know, you don't write a book to get rich, but I wanted to help other people do that. Right? And when I say get rich emotionally, relationally, spiritually, physically, financially. So if you go to liveliferichbook.com, you can find that resource.

There's a workbook with it. The workbook is free. There is a free community where I go and I teach in that free community. It's a Facebook community. So I go on there, and I I just teach, and I answer questions. And that is my 100% give back to the world. And here's here's my thought. I I don't wanna give handouts, but I wanna give hand ups all day long. Love it.

And so this is a hand up for me and how I can serve well well beyond people I'll never get to sit and coach individually, but I can coach them through this. And I and I can walk with them on their financial journey, their emotional journey, their relationship journey. Those areas today when it comes to to your belief systems and your practical tactical actions as an entrepreneur.

Entrepreneurs change the world. Women, we change the world. Do not wait for the government. Do not wait for regulation. Do not wait for stuff out there to make it happen. Friends, we do it. We make it happen. Do not wait. Do not wait. Our rich life is dependent on us. Our children's rich life is dependent on us. So thank you for letting me be part of that. I just wanna bless you. I wanna love you, and I wanna be I don't wanna say thank you for letting me be with you and share that message today.

Yeah. No. Absolutely. You have been a tremendous guest here on the Power Up Your Life podcast, and share this episode. Make sure that you share Marissa's book with the world as well, and just thank you for the contribution that you've given us and the world. So grateful to John that introduced us to begin with. Yeah. So just thank you again for joining us.

Thanks for joining us today on the Power Up Your Life podcast. If you got value from today's episode, make sure that you like and subscribe and send this episode to someone who needs to hear some wins like this.

If you need to power up your business, head over to Power Up Your Life Now where you can see all of the resources that our team has to power up your business. We'll see you on the next episode.