Pivot With Purpose Season 5 Episode 4 Marina Middleton Full Transcript
Meghan Houle (00:01.23)
Marina Middleton, welcome to the pivot with purpose podcast. How are you my beautiful friend?
Marina Middleton (00:07.69)
I am so excited to be here. Thank you so much for having me. I'm honestly amazing. And I looked at my calendar, I was like, oh my God, we're recording today. I'm so excited.
Meghan Houle (00:16.314)
Ah, yes, I know. I've definitely gotten some incredible marina time this year, as I know. It's almost two months ago too. We did the Pivot With Purpose live. I don't even feel like I fully processed that situation. And onto the next, the busy girl syndrome. Like what's wrong with us, but it's fine. We're here.
Marina Middleton (00:36.502)
Yes, but you crushed it. Like you crushed it. The whole event was amazing. And also I just feel like you have so much fun on this podcast and the episodes are just, it's like two people just sitting in a room hanging out. And I love that. Those are my favorite types of podcasts. So I'm sure your listeners also agree.
Meghan Houle (00:50.683)
Yeah.
Yeah. Well, thank you so much for being part of the live event. And now you're here and we're doing all the things. So I cannot wait to dive in. But the heart of this podcast is truly all about Pivots, which I know you've had some really incredible ones and are you're someone who I look up to right now, you know, and all that you're managing in your business and also how you're helping me, which we'll get into. But let's dive into early career Marina, as I know what you're doing now is.
There's skills and transferable things in there that you are doing today, but definitely not the same. So how did you get started in your career? What were you doing? Walk us on that journey.
Marina Middleton (01:32.106)
Yeah, absolutely. And I love the name of this podcast because I used to call myself the professional pivoter. I, you know, early, early Marina was going to school for criminal justice because I wanted to translate Arabic for the FBI. And I did my internship at the Maximum Prison in Cranston, Rhode Island. And I was like, oh, I can't do this. Like, this is not me. And if anybody's watching this, like via video, like I have pink backgrounds and I'm like, just this like bubbly person.
Meghan Houle (01:37.622)
Yeah.
Meghan Houle (01:45.746)
Oh my God.
Marina Middleton (02:01.134)
that just didn't work out for me. And so right after the internship, I pivoted to marketing. And so I went to school for marketing communication, I minored in fashion, and I really wanted to work for a big agency, originally what I thought. So then I did my internship at an agency that was smaller, and I was like, oh my God, this is also not for me. And I felt, you know, I feel like a lot of the times when we pivot, we feel a lot of shame that comes from it. And that's how I felt.
Why can't I figure out what I want to do? Like, this is just not working out. And so I ended up going into sales with my marketing degree outside of, right after college, I moved to New York, and I worked in wholesale for a company called Skip Hop. It now is purchased by Carter's, but it is a children's product company. And so I did that and I ended up realizing that...
I wasn't using my marketing degree and that also made me really, really sad. And so ended up having my son, I moved back from New York to Boston and I took a year off and that made me, really gave me the chance to pivot with purpose, like truly gave me the chance to sit there and think about, okay, well, why do I want to, you know, find a new job and what are the qualifications that I want the job to have, not just what I have, you know?
I ended up applying at Yahoo and I landed the job at Yahoo, which was, you know, at the time my dream to work for Yahoo or Google. And I spent the majority of my career there doing, working at Yahoo, Yahoo News and Tumblr building Fortune 500 brands, working with, you know, some of the largest names building their digital campaigns. And that is really where my love for marketing, messaging, branding really came to life.
Meghan Houle (03:53.798)
Yeah.
Marina Middleton (03:55.146)
And yeah, and then I went out on my own in 2020. I got laid off December of 2019, literally right before Christmas. And I took that time to, again, pivot. I decided to go out on my own. This was the, if not now, kind of then when situation. And here I am now.
Meghan Houle (04:14.03)
And here you are. So what drew you to the marketing world? What do you love about marketing? What do you love about branding? Why this face? Or, yeah.
Marina Middleton (04:20.087)
Yeah.
Marina Middleton (04:24.21)
Yeah, I am such a people's person. Like, I love connecting with humans. It's just who I am to my core. And marketing to me, what I fell in love with, especially when I was studying it in college, was making someone feel or do something through words or images. And I remember even at Yahoo, like one of the biggest things I tell my clients all the time, whenever we were building out campaigns and the clients were sending us the deliverables, they would send us like a picture with just photos.
Meghan Houle (04:40.786)
Mm-hmm.
Marina Middleton (04:53.458)
I mean, with text and there was no photos and we would send it back and be like, hey, we need a family here. We need a person, we need a human, we need eye contact. Like we don't realize how much our decisions are made through the connection of humans. And so that was like my big aha moment of, oh, I'm in the right space because I'm loving what I do. And so that's really why I love marketing so much. It's really making someone feel or do something through words or imagery.
Meghan Houle (05:22.39)
Yeah. And I feel you've had so much success, like pivoting by identifying some of those skills that you really love. And then also the things that you don't want to be doing. And I think there are so many listeners that come in there, definitely career professionals. Absolutely. So many of us, especially from since 2020 and even before then, have been struggling with like, what is our purpose? What's next? I hate my job. My job sucks. Now what? You know, what are you what have you learned about yourself in this process?
pivoting of like finding those things that you really love and then being able to say, okay, this is not for me. This is not what I want to be doing. You know, how do you kind of get to those skills and then be able to like market yourself in a way where you're like, I can do this and this but I want to be doing this. Yeah.
Marina Middleton (06:08.018)
Yeah, and I always say that just because you can do something doesn't mean you should be doing it. And so for me, I think the biggest thing was figuring out what it is that I was good at, that I knew I was good at. And the reason why I emphasize like those words is because I grew up where every report card I got said that I was too loud, too bold, I spoke too much, and I identified that as a weakness. And so in corporate, you know, it's funny looking at
people saying like all of the success that I've had, but like I got laid off twice. I was working for two of the three publishing companies or platforms, Yahoo and Yahoo News and Tumblr were struggling and one of the two of the hardest platforms to sell. Like I wasn't handed these like easy, you know, pathway to success and that
really defeated me. And I feel like for all of us, when we are experiencing that we're not happy at our job, we're getting, you know, report cards or people are telling us we're too loud and criticisms, we don't actually take the time to identify what are we actually good at, you know? Like it's harder for us. So for me, I just needed that quiet space to say like, hey, I really love people. I really love being on stage and I love to be like in the spotlight. Like I want to host events. I want to do this. And I was writing these things down and I'm like, okay.
Meghan Houle (07:14.579)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Marina Middleton (07:30.326)
And I worked backwards. I really wrote down all the things that I really loved to do that I knew of at that time. And I'll tell you why I say that, but I wrote everything that I loved to do. And I worked backwards in, okay, well, I'm gonna take these skills and I'm going to host an event. That was like my first thing. Then COVID happened and I had to refund everybody back. So again, it got kind of knocked down. And then I'm like, okay, I'm really good at marketing and branding and helping people with telling their story. And so I'm going to build a digital course. And I did that and it was,
amazing, successful. After COVID, I was like, okay, I'm ready to then now be in person. The reason why I say, you know, figure out what it is that you're good at now is because I have developed so many more skills throughout my four years of being an entrepreneur that I didn't have before. So now that I have that proof of, hey, I actually really love systems and automations. Oh, I didn't realize how much of a type A person I am.
I can help people with more stuff. And so really try to build for where you are now and evolve as you go. And it's not just like a pivoting thing in a negative way, you're evolving, you know?
Meghan Houle (08:26.682)
Yeah.
Meghan Houle (08:34.854)
Right? Yeah. And I think that what there's so much fear and pivoting fear of the uncertainty, the unknown, being new at something like God forbid, we're not the experts right away. But I but I feel like embracing that in that you're, you're gonna have some challenges, you're gonna learn some new things. But in the learning and the challenges, oh my god, there's so much beauty that comes out of saying like, I don't know this, but I'm going to figure it out. And it's going to continue to build on my skill set then to like get to that.
ultimate goal. But I think do you agree? I mean, and I know you work with like a lot of women. Is there a constant theme maybe for people that come to you like Marina, I hate my job. You know that something is sitting with them that you need to like get over before you can like make that pivot. Yeah.
Marina Middleton (09:06.134)
Yeah.
Marina Middleton (09:21.082)
Yeah. So before I answer that, I actually wanted to call out the fact that I actually believe there is nothing worse. Doing something new is scary, but there is nothing worse than being in a position that is not allowing you to grow. Feeling stagnant is so crippling to me and to so many people. And I think that we forget
Meghan Houle (09:36.622)
Yes.
Marina Middleton (09:44.598)
that new is amazing, but because we're comfortable, we're nervous of what that looks like. But really like there was points in my career that I would show up to work every day and I would be like, I didn't use my brain once today. Like literally I'm not growing, this is so scary. And so that's kind of like my call out for anybody that's listening is if you feel that, you know, like if you feel like I'm not learning, I'm feeling stagnant, I'm not motivated. Like.
Meghan Houle (10:00.442)
Yeah.
Marina Middleton (10:09.55)
take some time to reflect on that and see what you want to do. And so when people do come to me to answer your question, the first thing they're like, I don't know where to begin. I don't know where to begin. I don't know like how to start. I know I'm not happy here, but now what? And I always push it back to them of like, you know the answer. You might not have the plan, but you know the answer. So why don't we work backwards? I love brain dumps. I journal all the time. So let's start writing, you know, what I love to do is your
Meghan Houle (10:33.424)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Marina Middleton (10:37.922)
brain dump your story. Like, where were you when you were five? Like, really, like, do things that aren't relevant to what the goal is, what we're trying to decide. Because what you're going to notice is when you're reflecting on your story of who you are and what you've been through, you're going to write it all down and then you're going to literally make like this, this timeline of childhood to now, you're going to see a lot of things that you really miss from, from your high school and college and like,
Meghan Houle (10:53.915)
Yeah.
Marina Middleton (11:07.298)
different jobs you had and that really will allow you to paint a picture and build out a strategy that you're so proud of, that you love, that integrates all of the things that you've experienced. And for me, like when I started building my company, that's what I did. Like I remember going through my story and I'm like, okay, I was a single mom at 23. I came here really young with my parents and we were in and out of family homes. And without doing that reflection, I wouldn't have noticed that.
wow, a lot of the decision that I made stemmed from lack of confidence. Like a lot of the biggest problems and hurdles that I had to overcome was because I wasn't confident enough. And that is where the name empowered confidence came to life. That is where I knew I wanted to work with women. Like I wouldn't have known that if I didn't work backwards and really paint out my picture and reflect on who I was and what I've experienced.
Meghan Houle (12:02.25)
I love that. Oh gosh. And for anyone listening, this is such a powerful exercise. And I know I did this when I was investing in a coach very, very early on in the in the height of the pandemic, where sometimes you have to like rewrite your story, or I'll do like a 10 year journey mapping with people, it is we'll sit down and I'll be like, what are you really proud of? And they're like, I really haven't done a lot in my life. I'm like, girl, yes, you have. And let's like go back and be so proud of how far we've come.
through the challenges, through the highs, through the lows. And I think also too, like then rewriting that story because I think initially stories can come out and you're like, it feels so negative. And you're just like, oh my gosh, I don't know. Some people to me are like, Megan, I need to rewrite it. Excuse me, I'm like, no, keep it because I want you to read this. And then how can we reframe this as like what you went through actually.
Marina Middleton (12:54.904)
Yes.
Meghan Houle (12:58.906)
Was for you not it didn't happen to you, you know in this negative way it happened for you And it made you into the person that you are today and I know you and I excuse me. Oh my gosh have had Like not easy beginnings For sure, but I definitely feel like I don't know Do you do you feel what you went through early on? Allows you to kind of show up how you are today, you know in service. Yeah. Yeah
Marina Middleton (13:14.326)
Mm-hmm.
Marina Middleton (13:26.715)
100%. I just posted literally right before I got on this call a picture of Sebastian and I from 2016. Sebastian is my son who's turning eight next week. And I posted how I started my motherhood journey as a single mom. And because of that, I have the work ethics that I have. Because of that, it allowed me to really be like, oh, I can do anything. It also because of that allows me to love and show up the way that I do. And so, I'm
Meghan Houle (13:53.478)
Yeah.
Marina Middleton (13:54.586)
I love that you said reframing because that's all it is, like being able to really think of the stories that we're telling ourselves that we've developed or someone else has developed for us and reframing it and using that, like using that as fuel.
Meghan Houle (14:07.894)
Yeah. And I know you talk a lot about this, especially with your personal branding clients of that story and sharing, you know, the vulnerability of what you've been through the highest and lowest because I don't know if you get this. I mean, on social, which I know you and I love and we just love to serve our communities. We show up and we show the
some days where you look pretty or whatever. But we also show the days where we're like trash laying on the floor, like whatever. And I think a lot of people are like, those girls got it all together. And like, spoiler alert, we don't. It's not perfect. So what are what do you do to like keep yourself motivated on maybe some of those days where you're you give a lot you give a lot of energy Marina, I give you so much credit, you're coaching, you're involved in mass range, you do all the things like how do you protect yourself and your energy, your boundaries? Yeah.
Marina Middleton (14:39.99)
Yeah, totally.
Marina Middleton (14:56.906)
Yeah. I totally feel beat down all the time. Like all the time. Yeah, like I really do. And I think that I like to remind people of that, of like, I am not at my, you know, highest energy all the time. And so I know that. And so I work around that energy. I am a morning person. Like truly I can wake up like 5 a.m. and I am the half, not only am I.
Meghan Houle (15:01.701)
It's a shame.
Meghan Houle (15:18.739)
I know you've inspired me, just so you know. I know.
Marina Middleton (15:22.99)
up, but I am happy and I have energy. I know that not everybody is like that. So I'll kind of give kind of like a whatever, we'll go through it. But like I realize that I'm a morning person. So I move forward with my morning routine. I wake up early, I go work out, or even if I'm sitting there quietly, I have to wake up before everybody does. Then I'm like, go, go during the day. I get Sebastian off the bus, whether he has a play day upstairs or I'm hanging out with him
And then I wrap up for the night and then I put him to sleep and I go to sleep early. The reason why I say I realize my energy and I like play around with that energy is because we try to force ourselves to do the things when it's not our like peak energy. And I truly believe if you are in a privileged position where you can pick what you do and when to allocate your most important tasks during the time that you have high energy. And for me, I needed to realize that very.
Meghan Houle (15:57.532)
Mm-hmm.
Marina Middleton (16:22.474)
of, I was trying to do coaching calls at like 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. and I was like, I just, I wasn't giving my clients what they deserved. And I'm like, why am I doing this? So now, yeah, it might be harder for some of my clients to do 12 o'clock or 11 o'clock, but guess what? When you get on that call, you're getting what you paid for, you know? And so to me, you know, the biggest tips is figuring out what your energy is and what works for you. Five a.m.s might not work for everybody. Six a.m.s might not work for everybody, you know?
Meghan Houle (16:30.518)
Yeah.
Marina Middleton (16:51.83)
figuring out what works for you and playing around with that. And then also just giving yourself some grace. Like, success does not come without failure and you will not feel motivated all the time. So the biggest thing for me is when I don't feel motivated, I just keep moving forward because the motivation will come. It's like working out. There are billion times, a billion times where I would pull up to the gym and I'm like, do I just drive away? Like, I really don't want to do this. And I would go in, I just, I mope around.
Meghan Houle (16:55.319)
Mm-hmm.
Meghan Houle (17:10.18)
Yeah.
Marina Middleton (17:21.058)
throughout my workout, I get it done, and then I'm like, oh, feels so good, that was amazing. Yeah, so it's like, literally just do it anyway, do it anyway, do it anyway.
Meghan Houle (17:24.014)
You feel great. Time for Starbucks. Yeah. Ah, I love it. Well, on your journey to entrepreneurship, was there a pivotal year where you're like all kinds time to time to get out under somebody else's umbrella and do my own thing? Because I know as you referenced before, and I just I know your story very well, obviously. But yeah, I mean, going out, starting things in the pandemic getting shut down, picking yourself back up like what
or maybe a couple what have been some pivotal years or moments that have led you to like where you are today. Yeah.
Marina Middleton (18:00.422)
Yeah, so I was not prepared for entrepreneurship. Like, girl, it knocked me on my butt. And it wasn't because of the start of entrepreneurship. So for me, again, so privileged. I got laid off. I had my severance, my stocks, like everything. I felt really good. I was like, I have a year runway. Like, I feel really, really good. And I always had this mindset of, if this doesn't work out, I'll just go back and work at a publishing company. Like, who cares? Or any job. Like, I can go bartend. I can go work in retail. Like, I'm good, you know? And so...
Meghan Houle (18:17.563)
Mm.
Meghan Houle (18:25.114)
Right. Yeah.
Marina Middleton (18:30.214)
I had the most successful year in 2020. It was because I created a digital program and at the time, that was the only thing that you can do. I was like, entrepreneurship is easy. I can do this. Like whatever. I'm prepared for it. I was made for this. 2020, like most money I've ever made at that point in my life. Then 2021 came.
Meghan Houle (18:42.563)
Right.
Marina Middleton (18:59.302)
And it was truly the hardest year of my entrepreneurial journey and like of my life looking back at it, even outside of being a single mom, only because I took all of the money pretty much that I made in 2020 and I invested it in building this like membership program, a membership platform and on websites and the things that everybody was telling me I needed. And it went so horribly wrong.
Meghan Houle (19:02.546)
Hmm. Oh.
Meghan Houle (19:13.234)
Mm-hmm.
Meghan Houle (19:16.902)
Mm-hmm.
Marina Middleton (19:27.006)
in the sense of I never made my money back, like didn't even break even, and it took me out. Like it really hurt my ego, and it was hard for me to pick back up. And they say the most successful entrepreneurs are the ones that can get up the fastest. Like you get hit, you get up. You get hit, you get up. That was not me. It took me a truly like half of 2022 to like recover from that and be like, girl, like it's either you do this or you don't. And there was a time in 2022 that I was like,
Meghan Houle (19:48.954)
Wow.
Marina Middleton (19:53.954)
Do I need a full-time job? Like, I'm not making money. Like, what am I going to do? And I realized this because I was, like, it was my ego. Like, my ego was telling myself stories of like, I've failed. I can't make this money back ever again. I made the wrong decisions. Like, who am I? All this stuff. I reframe all of that.
Meghan Houle (19:55.835)
Yeah.
Marina Middleton (20:14.014)
I restructure who I... And so also when you're operating from a scarcity mindset and you're like, oh my God, is enough money coming in, you're taking on clients that you don't want to work on with. You're taking on projects that you don't want to work on and it is beating you up. And so I actually had to stop taking on clients. So there was a period where I stopped launching and I really reassessed who I want to work with. Yeah, who I want to work with, what do I want to do, what's my messaging, what's my purpose and truly took a pause.
and rebranded everything and it was the best decision ever. And so I kind of hit the ground running the second half of 2022, great success. I got really clear on like, I wanna help more women, founders, entrepreneurs, all the things, tell their story and then monetize, you know, their expertise and their skills and then help them market it. The clearer I got on that, I was like, oh, why am I doing all of these other things? And then obviously 2023 has been, I mean,
Meghan Houle (21:09.034)
Right? Wow.
Marina Middleton (21:13.038)
unbelievable. It's like it's blown my mind how wild and successful and happy and healthy I am this year. And it's like, oh, I can do that. But 2021 was the hardest, truly.
Meghan Houle (21:21.674)
Yeah.
Meghan Houle (21:25.11)
Yeah, well, and I feel that to my core in terms of like spending a ton of money on shit that you don't need. So like anyone listening, if someone tells you need like a $30,000 website, and all these things, like, what are some of the tell us like from a budget checkpoint? Like, what is important to maybe invest in? And what are you like, if someone's telling you spend this money? They're crazy. And I'll tell you, I was bombarded.
at one point through like LinkedIn and all these like spam bots and these people are like coach with me. I tell the story of how I had a guy who wouldn't let me off like a consult coaching call that like interviewed Matthew McConaughey and thought he was like awesome. I'm like you have like one person on your podcast. But tried to like
tried to force me to pay him $1,000 like on a call Marina like give me your phone and mind you he's like in the pair his parents basement with this like nasty ass like gross couch behind like no sure I feel like he had like no shirt on if I remembered and he's like showing me all these like notes like this is how I coach like holding up like a memo pad and I'm like Brad now and then he's like I need $1,000 I'm like
Marina Middleton (22:13.203)
on the crawl.
Meghan Houle (22:38.93)
cool. I need like a million dollars. So let's trade a Bitcoin or whatever. But like, we get bamboozled Marina, like I'm so angry. And you know, my husband, Michael, I feel like we have husbands are very similar. And he's like, I love you. I trust you. But also like, what the fuck? Like, what are you doing? So what are some of those things like, please, like, just chill, take a minute, we don't need to invest in this. Like, what lessons did you learn in terms of like, investing in like product people like?
Marina Middleton (22:40.698)
Yeah!
Marina Middleton (22:47.037)
And booze out.
Marina Middleton (22:55.988)
Literally.
Marina Middleton (23:07.89)
Yeah, so I didn't realize that it also matters are the what matters are the stages of your business. So early on to like halfway through your career, not halfway through, but like a few years in, you don't need a custom built website. You don't buy a template, like build it yourself, figure it out. You don't need it. And I spent 30 to $35,000 on that on a WordPress website that I didn't know how to use. And I shut it down immediately. And it was, I mean, it was so bad. I then had this like
Meghan Houle (23:07.907)
spending money. Yeah.
Meghan Houle (23:14.163)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Marina Middleton (23:37.534)
the membership platform working. And so I did this whole campaign around it. I spent like 20 to 30 thousands on video recordings and like interviews and making this like extreme thing without no, truly with no proof of concept. I had no idea if this was going to work. I had no data to back it up. So I said, you know, early on I'm going to take on, I'm going to bring in a thousand people. And like, where am I getting these thousand people from? Like it just didn't make sense, the numbers. And I was just
Meghan Houle (24:06.162)
Hmm.
Marina Middleton (24:07.154)
every decision I made had no data to back it up. It's funny knowing who I am and it's like, why was I operating life? That's not even me. I need data to go out on date with someone when I was single. You know what I mean? I need proof that you're a real person, you're a good person, all the things. Why was I making these decisions in my business? Those things, I feel like...
Meghan Houle (24:10.4)
Mm-hmm.
Meghan Houle (24:19.442)
Mm-hmm. Right.
Marina Middleton (24:29.97)
large marketing budgets, paid ads, websites, all of that stuff early on doesn't work. And it's a waste of money, like truly a waste of money. And the things that do work for me that really helped me is getting in the room. I invested in a coach early on to help me build out my course. I joined masterminds. I attended conferences. I would travel. So like, you know, with Create and Cultivate. So if people don't know what Create and Cultivate is, it is one of...
the largest online offline platform for women. And so I went to Create and Cultivate in New York. So I'm in Boston, flew to New York, paid for my ticket, attended that. Then I was like, okay, I really love this community so much. I've never been in a community that had so many supporting women in it, both career like driven women and entrepreneurs. So then I flew to Austin and then I flew to LA. I bought all my tickets. That was worth my investment.
And now I'm obviously, you know, a business partner with Jacqueline Johnson, who is the founder of Crate and Cultivate. And that is what allowed me to have the success that I have is being in these rooms and investing. And sometimes we're like, oh, well, does it have to be like a coach? It's just being in the room of the network of people that you want, whether it's like you're learning from them or you're talking to them, whatever it is.
Meghan Houle (25:31.941)
Yeah.
Meghan Houle (25:48.644)
Yeah.
Oh, that's so powerful. And I, as you know, very, very much a networker, 1000% agree. And I think that there's a lot of fear too about people getting in those rooms. And that is where the imposter syndrome comes up. Like, I don't belong here. I'm not good enough. And yes, there are so many wonderful things that we'll tell ourselves to like not show up for ourselves. But for someone maybe thinking about like investing.
Marina Middleton (26:02.551)
Yes.
Meghan Houle (26:17.774)
in a coach or going to an event. I mean, as you just said, there's so much value, but how do you know when it's right for you? You know, like, I guess how should people navigate like, oh, what should I invest in or where should I belong? Like any thoughts or tips or ideas? Cause I get this question all the time, like, Megan, what should I do? I'm like, I don't know, there are so many, but yeah.
Marina Middleton (26:27.881)
Mmm.
Marina Middleton (26:38.03)
Yeah, totally. And it's going to depend on what your goal is. So really think about what is your goal and who do you need to meet? What do you need to hear? Like, what room do you need to be in to get you closer to that, to accomplishing that goal? And that's kind of for me how I assessed everything. Like, my first investment was a coach that helped with courses because my goal was to develop a course. And so I...
Meghan Houle (26:42.36)
Yeah.
Meghan Houle (26:46.351)
Mm-hmm.
Marina Middleton (27:04.53)
asked around my network and I always go with referrals. Like I've actually never attended an event or invested in something that I wasn't referred into. And you know, my friend, oh, Eliza from Kick It By Eliza or Shirazi from Boston, she recommended I work with this coach and I hired her and it was amazing, done. Then my next investment was Create and Cultivate. And you know, you talked about fear and being so scared. When I walked into Create and Cultivate, and I say this story all the time,
Meghan Houle (27:12.128)
Mm-hmm.
Meghan Houle (27:16.27)
Yeah!
Marina Middleton (27:34.078)
right in front to me and I made eye contact with her and I'm like, nope, I'm not talking to this girl. And I literally like just be lined it away from her because I'm like, I am not good enough. I'm not valuable. I have nothing to say. Oh my God, this is so scary. And I didn't end up speaking to her. I ended up sending her a DM after just being like, amazing event, like didn't know what to say to you. But my husband told me, and this is something that I do to this day is.
Meghan Houle (27:38.402)
Right, you freeze. Yeah.
Meghan Houle (27:47.726)
Mm-hmm.
Marina Middleton (28:00.31)
because I do get really nervous walking into the rooms, even though I'm an extrovert is thinking, okay, what is your goal? Like obviously just what I said, but he would always make me pick a number of people that I'm going to connect with and like take their information. And so creating Cultivate was five. And he was like, even if you want to leave after those five leave, like you don't have to stay there the whole time. Like it's just really figuring out what is that number and hit the ground running. And so five was my number. That was like my sweet spot. I was like,
Meghan Houle (28:12.982)
Mmm.
Meghan Houle (28:19.514)
I love it. Ooh.
Marina Middleton (28:29.718)
go find five people. And Ali Webb actually taught me something the other day was when you're nervous networking, you should ask someone else about themselves. We're always nervous because we're like, Oh my God, what am I going to say? How, like, how am I going to introduce myself? Don't think about yourself when you're in the room, literally look next to him, like to the next person next to you or in front of you and just be like, so what do you do? Like, where are you from? And make it all about them because it's going to help you show up so much more.
Meghan Houle (28:55.516)
Yeah.
Meghan Houle (28:59.702)
Yeah, and I say we build some really incredible connections when we don't just make it also all about us and we get curious about other people because in this world of networking, and I always say this, it has to be a two-way street. And I'm sure you get like 10 kajillion DMs a day. Marina, coffee, can we pick your brain? Can we do all this? And it's like, ah! So it definitely is something where, yes, I know you're so generous with your time.
but also what is your goal, right? And I know we've experienced like many people that just kind of show up and they're super frantic and your message just doesn't come across and it doesn't land well. So get strategic, but I love picking a number, just start small. It's like, maybe I want to get to know five people. Well, we'll get into this, but at the blueprint, I made 43 new friends in two days. So it loves it. But...
Marina Middleton (29:32.142)
care.
Meghan Houle (29:54.702)
So tell us in terms of your programs because I was drawn to you. I think it must have been in those like 2021, 2022 years seeing you on social and I just love anyone that's in Boston and I'm like, who is this incredible woman? I need to know her. And then you did an event in March of this year where I was like, yep, sold. Get me on that. And we started chatting. I think it was in Hawaii and we like connected over like booty by Brabant.
Marina Middleton (30:21.482)
Yes.
Meghan Houle (30:23.482)
Shout out to Kelly, y'all's girl. But tell us all about your programs, right? Because now in this journey of entrepreneurship, like you said, I'm just so proud of you and all you've built in this small time I've been in your space, you have changed my life. So yeah, tell us a little bit about what your offerings are and just how people can work one on one with you with what you are currently leading in your own business. Yeah, yeah.
Marina Middleton (30:49.126)
Yeah, so it has evolved so much over the years and it's been such a beautiful, beautiful evolution. The one thing that I've really been focusing on the most and where I'm giving a lot of my one-on-one times and my consulting times is the Blueprint Mastermind. And that to me is, it really allows me to be able to pour back into, you know, 50 other entrepreneurs and helping them with their messaging, with their personal brand, with...
Meghan Houle (31:03.77)
Mm-hmm.
Marina Middleton (31:16.246)
you know, their strategy to go to market, like all the things while still doing like the events and all of that stuff. So that's one of the biggest projects that I obviously have going on, which I know obviously you're part of it, that has been taking most of my time. Outside of that, I am doing VIP days. And so I realized, you know, I have my course brand business accelerator, which is for aspiring entrepreneurs and early stage entrepreneurs helping them, you know.
Meghan Houle (31:21.843)
Mm-hmm.
Marina Middleton (31:44.074)
really build their brand or rebrand, and then personal brand power, which is the personal branding program. And I've kind of combined the strategies and the skills for all of those and put it into a VIP day. So if someone doesn't wanna take a course and they wanna spend the day with me, we do these VIP days. So those are four offerings. We have the Blueprint, which is the mastermind, the business course, the personal branding program, which is a course and the one-on-ones, and then the VIP days.
Meghan Houle (32:11.07)
Yeah. So let's dive into Blueprint because for me, you know, I went through coaching multiple coaches on my journey to building a couple of my businesses here on top of what I do with recruiting and you know, all the things but how did this mastermind like come together? Like what who did you start talking to? Because I know now you're in business as you said with Jacqueline. So you must have strived off with conversation eventually with her, right? Yeah, so
Marina Middleton (32:14.391)
Yeah.
Marina Middleton (32:38.878)
Yeah, yeah, kind of. Yeah, so with the Blueprint, so before I created the Blueprint mastermind, Empowered Confidence, which is my company, already hosted masterminds and retreats. Like it was something that we were doing. I obviously had the Confidence Summit. So events is something that I love, love. I think it's really important to see people in person. And so...
Meghan Houle (32:40.719)
Ha ha ha.
Meghan Houle (32:47.179)
Mm-hmm. Mm.
Meghan Houle (33:00.464)
Yeah.
Marina Middleton (33:01.002)
I was doing that and I just had this feeling of like, I just want it to be bigger. I just want it to be bigger. I want to make more of an impact. I was joining Masterminds myself that were amazing and I made really good friends, but there was just always something missing. I felt like I wasn't getting what I was paying for. I was driving. It's honestly so silly when I say it out loud because it's so crazy how it happened, Megan.
Meghan Houle (33:05.848)
Mmm.
Meghan Houle (33:29.45)
Yeah.
Marina Middleton (33:29.566)
I was driving and I always get my best crazy wild thoughts either in the shower or when I'm driving. It just happens. So I was driving and I literally had this random idea that said, what if Jacqueline Johnson and I may do a mastermind together? Why? No idea. So I live in the sweet spot between your idea and fear.
I have an idea and I have about 30 seconds before fear comes in play. If I don't take action in between that, I swear to God it doesn't happen. Like it doesn't. Like I'll talk myself out of it. And I think most people are like that. And so in that 30 seconds, I, again, driving, so should not have done this, but I open my Instagram.
Meghan Houle (34:08.49)
Mm. Yeah. Yes.
Marina Middleton (34:22.554)
And I do a talk to texts and I literally say out loud and I have to post a story about this because it's so wild. And I say, hey, I have a crazy idea and before I talk myself out of it, I'm just going to ask you, have you ever been interested in creating a mastermind? She responds back immediately and she's like, yeah, why, what's up? Like, what are you thinking? And I...
Meghan Houle (34:28.335)
Yeah.
Meghan Houle (34:33.316)
No.
Marina Middleton (34:45.13)
lost it. And so I didn't respond for a little bit because I was freaking out. I was like, Oh my God, what do I say? And then I ended up sending her some voice memos of like, Hey, I've had, I've done these masterminds. I've had amazing success. My mastermind members continue to sign up, but the one thing I'm missing is a larger network and access to amazing speakers and amazing sponsors. And you have that. And so what if we combine what you have and what I have, knowing the curriculum, the structure that I can build and build this. She's like, yeah, hell
Meghan Houle (35:00.623)
Mm.
Marina Middleton (35:13.938)
email me. I email her and then she says, Hey, I had coffee with Ali Webb, who's the founder of Drybar and said, and she was like, and Ali's really interested to do this as well. And I was like, what is happening? Megan, this was March or April of 2023. It is now November of 2023. We wrapped up our first cohort. We're launching a second cohort. We have done photo shoots together, podcasts together. I mean, we are inseparable, truly. And it's
Meghan Houle (35:24.735)
Yes. Yeah.
Meghan Houle (35:40.082)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Marina Middleton (35:42.898)
It's just crazy what happens when you act in between the sweet spot of idea and fear, truly.
Meghan Houle (35:48.418)
Right. Oh yeah. Cause I feel like you, you do, like you said, you hear that so many times people have so many ideas or maybe you're around friends to just talk, talk about it. And what does the saying go? So maybe I heard this on the podcast or I know just someone lives by this. Like don't tell me twice what you're doing. Just do it. I think it's skinning or our skinning confidential. But, um, so what, who is blueprint for?
Marina Middleton (36:06.134)
Yeah, just do it. Just do it.
Marina Middleton (36:13.698)
So Blueprint is truly for the already established entrepreneur that maybe has a team, has been an entrepreneur for a handful of years, they're generating revenue. They're not confused on the idea that they're building, even if they're launching a new business. You know how to be an entrepreneur, but you're now in the spot of like, hey, feeling a little stagnant, my team is not motivated or hey, I need to figure out how to hire.
Meghan Houle (36:28.114)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Marina Middleton (36:39.898)
I want to exit my business and I actually have no idea how to do that. I'm not sure if I need to raise money or how that works. I feel really alone and I want to be in a group, a community of other amazing women entrepreneurs that are going to help me take my business to the next level. So it's kind of like who you are, but you have to be someone that wants to be coached and is coachable because that's a really, really important qualification. You want...
Meghan Houle (36:59.078)
Yeah.
Meghan Houle (37:04.131)
Right? Yes.
Marina Middleton (37:08.75)
to be in a community. You want to get one-on-one coaching from amazing entrepreneurs. Like you get one-on-ones with Ali, Jacqueline, myself. You get guest speakers, you're in person. I mean, it's unbelievable, but you just have to be someone that really, really wants to take your business to the next level because we will, as you know, like we're all in on our members' goals. Like we memorize their goals because it's so important to us that.
Meghan Houle (37:28.219)
Yeah.
Meghan Houle (37:32.833)
Mm-hmm.
Marina Middleton (37:34.23)
they see that return on their investment when they join. That's why you make investments. And it doesn't have to be monetary either. Like, just making sure that, have I met the people? Am I in the right room? Do I get the strategy? Sure, am I making my money back? All of those things play in it, for sure.
Meghan Houle (37:39.215)
Yeah.
Meghan Houle (37:52.814)
No, it's so important because I've seen, you know, throughout our space and I know you probably have to like these huge, huge programs and people like go and they're like, Oh my God, like what, what did I sign up for her and not feeling like they're getting anything back. So I know how high value this is. And then also all of you bring something so different to the table. You know, Ali.
sold her businesses, this crazy story. Jacqueline is all about money, funding, capital, queen of a lot of things. And then you are all branding, all strategy, marketing. So it's like combining these forces. And I love that there's the three of you because I think it's so powerful when you can combine forces and see each other.
Marina Middleton (38:29.259)
Yeah.
Marina Middleton (38:35.79)
Totally.
Meghan Houle (38:38.758)
not a competition because I know it's when we struggle with that of like, Oh, someone's doing something like mine or similar, like they're my competition. It's like, but what if you like combined forces? What if we stop hating on people and help people and like see how we can help each other expand in all the ways. So I just this mastermind is so incredible. And it's my first one. So I've never invested like actually in a mastermind and the minute you posted it, and it didn't hurt that it was also a Napa for the first cohort. I'm like, Yeah.
Marina Middleton (39:07.872)
I'm in.
Meghan Houle (39:07.938)
and take all my money. But in terms of, you know, the women and the women that are a part of this, I mean, another thing I will say is, I love when we were all going around the room and saying like, what are we excited about being here? And I think my biggest thing growing up, and I know I talk about this a lot, is never having people, especially women, that wanted me to succeed, that I felt like were cheering for me.
I grew up in luxury fashion, so everybody was at each other's throats thinking that he could do everybody's job. And it really was just something that I just never believed in and also felt like very lonely because I think that that's a part of that entrepreneurship is kind of lonely at the top. So to have this community where people are like genuinely clapping for each other and it's no mean girl situation, I was kind of laughing. It feels like
Marina Middleton (39:47.426)
Hmm.
Meghan Houle (40:01.998)
almost like the bachelor, where you're like, you know, you have all these women, but we're not vying for anything, but like knowledge and whatever, but you know, it's all these personalities and you see where the friends form. But like, I feel like generally we all really just love and support each other. And I think it starts with you guys giving that and pouring that into it and setting the tone and setting the bar super high. So thank you for bringing this to life.
And I know there's a lot more to come, right? So for anyone listening, maybe as we passed our first one, but I know there's a second one in the works. What does the future hold for Blueprint? How can people get involved? And I know there's applications. So what does that look like? Yeah.
Marina Middleton (40:41.758)
Yeah. So we're open right now for applications. So you go to the BlueprintMastermind.com and you apply. The reason why we have an application process is for exactly what you just said, Megan. Like the room is so strategically curated because your investment matters, your energy matters, where you put your time matters. Again, all of these entrepreneurs are successful women that are really busy and have families and have lives and have kids and
other employees and like all the things. And so really making sure that the person that we are hand selecting makes sense in this room for the other members, but also, so we make sure that we know how to help you accomplish your goals, you know, like that either we've done it before or we have someone in our network that has done it before. So you apply, you'll get your email, you'll then get either accepted or hey, maybe not right now.
Meghan Houle (41:19.42)
Yeah.
Meghan Houle (41:25.977)
Mm-hmm.
Meghan Houle (41:29.692)
Yeah.
Meghan Houle (41:35.undefined)
Mm-hmm.
Marina Middleton (41:35.562)
And once you are accepted, you get enrolled in. And so April 1st to September 30th is when we're doing our next cohort. The cohorts are six months long. You get monthly group calls and then monthly guest calls. And then we have like some surprise and delight things that we have throughout each month.
Meghan Houle (41:44.294)
Hmm. Mm-hmm.
Marina Middleton (41:56.246)
We have a private community page, so you're constantly, you know, asking your questions in there. We're going in there answering, but really that's where the masterminding happens with all the other members. And then we always have a two-day event that kicks off the six-month mastermind. And the two days is happening in Nashville, Tennessee this year, April 18th. Yeah, April 18th and 19th. I'm so, so excited. And during those two days, we do, you know, speakers and panels and breakout sessions and...
Meghan Houle (42:14.991)
Yeah. Woo, it's gonna be awesome. Yeah.
Marina Middleton (42:25.538)
dinners and happy hours and all the things. It's a jam packed two days, but it is so, so amazing because it kicks off the six months. We pick our goal, you know, and the last one, obviously, we went for you, you know this, we went around and every single person said, hey, by March 31st, which is when the Master of My End, I will accomplish this. And we have that on video and it's so beautiful to watch back and it's crazy to see how many women.
Meghan Houle (42:39.538)
Mm-hmm.
Meghan Houle (42:51.183)
Yeah.
Marina Middleton (42:53.042)
in only a month have already accomplished more than halfway to their goal. It's crazy.
Meghan Houle (42:59.01)
That's awesome. I know. Well, and it's good accountability. And then I think just the access in the community and all that you do throughout from, you know, when we were in Napa to almost on the daily, you know, there's something that's coming up or life, you know, coaching calls, or like you said, speakers. So a lot of access, business building, business planning. You know, if anyone's sitting with, I think any fear or doubt, especially going into a new year,
Marina Middleton (43:02.304)
Yes.
Meghan Houle (43:27.406)
the best investment you can make is in yourself. I will say like all the instant gratification things that we are so quick to spend money on because it gives us happiness, no. You know, why don't we take some time, maybe save a little of that money, whatever we need to do to then say like, wow, how can I invest in myself that's going to get me closer to my goal, feeling more aligned, being able to finally make that pivot with purpose, get out of a job I hate, you know, start my own business, start a course.
whatever it is. So the Blueprint is an incredible platform and offering and mastermind. So for everyone listening, obviously everything is gonna be linked in the show notes and with Marina, I mean, I know you have other opportunities for people to work with you, but will you be taking on new clients or can people still kind of engage with Empowered Competence and your other courses? What's your goal for?
Also the rest of this year 2024 in terms of working one-on-one with people, yeah.
Marina Middleton (44:28.05)
Yeah, so I'm not taking on any more clients right now. And then we'll figure out what life looks like in January for the rest of 2024. Yeah.
Meghan Houle (44:30.979)
Okay, yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah, good. Well, where can people find you and engage with you? I mean, I know you're super active on Insta, but you're kind of all over and very generous with your time. So where's the best way to find an all things Marina? Yeah.
Marina Middleton (44:52.838)
Yeah, Marina A. Middleton. I live on Instagram and that's really where I'll share like when I'm taking on more clients, what city I'm in because I'll do a lot of pop-up VIP days there. If I'm traveling, I'll do like, oh, I'm doing a VIP day and I take one one-on-one while I'm there. I share all things, the blueprint there. I share all things, my friends and family and travel. So definitely just check me out on Instagram.
Meghan Houle (45:17.042)
I love it. And before I let you go, what does it mean for you to pivot with purpose? Like, what does that truly mean?
Marina Middleton (45:23.278)
For me, it is making a pivot that allows me to be happier and to get closer to that goal. And a lot of the times we think our goal is like financial. And to me, it's just what is that life I'm building for myself and my husband and my child. And that to me is how I pivot with purpose.
Meghan Houle (45:39.362)
Yeah. Yeah, and doesn't it usually come, I mean, when all things are aligned, and I say this in my recruiting world, it can't just be taking a job or situation just because of the money, right? As we've seen, some of the highest paid people, some of the biggest companies, that people have stars in their eyes, sometimes aren't always the best options or you're not feeling your best every day even making that big paycheck. So...
Marina Middleton (45:50.164)
No.
Meghan Houle (46:04.902)
for the rest of this year. I know by the time this launches, we'll have almost like 30 days. So everyone get out there, set your attention, set those goals for the new year. If you're interested, go apply for the Blueprint Mastermind. It is the best investment you will make. It'll be such an incredible way to kick off 2024. And then you have something until September. So like, there you go. But thank you, Marina.
Marina Middleton (46:27.182)
Exactly, exactly.
Meghan Houle (46:29.542)
Thank you so much for all that you do for me. I will tell you guys Marina has changed my life. She's helped me get so much clarity, helping me with my personal brand. You know, I have some big juicy goals coming up through this mastermind. So we're gonna do all the things and I'm so grateful to have you by my side. So thank you, my friend. You're so amazing. Love you.
Marina Middleton (46:46.31)
I love you. I am so, so grateful for you. And thank you for having me. Thank you for always trusting me. It really means a lot.
Meghan Houle (46:52.906)
Yes!