SPEAKER_00 0:00

Here comes a sand do. Here comes a sign that say it's all right.

SPEAKER_03 0:20

Hello, fortitude audience. Thank you so much for joining us here today. We have Marta Saray Greca, and she is uh out in Pennsylvania, and we're super excited to be over Zoom right now speaking to her. Um, I'm with my husband Amos as well.

SPEAKER_02 0:36

Hello.

SPEAKER_03 0:37

And you can say hello to Marta. Hi. Um Marta and I met through a mutual friend, actually, through just through social media. Um, gotta give Rebecca Wiener a shout out because we all love and adore her. Um I think I just had commented on something that you had commented on, and we have become friends um from afar. And recently I was on your podcast, which thank you very much for having me on and allowing me to share my story with your audience.

SPEAKER_00 1:06

Um on our Instagram, by the way. Highest engagement on any of the of course, we just started the channel for the podcast, but it was like just 800% more engagement on your clip than any other podcast episode. Not that I that really means anything, but it seems to mean something nowadays, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:25

Yeah, that actually that's really that's warms my heart. So thank you for telling me that. I didn't know. Your story really connected with a lot of people. It's a big deal right now what people are going through. So I appreciate you um speaking about it, putting it out there and and sharing with your audience as well. So um I am really excited for our audience to hear your story. Your story is it's beautiful and it's gonna touch a lot of lives. So I'm just gonna turn it over to you and let you share with our audience what you're all about, Marta.

SPEAKER_00 1:54

Sure. Well, a little bit about who what's in my life now is I am first first and foremost a full-time mom to my six kids. And I also get to run and um my marketing agency, Media, the creative agency, as the CEO. But because I have an awesome team, I get to be pretty hands-off and pop in when it's needed or when I want to, and truly just have the focus on my day-to-day of my six kids, our crazy puppy husband, and my dad. That's awesome. Six kids. Just part of the family now. My dad's just with us 24-7, and I love it. Does he he lives with you guys full-time? No, he lives in a facility about four minutes away, but you know, I try to get him out and get moving. And you know, he loves our little lake in the backyard, just makes him so happy. So I come and pick him up, bring him for walks, ends up staying the whole day, and I love it. I'm like, just stay for five more hours.

SPEAKER_03 2:49

Yeah, I bet your kids love that too, to have Papa there.

SPEAKER_00 2:53

Yeah, he's uh struggling with Alzheimer's, not he's not struggling with Alzheimer's, but he's been diagnosed with Alzheimer's in the last year. So uh it's awesome because they pull out all the board games, it's really good for his for his brain, and obviously exercise around the lake too is good. So they they do, they love it, and he loves to do the spelling, uh, quizzing them for their tests or you know, the first second grade math, and it's good for his brain. So uh it's great. It's we all win.

SPEAKER_03 3:20

That is really special. There's gonna be a time where we end up taking care of our parents too, and not so Amos just gave me a very weird look, like, oh heck, just hadn't thought about that, I suppose.

SPEAKER_00 3:34

Yeah, oh, it's the best, yeah. I mean, my is also the most complimentary man any uh of in the entire world. Like anything I do could be like I could fold a piece of paper and he would say it was just the best piece of paper in the entire world. Thank you for folding it in front of me. It's it's an honor to have witnessed you folding him around. That is precious. I want to meet him. Well, yeah, he's the best, he's written four books, he's been on my podcast, and he uh used to be an officer in the Vatican. Okay. Baptized by Pope John Paul II because of him. So there you go.

SPEAKER_03 4:10

Wow. Okay, so go back there. Start start in the beginning of where you were born, your dad, your parents.

SPEAKER_00 4:17

Sure. So my dad's from France, he's a proud Gasconian from south of France. He actually ran away from home when he was uh an adolescent and kind of lived on his own for most of his adolescence and then repaired his relationship with his parents, but ended up in Italy, where he uh did all of his studies and uh met my mom. And she's Italian, but she's from Tuscany. We lived in Rome. He decided to take a job in the United States randomly, and so here we are. We've been here since uh since I was nine years old. Man.

SPEAKER_03 4:55

What did he what job did he take? I was just thinking like that's a big story.

SPEAKER_00 4:59

He uh interesting story about the divine. He um took a job as a professor of philosophy, has PhD in philosophy and theology at a university here in uh where we are now, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. And he uh got here and they said the position is no longer available. He had we had gotten rid of our uh place in Italy. We had he had moved five children and his wife, who couldn't work legally work, she didn't have a visa for working. And uh we had rented a nice house here, and so he said, The heck it's not. You're gonna have me teach for a year. You brought me here. Yeah. So they they allowed him to stay for a year, but then after that, it was like year after year, just finding a new teaching position and a new teaching position, a new teaching position. And we kind of moved a little bit all over the place uh in the country because of it, but um, it was also a blessing.

SPEAKER_03 5:55

Wow. So you're nine years old when you first move over here, and you get thrown into an American school right away, you and your and your four siblings.

SPEAKER_00 6:07

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 6:08

Where were you in the birth order?

SPEAKER_00 6:10

I am uh the youngest with a twin. So that my twin and I, uh he's my twin brother, we're the youngest of the five.

SPEAKER_03 6:18

Okay. So what was that transition like for all of you?

SPEAKER_00 6:22

You you in particular. I don't remember thinking much of it, to be honest with you. It was just like, okay, you know. Um, but my brother, my definitely my siblings had a very hard time with it and had to do some healing as adults, I think, because of it. And there's in still are navigating some things for sure. But it was a good move. It opened up a lot of opportunities. There's opportunities. I mean, I would never probably I don't know if I'd be able to have started my own company and be the CEO and um my husband, you know, meet obviously meet my husband and have the children that we have if we hadn't moved here. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:00

It's funny. I think the same way about my time over in Germany, where I go, it's just a you move to a different country, it's a life-changing experience. It's not something that you can simulate. You've got to go through it to really to really understand. And uh, but similarly, I don't uh I can't I can't imagine starting a business in Germany.

SPEAKER_00 7:21

Yeah, I don't know much about the economy there, but I certainly I know we couldn't do it in Italy the way unless we had American clients, to be honest with you.

SPEAKER_01 7:29

Sure.

SPEAKER_00 7:30

We do have what my godbrother does some work in social media and helps my brother out, who's part of our company as well. So uh I think with with how much more connected we are year after year through the wonderful world of the social media, I think it would be possible that way. But uh we get into we can get into a conversation about the tax brackets and that stuff, which isn't favorable to small businesses in Italy, but we won't go there.

SPEAKER_03 7:59

Well, I moved just from Missouri to Minnesota when I was 10 years old, and that was a huge change. And it it it was very hard. So just moving across the ocean just seems so crazy to me that it wouldn't be.

SPEAKER_00 8:15

I mean, I think about my mom. Sorry to cut you off, but I think I just I think about my mom, and I'm like, this woman moved to a different country, didn't speak the language with five teenagers essentially. I mean, I was nine, but the rest of them were teenagers. They were not happy. And she couldn't, she didn't have the internet, she couldn't call home. She had to use a phone card, which she couldn't afford because they were on one income with five children. That must have been so freaking hard for real.

SPEAKER_01 8:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:45

I I don't know why. If my husband said that to me right now, I don't know if I could do it. I would do it, but yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:51

To be a fly in the wall when your parents first had that conversation and your dad says, I think we need to move to the US.

SPEAKER_01 8:57

I don't know what she was thinking. I'm just kidding.

SPEAKER_02 9:00

What I thought I heard you just say we need to move to the US and just how that how that shook out. I'm sure there's a there's wonderful stories there.

SPEAKER_03 9:07

That's a lot of trust. So while you're here, Marta, you started to hang out with some of the maybe not the best crowd. So can you can you go into that a little bit?

SPEAKER_00 9:21

Yes. So as an adult, you feel a little silly talking about things that happened in fifth grade, sixth grade, seventh grade, eighth grade. But it is true that traumatic experiences like that really do you feel like your identity is back there until you do some healing around it. And luckily, who you reference, Rebecca Wiener McGregor, I'd tremendous, I would hands down recommend her to anyone. Insane amount of healing with her. But when uh we moved to the United States, it was like the cool thing to have a little Italian girl in your classroom, and everybody who's in in our area, at least, I don't know about you guys, there's a lot of uh third generation Italian immigrants. So very, very many children had grandparents who were from Italy, right? So they had their nana, and so they would they thought it was cool, but it was quickly realized that the cultures are different, the hygiene is different, the uh wardrobe tendencies are different, the etiquette is different. So, what was initially cool, I just became weird to them. And so, because of it in fifth grade, I just remember nobody I had become fluent in English by that time, because you you guys knowing with traveling internationally, children pick up languages like that. So by fifth grade, we were all um fluent, but still nobody would speak to me, actively going out of their way to be entertained by making it well known that I was different. And so, because of it, when I moved into sixth and seventh grade, I uh gravitated to the not so greatest crowds just because I wanted to fit in, which turned into a lot of drug use and a lot of alcohol use by the and smoking uh by the time I was 12. And because of it, you know, obviously uh the cognitively impaired most of the time because I'm not with it and I'm doing everything I can to get my hands on more stuff every day, to even getting caught shoplifting, trying to steal cold medicine because I didn't have the money to buy the proper drugs. So I would do anything just to just to be messed up in my mind every single day. Sneaking alcohol in the school, dropping acid in the hallway. It was not good. And uh because of it, you know, the more I did that, the more I was seen as a problem, the more I was seen as a problem, the more I did that. And it did lead to, I believe I was about 13 or 14, I can't remember. I was prescribed allergy medicine. Thank God, literally, thank you God for giving me the right idea to try to do this with allergy medicine and not anything else that I had access to. Or maybe that's all I had access to at the time, because again, my parents didn't, you know, didn't I got an allowance that I was supposed to use for school lunches, but it was 10 bucks a week and I was using it on drugs. But uh, so all I had access to was allergy medicine and I swallowed the entire container because I was trying to take my own life. And unfortunately, uh actually not unfortunately, fortunately, that didn't work. Uh and though, and we I don't, I don't, I still don't know to this day if my parents knew what was going on, but we did end up in the hospital and the emergency room on Thanksgiving Day because of it, them pumping my stomach and taking doing all sorts of tests. But if they were taking the test, I really I think at that time I was taking like cold medicine or alcohol or whatever I could to be messed up, but not hard drugs. I didn't have access to probably things that they were trying to test for. Um, maybe marijuana, but I don't know. Anyways, it wasn't detected that I had tried to kill myself. So I ended up, you know, going home and I continued that behavior. And to be quite honest, there's no rhyme or reason why I stopped. It was just a voice, I it must have been God who said, I just felt it within me. I don't want to be like this anymore. I mean, my friends were trading me for drugs uh at parties. It was a common occurrence for this to be a thing on the weekends. If I don't, I feel still uncomfortable speaking about the details of that uh publicly. But if you can, you can kind of get what that means. And so there, again, there wasn't anybody. My parents were so overwhelmed because at this time my dad is working in a different state, just trying to have a job teaching. And my mom has at home with five horrible teenagers who do not respect her. At this time, she's able to work. They're just, they're very loving parents, but they're just trying to survive themselves. They don't know what's going on. And so there really wasn't anyone to say, hey, stop doing what you're doing. And so it was definitely God. And uh soon after that, I met my husband, and then there's a whole other history around that. And but we're still buried. And I met him when I was 15, we had six kids, and here we are today.

SPEAKER_03 14:24

Wow. So I'm gonna take you back to when the the part about your friends and not getting into the uncomfortable space, but you had talked about physical abuse that it's like you had you were s not in the right mind at all until the point where you're like your friends were physically beating you up. What like where are you at and how how is this happening? And how like were you for your for the sake of your like your brothers and sisters and the bruises or the scars, or was everyone just going in so many different directions? Nobody was paying attention.

SPEAKER_00 15:05

And then yeah, and in fact, the um I remember this one specific friend-ish friend wasn't a friend. There was an instance where just for the entertainment of the whole party, just everybody's gathered around and she's just beating me up, and I'm just letting it happen because I don't have like a bone in my body that's standing up for myself. And uh she would take my head sometimes, she'd get mad, and she'd bash it against her dresser. Uh, there was time uh one time I remember waking up, she had a bottle of hairspray and a lighter and she lit it right next to my head. And um, but she there was a stigma that we were not in the upper class. We were immigrants who didn't have a lot of money, even though my parents were, you know, were educated, not that that matters. Um, we just we were looked down upon. So this friend's parents, I remember he actually said, you know, you're not allowed to hang out with Marta anymore. I think she's a bad influence. Little did he know the things that she was doing. I mean, she was trading my body for favors for drugs for herself. And she was beating me up in front of people, and you know, the verbal abuse was just as as uh as drastic.

SPEAKER_02 16:21

Um so did that play into your your attempt at your at your life?

SPEAKER_00 16:27

Probably.

SPEAKER_02 16:29

Was it in the same time frame?

SPEAKER_00 16:31

Yeah, it was all in the same time frame. Yeah, probably. I mean that was my best friend.

SPEAKER_02 16:37

So yeah, yeah. Um there's this phrase to hurt people, hurt people.

SPEAKER_00 16:44

Oh, absolutely. If I look at back as an adult now and I look at the family dynamics that she was dealing with, yeah, her I don't want to go into it, and we I haven't shared her name, but still we don't need to get into her story, but absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 16:58

Yeah, I can really sympathize with that. I mean, I had people hurt me in high school, in middle school too, had transitioning from a a private school to a public school. And and yeah, as a young adult, and I'm speaking to young adults right now, is what you don't understand is what's when hurt hurt people, hurt people. And um, you know, you you grew up and you realize, gosh, their their family life was probably really hard. The the more hurtful that they are towards you, the more that's likely. And um it's hard the thing to see in the in the moment.

SPEAKER_00 17:31

Yeah, I mean, they're a very well-known family in the community, and just very well known, very uh they were you know wealthier and the and in the higher class bracket. Everybody's just look looked up to this family, but behind the scenes, there was a lot of there's a lot of turmoil and abuse.

SPEAKER_02 17:51

And that's that it always happens behind closed doors. And they put a they put a a brave face on and they go home and they they are oftentimes in a really difficult situation themselves.

SPEAKER_03 18:04

The vicious cycle of abuse and what goes on behind closed doors and how it it doesn't stay there, you know. It's it led into you and your life and your family and your future story. Um and I I think I think for your for your parents and you know, this destructive behavior that you just didn't know any different, right? You're you're just kind of going along with all of this stuff with the drugs and um I think just the you know, being promiscuous but not knowing and hanging out with friends that are just not good. There's a lot of parents um that this is happening and and continuing to happen today in our society, and parents are kind of turning a cheek. And I'm hearing more about that, like in the schools, you know, with bullying and not my kid. And but yeah, it is actually you know, like so what advice would you give? Um if you could look back and and have a full-on conversation with your mom about what was her dad of what was going on with you in that time, what maybe could have been different for you to then maybe versus the voice, but if something would have happened, I know you talked a little bit about the law, had to get in and you you got like you couldn't get your license.

SPEAKER_00 19:22

But like see, and I think these details, I even like I forgot that I was uh arrested and had to go to outpatient rehab, and they took my license at, I think I was 14 or 15 before I was even old enough to have a license. It's still on my record, and I completely forgot that happened, but it's in your subconscious until recently when I got a speeding ticket and my my attorney asked me to, you know, hold my driving record. Um, it wasn't that serious, but I still, you know, wanted to have someone by my side because that clearly, you know, in my in my background, I feel nervous around authority. Uh, and I forgot. I was like, I can't believe I forgot that happened. That's terrible. But I don't know that my parents had the bandwidth to do anything differently.

SPEAKER_03 20:11

They were just doing their best. But you I look at it, you now and you know better. So you're doing better with your children, right? Like, so looking, looking back and going, gosh, there's definitely things that I'm going to do different. And it has nothing to do with because your parents, like you said, they just they didn't have the means or the bandwidth or whatever it might have been from a financial standpoint, but like going into your life now, because you don't like you don't want that to be your children, right? So what are you?

SPEAKER_00 20:43

I think we're having a breakthrough here because I think that's why I'm so passionate. I'm always talking about family first, focus on your children first. Everything will fall into place. Be in the present moment with them. Everything else comes secondary. And you know, God will provide. That's probably what my whole message is about. So I do try to be a full-time mom first. And if I miss out on an opportunity because I'm focused on that, then so be it. God, it's not really a miss out. God will provide and better opportunities will come your way.

SPEAKER_03 21:18

I have loved watching just from knowing you, just the small amount that I have, just following you and watching your stuff. It is so fun to see you interacting with your children while you're working. Like the fact that you've worked your career around them. Yeah. Yeah. All the pictures of you guys. It's so good. It's good. I love it. Yes. So they just crack me up. It's a lot of work, but it's a lot of intentionality. And that's what Amos and I talk so much about is um just being so intentional with our children and paying attention and having the conversations and being so open and honest about what is going on around them. them because you can't protect them, you can't put them in a bubble, right? But you can just model and show and love and create a space for them to be. Um I mean I look at our 15 year old and it's just so fun to watch because our conversations are deep. We get into conversations that I never had as a kid. And I like the encouragement of what that does when parents are able to open up and to have these tough conversations. It just opens up a whole world for for our kids of honesty and purity and just of I don't know. So I I I love that you are you're recreating and not repeating.

SPEAKER_00 22:43

So yeah I can relate to what you're saying because we have a 15 year old and a 13 year old and they have their own struggles but it's still I actually tell them I'm like I just thank God that you have these struggles because you are still like 10 miles ahead of what I was doing at your age. I am grateful for these issues, you know, and then I can also understand when because of making my own mistakes when they inevitably make their mistakes like where their brain is what what what it's thinking even though I always say you know they're geniuses. They're so smart but they are still have the brains of a 15 year old and 13 year old it's not fully developed so and their decision making and the reactions are that of a 13 and a 15 year old.

SPEAKER_02 23:28

All the more reason to to just exercise patience isn't that right like they don't have the yeah yeah sometimes it's it's really hard they just but they don't have the emotional maturity to react to things that in the same way that we do. And I think as they're growing up you look at them and go, you should know this by now just looking at the outside.

SPEAKER_00 23:48

But the truth is like you're able to build a computer how are you not able to do this? That's right.

SPEAKER_02 23:53

That's different it's a different part of the brain and you're you're totally right it's just not it's not fully matured yet and it's so easy to forget that.

SPEAKER_01 24:01

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 24:03

Yeah someone asked me yesterday are you a patient person and I said no absolutely not I am not patient. And she said yeah but I'm not talking about with your kids that doesn't count I mean it does but I I guess you I guess it's true I'm a very patient person with with many people but you know I we it's kind of I'm known to not be a patient person at home.

SPEAKER_02 24:25

I'm like I'm I said to do this let's do it now oh that sounds like boundaries well yeah and and um and and limits and limits on how long you can wait before you do what I asked you to do.

SPEAKER_00 24:39

Yeah but it is funny because I will I'll and I do catch myself and I will say I'm sorry you're right I'll say come get your laundry and put it away and then I forget that I just asked them to do that and I see some other thing that I need them to do and I'm like hey come work down this counter and my 15 year old will be like you already asked me to do something that I'm in the middle of you're gonna have to wait till the next thing and so I my six year old said it this morning with his cute little voice. He's like I'm already in the middle doing something which is probably something I say right like I'm already in the middle of something here.

SPEAKER_02 25:12

That's cute. We do I do this thing with uh I asked the kids to pick up their pick up their toys and I walk away and then I come back and say all right uh feel free to keep what you pick up if they haven't started.

SPEAKER_01 25:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:26

So here at my here at the office where we're at we um every now and then they come in they'll to the office and they'll see their stuffed animal or a toy that they had forgotten about but they didn't pick it up. So it ended up in the bye-bye box.

SPEAKER_00 25:40

There you go. Yeah I've heard have you ever uh heard it of the toss it bucket you put everything that you find on the floor in this bucket or basket and then you kind of have like 20 they have 24 hours to take it out of the basket and put it in the room otherwise the whole basket gets donated. We have something like that.

SPEAKER_02 25:55

Yeah that's interesting yeah yeah ours that's ours kind of has a similar concept where they can earn it back. If it goes in the bye-bye bin they get a chance to earn it back they have and they have they have to come up with a way to to earn it back. It's it's their idea on what to do. Yeah sometimes take that you know take the recycling out or something like that. But I like that idea. Give it 24 hours and then for that or 48 whatever you know is you feel is fair.

SPEAKER_03 26:19

But yeah. Yeah and then I'll find every single thing out of that basket shoved in about 14 different corners just absolutely true.

SPEAKER_00 26:26

Yep. Yes. But hey if I don't have to see it I don't I don't actually care. I don't fold I don't know if you see my post about this but I I don't fold laundry I play a basketball game where I toss it in color coded baskets and then they're responsible for taking it up to their closet. They can put it away however they want to shut the door as long as I don't have to see it. Because I know as as they're gonna rummage out what it's gonna look like anyway. So I I'm not spending any more minutes of my life holding laundry as much as I love to watch my shows as I do it it's not happening. There's six of them there's just too much laundry yeah you have to think differently with six kids don't you've really got to set boundaries and let a lot of stuff go. Yeah yeah what are what are some other things that you do like that I just I think you know if a friend's coming over and the house doesn't look 100% it's just not gonna look 100%. We have family visiting today and uh you know they've never seen the house they're probably gonna it it's I don't know if is this an American thing or an Italian thing? They're from Italy and they're they would want to see a house tour, I guess.

SPEAKER_03 27:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:31

Do you get they you have to like show your closets and stuff too I'm not gonna open the closet doors but if they want to see the kids' rooms and the kids' rooms look like what they look like it's it's fine. My mother in law brought some of her friends she wanted to show them the house when we when we moved in and it wasn't a hundred percent but it is what it is. We live here.

SPEAKER_02 27:51

Yes right like yes this isn't a model home yeah we live here that's so true if it's so if it's perfectly clean then is it lived in is this real life or are we trying to yeah what's I mean we wanted to Heather makes a really beautiful home and I know she wants people to feel welcome and you walk in it just feels it just feels homely.

SPEAKER_00 28:12

That's nice homely feels comfortable is that a better word I'm like let's inside we have a beautiful you so need to come inside right did you did you get to go to the bathroom before you arrived by the way are you thirsty did you bring your own water that's the kind of hostess I I am not the hostess I'm like if you want to come over shore but you're gonna take me as I am nice I want to get there I really want to get there I I was raised where everything has a place and um I I want to I want to be okay with just sitting down I should I I will say I am a minimalist. Yes so it's not like there's stuff everywhere and my dad is was and always has been a hoarder. So imagine us moving around and now as an adult I'm like why in the world did we pick up the stuff that from house to house to house to house that's still in boxes today from having moved them into the facility it's for in a box that we haven't opened in 20 years maybe uh so I think that's you know definitely the minimalism has that flared up a little bit. So I think it's it's it it's easier to pick up I think that having six kids has definitely made me into a minimalist because it's just less stuff to keep track of yeah I appreciate that about you I am definitely not a voter my kids are not successful minimalists but I am a minimalist.

SPEAKER_03 29:41

I have I love purging I'm so excited we are finally melting snow here and uh just to be able to get outside and to clean and to to purge I love purging. I love getting things out get out of it get out of here we don't need it throw it away junk day is coming on our curb and our it's gonna really set a record it's gonna set a record we got couches and like we're ready. So um so the minimal minimalist method for prosperous entrepreneurs that is your it's your thing like it's really really it's neat. I tell me more about that.

SPEAKER_00 30:21

That's our Facebook community where we record our podcast live weekly and the minimalist method also pertains to our marketing method where a lot of people are thinking maybe I I need to be present in all the platforms. I need to have funnels I need to do ads I need to do all the things and we do often have clients who come to us with a goal and they say they don't realize that they're asking us to do all of these things because they think that that's the only way they're going to get to that goal. And we take that um and oftentimes quite frankly it's just a few tweaks to the foundations of let's say their website or their offer or their product and it's not necessary to do all these marketing things. Let's where's your audience hanging out let's speak clearly distinctly and compellingly to their hearts to help them understand how you are the solution for what they seek. And that's it. We don't you don't need to be on every single platform 20 times a day doing all the techie things that the experts say that you have to do otherwise and this is verbatim somebody said this on a call yesterday as a lead she said otherwise the experts say I have to go crawl into a hole and and bury myself please don't I was able to lovingly tell her like no you're okay you don't need to crawl into a hole it's fine that you're not doing reels in fact Instagram's going back to preferring photos going back to the roots of what where where they where they started so you you're okay. Making Instagram Instagram again yeah exactly although I find reels to be a lot of fun I just I I think they're so fun.

SPEAKER_02 32:02

We were laughing we just yeah I agree we that's what a great way to to end the evening just laughing at some funny funny stuff.

SPEAKER_03 32:12

I enjoy listening to Amos giggle because he he will just turn he'll turn it on quick for about a 10 minute little laughter and it's to the point where he can't catch his breath sometimes. Yeah my husband knows that too he has the best giggle so I'm in the kitchen I'm laughing the kids start laughing everyone's laughing and Amos is just over there like with this minimal snort just tear like he's got it like just this this right here. It's so adorable.

SPEAKER_00 32:42

So there's the way that he laughs that he kicks his legs up and he's like oh man how did you two meet Marta he uh uh he was working actually in the same flower shop as my um best friend's mom and he I don't know what she was thinking because he's significantly older than me okay but he was in a band and she said I think he you would really like him I think he would really like you and you we should go see his show and apparently when I walked in it was love at first sight for him for me I wasn't even thinking about it. I had a boyfriend at the time but um we started talking as friends and then you know over time I actually moved to Texas three months after that and we kept in communication um and then I moved back started college and we became pregnant when I was 20 years old when I hadn't started I hadn't finished university yet so but that didn't stop you from graduating no no I graduated on time I was told multiple times I wasn't going to be able to do it and so I I did and I did well with it with honors with honors with awards with uh almost suma cum lade and um and he's a genius yeah like I said he builds his own computer he makes he's like the best cook ever in fact we again we have company tonight he's cooking he did the grocery list he put the menu together he's gonna make a phenomenal dinner and um however he has like five million pans when he cooks so I'm like I'm the one at the grocery store by the way I'm like are we done yet ingredients cooking them are we have to do all the dishes but the kids do the dishes so it's okay oh I bet it's just delicious though I'm so good that's he's he's the true Italian I don't I don't know how to cook I I'm not interested I'm sure I could figure it out I'm just really not interested well you can only be good at so many things right you get we gotta pick and choose yeah yes I choose to be good at the things I want to do that's really neat that you guys still I mean you were 15 when you met is that correct 15 when you met 20 when you got pregnant you're still how many years have you been married now? How many years have we been married? That's a good question. 13 our daughter is 13.

SPEAKER_03 35:05

So we had Micah and Mira before we we uh were married and uh she was eight months old and so yes we've been married for 13 years so have you ever had the conversation oh the well yes you have about your childhood and just is it hard for him because you were already past all of it right you when you guys met so yes it was difficult for him by the way yes he didn't know he met me and I had like just gotten past that is that where your question is going by the way yep and so he saw me as like this little Italian girl you know who was very sweet to him and so when I came clean and I said listen this is what I actually just came out of he was quite frankly horrified but he loved me and he worked through it.

SPEAKER_00 35:52

That's you know if he wanted to be with me he was gonna have to crazy Jesus thank you for grace yeah you know when I think the more I'm just processing what you went through how did your parents handle I mean you were you got in trouble with the law and you I mean there was a lot of things in your dad's a per how did they how did they react to all of that they just always loved us unconditionally so you know they grounded me but I never got the feeling from them that was like I didn't feel ashamed by them I didn't feel chastised by them and actually when I got caught shoplifting I wasn't just trying to steal cold medicine I stole like some beauty products too and uh when I got caught my mom picked me up and I shared that I've been I'd been shoplifting this is what I do this is how I have the clothes that you don't know where they come from. It's not I even though I would tell her my friends gave them to me or they bought them for me and she would say you really shouldn't do that because she thought I was like people were buying these clothes for me. But I came clean and I said I've been shoplifting and she handed me $20 to go and buy whatever I wanted. Oh because I think as a mom for her that felt really hard to hear that she it probably for her felt like I'm not you know I'm I'm doing the best I can and I feel heartbroken to think of this but she's doing the best she could and maybe in that moment she would feel like she's not providing enough or she's not able to provide what I would want. So she she gave me $20 to go buy the makeup that I tried to steal which I don't know I I think that's wonderful parenting I don't know if the listeners or viewers will will react but it wasn't like shame on you how could you embarrass me this way it was like you know and of course that broke my heart at the time too so I never stole again that's how Christ would respond for I mean you think about that and then in your moment of some of your biggest horrific moments and you're already feeling hurt and ashamed and broken and like why why did this happen why did I do that in a sense that's the last thing you would have needed from your parents you needed love and you needed grace and that's they delivered on that perfectly so that's wonderful. Were your other siblings were they also rebelling yeah yeah and uh my sister my oldest sister went through significant trauma before we even moved to the United States and so and it was just very traumatized when we moved here so she you know she's been doing some healing around that but she's you know living a beautiful life regardless we all rebelled yeah but actually my brother my older brother went the opposite direction at 17 he joined the Army reserves and has been like ever since yes he's also father of five kids and we were just talking yesterday he's he works full time for a government agency doing photography videography and he'd like to get into entrepreneurship but he's very much like you know yeah I don't know how to describe it. How do you I guess if you're listening you can't see it. How do you uh he's just very uh very rigorous schedule systems checklists um disciplined just very disciplined very disciplined you know highest ranking in the army reserve at his age possible uh Emmy award winner uh world renowned photographer uh you know in the military is just phenomenal so he I think he went the opposite direction I mean he dabbled in some of the stuff we were in the same group of friends but I think very quickly he was he in combat combat camera uh that's what they call it in the Air Force I don't know if they call it in the in the army I don't know what that means but he was he was in public relations so he would he will he only w went overseas once to Iraq and it was to photograph the situation there and report on it.

SPEAKER_02 39:52

Yeah yeah that's neat yeah the um um interesting that he went in the US military at 17 having immigrated yeah and he wasn't even a US citizen yet i mean he got his citizenship by joining the military yeah it's really it's a it's a the psychological sacrifice that you want that one makes for that for the country you know because you're you you you do what they tell you to do and sometimes there's stuff that you don't really want to do.

SPEAKER_00 40:20

And you know I think I think he was we were probably craving that a little bit because you ask how my parents reacted but they let us just be free. Like they trusted us they just there wasn't a lot of policing or helicopter parenting it was just like you do you because we're just trying to put bread on the table you know and so even though uh even though you and your siblings were were uh rebelling you don't they didn't I call it tighten the screws but they I mean you said they grounded you but really they were um off hands is not the right word but uh they just they were just doing the best they could I don't know how to describe it like they I mean and my my dad always had our back no matter what I remember one of my friend's moms tried to have a conversation with them about what was going on and he's kind of like what you described um he's like not my daughter she would never do that you get out of my house talking about my daughter that way you know wow so as as we wrap up here I wanted to ask you from your business and your future with your business and running it what is some of your most favorite things that you like to do that you enjoy if someone were to seek you out and need some help and then um where can they find you?

SPEAKER_03 41:39

I'll have everything in the show notes but just a little bit more about what you're currently doing.

SPEAKER_00 41:44

Sure. I love hosting our own podcast you can find it by searching Mindset Moves and it's also airing um you can download the channel media on your Roku to watch it if you'd like. And uh what I also love is just when companies come to us and they maybe have somebody in-house that has been doing the marketing or they've dabbled into using marketing agencies here and there and they're like we feel like we've tried everything. We don't know we don't understand why it's not selling or it's not working or and this is not to say we like to work with companies who are established and uh who aren't coming to us as like a saving grace because their company's failing these are successful companies that have dabbled in marketing they don't feel like it works or they have somebody in-house that is just too busy to to do it. And then they come to us and we do an audit of their website their ads their social media presence and we're like oh my God we're so excited because there's 50 million things we could improve and like that you're gonna have you're gonna shift and we like high five each other virtually because we're all remote but it's it's I just love that feeling of like oh my gosh you've been running these ads and this is and you're like wondering why they don't work here's the 10 reasons. Let's fix it.

SPEAKER_03 42:57

Ooh the potential you're like yes I have all your answers from there. Oh man that is you are God sent to so many people including me I just doing the yeah just any type of social media the crossovers and the you think you have to be doing everything like you just said and you're like no you don't you don't have to be you don't have to be doing reels like I feel you know you feel like a failure when you're not understanding it but when you're not in that world or in that profession it is so clunky for somebody who doesn't I just don't get it.

SPEAKER_00 43:31

I don't want to have to get it Marta like I just want I just want to right quite frankly neither do I that's why I'm grateful for my team because now I'm having these conversations during team meetings and where they're like we should do a blah blah blah blah blah blah and that's what it sounds like to me. And I'm like great go ahead sign me up do you enjoy the entrepreneurship the being the CEO I enjoy it I enjoy the freedom of it but I even I Find that entrepreneurship is a journey. And uh again, speaking to other people who would like to be entrepreneurs, they'll say, Well, I'd like to wait until like I have like this nice like clarity, like certainty that it's gonna work out. And I'm like, you might have that for a what at the time that you decide to go entrepreneurship, but it's gonna go like this, and you just need to go along for the ride and trust that God, your guardian angels, they have your back no matter what, and that they're making the path that they wrote for you before you were even born. So uh it's not gonna be rainbows and sunshine every day, but um you do, as an entrepreneur, need to have that trust in God to just go along for the ride and not try to like create a dam for the wave that needs to go through.

SPEAKER_02 44:53

No perfect plan survives contact with the enemy. And you could have a perfect plan and find out that that wasn't the perfect plan. What you thought was perfect is not what the market needs. And that's gonna change. And so, but you won't know that until you start, until you jump and you take that leap of faith and you get on your knees and ask the Lord for strength and for guidance. Yeah, it's huge.

SPEAKER_03 45:19

Been there, done that. Amos has been an entrepreneur since I met him, and he's ran this technology business for a long time, and we have rode that roller coaster a little. I've gotten a little bit of whiplash here and there, but it's been it's been a beautiful process because I just I love through most entrepreneurs, there's this level of risk and trust. And it it actually has I've fallen in love with Amos over and over again through the trust and through the like wow, he I and I have to trust him.

SPEAKER_02 45:53

Well, that's great. I got because I've got lots of ideas.

SPEAKER_03 45:55

I know. I know.

SPEAKER_00 45:57

And this is the problem.

SPEAKER_02 46:00

And there it lies the issue.

SPEAKER_00 46:03

My husband's an entrepreneur too, and he's had the, I mean, the most traumatic year with his land development company. I would he would we had this conversation, and I said, Would you venture to say that this was the most challenging year we've ever had? And he said, Yeah, I I would. And uh, we were saying that in the framework that our youngest just turned one and he just brought us so much joy during, like, there was so much uncertainty with his land development company and just a lot of toxicity and bravado. And uh, so yeah, entrepreneurship can can either take it out of us, or you could just decide to trust that this bishop was put on your heart by God and that it's all gonna work out in ways that you cannot even recognize or think fathomable sometimes, but it's all it's all gonna be good. Just keep riding the wave.

SPEAKER_02 46:51

You hear about the 1% who made it and the one and they feel like overnight successes, but you don't hear about the the struggles and this and the stories behind. And you also don't hear about all the companies that made it and and closed for one reason or another. You just don't you just don't hear about those. And uh so people get into it and they go, Oh, this is not what I expected. What do you say to someone who's going through that right now?

SPEAKER_00 47:17

Uh to again, that that sometimes maybe that's the enemy or the their brain trying to protect them and saying, uh, go back to doing that thing that gave you that guaranteed salary and you it was boring, you didn't really like it, but that's safe. That's safer. You should go do that. That's not necessarily God speaking to you because if you took that leap to go into entrepreneurship, to do this thing that you're passionate about and you're excited about, um, to remember that that God put that desire in your heart. So it's your responsibility to keep keep doing it.

SPEAKER_02 47:52

That's nice. Heather and I uh I have more much more risk tolerance than Heather does when it comes to finances. And when the when the checks weren't rolling in and I was waiting by the mailbox for the you know for the mailman to drop off some check, and then he just swing by he'd swing by and there's no check, it's like, oh, that's that hurts. Yeah, and but the truth is in all my impatience and anxiety, God's never ever let us down.

SPEAKER_00 48:21

Never once. It's helpful to remember those stories, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 48:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 48:26

When you've got this big bill due, and magically, simultaneously, this unexpected payment came in right before that. Meanwhile, you were focused on this thing that really just wasn't coming in in a timeline that you were expecting. And God was like, I had this other thing worked out for you all along. Chill out about that thing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 48:43

Chill out. I got you.

SPEAKER_03 48:45

I'm learning this. I'm I'm starting to learn this. I'm I'm 43 and it's taken me a little bit, but I really love being obedient in Christ. There is nothing more fun. Um, and I never was an obedient person. And I just, there's something that it just it's intoxicating for me. Like I coming from the world of addiction and stuff, I'm like, it's just this rush. It's a rush of joy and yet peace. And it's like just knowing that God's got you and being obedient in that, and just taking one step into the next step of uncomfortable, it may just feel so wrong, but yet so good. And you're like, let's go, let's just do this. I'm ready to for the outcome because if you're behind this and I can feel that and know that, like, let's go.

SPEAKER_02 49:31

It doesn't always make sense, does it?

SPEAKER_03 49:33

No, it doesn't.

SPEAKER_02 49:34

Usually it doesn't, it's the quite the opposite.

SPEAKER_00 49:36

It often doesn't make sense, right? Right. Yeah. And I think just having that innately, that again, that reminder, that trust that something could go horribly wrong, and you could have that human reaction to it. And then I love having that feeling of like, oh yeah, but God's got this, so I don't even need to worry about it. I mean, I can I I'll do what I need to do as a human that I'm feeling, you know, my brain working and I need to do this and this and this, but I know he's got it, so I don't even need to worry about it.

SPEAKER_03 50:02

We have a lot of new entrepreneurs in our in our area, and I've had quite a few of them actually reaching out and asking, is there can you give us some advice or would your husband be willing to mentor, mentor us maybe? And um, I love just watching. I love watching the passion behind these new uh entrepreneurs who are in this you know generation behind us who are just they don't want to go and work for big corporations and they they want to start their own thing and they want to you know live life.

SPEAKER_00 50:36

They want to I always like to stress there's nothing wrong with working with big corporations, there's wonderful corporations out there that take really good care of their employees and uh I've certainly been employed by by one. So there's nothing wrong with it, it's just a matter of what's for you. Yep. And of course, if you're in a toxic environment, then yeah, no, that's not so great. Go do something else.

SPEAKER_03 50:57

Yeah. I mean, and all these big companies started somewhere, they all started with someone with a great idea, right?

SPEAKER_00 51:03

So a lot of sweat and tears.

SPEAKER_03 51:08

Well, this has been an honor, Marta, having you on with us today. I will make sure to get all your information. So, those of our listeners that want to reach out and learn more from a entrepreneur CEO side of things to a mother, to a minimal minimalist, to um somebody who has been there and done that through their childhood with rebellion and just all the different things. You have a lot to offer a lot of people. And so thank you for sharing your story today. And um, this is gonna be a lifelong friendship, I think. Marta.

SPEAKER_00 51:41

I think so too. And thank you. And you can just look for my name on Instagram or Facebook or LinkedIn. You'll find me. Just search my name as you see it in the title, and um, I'm we're present on there.

SPEAKER_03 51:53

Yes, you are. You guys do a great job. Well, thank you, and um, we'll be in touch for now. Bye.