What It Actually Takes to Go From Solo Freelancer to Trusted CEO with Marie Lewis
Listen to the episode on Spotify and Apple Podcasts | Watch on YouTube
Listen to the episode on Spotify and Apple Podcasts | Watch on YouTube
If you're building a service-based business and still figuring out how to price your time, set boundaries with clients, or hand off work without losing quality, this episode is for you.
Marie Lewis is the founder and CEO of Royal Assistants, an operations-focused executive support company built to help founders lead with clarity and structure. Her journey into business began with service. She was raised in a faith-centered household, she spent years in administrative leadership across church and corporate environments before becoming the person people relied on to bring order to organizations and systems.
Marie started working independently in 2015, taking her first paid role setting up systems for her church, and has spent the decade since building Royal Assistants from a solo virtual assistance practice into a full operations and systems design company with a team behind her. She has hired and released more than 100 people from her business over the years as she refined who she works with and how she delivers what she calls "the royal experience" — a client journey built on intentionality, transparency, and excellence.
Born in Jamaica, Marie's family relocated to New York, where she watched her parents build their own businesses, her father moving from carpentry into full-time ministry and then construction, and her mother building a career as a seamstress before becoming an executive house cleaner. Marie now lives in Atlanta with her husband and their daughter, where she runs Royal Assistants and shares tutorials and systems, including her SuiteDash system, with her audience on YouTube.
She describes her guiding philosophy as one of radical transparency: she does not believe in gatekeeping knowledge, and treats every client relationship as an opportunity to build trust through consistency and care.
Connect with Marie
Website: Royal Executive Assistants
LinkedIn: Royal Executive Assistants LLC
YouTube: @TheRoyalAssistant
Instagram:@royalassistants
This episode is for you if:
You're building a service-based business and unsure how to price your time and expertise
You want to know how to hand off work to a team without losing quality or control
You're trying to build a business that's aligned with your faith and values, not just your bottom line
You're a parent trying to figure out where work ends and family begins
You're curious what it actually takes to go from solo freelancer to running a team
You want practical ways to build a client experience people can't stop talking about
Looking for a specific gem?
[00:00] Introducing Marie Lewis
[02:00] Marie's upbringing in a faith-centered household and her parents as her blueprint
[04:53] Her parents' entrepreneurial journey from Jamaica to New York City
[07:14] Making the leap from corporate stability to entrepreneurship in 2015
[10:30] How her view on stability has shifted over 10 years in business
[12:58] Defining boundaries and identifying her ideal clients
[14:49] The evolution from solo virtual assistant to an operations-focused company
[15:52] Learning to let go and trust her team
[16:20] Why it’s so difficult to hire and trusting others with your business
[17:55] How Marie priced her services at the beginning
[20:48] Balancing an operations-focused business with motherhood and marriage [26:58] Defining operational excellence and "the royal experience"
[29:46] The small, intentional touches that shape her client experience
[33:30] Her philosophy on transparency and refusing to gatekeep knowledge
[37:42] A moment that didn't make sense on paper but changed her business
[40:32] Moving from New York to Atlanta and reconnecting with her husband
Conversation Transcript
Naomi: Hi everyone, welcome to another episode of The Power of Why podcast. My name is Naomi Haile, and today I am here with the incredible Marie Lewis. Marie, how are you doing today? I am feeling good, thank you so much for asking. How are you? I'm doing fantastic. I was just mentioning to you how I've taken a six month break from the podcast, and you are the first episode that I'm recording of 2026. So, thank you for doing me the honors of being on the show, and just sharing your story with my audience.
For folks who are tuned in and listening, I'm going to give you a bit of a background on Marie and how she got into this work. Marie Lewis is the founder and CEO of Royal Assistance, which is an operations-focused executive support company built to help founders lead with clarity and structure. Her journey into business began with service — she was raised in a faith-centered household, and she has also had many years of administrative leadership in church and corporate environments. Marie really became that go-to person that people relied on to bring order to organizations and systems.
She started working independently in 2015, laying the foundation for her current company, and it's amazing — you're literally 10 years in, and your work has evolved so much. Now you're doing more systems design and operational strategy. The last thing I'll say before we dive in is that I appreciate how generous you are with your knowledge and your wisdom. I'll have links to everywhere you can find Marie online, but she shares it all on YouTube and on social media, so I really encourage you to tap into everything that she's got going on.
So again, Marie, welcome to the show. I'd love for you to start by sharing a little bit about your origin story. Did your parents encourage you to color outside the lines, or stay within them?
Marie: That's very fun, and thank you so much for that introduction. What's very fun about just learning about my parents, in itself, as I was growing up, I really understood that they were full supporters. They were my blueprint. Being in the church industry — and I say synergy because we all know it's a business, but really it is a faith-based, centered space — they just taught me how to really be genuinely myself and give as much as I can, because I saw them do that.
So I think I kind of stayed in the color and the line, but also we were outside, because we also have to genuinely give to the community, and that's where we are now.
Naomi: Can you bring us back to — because before I mentioned 2015 as your start to starting your business, but obviously there's so much work that happens before then. I think 2010 was when the idea started ruminating. So, can you bring us back to that time? What were you thinking about? What were you seeing in business?
Marie: So, 2010 was the year I graduated high school, and I was actually in the space where I said, God, I don't know what to do. I don't know if college is where I need to go, and I don't know if this is going to be a space in the world that I can fit into easily. And so, in 2010, I was waiting. I was waiting, and I started to realize that people were asking me for help in different executive spaces, but I wasn't really too familiar with what that was, so it took me a little time to understand you're actually going to be helping people in the executive back end. The words at the time didn't formulate, but that was where I started.
I started with just trying to understand where everything would unfold, and as I developed myself, my character, through God's grace, I was able to understand that His downloads were really sufficient. I was able to understand this is operations. So, yeah.
Naomi: Yeah, you have not had the language for it. I didn't know you graduated in 2010. Okay, and so, but what's amazing is that you had beautiful models as parents, and you could watch them and learn from them, and just be in an environment where you had the space to test things out and explore, and now you have children.
Marie: Yes, I have one child, and she's honestly really mimicking me in a way where she'll see me at the computer screen and at the desk, and she'll come and tap on the keys, try to spell her name. So I believe wholeheartedly that she may be an entrepreneur — she may not have to go into the workforce industry, she might just take it on herself to learn more about what I do, and we can hand this over to her when she feels like she wants to do it.
Naomi: Yeah. And were your parents also in business?
Marie: Actually, ironic. So my dad was a carpenter, and we moved — we're originally from Jamaica. So we moved from Jamaica, and my dad, we went to New York, and my dad started carpentry, and then he went full-time into ministry for a while. So he was in full-time ministry, and that was the actual, I guess, eruption of everything, because then it was like, okay, you're not getting paid from a W-2 job, you're actually in a space now where you're doing it differently. Then he was more of a full-time construction worker, so he started his own business, and he was the sole entrepreneur in the family for a while.
But then my mom navigated into a space where she was also doing seamstress work and other things, and then she moved from there into now she's an executive house cleaner with her own business. So entrepreneurship is in my blood.
Naomi: Yeah, no, literally. And also just even moving from another country to the states, and your parents figuring it out — I know about that firsthand from my parents as well, and it's so interesting how that shapes so much of our diligence and our hard work, and just how in tune we need to be to figure things out. So I see that all over your story.
Marie: Yes, yes. And I really enjoy even being able to model them in a way, but also make it a known path, because it's definitely different. They've done their best with what they've had, but now I'm in a world where there's AI and different things, so it's so different.
Naomi: So, when you were — I'm curious, because the environments that you were in, you mentioned corporate environments, and also working in the church as well. So when it actually came down to formalizing your business, your offers, and what you wanted to actually lean into, what was that first paid offer that you made independently in 2015? I want you to answer it from the mindset of individuals who are listening who might be in corporate right now but want to expand how they're using their gifts, and want to find other ways to generate income beyond just their job.
Marie: Absolutely. So, I want to start by saying that I was not always an entrepreneur. I did start in the corporate world, and it's a very important note to say that God gave me the date to stop. So it was a transition where I was very concerned around what that would look like in terms of payout — the transition from being stable to not being stable. But it took me a while to understand that if I'm going to do this, I got to walk by faith.
So, in 2015, when I was about to really transition, God gave me a date, and I was being led into a space where people were just flowing to me, and I didn't really understand. Around that time, no one knew what virtual assistance was. No one knew what that title in itself was — you're just working for yourself as a freelancer. So in 2015, when I first got paid, it was through my church, ironically. They paid me because I was setting up their systems, and at the time people didn't understand what systems were, so, "what is this thing?" But they did pay me a small stipend, and I felt so excited.
I think the achievement in itself just makes you feel as if this is something I can do long term. As I continued to venture into that space of understanding, it became easier, because the actual work that I wanted to do started to come to me. So provisioning is important — making sure you have the discernment to understand what's coming, being patient with yourself, because it was a little scattered. Payments weren't coming frequently. But if you're in that transitional space and you want to take that foot out, just make sure you're listening. I don't want it to be fully faith-based — I do want you to also use your own intuition, your gut feeling, and understand that this might be a slower start, or it may be a real big eruption that can help you start.
Naomi: And when you'd mentioned that piece around going from stability to instability, it's interesting, because maybe in 2015 it felt that way, but now I feel like entrepreneurship is the more stable thing to be in, because even when I started, I started off in government. I had jobs before that at a golf course, in a cafe, but my first real, quote unquote, real job was in the federal government in Canada, and at that time super stable. Now it's a whole different world — there are layoffs, same as we're seeing in technology, in the tech industry. Like, no industry other than probably health is immune to so many of the changes that are happening, and as you'd mentioned, AI is also a big factor that we need to consider.
Marie: So how has your view on stability changed over your 10 years in business, as you've come into your own and really trusted the purpose and the vision that God has provided you with?
I'm going to take a deep breath in, because this is a hard one to even really verbalize. It honestly just had to be the understanding that I'm in my own lane, regardless of how many people are in this market, in this space. I have to show up every day and give the same excellent value that I believe that I can give, and not think about the other people who are in this roadmap. I think that's what really kept me in the space of understanding that there is a lot that I can give that makes me different, that gives me value, and that AI can't actually replace me, because even though there's a lot of automation and things that I support, people don't always want to have to create the AI automation themselves — so that's the level of support that I can provide that helps them.
Over time I've constantly leaned into where God is leading me, so there's alignment there, but there's always the consistency of understanding that sometimes you have to just shift wherever the world shifts you. That's meant stepping back a little bit and redefining things a little further, based on the economy, based on the clientele, based on all of those things. But I think at this point I'm really solidified in where I am, because I know the value I provide.
Naomi: Yeah, and with the visionaries and the leaders that you're — I mean, you're a visionary yourself, Marie — but with the leaders that you're working with, even thinking about my clients and who I support, they don't want to be doing any of the ops team management, none of that. So I totally hear you on finding ways to ensure that you're differentiated and irreplaceable. Are you open to sharing what that's looked like for you over the last few years, in terms of how you decided what areas you wanted to grow into and almost own?
Marie: Yeah. I think it's really around understanding who your target is, or who your ideal person would be, in a space of test and trial. I would say that in the first leg of my business I was a "yes girl" — I was very much trying to work with anyone, trying to understand who the people were that I was working with. But now, in this day and time, I think it's really about understanding what your boundaries are and understanding where you want to push forth into, and that's what's defined who I work with.
My clientele are very much all alike in a way, and that wasn't on purpose either — ironically, they all had the same type of persona, and also what I've been putting out into the world has made those people receive me well. So I think it's just about the actual workload, like what I show forth to people and what I say I've established myself in. The proof is in the pudding.
Naomi: Yeah, no, you're so good at what you do, and it's evident, just sifting through and looking at the resources that you offer — you are the real deal, Marie. I'm curious, when did you first realize that your company, Royal Assistance, would become more than a solo virtual support agency, and evolve into becoming an operations-focused company? When did that become clear to you?
Marie: When I realized that the tassel was becoming more of a weight than I could handle myself, and 24 hours wasn't enough. I also realized that I was giving myself more on my plate and stretching myself thin in a way that I could not give my family enough support. At that point I said, okay, God, if there is work that I could do — because I think with any business or anything you create, you want to be able to do everything and make sure you know how it works, and then I had to document those things — and then I realized in this area I could use some support.
I can't pinpoint exactly when it was, but the person who has been working with me the longest has now been here for over four years, and I was able to help myself not get into the space of burnout and all the things, because I was able to let go and let other people support me. I think that's the important part.
Naomi: Was there any resistance in letting go and letting people come and support you, especially as a person who takes on that role for other individuals and companies?
Marie: There was, because it is your baby, and it is something that you cherish. There are certain excellent values that you have, and expectations, and people are not going to feel as passionate about your business the way that you want them to, because it's not theirs. So yes, at first there was, and really and truly, over the years I've actually hired and released over 100 people from my business, because it was trial and error. There is a level of understanding, but I think at this point now I can tell if there's a right fit within a conversation, just understanding what the values are — I've also had to get really clear on who I'm looking for. So the resistance will be there for sure.
Naomi: And I'm wondering, for you, when I look at different agencies and service offerings — even when I look at my clients and their companies, their offers look wildly different, and in a space where there are literally no rules around what you offer, how much you charge, what your week looks like, your workload, how many clients you're taking on — sky's the limit. So I'm curious, maybe you don't have to speak about your first offer, but I'd say, three years in, how did you price your work as someone who was working solo in your business at that time? Were you going by how much time things took, or the value you were providing your clients? How did you think about that, especially for folks who are considering refining their offers, tightening things up, or creating their first one?
Marie: So I didn't know my value at that time. I actually didn't know what to price myself, so I expected to just get paid whatever people were willing to pay at the time. But when I did start to do a little bit of research — because I am the person who will not go and look at competitors, I just can't look at competitor pricing — I do look at time, and value equals time. How long does it take me to do a certain thing?
From that, my first pricing was $25 an hour. I thought it was fair in the market because at the time I left the corporate world and had to supplement my income, and I was making $25 inside. So I said, okay, let's start with that rate. I also had to learn a ton of different things, so it felt a little bit like imposter syndrome, because I was like, I don't know if I'm worth $25 at this pace. But I was able to then evolve, and as I learned more, I was able to source more income, and so I'm now at a steady $75 an hour. There could be more I can grasp from that, but I've learned to understand what that $75 is worth — is it worth my time? Is it worth my team's time? Is it worth the time of the task?
Even with that amount, transparently speaking, there are people who are willing to pay $7 an hour for people in the Philippines, so there's always going to be a level of comparison in terms of your rate. But when you start out, just look at your economy, look at your value, look at your actual bills. I remember when someone first taught me how to set a pricing plan, they said take all of your bills, take all of your expenses, calculate what that would look like on a monthly basis, add it all up, and set your rate from there, realistically. I was able to figure it out from there, and I'm at a comfortable space in terms of what the rate is, but as the economy changes, it might change.
Naomi: And then now you obviously have a team, so you're still involved in the day to day, but there is more thought around what you're working on and focused on, and what your teammates are focused on. For you, how do you now think about your time on a weekly basis, given you have a child too, and you're a wife? You mentioned time is value — how have you set up your own operating rhythm to ensure that, yes, operations requires a lot, it's not something where you can say I can get this done in a month and we're going to space things out — there are fires that happen, things come up. So how do you manage having an operations-focused company while still respecting your life outside of your business?
Marie: It's tough. Some days I'm literally at the computer — this morning I started my day off with four meetings, and it's only 10:30. So some days it's like, okay, we can get up and get started. My daughter, she gets up at 7:30 — I'm like, you need to sleep longer, she's not in school right now, but she wakes up the same time I do. So sometimes I try to get up around five to try to get a head start.
But essentially, what it looks like day to day, realistically, is that I have to put the right people in the right place to support me, so I know I don't have to micromanage, because that's the worst feeling, having to go and double check everything. But things happen, and I also have to just plan ahead. Even though it's not always perfect, being in this operational space, I also have to be available if someone calls — I'll have calls randomly throughout the day and fires I have to put out — so there's the availability, but I think the boundary setting is where it comes down to.
My daughter, I think she's conditioned now — she'll come in the room and whisper, "Mama, can I have your phone," so she's kind of conditioned to that space now. My husband, when he comes home, he likes to decompress. I just don't shut down the way that men do, I think it's a woman thing — so for us, I'm like, okay, I can work until five or six, and then I have to step away to be with my family, and eat something, because sometimes we don't eat, just the life journey. So the boundary setting — I have a hard stop. But I will say, in the beginning, when I was doing it more solo, I was working nonstop. I literally was up until one, two o'clock. I remember when our daughter was born, I had her on my lap, I had her in a carrier, and I was in meetings. It felt normal because I didn't know the difference of what it would feel like outside, and I was trying to understand the path God was putting me on. But now I think it's just, listen, things can wait till tomorrow, it's not a fire.
Naomi: Right, right, right, right. I don't have children yet, me and my husband don't have children yet, but I can imagine how grounding having children is, in terms of getting really clear on what matters. When I was first starting out, everything felt urgent, everything felt like it needed to happen immediately, and I'm getting the sense now that that's not the case, and we can focus on the important stuff. We'll still get it done, but yeah.
Marie: I think with kids, what they'll teach you is that their needs are more important, because they'll make it urgent, so you'll realize the difference. I remember, I don't remember if it was on a podcast that I heard it from, but the person said you have to calculate the value of what time spent with your child is versus on a call. If someone really wants to spend time with you, they can pay that $150 or whatever it is for that call, because that's your time spent. So when I see my daughter running around, and I'm like, she wants to play, and I don't want to always play with her toys, but I need to step away and play with her, because that's more valuable. As you have more kids, you're like, okay, now there's more for them, so you have to make time for them, and I think that's where the boundary sets in place.
Naomi: That's super helpful to know. Now that you've mentioned your team and what you've decided has your focus, and what doesn't — if you think about client delivery, being in the day to day with your clients, systems building, and sales, how would you differentiate how much is getting your time each week?
Marie: Let's say, honestly, client building is more of a time consumer for me, because I'm in more meetings than I am actually doing work sometimes. The reason being is because I am the face and I'm the foundation, and people trust in me — even though they don't see my team, even though my team is actively working, I am still the person who has to provide the level of excellence and transfer all of the items. So when someone does something, there is a whole process of me reviewing it before it gets to them.
Client building in itself is so important because I have to establish that consistency — okay, have I spoken to this person, has this been completed — and then again, this is where the team comes into play, because you can put someone in that space, but it's really about understanding how to divide the time. I do set time as well as a CEO day, to make sure I'm able to fall back and catch up with all the things I need to work on.
Naomi: Yeah, absolutely. And for you, when you talk a lot about excellence — you've probably mentioned excellence in every episode — how do you define that? How do you define operational excellence, specifically for you, how you move, how Royal Assistance moves? Because that's the other thing — I said things aren't standardized in this world, I've peeked into many different things, and the level of excellence is different everywhere. I'm serious about quality, and I recognize so much of that in how you operate and work.
Marie: Thank you.
Naomi: And so, how do you define excellence?
Marie: So, the whole meaning behind Royal Executive Assistants is that I'm a part of the royal priesthood — it's straight out of the Bible. I always replicate the level of excellence Jesus has, and how God — I mean, we already know the story, I don't have to go into detail — but when I first started, it's about client experience, it's about the journey, it's about understanding what level of purity and value, and all the things you'll receive when working with us.
So I call it the royal experience, and one of our missions is to just come off as, we exude excellence — think of it like royalty. If you were going to the palace, you would experience a level of excellence and royalty, and I kind of emulate that as best as I can. It is not perfect by any means, but what people don't see doesn't hurt them — you figure it out and make sure things fall into line. But excellence, in itself — the other word I always use is intentional. It's about being intentional and very grounded and aware of the output, because the input may not be perfect, but you want to make sure the output is. If someone gives me a spreadsheet that is all scattered, I want to give them back something that is clean and clear to read, because that is the intention behind excellence.
I also realize that you are who you are through what you speak and who you're around, through environment — if you exude those things, you will then become those things.
Naomi: Yeah, that's a big part of what I look for when I start working with any client — do they care about high-quality work? Because if they don't have that heart in their business, there's no way we're going to get stuff done, because, as you mentioned earlier, this is the thing you created.
Marie: Yeah.
Naomi: And so there are a few — if I've looked at some of your YouTube videos, your Sweet Dash tutorials, all of those — there are certain things you do around almost like a white glove service, things that might seem small but are really delightful, things we can embed into client experience. For example, one thing I heard you say was when you have a new client sign on, you'll send them a gift using something like Goody. If you can share some of the little things, so people can understand what you actually mean behind intention and excellence, I think that would be really helpful.
Marie: So one of the most important things for me, even at the curation at the start of our conversation, is to make sure that this is resonating with you. When a person signs on, they are officially going to go through an email sequence that I've written, and I prayed over all the words in the emails I had. The first thing in the email is a Bible scripture, and that's one of the first resonating things that I hope comes off as a very genuine space.
As they go through the process, every touch point is intentional — you have an email, you have follow-ups, you have text messages, but you also are going to receive a level of truth when you get on a call. I'm always very much myself, so you might see my little kitty running around, you might see, even though now she knows not to — but you might see different things, but I'm very solution-based. Even on a call I'm very much going to present you with a solution, even if we're not going to work together, and those are the intentions I put in place.
I think with that generosity, that genuineness of being transparent, it gives that connection, and then the small touch points — like sending a thank you email after the call, because when you're going to hire someone, you always want to follow up. So it's just a small thing when you're onboarding. I'm very caring, because I am a human, and I don't like the corporate world — I don't like the feeling of corporate, and I plunged when I started a business, I did not want it to feel corporate. So I wanted to make sure that anyone who works with me — and I never call them clients, I say people that I support, because they're on a different level — I want them to feel that they're getting more than what I used to get.
Used to be, I used to send a small crown to them personally, and actually mail it to their homes. So it's the small touches — I think those are the intentionalities where you try to provide this level of, I want to fill your heart, I want to be able to understand who you are — I get to know who they are on a personal level, and I want to be able to really be passionate about your business the way you're passionate about it. That's the truth behind all the things, and sending them a gift is just a way to thank them for trusting me.
Naomi: Well said. That's beautiful, and I love the connection to the Bible that you mentioned right at the start. Everything is in the Bible, everything.
Naomi: And so I think you just being faithful in the word and the vision that God has given you is so clear — that's the path you've taken, because of all the fruits of your business, and how you're even able to — the fact that you said you prayed over your email sequences, that's so beautiful, and that's a level of heart and intention that you're pouring into their business, which is connected to their lives, their livelihood. So that's amazing. I'm curious — I'd mentioned at the beginning that you're incredibly generous with your knowledge and know-how. You have your YouTube page, you talk through tutorials and different systems you've built. What's your philosophy around transparency and sharing, and you have this thing where you say, "I do not gatekeep" — what's your philosophy around that?
Marie: I just don't believe that it makes any sense to withhold information. It just doesn't feel very good to me. One of the Bible scriptures I live by is I treat people the way I want to be treated, so I treat people to that standard — if I would want someone to genuinely give me information, then I would want to give it to you. But the biggest thing about it is that people pay for the convenience of things, they don't really care for the knowledge. You can Google anything, ChatGPT is now people's best friend — people are calling it "Chat," giving it names and all the things.
I really believe that transparency is key. And honestly, what am I getting, what am I losing from sharing? I think if I'm gaining anything at all, I'm gaining the actual trust for you to know that I have the knowledge and that I'm able to do the work. I always say this when I'm first interacting with someone: I'm not going to sell you a dream, I'm going to sell you reality. I'm going to show you what the reality of it is, and I can show you the proof that I can do it. So transparency is really the best way to get into the world of understanding — all of the knowledge that you need is already out there. I'm just going to give it to you, and then if you want it to be done, I can do it for you. Done for you, or you can do it with me, or you can do it yourself.
Naomi: How has being transparent and freely teaching your systems changed the quality of the people that you serve — I'll use your language, because I really love it — and the referrals and partnerships you attract as well?
Marie: Yes, so I use my email newsletter sometimes, and I honestly haven't done self-marketing, which is very interesting.
Naomi: With this one person who was sending you 10 referrals a month?
Marie: And she referred a lot of people. I'm like, okay, and every time someone refers, I actually give them a gift, so she gets a gift each time. At one moment I was like, listen, you got to pause for a second — now it's pulling down a little bit, maybe you got to pick back up. But to be honest, I think the value of what I've been giving is really out of YouTube, with the Sweet Dash, because Sweet Dash is one of the systems that I really do set up a lot. So yeah, it's different areas.
It has been a very consistent space where every person that I connect with is always like, oh my gosh, I can't believe you shared all this on a call, I can't believe you did this, your emails are so amazing. But every other person — I have one person who refers at least 10 people to me a month, and she's like, I can't do this without Marie. So I think with the teaching of the systems, and being able to be so free with it — of course, not everyone aligns with what they're actually looking for, but it really does help, full circle, you get what you give.
Naomi: I 1,000% believe that. And you mentioned emails — I'm assuming you're talking about your email newsletter.
Naomi: I'm curious to know, as we get close to wrapping up — I always talk about one of my mentors, who I also worked with, I worked in her business for about four years, and she's the one who opened the door and the floodgates to expanding how I use my gifts, sharing how people can expand how they use their gifts in the world. I learned so much from her, and there's so much I think that doesn't always make sense on paper, but ended up really positively impacting my life, because, as we mentioned earlier, trusting your intuition, doing the work, connecting with the right people, investing in relationships. I'm curious, for you, what is something you can recall that did not make sense on paper, but actually changed your life and your business for the better?
Marie: There's so many things. I think the one thing that resonated the most, that was like, okay, you got to put yourself out there, was when I officially quit my job. When I officially quit my job — and I kid you not when I tell the story, it's always like, okay, this actually happened. I remember once I got fired, because I worked so many jobs. I'm a New Yorker, so naturally we're working at least three jobs at once. I quit one of my jobs, and then I got fired from one of my jobs.
The one I got fired from, I was like, well, I don't know what to do, I just had a baby, and I was like, okay, well, I don't know. But what shifted was that in those three months of me being unemployed, quote unquote, I made the most business success in those three months. To be honest, I was like, okay, this is great, but then I, for my own self, decided that maybe it's time for me to go back into the corporate world, and I took it upon myself to go back in. At that time, things started to slow down, and it was a shift I didn't realize. What happened was God said to me, I didn't tell you to go back, I didn't tell you to move. I will never forget how that operated, and the ironic thing was that when I quit again, things started to shift back.
So that is the key metric, the milestone, the pinnacle I can say — every time I was disobedient, or I did not take the time to set myself down and speak to God about it, things would not be in alignment.
Naomi: What led you to — when you say "when I was disobedient" — what led you to go back? Was it fear? What was it, especially?
Marie: Definitely fear. It was definitely fear. I think I was also greedy — I wanted to have a space of understanding, is this really the thing that I can do? Because COVID was, I think, trickling down, and there was a lot of different things in the family — we were trying to make sure we were stable, we were trying to get a better lifestyle, we were trying to do things, we were never without, but I think I was just really greedy. I wanted to see if I could take on the workload, and working a 40-hour-a-week job is not what you want to do. So it was definitely disobedience in that area, but also just not really knowing your value, your real core — to heart, what you wanted to do in that moment.
Naomi: Yeah, when we first met, one of the first things you said to me was, "I miss New York," and I'm a New Yorker through and through, at heart. What was your reason for moving to Atlanta, if you're open to sharing?
Marie: My family is here, and New York is such a good, fun, fast-paced environment that I never wanted to leave it. I was a hustler — I had the jobs, I was actually, it was funny because I was in the business of serving, I was a host at a restaurant, and then I was a staff accountant for a very long time, and that was the corporate job I held, because someone took a chance on me, and I was in that field for so long. But New York, in itself, was just not the best place to build a family. Ironically, God kept telling me my husband was in Georgia, and I'm like, when you're hearing something, you're like, okay, whatever, but I kept telling people, listen, I've got to go, my husband is in Georgia, it's time for me to settle down. My husband, he is so hilarious, because I've known him since I was 12.
Naomi: Whoa.
Marie: Yes. And I'm 33 now, he's 32, so we've known each other for about 20 years, and of course we've had time to live our lives and be who we wanted to be. But I remember coming back in 2017 to Atlanta, because we moved back and forth for a while, and coming back to Atlanta, I ignored him — he reached out for some reason, but he reached out to me through YouTube, because I blocked all his communication. He couldn't reach me on Snapchat or anything, then I ignored him on YouTube, and then he reached out to me through my sister.
Naomi: Knitted.
Marie: When he did actually reach out, I was like, okay, let's give it a try — he actually cooked for me, and I was like, okay, yeah, this is commitment, this is love. So, to tie it all together, once we started dating — we started dating back in 2019 — literally within six months we were engaged, and because time was moving so quickly, I wanted to get married the same year, my family was like, no, you can't do this. So we ended up getting married in 2020, right before COVID happened, and then we had a daughter in 2021.
Naomi: Wow, it's a whole life cycle.
Naomi: So she's almost five, if not already five.
Marie: She's four, about to be five this year, and honestly, her personality now is a little bit scary, because I don't know if she's a mixture of me and him, and that in itself is hard to see in front of you, because then you're realizing — so when you have kids, just know it's going to be a ball of fun to see your personality.
Naomi: I'm very excited, I'm very excited. This is really good, Marie. Thank you for being so open to share about your business, your vision, the evolution of your company as well. Because I think for folks who — I mean, there's no blueprint — it's very helpful for people to see what's possible, that they're not crazy, that they will figure it out as time goes along. So thank you, Marie, it's been a pleasure.
Marie: No, thank you for having me. Thank you for even this conversation. This has honestly been so amazing. Just hearing, just again, the things out of my mouth — because sometimes you don't speak about it, you know, you just kind of remember it and reminisce, but speaking about it, it just really admires it, makes me admire just the journey, but also keeps me pumping, because there's a path that I'm needing to complete and fulfill.
Naomi: Right? And you can see everywhere that you've been, and really say, wow, I've done this, and look at how far we've come. So, yeah — cheers to being obedient in God's vision for us, cheers to just staying on the path and remaining brave and going after what we know is out there for us. This is amazing. Thank you, Marie, thank you for being here, and thank you to everyone who has tuned into this episode of The Power of Why podcast. We will catch you in the next one.
Listen to the episode on Spotify and Apple Podcasts | Watch on YouTube