70 | Design Your Life, On Purpose with | Morgan Gutierrez

Ever feel like you’re checking every box and still missing the point? We sit down with performance and mindset engineer Morgan Gutierrez to rebuild success from the inside out, starting with the thoughts that quietly script your days. Instead of running your life on default settings, Morgan shows how to design a blueprint that aligns with what you actually want across four core areas: health, relationships, vocation, and time and money. The shift begins with a deceptively simple question, what would you love? And expands into practical tools that change your energy, your actions, and your results.

Morgan shares her reluctant pivot from real estate to purpose-driven work, revealing how resistance shows up as clever self-talk and how to tell the truth faster. We dig into her results formula, thoughts create feelings, feelings drive actions, actions produce results, and explore how high achievers can replace chronic grind with two powerful levers: breath and fun. We also challenge the myth that success is only a number, reframing it as a felt sense of integrity, impact, and joy. From cold-calling with service-led energy to scheduling five minutes of joy that rewires your nervous system, the conversation is packed with tools you can use today.

If you’re curious where to start, Morgan lays out accessible first steps and explains the role of structure, accountability, and discipline when motivation fades. Expect a warm, candid dive into designing work that supports life, not the other way around, and a reminder that you’re worthy of loving your life right now, not someday. If this resonates, tap 'follow,' share it with someone who needs it, and leave a review to share your new definition of success.

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Transcript

Intro/Outro 0:04

Where fate, family, and friends collide. Your host, Dr. Brooks Demon, Christian life coach and entrepreneur.

Brooks 0:22

Welcome back to Off Balance. I'm your host, Dr. Brooks. And if you've ever been feeling stuck, uncertain, or pulled in too many directions, this is the conversation for you. Today's guest is Morgan Gutierrez. She is a performance and mindset engineer who helps entrepreneurs and high achievers build lives and businesses that they truly love. Morgan is a published author, a cast member on the block, which is found on Amazon Prime, and she was a featured guest on Speakers on Edge. Morgan has shared stages with Olympic gold medalist Charles Austin and Super Bowl champion coach Jimmy Johnson. Morgan, welcome to Off Balance. Before we dive into our conversation today, can you tell our listeners what exactly is a performance and mindset engineer?

What A Mindset Engineer Really Does

Morgan 1:12

Absolutely. You know how most of us walk through life and we just say, I'll just wait and see how it happens, like how it all works out. Living on autopilot or by default is how I refer to it in the workshops that I teach and the programs that I teach. And that's the way that we were taught to live. We didn't know there's anything different that we could choose to live in a different way. And we can choose to live by design. So if you were gonna build a house, you would need blueprints, and you would go to an architect to get those blueprints. If you're gonna build a machine, you would go to an engineer to get the blueprints to build a machine. So we get to decide what our lives look like. And I help people design a life and a lifestyle and a business that they love, living, having, and enjoying every day.

Brooks 2:04

That sounds like you have such an amazing job to be able to take someone's life and to literally transform it with your hands. When it comes to working with a performance and design engineer, what would that look like in day-to-day operation?

Designing Life By Blueprint, Not Default

Morgan 2:19

Yeah, so I have several different programs that I take people through and I teach you a system of rewiring your thoughts. It's funny you said crafting it with your hands. And in some ways, you do craft it with your hands, but it really all starts up here in your thoughts. So we know that everything is created twice, but we are not consciously aware of that, and we're not aware of the power of it. But it's not something we think about. But the clothes that we're wearing, the technology that we're using that allows us to do this. What you guys are listening to this podcast on, right? That technology was someone's thought. It was someone's idea. And everything is first a thought before it's created in form, before it becomes your reality. And so there's lots of tools that I teach, and the process that I teach is a really scientific process. Although I don't use a lot of scientific language because I want everyone to be able to understand it. But it's a scientific process if you work at the way it works every time, scientific process. But moving from where you are, bridging to this life that you've designed for yourself. And so I take people through getting clarity on what it is that you would love. Most people spend more time planning a weekend or a birthday party than they do planning their lives or their businesses. And when they do plan their businesses, they're thinking about a couple of things most of the time only the amount of income that they're making. Oh, that's a that's about it. Sometimes who they're serving, right? If you have an entrepreneur who's a little bit more hard-centered. And we don't think about, okay, what does this look like with my family? What does this look like while I'm raising my family? How many hours do I actually want to spend working on my business, in my business on the day-to-day? What days of the week do I want to work? Do you mean to tell me I don't have to work seven days a week? Because as entrepreneurs is often what it is. And so it's teaching a process to help repattern these thoughts of what it means to, I'm going to use air quotes, work hard and what it means to have a successful business. Our relationship with ourselves, our relationship with money, there's so much that gets shifted and repatterned because everything was first of thought.

Brooks 4:45

It's almost like you're an artist because you literally allow the client to paint their picture with their words. And I think for some people, they probably never think about what it would look like for them.

Morgan’s Reluctant Pivot To Purpose

Morgan 4:56

We spend so much time. And look, I was guilty of this myself at the beginning of my entrepreneurial journey. My coach has said, you do this, I just how glad to know, right? Sure, absolutely. You tell me what I need to do. And it was like I was living someone else's life. Like I was doing all the things they were telling me to do. And if you asked me at the time, like when I was working in my real estate business, do you love what you do? Yeah. Yeah. I didn't hate it. Right? It I enjoyed it for the most part. Right. But it was just like a nonchalant. Yeah, I didn't really think about it. If you ask me what I do now, I can't tell from the passion coming through my voice. Yes, I love it. It lights my soul on fire. It is the most fulfilling work I've ever done in the world. And I'm so grateful to be able to help people realize what they can have out of life because we spend so much time being told what we can have, being told who we are, who we're supposed to be, how we're supposed to show up in the world. And we rarely, if ever, stop to consider who we want to be, how we want to show up in the world, what we want to have, how we want our lives to look like. And the question that I ask my clients and in my workshops is what would you love? And when you sit with that question, what would I love my faith life to look like? What would I love my family life to look like? What would I love my business to look like? You receive a completely different answer than if you're asking any of the other questions we've been taught to ask. What do I think I can have? How am I supposed to be doing this? What if the economy say I can do? What if my business coaches tell me I can do? It's a very different way of approaching life.

Brooks 6:46

How did you transition from real estate to becoming a performance and mindset engineer?

Morgan 6:53

Reluctantly, I transitioned reluctantly. So I was I was at a networking event and there was a guy doing a presentation, and he was talking about a lot of the things I'm sharing with you right now. And I was like, mind blown, right? I never heard of any of this. And I was like, this is the missing piece for me. This is what I'm doing wrong in a sense, right? Not that I was really doing anything wrong, but I didn't, it was I was missing something in my life, this fulfillment, this inner peace. And so I got mentor in the space, Mary Morrissey, who was also the gentleman's mentor, and I became a student. And in my studies as a student, and seeing what it did for my life and all the activities that I was doing, my vocation appeared very blank when I would write out for my business what it was. I really only had a monetary idea for my real estate business. And I heard I used to be a teacher prior to being an entrepreneur, right? And I heard this little voice, this little in the back of my head, in the back of my mind, and all the exercises and activities that I were doing, I was doing, and it said two simple, very simple words. Teach this. And I said, No, no, I'm busy. I have a full plate, I have all these things that I'm doing, like my real estate business. It takes more time than I can give it. You hear, right? Am I at that point really in the design of my own life? No. And I've learned throughout my experience in my life prior to even learning these principles, and definitely now in learning these principles. You don't tell the universe no, it doesn't work out in your favor. So if you do, if you continue to resist, which is what I was doing, things start to change so that you start to listen. It can show up in your health, it can show up in your relationships, it can show up in your business, it can show up in your finances, it can show up in all of the above. And so reluctantly is how I came into this. But as soon as I made the decision to transition into this, trying to articulate like the feeling. It was just this overwhelming passion, this purpose is like I knew what I was put here to do. And I know I knew I was put here to teach. I've known that as kids, we play like doctor, and I always played teacher. I was teaching everybody all the time, anyone that would let me teach them. Stuffed animals, Barbies, cousins, friends, siblings, anyone and everyone, right? I knew I was made to be a teacher. And now I know what I'm made to teach.

Brooks 10:08

So if someone is listening and they're like, Morgan, you are describing the life that I want. What is a small step that they could take today in order to move forward?

Morgan 10:19

Go register for one of my workshops. Go to morgangutieras.com and I'll spell it for you M-O-R-G-A-N-G-U-T-I-E-R-R-E-Z.com. Click on events, register for one, and come with an open mind. I'm going to give you lots of tools, lots of information. What we're covering here is just a snippet, and I'll offer additional support if it calls out to you, if it's something that you would love additional support with.

The One Question: What Would You Love?

Brooks 10:50

Thank you for sharing that. Looking back on your journey, you said at first you were a little hesitant. What's the biggest lesson that you carried from your transition to saying yes?

Morgan 11:01

The biggest lesson is to listen. Mary tells me all the time, your knower knows. Your knower knows. And it's so true in everything that we do. The universe, God, spirit, whatever word you want to place there, right? We each have our own word that connects to us the most. But whatever word you want to place there, it has the highest good for you and for everyone in its mind as it moves through you, as it works through you. And so in each decision that you have to make, let me correct myself, in each decision that we get to make, because it is a privilege that we have free will, it is a privilege that we get to decide, it is a privilege that we are breathing and have the opportunity to decide. It is a privilege. So in each decision that we get to make, our knower, our internal spirit knows which choice is best for us. And it's an exercise that I guide people on, guide my clients on often, right? Because we always have these decisions to make. And you reach a point where you can just in a matter of seconds, and you know what decision to make. And until I did start listening, I was very resistant to listening. And looking back, hindsight's 2020, right? So looking back, I can look at all the places in my life that I didn't want to listen and that I was resistant to listening and how that played out for me. And it didn't go well. Listen to your higher power, to yourself instead of all the noise that is around us.

Brooks 12:51

Yes, listening is so important. And then you also work with high achievers. So when it comes to high achievers, how do you help them slow down to evaluate things?

Small First Steps & Workshop Invite

Listening To Your “Knower” Over Noise

Morgan 13:01

As a high achiever, you are in grind mode, right? You're always in work mode, on mode. And there's your breath, just the power of our breath. And it sounds so cheesy. And I can think back to myself a couple of years ago. And if I heard some lady talking about the power of our breath on a podcast, my eyes would roll out of the back of my head and be like, okay, this is some right, because we are naturally afraid of what we don't know. And in all the media and all the areas around us, as a business owner, as an entrepreneur, as a higher achiever, as someone that is out there creating, or at least thinking, that they're creating this life that they want for themselves. We are taught that it's hard work. Yes? We are taught that it takes a lot of time. We are taught that we have to sacrifice. And we're often taught that we are sacrificing our faith. We're sacrificing our family, and we're sacrificing fun. You get to have fun, you get to. And I'm speaking from personal experience. I started with five minutes of fun a day. It sounds silly, right? Surely anybody could have five minutes of fun a day. And I had a list of things that I was doing, and my five minutes of fun a day was often the very last thing that was getting checked off before I went to bed because I wasn't prioritizing, I wasn't making time for myself in that way because I was so busy, so worried about achieving something outside of myself. And there's not a the one tool I would give is coming back to your breath, and the second tool I would give is having fun. Outside of those two tools, there's so much else that occurs within you to want to acknowledge that you are not currently doing it for yourself in the way that you think that you are, and then to shift that for yourself, for your family, and for the real reason that you're out there doing it. Because, like none of us are trying to sleep on piles of cash. So you ask people, I want to be a millionaire. Why a millionaire? Why specifically that number? Why does that matter? It's why it matters, it's what you want to do with it, it's how you want to give it, how you want to share it, the impact that you want to make in the world. And so I help people return to that in themselves and actually find why they want to do it.

Brooks 15:45

So, how has your definition of success changed because of your mindset shift?

Morgan 15:51

Well, you ask a hundred people what their definition of success is, and you're gonna get a hundred different answers because it is a very personal definition, it's a very personal experience. Used to, I did have an external definition of success, often money related, because I didn't grow up with a lot of money. And in my mind, if you have money, you are successful. But I can also look back at my family, and I could tell you that my parents were very successful in putting Stamling first and teaching me the value of family and teaching me the value of faith. And so now my definition of success, while the sure there is a financial component to that, it doesn't have much to do with money at all. It has to do with the way that I feel about myself, it has the way to do with the way that I feel about the impact that I'm creating in the world, how I'm sharing my gifts and my talents that the good Lord gave me, because we all have unique gifts and talents. And it is our duty to share those with others, and often we hide them away. And so my definition of success has dramatically changed from this figure on a sheet of paper to a feeling for myself and for how I show up for others.

Brooks 18:08

So you are all about results. So let's dive into your results formula. So if we have someone listening, they're like, Morgan, I really want to work with you. Can you walk us through what it will look like working with you and getting those results?

Redefining Success Beyond Money

Morgan 18:24

So the results formula, everything starts with our thoughts. And we touched on that a little bit earlier. But we have a predominant way of thinking, and that's a lot of what I help people re-pattern. Everyone, I love this example because everyone can fill this blank in. Money doesn't grow on trees. How'd you know that? How do you know? And so just it seems simple, right? We were all told that it's a saying, and for some people, it has zero significance, at least they think. But the truth is that it affects the way that we think, it affects the way that we think about money. And we have results in all the areas of our life. So I'm gonna shift, right? So you have your health, you have your love and relationships, you have your vocation, which people often think of as only their job. I prefer to think of it as how you're sharing your gifts and talents with the world because you can have a job and you can have success in that job. But if you don't feel fulfilled, and if you are not sharing your gifts and your talents with the world, are you really happy here? Or is it just about the money that you're receiving? And then you do have your time and money, and you have results in each of these areas of your life. And you can look at your life right now and see what your results are. You can look at your calendar, you can look at your bank account, you can look at your family, the relationships in your life, the love in your life, you can look at your own health. And whatever your predominant thinking pattern is affecting those, your predominant thinking pattern affects the way that you feel. So I use this example in the workshops that I teach, and it really just helps people connect it. Think about a time that you lost your wallet. You're probably feeling a little bit anxious, probably feeling a little bit worried or concerned. And then when you remember that your wallet was in your coat pocket, well, then you feel relieved. Because your thoughts, what you were thinking, oh my gosh, where's my wallet? Oh my gosh, I'm never gonna get this cash back. Oh my gosh, I'm gonna have to cancel these credit cards. Oh my gosh, then that's what you're thinking. It affects the way that you feel, you feel worried, you feel concerned. And if you're thinking, oh, my wallet's in my coat pocket, everything is fine, you feel relieved. And the way that you feel shows up in the way that you act, whether that is the action you're actually taking or not taking, or the energy behind the action you're taking. And so, in a business sense, and when I'm talking to real estate professionals, this is often an example I'll use. If your thoughts about cold calling, and this goes for the sales professionals I work with too, right? If your thoughts about cold calling, you're like, oh, I don't want to do this, oh, I'm nervous, oh, how's this all gonna work out? You're feeling anxious. That's gonna come through in your cold call or any conversation that you're having, even if they book an appointment with you, right? That's gonna come through in your action of talking to them, in your action of being able to serve them in what it is that you are here to do. Because you're not just here to make money, you're here to serve. And if your thought is only that you're here to make money, then there's lots of discussion that we might need to have around how we can shift that for you, and you can have more fulfillment and purpose in your life. And those actions that you take, the energy behind those actions show up in your results.

Brooks 21:50

But I can imagine that if a person is initially starting their program, that there could be some resistance because when we think of change can be overwhelming. So, how do you help those people that are resistant? How do you help them to just embrace it to move forward?

The Results Formula: Thoughts → Results

Morgan 22:07

And I'm gonna use your word resistance, and I'm gonna give you a word that we use, paradigms, which is just a way of thinking. We are naturally as humans resistant to change. And so, until the pain of a problem and the desire to change it is greater than the fear of changing, right? We won't change, we will stay stuck, and we have this little voice, this paradigm that shows up for us and it knows how to talk to us exactly the way we need to hear it. So, whenever I was resistant to stepping into this myself, into stepping into the way I was created to serve, I have lots of paradigms. I'm too busy, I have too much going on, I don't want to start back over with this, right? I had all these paradigms, this resistance, these voices that knew exactly how to talk to me, exactly what to say to me to keep me where I was, to keep me from moving forward. And so the first step is you have to notice those because if you don't notice it, how are you gonna shift it? So notice them. And then once you notice them, you can say, okay, what would serve me here? What would serve me here? Is it going when I lay my head on the pillow for the last time? Am I going to be grateful that I didn't took this, didn't take this action, or am I going to be grateful that I did? And more often than not, you're going to be grateful that you took the action. It's going to matter. And that is a long-winded way to share about how the shifts are made. But we can't shift anything we're not aware of. And so the first step is just increasing our awareness. And then there's some hand holding on how to walk through it and how to shift through it because we are our often our own worst critics and our own worst enemies, and we stay stuck because even in our discomfort is more comfortable than change. So we really have to feel the pain of the problem in order to want to change it.

Brooks 24:26

Do you also have individual programs where they can work with you for a longer period of time outside of a workshop?

Morgan 24:33

Yeah. So the workshop is to introduce people to this way of thinking because most people have never heard of anything like it, right? And I do offer an additional structure of support behind that. So I have a couple of different lengths of programs. I have a four-month, which is the that's not entirely true. I have a one-month is the shortest. Almost nobody, that's that's if you just need to get your feet under you. Most people that come to me don't just need to get their feet under them. They're ready to design a life and not just find solid ground, right? And so I take them through Dream Builder, which is for me, it's a four-month program that I guide them through in designing and co-creating this life that they're desiring to themselves. Now, is it actually going to happen in four months? Because there are laws of gestation, right? Things that take time, but there are so many shifts that happen in those four months that allow you to make all these other shifts. And oftentimes people decide to re-enroll in a structure of support. And then I have a 14-month structure of support that I offer as well to get really deep learning in how all of these laws work. They're the laws of the universe, just like gravity. They're invisible and we count on them every day, whether we're aware of it or not.

Brooks 26:07

Explaining what it is that you do, and it's very encouraging and motivating. What did you hope that would happen by coming on this episode?

Noticing Resistance And Shifting Paradigms

Morgan 26:16

So the ripple effect of that motivation of sharing this information, we can't ever truly know the ripple effect of that. So the goal is of course, if someone wants an additional structure of support and they want to come and see what it would be like to be a client. I welcome that. Sure, I would love that. But it's more than just that, right? It's all the change that you can create in your own life. It's just having a new awareness that we it's taking free will to a whole new level, right? It's that awareness and the ripple effect of that and what that can create in not only your life and the life of the person listening to this, but the lives of the people that they know and the lives of the people that they know. And regardless if I received a single client from this or not, the impact that is created from this one podcast episode, this one opportunity to share this new way of thinking, being living, designing is my intention in being to serve and to share. But I want to touch on something because you use the word motivation, which is a great word. It's a great word. And the thing about motivation is it's fleeting. We go to a seminar and we're all pumped up and we feel motivated, and we want to get out there and we want to go do something. And then we turn the podcast off, or we walk out of the seminar, we log off of the webinar, and we return to our normal lives, and we don't do anything because we don't have the structure of support to help us know what to do, how to do it, and keep us accountable for doing it. We just unfortunately naturally aren't super accountable to ourselves. And so there's a difference between being motivated to do something and doing something, having the actual desire to do something, which comes more into discipline. My mom told me one time, you're the most motivated person I know. And I was just like, Thank you. But I think the word you're looking for is disciplined. Cause I'm not, I was gonna, I was getting up to to go and do a workout or something, and I'd like because let me tell you the truth, mom. I'm not motivated to go do this workout right now at all. I would much rather sit on the couch and talk to you. But what I am choosing to do to serve my physical body and to serve my mental space, my emotional space, and my connection with my body is to go do this intentional movement. That is a discipline, not a motivation. And she was just like, whoa. So I took it to a whole new level for her because she had never thought she thought motivation is the reason that we do things. So I don't intend to pick on you at all.

Programs, Timelines, And Support

Brooks 29:42

No, you're not picking on me. I actually did my dissertation on motivation, so I know a lot about the subject matter. And what I can say is that motivation gets you started, but discipline keeps you going. You have unpacked so much for us here today. And what I can say is that living in the Western culture, we are taught to grow up, get a job, get an education at work, and then finally when we're about 70, 75, we can retire. So I like that you're helping people redefine what life can look like for them. I remember years ago when we lived in Japan, I noticed that in their culture, they don't work a lot. They work about 30 hours a week, and they really believe in rest and they believe in spending time with their families.

Motivation vs Discipline: What Sticks

Morgan 30:24

Because America, we generalize, like America is like that. But if you go to Hawaii, which is part of America, they live on island time. They're laid back, they're easygoing. Ohana means family and watch Lilo's stitch. So it is it is a geo. Geographical way of thinking in many ways. And it's also just because of the way that we grew up. It's what we were taught and told. And it's that's why I mentioned predominant thinking patterns. We don't realize the layers that can be pulled back of this work hard mentality. And there's people in their head right now, they're like, what do you mean? I don't have to work hard. Oh, this is someone just selling a dream, right? Literally, I am selling you your dreams. Literally, that's my job. But it you can do everything that is required in a way that feels good to you. Because I did think it needed to be hard. And I thought that if something was easy, it was too good to be true. And I thought that if I wasn't working hard, I wasn't doing enough. I thought that no matter how much I was doing, I wasn't doing enough. And it's a complete shift to know that everything required is being completed in a way that feels really good to me for the highest good of me and everyone else involved. That's a completely different shift. It's not that I don't work hard, it's not that I don't do a lot of things, right? It's not that I'm not out serving in all the ways that I can think, serve, and contribute. It's that I am taking actions that feel good to take, right? Talking to you. This feels wonderful to share this information. So it's the actions that we're taking and what that's creating for us and the energy behind what we're taking them in. So if we're taking the energy of this has to be hard, of course it's going to be hard for you. That's your thoughts. You're telling yourself it does.

Brooks 32:42

Yeah, our thoughts and our limits and beliefs can definitely keep us stuck or keep us in that little rat race of life. So, Morgan, as we wrap up, what's one message or a piece of advice that you want to leave our listeners who may be navigating their way towards their dream life?

Morgan 32:58

The thought that I would like to leave you with is re-listen to this with an open mind. Put aside all these beliefs that you've had before and just re-listen to this with an open mind. And if you take nothing else from this podcast, from this talk, take this one thing. You are absolutely worthy of loving your life. Life is too short to do anything but love it. And we get to decide if we love our lives every day or not. It's not something in the future, it is now.

Brooks 33:38

The decision is yours. I will make sure that I have all of Morgan's information in the show description. So again, Morgan, thank you so much. You have been an absolute pleasure today.

Morgan 33:49

Thank you so much.

Intro/Outro 33:52

Thanks for look today. Please rate this episode and share it with your family and friends. To learn more about your host or to book a coaching session, visit www.brookdemming.com. Until next time, right.