Marissa Hawkins on Building a Franchise Empire Without Losing Her Soul

"Your life will change when you take that leap of faith—fear is nothing but false evidence appearing real." 

In this episode of Pursue Vegas, we sit down with powerhouse entrepreneur and community builder Marissa Hawkins, who went from the pharmaceutical industry to owning and operating 10 Massage Envy franchises across Nevada. But her story isn’t just about business—it’s about belief.

Marissa opens up about the defining moments that shaped her—from taking a chance on entrepreneurship to finding her voice as a speaker, author, and advocate for wellness and impact.

"We all have a story, and you just never know who you can help by sharing your own."

We talk about what it means to show up for your community, why mentorship matters more than ever, and how Marissa’s upcoming book Me: The Mindful Entrepreneur is setting the stage for a new kind of leadership—one rooted in care, clarity, and conscious growth.

"It’s about taking action and caring about people. You’ll never get far alone."

From the lessons passed down by her late mentor Steve Cook, to her work with  local wellness initiatives, Marissa is proof that when you combine heart with hustle, there’s no limit to what’s possible.

Key Takeaways:

• Success comes from betting on yourself—even when it’s uncomfortable.
• Community engagement is the secret sauce to long-term, meaningful business.
• Mentorship is a two-way street; now it’s our turn to guide the next generation.
• Mindfulness in business isn't a luxury—it’s a necessity.
• Resilience is built in the small decisions, not the big ones.

Resources:

• Marissa Hawkins on Instagram
• Marissa Hawkins on LinkedIn
• Upcoming Book: Me: The Mindful Entrepreneur
• Organizations Mentioned: Massage Envy, Bunker Labs, Filipino Nurses Association, Orange Theory

"Little things do matter, and they affect people in different ways. We can do remarkable things with all the resources we have."

If you’ve ever needed a reminder that your story, your voice, and your leap of faith matters—this episode is it.

Thanks for tuning in to The Pursue Vegas Podcast!

Transcript

0:00:00 - (Marissa Hawkins): Hi, I'm Marissa Hawkins with Massage Envy, and you're listening to the Pursue Vegas podcast.

0:00:08 - (Dave Burlin): The idea of Pursue Vegas was to really highlight the local people that really make Vegas Vegas.

0:00:14 - (Tawni Nguyen): I love that aspect of how these visionaries are actually bringing people together.

0:00:19 - (Dave Burlin): When we hit record, our responsibility is to connect the people of our city so we can show the world who we really are. Welcome back to the Pursue Vegas podcast. I'm your host, Dave Berlin.

0:00:29 - (Tawni Nguyen): And I'm your co host, Tawiy.

0:00:31 - (Dave Burlin): And we are. How excited are we?

0:00:34 - (Tawni Nguyen): Choose a word. I forgot to bring. Pick aauru.

0:00:36 - (Dave Burlin): I need a thesaurus. Y. Sorry. Excited is my crutch word. But we are absolutely excited to have today's guest. She's a longtime friend, and I gotta pull out the bio here, but I'm gonna give the very condensed version because she. She is making it happen to keep going while you guys are talk.

0:00:56 - (Marissa Hawkins): You're okay, Good point.

0:00:58 - (Dave Burlin): Before you guys get too deep into.

0:01:01 - (Tawni Nguyen): Are we gonna get hot and sweaty?

0:01:03 - (Marissa Hawkins): So you guys have done so many podcasts in this room already.

0:01:07 - (Dave Burlin): We've done 11. 11 I did count. But I was really focused on the season one part. It's on my list in the room.

0:01:16 - (Tawni Nguyen): I don't see the season one, but that would be for this weekend.

0:01:19 - (Marissa Hawkins): Yeah, you have my.

0:01:20 - (Dave Burlin): It's good.

0:01:21 - (Marissa Hawkins): It's good.

0:01:22 - (Dave Burlin): We're good.

0:01:22 - (Marissa Hawkins): Okay.

0:01:22 - (Tawni Nguyen): Oh, we can just re edit Action.

0:01:24 - (Dave Burlin): Double two Now you guys can come.

0:01:25 - (Marissa Hawkins): Up with better word.

0:01:26 - (Dave Burlin): It makes sense. Oh, no, we're not. That's the joke. You don't take. You don't make our joke.

0:01:31 - (Marissa Hawkins): Everybody says that. Is that why?

0:01:33 - (Dave Burlin): No, I always say we're absolutely excited, but then I try to add extra words in, but then we always just go with excited because that's our comfort.

0:01:40 - (Marissa Hawkins): I do that too. I'm like, wondering, what can I replace that with?

0:01:43 - (Dave Burlin): But it's a brand thing now. People are used to it. Right. Just like, did you know that we're only 418 paces from trader Joe's?

0:01:50 - (Tawni Nguyen): Trade a hose.

0:01:50 - (Dave Burlin): That's another one of our shameless plugsose. Ready? Action. All right, welcome back to the Pursue Vegas Podcast. I'm your host, Dave Berlin.

0:01:59 - (Tawni Nguyen): And I'm your co host, Toawi Nyn.

0:02:00 - (Dave Burlin): And we are fundamentally excited. I don't know. We're all the excited today. I feel like it's always back and forth. Sometimes Tani's more excited. I'm actually very excited today because Marissa and I have been homies for a minute, and I did not want to try to go into full Depth with her bio because she's got so many great stories, but the basics are she's kind of a big deal, right? She's a very big deal.

0:02:28 - (Tawni Nguyen): Wait, wait, wait. Let me throw on some contacts. I just slid into her DMs last week too. The same day she booked for the show. Talk aboutity world and just the power of manifestation.

0:02:38 - (Marissa Hawkins): There'no coincidences or accidents.

0:02:40 - (Tawni Nguyen): I. I like hey girl. And then I saw her name come through and I'm like, I didn't send you anything. What's going on?

0:02:45 - (Marissa Hawkins): Are you.

0:02:45 - (Tawni Nguyen): How are you doing this?

0:02:47 - (Marissa Hawkins): This guy right here randomly. And I got invited to an event last minute and there he was.

0:02:53 - (Dave Burlin): So that is true, right? Oh, that was at Moss po favor.

0:02:57 - (Marissa Hawkins): That was at Moss po Fav.

0:02:58 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah, in a very small sectiones. They just smashed us all right on top of each other.

0:03:03 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah, that sounds like an after dark kind of thing.

0:03:06 - (Dave Burlin): Pseudo shout out to Moss bovora. Do better.

0:03:11 - (Marissa Hawkins): Yeah, Put that whole event together.

0:03:13 - (Dave Burlin): That was great. Welcome, Marissa. Marissa is s a mindful entrepreneur, community leader, advocate for health, family and service. She's built a thriving career running 10 franchise locations with Massage Envy. Is that all right here in Vegas?

0:03:28 - (Marissa Hawkins): So seven here and three in Reno. We just picked three up last year.

0:03:32 - (Dave Burlin): So all across Nevada. So 10 across Nevada. She's also inspiring other people through philanthropy, public speaking and her 300 day wellness challenge. So Marissa, welcome, little badass, welcome to the show.

0:03:45 - (Marissa Hawkins): Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here. I'm always excited to help out a fellow friend and obviously talk about Vegas, right?

0:03:53 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah. Well, you had me at excited three times. You had me excited. But no, that's one of the things that we always love to start with is what there's so much that a bio can say. But things change, right? And then here we are in a new year. What are you excited about?

0:04:11 - (Marissa Hawkins): Foria for 2025. You know, I love that it ends in the number 5 because fives is one of my numbers besides 10. And I love it because this is my golden year. And so I am celebrating 20 years with the Massage Envy brand. We opened the first Massage Envy in the state of Nevada. We were clinic number 32 and now there's close to thousand 1100 plus locations nationwide. And I'm also turning 50 this year and don't believe it.

0:04:41 - (Tawni Nguyen): No, she's totally lyingying book.

0:04:42 - (Marissa Hawkins): My own book. And it's going to be titled Me the mindful entrepreneuruse the acronyms of Massage Envy are me. So it's a spin on you know, me growing up with this brand and talking about personal along with professional and how it all mirrors together. And you know, when you get to a certain point, you start thinking about, know your life and you reflect back on, you know, things that have happened and things that you learned along the way. And so it' really, you know, nice to know that I can be a voice out there that could be amplified to go and talk to high schools.

0:05:14 - (Marissa Hawkins): And you were there when we were at UNLV business school on the panel as well as I actually was a keynote speaker at one of their sessions. And it was nice because they wanted women entrepreneur to come out and talk about business and life and, you know, what's next after you graduate from college. So it's really nice.

0:05:34 - (Dave Burlin): And that was part of the book tour, right? That part of the promotion for the tour. Now, who all did you do the book with? I know it was like everybody. I feel like everybody was high school sweethearts. Everyone was married to their high school.

0:05:47 - (Tawni Nguyen): Sweethear paper.

0:05:48 - (Marissa Hawkins): So can I just say that that was another chance encounter where I had an opportunity thanks to social media. Honestly, I've gotten chosen to be on this cover with three other amazing women. And the randomness of it all is that when we get together, we know nothing about each other except for we're all on social media. And lo and behold, we all happen to be married to our high school sweethearts, two of which happen to have twin kids. And it'just amazing because high school sweethearts was a big thing. But also, you know, our husbands are helping us behind the scenes to grow our businesses and to grow our families.

0:06:26 - (Marissa Hawkins): And that's something that, you know, needs to be said. You know, the value of living, you know, the American dream is knowing that we can run businesses and run families.

0:06:35 - (Dave Burlin): And who all was featured in that? So it was. It was you. It was Mary Grace.

0:06:39 - (Marissa Hawkins): Mary Grace Anigz, Monica Fullerton and Shane Jasmine. That's right. Three remarkable women, if I were ever to say so much.

0:06:48 - (Dave Burlin): Minus Monica Fullerton.

0:06:50 - (Marissa Hawkins): Okay.

0:06:51 - (Dave Burlin): That's right, Monica. When is she coming back?

0:06:53 - (Marissa Hawkins): She will come back. You know, her husband's in the military. So quite frankly, we are looking forward to her return. But she's gonna be doing amazing things.

0:07:00 - (Dave Burlin): In Florida now, just for the context, right. And I feel like we have not brought up a name that wishes to remain nameless on the show for a couple episodes. Mike Kim. Shout out Mike Kim here we. But there's a little bit of context with Monica Fullerton. Monica used to be one of my favorite People in the world used to be.

0:07:20 - (Marissa Hawkins): Used to be.

0:07:20 - (Dave Burlin): And the reason why is because when we were running the Vegas chapter for Bunker Labs. Bunker Labs is a phenomenal organization that helps veterans and military spouses start and grow businesses. I help launch the chapter here. Monica is like the poster child for the military spouse. She has a business. They have twins. Right. And she is just one. She is one of the best people in the world. She is one of my favorite people. I'm only being a jerk because she moved away.

0:07:52 - (Dave Burlin): Wasn't her fault at all, but I still hold her accountable. She could have changed it, but no, I think she will be back. But it was great. In the time that she was here, we unlocked a lot of different networks within the community and it really helped to connect all of those circles as well. So it was really powerful to see her involved in that project as well. And then when did you guys start that book? And then when did it release?

0:08:21 - (Marissa Hawkins): And then I believe it released in 2023 and we started in 2022. So they chose everyone who was going to be in the book. So there's 16 women and we had a special edition where we were on the front cover of the book. It was, I think, a limited edition one.

0:08:38 - (Dave Burlin): And that was just for Vegas.

0:08:39 - (Marissa Hawkins): Just for Vegas.

0:08:40 - (Dave Burlin): Just for Vegas.

0:08:41 - (Tawni Nguyen): Lots of signs.

0:08:41 - (Marissa Hawkins): Las Vegas. Absolutely. I can't believe Monica didn't give you one already. But it was a great storyline for all of us and how we, you know, we tell a little bit. Just a little bit. I think there's. Each of us got maybe 15 pages each to tell a brief, you know, story. And it was nice, a little glimpse, a little glimpse into our world. But, you know, I thought I've done some things, but looking and listening to other women and what they've done, I feel like I haven't done enough, you know, so therefore, it's nice to read other people's stories and their journeys because we all have a story.

0:09:17 - (Marissa Hawkins): And again, to just be surrounded by wonderful women who strive to do better, not just for themselves, but for their communities and, you know, everything else that they do outside.

0:09:29 - (Dave Burlin): Definitely an inspiration for me. And Tani knows this because we've went to a lot of different networking groups. Somehow I always end up in a room with 300 women, which is always.

0:09:39 - (Marissa Hawkins): I'm feeling like that's on purpose.

0:09:40 - (Dave Burlin): Such a rough life.

0:09:42 - (Marissa Hawkins): First World Problem did very well, I might add.

0:09:45 - (Dave Burlin): But I give a on the subject of the book itself. That was the first book that you were a contributor for. Now tell me about Your book. Because this is gonna be more than 15 pages.

0:09:55 - (Marissa Hawkins): Yes.

0:09:56 - (Dave Burlin): And it's gonna be hard. Your story.

0:09:58 - (Tawni Nguyen): I'm glad you're leaning into the writing. Writing is actually one of the most difficult skills to actually very much comprehend yourself and then try to articulate, like, your ideas into the world.

0:10:07 - (Marissa Hawkins): Yes. And I realized that I could not do this alone. So on my first one, I ve hired a ghostwriter to help me because, you know, putting. I can write when it's, you know, blog style or captions and things like that, but having to extend further to, you know, 10 to 12 pages, it's actually more challenging than you can imagine. And really, because I think it's your first and you want it to be perfect. And, you know, people have told me that's the struggle that people have when they're first going into it. You desire to do it. And once you desire to do it, it's pen to paper. Now you're like, okay, I've got a writer's block.

0:10:46 - (Marissa Hawkins): Okay, what do I want to say here that will help people to understand what I'm trying to put out here? And it's also very cathartic because I find myself having to ask questions of other people. And I would never have asked those questions, for example, of my parents. You know, chapter one'is Roots to Resilience. You know, how I became who I am and having to ask my parents to go back to their past. I would have never learned that. My mother had the PS to leave her home country on her own and ask her parents. And left her country and just went to Germany.

0:11:24 - (Marissa Hawkins): Yeah. And worked in the nursing field. And my father, the same thing. And so, you know, coming from an immigrant family, learning their story made me feel that connection and to understand a little bit of who I am. And so everybody has that. But how many of us take the time to actually understand, you know, where we actually came from and understand how did I become who I am today? And so I think it's very important to go back.

0:11:52 - (Dave Burlin): I love that. And now what country?

0:11:54 - (Tawni Nguyen): Sitting down together.

0:11:55 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah. Right. Well, you know this. I always bring the right people ca.

0:11:59 - (Tawni Nguyen): Becausee I'm just like, girl, me too.

0:12:01 - (Marissa Hawkins): Yes. It's so important. And now even more so because I have a granddaughter. And so I think about how cool it would have been to read my grandmother's story and to know her struggles and to understand her bravery and her strength and her resilience. You know, I am pretty much her. You know, I am me because of her. And I understand that more clearly now, through, you know, whoever I can contact or reach out to to find out, you know, how was my grandmother. And I did get to connect with her, and she was a tough cookie, you know. And I think any immigrant family who comes here, you know, to make a better life and opportunity for their own families, you know, leaving behind what they know and their comfort of their own homes and family families, I think it's definitely brave.

0:12:48 - (Dave Burlin): And where's your family originally from?

0:12:50 - (Marissa Hawkins): I am 100% Filipino.

0:12:52 - (Dave Burlin): 100%.

0:12:52 - (Marissa Hawkins): So my mother is from Bin Malli, Pancasinan, and my father is from Ilokosor. So two different provinces. Provinces in the Philippines. Not much there to make a living, but they did what they can, and that's the reason why they came to the United States.

0:13:11 - (Dave Burlin): And when you say came to the United States, where does the character of Las Vegas come into play in your story?

0:13:17 - (Marissa Hawkins): Okay, so originally my home base was Seattle, Washington, and my husband and I actually moved to Vegas. Chance encounter again. My best friend actually had a wedding here in 2000, and we got a first taste of what Vegas was like. And I don't know if you remember how they had these billboards that say you could buy a home for 200,000, 3,000 square feet.

0:13:43 - (Tawni Nguyen): The good old days, right?

0:13:45 - (Marissa Hawkins): The good old days. Mayow, this market has changed, right? I wish I would have bought 10 homes at that time. You know, I would have bought 5 off right now. Sharely. So we got, you know, I guess it was calling at us more. So my husband. Cause quite frankly, you know, my roots were in Seattle, Washington. My best friends are there. I've got best friends in second grade. There's like eight of us. There was nine, and we lost one, but lost a girlfriend to cancer. But quite frankly, it's hard to leave something you're so familiar to. And you know, the tol man, you've got so many connections and to leave all of that to start fresh. And not to mention, I had a baby at that time, my second child who was born. And in the Asian culture, you don't leave your family because they're the ones who are gonna help you babysit your child. Right?

0:14:38 - (Marissa Hawkins): But we were lured in by obviously, the price of home, not to mention the weather, cost of living. Seattle was pretty much like California. So when you're pursuing Vegas, you're attracted to other things, right? And people think it's the Strip and the life like that. But I had two children, so it definitely was not that. You know, it was being able to start a family here. And Know that, you know, it would be affordable and we would have, you know, sunshine all the time and do things, you know.

0:15:06 - (Marissa Hawkins): But it was a wonderful move for us. Little did I know that later on we would venture into the world of entrepreneurship because I was in pharmaceutical sales when I moved here. So I got a job transfer and my husband started off in real estate. So that was. He took a test, he just basically flew in from Seattle one day, took the test, passed it on real estate and basically overnight he became a real estate agent.

0:15:30 - (Marissa Hawkins): Yeah, so our lives had changed. So I was able to get a job transfer, he became a real estate agent and people from Seattle were moving down. So it was a great start for us because, you know, like you had clients already. He had clients already.

0:15:42 - (Tawni Nguyen): It speaks to like the volume of relationship built over years.

0:15:46 - (Marissa Hawkins): Absolutely. So needless to say, Vegas has been good to us.

0:15:49 - (Dave Burlin): That's great. Now how did you get into. When you said later you got into entrepreneurship, what sparked that inside of you as far as getting into was the first business. Massage envy. That's where you started was the franchise?

0:16:05 - (Marissa Hawkins): No, we had a business back in Seattle called Autol Lab.

0:16:09 - (Dave Burlin): Okay.

0:16:09 - (Marissa Hawkins): I don't talk much about it, but my husband, you know the saying goes, doing business with friends, you know, it was a business that they started off. My husband has always been into cars. We're high school sweethearts since I was 15. He's always been into cars. So the first business I think we were in our twenties would be a business where he would, you know, pretty much install car alarms. Lower cars.

0:16:33 - (Marissa Hawkins): Back then they had these special lights that they put on JDM mods.

0:16:38 - (Dave Burlin): Circuit.

0:16:39 - (Marissa Hawkins): Right.

0:16:41 - (Dave Burlin): Dating myself now Heyes.

0:16:43 - (Marissa Hawkins): Well, so we ended up opening that with a couple of friends and the other friends had different talents from what my husband had. And of course we were still working our side job, that was a side job and we were still working our full time jobs. But soon it dissipated after a while, you know how that goes. And we're still young, we're learning about opening up LLCs and things like that and what are part in the businesses, operations wise, but nothing really written in stone. You know, we're just rented this big garage and you know, this is where we're working out of and basically telling friends that we started a business.

0:17:19 - (Marissa Hawkins): It was crazy. So we had dabbled in earlier on at such a young age that when we had our third child, which happened to be a girl because we have two boys and now a daughter, that is when everything started to change for us. You I had A great job in pharmaceuticals, you and obviously like the post office, things change. You know, it was great for me because I was able to call on doctors and then also be able to have time for my children. But seven years of doing that, I realized our kids are go going toa start growing up and we need to be there for them for the extracurricular activities which every single one of them joined to sports.

0:18:01 - (Marissa Hawkins): And not just any sports club, sports so travel and everything else that goes with it and PTA meetings. So one day on one of my drives in pharmaceuticals now I was covering not only Vegas, I was also asked to cover Arizona. So one week out of the month, I was driving and leaving my children and basically going to Arizona to call on doctors there. So it got to a point where one day I actually said something's gota give and something actually did give. It was my company car a and I tell the story all the time because it's the truth.

0:18:37 - (Marissa Hawkins): My air conditioner went out in the middle of a four and a half hour drive from Vegas to Arizona. And as you guys know, have you all been to Arizona? It's 10 degrees hotter than Vegas, right? So I always laugh because at this time you I'm still nursing and I am literally trying to get relief from the heat. So I'm rolling the window down, hot air is coming in the ac, I'm turning it up and trying to get some hot air and more hot air is coming in.

0:19:06 - (Marissa Hawkins): And so I was just so drained from that drive just because everything was happening, my milk was coming in, I'm sweatinguse, I'm not getting any relief from any cool air whatsoever. And I realized that I am not working this day. I said, you know what, this is crazy. I had put that out there to the universe. And on that same day, I literally called a cousin and I said, listen, I need you to recommend to me a great place to eat because I'm not working today and a great place to get a massage because my back is killing me.

0:19:38 - (Marissa Hawkins): So she ended up giving me great recommendations and we ended up calling of massage envy. And that call, they basically couldn't get me in. They said, if you're willing to, I can get you in at another location off the Scottsdale 101 if you're willing to drive. Said, fine, I'll do it. So my cousin tells me you're going to love it. I've heard it from my girlfriends. It's on the radio, it's on television, they're promoting it. It's only 20/995 for an intro massage. I'm like, okay, listen, I'm willing to pay a good price for a massage. I don't need to go to a school because I'm thinking, I like, you.

0:20:14 - (Tawni Nguyen): Get what you get, you pay for, right?

0:20:16 - (Marissa Hawkins): And I don't know why I thought that, right? It's like buying Payless shoe stores to Mikey. They're still functionable, right? So anyways, I end up going to the first massage eny and I end up loving that massage. It was the, the best massage I'd ever received. And my husband and I used to actually go to the schools, which is why in the schools they had the curtains. So that's why I didn't want a curtain room. I wanted my one to one time with a therapist who could really dig in and get in there. So I ended up going and I thought to myself, wow, this is so wonderful.

0:20:51 - (Marissa Hawkins): I want to book my husband with this massage therapist because we had some rental properties and we were coming back a week later. So I booked my husband with that massage therapist that I had and I actually booked myself with another. A week later we drive in and you know, you've got four and a half hour drive and you've got a lot of conversation time. So I make mention to him, just a slight mention, I said, listen, we're talking about what should we do? These kids are getting older, we gotta think about how our finances, we gotta think about our kids and being able to be there for them as they grow.

0:21:27 - (Marissa Hawkins): So I said this because this business that we're going to get, massages, it seems like a viable business to actually run and operate. But you know what, you go in and you tell me what you think know, just this is an opportunity just to, you know, figure out. Explore. Yeah, explore, right? So he goes in, top of the hour, I'm going in for my massage. And then afterwards he comes out and I come out first and I said, oh my gosh.

0:21:55 - (Marissa Hawkins): What I thought was not going toa be a great massage because I gave my person up to my husband. Because that's what we women do is we always take care of our family and put them first. But to be honest with you, the second massage was even better than the first. So now I am really sold, right? So my husband comes out, top of the hour, people are checking out, people are checking in, phones are ringing, it's a busy lobby, they're trying to sell memberships at the front too. And all of this is going on very chaotic, right?

0:22:27 - (Marissa Hawkins): So I say to the Person up at the front, I'm like, are you guys opening in Vegas? Because if you are, I'll sign up today. And my husband actually, we always have a debate on this. Actually asked. He had a light bulb moment. He's like, so are they opening in Vegas? And the lady who happened to be there on that day happened to be the owner. And so she says, as a matter of fact, they are definitely going to be opening in Vegas. They're going toa be breaking ground any time now.

0:22:54 - (Marissa Hawkins): So if you're interested in possibly opening one, if I were you, I'd grab that pamphlet right there on that table right behind you and basically reach out to the regional developer. And at that time, Steve Cook was the regional developer, and we took the pamphlet and we ended up calling him a week later. We ended up meeting him and we break bread together. I think we met at Bahama Breeze and we ended up talking about, you know, the business.

0:23:24 - (Marissa Hawkins): And I think he opened it up. It was like a discovery period for us. And I don't know why, but he chose us to be his partner for the very first massage eny to open here in Vegas. And he knew nothing about us, and we knew nothing about him nor the business. And obviously they've given us an opportunity to now, you know, if this is something you're interested in, you know, we will be looking for candidates.

0:23:50 - (Marissa Hawkins): And so I'm sure there were many more candidates that had come his way, but for some reason, he chose us to open the first Massage Envy with him. So. And I thought if I was to open a business that I knew nothing about, how beneficial would it be for me to open with someone who knows the ins and outs of the business? The irony of it all is that Monica Fullerton is interested in obviously opening a franchise.

0:24:15 - (Marissa Hawkins): So, you know, now she's contacting me on what are the steps and things like that. So I can attest that I can walk now through these steps with her and tell her what my experience has been, because I've actually been able to do it. But I never knew in a million years that I would actually have the courage to be able to leave a kush job behind because it was the study paycheck, the stead, the golden insurance.

0:24:42 - (Marissa Hawkins): My husband was doing real estate. And you know how real estate works. It's whenever it feels like closing and everything is lining up and everything is checking off from the le volatility Y yes. And so you've seen the market during the 2008 crash and living through a pandemic and everything else that comes with living life. Right. So quite frankly it was a big risk. And at that time we had an eight year old, a three year old and a one and a half year old child.

0:25:09 - (Marissa Hawkins): And we signed contract in 2004. We opened in April 2005. I was 29 when we opened and then I ended up turning 30 that same year. And now here I am 20 years later talking to you guys and I remember people telling me you'll be very lucky if your business lasts and is still open within three to five year mark because that's how businesses you decide if it makes it or it doesn't, if it passed the five year mark.

0:25:37 - (Marissa Hawkins): And when I actually went to a recruitment day at one of the massage schools, one of the massage teachers said you'll be very lucky if you can get a massage therapist to last longer than two to three years because this profession is very taxing on the body. So here we are celebrating 20 years later and 10% of our business. We got over 200 team members that we employ have been with us for over 10 plus years.

0:26:01 - (Marissa Hawkins): One has been with us 18 years, 17 years, 15 years and I've got two who are over the ages of 70, 76 years old and I think 74, 75. And it's remarkable because my goodness, they look better than us and they're in.

0:26:16 - (Dave Burlin): The best shit ever.

0:26:17 - (Marissa Hawkins): I mean honestlyeah, that's awesome. I think it's a wonderful thing to be able to just now know that we have been able to make an imprint and a footmark here in Vegas. And now when I had one massage envy it was about running the business and learning the business from the ground up, learning every aspect of it. It was a school of hard knocks and I don't have a business degree so I'm going to put it out there.

0:26:46 - (Marissa Hawkins): I actually have a science degr from University of Washington and none of my family members could walk me through what it was like to actually run and operate a franchise or business. So I'm pretty much going off of the guidelines of the checklist that they provide for you.

0:27:04 - (Tawni Nguyen): Steve Ye're like, hopefully Steve leads me in the right direction.

0:27:08 - (Marissa Hawkins): And you know I will tell you something, this is actually in my book. I dedicate chapter five to Steve because he's passed away, he's no longer with us. But this is the reason why we grew from 2 to 6, now 7, now 10 is because someone like Steve believed in someone like Mario and I to be able to do good work and not just run in Operations, but really 'servant based leaders really help our people to grow and provide jobs, but also help out our community.

0:27:41 - (Marissa Hawkins): So what I realized that Steve, when he passed away and I had gone to his funeral, is that Steve, although he wasn't always there to help us out. I remember going to his wife at the end of the funeral. I said, you know, I had been seeing fives on the buildings and fives on license plates and I saw nickels on the floor at the gas station. I'm like, I don't know what this means. So we go to his funeral and here's this big poster with his picture on it.

0:28:07 - (Marissa Hawkins): And his birthday is five'five 1955. So I'm like, oh my goodness. Okay, he's present. That's probably what that means, right? Because you know, angel numbers, right? So then after the funeral, I go to his wife and send my condol, say my condolences. And I had the courage to tell her. I was like, you know, for the longest time I was really upset with Steve because every time I called him, he never picked up on the line.

0:28:33 - (Marissa Hawkins): And I always had questions in the very beginning, like, do we pay people time and a half on July 4th? Several questions that were left unmet. And I remember what she said to me that day. She says, marissa, do you want to know what Steve knew and what I knew that maybe you didn't know? And I was like, what's that's like is that whatever you thought you needed was already in you all along. And I thought, oh my God, I'm already crying. But now I'm really crying because Steve was like a big mentor to me, right?

0:29:08 - (Marissa Hawkins): He may not have answered all my calls, but when he came in, he dropped lots of golden nuggets. Lots of nuggets and lots of wisdom. And I never knew a lot about the Mormon culture. I learned a lot through himus. You know, I'm a Roman Catholic. And I just remember she says, and do you wa wantna know one more peculiar thing about Steve? I was like, what's that? He was born at 5:55 in the morning. Cause I told her about, you know, all the fivebes that I'd been seeing.

0:29:36 - (Marissa Hawkins): So I couldn't wait to get out of there to go Google. What does the significance of the number five mean? So I basically pull it up on my phone and what that means is angel numbers representing change. And so when you see the numbers fives, that signifies changed. So little did I know that when I have met a guy named Steve Cook, that my life Would change. Because at that moment in time, there was a time where I called Steve and I told him, I said, I need to meet with you.

0:30:07 - (Marissa Hawkins): I need to talk to you in private. So I ended up meeting with him at Green Valley ranch casino. And I said, I have a change of heart. I know I signed contract. This is back in 2004 when we signed the contract. But. But I've told my friends about leaving big pharma and pharmaceuticals, and they're like, what? You're leaving pharmaceuticals to do what? To open the business you know nothing about. I tell my parents, and they're like, do you know what you're doing?

0:30:35 - (Marissa Hawkins): What do you know about running a business? I was thinking that the people that I told who would support you would. The people that were closest to me, like my. My girlfriends, my parents. But obviously they love me enough to obviously have that fear for me. I've got three children that I need to think about. Do I know what I'm doing? Absolutely. No, I don't know what I'm doing. But I was hoping I was gonna get support. So I tell everybody I was breaking out in night sweats, hives.

0:31:03 - (Marissa Hawkins): I'm like, okay, this is not normal. I'm obviously very scared. But isn't that what they say and how that saying goes? Is that the thing that you are fearful of is the thing that you must do and you need to conquer that fear? So here I am telling him this story, and he tells me this. He looks me in the eye and he says, darling, fear is nothing but false evidence appearing real. And if you take this leap of faith, I cannot promise you that the numbers in Arizona will translate to the numbers here in Vegas. But what I can promise you is that your life will change.

0:31:40 - (Marissa Hawkins): And here I am 20 years later, my life has changed, and I have not looked back. I've created lots of opportunities for many people. I've had many great experiences. I've been able to use this business as a platform to give back to our communities. And not to mention the thousands of jobs that I have, lots of people who are coming straight out of school. This was a platform for them to start off and branch off later on or stay with us.

0:32:08 - (Marissa Hawkins): And I'm always welcoming that ca becausee we always want people to grow. But it's been remarkable ride right now, and I am still growing. And now the fact that I want to actually write a book about my journey, which chapter five is about. My book is about'a memoir also with lessons in it. So it's like a Self help motivational book, along with the parts of me and how I. And I think everybody should go back to. Like I said, Roots to Resilience is about thinking about your upbringing and also how your parents grew up, because it's important to identify who you are and be authentically who you are and learn who you are through these processes.

0:32:48 - (Marissa Hawkins): But what I also uncovered with this book that I'm writing for me, the Mindful Entrepreneur, is that when I'm speaking at the schools, you. I really want to leave something behind for people to understand that, yeah, the road's not going to be easy. No one said it's going to be. But if you. You forge forward and bet on yourself, remarkable things can happen, and they will happen. It's about taking action and caring about people.

0:33:12 - (Marissa Hawkins): And that's where I learned that I never will get far alone. I've had many remarkable people who I've met along the way that have helped me up that mountain. And so my point is to be able to give it back, you know, pay it forward and be able to continue to bless people.

0:33:29 - (Tawni Nguyen): Roald, while Dave is crying over there. Hey, you can't take it easy or hear him crying. There's just so much of your story, so I want to acknowledge you for that. I also saw pieces of myself in, which is.

0:33:42 - (Marissa Hawkins): Thank you for telling me that. Because when I share my story with other people, the same story, they say, I want to hear about it more. I want to hear. And I was like, you got a story of yourself. So if parts. And I never wanted to open an IG business page. And I remember my son's girlfriend at the time said, I think you should. And I remember what was my first caption. It was about me putting myself out there, because I was told that you just never know who you can help by sharing your story. So if I can ignite the flame of another, then so be it, because we're all interconnected.

0:34:19 - (Marissa Hawkins): We're part of the threads of life. And if I can help. And that was what propelled me to do it, because I do like my privacy. My privacy. And I. I just remember thinking about the part that I loved most was the creativity of it all, was putting parts of my life that I was happy about that I wanted to share. You know, I know we all go through the rough patches of life, but it's all about focusing on the good. So the good will be better. Right?

0:34:47 - (Marissa Hawkins): And so I wanted to be able to do that. So if you choose to follow me, then I will always put positive things on there for you to like pick up. That's my choice.

0:34:55 - (Tawni Nguyen): That's kind of the part of our journey. It's like if I didn't put my story that I was kind of ashamed of, Dave and I would have never met. So that's a different story in parts of my book that I'm writing that I'm having another team hold me accountable. And that's why when you said you werening, I was like, I was like, wait a minute.

0:35:10 - (Marissa Hawkins): It's journey of itself, isn't it?

0:35:12 - (Tawni Nguyen): It's crazy because now that I have to ask my mom about our stories and the whole immigrant stories, and I'm sitting there, I'm like, damn, Jesus.

0:35:18 - (Marissa Hawkins): Yeah.

0:35:19 - (Tawni Nguyen): Like I thought I had trauma and until I listened to my parents stories, which I'm like, I was born into a divorce and so I can't talk to like my biological father, but like just hearing just her side of what she went through ca becausee I'm an only child that I'm like, damn. Like, this is why I'm this way.

0:35:37 - (Marissa Hawkins): Right.

0:35:37 - (Tawni Nguyen): So you know, with you and talking about how the lack of support from people that were supposed to be closest to you to just moveving here. And ironically, in 2020, during the pandemic, I was gonna go to UW for grad school and I decided to. To move here instead. Instead of pursuing Seattle, which is something that I wanted to live and kind of like escape the Orange county bubble. And I had to whole back and.

0:35:59 - (Marissa Hawkins): In toa go to the Orange County. Yeah, right.

0:36:02 - (Tawni Nguyen): Like we would've just crossed path on the same plane.

0:36:04 - (Marissa Hawkins): Oh my gosh, I love California.

0:36:07 - (Tawni Nguyen): I wanted to be a husky. I wanted to like live in Seattle. And I had all of these expectations of what I thought my life was gonna be at 30. And then, you know, that all took a shit during the pandemic. And I was like, I need to rethink what I think what life can look like and feel.

0:36:24 - (Marissa Hawkins): You get to choose that.

0:36:25 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yeah.

0:36:25 - (Marissa Hawkins): That's the beauty of it all. There's no right path for anyone. We gotta go down the road and the path that we choose. And that is the message that I send to the students at UNLV or the high school students, because you can see in their eyes the fear factor of like, what am I gonna do? And when you ask them, what do you wanna be? And it's okay if you don't know that yet. Cause I didn't know that yet.

0:36:50 - (Marissa Hawkins): And sometimes we have to do what we don't want to do to get to that path that will lead us here.

0:36:55 - (Tawni Nguyen): Yah.

0:36:56 - (Dave Burlin): You know, well, thank you for sharing that. I don't know, I think in all of the other settings I've heard pieces and fragments, but this has been the fullest version of your whole story that I've really got to have a front row seat to and just be really in it. And you could have told that same story three years ago and it probably would have hit differently. But something that got very loud for me in your explanation, telling the story this time is you mentioned when you went to friends and family and a lot of times, and this could be advice to people out there that you feel compelled to do something. A lot of times our friends and family will one of two things. They'll protect us because they don't want us to go through the challenges that are really up for that. And it is understood. But sometimes it's still like, yeah, but you gotta just let me.

0:37:48 - (Dave Burlin): And then the other part of that is sometimes, and this isn't all the time. And it may not be in your story, but I've seen this play out for myself and other people too. It's that a lot of times they will try to hold you back because it's a reminder of where they didn't take action.

0:38:03 - (Marissa Hawkins): That is absolutely right.

0:38:04 - (Dave Burlin): And I think that issoutely right for anyone that's out there that's listening. What piece of advice would you give for people that are kind of paralyzed in that, in that part of the process?

0:38:18 - (Marissa Hawkins): You know, we all get analysis paralysis. And I, you know, I've been a gut feeler, you know, and sometimes when it like feels like it's all wrong, but you, you gotta go with the opposite. Just like how I bet against the Eagles this past Sunday. I literally bet against Mahones two times. So the one time I bet on him, you know, I'm wrong again. I'm like, oh my gosh, can't win for trying, right? But probably a bad analogy, but you're likely projecting my.

0:38:52 - (Marissa Hawkins): I like, seriously, I want it to be so good, you know. But nonetheless, I will say that you have to just dive in. You got toa bet on yourself. You know yourself better than anybody, right? If you know yourself better than anybody, you know what you're all about. You know what the capacity that you can endure. And I always say, I wrote this for Entrepreneurship Week when I was asked to write about it.

0:39:20 - (Marissa Hawkins): And I always say that because I come from a military background myself. My father was in the military and so was my husband. They Both served in the army branch. And I always say that you have a purple Heart when you go into entrepreneurship because you go in the line of fire. You don't know what to expect. Listen, we suffered two recessions. We also had. No one ever could predict that we were going to suffer a pandemic.

0:39:48 - (Marissa Hawkins): You know, we all, no matter what, have suffered and it's not for the faint hearted. So you have to know your capacity to endure pain and that factor of how far are you going to take it? Are you going to give up and close your doors because obviously the pandemic happened or are you going to keep providing paychecks for your people? Are you going to be the strong leader that needs to represent your business at a time where people are feeling very vulnerable because of the unpredictability?

0:40:19 - (Marissa Hawkins): No, we're going to be the type of business that goes out and calls even though our business was deemed non essential. We're going to leave the doors open and basically call our neighbors. We're going to call our community and ask them, what do you need? Are you okay? Do you need anything? And when we called our members, we were met with people saying, my mother just passed away. There were so many people who lost their loved ones, other people who lost their jobs, other people who said, thankfully I have a job, both my husband and I, but I don't know what's going on out there, but I'm hearing a lot of tragedy.

0:40:54 - (Marissa Hawkins): So we're all in that and all of us were affected in some shape or form. But there are things that we can do to make it better for other people. Right? So when we chose to open our doors, it was when I received a call on the other line because I was there with my team making those hard calls. And I remember being met by a nurse on the other line saying, thank you. I said, for what? She said, thank you for reaching out.

0:41:19 - (Marissa Hawkins): Thank you. Because what we're doing right now is contacting the elderly patients and making sure that they have food so they don't have to leave their home, pet food, medication, all the things that they needed. And she is. What you're doing is the reason why Vegas is strong. It is because of people like you that care enough to reach out and touch someone. And this is the reason why the healthcare heroes was born.

0:41:42 - (Marissa Hawkins): And so when we got back into action and were able to open our doors, we then asked our members if they wanted to donate any of their unused prepaids to our community, to our HealthC Care Heroes. In that one month's time, we basically collected 1,200 services donated,200 service that amounted $140,000 that was given from 12 of our locations at that time. And we partnered with the Filipino Nurses association to divvy up these gift cards to give to our healthcare heroes.

0:42:09 - (Marissa Hawkins): And I think the most wonderful story that came from that was one of my team members who basically received one of those gift cards that came in. It was a nurse who came in, and he was receiving a massage. And halfway through it, he started to break down and cry. And our massage therapist said, are you okay? Am I hurting you? Is the pressure okay? He says, I'm so sorry. This has just been the first time I've been able to take a break from working because I've been picking up double shifts, and I've noticed and witnessed a lot of team members that have passed away, lots of people who've lost loved ones. So it is an unseemly thing that no one ever wants to go through, but this person has actually felt it.

0:42:52 - (Marissa Hawkins): So I know my massage therapist was connected. I know I was connected through that story. I know that therapist was connected through the community coming together and getting that free hour of time that was from the community. I just sparked that to have that. And that was just another aha moment that let me know that I'm in the right place and at the right time, and that we as people can do things to make a difference.

0:43:22 - (Marissa Hawkins): Little things do matter, and they affect people in different ways. And so when I saw that, I realized that sometimes partnering with the nonprofits are great, but when you can touch in this level and with the book drive, with this, you just feel it in a different way. It just hits differently. And so I'm not about just writing checks. I'm about connecting with the people and having art. Our own people who help serve us and ride this journey with us, connect to our community as well, because this is how we serve together.

0:43:54 - (Marissa Hawkins): It's taking care of each other. So it's been a beautiful thing to be able to witness. And I've actually talked about that in another chapter of my book. It's about the four causes. And then when you do those four causes, then you find the compassion through it all. Because I'm at this point now in my life where I'm reaching five decades, right? You kind of get a little bit of wisdom when you get to that point. And there are some things you will tolerate and some things you just won't tolerate. And now I get what people are talking about when you get to a certain point of life and what I realize most is just that mindfulness of being meaningful in everything you do and like having intention.

0:44:32 - (Marissa Hawkins): And so you can do remarkable things. And you think that you have to have millions and billions of dollars to be able to do something that. That's not truth. The truth is you can do a lot of things with all the resources that you have. And those little things do impact in big ways.

0:44:49 - (Dave Burlin): I love that. Not crying? You're crying. I was gonna see that. No, you went right into what I was gonna ask about. Because one of my favorite things about you is how you give back and what you're really passionate about. And that's one of the things that a lot of people may not see in the community of Las Vegas is because again, perception is 9/10 of the law. When you made the joke about living in hotels and all that stuff, it's like, we don't. I mean, I live in the cosmopolitan, but that's different. Not really.

0:45:21 - (Marissa Hawkins): Oh, you're.

0:45:21 - (Dave Burlin): I really don't. No, I really don't'the door. No, but no'the giving aspect is something that I've been connected to since I got here. When we launched, I moved here in November of 2018 and we launched the bunker labs in May of 2019. So it was just right there. And I've been dedicated to the veteran community for entrepreneurship ever since. But in that there's so much fullanthropy that goes on when it comes to giving or volunteering.

0:45:52 - (Dave Burlin): What do you think holds people back in this community from participating in things like that?

0:45:59 - (Marissa Hawkins): I really don't know because like I said, we all make choices. And when I put things out on social media, it's because I want other community leaders to follow suit. And it's not to show off and say, this is what I do and brag. No, it's because a lot of. And I'll use an example of ccsd, the school system. Every year we try to get involved to do school because I have three children myself and I just love kids.

0:46:27 - (Marissa Hawkins): But I've been told by teachers like, you know what? We want more community leaders to come out to, to speak to these students. Firemen, policemen, lawyers, doctors, people, entrepreneurs. Because we want to show kids what type of work is out there and we want to expose them and we want to show them that there's another. And we want to show them that the community cares. We want to show them what people look like.

0:46:59 - (Marissa Hawkins): You see me, I'm a brown skinned woman, you know, I'm a minority. I was young when I opened the business. I'm a female. You know, it's great to have representation out there and it's great to connect to the kids. And it's not asking much. It's asking for an hour of your time. If you want to do too, you can. So when we are celebrating our 20 year anniversary, I'm now partnering with the Greater Youth association because when I tried to go to a company that's a nonofit I won't mention name 501c3 they didn't want to co brand with our brand. And so, you know, I always take it as if that's a no, then it means a yes somewhere else and I just need to pivot.

0:47:39 - (Marissa Hawkins): So actually it ended up being better because there are small nonprofits out there that need light to be shit upon them and they need people like us to show that. And we also need to collaborate with like minded businesses to bring them together to the forefront and the helm of it all. And letting them know when you initiate something like this, you show them and guide them toward the right path to continue to do this. So it's no longer just a one time thing. It's a progressive movement that allows us to show people how they can get outside of their bubble inside to another community to help take the reins and say, oh, you did this this way. I know a way we can do it better and using their resources now.

0:48:20 - (Marissa Hawkins): And so when we do something, it's not just us and our business, it's in collaboration with, that's part of the four C'YOU know, collaboration, you know. You know, everybody has a cause that is near and dear to them for whatever reason that may be. Well show up for that cause, you know, and all of us have people within our resources that we can collaborate with that is in alignment with what our business stands for or who we stand for, get them involved.

0:48:47 - (Marissa Hawkins): And we all want to be able to capture the hearts of our community. How do we do it? Creatively and collectively. And then we all need to celebrate our wins. It's a win when we can all come together, right? And when we do all those four things, guess what happens? The compassion in our hearts begins to expand. And that's what we want, is to find people to follow suit in that capacity. It's to find compassion that's been in us all along.

0:49:17 - (Marissa Hawkins): But sometimes, you know, it doesn't happen overnight. It didn't happen when I first opened the business. Like I've always had it in me because that's my upbringing. We always sent boxes to the Philippines and things like that of our old clothes and shoes. We just never anything went to waste because someone can use that. But it's always been embedded, mean it's in my blood because of my immigrant parents and my immigrant grandmother and everything else. But you know, I just know that my voice can be amplified through other people's voices. And the more people I can get on board with this, the more we can get our communities to grow stronger and together to feel like it belongs.

0:49:53 - (Dave Burlin): You know, sign me up. Sign us up. Y Sign us up. Actually, there's a handful of people that I would love to introduce you to because, well, we mentioned before the show, we talked about Sophia, who you had met at the UNLV event. She's actually been speaking to high schools recently. She's producer from season one. She's in the film industry.

0:50:13 - (Marissa Hawkins): That's wonderful because when I ask the high school students what they wanna be, it's a 5050 creative content creator that is like that never used to be a thing for us when it didnind our time exist in our time. So it's remarkable to hear what's coming out. Nurse is another thing. Like people want to be nurses. Which I think is a great thing because when the pandemic hit that was the year of the nurses. And how fitting because it was actually a time where they were needed the most and they weren't being celebrated the way they should be celebrated.

0:50:45 - (Marissa Hawkins): They were in high demand and they were putting their lives out to protect others and put they re risking their own lives as well as their families lives to protect strangers and to protect the community. And that was the reason why we did the healthcare heroes give and we didn't stop at that. We did the nominate your favorite healthcare hero in February 2021. When I saw that stint, I guess it was Good morning America the aftermath of the pandemic where healthare heroes were creating ago we were committing suicide and so it was crazy. So I knew our business could no longer give anymore because we had given so much in that November 2020.

0:51:24 - (Marissa Hawkins): So we ended up partnering with like minded businesses and Las Vegas Hilton got involved. They gave three days two nights stay at Las Vegas Hilton. Reflection based season 12 health kitchen winners Scott Cummings gave $100 gift card to Reflection be to come have brunch with him. Mama Bird Southern Kitchen gave $100 gift card and small, small business restaurants got affected during pandemic. O ye and then we also Orange theory got involved and so that Package alone, it was like almost 1,100ars, $1,400 of businesses getting involved to give 14 hospitals. So 14 people from each hospital got a package that consisted of that.

0:52:05 - (Marissa Hawkins): And. And we all celebrated at Reflection Bay. And I don't know if you've ever been to Reflection Bay, that golf course.

0:52:11 - (Dave Burlin): Oh, yeah, I have.

0:52:12 - (Marissa Hawkins): Right. Well, it's surreal that you have this vision of a lake behind you in the middle of a desert and on a sunny day, here we are celebrating just a tough year that we all had to go through coming together, celebrating the nurses with their loved ones, dignitaries giving certificates of recognition to the people who have actually put their lives at risk and then business owners coming together. So that was no easy task to do. But I pulled that one off and I am very happy about that one. It came together just by an idea because I saw a woman on TV who said she lost her sister of eight years who was a doctor of eight years who showed no signs of obviously fatigue or mental health issues. And mental health goes hand in hand with health and wellness for us. So you. It's a touchy subject, but it's something that is happening despite our world getting better, we still are suffering as human beings.

0:53:10 - (Dave Burlin): Well, I've always said that if the head goes, the body goes with it or vice versa. If the body goes, the head can start to spiral and then nothing good happens from that. Gosh, thank you so much for coming's.

0:53:24 - (Tawni Nguyen): Such a like hit me in my soul as I'm sitting here.

0:53:28 - (Marissa Hawkins): Yeah, we all have a purpose focus in your pursue Vegas is to pursue what's going on in our communities that will make a difference. Right. And I think for me, my voice is more amplified when I can get more community leaders to join in on what we can do in our communities to make it greater and show our kids, you know, what we all stand for.

0:53:49 - (Dave Burlin): So for that and that's perfect segue. How can people find you? How can people take action? Where do people start?

0:53:56 - (Marissa Hawkins): Well, you know, I have an upcoming event that's scheduled for April, our 20 year anniversary. I wanted to do another philanthropic thing and we're going to try to get our 20 year veterans, 10 plus year veterans, there's 20 of them to basically get involved. So I have partnered with the greater youth association and I'm going to try and see if I can get 20 businesses to partner with me. What we're going to do is we're going to purchase sports toys like soccer ball football and soccer ball football. And what was the other thing at basketball.

0:54:31 - (Marissa Hawkins): And we are going to give these to the third through fifth grade students at Howard Reed. Not Howard Reed, sorry, Doris Reed School. My apologies, Doris Reed. And what we're going to do on that day is we're going to establish three things. We are going to touch on the physical health aspect with the football or soccer ball. And then we also the mental health realm of it. We're gonna try and give books so that we're gonna put in the bag a sports equipment of some sort, a book for mental health because we want to help fight literacy.

0:55:04 - (Marissa Hawkins): And then we also are gonna provide water bottles because I hear water bottles are hard to. They don't even have that. We're going to be into a title I school. So they don't have the basics to put water in. Like, oh my goodness, this is crazy. And then the social aspect, so we got physical, we got mental. And then the social aspect is that we're gonna do a relay race. So we're gonna need volunteers to help set this up. And devonte said that they've already done something like this.

0:55:28 - (Marissa Hawkins): And the feeling after it's all said and done, the kids leave feeling like wonderful. The volunteers leave feeling wonderful. Then you get the volunteers to say, how can I get involved with this organization? Because now they now know about this organization. But the social aspect is partnering these kids with other kids that they would never partner with to do a relay race. So it's that social aspect that we want toa get them because social media is definitely good, but also bad. And we all know that it just doesn't allow them to connect in the way that we grew up.

0:56:00 - (Marissa Hawkins): And so we're trying to change that dynamic and really get them to know what it's about to work together, to win together, to lose together. It's not about always winning, but teaching our kids that type of behavioral skill earlier on to let them know that we're all in this together again. Brings back unity, which is unification is what we need for our communities and for our kids to understand how we all cooperate and work.

0:56:26 - (Dave Burlin): I love that. Any idea what the book is gonna be?

0:56:30 - (Marissa Hawkins): The books?

0:56:30 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah, the book. Yeah. Do you know which one or what books is it just gonna be?

0:56:34 - (Marissa Hawkins): Rand O It'probably be random books, but I'm already talking to ccsd. They have this thing called the book Bus and there's also spread the Word. So I'm really trying to make that all happen. But we would love to have this come together. And when we did the other project, it was about having a Macro level. Because small businesses can't afford to always give high don. They don't have high marketing dollars to spend.

0:57:01 - (Marissa Hawkins): And so when we do little events like I like to get small businesses involved because they can do $500, they can do $1,000. You don't have to give $10,000 checks to get involved. It's about 20 business owners giving what they can, either their time, their resources or what little they can give and say, I need help with water bottles, I need help with soccer balls, I need help with basketballs, footballs.

0:57:24 - (Marissa Hawkins): If you can donate with this, this would really help us out. And that's how we get together and that's how I would say this is gonna be a great project because again, the kids are gonna be affected in so many different ways.

0:57:36 - (Dave Burlin): I love it.

0:57:37 - (Tawni Nguyen): That is so close to our heart.

0:57:38 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah, well. And I've got sign us up. I've got some long shot introductions, but I've got some short ones to introduce you to as well.

0:57:44 - (Marissa Hawkins): Love it.

0:57:45 - (Dave Burlin): People that are in the same realm of doing the same thing and some organizations to connect you with as well that might be able to open up.

0:57:51 - (Marissa Hawkins): Some circlesh man, that would be wonderful.

0:57:53 - (Dave Burlin): For all the links and everything will be in the show notes. But easiest place to start with you is it Instagram or where I'm on.

0:58:00 - (Marissa Hawkins): Instagram @Marissa Hawkins 10 I'm on LinkedIn. Marissa P. Hawkins. I also have a website, marissahwins10.com oh my gosh. I'm working on this. So obviously show notes, it's all in the show notes help with all of this. I have a great crew behind the scenes that's getting me organized. But it is a lot of work. And who knew that social media was gonna be another leg that we as business owners and anyone doing any type of business has to actually obviously hone in on.

0:58:31 - (Marissa Hawkins): So m I'm still mastering that part. I will be honest. It's not.

0:58:35 - (Dave Burlin): You're doing great.

0:58:37 - (Marissa Hawkins): Doing great. I am definitely trying. But yes, if you want to reach out to me, lots of schools reach out to me whenever I can. I've also got those boundaries set because I have been pulled every which way and running 10 businesses, having still children who still live at home and of course a granddaughter is 'trying to find that. And I have a husband too.

0:58:57 - (Tawni Nguyen): So you're like, oh wait, I have him tooah.

0:58:59 - (Marissa Hawkins): I have him too. But he's been definitely a great source for me so I really couldn't do this alone. But it is nice to know that you have help in every aspect of life.

0:59:09 - (Dave Burlin): Well, let me know next time you're speaking. I'd love to come check it out again. It's come up for me a little bit more lately. I used to speak a lot and I mainly always spoke in the veteran space. But there's a part that most people don't know. When I got out of the Marine Corps I was a drill instructor for at risk youth for seven years. So 16 to 18 year old high school dropouts and I was very much in that world for years before I.

0:59:34 - (Marissa Hawkins): Became a wedding'great at poor la casa. I've spoken for the Chicanos. Chicanos pour la casa. Youth that don't get placed like there's like foster. There's people who just. The kids that don't get homes to. They have to figure out how to be adults in society. Placing them in right jobs, settings and things like that. It's just there's so many and I wish I could do them all but it's just hard and I ve dabbled in a lot of them just to see where I could be used strategically to help.

1:00:09 - (Marissa Hawkins): But it's very helpful to know that there are other people like yourselves that there's quite a bit of people who want to get involved. They just don't know how. And that's where I fit in. It's like listen, tell me what kind of cause you're drawn to and I will put you with the right resources.

1:00:25 - (Dave Burlin): I love that.

1:00:26 - (Marissa Hawkins): And so that is just easy thing for me because I realize that that's my gift.

1:00:32 - (Dave Burlin): There it is. Don't reach out to me, reach out to Marissa. I'm just kidding. No, that's the whole purpose of the show is we wanna be able to create that place in that space where people can get connected to the things just. Just one short story. And one of the intros in TOA make to you is fan of the show she was on season one, Tori Gordon. She does a lot of breath work, facilitation and stuff like that'that So I think that's something that she's actually talked about like how do I get this into schools and different organizations like that.

1:01:02 - (Marissa Hawkins): Meditation was part of that mental perfect. So we will try to bring someone.

1:01:06 - (Dave Burlin): In to show there might be that.

1:01:08 - (Marissa Hawkins): You have to do the breathing and the mental. So the volunteers will be at each station helping with relays, helping with meditation and hopefully facilitating, you know, with the gifts that we're go going toa be giving them. It's supposed to be a Jam packed day one to three. And my goal is to try to get a dignitary to be present at this thing. I know legislation is coming.

1:01:28 - (Dave Burlin): I ran into that too.

1:01:29 - (Marissa Hawkins): Yeah, right. And so hence why we'll get somebody. Yeahah. We'll get somebody'one who cares just as much as we do to come out and really show, you know, what community leaders and dignitaries come together to do. Is this time typ of work care about you kids.

1:01:43 - (Dave Burlin): Well, it's funny because. And again, one thing is connecting people that have been on the show. It's like we're kind of this little network, but also people that weren't. There's somebody who connected with me on Bumble Business and the first thing she said was, hey Dave, I want to check out your podcast. I sent her Tori Gordon's episode and it was all about moving here. And instantly she felt like she found the right network of people to get connected to you. So that's the whole purpose of the show. And that's also.

1:02:12 - (Marissa Hawkins): That's us walking into.

1:02:14 - (Dave Burlin): Yeah, that's the reason why as soon as I saw you, I was like, oh my gosh, needs to be on the show.

1:02:20 - (Tawni Nguyen): And that's when I told you. I was like, I sl to her years. He was like, I was there first four years ago. I'm like, okay, whatever.

1:02:25 - (Marissa Hawkins): Keep doing this.

1:02:27 - (Tawni Nguyen): Putting it out there.

1:02:28 - (Marissa Hawkins): Yeah, putting it out there. The more you're gonna get better at this, you're gonna know more resources, you're asking the right questions. Because we as people are eclectic and we do more than just our jobs. And so you start delving into. Oh, you do that. Oh my goodness. I didn't know that. I thought you only did this. Well, no, we definitely have to have her back part too.

1:02:51 - (Tawni Nguyen): Cause I wanna lead into another thing that.

1:02:53 - (Dave Burlin): Are you talking about she's taking over the show. You don't need me as a host.

1:02:56 - (Tawni Nguyen): I think as of this, Davis canceled. Welcome to the show. We start part two.

1:03:02 - (Marissa Hawkins): Honored. I'm so honored, honestly. Anyway, we can all be voices to help, you know another. That's a gift in and of itself.

1:03:09 - (Tawni Nguyen): So yah, no Wenna, be mindful of your time. But of course we're gonna lean into so much things like depth of where this story is gonna take us.

1:03:17 - (Marissa Hawkins): Well, my book will be released hopefully by then and yours as well. So there it is. I would definitely love to catch you on the side to do coffee so we can really just connect in a different way. Because I always tell the kids this is the way you get on in life is through connections. It's not through social media texting. Oh yeah, I communicated. I'm like, how did you communicate? Cause communicate means to them text and likeay we talked. I'm like, you didn't really talkills. If you didn't come and sit and actually have an adult conversation and really be present with another y that's I.

1:03:50 - (Tawni Nguyen): Think that's the next biggest challenge in this, like social media brain rotk culturesoutely the social skills, emotional intelligence. Like, we're huge on that aspect here.

1:03:59 - (Marissa Hawkins): On the but guess what, guys? We are it. We are now the mentors. So in my business now, I was just running it, but now I realize that if someone's coming into my business and they're our a general manager, we got toa give them everything we got so that they can teach the next person. They could be taking my place as a business owner and blessing another person. So quite frankly, if we as mentors and community leaders don't take that seriously, then we won't have that next generation be what we need it to be.

1:04:31 - (Dave Burlin): Well, I take that from the micro level, but also the macro level too. I believe that the way the pandemic affected Las Vegas specifically, it kind of got rid of the charlatans and the people that didn't necessarily. Granted, there are s some people that their business was completely dependent on this economy, but for some people, it was where the cause really comes to surface. If they didn't have that, then those people are gone.

1:04:59 - (Dave Burlin): In a way, we all had to and got to step up and step into the next generation of leading this city with purpose. So absolutely excited to be here alongside you.

1:05:12 - (Tawni Nguyen): Thank you again for coming on the show. My new co host, guys.

1:05:17 - (Marissa Hawkins): I loved it. It was so beautiful. Thank you guys.

1:05:20 - (Tawni Nguyen): Thank you so much for tuning in. If you please reach out to Marissa. Get behind a cause, get with us. Maybe not Dave, because he's canceling himself after this show, but please slide into our DMs at Pursue Vegas. We or hanging out maybe on LinkedIn or IG these days, don't be afraid to connect with us and leading into.

1:05:39 - (Dave Burlin): What calls out to, you know, let us know who we can connect you with in the community and also who should be on the show because it only takes one person. And if there's one thing that we've learned, it's the right conversation at the right time can change everything.

1:05:54 - (Marissa Hawkins): Thank you for bringing up the book thing. I didn't think we were gonna talk about it either, but I'SO excited to know she's working on a book, and I'm really nervous to bring out the book because it's, like, a lot of my heart and soul into it. This is crazy. So it's exciting but scary at the same time. I feel like I'm opening Massage Envy all over again.

1:06:13 - (Dave Burlin): There you go.

1:06:14 - (Tawni Nguyen): Good.

1:06:15 - (Marissa Hawkins): Yeah.

1:06:18 - (Dave Burlin): The idea of Pursue Vegas was to really highlight the local people that really make Vegas Vegas.

1:06:24 - (Tawni Nguyen): I love that aspect of how these visionaries are actually bringing people together.

1:06:29 - (Dave Burlin): When we hit record, our responsibility to connect the people of our city so we can show the world who we really are.