Marissa P. Hawkins

I would be remiss if I didn't bring up my family and ancestral background. As I'm writing my book, it's been a very healing and learning process, and I've learned that my grandmother ran a business in the Philippines - a fish hatchery where she grew fish, dried them, and sold them to the market. She also had chickens and sold eggs. She was a stepchild whose stepmom didn't allow her to go to college, but she vowed that when she married, she would make sure her children went to college, and she stayed true to that through her business savviness. It wasn't being taught, it was just common sense and that drive to be successful and do what it took to raise children. I admire that so much, and I always wonder where do I get it from? I think we all have the capacity to build, and everything we ever needed was always inside of us all along. We just had to get it out. Whatever idea you have is not great until it's executed, and until you take action, you can't make progress. I'm grateful for my culture, which taught me empathy and compassion long before it was a thing, and for staying authentically me, knowing where I came from with my immigrant parents. I also have to mention my high school sweetheart who I've been with for 36 years, and of course having kids with him changed my life. Then in business, I met my angel who believed in me and said I could do it, and I believed him. At a time when I was gonna back out, he said 'darling fear is nothing but false evidence appearing real. You can do this.' That made all the difference.

I heard through a podcast the other day from a lady named Gabby Reece who said that your life will find you. I think when we're at the college level or high school level or even middle school level, we are creating anxiety within ourselves because we don't know who we're going to become. It's a mystery, and that brings about anxiety where people don't want to leave college because they're not ready yet. They're fearful of what they need to do, or they don't feel they're ready. Everyone is looking for that dream job and that dream relationship. But I believe your life will find you, and it will find you because of who you are as a human being. I think that the failures that come through finding who you are, the ups and downs, the ebbs and the flows, the good and the bad - those are experiences that all of us need to go through. I don't think it's a losing battle. I think it's always going to be winning, because at the end of the day, you land in a spot where eventually you'll get it right. Eventually, it'll come to you, what it is that you were to become. And you'll have that story that you can share with thousands of people later on. I think everybody has a great story.

I think the biggest reward is the connections that you make in your field to create community. It's definitely worth its weight in gold, and to me, it's really helped me moving forward to create community. I think it has a lot to do with my culture, because my culture has taught me empathy and compassion long before it was a thing, and kindness. I think that just staying true to yourself and being connected to your people and your community really allows you to create a lasting business. I think that staying authentically me, knowing where I came from with my immigrant parents, and everything I've learned along the way from growing these businesses - staying true to yourself and being connected to your people and your community is what makes the difference. We draw deep joy in knowing that we've made, in our lifetime, wonderful connections that money can't buy. We all make choices, and have we made some bad choices? Yeah, but we learn from that. If you continue to stick and keep repeating that same mistake over and over, you don't get it or you don't want to get it. We're lucky because we have the choice, we have the freedom in this country where we hold the upper hand to make and choose our path.

It's a trillion dollar industry in health and beauty, and I think people are realizing that self-care is obviously something that we all must include in our daily practices. Over time with social media and everything else, it's done a remarkable job. The challenge is, I would say, there's always going to be competition, but I think it's being able to collaborate with one another that allows us to be on the same playing field, where we're not doing it to bash another company or things like that. I think working together and collaborating is key.

I found out when I took a class that the 3 values that I have are Family, Health, and Service. I quit my job for my family. I'm in the health and wellness industry because my husband and I used to get two-for-one massages at the school - we value health because we're pretty active, we're weekend warriors, and we like to stay active. And service - I grew up Catholic, and I grew up going to church every Sunday. We didn't miss a heartbeat unless there was snow or health reasons. My father was very adamant that his three daughters went to church. Our family lived in my aunt's basement when we first came from the Philippines, and she was really good at making sure that when her brothers arrived, they had jobs already lined up through her community. She also didn't drive, so she took the bus system, but she always made sure that she lived near church, or whatever house she had was within walking distance from a church. It was very intentional.