Dare to make it on brand - Marissa Garcia

0:09So, while you have no control of your personal branding and it's absolutely impossible to control the narrative in a really large-scale good way, but I'm more concerned with where I want to build opportunity, going back to that opportunity as it's found and built. And so I'm not going to waste my energy of worrying about spaces that I'm not even in. And there's going to be people that misunderstand me and that's okay too. I'm focusing on where I'm trying to go, what rooms I'm trying to enter. And I'm talking rooms as in like opportunities and how am I going to show up there.

0:56Welcome to Daring Forever, a podcast about being human, wired for wonder, capable of courage, perpetually becoming. It's about the waves that knock us under and the strange stubborn grace with which we surface. My name is Radim Malinic. I'm an author, creative and an eternally curious human being on a mission to speak to incredible people whom I call forever daring humans, those in pursuit of an extraordinary life. Every week I share an interview that is packed with amazing stories, value, and I can only ask you, how will you dare forever? This podcast is inspired by my upcoming book titled Daring Forever, which is now available for pre-order out in October.

1:41Today on Daring Forever, I'm joined by Marisa Garcia, brand strategist, designer, and self-proclaimed multi-hyphenate living and building a creative business in Fresno, California. Marisa's story starts with the Spice Girls Cast as a scary Spice as a kid She spent her life proving she was sporty Spice all along A runner, an athlete and eventually a scholarship winner Who carried the same unshakable belief into branding We talked about her three pillars of personal brand Clarity, consistency, connection What it means to be delusional on purpose And how she cold pitched her way onto the stage in Cannes Lion And funded the whole entire trip This is a conversation about building opportunity instead of waiting for it.

2:24Here's my conversation with Marisa Garcia. Hey Marisa, welcome to Daring Forever. How are you doing today? I'm doing good. Thank you so much for having me. Yeah, it's excellent stuff to have you here because I have just finished watching your TEDx talk, which is all about personal branding and personal brand. And it's a story close to my heart because there's always a story for personal branding and against personal branding. I think it's never going to be a subject matter that's always going to be closed and decided. And I think this is a space that you work in quite prominently. So I really want to sort of dig in onto what it's like to be a brand or should personal branding exist or should it not.

3:04We'll get to it. But for those who may have not heard of Marisa Garcia, who are you? What do you do? Where do we find you? Okay, yes. My name is Marissa Garcia. Marissa on brand as referred to on Instagram and on LinkedIn. And I am a brand designer and strategist currently going through my own personal revolution because we are slowly transitioning and growing the business side of things and expanding what it actually means to be a brand designer and strategist in 2026. I've been an entrepreneur for the past five years. And before then, I was in corporate, hired on for communications and branding specifically.

3:52Very in alignment with your podcast title, Daring Creative. Every position I've held has been something that was not really developed with an actual title, but they knew they wanted me on the team. so I've had to create my own job title if you will so I feel like I'm still doing that today but it all centers around branding I live breathe branding I love it it's in every industry and every day is different and I get to flex my creativity in more ways than I ever imagined today I am a mompreneur I have two kids and I serve some really amazing clients doing amazing work building amazing things yeah that's me in a nutshell but every day it's gonna be different that's just my creative brain yeah i pinpointing one specific thing i'm definitely a multi-hyphenate so today i could be doing one thing tomorrow i could be doing another thing but it all centers around creativity and branding there is something about multi-hyphenates where they usually say what they do with a smile on their face and you're no difference because there's something about a variety that was if you can do so many different things it might make sometimes the predictability of the future potentially be more complicated for some people who do the same thing over and over again you know they're sitting there ways they might have more predictable pipeline and runway but i think for doing what you do you've said everything that you do with a smile on your face and i think that's the best part of it because you mentioned you're going through personal revolution trying to grow the business how would you define personal revolution and why did you use those words.

5:33Yeah, I feel like, especially for creatives, there will be moments in your life where you're like, what am I doing? I know I'm meant for more. And I know I'm meant to have an even greater impact. And the current path that I'm going on has got me here, which has been amazing. And I love the work that I'm doing. But also, I want to keep challenging myself. I want to keep type evolving into something. I don't know what it's going to be, but something that continues to build. I started out just with brand design in my entrepreneurship career. Actually, before then, it was in corporate communications, marketing.

6:17That wasn't enough for me. Went into entrepreneurship. I started out in brand design. That wasn't enough for me. I wanted more. I wanted to support my clients more. So then I added in brand strategy and now I called myself a brand strategist and brand designer. And now I am hitting this point in my life and it's indicative of my personal life and my professional life coming together where I am feeling that itch to continue to keep growing. I hate being satisfied with just being where I'm at. I always want to keep growing. And so now, after serving my clients for the past three or four years, I have realized that my clients are needing even more support that they're needing other than just brand design and brand strategy.

7:13And when I work closely with my clients, I see that and I want to help them. I don't want to be just limited to them hiring me for just brand design and brand strategy. And so that is the personal evolution that I'm entering. And now I'm pursuing a creative co-working studio here in Fresno, California, where I can support clients, business owners, entrepreneurs, founders, and in an even bigger way. Maybe it's this fear of being average. I'm an overachiever I've always been that way and that kind of comes from my athletic background and so it is no different within my career and I love it it's been great I love the personal evolution so that's what I consider it you've said so many interesting things that I had to write down and I will start with the one that says fear of being average because you mentioned your athletics background.

8:14I know your athletics background because I watch your TEDx talk. But let's put more color on this story because it's an unusual one where it kind of led you to the world of brand and being brand casted in a way by being perceived as a particular type of person in a way. So let's go to the origin story, which is it starts with five girls from England. I grew up in Fresno, California. And just for a little bit of context, I was always the token black girl that grew up in a predominantly white community. And the story that I give that kind of kicks off how my understanding of personal branding was with the Spice Girls.

8:57And I think everyone that has grown up with the Spice Girls know exactly Scary Spice, what's her brand, Sporty Spice, what's her brand, Ginger Spice, Baby Spice. They all have these identities. And growing up, I was the token black girl. I was always casted as Gary Spice. And that didn't sit well with me because I always identified myself, not because of physical appearance, but because I always identified myself as sporty spice and wanted to be sporty spice because I was heavily involved in sports growing up. I did soccer, basketball, gymnastics, dance, club sports. I was a runner. I did it all.

9:40And I really prided myself in that. And so when I do pretend with my friends or we dress up for Halloween, Marissa, you got to be scary spice. And early on, I understood the notion that if we don't control our narrative, someone else will. And at the time, I didn't have the language to really speak up for myself and tell people, know this is who I want to be this is who I am and I kind of just went with it and led into my identity as sports and my personal branding was sports from childhood all the way through college and that's where the start of personal branding came from I was known as the girl who runs really fast and far eventually running was my sport and went to college for it so that became my personal identity for a good majority of my life but when you talked about your branding work you said i'm meant for more and when you just now talked about your childhood and your early years you mentioned how many different sports activities that you do so there was always meant for more you were always going for something that just beyond the regular and reflecting on your words if you don't look after your narrative someone else will make it for you meaning that we didn't have the words earlier on like how to be assertive about what other people say about us and we said we don't have the language for it i think we've only just getting language for some of the things i think we're enabling our children or the children of this generation have the language have the more of the awareness because the things that you're describing when it comes to let's say branding etc how many people even at the time of more sporty and ginger and scary or running around the wannabe video set there was very little language no one was seeing them as a personal brand it was more about how do you saw the person never carrying that meaning on themselves but we've invented i would say invented more language around all of these topics to actually make sense of this because i've had clients children sometimes call in they're like hey look we need more brand equity into what we do i'm like you are 17 like how do you know all of this because when I was 17, this didn't exist.

11:57Yeah, no, not at all. Yeah, I don't think I called it branding at the time, but I understood that you can create what people perceive of you and you can help shape that narrative or shape that perception. We don't own our personal brand. I truly believe that. I I believe the people outside of us own our personal brand, whereas we, though, have the opportunity to influence our personal brand. So when people were seeing me as only as a scary spice or what have you, I felt a personal responsibility to, okay, they're not understanding who I am and I'm not fully communicating who I am. And so I'm going to do my damnedest to make sure that I am influencing how they see me.

12:53And so that's when I got into sports and blessings to my mom and dad for believing in my athleticism and really fostering because I went out in any sport that I did. I was going to be great at it so that then people can start seeing me as, oh, she's the sport girl. She's sporty spies. That's how really I got into running. And that's why running got me a scholarship to go to school, because I was going to be great and prove people wrong. And looking back over my life, I think the biggest motivator for me is proving people wrong. That is the fire underneath me. People who don't believe in something I'm capable of doing, probably saying, okay, bet, watch me.

13:46And that goes for not just my sports background, but everything in life, entrepreneurship, the projects I work on. Just today, I actually just saw a quote of, I don't mind receiving gnomes. I don't mind receiving doors slammed, but they're going to watch me. Just watch me later then. And so it's the energy of, I'm going to show them what's up. I'm going to show them who I really am through my work and through my actions. So as a fellow young sort of sportsman, I'm really curious because it doesn't come to us till later when we really reflect on sports careers. What you've learned and what you actually bring into your later life when it comes to sports endurance or patience or determination.

14:39how would you say and again i don't want to dwell on the sports identity too much but obviously through sports we pick up on so many life skills that lead into a creative life would you have anything that you can pinpoint back that your title of the girl who runs really fast and and learned how to run really fast did you pick up anything that's become almost your life skill or traits? Yeah, I think it's unshakable belief in what is possible. It's something that I've picked up from sports. I think in sports, we fail more than we win. And that's a true statement. We fail more than we win. I lost more races than I won.

15:21I lost more games than I won. but still I found opportunity and it won me in the long run getting a scholarship to college getting my school paid but this unshakable belief in what's possible now at the front end same with branding in general we may feel like okay no one is seeing me I don't have any influence yet um at the beginning of building my personal brand or building my brand nothing's really no opportunities are really happening. But if I keep at it, if I keep consistent, if I keep working at it, if you have this unshakable belief in that it can happen and that being greater influence and opportunities and greater reach, if I continue to go at it, it will happen for me.

16:13And so I don't give up easily in my career. And I think that is a testament to being in sports and growing up in sports.

16:24Marissa Garcia:We'll be back after a quick break. This episode is brought to you by Lux Coffee Co., the first creative speciality coffee company building a platform to shine the light on emerging global talent with a mission to make a positive impact on a creative industry and beyond. Lux Coffee Co. offers exceptional coffee sourced from around the world through ethical and sustainable practices and you can discover the current range of signature blends and single origins coffee hardware and accessories along with exceptional apparel at luxcoffee.co.uk you can use the code podcast to get 15 off your first order

17:13you said that sentence about three or four times and i loved it every single time you said it because you said it's the unshakable belief of what's possible. Where did that come from? Is it societal? Is it personal? Is it learned? The delusional, I like to call it. I am very delusional and I thank my parents for that because I believe, and this is a new belief, I believe our mindset is a big part of the opportunities. I don't think opportunity is found. I think it's built. And this unshakable belief that I am going to seek out opportunity and I'm going to make it happen for myself. I'm not going to wait around to be rescued or for someone to help me.

18:05I'm going to make it happen for myself. And I didn't always think this. And I feel like before my coming to this realization, I felt stuck. I felt stuck in my career. I felt stuck in sports. After retiring from my sport, I felt stuck. And I felt like waiting around for someone to come rescue me. And that goes back to my story and TEDx, like waiting around for someone to come tell me what I need to do next. and it wasn't until probably the beginning of entrepreneurship. No, I would say two years into entrepreneurship, realizing that you got to have a delusional mindset that anything is possible, nothing is impossible.

18:51It just takes a little creativity to figure it out, to get where you need to go. And I truly believe that. I'm a testament, just the opportunities I've had, it's a testament to being delusional. I love that. I love that. But I've got a question and I think this might be a little too personal, but we were going with unshakable belief of what's possible, but then somehow we find you being a bit stuck. What's happened? And like I said, I did not have this belief. I did not believe that things were possible all the time. And maybe it came on and off with running. My parents made me believe that you can get your school paid for if you work hard.

19:31But then there were opportunities of when I was in corporate and going through corporate life that there wasn't so much of the unshakable belief in what's possible. I struggled really a lot in corporate life and my experience in corporate. And so that's where I would say that I didn't really have that. I think these things come in waves and what life throws at you. And you don't just believe something and it sticks with you throughout life. Life throws you curveballs. There are low points. There are points where you don't believe that. And I definitely have that in my life and my experiences. corporate being one of them but eventually you come back to remembering oh remember back then I had this unshakable belief that I can do what I set my mind to let's get back there again and rediscovering those beliefs when you talked about corporate it made me actually think of twisting the sentence and saying you've got unshakable reality of what's not possible when it comes to corporate life, unshakable reality that some of this is not possible because that's corporate stuff.

20:46So it's great that you find yourself on the way out. You talked to me in your TEDx about the pattern of identity, like how you went from a runner to a career rose, then to a motherhood, and there was the pandemic isolation, and every single time the identity stood for the whole person. How would you define it? How would you say that the identity stood for the whole person? yeah I think for me personally and maybe this is my own belief but I very much had like singular identities and because I did sports for so long like that was a singular identity and then I moved to another singular identity after retiring and then I went to another singular identity But now I'm coming to this realization is that no, none of us, me, you, none of us are singular people.

21:38We are multidimensional. We are multi-hyphenate. And I feel like personal branding stands. You're claiming what it is that you want people to see you as. And for some people, maybe they want that singular identity and there's nothing wrong with that. Absolutely not. but for a creative like myself the singular identities is what was keeping me boxed in was keeping me limited and that I think probably that is why I've had this urge of I want to do more like there is always I always came to a point in my life where I want to do more I want to deal more and maybe that was subconsciously my personal self my being was telling me Marissa you are not singular you're not meant for singular work you're not meant for a singular position a singular identity stop fighting against it and start embracing my multi-dimensional ones that's a word absolutely it is now yeah it definitely is a word now i truly understand what you mean with this because yes when you think about let's say michael phelps he had a massive career calm down because he was always a singular identity he was michael phelps this is what he did and then everyone thinks like you've won gazillion gold medals this is what you are and it was very hard for him to embrace michael phelps post-olympic career because he no longer was that identity i think it's derek sivers who says like earn your title otherwise it expires i think when you think when you throw people around by taking away from what they really used to be known for and famous for or good at and all of a sudden put them in a different setting that changes them and i think that's really important to talk about like how the singular term it's something that we need to carry with ourselves for the world outside to understand us because you very much talk about in your three pillars of personal brand you talk about clarity consistency and connection so it's how people perceive us obviously is one thing that we can do for ourselves but then how we understand ourselves is a whole different story because beforehand it obviously it was said on this podcast not that long ago that unlike before if you know you wanted to say i'm an illustrator art director designer i do all of these different things now we can say i'm a creative and that used to wrap people the wrong way even five ten years ago but i was like i'm a creator because i can do lots of different things and i don't have to explain to you what it really is because i can tell you what problems i solve but that's the sort of nature of a personal brand because sometimes the more you make it mysterious people actually get a bit more so tell me about your three pillars of personal brand your clarity consistency and connection yeah clarity consistent connection.

24:38Those are all like things that I've learned or I've been able to like step back and be like, oh, these are the things that I had to go through in order for someone to really understand who I am and what I do. But it's nothing with like outward appearance. It has nothing to do with the outward appearance or even going above and beyond to make someone understand you. people understand you or not and that's none of your business but for those that want to lean in and learn more about you you have the opportunity to provide them with some context some clarity about okay this is actually who I am I'm going to show you through the work that I do through the messaging that I provide in like my content and when I'm doing things like this and consistency say my mantra is make it on brand and I believe make it on brand is this intentionality it means this intentionality and compounding all of your decisions and how you move through life how you show up how you show out to a central idea of like who you are in everything that you do so I always say and in everything I do I could be cooking dinner but I'm gonna make it on brand I'm gonna do this podcast, but I'm going to make it on brand.

26:02I'm going to attend this event, but I'm going to make it on brand. It's just a declaration, the declaration that I'm not letting other people define who I am. I'm going to show up how I want to show up in my multi-hyphenate. I'm not going to show up in what people expect me to be, which is a singular identity. I'm going to show up in a way that reflects who I am. So clarity, consistency, and then connection. I truly believe that we have through branding, branding is an opportunity to build those connections. When I enter into rooms, my first thought isn't how am I going to influence this room?

26:48my first thought is how can I connect with someone here and make myself memorable so that later down the road they think oh for instance I met her blah blah blah I'm not going into a room for an ass I'm going into a room for a connection and I believe that you can more easily do that through your personal brand and how you show up and how you show out the people around you they're experience with you. Going back to the top of our conversation that we don't own our personal brand, people outside of us do, but we have the power to influence it. And so my first step of influencing it is just building a connection, a friendly connection, finding something that could be a conversation.

27:40It could be a physical appearance, maybe me stepping into a room with a great outfit on. I don't know. It could be a myriad of things. But again, I'm stepping into a room as a creative. I know my multi-hyphenate self and I'm going to use that to my advantage and build a personal connection with someone so that they remember who I am and they can speak my name into other rooms that maybe I'm not in yet or they reach back out to me for some things, an opportunity. So all that comes back to the notion of just always making it on brand in everything that you do. And you get to decide as the creative of what that really means.

28:25It speaks of a great freedom of expression. Because I like when you said, I'm going into the room to influence the room. And in fact, everything that you describe in these pillars seem very intentional. because I'm thinking do you become what you describe or do you have to be intentional about this because I guess with every decision that you make or everything that you put not everything that you put on everything you get dressed in or everything that you say is the intentionality or can it be unintentional that's my question yeah I think I believe everyone has a personal brand whether it's intentional or not.

29:06People are always going to perceive you in some way. And that's just human nature. And I'm not talking about perception as in judging you where that might be a case as well. But I'm talking about like, they're going to create a narrative in their mind of who you are. When we were kids sitting and people watching, maybe you're at like a restaurant and you just for fun to kill some time, you kind of create stories of people walking by, oh, we just met for the first time. It's silly. It's a silly notion, but I've been able to take that notion and apply it to real life. I truly believe that is happening, even if it's for a millisecond, right?

29:50When we're passing someone by or when we're stopping to talk to someone briefly. We are gathering information until when we're talking with someone and we're building this perception of them in our head. Now, it may not always come clear in our mind immediately. We may get it wrong. We may be completely wrong. But there is a perception being developed. And so there, again, everyone is building a personal brand. It's the question of, since we have the ability to influence that perception, are you going to do it intentionally so that they don't get it wrong, your story, get it wrong in their head?

30:37And that's exactly going back to the beginning of people thinking I'm none other than Scary Spice just because of my brown skin i'm not having clarity and showing up and who i am not being consistent and i'm not building a connection all those three things and so that's the disconnect that's happening it's given me loads of thoughts and lots of questions about this because i think there was a time where companies were companies and became brands like no one was building a brand 50 60 years ago they were building companies that people loved and appreciated and came back to time and time again and i think with that reputation and with that perception i think companies or products were becoming brands because they were more in line with the conversations that they became part of the folklore it was like they would become more of this which is happening now because when you think about the topic of this conversation we are not talking about i want to become a very good functioning business entrepreneur and then become a brand later obviously we are already considering in this because the world of perception and how we are positioned in this world has changed a lot so if you remember the video where the light is you know the concept video he talks at the beginning he said that so many things about him are written wrong that he has to spend half an hour with someone so they know nothing about him because he just proves everything they've heard about him was wrong so he just said like okay let me cleanse your palate so you can actually learn about me who i am from me when you think about personal brands built at such scale and by the way i'm really excited that you're a fan when you think about personal brands built at such scale when you can't control every output especially at the mid 2000s early 2010s where obviously a lot of media was focused on a kind of celebrity in a crazy way how do you almost be able to control that perception because all you can do is just to show up in your best possible way but somebody somewhere might have a bad day or doesn't like what you said and already the work that you're doing on yourself or that you're not putting out there could be distorted because when you say i'm coming into the room to influence the room somebody might have a bad day and say i don't like what you do and this is what i like because you said like you want to own the narrative so people can't get it wrong or people can't give it to you well i'm going to give the advice that i give my kids is that other people's opinion, especially if they don't know you, they're not close with you, other people's opinion is none of your business.

33:10And I recently actually, in alignment with that, taking it a step further, I recently, with Spider-Man coming out, Tom Holland, he had said that you have to think of people's opinions like this if they have your cell phone number And if they don't, then they don't know you've been enough to make these opinions or stories or whatever. So while you have no control of your personal branding and there's absolutely impossible to control the narrative in a really large scope of way. But I'm more concerned with where I want to build opportunity going back to that opportunity isn't found, it's built. And so I'm not going to waste my energy of worrying about spaces that I'm not even in.

34:03And there's going to be people that misunderstand me and that's okay too. I'm focusing on where I'm trying to go, what rooms I'm trying to enter. And I'm talking rooms as in like opportunities and how am I going to show up there? and what is the perception that's being built in those rooms that I'm planning on being at. So I'm not a big company. I'm not a big corporate. And it's absolutely impossible from the individual level to control the narrative. People are going to continue to misunderstand you. But it kind of goes to the notion, back to the notion of I'm going to prove people wrong And they can either accept it or they can continue to share it, create the narrative in their head that is not true.

34:54But that's not my business. I'm going to focus on me. I'm going to do me. And when you ask them, what does mommy do? They will say brand strategy. And so in my parenting, it kind of comes off the same way. You know, you're building a personal brand. Okay. Don't worry about how you perceive yourself because you're perceiving yourself as well and your own opinion about who you are. Are you happy with it? Are you happy with the person you're becoming? Are you happy with the choices you're making and stuff? And you have to also influence yourself. So, but other people's opinions of you, they have your personal brand in their mind, but that's also none of our business.

35:35You just keep doing what you can control. and those are all the little tools in building our personal brand so absolutely you know what you say and obviously you make it on brand like every sentence is on brand honestly you know exactly who you are what you want to be how you want to show up you know exactly that what happens when you meet someone who says no i don't think that i don't think that's true yeah again going back to what my parents think we practice this at home we'll practice like what if someone comes up and says, I don't like your drawing. Your drawing bugged me. Say, no, thank you.

36:09Sorry. Sorry to feel that way. I have a nice day. Walk away. I know that's such a simple notion, but sometimes we just need to go back to those simple notions of how we approach these problems. Again, for me, a personal motivation is people that misunderstand me, that don't give me the opportunity. You just, thank you. Thank you for thinking that because you just built a fire within me to prove you wrong, to have you watch me succeed. That's the pettiness in me. I like to prove people wrong. I like to succeed going back to being an overachiever, going back to my athleticism. I will prove you wrong then.

36:48And I will find absolute joy in that. I love the pettiness. I can definitely relate to pettiness. gotta have a little bit of pettiness it drives you that's how the most successful people are where they're at you just gotta upgrade that way you mentioned a few times that opportunity is not found it's built how do you build opportunities how do you create them because i think it still baffles me i mean again in my age it's obviously it shouldn't but obviously when you watch content online sometimes you stumble on something which is recorded by someone who's a bit younger and some of the things are quite surprising to them like to ask for things or how to go after things and how to build an opportunity i'm thinking but there was no other way before it's just like whatever everything that you wanted for yourself you have to go to it so how do you go to your opportunities how do you build those again operating with the delusional spirit i feel like my entire career is a textbook definition of building your own opportunities.

37:51I've been blessed and have opportunities come my way, but entrepreneurship has not been that easy. And I'm a person who is unsatisfied with just being where I am and, oh, this is life. This is how it is. No, I absolutely refuse to accept that. And so I build opportunity and the way I do that is through my connections, going back to personal branding, the connection part of things, building my network, building people that know my name. I'll give you a very quick example. Recently, I went to CanLions. It's one of the biggest marketing conferences in the world. It happens in the south of France.