Expanding Horizons: Life-Changing Opportunities with Maria Simone | OM37

Today we dive into the world of high-level opportunity creation with special guest Maria Simone, who brings a wealth of experience in business strategy and entrepreneurship.

This episode is more than just a conversation; it’s a masterclass in seeing the world through the lens of opportunity and exponential growth.

Discover how Maria’s vision and energy have propelled her endeavors, and get ready to be inspired to make your own quantum leaps in both life and business. Let Maria’s journey ignite your path to transforming lives and the world around you.

About the Guest:

Dame Maria Simone is a transformational business and funding strategist, investor, speaker, author, philanthropist, executive producer, serial entrepreneur, heart-centered visionary, and consummate dealmaker. She is the co-founder of ZenMoose Capital, a Social Impact Fund that uses a pioneering approach to regenerative capital and invests in entities that have the potential to be highly impactful AND highly profitable. This includes film and TV shows, content distribution channels, online digital platforms, real estate and media-related technologies.

Connect with Maria Simone

Websites:

ZenMooseCapital.com

ZenMoneySolutions.com

UnitedTinyHomes.com

EnlightenedEntrepreneurSummit.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maria-simone-4b2743b/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mariasimone

About the Host:

Jim Padilla is the founder and CEO of Gain The Edge – a done-for-you provider of industry-leading sales systems and unicorn sales professionals which he co-heads with his wife and entrepreneurial partner-in-crime, Cyndi Padilla.

Through their unique blend of laser-targeted selling systems, inspirational team-building expertise, and 60+ years of combined sales experience – Jim and his wife have generated over 1/4 bn in sales for a long line of high-level, visionary entrepreneurs.

Jim’s mission is to help purpose-driven thought-leaders untangle themselves from the day-to-day minutiae of seeking leads and sales for their business so they’re free to amplify their impact.

When Jim’s not making dollars rain down from the sky, you’ll regularly find him at the driving range – hitting a bucket of balls. Jim credits his time on the driving range as the main source of his best ideas.

Recently relocated back to California, Jim & Cyndi are immersing themselves in family time with their three daughters & four (soon to be five) grandchildren.

Connect with Jim at https://jimp360.com

If you want to see more great content like this, make sure to subscribe and ring the bell so you will get notified whenever we post a new video. And don’t forget to rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts.

Transcript
Jim Padilla:

Hey, my friend, welcome back to another awesome episode of the opportunity makers podcast. And boy, do I have somebody who's an opportunity maker talk to you today, not like all the others I've been talking to him bringing to you are not these people, everybody I'm bringing to you is, as they say, kicking ass and taking names, right? People doing things at another level, scaling, exiting, building, creating. It's just, it's exciting. It's an incredible place to be. I'm so privileged and honored to be able to be in network and community with so many of these amazing people. And I get to see on a regular basis to business with learn from work with and share experiences with you. Notice none of them are here to sell you anything, that we're here to pitch their stuff to you. They're genuinely here they know, in we thought before they get here to talk to them on this podcast, that we're here sharing encouragement, insights and hope and helping you see that people are people who move at different levels are seeing things differently, right? We're not looking around and seeing that the sky is falling or stressing out about where's my next deal coming from cetera, we're really looking at, you know, what's coming down the road? What are we doing to make exponential jumps? Right? How are we making leaps? Not just incremental steps of success and growth? Well, that's great. You need to work on now money now. But you also got to be thinking about how can I make greater? How can I make quantum leaps, and exponential jumps and success because it has never been easier to do that in the history of the world than it is today, right now that the time and date of this podcast being executed and recorded that those opportunities are everywhere, you just have to see them, you have to keep your eyes above the riffraff and a bunch above the fray. And keep focusing on where you're going, and what is there. Because when you do, you will see all kinds of opportunities coming. And when you start working with people who are doing things at a bigger scale, playing a bigger game, it's even greater opportunities, because quite honestly, there's just a lot less competition at that level. So you're not clamoring and making a bunch of noise, you're just looking for quality, powerful synergistic relationships, for people who want to do exponential things to serve problems for the people you care about in common. That's the name of the game. And that's the game that Maria Simone is playing Maria, and are the Chad. They, they're their leaders. They're changemakers, they are transformational agents. They are Transcendental Meditation experts and teachers, their business experts, they're strategists, and they are faith filled, badass entrepreneurs that understand that changing the lives of people, changing the world for people, changes the world in general. And that's the way this goes. And and Mary is somebody that I was blessed to know, in a mastermind about eight years ago. And we've, you know, stayed in touch and connections. We've referred clients, we made introductions for people. And you know, we stumbled into another mastermind environment that we're in right now, over the last year and a half or so close to two years now. And I have witnessed just the exponential leaps and jumps that she has done in her business and all the things they're doing, from the tiny homes, to capital to things and making huge inroads in health and medicine, space, and much, much more. And you're going to really enjoy this and what I want you to think about, yes, you're gonna learn some tangible tactics and ideas, but I want you to just capture the way she thinks, you know, I say this often a lot. So many times when I'm talking to people about sales, training, or strategies or scaling or building things. Too many times people are like, Well, what did you say I gotta capture what you said there. What was that? Like, don't capture what I said, capture who I was being when I said it. Just if you want to replicate, don't replicate the words I say replicate the intention, the intensity, the energy that I bring to the things that I say, right? And that's one of the things that I want to employ you all the time. Every time you're listening to all these world class experts dial in so much to what they're saying. But what perspective they're bringing with the words that they're saying, Who is she being? How is she seeing the world that is bringing these particular words to the conversation, as you learn an immense This is a masterclass and opportunity creating, by listening in to Maria Simone with Zenmuse capital, and their tiny homes USA. So oh, if you really enjoyed this episode, make sure you share with anybody that it makes sense, share it, just share it for me, let us know what's going on. Listen to this thing, you probably don't want to listen to it twice. Make sure you rate review and subscribe, jump in the shownotes there's a lot of goodies in there for you. And make sure you reach out to follow Maria because you'll be glad that she did. All right. Appreciate your time, effort and energy here. Make sure that you enjoy and if you're listening on the treadmill or while you're driving, then just bookmark it and make sure that you go back and listen to it again cuz you're probably gonna want to take some notes and start changing the way you think about certain things. Right. We'll see you soon enjoy the episode. Hey there world changers and opportunity makers. So good to have you back. Peter, and as you just heard the official bio and introduction, as always, but I want to have you hear from Maria herself three, just tell in your own words, who you are and why you're relevant in this conversation.

Maria Simone:

Okay, well, first of all, people call me the soul and money catalysts for for however many hundreds of years, since I've been in the entrepreneurial space, I've always looked at, I love the idea of being an entrepreneur of taking something, an idea, and just crystallizing it and taking it out to the market. But I'm very well aware of all the other factors that go into it. It's your mindset, it's your, you know, your, your own sense of, you know, how healthy you are emotionally, and everything to be able to ride that wave. And so I just love all of it. I love the journey, mostly. And I think people just get too hung up on that end game, but I really take the time to enjoy the journey, not so much enjoyed all the time. It can be harrowing. But that's kind of me, I love, you know, I incorporate transformation and business. I see money as a spiritual energy, I love to see it circulated into its highest and best use. So I've tended to focus on mostly the financial and capital aspects of building business. I liked that part. Like you put together sales plans, I put together capital plans for business and taking a product out there. So those are kind of the things that I you know, I'm, I'm into right now. Well, about me.

Jim Padilla:

You know, it's funny, because I remember it one of the, one of the VA events, you were talking and I remember that was one of the notes that I wrote down that just burned in my brain, which you were talking about was Do you have a capital strategy and a capital plan? Because most people don't, you know, I it occurred to me that I didn't, you know, know, like, the things that people don't think about, it's like, they think about where they're gonna get capital, what they're going to do with it. But do you actually have a strategy and a plan for how you're going to and you know, so that, you know, what opportunities are the right ones, and what things are coming your way, which partner is defined in which there's so many things that opens you up to, you know, I've had the pleasure of knowing you for, it's been a while now about eight years, I think are so in, you have just come so far, you've done so many amazing things. And it's been fun to watch and witness. And just, you know, it makes you a person that I want to be around because I want to see what's happening, you know, money is everything, you know, how does? How does that? How do I learn from it? How do I benefit from it? How can I contribute to it? What things have you learned about, you know, the ease and grace and the way that opportunities can come to you if even if you're not necessarily winning at a huge level right now?

Maria Simone:

Yeah, that's really great. You know, I'll just, let's, well, our main thing is then was capital. And so we've been building a Social Impact Fund, and we have multiple businesses. But you know, probably the most exquisite example of what you're asking about is, our latest venture is united tiny homes. We started that during COVID. Now, what you're saying it's so important to, you know, to how we came to be where we're at. But during COVID, I was really concerned about the affordable housing crisis, and, and homelessness and all of that, and I totally got a download that tiny homes was an agile solution to affordable housing. And so I didn't know a lot about tiny homes. And so number one, you know, you don't always have to know the how you don't know, you know, you have to be an expert in something. But if you see a problem, and a solution, you know, you have a solution to are you thinking about a solution, go for it. Because there's something about the universe, about God about divine inspiration, like if you're, if you're on that path, you're going to be brought all the resources. So we I just put a business plan together for it. And then out of the blue, an old friend called and said, Hey, I know you do financing, do you do financing for tiny homes or thinking about starting a tiny home company and I was like, seriously, like, I just, we just put a plan together for this. And so we joined forces, you know, with someone and so the the other part of it is, you're not alone. So we all were seasoned professionals, we, we saw an opportunity, and but we know our genius lane. So we really make sure that you know, all we've we had our own expertise in this and we filled in the gaps with support. So never do this alone. You can't. There's so many aspects of you know, being in business and taking advantage of an opportunity and going forward. You don't have to go it alone. I mean, I don't know how to build a tiny home. So of course, you know, we have a whole build team. I mean, they barely would let me hold a weld torch, you know, whatever, it would be a mess. But I knew I saw the vision and I put the business together. We in my domain is in business development. So we brought a lot of business very quickly, a funding so we're able to fund not only finance the business, but I put it we put the capital plan together. So we made sure that as we were growing, we were able to access resources. And that's actually is key. So within our first two days in business, we took in About a million dollars in a million and a quarter in orders 70. I remember 17 deposits we didn't even have, like, we had just incorporated the day before, seriously. And we had 17 deposits, over a million dollars in business like, oh my god, okay, I guess we have to build the business now. Didn't stop us. And we serve as for the next few months, we service that business. And then we doubled that revenue. And now two years into it a little over two years. I mean, seriously, like may 1 of 2021 was our launch. So we're just a little over two years, we're servicing about $100 million in orders right now, over the it'll take, take us a couple of years. But, you know, that's, that's what's happening. So we didn't, we didn't, you know, we just kept stepping into the opportunities. And also, another thing that happens is, you know, not knowing the house, so we made sure we had experts around us to support us. And also money is a really big deal with entrepreneurs, you know, I can't afford this, I can't afford to do the marketing, I can't afford to hire people. And so they tend to do all the jobs, right, Jim, like, you know, they people do jobs in their businesses that they would get fired from in other places, and that is going to take you down. And so we just took the time to bring in a little capital, you know, there's plenty of money out there, the money hasn't left the planet, I always say, and if you take the time to, you know, let other people show you the how, build a team of supporters that can open doors, and understand how to bring in the financial resources, which I think is really critical, you're going to be unstoppable. So that's kind of what we did over the last couple of years. And it's been beautiful, we've got plenty of business, you know, we're serving, I mean, we're truly a solution to the affordable housing crisis. We're working with the VA, we're like, in the next year, we'll be able to accept VA financing, which to me is a big deal. We can build parks for veterans, and, you know, less fortunate of those who are less fortunate. And, yeah, so it's been quite a ride. If that answers your question, yeah,

Jim Padilla:

that's great. You know, I love that whole perspective that they you know, you don't even they only know that you hold the torch, right? It's like, they don't want you to building the homes. You know, I'm good at sales. And I'm good at building business. I know a lot about business. My team doesn't want me, I've been kicked out of so many meetings, they don't, if I'm in the middle of how all this stuff happens. I'm screwing it up there. They want me to be casting the vision speaking on stages, networking with with other millionaires and billionaires, and they don't want me in the business running the day to day, right. Because their job. But that's a big

Maria Simone:

that is actually I find because I you know, when I talk to people, I think that is one of the biggest bottlenecks for entrepreneurs is to get over the fact that they don't have to know the how, and they don't have to do all the jobs like unless they can like, how many people do you find that go into something and then they start getting all these certifications, right, and they start learning how to build websites, it's like, oh, my gosh, really is gonna take you years and years to build this business. You don't have the time for that, you know, so,

Jim Padilla:

you know, I mean, you know, Peter Swain. And he was just, you know, interviewed a couple episodes ago, but I am in his I joined jumped into his AI mastermind, because I just wanted to get some insights. Right? Then at the end of the day, I'm like, I'm not the one doing this. I'm not break. It isn't marketing and about my team is. So you know, now my team watches goes to the recordings and watches the recording, and he's just opened that up there. For for the assistants. And too many times we do that, like, Oh, let me learn this. And yeah, that's not where you're making your millions. That's not where you're changing the world. But you got to be able to trust you have the division is what is the important part. And then you attract the people who can help fill it.

Maria Simone:

Yeah, and not to say that you shouldn't know, like, you had an awareness of AI, you have an awareness of everything, you just don't have to, you got to recognize where you are, before you go down that rabbit hole of doing it all, that's when you start, you know, putting the right people in the right place. But that is but that is I think that's a key to really being able to take off and scale scaling is, look, you can it's easy to make money. Like a lot of people have like one windfall, you know, they'll do one thing and make some money. But to be able to skate to consistently do that, and scale. That's like a whole other skill set and, you know, mindset for people. So that's next block. I think people have,

Jim Padilla:

you know, you and Chad had been headed down, just growing and rockin and rollin with all you're doing. You ever stop a minute and take a look at how many lives you're impacting right now.

Maria Simone:

You know, it's, ya know, I'm like on a. It's like driving us that, you know, I'm at a point where there's probably less in front of me, why me? I just turned 60 And I love what I'm doing and this is my legacy work. So the things that I'm doing now, I have, I understand that I'm impacting lives like well beyond people knowing me and also even my lifetime. And that's a really beautiful thought. If nothing else like that, that's a beautiful. Like, if you can get your arms around that and let that drive you, it really, it takes you very far. In that, that's,

Jim Padilla:

I think that's the big heartbeat of a lot of the people who tune into to this people who are in our world, they want accelerated growth at massive scale, but they want huge impact, they want to they want to leave, they have a burning desire to impact a lot more people and a result that's far bigger than them. And too many times we're so focused on the how we forget, we get instead of just taking our hands off of a little bit, so we're not choking it today. But that we're just allowing things to occur that are going to lead in that direction, you have

Maria Simone:

to create some space, you're right, you have to, you can't just be in the busyness doing, sometimes you have to pull back a little bit, you have to create some space, you have to see what else needs to step in what needs to evolve. You know, because you get to this also, you start doing certain things and it gets you to certain points, but then you're acting like what your what got you here now is not going to get you there. So there are certain points where you have to allow for like a quantum leap, like some type of transformation in the business. And, and I think that's another important distinction is you do need to step back and create that space. And honestly, Jim, if you don't understand why you're doing what you're doing, like if it's just about the money, or it's just about whatever, oh my gosh, you will take yourself down, you'll just start self sabotaging if you don't have a really firm, you know, why am I doing this? Because it gets hard. You know, there's like points where you just want to curl up under the covers and like, oh my gosh, you know, what do you do? And so you've got to have something really strong to keep you going.

Jim Padilla:

Well, let's let's turn to take a little pivot here and talk about you know, the name of the company is in Moose capital. So somebody that's my mothership? Yeah, yeah. So that would have to be, you have to be a little bit out of touch to not recognize there's some spiritual elements here. Right. So you know, what, what role does spirituality and divinity play in your business growth and strategy?

Maria Simone:

It's like everything. It's, I am very, you know, okay, when I was younger, when I was five years old, I was paralyzed from the neck down. And all I could do was turn my head. And it was really, it was a painful experience. I was a little girl. And one night, I was laying in my little, you know, those little white Princess canopy beds. I was laying in my little canopy bed and like, my canopy started moving, and then it became billowing. And I like Angel Gabriel presented like right in front of me. And he said, it was really amazing. He said, You're not going to die, you have great things to do get up, get up. So ever since. And I have like a spontaneous healing. I started moving like the next day, and it was quite something. And so all my life, I had this knowing number one, I'm very connected to God, source and Angel and all that. So I totally get that. Like, I'm not alone. I never felt alone. Number one, and that's really important. And number two, I have great things to do. Right. And it was never, I was never attached to launching a widget. You know, some people have like a burning desire to do like one thing. I've never had that in my life. I've always had like the sense of being the best person I can, you know, putting love out there in the world, like helping other people like, like, that's my great work. So I don't know, that's always to me, that's very driving. And if I'm not connected to that, I just feel like Soul. Like it's soul crushing. Like I had a really successful career in health care. I was a, I was a pioneer in home health. And I co authored legislation in the state of Arizona, or statutes or whatever, like I did a lot in my industry. And then it was like, Okay, why am I doing this, like, after a while, I was like, I just got burnt out and my soul wasn't being filled. I felt like I wasn't helping enough people. And so it's like a very distinct feeling. For me, I just get disconnected to that divinity, the spirituality and I have to get back to that. So yeah, it's it's really everything. Because if you don't have that, you know, entrepreneurship is hard. Solving problems is hard. I mean, like, when you're innovating, and you're doing things that other people aren't doing and you have a vision that nobody else has yet. You're the one that you have to drive it, you know, until people join you. And so you've got to stay in that place where you're going to be unstoppable. So whatever that takes, you know, it's usually faith for people a solid, why like, whatever that takes, stay there, because you'll never fail. You'll never fail if you could stay there. If you could just be unstoppable. Everything will always come together for you. So yes, then lose capital. We we are building a very innovative fund. It doesn't. It's not about taking in outside capital. We don't use capital we use we're able to take restricted stock which is, which is the stock, that's when someone takes a company public. There, their stock is very restricted because they don't want to be perceived as dumping in the market if they go to sell their stock. So it's a very high, you know, you can imagine there's a few, there's a few of these people on the planet. And so we work with them, and they can exchange their stock into our fund. But we have ways of monetizing it that they don't. And so it's a very innovative approach. But what we're doing with the money is we take care of them. But we also use that we invest, we redeploy what's leftover of capital of cash now, into purposeful projects in philanthropy and things like that. So it's very innovative. The Zen comes from our chat and I, you know, our background and just enlightenment, it just being you know, he's an old time we're both TM, transcendental meditation. People, he was the first, he was the youngest teacher of tam on the planet, we, we adopt that philosophy and then the moose. For me, we incorporate the moose singularity, and it's how we build businesses, Moose is plural and singular. So at the same time, so when we're helping companies, they still maintain their unique identities, but we bring them into this collab, this collective, where we're all helping each other, we collaborate, we cross pollinate talent, resources, some people have these amazing technologies, but don't have customers. Some people have a big, you know, platform, but they don't have, they need technology, and we can cross pollinate, you know, for all of that. And so, you know, that's part of our Zen moose. Prasanna, so, anyway, but you're right there is, we always like to have that spiritual influence in there.

Jim Padilla:

Yeah, I find I have found over the years, it's interesting, because my spirituality was always I didn't, I didn't meet God till I was like, 27. So wasn't part of my upbringing. And as I have grown, I've had this personal relationship with God, but has always been private. And then in the last, last three or four years, it's been more public has been like me sharing my faith journey with people in in our business, too. And the thing that I have learned is that, without exception, everybody who's playing what I would call a bigger game, but anybody who's really successful making impact in scale, everybody's got a spiritual tribe of some kind.

Maria Simone:

Yeah, I agree. I do know, there's a couple of fact they're fairly, they're very, they're actually well known SNI names, but you would know who they were. And I've had a chance to speak to them in a completely agnostic. And so they don't have that in them. However, they are driven by their their geniuses, and visionaries. And so they're driven by solving problems on the planet. So they don't, you know, like keeping the population a lot like it. So they're driven by something else. So maybe that is there. So without exception, I I'm with you, I'm people have to have some kind of online, underlying spiritual influence some something other than them, you know, that striving?

Jim Padilla:

Yeah, well, it's interesting, because even if they're agnostic, this is part this is their religion, this because, you know, they're their go to around so they've got this is what their faith play is. But it's fascinating. So what do you what do you see right now, with all of the craziness in the marketplace? What do you see as the smartest opportunities for people to be looking for, without taking crazy risks, but as you know, as as the economy is doing crazy things, what should people be looking for?

Maria Simone:

Yeah, it's really, we spend a lot of time doing that, because as we build our fund, we have to, you know, preserve it. And so it's a combination of, I think people should be investing in themselves, I think you're the best investment there is. So this should be a fraction of, you know, whatever you have maybe a third or something should be, should be into yourself into, this is a good time to build businesses. Like right now we have people wanting to invest in or different projects, because they want to move cash out of the banks and things like that. So they would rather be habit in companies that they know are winning and growing. And so that this is actually good time to raise capital by it's really amazing what we're finding. So I think that's why we're, we're pushing our initiative, like, we have multiple businesses, and we're moving everything forward. I think, you know, keep some safe as possible in certain instruments, although I don't know about, you know, the bonds and things like that, like, look for instruments that are do a little put things away that are safe. We have Yeah, I mean, just, you know, make sure you're diversified. So there's like, and I forgot my rule, getting my rules, but it's like a quarter, a quarter of footnotes, a third, a third and then we split it up into different things, but we have our own rules, but take the time to do some diversification. Get comfortable with at least one strategy that that you can really get your arms around and and feel good about and kind of, you know, stick with it, I don't think going in and out of things is I'm not into that, you know what I mean? I, I like to, I'm more of a long term person, we have a couple of short term things that we do, like in crypto and things like that. But I'm kind of a long term, like I'm really into business development right now. But not just businesses that are serving a real purpose on the planet that are directly involved in solving problems. I think those are your best investments. And that's where I'm putting my time and money for the most part. So yeah, I don't know if that makes any sense. But that makes

Jim Padilla:

great sense. And, you know, my encouragement to that for you listening, you know, you might be thinking, I don't have any money to park, you know, I'm just trying to survive, and right now, but investment doesn't always come in the form of money, right? You can invest time, you can invest connections, you know, if you see a cause that's worthy, you can still connect somebody who can support that cause, and you're providing solutions and contribution to those causes. You can volunteer, you can, you can, intern, there's so many ways that you can support a cause that matters, and the right opportunities and

Maria Simone:

the right. Jim, there's not any when you say cause, I mean, it's not we're not talking about just like volunteering for nonprofits, you can actually work with up and coming companies, and I created a whole portfolio of stock doing this work with people, you may not have the money to invest, but you're right, invest your time, some resources, some connections, in companies that you think are, you know, making a difference are really strong, you know, they're like, there are people helping us right now with a tiny home company, because they totally get what we're doing. They see all the traction, and they're investing their time and energy. And guess what they're gonna get stock, they're gonna get, you know, they'll get paid. Like, they're things that they're, they're going to benefit from. And so I did this when I was starting out, and it taught me how to raise capital, it created a portfolio of stock for me and up and coming companies, and I didn't invest money, and yeah, and and I created income, because it making the connections I was paid. So that is a great. Yes, that's a great distinction, highly recommended.

Jim Padilla:

So what would you say are things that people should be very cautious of right now? If they're moving in the marketplace? Or looking at opportunities? What things would you be still cautious or at least apprehensive? You know, do your do your due diligence before you move in these areas?

Maria Simone:

So as you say, cautious of Yeah, right now. And as far as what market like just

Jim Padilla:

in the marketplace in general, as people are trying to look for companies to invest in business ideas to start, what things would you probably stay away from just because you're just there too risky right now.

Maria Simone:

Okay. So that's a great answer. And we do that all we vet projects all day long. So number one, it's the people, people people, you can have the best idea. But if you if the people that you're investing in aren't open, you don't see them as being open and coachable. Because sometimes we are CEOs, like if they're, you know, they'll move over. They're not the best, you know, entrepreneurs don't make the best CEOs, you know, so got to make sure that the people are open and, and coachable that they have the the experience, to do what they say they're going to do. Because that's a big problem, people step into something, just because you invented something or have an idea for something doesn't make you the best person to do that. So I would say that your people spend time with the people you're going to invest in, make sure, make sure there's some protection, make sure whatever you're going to invest in, is not, you know, can't be easily copied or will go away or you know, whatever. And then then they have an opportunity to have enough gas in the engine like that they really are going to have enough money to make a goal that I find that entrepreneurs don't raise enough capital, they run out of steam too early. They get they don't protect their IP enough. So I think that's really important. And then also something that easily like you can create a movement out of like it can become bigger than you it's not just a widget that you're going to sell like there's something behind it. Some of the best advice I got as far as branding and taking a company out you can appreciate this Jim was one of my mentors was Nick Brown. And I don't know if you remember the Joe boxer brand, remember the silky underwear. I mean, that was like a crazy, successful brand. He built it and sold it for hundreds of millions of dollars to Kmart in the 80s. So he I I tracked him down because I wanted his mentoring because years ago I started a fashion accessory company and I wanted his support. And so one of the best some of the best advice he gave me he goes look, he goes your, your brand is an amusement park. Okay, think of your brand as the amusement park. Your product is just a souvenir. So whatever you do, you've got to create some type of an experience for people. His name is Nick Graham and I always use If that's like that, he's known for saying that that was like the best advice. So I always look at people that, you know, if they have a product or service, like, I don't want to just launch it into, you know, nothingness, I want to make sure we can incorporate some type of movement or plot, you know, build a platform around it, even with a TV show, like when we put a TV show out there, because we're involved in media, technology, housing, wellness, different sectors, I love the media. But even when we make a TV show, it's not just a TV show, we got it, we have to incorporate online learning content, like online learning platform, and, you know, build presence around it, like create a movement around the TV show, that's been a mistake that the network's have made, and other people in the entertainment industry have made, I feel, you know, with their media assets, but we're, that's our formula works. And we can monetize it better, and we get much more influence. So I hope that that answers your question. No, yeah,

Jim Padilla:

that's great. And I want to get this from you guys. Because I know how, you know, like you said, with the transcendental meditation, and I know how much how deeply involved that chat is in the spiritual, spiritual movement. What are you guys doing in your personal life, that is directly showing up in the business?

Maria Simone:

Everything. So I mean, you know, we have this effect, it's part of what we do is his level of bliss consciousness. So we try to we support our, our, the people around us in getting to that level, I think one of the challenges with entrepreneurs, especially when you raise money, you tend to you now you feel beholden to other people that are investing in you. So you tend to become a martyr to your business. So your health, you know, your health is sacrificed your relationships, you're really hard on your workers like this, all these things are happening. And so we'd like no, we want to shift all that. So number one, we work very much on our relationships, try to have a really happy, healthy relationship, have a you know, really, very much grounded in, we meditate, we take care of ourselves physically a lot of gratitude. You know, we work out all the time we do yoga, so we try to be the best people we can be. And then we look at all we have different businesses. So every work environment is has a different workplace initiative, like in our tiny home company. You know, these guys are awesome. These are some are veterans, formerly incarcerated, they're just I mean, they're great guys. So they do vision boards journaling, they have a book club, they have a soccer team. And so every business has its own thing. And so we really believe in that, you know, we want people to be happy, and thriving, where they are. So yeah, we take care of ourselves, we work in our relationship, we will not sacrifice our personal relationship to the business. And we know when to take, you know, we take downtime, you know, whenever we can, it looks like we're busy all the time, which we kind of are, but we do play.

Jim Padilla:

So well. I know this every time that I see you, you guys are always smiling ear to ear and you're always happy. And you always have just this attractive infectious personality. And thank you this is manic right now, because it's been a crazy week. But thank you, thank you. So for people who are listening that are maybe just trying to make that first seven figures, or maybe just me, you know, just just starting to figure out what success feels like for them. What encouragement do you have for somebody who's like, Man, I am nowhere near the level that you guys are so I'm just I'm just trying to survive right now. Yeah,

Maria Simone:

yeah. So do something. Have something that you can offer people, whatever. And it's usually so simple, like our greatest gifts, we overlook because it's so simple, right? You know, we're so talk, even if you have to talk to people to see like, what are my gifts, like what do I have to offer, but figure out something to offer. And it may not be something you create or invent, it may be something that you love, like you really feel like people, that's why network marketing, you know, people don't have to invent something to get be successful in network marketers grab a product, but get your arms around something you believe in, and make that offer to someone and, and if somebody buys it, then get better at the now you know, you're like a few people buy what you have to offer, then it's just about scaling. That's all. It's about doing the things that you have to do to make better offers to talk to more people. You know, just then you get into a rhythm. I mean, really that money making money is really easy. And don't make it hard. Make it easy can be really easy. So you don't have to, you don't have to even set up your own business just offer have an offer of something. So I've made a lot of money over the years without having my own products. I have had my own products, but a lot of times I'll make six figures, just offering other people's products and services. You know, even I get lazy sometimes. So or You know, I want to, like, that'll be some residual income. But the millions that are coming in is because we focus on something that works. You know, I told you, we took 17 orders, those first two days in business, and then from there, we just scaled, we just stayed focused, okay, we aren't, we're on to something, don't mess with it, just keep scaling that part. And now we're, you know, we will probably have like a $50 million value valuation, I believe, this year. So it's, it's pretty cool, you know, to get to that place, worked our butts off, but it's fun. And it's, it becomes predictable after a while.

Jim Padilla:

Awesome. So aside from the tiny homes, and is, what is there anything that you have going on right now that people can participate in, that they can fight? How can they get access to you and be it into your world and be able to learn from you and follow what you're doing?

Maria Simone:

You know, I'm gonna say, honestly, we're, what do they say the cobblers kids have holes in their shoes. So I had been so focused on building out, you know, helping to build out the businesses, that I've quieted my stuff, I have a lot of free things to offer. We have our own masterminds, we take people behind the curtain, especially around you know, Capitol, I have books coming out and all of that. So I would say if people go to Maria, three, sixty.com, Maria, three sixty.com. And those are all our links, and really just opt in for my book or whatever. I pretty soon well, we'll be sharing, you know, free ebooks and things like that just to like, give people like we're really doing it, you know, and when we share things, we just take people behind the curtain of like real, real businesses, and they enjoy that it's like really happening, it's not just, you know, well, anyway, you know, what I'm talking about. And so, pretty soon, we'll be taking people more behind the curtain and sharing more and having events and, and doing all of that. So I would just say go to Marine 360. And just get into our world and you will, we'll let you know what's going on. So perfect,

Jim Padilla:

that'll be in the show notes. But that's easy to remember. So go to Maria 360, you know, the language, you go to gym p 360. All the time, so you know how that works. And you know, and just stay plugged in, they tune I'm telling you, these are people that you want to know, these are people that you want to follow, even if you can't connect with them right now, at some point, when the opportunity presents itself, you want to be there in line, you want to be on the waiting list, you want to have access, because you'll learn so much. And this the same way that we like to teach around here. You know, we're not just teaching content we learned we're trying to share with you what we're actually doing inside of our business or with our clients. So you can learn directly from what we're doing and experiencing from what's working. What isn't.

Maria Simone:

Yeah, awesome. And yes, we are definitely will be doing more things together, for sure. And I got to share my capital plan. In the near future, we're going to start putting that out as well, I think people need to learn that.

Jim Padilla:

I'm very much looking forward to that. For Marie and I were talking just before we hit record. And you know, she was talking about a capital plan as something that most people, she talks about, like his normal vernacular. And what I recognize is when the first time I heard her talking about having a capital plan and a capital strategy, I recognized that I did not have one. And so I'm guessing you might not either. And so can you give her a 32nd version of what a capital plan should include? So if somebody wants to start thinking about planning for one now,

Maria Simone:

sure. So I think one of the we all know about our sales and marketing plans in our business, I believe when you start a business, you should create a capital plan. It's like what is it, you may not have the money right now. But you start thinking about how are we going to fund this business growing forward, because you may invest a little bit of your own, you know, some of your own resources. But there's going to be a point where your demand starts exceeding your capacity and your business, it happens to pretty much every business. And unless you have unending resources, at some point, you're gonna have to think about outside resources. And the hardest thing to do is to stop your momentum and go out and get the money in and do all that. So the best thing to do is right from the beginning, start planning how you're going to access those resources. And it's a lot easier to do it that way. And so it gets you thinking about money right away. And also it allows those solutions to start showing up in your life. So you don't miss a beat as you're growing your business. So we will be putting more of that out there. The name of the book is the money hasn't left the planet. And I'm including my little blueprint for capital in there. It's really simple, simple to do. But it just, most people just haven't thought about that.

Jim Padilla:

Amen, that right there that lasts 90 seconds worth the price of admission loan guy. So make sure you're thinking that through and get a capital plan in place. Make sure you reach out to us in the show notes. Let us know what you think and how you how you're receiving these episodes. And let me know what your capital plan is at least let us know that you're starting to put one together now as a result of hearing all of this. And as always, we thank you for taking the time to be with us because you could literally be anyplace else. And thank you for trusting us to be part of your success team. Go out change lives, make opportunities for yourself and for those around you and be the difference maker. Appreciate your time. We'll see on the next one

Maria Simone:

thanks Jim