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Marissa Brassfield, productivity expert and business coach

Get ridiculously efficient. Then build a life worth the time it frees.

AI and remote work handed experienced professionals something rare: room to redesign how they work from first principles. The efficiency is the easy part. The real work is what you do with the room it opens, and whether the life on the other side is genuinely yours.

Since 2022 I've coached 500+ leaders, entrepreneurs, and executives through that crossing, while co-founding CTOx and holding a 3.5-day workweek for 3+ years. The systems work. The deeper question is who you become when you stop grinding and start choosing.

Subscribe to The Simplicity Protocol: one small move every Tuesday.

Trusted By

Marissa is a force multiplier. She has coached and taught me so many skills throughout the past 10 years to increase my productivity, expand my perspective, and sharpen my strengths and priorities as a founder and a mom. She has turbocharged TFF and our entrepreneurs, and is an ally for anyone wanting to make a dent in the universe.

Christine Gould, 2x Founder & Author

I've worked with Marissa for over a decade. The quality of my life, my work, my businesses, creative endeavors, and my relationships with those I care about most have improved significantly as a direct result of her advice. If you have a chance to work with and know this gem of a human, take it. Your life, career, and soul will be glad you did.

Ryan Rhoades, Creative Director & Author

Marissa exemplifies ridiculously efficient leadership, unmatched communication prowess, and a relentless focus on living a balanced lifestyle. She is an excellent teacher, coach and mentor who helped me dramatically improve my writing, management, client relation, and creative process skills and systems. I'm extremely grateful.

Maxwell Goldberg, Chief of Staff & Podcaster

Marissa is the epitome of what it means to be ridiculously efficient. Since Day 1 I was impressed with Marissa's innate ability to tell meaningful stories, help people see a bigger future for themselves, and create actionable strategies to help people get there. I now save at least an hour every week just by adopting one scheduling technique.

Sydney Fulkerson, Investor & Founder

Start here: Essential Reading

The Real Cost of Saying Yes: Why Subtraction Creates More Than Addition Ever Will

The Real Cost of Saying Yes: Why Subtraction Creates More Than Addition Ever Will

Every yes carries an invisible no. The pillar guide to strategic elimination: the resentment audit, the honor test, and what multiplication by subtraction makes room for.
Building Business Around Life (Not Life Around Business)

Building Business Around Life (Not Life Around Business)

I was pumping breastmilk on an all-day strategy session. That's when everything changed. Stop fitting life into work's leftovers. Here's how I did it.
When You've Outgrown the Container: Why Growth Means Letting Go

When You've Outgrown the Container: Why Growth Means Letting Go

Sometimes the container that got you here is holding you back. You know the feeling. A situation that used to energize you now leaves you drained.
Energy Audit vs Time Management: Why Your Calendar Is Lying to You

Energy Audit vs Time Management: Why Your Calendar Is Lying to You

Time management assumes you're a machine. Energy auditing recognizes you're human.
The Vision-Execution Gap: Why Your Body Knows Before Your Mind Does

The Vision-Execution Gap: Why Your Body Knows Before Your Mind Does

Your body has been trying to tell you for months that something fundamental isn't working.
Body Wisdom as Business Data: Your Sophisticated Early Warning System

Body Wisdom as Business Data: Your Sophisticated Early Warning System

Your body has been sending you memos for months. What if they're actually sophisticated business intelligence you've been trained to ignore?
I Stopped Waiting to Feel Ready—Here’s What Happened Next (Six Habits to Become Your Future Self)

I Stopped Waiting to Feel Ready—Here’s What Happened Next (Six Habits to Become Your Future Self)

Six habits that helped me embody my next-level self and close the gap between clarity and action.
Reinventing Your Leadership Path: Outgrowing the Role You Once Loved

Reinventing Your Leadership Path: Outgrowing the Role You Once Loved

Feeling boxed in as a senior leader? This is your sign to evolve, not escape. Reinvent your path on your own terms.

Latest Insights

Apr 15

Physical Signs You Need to Quit Your Job (Your Body Knows Before You Do)

The body keeps score at work, too. Yours may already be telling you something.
6 min read
Apr 14

Your regulation is everyone else's permission

When you regulate your nervous system, you give everyone around you permission to do the same.
3 min read
Apr 13

The 3.5-Day Workweek: How It Actually Works

The 3.5-day workweek I've run since March 16, 2023: what got eliminated, what AI carries, and the boundaries that make the math hold.
7 min read
Apr 10

Scaling Without Losing Yourself: The Identity Cost That Shows Up Around Year 3

The hardest part of scaling is not the systems. It is staying recognizable to yourself.
5 min read
Apr 08

The AI Side Effects I Noticed After 18 Months of Daily Use

AI doesn't simplify work. It multiplies it. Here's how to recognize the side effects and build the elimination discipline that actually saves time.
4 min read
Apr 07

The threshold where confidence goes to die

The threshold where confidence collapses isn't failure. It's the space between who you were and who you're becoming.
2 min read
Apr 06

What Your AI Resistance Already Knows

Your reaction to AI isn't about technology. Relief, threat, guilt, excitement: your body is telling you something about your relationship to your work.
4 min read
Apr 03

The Real AI Divide: Discernment Versus Speed

The leaders getting left behind aren't refusing AI. They're using it for everything, including the decisions that need their own judgment.
4 min read
Apr 01

What AI Summaries Miss (And Your Body Catches)

AI captures the facts. Your body catches the nuance. Here's why leaders who trust AI output over their own instincts are making worse decisions.
4 min read
Mar 31

The part of you that shrinks every time the business grows

Eight subtractions in eight weeks. Here's what shifted.
2 min read
Mar 30

When AI Increases Your Workload Instead of Reducing It

Most AI advice promises less work. The real pattern? Faster decisions, more output, and a nervous system that never downshifts. Here's what your body already knows.
4 min read
Mar 27

The Recovery Gap: What LeBron's $1.5M Routine Reveals About Your Performance

Elite performers treat recovery as a discipline, not a reward. The science of deliberate rest and what it means for your leadership longevity.
5 min read

Stop Adding. Start Subtracting.

The world keeps accelerating. The Simplicity Protocol helps ambitious professionals do less to achieve more through weekly elimination strategies you can implement in 20 minutes or less.

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