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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

Mar 04

55% of CEOs Struggle. The Real Problem: No One to Tell.

A Fortune 500 CEO I coached scheduled our calls for 6 AM. It was the only hour when he wasn't performing. 55% of CEOs experienced mental health issues last year, and half report significant loneliness. The structure of leadership creates the struggle.
5 min read
Mar 03

That knot in your stomach knows something

My body was right. My head was also right. The body just had more information.
3 min read
Feb 27

Why Working Less Won't Fix Your Burnout

A client took Fridays off to recover from burnout. Six weeks in, she felt worse. The research now confirms: cognitive strain, not hours worked, is the primary driver of executive burnout.
6 min read
Feb 25

Why Fractional Work Is Risk Mitigation, Not Career Regression

The question came during a one-on-one with a VP of Engineering who'd spent 15 years at Google. "If I go fractional, doesn't that signal I couldn't make it work full-time?"
10 min read
Feb 24

You don't have to earn rest

Rest isn't a reward for productivity. It's a prerequisite for leadership that lasts.
4 min read
Feb 23

The Hidden Pattern in Career Transitions: Why High Performers Struggle Most

The client sitting across from me had built an extraordinary career. VP at a Fortune 500 tech company. Led teams through three successful acquisitions. And she was completely frozen trying to figure out what came next.
9 min read
Feb 20

Forced Emergence vs. Allowed Emergence: Why Strategic Plans Fail When You Schedule Creativity

My workweek is 50% as long as it was in 2019. My highest-leverage results happen in about 4 hours a week. And they almost never happen during the blocks I've labeled "strategic thinking."
7 min read
Feb 18

The Sunday Scaries Returned: What Your Weekend Dread Is Actually Telling You

For the first time in years, the Sunday scaries came back. They weren't measuring how hard my job was. They were measuring alignment.
5 min read
Feb 17

I stopped tracking my time

What happened when I stopped tracking time and started paying attention to something more useful.
3 min read
Feb 16

Scientists Are Spending $14.2 Million to Map What Your Body Already Knows

Scientists just received $14.2 million to map what your body has been trying to tell you. Your gut feeling is a biological system, and the research is catching up.
5 min read
Feb 13

The Elimination Audit: How to Find 7 Hours Weekly Without Adding a Single System

Most productivity advice adds. This audit subtracts. Leaders who eliminate strategically get more done with less effort.
6 min read
Feb 11

The Invisible Load: What 455,000 Women Know That the Research Doesn't Capture

The moment a mother decides to leave rarely arrives with a spreadsheet. The body knows before the mind can articulate the math.
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.

Popular Topics

Energy & Alignment (36)
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The Simplicity Protocol (23)
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Simplicity & Elimination (21)
Ambitious Motherhood (12)
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