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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

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
Feb 10

Why your Sunday dread matters

How to find (and solve) the real problem
3 min read
Feb 09

Olympic Athletes Retire After Peak Performance: The Body Rebels Before the Mind Understands Why

When Olympic athletes retire at their peak, they're honoring what their bodies know before their minds can articulate it: the current container no longer fits who they're becoming.
6 min read
Feb 06

I’ve been reading your replies

You’re asking the right questions
2 min read
Feb 06

What the Research Says About Leaving Who You Were: The Psychology of Professional Identity Transitions

Your title no longer fits. The professional identity you spent years building feels like a costume you're tired of wearing. Research shows these transitions require fundamental identity reconstruction, and the pattern is predictable.
6 min read
Feb 04

Why Your Calendar Needs an Energy Strategy, Not Just a Time Strategy

You had 14 meetings yesterday, responded to 83 Slack messages, and felt busy every single minute. But when someone asks what you actually accomplished, you have to think about it. Here's why your calendar needs an energy strategy.
8 min read
Feb 03

The question nobody asks at thresholds

What to ask instead of “what’s next?”
4 min read
Feb 02

The Super Bowl's 40-Second Play Clock: What Elite Quarterbacks Know About Decision-Making That Most Leaders Ignore

Sam Darnold and Drake Maye make split-second decisions under pressure that most business leaders would consider impossible. Here's what they've learned to trust.
8 min read
Jan 30

20 years of pattern recognition

Your work of greatest value is always hidden in plain sight.
2 min read
Jan 27

The difference between change and evolution

Here's how to tell which you're in.
2 min read
Jan 23

Twenty years of watching people cross.

The pattern I finally recognized.
2 min read
Jan 20

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.
9 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

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