Marie Pizano shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.
Hi Marie, thank you so much for joining us today. We’re thrilled to learn more about your journey, values and what you are currently working on. Let’s start with an ice breaker: What’s more important to you—intelligence, energy, or integrity?
Having integrity is crucial, as it implies intelligence, and its presence eliminates unnecessary energy expenditure. Integrity is highly valued by me because it showcases one’s genuine character and the principles they represent, allowing their true nature to shine through. If someone lacks integrity, they pose a danger. Trusting them is impossible, and their inconsistency wastes everyone’s energy. Intelligent individuals possess integrity; our purpose on earth is to live authentically. We cannot afford to waste time.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My narrative revolves around integrity, centered on striving to become the optimal version of myself daily. It’s a journey, akin to that of everyone else, focused on challenging oneself to live with intention. My brand has consistently emphasized establishing a robust foundation; if it’s not solid, it will inevitably develop cracks, necessitating more time for repairs rather than initiating with a solid base from the outset. Consequently, the brand embodies that integrity, prioritizing community and purpose, with a profound spiritual undertone. My brand encapsulates my aspirations, values, and identity, inviting others to join me on this empowering journey. Operating within the realms of media, music, and the arts – all of which profoundly impact our mental well-being – the essence of my brand delves deeper into aligning mind, body, and soul, cultivating purpose, and developing programming and products beneficial to humanity. Ultimately, it’s about establishing a legacy that inspires others to forge their own.
Okay, so here’s a deep one: Who were you before the world told you who you had to be?
I was a little girl who grew up with a single mom who went through some struggles, not only from being a single mother but also from being in an abusive relationship with a man who physically abused her. She stepped up to fight back, and we lived in poverty. But my mother never gave up; she always found ways to overcome, and I guess that’s where I got that from. I saw how she rose above many things. Well, I never knew my actual birth father. The void was filled by my grandfather and grandmother, and eventually a father who came into my life at age 6. That little girl went on a journey with parents who came from certain traumas and yet strove to do better, though not perfectly. They did the best they could while trying to teach forgiveness and an understanding of life.
My father, being a mechanic and having an analytical mindset, and my mother, being creative and an artist, came from a military family and lived around a dynamic that taught a lot about overcoming struggle. I had a grandfather who came from Italy and Mexico, immigrants who fought for what was good in America. I guess that upbringing and essence of energy, that you could take yourself out of poverty and build something, and no matter what comes at you, you can still figure it out, has always been instilled in me. The words, ‘you are enough,’ were always told to me by my grandfather, grandmother, and mother. So, every time someone told me no, I was more determined to go find my yes, which I believe gives me the power.
Throughout my journey, like most, we have heartaches, voids, and choices. I guess I just took all my choices to push myself to be the best version of myself each day. But what I do realize is that the trauma we come from does affect our lives, and just remembering that little girl helps me remember what children go through. Growing up with a mom who is creative and a family that served was a mixture of depth. The one thing I could say is, I always stuck to a higher power, to God, and when you have faith, that embodies a lot. You have to be true to that; nobody is perfect. We all stumble and fall, but you have to have that mindset, that choice, that development, that you can go find your yes. We forget that, but I don’t know where it totally comes from. It’s got to come from a higher source, because it fills me up with a lot of energy to get back up and live on purpose to go find that yes and everybody has that power. We’re just bombarded with all these words and negative energy that distracts that, so it’s about getting back to that and having those dreams and really understanding what life here is supposed to be about. It’s a journey to find our yes.
When did you stop hiding your pain and start using it as power?
I stopped hiding my pain when I finally said enough was enough, and that took many times to repeat and for me to believe it. I was 18 years old when I was in a motor vehicle accident. I was on the back of a motor vehicle, and the headlight of the car that hit us sliced into my leg, just centimeters from the main artery. Right before the moment of impact, I knew something was coming, but I remained calm, shut my eyes, and said, God, please let me live. He did. I rose up without a broken bone, and my boyfriend at the time was my concern. With the adrenaline to help him and my mindset of wanting to live, I guess that was definitely a moment. And I remember feeling such pain not from the accident but because of my then-boyfriend’s parents, who were very harsh back then and saw me as an outsider, like a girl from the wrong side of the tracks, which was not true. The pain from the relationships in my life, from my now former husband, who I thought was my world and would never get a divorce, the father of my children, and then overcoming the anger that he could not heal from things he wouldn’t admit from his past or his upbringing, and the pain from somebody not choosing me, the love I needed. The safety and love I felt I needed seemed always missing. I guess the buildup from not being someone really choosing me first, and I guess the other relationships in the same type of way. I realized I had enough after having panic attacks and suffering for so many years. I don’t know how I got there, other than getting trapped like most of us, and the way we’re programmed, and the way society tells us, almost like Beauty and the Beast, that we have to endure the beast. We have to always tiptoe around others but not give the love to ourselves first. After years of having to endure someone else’s pain and live the life someone else wanted, which was not really listening to what I wanted, and the struggle of more like a ping-pong match and just a business deal, I was tired of that life. I was tired of being around others who thought all these things and big houses and being like in this predicted world was living, it wasn’t for me . Which I just said I had enough of the beast, enough of pushing down that pain that I guess wasn’t even healed from childhood, and I’m going to put me first, and if I don’t, my children are going to suffer worse. I had no choice, but the choice to say, enough, we got to do better. It was the same thing that I guess my grandmother and my mother went through, but my grandfather and father knew how to be that type of man, not perfect but keep family together. I wanted to break through all that, I did’nt have a man around to choose that, so i had to he that for myself. I also said, no matter what society or the community was telling me, I was going to live my life for me and my children, show my children what life is suppose to be—the divorce was a cry for help, but when someone chooses money before you, and anger, that’s a gut-wrenching feeling, a hard wake-up call. So I busted out of all of that, all the excuses, and I didn’t care what it looked like to anyone. I had to break whatever cycle I got into and stop feeling like I was suffocating. I just broke open all those wounds, became broken open, and started being honest, and started to say, I don’t care about the past, that’s the so what. I was tired of emotionally being drained. I don’t want to keep living in silent desperation and fighting someone’s past when they weren’t ready to heal. I was done with the “show”, and others who jumped on the others party train of destruction and determined to set myself free to be me. And I was determined to beat this, whatever it was, and set boundaries.
You must have some deep forgiveness because you can’t hold onto that poison, and it’s easier said than done, and you will make mistakes. One thing I wasn’t going to do out of all of this is compromise myself. We all stumble and fall, but I was determined to get up and figure this life out, and it was all about my children. It was all about getting out from the world telling me what I was supposed to be and feel. I wasn’t going to be like these trophy women with men climbing up the ladder and being nothing but stay-at-home, and living for others who don’t appreciate love like I do, but pretending we all do. I said, hell with it all, I got to find peace and a real world of real people. There are so many moments of impact that you’ve got to take each of those steps to get back up. You have to really look at yourself with all the good, bad, and ugly, and say, I’m making the change to find me, and if others can’t grow with me or accept me and live with love and authenticity, then I’m gone. I’m finding my yes, and I am fighting for my children to know they can too, and know what real, healthy relationships really look like, and the greatest love of all is finding it first inside you and aligning with those that are meeting you where you’re at and really understanding where others are at, but it’s all choices.
I think my biggest driving force is the drive to live and get my children through this life and navigate through all of this mess and know that no matter what, we are each enough, and enough is enough with all the noise and be the examples to help them break all these cycles and set ourselves free and help our children go find their yes.
So the bottom line is it’s different for each of us, but I think the common moment of real impact is when you just become broken open and decide to live. When that happened for me, after all that build-up of pain and writing my book to tell my truth, my voice, my change, my enough, and my forgiveness, which set me free. The moment I allowed myself to find my yes.
Sure, so let’s go deeper into your values and how you think. What would your closest friends say really matters to you?
My children, my family, my determination to see my dreams come to fruition. To create the change and inspire others. To be the example that my children need to see.
Before we go, we’d love to hear your thoughts on some longer-run, legacy type questions. What false labels are you still carrying?
They’re not really false labels I give myself, but it’s still about hurdling over the “labels” and falsehoods of what others have crafted and said about who I am and the label they gave me.
In my line of work, which is in entertainment, media, music, and all about the arts, it does tend to come with people who are very insecure, seeking outside validation, and crawling to get to the top, and many compromise. I’m determined to shake all their labels and say “forgetaboutit”, but with all that has helped me realize my own inner motto, which is finding my yes. These false labels that people put on you are a huge problem, but it’s them projecting themselves onto you and putting labels on you so they can feel comfortable about themselves, which I don’t like.
The free will of others trying to ruin your life and reputation and defame, slap all these labels onto others because they don’t feel good about themselves, and they see you as competition, which is all false as well. So it’s all these false labels that other people create, one must start busting out of that and living in your own truth is the solution, and the truth comes out no matter what. You must know your own label.
I’ve had to deal with a lot of people, especially 20 years ago when I came here and made the announcement of my vision in my dreams. A woman was determined to crush that and tell me who the hell I was, and she and her team had been doing it for the past 20 years, and since then has created such a negative narrative and slapped her label on me. From there, all these women or men put these labels on themselves and on me, and all of that is the most ridiculous thing I’ve had to deal with amongst adults. I already busyrd out of false labels from childhood. But basically, busting out of all those labels by these “adults” and telling them enough is enough is when I set myself free from all their nonsense and projecting. I wrote my own book, I’m gonna tell my story, and I’m gonna navigate my own “label”, because when you stop allowing people to put a label on you, that’s when you really start living. My “label” and my brand are about integrity and authenticity.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.frombarefoottostilettos.com
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marie-pizano-91b46022?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app
- Twitter: https://x.com/mvp3_group?s=21
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1CXfEBLbvj/?mibextid=wwXIfr
- Other: www.MVP3foundation.org
www.MVP3musicgroup.com
www.MVP3network.com
Image Credits
Larry Hubbard, Marie Pizano, MVP3 Foundation
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