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Marisa Murgatroyd on the Joy of Living Podcast

How to monetize your expertise to generate profits with Marisa Murgatroyd

Do you have any expertise? Monetize your expertise to generate profits. The Ambassador of Joy introduces the World’s leading Expert on Building Online Courses that make Millions of Dollars. Welcome Marisa Murgatroyd the founder of the Experience Product. Marisa is a Top Speaker at Industry events such as MindValley Momentum, LaunchCon, MFA Live and Traffic & Conversion Summit. You’ll thrill as Barry and Marisa discuss the best ways for You to Monetize Your expertise. Marisa has helped some of the most successful online people such as Josh Turner, Mary Morrissey, Jesse & Sharla Jacobs integrate her methodology into their products to reduce refunds and increase sales. This is an Up Beat must share Episode. Please feel free to share YOUR views with us, the show is all YOURS!

Show Notes:

  • 00:45 – Barry’s rousing introduction
  • 14:17 – Marisa about winning at the game of life
  • 24:40 – Why I’ve been honored and I’m humbled to introduce you to the divine Miss M.M.
  • 52:21 – Barry’s Interesting Wrap-up

Important Links:

Barry Shore:

There is nobody that I can think of that inspires noble deeds that I want to introduce you to than the amazing, wonderful, fantastic Marisa Murgatroyd. Marisa, are you here? Are you able to say hello to 356,820 people around the world?

Marisa Murgatroyd:

You know I am but I’m only able to say hello to a single person and speak to each person as individuals. So, I will say that hello and who you are matter.

Barry Shore:

So, this is the genius of why I’ve been honored and I’m humbled to introduce you to what I call or who I call the divine Miss M.M. 

Marisa Murgatroyd:

Why thank you. I’ll take it. 

Barry Shore:

Because she is Marisa Murgatroyd. And Marisa rhymes with Lisa. Her name is not the other way where you might look at it when you see it. So, I’m just going to introduce briefly Marisa and a couple of different points because I want her to go deep into the connection that she made already, individual. Yes, there are hundreds of thousands of people around the world listening to this but really, this is all about you. And Marissa has a wonderful backstory of people who didn’t necessarily believe in her or what she could do and wanted to do. And yet she’s come through and done something quite amazing. She is the leading expert in the world, along with her husband, Murray but she is the leading expert in the world on online education. So, with that as a big hello and a promise, Marisa let’s just dive right in and tell us who are you and why should anybody listen to you when it comes to online education?

Marisa Murgatroyd:

Well, the reason why people should listen to me is not just because I figured out how to make a lot of money in it but because I really understand that when you are trying to support someone in learning something new or you yourself are trying to learn something new and get a huge result in your life you come smack up against a lot of friction. And what most people don’t realize, and I think one of the reasons why the education system here in the US is in so much trouble is they don’t realize the amount of friction that people have when it comes to changing their lives, creating new behaviors, achieving bigger goals, and completing projects that they’ve never been able to do on their own. And so, what I’ve really spent the last six years understanding is how do you really work with human motivation? How do you support people in becoming addicted to changing their lives for the better, rather than just addicted to their cell phones or their inboxes? How do you use the same forces that the top social media, game, and app companies use but to drive people to huge life-changing action? And what I’ve really been interested in is that. How do you get someone who wants to make a change in their life but finds that they’re getting distracted and pulled in all different directions? Life is already busier than it’s ever been before, how do you fit something else in? How do you follow through? How do you actually face things that are challenging? How do you do things that might bump up against resistance to the edges of your comfort zone? And how do you, if you are a teacher, or a coach, or an entrepreneur get others to do that? Because when you’re able to help someone close the gap between who they are and who they want to be between what they want to do and what they feel like they have to do you help them win at the game of life.

Barry Shore:

So, let’s talk about winning at the game of life. By the way, I want to mention to everybody, I’ve had the great privilege of learning from and learning with Marisa, I’ve attended her seminars and workshops. And when she says the past six years that is true, except for one thing. When she said six years it’s really equal to possibly 30 years of anybody else’s life because she works. I don’t know if she does sleep. It must be that she does because she looks so beautiful all the time so she must get some hours of sleep. But her energy level, and I don’t just mean frenetic, I mean her energy level of focus, and the ability to bring to bear a concentrated understanding of what it is that she wants to accomplish. In this case, she laid it out. How does one utilize the same forces that literally glue you to the rectangle to now glue you to your own blossoming? I want to unpack a little bit of what you just said and then we’ll go further. I’m just finishing a book called Connected or Distracted. And that’s a question. When people pick up that rectangle are they doing it to connect to something that is positive, purposeful, powerful, and pleasant in their lives? Or are they doing it to distract from themselves, which by the way, does not help anybody? When you’re distracted you’re not gaining for yourself, your family, your friends, and other living beings. So, let’s talk about some of the discoveries that you have made that use things called gamification, or the ability to attract people to want to put in the time and effort, it does take effort, am I correct time, to bridge the gap, as you say, between where you are and where you want to be?

Marisa Murgatroyd:

Absolutely. Well, the first thing that you need to understand is human psychology and how the actual brain works. And this is relevant for you whether you just want to achieve better results in your own life, or whether you’re the kind of person who wants to change the world or at least change individual lives. And so much of the way we’re taught and the way we learn is working against our biology so it feels like we’re swimming against the current to change things. And so, when you understand that inside of our brain is a region called the nucleus acumens, and I call that the dopamine button. Because dopamine is a chemical inside of our brains, the neurotransmitter, that when it’s pushed we feel good, we feel a rush of happy chemicals and joy. And clearly, Barry is high on dopamine pretty much all the time over there. So, you get to be like Barry all the time when you become familiar with the reward center in your brain, and you understand how to push your own dopamine button. So, when we’re moving towards our goals, when we feel like we’re winning our brains release dopamine. So you want to keep winning. It’s why humans love to win, and we hate to lose. And that really goes right up here. So, when you understand that, when you understand the forces that drive us into action, that keeps us motivated then you’re able to work with those forces, you’re able to kind of hack yourself. And understanding this you can create record-breaking Olympians, or you could turn yourself into Homer Simpson, who never gets off the couch and drinks beer all day. So, when you understand how to work with your own reward center, and basically create a game that you can win, and if you’re the type of person influencing other people, create a game that they can win. All of a sudden, you’re really recognizing, you’re becoming the game master versus someone who just has something to share or wants to teach or whatever it happens to be. And you can become the game master of your own life, or the game master for people who are following you, who are learning from you. So, I can talk about different techniques for pushing the dopamine button but it looks like you got something you want to say.

Barry Shore:

Let’s do this. I want to just go back to something that Marisa is now putting in front of us. So, Barry Shore is the ambassador of joy. Joy is an acronym that stands for journey of you. And that’s really what Marisa is talking about now. So, when she talks about dopamine, you can look it up. Really dopamine is dope, let’s be blunt. Dopamine is a positive, purposeful, powerful, pleasant force in your being, in your world that exists whenever you want it and have access to it. What Marisa is sharing with us now and what she’s been able to do with her husband, Murray, and she’ll talk about the concept called experience apply, is to bring this word called education out of the shadows of education into the bright light of happiness and love and I want more of that. So, let’s talk about some techniques that you use for the many tens of thousands of people that you’ve been able to help get themselves motivated. You don’t motivate people. Yes, you do, of course. But that people become so motivated to want to do more. Let’s unpack three techniques that you use regularly wonderful, Marisa?

Marisa Murgatroyd:

Yeah, absolutely. So, I developed something I call the experience formula. And these are 10 things that you should do, and 10 things that you should avoid if you want to tap into your natural motivation and unlock the motivation in other people. But I’m going to start from the top. And the top really has nothing to do with gamification, then I’m going to go into some of the gamification drivers. Now, the very first thing is to identify what I call a clear mission. This isn’t necessarily your life mission or your purpose. It’s the mission of a particular course or product, or if it’s in your life, something you want to accomplish, a goal, a project. Because you can’t win the game if you don’t know what winning looks like. And so, often people are trying to play games with no set endpoint, with no wind state. And that’s obviously going to be something that you’re going to struggle in. So being able to clearly define the wind state. And I say, by clearly defining it, exactly what are you or someone else going to do, be, feel, overcome or achieve. And you know you’re clear and specific enough when you could actually photograph or film someone crossing the finish line to what I call mission accomplished. So, what is that mission accomplished date? So for example, I’ve got a signature course where I help and I’ve helped over 5000 people launch online courses successfully. And the mission for that course is to design, launch and profit from what I call an experienced product. And that’s a course that really leverages all 10 of these core experiences, to design, launch and profit from an experienced product in 12 weeks or less. Now, instantly you know exactly what you’re going to do, you’re going to design and launch, you’ll also profit from, which means making at least some money, and you’re going to do it in 12 weeks. So, you can see someone designing, launching, and profiting. You could see money exchanging hands or ending up in a PayPal account or a bank account, or whatever it happens to be. Now, because of that, that particular course has driven over $10 million in sales. And I’ve done over $30 million in sales for all of my online courses and programs. Because when I offer this opportunity to people they know exactly what they can do, they can visualize it in their mind’s eye. Now, even if you look at major education companies like masterclass.com, they’re getting it completely wrong. So for example, masterclass.com has courses like Thomas Keller teaches space exploration. Now, how do you know when you’ve achieved mission accomplished? Is it going to space? Well, there are only five civilians in the history of mankind who have ever gotten the space. So, the chances of winning that mission are not particularly high. So, is a masterclass in the game of changing lives? I would say no. They’re in the game of getting attention. Because their business model is simply about getting people to pay month after month for a ridiculous amount of content but not necessarily to use that content to implement that content to change their lives. Another example is Simone Biles teaches gymnastic fundamentals. That’s also on masterclass.com. So, how do you know when you’ve crossed that finish line? Are you going to have muscles like Simone Biles? Are you going to have a gold medal around your neck? How do you know when you’ve crossed that finish line? That’s pretty much impossible to tell. So, this is the difference between traditional education, which is about learning for the sake of learning because of curiosity, whatever it happens to be, and what I consider more adult education, where adults learn because they want to solve a problem in their life, they want to get a result, they want something that they don’t quite have. So, if we’re going to spend our discretionary time and energy on learning a lot of times we want to accomplish something. Not some people who read books just for the sake of it but as people get busier and busier, and you have this constant dopamine hit on your phone, what’s going to make them follow through and do something? We’re all in a state of distraction. So, if you’re able to really focus people’s attention like a laser on one particular goal they feel like that’s achievable. I can cross that finish line, I can do that in 12 weeks. They know what they’re after so they’re able to focus all their energy and attention on that goal, single-mindedly.

Barry Shore:

Let me just interrupt, and put you on pause for just one moment because of several things. Number one, everything that Marisa is discussing, by the way, you can go to my website barryshore.com and there are resources for Marisa and you want to do this. So you don’t have to write down everything. It’s not that she speaks fast, she is giving forth a giant river of goodness. What she’s doing here is sharing with you that you are on that river with her sharing in the goodness. You can visualize. Remember, she said, visualize crossing the finish line. And so, go to the website barryshore.com, it’s all there. The key element here is that it can be done in a particular amount of time, 12 weeks. Everybody who has some sort of goal can begin to learn how to articulate it, how to become clear and accomplish it in 12 weeks. And I’m telling you, Marisa is good for her word, it will work. If you work the program, the program works. It’s quite remarkable. And the fact that she’s worked with thousands of people and she herself has sold millions and millions of dollars. That’s great because we really only care about you. Remember, as Marisa started it all when I said hundreds of thousands of people are watching but she’s talking to you. You, wherever you are in the world right now. This is genius. I’m telling you, I have benefited tremendously from Marisa, and you know that I’m pretty good at what I do. I am Joy. I am dopamine. Yes, we all agree. But I like crossing the finish line, designing, launching, and profiting. So, I just wanted to go back again and listen carefully to what she’s saying here because it will work for you. So now, you mentioned that’s number one, get that mission clear. What comes after that?

Marisa Murgatroyd:

So, once you have that mission defined, and a lot of people don’t. If you think about it, and you think about all the things you’ve tried to do in your life. I want to lose weight. Did you say I want to lose 10 pounds in the next, say 10 weeks? That’s a very different thing. And just so you know I actually had that goal at the beginning of January. I was going to stand on stage the first week of March and deliver to 2000 people around the world for 27 hours straight over three days. And I knew from the previous year that when I’m on stage like that, and it’s a virtual audience that there are cameras hitting me from every direction. And I didn’t like the way I looked the last time around. So I was like, okay, I want to look and feel amazing when I step on that stage. And this was the first, second week of January, I got two months to do it. I’m at 128, I want to be at 118. And I’m 4ft 11 for context so I’m a really tiny human being, okay. So, 118 for someone of my stature it’s not super twiggy or anything like that, I still got some meat on the bones just so you know. And I did it, I pretty much dropped about a pound a week. And when I got on the stage I was just shy of 118. And so, that kind of goal you can attain. And there are two reasons you can attain it. One, it’s tangible, it wasn’t a vague intention to lose weight for no particular reason. It was this very, very specific end date. And also, I imagined a future version of myself. So, the second principle is the idea of future self. It’s not just about what you’ll do through the mission, it’s about why you’re doing it and what life is going to be like on the other side of that. So, I had this clear mental image of me standing on that stage looking my best, feeling my best, being completely switched on in the zone, inspiring people around the world, and being a role model, not just in what I said, but in having taken care of myself to be at the top of my game, and also feeling great and looking great. So I had that vision. So, every time I wanted to go for the candy bar, or whatever it happened to be, I had that vision on that stage and I was counting down to that vision. So, you don’t want to just have that what you want to do or set this goal. You need to ground it in a future state of what exactly will life look like on the other side so you can remember that when you face resistance, things get hard.

Barry Shore:

By the way, things do get hard. I want to go back to what Marisa taught us in the very beginning. Friction is an issue. When you utilize oil as everybody knows then you can reduce the friction and things become smooth. That’s really what she’s talking about here. This is slick stuff, meaning good. She’s working on what we call VVE. Verbalize, visualize, emotionalize. That’s what she’s talking about here. And she uses it for benefit. Because she, Marissa understands the words how who and why. How means helping others win. That’s her role in life, and she’s great at it. And who is, winners, help others. That’s what she’s doing right now. And the why is, winners, help wisely. So, she’s articulating and showing us what it means to verbalize, visualize and emotionalize so that when she is thinking about her future self she doesn’t just have a goal, the goal has her, and it becomes one with her. By the way, everything that’s happening with Marisa happens with you, this is all about you. You becoming the best you possible. She’s just guiding us along in the most effortless but effortful way, it becomes fun. Remember the dopamine? Yeah, you can dig it, you can enjoy it. Okay, that’s two. How about one more?

Marisa Murgatroyd:

Well, actually, just because you went there I’m going to set up the first three but then some of the more fun gamification stuff happens after. But without the first three, what I call the big three, none of the rest of it works. You can’t put gamification without having these first three in. So, you have the what and what is so crystal clear, you can photograph yourself crossing the finish line, you have the why, which isn’t just like a vague sense of oh, yeah, I want to lose weight so I feel better, that why was a future vision of myself that I could imagine in my mind’s eye. And then, of course, there has to be a clear how, which is what I call the bird’s eye view. So mission, future self, bird’s eye view. So, this is if you were to zoom up, can you see an exact path from getting from say, yes, I accept this mission, I’m going to be 118 pounds by March third, to how am I going to actually do that. Because a lot of people have that goal but then they can’t get there because they have no way to actually say lose the weight. So I discovered just so you know in this particular instance that if I did intermittent fasting, I only ate between 12 and 6 pm and at 9 and 12 I took some green tea, Matcha Green Tea, then I would shred pounds, and I can maintain my weight this way too. And then every two weeks I did a four-day reset diet, which is just eating dinner time and then green tea throughout the day, I shredded pounds. But before I discovered that I had an intention but I had no way of realizing that intention. So, that bird’s eye view or the path between mission and mission accomplished is really important. And a lot of times that’s where mentors come in, that’s where coaches come in, that’s where trainers come in, people who’ve gotten the result that you want. So, a lot of those other training like I said, those masterclass.com training and Simone Biles teaches gymnastic fundamentals, there is no real what, at least anything that could be photographed. There’s no real why. Why do you want to learn gymnastic fundamentals? And there’s no real how in the sense of it’s not a clear pathway laid out. It’s just whatever she wants to teach when she goes live versus here’s a clear system for getting the goal and the result that you want. Because it’s hard to have a path if there’s no goal because a path goes somewhere. Makes sense? Otherwise, you’re just teaching stuff. So, those three have to be in place for all the fun stuff that comes in the other seven to actually work. So I want you to know that.

Barry Shore:

Again, Marisa is talking about results. She’s right. If you just want to learn stuff, okay, there are plenty of places to learn stuff. You may or you may not. We’re talking about results. And I have been dealing with human beings, especially a very, very difficult one for decades. That’s me. 

Marisa Murgatroyd:

You must know my family. 

Barry Shore:

But when you’re working with results, and you taste it, it tastes so good, it’s so energizing. Because as she said so beautifully, we like winning. And winning doesn’t mean that you’re defeating something else. What it means is you’re growing, and growing is a beautiful process. Just think of those flowers that you’re cultivating, and the blossoms that come out in the springtime and such. What I’d like to do just before we go to a brief break is, I want everybody to understand that what you’re hearing right now is one of the most dynamic, positive, purposeful, powerful, pleasant people I’ve ever had the opportunity of interacting with in my life. Marisa didn’t always have it this way. I would like you to spend just a few minutes and then we’ll have a break and then we’ll come back and tell us about some of the less than positive influences that you had from your father who told you, of course, Marisa, you can do all this, no.

Marisa Murgatroyd:

Well, I always like to say that I was born a planned child. And what I mean by that is, from the day that I was born my dad had a plan for me. I was even born in the planned community of Reston, Virginia. The day I was born he started mutual funds for my college education. And he could imagine my entire future laid out before me. But there’s one thing that he forgot from the plan, one very, very important thing, he forgot me, who I was, and what I wanted to do. My dad’s a macroeconomic adviser, which means he restructures financial systems around the world. And he saw it in his mind’s eye this balance sheet, that you put this, this and this in here he would end up with a happy and successful daughter. He even gave me four spreadsheets every single month to track my allowance, my clothes, my education, and my health care, he wanted to teach me the value of a buck. And he even had me keep my money with him until I was in college. He called it the bank of dad. And it gave me a higher interest rate than all the other banks. But like I said, the plan did not include me. So I was a born artist and I’d spend my time making stationery, origami flowers, beaded necklaces, and all this kind of stuff but my dad couldn’t see how that would translate into me being a successful human being supporting myself. And he tried to teach me that I needed to plan for the future, I needed to get this perfect college education, and then a career and a job would roll out at my feet. And he told me that in order to do that I needed straight A’s, I needed to follow a mentor, I needed to do all of these sorts of things and I did. I ended up being an incredible student, I went to the best schools, my dad was sharing my resume with people when I was in high school and I remember being so embarrassed because I wanted people to see me not to see my resume but to see me for who I was, and not what I was doing. But my whole family seemed to buy into this vision for my life. I mean, even my grandfather said, it’s obvious that your father’s invested a lot of money in you. And I remember how painful that felt because I felt like I was just an investment and that eventually he would take this investment to the bank and cash in on it. So, I always felt that who I was, and what I wanted didn’t really matter. And that narrative progressed through college. And when I graduated from college my dad gave me a note saying, basically, I hope you’ll go work for a well-respected institution. And that for him is what success looks like. But that was never what success looked like for me. And so, it took me so long to figure out who I was as a person, and what I wanted. And I felt like I had to fight to be me in my family. And I feel like so many people have to fight to be them in the world. And so, I’ve become such a great stand for other people, and their transformation, expressing who they are in the world and doing what they want to do. Because it took me so long, 33 years before I found who I was and discovered what I wanted, and had the courage to go for it versus staying on the path that was laid down for me. Because I remember as a child it felt like that path was laid down in concrete, and redirecting that river of concrete was not so easy. And I feel like so often we’re given a path but it’s not our path in life. And that’s why being able to learn, being able to achieve goals, and being able to change our lives in the way that we want is so important. Because so often, we are born who we are but somewhere along the way we lose track of that. And for me to be able to not just help people rediscover who they are and what they’re meant to be but to actually have the courage to do it, and to be able to follow through on their dreams that light me up because there was no one there to support me as a girl. And I know what courage it takes to say this is who I am and this is what I want and I’m going to go for it. So I want to help everyone however I can.

Barry Shore:

So, we’re going to have a brief break from our sponsors who love the show and you like supporting them and such. We’ll be right back after this brief break and we’re going to go deep dive, we’re going to pull our feet out of the concrete and we’re going to talk about courage. We’ll be right back after these brief messages. 

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Barry Shore:

Good day, beautiful, bountiful, beloved immortal beings and good-looking people. Remember you’re good-looking because you’re always looking for and finding the good and we have good in abundance. Our cup runneth over with good. An amazing, beautiful, slim being named Marisa Murgatroyd. And we’re talking about the ability to change and the greatest part of that is having the courage to be able to change. In business, we have a great saying it says, change is good you go first because people shrink from change. Because it takes courage, takes work, it takes effort, it takes time, it takes energy but the results and the benefits are astounding. So Marisa, as we were talking before, let’s talk about courage. What does it take? How can you as one being encourage one other being to really go forth and pull themselves out of that concrete, and really get out there and make a change in their lives for the better?

Marisa Murgatroyd:

Well, do you know where courage comes from? The research shows exactly where courage comes from. So, do you want to guess? 

Barry Shore:

The heart.

Marisa Murgatroyd:

Well, yes, from a physiological perspective but it actually comes from confidence. It comes from belief. The belief that you can do it. However, how does someone develop confidence in belief when they’re doing something that they’ve never done before? And that actually takes us back to the experience formula, and core experience four, which I call constant winds combined with core experience nine, which I call unstoppable momentum. So here’s the thing, people aren’t just going to all of a sudden wake-up and feel confident. The vast majority of people don’t have that moment where basically, the sky parts, and confidence comes down like a lightning bolt.

Barry Shore:

Even Barry Shore with his staff opened up and say, hello, confidence.

Marisa Murgatroyd:

It doesn’t work that way. And so, without confidence you can’t have courage, unless you are just simply full hardy, taking risks into the unknown. But if you want to have that confidence that comes from real-world experience and feedback that you can, that’s where confidence comes from. So, the way you do that is through constant wins. So, once you know the mission you understand why it matters and how to get there. You want to create a game you can win and you do that through constant wins. So, if you can get yourself and someone else into action, and by action, I mean, even the smallest action, it could be doing one thing. Say you want to rearrange your desk, or your house, maybe you start with your desk, whatever it is, maybe you start with moving one sheet of paper. You want to start super small so there’s almost no resistance that anyone no matter who they are, no matter their background, no matter their experience, no matter their health, none of that matters that anyone can do it. And then, reward that action, celebrate that action. I do that through animations, I do that few sound effects, I do that through customized messaging, I do that in so many different ways. And then you’re like, wow, I must be really talented. Let me try this, again because the dopamine is starting to fire. This feels good, I want to do more of this. And then you do something else. And that’s something else is maybe just a little bit more challenging. 4%, the magic number is 4%. If you take an action that’s 4% greater than your current level of skill you will rise to the challenge. If it’s 40% you’re like, I just can’t do it, and give up. If it’s not more challenging at all you start to get bored, and you disconnect. So, if you’re constantly able to sequence wins, each win is a little bit more challenging than the next, you can get into this massive cycle of momentum. And before you know it it’s easier to keep going than it is to stop. And that’s when you stack the wins. So, say you do something or you watch something you take action you get better you win, then you watch something else, you take action you get better you win, and onwards and upwards all the way to mission accomplished. So, if you’re able to design a series of steps like that you can propel yourself and you can propel other people into wins. And you’re celebrating each step of the way. Because what happens so often we go for something big in life. And it takes three months, it takes a year, and it takes three years to actually achieve that goal. A lot of people aren’t able to keep their momentum and their confidence and their courage up for three years or three months without any feedback that they’re on the right track that they’re winning. But if you’re winning every step of the way, if you’re getting those dopamine hits every step of the way that fuels the momentum to keep going even when things get hard. So, when you hit those challenges you’ve got enough momentum to just shhh right over the challenges versus what happens where a lot of times people are dropped in the deep end of the pool, and they can’t swim. So, you want to versus easing one step at a time and then walking towards the deep end gradually. And that’s the difference of how you really create a game someone can win. You get that dopamine firing, you don’t save it to the end when someone reaches that final goal. You feel it all the way through.

Barry Shore:

So, here’s a great place to regroup, and then go forward. And everybody that’s listening and leaning in again, just go to the website barrshore.com and a great amount of information and transformations. See information, by the way, is readily available on the internet. We’re talking tonight with Marisa Murgatroyd. This is transformative. It makes such a difference. Information that’s out there. Transformation is the key. The ability to build that movement, that great we call the Mojo. When you get your mojo working, and you’re going from strength to strength and win to win, as she said, the magic number is 4%. Oh, hello, she didn’t say 5, she didn’t say 10 or 20, it’s 4%. You can do it incrementally. And it just feels so good that dopamine keeps flowing into you. So, let’s talk about this idea of building confidence and what it is that you and Murray, your husband, have done in the online course creation business. Because it is a big business, it’s a multi-billion dollar business. And people know you go online, and you’re going to learn how to become a chef, or you’re going to learn how to do this, you’re going to learn how to do that. But let’s be blunt. Most of the time those courses are like you talked about masterclass, they tend to be boring. What have you done that makes it different? What is it about Marisa and Murray bringing together all the things that you’ve experienced for the past number of years that made things click and say, wait a minute, wow, words of wisdom, words of wonder, I need Barry Shore in my life? How do I put that into an online course?

Marisa Murgatroyd:

Well, absolutely. So, one of the core experiences, number five actually, is what I call peak emotional experiences. And this is the idea that we learn, as a whole human. We don’t just learn from our heads, we learn in this fully embodied way and most education is only talking to your head. So, if you can engage people at all levels, engage the five senses, engage their hearts, engage them at whatever soul level that you believe in, so you’re really engaging the entire human being, and you’re actually able to create things like pattern interrupt, surprise, the light, where people don’t feel like it’s just this repetitive, monotonous routine. That’s going to be really kind of amazing. And so, I teach people not just how to launch online courses but how to figure out what could you create a business about, whether you’re a coach or consultant or healer or service provider. And some of them end up launching courses and building pretty big businesses. And we’ve also developed software. So, if you have a course you can put it in the software called Xperiencify. And the software adds gamification. It can add peak emotional experiences from the standpoint of animations and celebration screens, it can run feedback loops based on the actions you’re taking or not taking, send voicemails, text messages, and emails that are customized to you. So, we’re able to create this experience where it feels like you’re changing the course by going through it. And that feels really good. Because so often, we just feel anonymous, like another nameless, faceless person, and nobody cares about our experience. So being able to care, being able to customize, and also being able to celebrate, and have these peak emotional experiences, and that can be really integrated into the design of the curriculum itself. So, rather than just teaching to someone’s head, you might tell stories, you might do exercises, you might do visualizations, and you might just engage people in the material in a different way. So, there are a lot of different ways to do it. And the magic of all of these things coming together creates an educational experience online that’s unmistakable and unrecognizable from the standard things you find on Udemy, or whatever it happens to be. One of them alone is interesting but it’s all of them stacked together that creates this.

Barry Shore:

So this is really wondrous. You used a word that I resonate with, which is magic. Because that’s really what life is all about. It is magical. And you’ve also taught us two wonderful words. Everybody knows the word pie because you can’t build a building with pie. It’s just so fundamental to life. And pee, everybody has to pee every once in a while throughout the day. But you define pee as peak emotional experience. That’s really what life is about. You say I want to go and be involved in that class or that course because you don’t have to articulate. Just say, I feel it. When you feel something you want to be close to it. And pi stands for pattern interrupters, as you said so wonderfully, Marisa. It is so important that we have to shift our perspective every once in a while. Now, for whatever reason, I don’t know why Marisa, but when people pronounce shift, oftentimes they drop the F and the other stuff happens. So, you got to be careful with your F and Fs, and make sure that shift happens. Because if you don’t pronounce the F the other stuff happens. So, you want to make sure that you are really touching your inner being. So you and Murray have really done something that I can attest to. You have transformed what we’ll call the educational process by bringing together those things that people love in life; fun, magic, peak experience, and interrupting. Because if you interrupt what’s going on I have a chance to gain your attention. If you gain attention what happens after that? After you gain attention now, what do you do? So what do you do? 

Marisa Murgatroyd:

Keep it. 

Barry Shore:

Right. How do you keep it?

Marisa Murgatroyd:

This is where it’s not just about talking to people but it’s engaging them in whatever it is that you’re doing, and ideally getting them into action towards a goal. So, everything that I do is getting people into action towards a goal. And that’s a really great way. You can keep people’s attention with distractions, or whatever it happens to be. But I like to keep people engaged by helping them get what they want in life. The great Zig Ziglar said you can have everything you want in life if you’ll just help enough other people get what they want. 

Barry Shore:

Thank you, Zig. 

Marisa Murgatroyd:

Yes. So, I am fortunate enough to be a millionaire, to have lots of money flowing through my bank account, to wake up every day on purpose making an impact. Now, the reason I do that is because I help people get what they want. And for me, it’s not about all of those rewards. The biggest reward is that I get to do what I’m born to do while helping people do what they’re born to do. And I can’t think of a life better spent than that. And to be handsomely rewarded for it because I’m creating real value in the world for real human beings to step into who they are so they can create the transformation they’re here to create. I love being able to do what I get to do every single day. And that’s what I want other people to do is, to fall in love with their lives, to live this one wild and precious life in a way that honors that life and the gift that they’ve been given and the gift that they have to give.

Barry Shore:

Isn’t that beautiful? To fall in love with your life. The overarching idea that Marisa has is called live your message, fall in love with your life. What a wonderful way to live. I call that lily, life I love you. That’s lily. It’s the acronym for someone who’s named Lily or you have a lily. We just had Easter the other day so Easter lilies. Life I love you. It’s just so wonderful. I’m sorry to say but our time has come to a close. So, I’m going to ask you three quick questions. Are you ready? 

Marisa Murgatroyd:

Yeah. 

Barry Shore:

Number one, will you come back again?

Marisa Murgatroyd:

I’ll always come back and have a conversation with you, Barry because I need those extra Barry hits. That’s the dopamine hits, the Barry hits. And if you’re listening you know what I’m talking about.

Barry Shore:

Thank you. I’m deeply touched. Number two, you have 80 seconds only to answer this question. What is your most fervent desire?

Marisa Murgatroyd:

All I want to do is create. I always like to say, paint on bigger canvases, speak on bigger stages, do what I love to do every moment of every day, and be able to make a big impact with it. So, I also want to change the global education system because I think it’s fundamentally broken and I’m on a mission to reinvent online education around the world so results and engagement become the norm and not the exception. Because as Maya Angelou famously said, when people know better they do better. And if you aren’t doing what you really want to be doing in your life you can start to know better so you can do better. And who knows, you may have some knowledge that will help other people do better, too.

Barry Shore:

The third, in front of 362,813 people around the world may give you a big hug? 

Marisa Murgatroyd:

Yes. 

Barry Shore:

Okay. Now, hugs stand for heartfelt, unlimited giving. Are you ready? 1-2-3 roar.

Marisa Murgatroyd:

I felt that

Barry Shore:

And we have been listening to The Joy of Living with your humble host Barry Shore and our amazing, wondrous being guest Marisa Murgatroyd. And you’ve tuned in to this show for one reason and one reason only, as she pointed out in the very beginning because you care most in the entire world about you, YOU. And you know that on this show when you follow the three fundamentals of life, which she also articulated, number one life has purpose. You lead a purpose-driven life you go mad. Mad stands for make a difference. And when you make a difference in life you uncover the power, and the sequence of everyday words and terms, such as smile. Smile stands for seeing miracles in life every day. Or as my eight-year-old niece says, seeing miracles in everyday life. And then you can create the kind of world you want to live in, as Marisa says, create a world where you know better, you do better and you make a difference and impact. You are causing, rethinking, enabling all to excel. And you can do it in a fun, wonderful, engaging, pleasant, experiential way as she’s outlined here. And you do that and guess what? You are going to internalize, utilize and leverage the six most important words that you’ll ever learn. And they are choice, not chance determines your destiny. You have chosen to tune into The Joy of Living, you’re choosing to follow along with Marisa and learn her process. Because when you do that you’ll make the world a better place and we need that. And use the two most important words in the English language three times a day, every single day for the rest of your life. Thank you, thank you, thank you to harmonize and network kindness. When you do all this, you will be happier, healthier, and wealthier. Who doesn’t want that? So, our blessing from Marisa and Barry is go forth, live exuberantly, spread the seeds of joy, happiness, peace, and love. Go mad, go make a difference. Bye now. 

Marisa Murgatroyd:

Bye.

About Marisa Murgatroyd


Marisa has always used media to understand and magnify her experience of the world. From her early days of carefree writing and photography to her decade-long career as an award-winning video, print, and web producer, Marisa has spent her life creating media. After winning multiple awards in creative writing and photography as a high school student, she went on to study the art and science of media production at Brown University and got a Masters in communication design at a prestigious London art school.