Ten UNEDITED Minutes of Marlena's Time

This episode? Yeah… it’s a lot. I opened up about something deeply personal—the stillbirth of my second granddaughter—and a moment that completely stopped us in our tracks. My daughter saw a cardinal yesterday… and in her heart, she knew it was her baby saying hello. And yes… I cried. Like, real cried. But here’s the part nobody talks about—life doesn’t pause for grief. One minute you’re feeling s...

Well… this episode took a turn. 😅 A phone call hijacked my recording halfway through, my tech said “absolutely not,” and somehow I ended up sounding like a caffeinated chipmunk for a hot second. Am I fixing it? Nope. Do I have time for that? Also nope. We’re embracing the chaos today, because honestly… this is what running a business really looks like sometimes. Hit play if you’re here for the re...

In today’s episode of 10 Unedited Minutes of Marlena’s Time , I’m taking you through a very real morning—starting with a frustrating experience on Facebook Marketplace that completely threw off my mood (you know those moments 😅). From there, I dive into something every business owner knows all too well: overwhelm. When your business is growing, busy, and demanding everything from you, it can feel...

Today’s episode is a real one. I’m talking about the balance between short-term goals and long-term vision—and how both are necessary if you actually want to move forward. But we’re also getting into something that’s been on all of our minds…AI. Let’s be honest—we’ve all got a bit of a love/hate relationship with it. It’s powerful, it’s fast, and sometimes it feels like it’s doing too much . But h...

Today’s episode is a little bit of everything—in the best way. I’m sharing an unexpected update from my substitute teaching journey and how I’ve started to find my groove specifically within career centers. It’s funny how the right environment can completely shift your perspective on something. I also talk about the work I’ve been doing behind the scenes creating materials for my daughter’s massag...

In this episode, I’m just showing up—no script, no edits, just honesty. I talk about what it feels like to hit my first goal with this podcast: simply being present and pressing record. But more than that, I open up about the faith it’s taken to start Hook & Rise Creative … even when I don’t have the full picture. This is about trusting the process, doing it anyway, and building something befo...

This is it—episode one. No script, no plan… just hitting record and seeing what happens. In this first episode, Marlena kicks off Ten UNEDITED Minutes of Marlena’s Time exactly how it was intended: real, off-the-cuff, and completely unfiltered. A little bit about why this podcast exists, a little bit of figuring it out in real time, and a whole lot of just starting before everything feels perfect....