Serial Entrepreneur & Coach on Turning Bankruptcy into a Reboot (Resilience, Rituals & Radical Self-Love)

**Junaid Ahmed** (0:00)
Thank you for tuning in to Hacks and Hobbies with your host, Junaid. We're visited by our amazing guests coming from all walks of life. Want to learn their story, their struggles, and their journey on how they got to where they are today. So, stick around.
What if your lowest financial moment became your fuel? What if bankruptcy wasn't the end but the reboot to your greatness? Today with Dr. Marianne Pagin, a serial entrepreneur and author of Self Empowerment Reset and many others, we'll dive into what bankruptcy taught her about resilience, purpose and the steps she took to rebuild. By the end, you'll walk away with at least two practical strategies that you can apply if you're rebuilding or facing your own setback. Dr. Marianne, welcome to the show.

**Marianne Pagin** (1:06)
Thank you so much, Junaid. I'm so excited to be here. Do you know that I've wanted to be on your podcast for about two years now?

**Junaid Ahmed** (1:12)
Oh my God, you should have told me. Like come on.

**Marianne Pagin** (1:15)
Since I met you in Maryland, I'm like, oh, every time I see you, I'm like, oh, I get to tell him I want to go on his podcast. Oh, I want to go. And I'm so, I'm here.

**Junaid Ahmed** (1:24)
I'm so glad you're here because we've been connected for many, many years. In fact, I think the first time I probably connected with you was probably sometime around 2018, 2019, when Robert Jamor was doing the Magnetic Entrepreneur book series.

**Marianne Pagin** (1:40)
Yeah, that or maybe 2019 I don't know. When was the Guinness Book? I can't remember dates anymore. All I remember is 2020

**Junaid Ahmed** (1:50)
Yes, the Guinness Book World of Records. I didn't make to that event because he was doing that in Canada. But I've been, you know, in his in his world ever since. But I love you. Yeah, I just love your story. I just love what you've been doing.
So talk to me, talk to you. Where is my, where is my?

**Marianne Pagin** (2:14)
We professionally love each other.

**Junaid Ahmed** (2:16)
Yes.
Well, here's the thing. As entrepreneurs, right, we know the struggle. We know the work that it goes into putting a show together, putting our lives back together. And from that perspective, it's it's. We are so supportive of each other as entrepreneurs because we know how, how hard it is to go through there.

**Marianne Pagin** (2:43)
We know how badly it sucks to be an entrepreneur sometimes.
Oh, my gosh, you know what? It is not an easy task. If you have chosen to become an entrepreneur. Yeah, who knows? First of all, I can put on your helmet right now.
It's going to be a little bumpy. It's not always bumpy. It doesn't mean because my road was bumpy, but I've got to tell you, I don't know one single entrepreneur that hasn't had a bumpy road, especially the more successful you are, the bumpier it got. To me, when you talked about the bankruptcy, bankruptcy is just the beginning.

**Junaid Ahmed** (3:24)
Yeah.

**Marianne Pagin** (3:24)
It's just a shift. That's just a shift. It's just an indication that you have now officially shifted into a different dimension. Let's go.

**Junaid Ahmed** (3:34)
So talk to me, what led to bankruptcy? What was happening that was said, I need to reset, I need to file a bankruptcy. Talk to us what that looked like.

**Marianne Pagin** (3:47)
Well, I had been an entrepreneur for a very long time. Although I did at one point, I worked retail for various clothing stores and different shoe stores and whatnot. Always clothing because I liked it. It was fun. I started that way as a teenager and then stayed because I did really well. But as you get older, retail sucks. Retail sucks even when you're younger because your feet hurt so much. I'm just like, yeah, I'm not good. I got to go do something else. Anyways, I took off for Europe for a couple of years and got married and came back. He was not the same kind of person as I am. And so I kind of carried the financial everything.
Financial everything was on my back. And it was getting difficult and it's difficult for people who come here as adults from Europe to adjust. And he was having a tough time anyways. And he did end up doing some work. He did do some work, but there was a lot of not working on his part. And so everything was in my name.
Mortgages, all kinds of different things anyways. And so when the time came and it had to come, it was inevitable. We were two completely different people. And then we just grew more and more and more apart as opposed to together.