Marlene Brehm’s X Factor

She has created win after win in all areas of her life in what we can only describe as Marlene Brehm’s X Factor, she is the ultimate advocate for personal development and shares how she has created the formula to win at life.

Marlene Brehm’s X Factor, the Mindset for the Million-Dollar Career and Relationship

Marlene Brehm is a social entrepreneur, a savvy businesswoman, a creative writer and producer, singer, actor, philanthropist and so much more. She is also the co-founder of CrowdPoint Technologies, a technology company focused on blurring the lines between big data, security and blockchain companies to defend, democratize and deliver value back to the human identity. Marlene’s focus lies in channeling Crowdpoint’s mission and aligning it with her personal passion of fighting against human trafficking.

Marlene Brehm’s X Factor Career

Tricia Love: What was it like growing up, and how did you develop your mindset of resilience and tenacity?

Marlene Brehm: I definitely developed my mindset from my mom. One thing she taught me is that my day doesn’t happen to me. I can control it, and I’m making the changes. It’s really powerful that we can create, no matter what happens to us, no matter what the day is. 

I used to have a sign that said, “It’s never too late to start the day over.” “It’s not how tall you are. It’s how high you aim.” [She gave me] all of these quotes about really just going for it in life. She was making sure that I was successful – my brother and sister are also successful. I really believe it’s my mom. It became a habit [to know] that life doesn’t happen to you. You create your opportunities. You can do it. You have to go for it and [not] let anything stop you or hold you back – no matter what happens. 

Tricia Love: Do you look at yourself in the mirror and tell yourself a quote or a scripture? Is there anything you tell yourself specifically to overcome days that are really hard?

Marlene Brehm: I look at the positive in every single situation, no matter how bad a situation is. I know that can be difficult when we’re talking about really extreme, personal things that people have gone through and are going through. [But] there’s always a positive that can come out of it, always. In the midst of a situation, it may seem like there’s no good that can come of [it], but if we shift our mindset to what the possibilities [are], there’s endless possibilities. It’s just a matter of being able to recognize them.

Tricia Love: Tell us about your business CrowdPoint and how it aligns with your purpose?

Marlene Brehm: CrowdPoint is what we are. It is about organizing the distributed power of the crowd on the distributed power of the blockchain.

We are a company that wants to serve the human identity. If you think about data, it’s the new oil. But data becomes most valuable when it is tied to the human identity. As a blockchain provider, we focus solely on the performance, protection and privacy of the human identity. [Everything] we do in our company revolves around the most valuable digital asset  – You.

In today’s digital world, it seems we are all getting lost. We can change that. The power of a crowd coming together at a certain point in time can make a huge difference.  

Its exciting. My role is to always keep the company grounded in people – they are the reason behind what we do.

There’s a lot of reasons why we’ve been able to create the technology that we’ve created. My husband is really the brains behind our technology. In fact, something we just [shared] is that we are the future exchange partners in creating a big-data and artificial-intelligence-enabled global marketplace that will have products and customers placed within the CrowdPoint blockchain. It’s growing rapidly. 

The Million-Dollar Relationship

Photo: Marlene and Sean Brehm, co-owners of Crowdpoint Technologies

Tricia Love: Can you share a tip on how you work successfully alongside your husband? Is there any insight you can give in regards to your relationship and how you guys make it work?

Marlene Brehm: The biggest thing that we have to remember is this person wants me to win, and I want this person to win. If we can just remember that what we’re about to say or what we’re saying or doing isn’t against the other person, [but] only because you both want each other to win, [it changes things]. 

So much of it is also the filter we are listening to the conversation through. If we listen from this place of negativity, we’re going to hear it from that, versus listening from a place of, “We want to grow as a company; we want to grow as a couple. We both have the same goal. We want people to win. We want the company to win.”  

When we forget that, [that’s] the time we struggle. When we remember, “Okay, everything they’re doing is for my good, for our good, for the company’s good and for the customers’ good.” That is the foundation. Now, let’s have this conversation based on that versus anything else, because [everything] else is destructive. 

Christine Andreu: Do you have a plug for other couples in regards to how personal development has supported you?

Marlene Brehm: We have an ongoing coach, Dr. Libby Adams, and that ongoing coaching helps tremendously. It’s not like a therapy coach, although therapy is awesome.

It’s more of a communication coach that makes sure we are operating at our highest level at all times. She helps us recognize where we might be operating out of an insecurity instead of operating at our highest level, because it’s very different.

Career Goals

Tricia Love: What goals do you have for 2021?

Marlene Brehm: I think giving back is not just important, it’s everything. There’s a couple of things that are really important to me.

I want to continue working with people that have struggled through human trafficking of sorts. About 10 years ago, I had the most phenomenal opportunity to go to India and work with victims of human trafficking.

These women changed my life. They were such a light. They’d been through the most horrific things anybody could ever imagine, and came out of it and had such joy and gratefulness for life. I thought so many of us, including myself, don’t have that level of light, and I haven’t been through what they’ve been through. Approaching life with that light is what really got me. 

Something else really important to me is technology. There’s a company called Bark that I’m a huge fan of, and we’re probably going to do something that will help support that company. There’s a new charity that we’re actually looking to create ourselves with some friends of mine. We want to help kids with what’s happening right now — kids are addicted to their phones.

I haven’t been on social media my whole life, but for those who have, it’s really hard to disassociate that who you are is not how many people like you on social media.

“Who I am and what my worth is, is not how many hearts I get or how many comments I get or how many followers I have. That does not equate your worth. Our worth is based on how we’re living our lives. It’s how we treat other people and what we want to represent and what we want to put out there.”

Marlene Brehm

Tricia Love: I love your vision and how you are so dedicated to the light.

Marlene Brehm: We can be so hard on ourselves and not trust the timing of [things], but at the same time, you don’t know who you’re affecting on your journey to get to wherever that is. It’s in the in-between where it feels like the most struggle is, because maybe it’s not important or you can’t impact people in that timeframe. The truth is that’s actually where you can impact people the most, because it’s the most relatable. Everyone has struggled. Everyone has gone through things, and everyone is trying to get to that next point in their life. It’s that journey that’s the most valuable part. There’s nobody else. Only you can do what you can do in the way that you do it. That’s your superpower. It’s your super power and don’t deny it.

We, also in the process, have to stop comparing ourselves to everybody. One of my favorite analogies is if you were a fish, you would fail tremendously by trying to be a caterpillar. You’re not going to be a good caterpillar because you’re a fish. If you’re trying to be this caterpillar, you’re setting yourself up every single day to fail, while you could actually be the one and only Nemo there is.

Christine Andreu: I feel like there are so many women who are high powered, but who are missing the X factor. How would you describe that to women who feel like something is holding them back? 

Marlene Brehm: I think it’s really easy to say “trust.” It’s easy to say, but it’s not easy to do.

I think one of the other challenges people have is when they get resistance – when they get someone that criticizes them – when they get those haters that are so rampant today. They allow it to take them out of the game for too long. We’ve got to learn to shorten the timeframes.

It’s okay to go through something and need some time to recover from it. What’s not okay is it always being the same amount of time. We need to learn to bounce back faster every time.

You have to train yourself to do that. It actually takes effort. If you can turn the negatives into a positive somehow and gamify it, make it fun for yourself, make sure that you have rewards in place, it can change everything.

Also include your family, and they will become your biggest cheerleaders because there’s something in it for them too. This allows you to keep going, and it keeps you motivated. You also have to reward yourself. It’s really important.

Interview by Tricia Love Vargas and Christine Andreu

Edited by Anissa Durham