Marta Sauret Greca has written books about minimalism, entrepreneurship and changing direction in life.
But some of the lessons behind those books weren’t learned from success.
They came from failure.
Greca, an author, entrepreneur, financial strategist and marketing professional, remembers building a marketing agency that appeared from the outside to be thriving.
She was receiving recognition. She was being featured. She was winning awards.
“I had built a beautiful marketing agency that was doing really well,” Greca explained. “I was getting featured here, featured there, winning all these awards, and then it failed financially epically.”
It is a chapter of her life Greca doesn’t attempt to hide. In fact, she believes the experience ultimately made her better at helping other entrepreneurs navigate their own financial challenges.
“Because of that journey, I feel that I can have a more compassionate heart for helping others in their financial journey,” she said.
The failure also led somewhere unexpected. Greca eventually merged her marketing business with her brother’s company, Mission Sierra Media, where the two now work together generating leads for small local businesses that actually convert and turn into profit for their clients.
“If my marketing agency hadn’t failed financially, I would have never joined forces with my brother,” she said. “Now I get to blend my financial knowledge with my marketing background to fully and authentically serve our clients and be completely transparent about whether our methods will generate good ROI for them.”
It is an experience that fits particularly well with the title of one of Greca’s previous anthologies: Course Corrected.
Greca believes one of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make is believing they need to have everything figured out before they begin — and believing failure isn’t an option.
Sometimes, she said, people remain on a path that isn’t working simply because changing direction feels too much like admitting defeat.
Greca knows the feeling.
“I think that’s why I kept my marketing agency going as long as I did, because I didn’t want to admit failure,” she said. “I was embarrassed.”
Today, her perspective is different.
She believes people sometimes need to disconnect from the noise around them long enough to determine whether they are still moving in the right direction.
For Greca, that includes deliberately unplugging on Sundays, putting away her phone and taking time to recalibrate.
Family before the résumé
Greca’s professional life is only part of her story.
Often, she said, people will ask working mothers how they juggle it all. Greca says she has had the same question asked.
She has become increasingly cautious about the answer.
“Everybody’s different,” explained Greca.
Greca said much of what she built professionally initially came from necessity and the need to help provide for her family.
She also rejects the idea that work and family can be neatly divided into a perfect daily balance.
“Some days you’re more focused in the business,” Greca said. “Some days you’re more focused in the family, and you don’t really balance it all, but neither needs to take away from the other. They can both coexist beautifully when you have clarity on your priorities.”
But she has established one primary boundary among the many often necessary to run multiple businesses with a large family.
“If something has to give, it’s never going to be family,” she said. “It’s never going to be time with the kids.”
That philosophy has roots in Greca’s upbringing.
She came to the United States from Italy when she was 9 years old. Her father had been a Vatican officer in Rome, and her mother was a teacher.
Greca was one of five children.
She remembers both parents working hard, but she also carries with her what she describes as an Italian perspective toward work.
“I will work hard, and yes, I will juggle it all, but there is a time when I stop working and I relax,” Greca said. “It’s about living life and working to live and not living to work.”
Her late mother remains a particularly important influence.
Greca recalled one of their final conversations, when her mother asked whether her daughter would miss her.
Greca assured her that she would.
“In everything I do, it is in memory of her because of her,” Greca said.
A minimalist approach to more than possessions
That combination of work, family and intentional living also helped shape The Minimalist Method, Greca’s first book.
For Greca, minimalism isn’t simply about owning fewer possessions.
She applies the idea to her physical surroundings, mental life and schedule — eliminating distractions and making room for what matters.
The book also provided a more financially accessible resource for entrepreneurs who might not be able to afford expensive coaching programs.
Her writing has expanded from there.
Greca participated in the anthology Powerful Synergy, followed by Course Corrected. Her next project, Completely Wealthy, is scheduled to be released Oct. 1. You can get your copy that day and beyond on Amazon and Barnes and Nobles.
Greca describes Completely Wealthy as a financial guide for women that looks beyond financial tactics alone and considers the whole person, including mindset. It’s a compilation of 9 different women coming together and each have contributed a chapter regarding their respective expert industry to address every facet of a full financial picture.
The book launch will coincide with Completely Wealthy: The Ultimate Wealth Experience, scheduled from 6 to 9 p.m. Oct. 1 at The Club by Enterprise in Allison Park.
You can register for that here.
Greca said proceeds from the book and event will benefit The Global Sisterhood.
Giving back, she said, isn’t something she sees as separate from entrepreneurship.
“I think giving back is part of the model, period,” Greca said. For every dollar made, one should generously donate within their means.
She encourages entrepreneurs to build financially successful businesses in part because financial success creates the ability to help others.
Greca is also host of the weekly podcast Awful, Okay, Awesome, which features entrepreneurs discussing difficult periods in their lives and how those experiences ultimately led them toward passion and purpose.
It is a theme that closely resembles Greca’s own journey.
Success hasn’t meant avoiding wrong turns.
Sometimes it has meant recognizing them.
And sometimes the most important step forward has been having the willingness to change course.
