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Episode 191: Blue Sky Thinking
Marie opens this episode with two stories. First: the time she wore a wig made entirely of live flowers for her brand photoshoot — heavy, fragrant, slipping sideways — and came away with the image that became the signature of this podcast. Second: the time she ended up in a sheer black dress, Back to the Future sunglasses, holding a teacup and saucer under a giant spotlight in total darkness, having absolutely no idea why — and came away with some of her all-time favorite photos.
Neither shoot had a plan. Neither made logical sense. Her brain tried to talk her out of both.
And that is exactly the point.
Oh — and somewhere in the middle she also accidentally shipped mermaid skeletons, rain boots, and press-on nails to her friend in New York instead of herself. (The 4-year-old is keeping the skeletons.)
Today’s episode is about blue sky thinking: the practice Marie has used for over 15 years in innovation education, teaches inside the Make Ideas Real course, and uses constantly in her own life and work. And if your brain is already saying okay but how do I actually do it — that’s exactly the brain this episode is for.
What you’ll learn in this episode:
Mentioned in this episode:
The Make Ideas Real course — where the full blue sky thinking process lives
The Institute for the Future in Palo Alto and Stanford d.school
Adam Grant’s new book Vibe (Marie heard him speak live the night before recording this)
David Allen’s “someday maybe” list — for all the ideas that don’t make the top 3 but are too good to throw away
Photographer Stacy Keck and florist Natalie Gill of Native Poppy — San Diego
One spot just opened in the Moxie Mastermind — and doors close this weekend. They won’t open again until March. If that spot is yours, reach out to Marie directly now. Find her on Instagram or at dothebloom.com.
How to connect with Marie:
JOIN THE BLOOM ROOM!
We'll take all these ideas and apply them to our lives. Follow me on Instagram at @the.bloom.coach to learn more and snag a spot in my group coaching program!
Marie opens this episode fresh from a weekend in Ventura watching her husband — torn meniscus and all, after barely two rehearsals — get on stage in front of over a thousand people and absolutely nail a reunion show in honor of a beloved friend they lost this year. Was it a little delusional to say yes to that? Absolutely. Was it worth it? You already know the answer.
Which brings us to today’s topic. Because Marie has a confession. And an accusation.
The confession: she is a professional delusional person. Rock bottom in her early 20s to grad school to VP of a B Corp. Left a 15-year career to launch a podcast, build the Bloom Room and the Moxie, and create a multiple six-figure coaching business from scratch in eight months. Now writing a book in six months. All of it built on zero external evidence and one tiny, twinkling glimmer of possibility.
The accusation: you’re delusional too. Or at least you have the capacity to be. And the world desperately needs you to lean into it.
What you’ll learn in this episode:
Mentioned in this episode:
Lizzo and the story of Truth Hurts
Emily McDonald’s Stanford research on identity and destiny
Imaginable by Jane McGonigal — and the Institute for the Future’s motto: Be Ridiculous at First
Grit by Angela Duckworth
The podcast episode Retros Are Everything
The Moxie Mastermind — doors close one week from this episode’s release date for the next six months
Two spots just opened in the Moxie Mastermind — and doors close next week. If you have an idea living in your head and you’re ready to make it real, reach out to Marie directly or apply at dothebloom.com/apply.
How to connect with Marie:
JOIN THE BLOOM ROOM!
We'll take all these ideas and apply them to our lives. Follow me on Instagram at @the.bloom.coach to learn more and snag a spot in my group coaching program!
This episode has been peeking around every corner, asking Marie to make it. It kept coming up in groups, in conversations, in the book she's writing. And today she's finally giving it its own space — because these stories and this practice are some of the most powerful things she's ever experienced and taught.
It starts with a six-year-old girl lying on her bed, watching a piece of paper peel off the wall, feeling a tube of blue glowing light buzzing through her body and up into the sky — and thinking: this is the most beautiful thing I've ever felt.
Everything Marie has learned, practiced, and taught since then has been, in one way or another, about getting back to that.
What you'll learn in this episode:
Mentioned in this episode:
Reach out to Marie on Instagram and tell her: how do you cultivate your own state of wonder and aliveness? She genuinely wants to know.
How to connect with Marie:
JOIN THE BLOOM ROOM!
We'll take all these ideas and apply them to our lives. Follow me on Instagram at @the.bloom.coach to learn more and snag a spot in my group coaching program!
Marie just got back from 8 days in Sardinia and Milan with 9 women — most of them strangers — celebrating one woman's 50th birthday in a villa on one of the most breathtaking islands in the world. She knew two people going in. She's keeping all of them.
And somewhere between turquoise waters, catamaran rides, ship captains cooking pasta, and a DM from a Sardinian listener who heard her podcast the day she boarded the plane — she got to thinking about five contradictions that define everything she teaches, everything she's writing, and everything she believes about what it means to be a woman making her ideas real in the world.
Some of these might rub you the wrong way. That's kind of the point.
What you'll learn in this episode:
Mentioned in this episode:
There's still time to join the Moxie Mastermind for this cohort — but just barely. Reach out to Marie on Instagram or apply at dothebloom.com/apply.
How to connect with Marie:
JOIN THE BLOOM ROOM!
We'll take all these ideas and apply them to our lives. Follow me on Instagram at @the.bloom.coach to learn more and snag a spot in my group coaching program!
After 187 episodes, Marie has noticed something. Every methodology, every thought leader, every spiritual practice, every goal-setting framework is essentially teaching the same three or four things. The problem? They tell you what to work on but rarely tell you how to actually do it.
This episode is the how.
Consider this your DIY framework — four tools, four episodes to pair them with, and everything you need to make any idea real, change any habit, or achieve any goal. It's also the exact foundation the Moxie Mastermind is built on.
What you'll learn in this episode:
The four episodes Marie references:
🎙 Regenerative Thinking — the thought model for managing your focus and perspective
🎙 Feelings Are Your Superpower — the tool for processing emotions instead of stuffing them down or acting them out
🎙 The Blueprint — how to turn your idea into a time-bound, measurable, audacious goal and work it over six months
🎙 Future Trippin' / Self-Hypnosis — how to prime your subconscious mind every morning with a visualization of what you're creating
The Moxie Mastermind September cohort has one to two spots left — and closes to new members in early October. If you want to do this work with Marie and an incredible cohort of women, now is the time. Apply at dothebloom.com/apply or reach out directly.
How to connect with Marie:
JOIN THE BLOOM ROOM!
We'll take all these ideas and apply them to our lives. Follow me on Instagram at @the.bloom.coach to learn more and snag a spot in my group coaching program!
Marie just said yes to writing her book. In six months. Alongside her daughter, who is also writing a book. And she's here to tell you exactly how that happened — and why the sequence of events that followed her yes was nothing short of magic.
But first, she needs to talk about your elephant.
This episode weaves together the science of the subconscious mind, the power of visceral visualization, and one of the most important moments in Marie's own story — because understanding how your brain works is only half of it. The other half is knowing what to do when the big, scary opportunity actually shows up in front of you.
What you'll learn in this episode:
Mentioned in this episode:
How to connect with Marie:
JOIN THE BLOOM ROOM!
We'll take all these ideas and apply them to our lives. Follow me on Instagram at @the.bloom.coach to learn more and snag a spot in my group coaching program!
It's almost September — where are the fireworks? For most of us, fall is a much bigger New Year than January ever will be. In this episode, Marie makes the case for why September actually feels like the biggest reset button in the year, and what it takes to make sure that reset doesn't just get swallowed by everyone else's requests.
In This Episode
September is our new year. Make sure you have the skills to put the things that are most important to you first. This year can be different.
Resources Mentioned
How to connect with Marie:
JOIN THE BLOOM ROOM!
We'll take all these ideas and apply them to our lives. Follow me on Instagram at @the.bloom.coach to learn more and snag a spot in my group coaching program!
Marie is recording this one from a pink house in Sequim on the Strait of Juan de Fuca, with ocean out every window and a ten-year-old Jack Sparrow jumping off rocks on their own private beach. She's in full August mode — off, on the road, and completely in it with her kids.
But she's got a story from the road that's too good not to share. Because what started as a 10-hour drive that turned into a 16-hour day — with four hours of dead-stopped traffic, an electric car and two kids in the backseat — which turned into the best day of the whole trip. And the reason why is exactly what she teaches inside the Moxie.
Problems aren't a sign that something's gone wrong. They're the whole point.
What you'll learn in this episode:
Mentioned in this episode:
A couple of spots still open in the September Moxie Mastermind cohort. Apply at dothebloom.com/moxie-mastermind-form
How to connect with Marie:
JOIN THE BLOOM ROOM!
We'll take all these ideas and apply them to our lives. Follow me on Instagram at @the.bloom.coach to learn more and snag a spot in my group coaching program!
Marie is officially in August — aka her favorite month, aka the month she designed her entire life around so she could be fully present with her kids. She's headed to the Alicia Keys Hell's Kitchen cast party, a road trip up to Washington, Seattle, the Quillute territory, Portland, Bend, and Disneyland where her son will be dressed head-to-toe as Jack Sparrow (with a beard made from his own hairbrush — yes, really). But before she disappears into summer magic, she's leaving you with one of the most important concepts she teaches inside the Moxie: the law of compounding results.
Because here's what nobody tells you when you're in the middle of doing the work and not yet seeing the payoff: that's not failure. That's exactly how it's supposed to go.
What you'll learn in this episode:
Also in this episode:
The Moxie Mastermind September cohort is almost full. Apply now at dothebloom.com
How to connect with Marie:
JOIN THE BLOOM ROOM!
We'll take all these ideas and apply them to our lives. Follow me on Instagram at @the.bloom.coach to learn more and snag a spot in my group coaching program!
Marie opens this episode fresh off the final call of the first-ever Moxie Mastermind cohort — and she is FEELING it. The women were in tears. Every single one named the Moxie group as one of the greatest sources of positive feeling in their last six months. And almost all of them are coming back for round two in September.
From that high, she dives into something she's been coaching heavily lately — a shift that her clients keep describing as total freedom: learning to need nothing in the way of external validation, while giving everything in the way of it.
This one's a game changer.
What you'll learn in this episode:
Also in this episode:
How to connect with Marie:
JOIN THE BLOOM ROOM!
We'll take all these ideas and apply them to our lives. Follow me on Instagram at @the.bloom.coach to learn more and snag a spot in my group coaching program!
From the publisher's feed
We all think and talk about what we’ll do someday, but what if that someday could start right now? If there’s a change you want to make in yourself, in your life, or an idea that you have that you…