We start the year—or a new chapter of life or a new project—with a vision. We know what we want to create, who we want to become, and what we want to move toward next. And then…we stop there.

In this episode, we talk about why having a vision isn’t enough—and the single factor that determines whether your idea actually becomes real: belief. Not surface-level optimism, but sustained belief that you can do this, even when doubt, old patterns, and blind spots show up.

There is always a new way to think about how to do something. And often, we can’t see where we’re stuck in our own thinking—especially when we don’t yet have an example of the person we’re becoming. This is one of the biggest places I see people stall, particularly women leaders who are looking for models of strength rooted in feminine energy rather than burnout or hustle.

In this episode, we explore how to move forward even when you can’t find “someone exactly like you” who has already done what you want to do.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode

• Why belief—not vision—is the real differentiator between ideas that stay ideas and ideas that become real
• How staying stuck often comes from unseen thought patterns, not lack of effort or talent
• Why waiting for the perfect mentor can keep you frozen
• Three powerful ways to find mentorship when no single example exists

The Three Ways to Find Your Mentors

1. Put yourself in rooms with women who bring out your best.
   Surround yourself with people who keep your energy high, your vision alive, and your momentum moving forward.
2. Build a mosaic of mentors.
   Find multiple women who are doing different parts of what you want to do—leading, creating, parenting, speaking, building, living. Let their examples expand what feels possible.
3. Be your own example.
   The world doesn’t need a carbon copy of someone else. It needs you. The way you lead, create, love, and contribute is the mentorship someone else is looking for.

You don’t have to wait for permission. You don’t have to wait for proof. You get to become the person you’ve been searching for.

And if you want support doing that—working with your thought patterns, maintaining momentum, and taking aligned next actions—we’ve got you.

Come join us in the Bloom Room or the Moxie Mastermind.
We gotchuuuuu. 💛

How to connect with Marie:

• On the Web | The Local Bloom
• Instagram: @the.bloom.coach
• All Things Marie on LinkTree

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!

Every year, I used to get an email that stopped me in my tracks. It would land in my inbox, and I’d feel this immediate sense of clarity and groundedness. The email came from the CEO of the company I worked for at the time—a brilliant, mission-driven leader whose work focused on transforming education by building changemakers, not bubble-fillers. I respected him deeply, and when he shared best practices, I paid attention.

That email contained five simple reflection questions to ask at the end of the year and the beginning of the next. I answered them every year. And when I eventually left that role, I kept the practice.

Now, I record an episode like this every year to remind you to pause and reflect. And if you’re listening to this at any other time of year, here’s your permission slip: the year is a construct. Reflection works anytime. The more often you do it, the more powerful it becomes.

Research consistently shows that intentional reflection increases learning, clarity, emotional regulation, and follow-through. When we pause to look back, we extract wisdom from experience instead of rushing past it—and that wisdom is one of the greatest accelerators for turning ideas into real things.

Last year, I shared a set of reflection questions focused on what gave you positive and negative feelings and how you wanted to shift your priorities. This year, I went deeper with my students—and the results were profound.

Reflection Questions for This Year

• What are you proudest of?
• When did you feel most alive?
• What did you learn?
• Where were you deeply true to yourself?
• Where—and how—did you abandon yourself?
• How do you want to prioritize differently moving forward?
• How do you want to grow?
  What do you most want to celebrate from 2025?

I recommend saving your reflections each year. Over time, they become a powerful record of your evolution—what mattered, what shifted, and how you grew into yourself.

I’ll end this episode with a final practice that is the MOST powerful I’ve found to launch you on the path you most want to walk for the year ahead.

If you want support bringing your ideas to life, join us in the Bloom Room or the Moxie Mastermind. 2026 is the year of your moxie. Let’s go.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Glen Tripp — CEO, changemaker, and longtime advocate for reflective leadership practices

How to connect with Marie:

• On the Web | The Local Bloom
• Instagram: @the.bloom.coach
• All Things Marie on LinkTree

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!

Most of us are much more practiced at pointing out what’s not working than naming what is. And even when we do give positive feedback, we often keep it vague:
“You did great.”
“That was awesome.”
“Nice job.”

In this episode, we explore why specific positive feedback is one of the most powerful tools we have—for leadership, parenting, relationships, teamwork, and personal growth—and why it’s so often underused.

I break down how generic praise feels good in the moment but doesn’t actually help people grow, while specific feedback builds confidence, clarity, and trust. It teaches people what to keep doing, not just what to avoid.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode

• Why the brain needs specificity to learn and repeat behaviors
• The difference between empty praise and meaningful, growth-producing feedback
• How specific positive feedback builds psychological safety and motivation
• Why this skill is essential for leaders, partners, parents, and collaborators
• 10 Simple prompts to help you look for and give feedback that actually lands and sticks
• Real-life applications in parenting, partnership, and team culture

We also talk about how specific positive feedback helps counter self-doubt—both in ourselves and others. When people know exactly what they did well and why it mattered, they don’t have to guess. That clarity creates momentum.

And here’s the quiet power of this practice: when you learn to give specific positive feedback outwardly, you also start doing it internally. You become better at recognizing your own progress, effort, and growth—rather than only tracking what still needs fixing.

Whether it’s a colleague, a partner, a child—or yourself—this small shift can radically improve connection, confidence, and results.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Look How Far You’ve Come: EP
• Leadership and communication tools from The Bloom Room

How to connect with Marie:

• On the Web | The Local Bloom
• Instagram: @the.bloom.coach
• All Things Marie on LinkTree

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!

Self-doubt is one of the biggest dream-killers on the planet.
Not because it means anything about who we are, but because we believe it does.

In Episode 155: The Self-Doubt Hack, we break down a simple, powerful three-step process to work with self-doubt in a way that stops it from derailing your ideas, your confidence, and your forward momentum. Instead of spiraling or shutting down the moment doubt pops up, you’ll learn how to meet it with clarity, curiosity, and strategy.

This is a practical episode you can return to every time you feel yourself wobble.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode

• Why self-doubt is a completely normal brain response—not a red flag
• The importance of learning the language your body speaks to give you information
• The process of allowing your doubt without fusing with it
• How to look underneath your doubt to understand what it’s protecting, what it’s afraid of, and whether any action is actually needed
• How to collect intentional evidence and support building your self doubt tolerance
• How evidence interrupts the doubt cycle and builds new, regenerative belief
• When to do nothing, when to do something, and how to tell the difference
• Why this process keeps your ideas alive long enough to become real

Self-doubt doesn’t disappear on its own, and it doesn’t need to.
But when you know how to work with it, you stop letting it steer your behavior.
You regain access to your creativity, your courage, and the version of you who takes brave, aligned action.

Try the hack.
Use it this week.
And watch what shifts.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Intentional Evidence Collection (Ep 152)
• The Practice (Ep )
• The Bloom Room + Moxie Mastermind — for women making their ideas real

How to connect with Marie:

• On the Web | The Local Bloom
• Instagram: @the.bloom.coach
• All Things Marie on LinkTree

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!

In Episode 154, we have some big announcements for new content, programs and courses. We’re also breaking down how to get ahead of one of the most important pieces of human wiring you’ll ever understand: the Motivational Triad.

This ancient operating system—designed to help humans survive saber-toothed tigers and harsh winters—is still running the show inside our modern brains. And even though it once kept us alive, now it keeps us stuck.

In today’s world, this default wiring creates a net negative in our lives. Because while it kept early humans from being eaten, it does nothing to help us build relationships, set boundaries, grow businesses, create art, change habits, or pursue dreams.

This episode helps you see where the triad is running your life—and how to upshift out of it using the prefrontal cortex, the part of your brain that can plan, align actions with values, and make intentional decisions.


What You’ll Learn in This Episode

• What the motivational triad is and why it no longer serves the life you want today.
• How the triad shows up in modern life through people-pleasing, overworking, scrolling, sugar, avoidance, and staying small.
• Why doing what’s easy often feels productive (like overworking) but is actually avoidance in disguise.
• How to shift from your primitive brain into your prefrontal cortex to choose aligned, intentional actions.
• A practical exercise to analyze your current goal through the lens of the triad—and design a plan that actually matches the outcome you want.
• Real examples from my students this week: parenting pressure, overwork-as-hiding, holiday family dynamics, business avoidance, and behavior patterns we all fall into.

Once you identify where the triad is steering you, you can interrupt the pattern. You can decide how you want to show up and rehearse that response ahead of time—so when the moment comes, you’re already prepared.

We’re getting out of the cave.
Off the couch.
Putting down the Pringles.
And building lives we’re proud of—on purpose.

Mentioned in this episode:

• The Bloom Room — weekly application of these concepts, community, support and coaching
• Moxie Mastermind — high level experience for women turning ideas into real things
• Self-paced courses — access to it all on your own terms and timeline

How to connect with Marie:

• On the Web | The Local Bloom
• Instagram: @the.bloom.coach
• All Things Marie on LinkTree

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 week, we’re getting practical.

In Episode 153: Problem Solving, I walk you through a real-life example of using multiple tools I’ve taught before on the podcast—and show you exactly how to apply them when life throws you a curveball.

Here’s the setup: I’m hosting a three-day Lovefest in the desert for 80 people—an outdoor celebration that’s been months in the making. And three days before it begins, the forecast calls for…rain. Buckets of it. No indoor venues, no easy backup plan, and a lot of people flying in from all over the world. Meanwhile, I’m still working full time, parenting, and running life as usual.

In this episode, I show you exactly what I did when my brain wanted to spiral into overwhelm—and how I used my problem-solving toolkit to navigate the chaos calmly, strategically, and creatively.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode

• Why the first tool we reach for isn’t always the right one for the job.
• How to know which kind of problem-solving approach to use—depending on whether you’re in the emotional, strategic, or tactical phase of processing.
• Three categories of tools you can choose from:
  1. Mindset reset – shifting your thinking when your brain goes negative.
  2. Obstacle prediction & strategy – anticipating challenges and creating grounded plans.
  3. Emotional processing & curiosity – handling your inner experience before taking external action.
• The critical reminder that we never use tools and teachings against ourselves—no self-blame, no “shoulds.”
• Why making requests of others is often the final step, not the first one—after we’ve done our own emotional and cognitive work.
• How to reflect after the storm passes—so every challenge becomes a blueprint for your next success.

By the end of this episode, you’ll see how these tools come together in real time—and you’ll leave with a clear map for how to move from overwhelm to empowered action, no matter what kind of problem life serves up.

How to connect with Marie:

• On the Web | The Local Bloom
• Instagram: @the.bloom.coach
• All Things Marie on LinkTree

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!

Every big change, project, or dream starts the same way: with a glimmer of possibility.

A spark. A flicker. A tiny inner knowing that says, Maybe this could be real.

But the second that glimmer appears, our automatic brain jumps in to challenge it. It points out everything that could go wrong. It shows us all the gaps between where we are and where we want to be. It offers scarcity thinking, worst-case scenarios, and doubt — not because we’re broken or unmotivated, but because our brains are wired to protect us from emotional risk.

So how do we stay committed to the idea?
How do we hold that glimmer long enough to make it real?

In this episode, we explore Intentional Evidence Collection — a simple yet powerful tool for strengthening belief, sustaining commitment, and keeping your idea alive through the messy middle.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode

• Why belief and sustained effort (not talent) are the greatest predictors of success
• How your brain naturally collects evidence against your ideas — and how to reverse it
• The science-backed role of visualization and future-self identity in making change happen
• How to anticipate obstacles and rehearse overcoming them before they arise
• The link between thought cycles, emotional states, behavior, and results (RT Model)
  How to use evidence collection to fuel aligned action instead of shutting yourself down

Your Invitation This Week

Choose a glimmer of possibility you want to nurture.
Write down every piece of evidence you can find for why it's possible.
Keep adding to the list.
Read it again and again.

Sustained belief + sustained aligned action = your idea becomes real. Every time.

And if you want support building the structure to do this work: jump into one of these

Start the Make Ideas Real Course — for bringing a meaningful goal to life
Apply for the The Moxie Mastermind — for women making world-shifting projects real in a sisterhood of the most amazing women you could ever choose to have by your side.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Anne Lamott: Bird by Bird
• Regenerative Thought Cycles
• Believe in the After
• Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

How to connect with Marie:

• On the Web | The Local Bloom
• Instagram: @the.bloom.coach
• All Things Marie on LinkTree

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!

In this episode, we talk about the powerful truth that we are constantly training people how to treat us. Not through lectures. Not through convincing or explaining. But through the boundaries we set, the behaviors we allow, and the way we show up in our own lives.

Often, the patterns we feel frustrated by — being the go-to problem solver, the emotional container for everyone else, or the one who says yes more than we want — aren’t “just how things are.” They’re patterns we’ve participated in, usually because we were socialized to be helpful, agreeable, accommodating, or endlessly available.

The good news? If we trained people into the pattern, we can train them out of it.

With love. With clarity. And with zero drama.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode

• How we unintentionally teach people to expect more than we have capacity to give
• Why overgiving or overaccommodating often comes from subconscious beliefs about worth
• The difference between setting a boundary and trying to control someone else’s behavior
• How to shift patterns without guilt, resentment, or emotional explosions
• A simple sentence for kindly and clearly retraining expectations
• How choosing your needs doesn’t disconnect you — it creates cleaner, more honest, more loving relationships
• How the way we talk about our ideas sometimes matters more than the ideas themselves

Every time you say yes when you mean no, you’re training someone to believe your needs don’t matter. Every time you say no with love, you’re training someone to treat your needs as real and important.

You don’t have to become someone tough or closed to set boundaries. You don’t have to push people away. You simply have to tell the truth about what works for you — and stay consistent — so the relationship can reorganize in a healthier shape.

And every one of those things is true of the ideas we’re trying to make real. We are training people how to think about the things we create. We are creating reality with the words that we say and the energy we say it with.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Culture Code by Daniel Coyle
• Failure Tolerance
• The Bloom Room + Moxie Mastermind — where we build the internal capacity to lead our lives instead of reacting to them

How to connect with Marie:

• On the Web | The Local Bloom
• Instagram: @the.bloom.coach
• All Things Marie on LinkTree

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!