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:
- Why everything real today sounded ridiculous yesterday — and the Lizzo story that proves it better than anything Marie has ever found (Truth Hurts dropped in 2017 to complete silence, she cried in her bedroom thinking nobody would notice if she quit, and two years later the exact same song hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100)
- What productive delusion actually means — and what it absolutely does not mean (not clinical, not magical thinking, not sitting on the couch visualizing a billboard chart-topper while the emails go unsent)
- The neuroscience of identity and destiny: the Stanford research on your brain’s default mode network, and why anchoring your idea to who you are rather than what you want to do makes you statistically far more likely to actually do it
- How your reticular activating system (RAS) filters reality — and how belief literally changes what evidence gets past your brain’s bouncer, straight from a 2020 University College London study
- Pronoia: the opposite of paranoia — the audacious conviction that the universe is rigged in your favor — and what happens to your brain when you actually operate from that place
- The catch with delusion — why purely positive fantasizing can actually sap your psychological energy, trick your nervous system into thinking you’ve already won, and send you straight off course (the NYU study on job seekers is wild)
- Why retros are the secret weapon that make delusion productive: being wildly ambitious about what’s possible while staying rigorously honest about what’s actually happening right now
- The 5-step practice for productive delusion: name it and attach it to your identity, put on your pronoia goggles, get clear-eyed about right now, love your protector parts, and collect evidence with retros
- Why delusion is a team sport — and why surrounding yourself with people who believe in your idea is one of the most important things you can do when your lizard brain starts fighting back
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!
