7 Lessons Learned from 256 Episodes of MarieTV

Hey Marie.

Yes.

What do you call a fake noodle?

What?

An impasta.

Hey there. It’s Marie Forleo, and you are watching Marie TV, the place to be to create a business and a life that you love. You know, over the past five years, this show has been an incredible part of my life. I am so grateful to you, our audience, for tuning in each and every week and you watch us and you support us, and that is amazing. We’ve done over 250 shows so far, which blows my mind and I have learned so much both from the actual making of the show and from what you bring back to it each week.

So today I want to share seven lessons that I’ve learned along the way.

Lesson number one is starting small leads to big success. So people often say to me, you know that show, it’s easy for you to do because you’ve got this big team. What about me? I’m just starting out. I got to tell you, my video started with just me and my webcam in my kitchen. There was no editing, there was no lighting, there was no highlights in the hair, there was no nothing. And my team evolved very, very slowly and organically over the years. So no matter what your trying to do, whether you want to start a show, you want to start a business, you’re trying to form a new habit or even if you’re trying to start a new career, starting small is something I so recommend because those small consistent steps always lead you to big places.

Which brings me to lesson number two. Lesson number two, consistency is not an accident. So a lot of people ask, how do you do this each and every week without fail? Well, I’ll tell you. The consistency of our show is just simply not an accident. We plan our entire year around Marine TV and we shoot about four to five times a year and everything that we need to do to make this show come to life is actually scheduled out months and months in advance from writing days to book in the crew to securing our interviews.

And once we get everything lined up, it is just a go. I mean, no questions asked. Things are pretty much non freaking negotiable. Unwavering commitment is really what makes consistency happen. So no matter what the size of your project, if you want to get it done, you have got to put it in that calendar. And if you’re fully committed, I promise your life will bend to support it.

Lesson number three, get real use to Murphy’s Law. So if you don’t know what Murphy’s law is, it states that anything that can go wrong will and after five years during the show, I can tell you it does. I mean lights blow out, we blow fuses, I get sick. Rented furniture just doesn’t show up. Helicopters and … Helicopters and fire trucks ruin take after take and often I can’t seem to pronounce really simple words.

Is the founder and designer, the founder and designer, the founder and designer of designier. Designer, designer, designer, designer, designer.

My point here is that no matter how much you prepare, things will go wrong, like major things all the time. You got to stay flexible. You’ve got to keep your sense of humor and remember my life motto, which is everything is figureoutable.

Lesson number four, you can’t make everyone happy and it’s a losing game to try. Oh my goodness. This lesson has been so deeply seared into my soul from Marie TV and our other work, so let me repeat. You cannot make everyone happy and it is a losing game to try. There are tons of people who tell me, stop doing the goofy stuff because they think it detracts from my credibility or that it just makes me seem narcissistic or why y’all fancy now? Can’t you go back to the brick wall? And then there are tons of other people like my mom who say, can’t you just dance and sing more or can you do even more silly stuff?

Or can it just be all bloopers? When it comes to your creativity, you have got to do what you want to do. Make everything about what makes you smile, what makes you laugh, what do you consider joyful. That’s what’s most important for anything that you’re doing.

Lesson number five is let yourself evolve. So if you’ve watched any of my earlier work, you know that I was very comfortable using, shall we say, colorful language.

[inaudible 00:05:04] that, I’m busy.

But over time, not only did I grow and change, but more importantly, so did my audience. And I started to realize that a lot of parents were watching Marie TV with their kids. And then I started to notice a lot of teenagers and young people watch the show on their own too. So for me, I really just made a conscious decision to adjust my language and do warnings if we happen to have episodes that are a little more on the racy side, not because I’m trying to cater to everyone, but because those young people are really important to me.

Lesson number six is only work with the best. So this isn’t necessarily about hiring the most expensive people. It’s about only working with A players, with drivers, with people who are 100% committed to doing an extraordinary job no matter what. So I got to brag on my crew for a second. I love them so much. And one of the pieces of feedback that I hear all the time when people come to Marie TV or they interact with my company is they say, OMG, Team Forleo is amazing. Everybody is so kind and they’re funny and they’re present. Where did they come from?

And I got to tell you, great teams don’t happen by accident. I’m super clear on my standards. I also consider myself really fortunate. But you got to know that if you surround yourself with people who just get it, and most importantly get you, you can create extraordinary things.

And lesson seven is stay true to your vision. So over the years, many people have tried to get me to take on sponsors or sell advertising, or they wanted me to pitch this show to a real TV network. Those things are all fine and they might be awesome for other people, but that just hasn’t been my vision. You know, everyone says, but you should really consider that. It’s a great opportunity. Just because something’s an opportunity, it doesn’t mean it’s the right opportunity for you. So no matter what you’re creating, it’s really important to be ultra clear on what success looks like and feels like for you.

It’s fine to listen to other people’s ideas, but at the end of the day, please trust yourself. You know what’s best for you. You know, every episode we’ve done, every guest we’ve had on, it’s all grown out of my hope to make something fun and useful and inspiring for you. And this is why we’re still here over 250 episodes later. So thank you so very much for watching and supporting and I hope we’ll do another episode like this after the next few hundred. Now, I would love to hear from you. Which lesson from today really hit home and how can that make a difference in your business or your life right now?

Or if you’ve been in the trenches really creating something consistently for a while now, what’s the single biggest lesson that you’ve learned so far? As always, the best discussions happen after the episode over at the magical land of marieforleo.com, so go there and leave a comment now. Did you like this video? If so, subscribe to our channel and I would be so grateful if you shared this with your friends. And if you want even more resources to create a business in life that you love, plus some personal insights from me that I only talk about in email, come on over to marieforleo.com and make sure you sign up for email updates.

Stay on your game and keep going for your dreams because the world needs that special gift that only you have. Thank you so much for watching and I’ll catch you next time on Marie TV.

B-School is coming up. Want in? For more info and free training, go to joinbschool.com.

You know, I just do this now. I’m like, yes. I’m going to hike it up. I didn’t even know [inaudible 00:09:04] was back there. He’s getting banned. That’s it. Lesson eight. This is the bonus lesson. Only real noodles.

‍