When Marni was one, her Father was diagnosed with cancer. At that time, outcomes were not positive and her Mother was alone raising her while her Dad was in the hospital for 6 months. Marni is often reminded that she started to make her mark early on. During a hospital visit with her Dad, she dropped a chocolate bar in his bed. This quickly melted and both nurses and doctors clearly thought her Dad had lost use of his bowel! Eventually her Dad did go into remission and has been cancer free to date.
At age 3 Marni was blessed with a brother. This was a tremendous joy to the family. At the age of 3 months Daniel, Marni’s brother, was diagnosed with meningitis and was not expected to live. Marni lived with her Grandparents for some time so her parents could be with Daniel at all times. The family was blessed again; Daniel survived, but was left paralyzed along the right side and totally deaf.
The family was grateful to have him at all and quickly adjusted to the new way of life, learning sign language and becoming active at the School for the Deaf. Daniel regularly had seizures and quite often was rushed to emergency, having stopped breathing and turning a shade of blue. These episodes are etched in the family’s minds forever. But, he was alive and having him in her life taught Marni a lot about life’s cruelties and helped her to begin developing mechanisms to cope and succeed.
Through the years the family has had its share of ups and downs. Sunday dinners at Grandma’s always had some excitement, and it was often the place where Marni’s creativity and imagination was fostered.
Marni saw school as an opportunity to socialize, and unfortunately that caused problems with her academics. Hard to believe that her main attendance at school consisted of various committee meetings and the morning announcements (she made them of course). She developed her negotiation skills there, having an office and phone to complete school business.
Marni took some courses to receive a diploma in Hotel and Restaurant Management, but refused to go to a formal secondary school. She headed straight to the workforce, no degree in hand. Marni managed to work her way into management positions in all aspects of her career, until she made the jump to entrepreneurism.
During her various work experiences, Marni had an opportunity to learn what it felt like to be dying. She was diagnosed with a Elhers Danlos of the organs. There were no treatments and the disease was terminal. The best advice from Doctors was to experience no stress and reduce high impact activity. Marni and her family quickly developed coping mechanisms and continued to live as full a life as possible. A year into this diagnosis, after weekly tests, Marni and her family learned she had been misdiagnosed.
Being told she would die, and then getting her life back, afforded Marni a rare opportunity that she is always aware of. She takes little for granted after that life changing experience.
Owning a number of service and sales based companies, Marni quickly implemented her MAGIC with customers and found overwhelming success. At a peak time in her life, another tragedy struck. Her fiancé was killed in a car accident 2 weeks prior to their wedding.
This was another roadblock, but all of her life experiences, her network, family and faith were enough support to push her back into life. She returned to work days after her loss as she knew there were people who needed and depended on her.
Coping was there, but imagining a new life with a new person was not. Years passed and Marni met someone who changed all that, and she has since married. Putting herself out there was not easy, but all of the tools she had in her arsenal, and her constant support system, made it possible.
She continued to build a number of successful companies and often found that her programs and supports were helping people with their lives, not just their businesses. Struggling to stay focused on the business aspects of lives was very difficult for Marni and her team, as the Magic was having dramatic impacts. On a regular basis Marni and her team were pulled in the direction of applying the process to people’s personal lives. This struggle was ongoing for years, until Marni decided to adapt the programs and processes of the Magic to specifically help individuals.
Marni’s Magic was born and Marni wanted to ensure that the programs offered by Marni’s Magic could be accessed by everyone. Taking that into account, Marni’s Magic was developed to be a comprehensive, cost effective way to make changes in anyone’s life and ensure along the way those changes are not simply a one time affair but are habitual, affordable and maintainable.
