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Hey! If you don’t know me, I’m Marie.

I’m a designer, teacher, gardener, and home chef. I co-founded Oki Doki with my partner Benjamin Borowski, and over the last five years we’ve been co-creating the Notion Mastery program together.

This is my year in review for 2024.

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While this year had some major challenges, there were also some wonderful highlights.

My theme for the year was Emergence.

A pattern I've noticed over the years is a tendency to overly plan out the year, such then when aligned opportunities present themselves, there's often not enough time to say yes. Knowing this to be a common occurrence each year, I decided to leave a lot more up to chance, to make space for interesting projects and opportunities to emerge (and I’m glad I did!)

I experienced an injury that started in April, got worse in May, and lead to many months of doctors appointments, hospital appointments, pain management, and recovery. I'm not 100% better, but I'm no longer in daily pain like I was throughout the summer and fall, so this year was really a forced slowing down. I had no choice but to surrender to both my decreased physical and emotional capacity.

Highlights

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1. Started a Podcast with Ben called Grief & Pizza
2. Attended two local Harvest Table dinners
3. Visited Notion HQ and met the team
4. Launched Principles of Dashboarding masterclass
5. Attended a mastermind in California with internet friends
6. Met amazing people at the IP2 conference
7. Hosted a Clothing Swap party at my place
8. Spoke at the Second Brain Summit with Ben
9. Spoke at the Make with Notion conference and got to hang out IRL with all the Notion Ambassadors!
10. Launched some new templates through Notion’s new Template Marketplace
11. Attended a Breathwork retreat in Nevada City hosted by our friends Jonny + Kelly Miller </aside>

Challenges

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In spring of 2024, I suffered a sports-related injury that severely limited my daily mobility. Simple movements like sitting, bending, or climbing stairs became excruciating, and my life slowed to a crawl. I had no choice but to slow down across all areas of my life.

This experience tested me in so many ways, and I have so much more compassion for those that deal with chronic health issues!

In terms of challenges, this one pretty much overshadowed all other challenges by a long shot, but in spite of this, I still have a lot of appreciation for how the year unfolded.

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What Happened in 2024

A loosely chronological unfolding of 2024:

Launched our podcast, Grief & Pizza

Ben and I launched our podcast, Grief & Pizza, where we talk to interesting people to explore the highs and lows at the intersection of business and emotional well-being.

It’s a fun side project entirely designed for connection, and not for any measurable business outcomes.

Grief & Pizza | All Episodes

We kept this up pretty regularly until my injury…