Latest / GlowInto / The Story of Marianne Moore
Transcript
- Jen: Sometimes the most revealing part of an interview is the moment someone pauses to reconsider a question. During my conversation with Marianne Moore, I asked her when she first felt like an adult. She raised children and built a career, but her answer took us somewhere beyond those familiar milestones. It became a conversation about knowing yourself, trusting your decisions, and realizing that you still get to choose how your life unfolds. That's something I keep coming back to through Glow and Too. We can spend years becoming dependable, capable women before we stop to ask whether the lives we built still make room for who we're becoming. Marianne is asking those questions at 63 with curiosity about what she might discover. I'm Jennifer Joyner and this is the Glow in Two podcast. Today we meet Marianne Moore, a woman who has spent years paying attention to other people's stories and finding new meaning in her own. This is Marianne Moore The Life Between the Lines, and these are the women of Glowin' two. There was a moment during my conversation with Marianne Moore when the interview became something neither of us had expected. She was telling me about culinary school, about finding a place where she fell at home, and about her father being a butcher. That last detail stirred a memory. Years earlier my mother and I had attended a cooking class she taught. I remembered her storytelling, her mother being there, and a little detail about how she had found her strengths as a savory chef. Then another connection fell into place. Before that class, I had helped Marianne and her mother at the bank where I worked. Her father had passed, and they were navigating the paperwork that follows a loss. Those practical tasks can feel overwhelming when life has already changed so much. Marianne remembered too, she remembered her mother's stress. And the relief of someone helping make the process manageable. We had talked about listening, about paying attention, about the things people carry away from interaction, and suddenly we were remembering something we'd carried away from each other. You never know who has heard you, who has listened to you, she said. It was a fitting moment in a conversation with a woman who believes the most meaningful part of a story often lives between the lines. Mary Ann is 63 and she is clear about one thing. I'm not done, not even close to done, she says. She has a career she is proud of, three children, a marriage of 24 years, and a creative life that keeps growing. She is the editor of St. Louis Bride magazine, where she also writes stories and features, and she works on destination publications. She teaches yoga, develops workshops and retreats, and is learning watercolor. There are places she wants to travel, things she wants to understand, and ideas she still wants to follow, but beneath all that activity is a change in how she understands herself. When I asked what marked her transition into adulthood, she paused. Having her two oldest children at eighteen and nineteen might seem the obvious answer. Those years brought very much. responsibility early and yet responsibility and knowing who you are, she explained, can unfold on very different timelines. Later in our conversation, she returned to the question There are familiar milestones, school, work, children, the expectations that tell us we have moved into adult life. Then there is autonomy, the ability to make decisions with a clear understanding of ourselves. I finally feel like I'm coming into something she says. For Mary Ann, that feeling is happening now. She feels more aligned, more aware of what she will and will not tolerate, and less willing to spend her time on things that once seemed urgent, but no longer deserves so much of her. She can look back on the career she built and feel proud. She can also recognize how much time and energy went into building it. I don't need to prove anything else, she says. There is room in that realization for a different kind of ambition. Work she loves, experiences she wants, and the life she can inhabit more fully. Marianne has always been curious. Her mother told her she was reading billboards at about two years old. Later, she was a child reading encyclopedias before bed, wanting information and wanting to learn. Still, curiosity did not hand her a neatly organized plan. For years she wondered what she wanted to be when she grew up. At 32, a friend suggested taking culinary classes. Mary Ann went on a whim, then found herself in a place that felt Immediately familiar. I walked into culinary school and it was like I was home, she says. She came from a large Italian and Savaskian family. Her father was a butcher, her mother stayed home with the children, her grandmother and great aunts cooked, and food was woven into holidays, family, and gathering. In culinary school those early experiences met a new possibility. She went through the full program, supported by a mentor whose word stayed with her. There's a place for everyone in the kitchen. That sense of possibility would reach far beyond the kitchen. Her hospitality career expanded into events, sales, marketing, and leadership. She also wrote for Sauce magazine, developing recipes and telling stories about food and its history. From the outside, a career with so many turns might seem difficult to explain. Mary Ann sees a common thread hospitality, connection, and the chance to understand people. She also sees lessons she could not have recognized at the time. Some positions gave her opportunities, others brought difficult endings, some introduced her to people whose significance would become clearer years later. And her path makes more sense to her when she looks at the whole of it. Listening recently to Oprah's conversation with Simon Sinek about discovering your why, I kept thinking about the women I interview for Glow and II. What stayed with me was the value of looking back. As women tell me about their work, their relationships, and the turning points in their lives, I often begin seeing the threads connecting those experiences. For many women, a job made sense because it provided income, benefits, or time with their families. Understanding those circumstances matters, but looking at what we brought to that work, how we cared for people, and what continued to matter to us can offer clues to a deeper why. The experiences across a lifetime become part of how We understand our purpose, even when we could not see the connection while living them. We do not have to explain every experience or have our purpose fully figured out to recognize what matters to us now. In Marianne's story, hospitality and connection keep appearing. They show up in the kitchen, in the questions she asks couples, in the stories she preserves, and in her attention to the people she teaches. That setting changes her desire to understand people and And make room for them continues. Looking back gives her room to recognize that thread and choose where she wants to carry it next. We're going to take a short break, and when we come back, we'll explore Marianne's years in hospitality sales, how she became editor of St. Louis Bride, and what she's learning about herself at 63. We'll also hear what she would tell her younger self. Stay with us, there's more Marianne's story coming up on the Glow and Two podcast. Your business has a story. Does your brand tell that story? I'm Jennifer Joyner, founder of Glowin'Two, and through Glow Two Creative Services, I sit down with you to learn how you got here and what shaped your business and what you want people to understand about your work. Then I turn that conversation into a story that you can use on your website, on your social media pages, in your about section, and in your marketing, helping customers. Get to know the person behind the business. Even an established business keeps evolving. Staying visible and relevant means giving people fresh reasons to connect with you. Your experience, your purpose, and the care you bring to your work are part of that connection. Let's tell the story of the business you built and where you're taking it next. Visit glowin' two.com and reach out about Glowin' Two Creative Services. Jennifer Joyner: This episode of the Glow and Two Podcast is supported by Thriving Willow Coaching, founded by Allison Tyndall. Thriving Willow Coaching is focused on helping women navigate the changes that come with midlife, especially when it comes to nutrition, hormones, energy, weight, and creating healthier habits that actually fit real life. Allison brings both professional experience and her own personal journey to the work she does with women, with an approach centered on realistic, sustainable change. rather than quick fixes. And you'll be hearing more from Thriving Willow Coaching inside the longevity pillar of Glow In 2. In Allison's next feature, we'll continue digging into the questions so many women begin asking in their 40s and beyond. Why does my body suddenly feel different? What can I actually control? And what does taking care of myself for the long term really look like? Look for Alison Tyndall and Thriving Willow Coaching. In the next segment of longevity on glow and two. Santa Anna Ct 3: Big ideas are exciting, but turning them into something real? Hey, that's where the magic happens. I'm Shannon Shores, founder of Bertie Mae Consulting. I help business owners and women in leadership turn big ideas into bold moves through clarity, confidence, and actual strategy. Because having a dream is one thing, but having the courage and a plan to chase it, that's everything. Stop playing small. Bet on yourself. Birdie Mae Consulting. Big ideas, bold moves, real growth. Jen: Mary Ann spent more than 25 years in hospitality sales, including work at the Ritz-Carleton and Four Seasons. She knew the training, the questions, the systems designed to move a client toward a decision. She also knew what those systems could miss. What happens in between those boxes? She asked. What happens in the dot dot dot? A wedding inquiry could begin with a date, a guest count, and a budget. Marianne wanted to know more about the people making those decisions. Tell her about the first date. Tell her about how you met. Let the conversation reveal what matters to you. She has brought that approach into presentations for wedding professionals, encouraging them to listen beyond the information they expect to collect. Everything starts with a story, she says. As editor of St. Louis Bride, she feels the responsibility of telling those stories. These are couples joining their lives and their families. Their photographs and words hold moments they may not fully appreciate until they stop to reflect on them. One bride described how members of her family had married at their grandmother's home, a place they called the big house. That detail became a larger feature. For Marianne, The photographs of the couple and their grandmother in front of the house held something worth preserving. Those are the things that live on, she says. Her commitment also extends to who gets to see themselves in the magazine. She wants any couple who picks it up to find themselves somewhere in the pages. Having witnessed family tensions and disapproval during her years in the wedding industry, she understands how much pressure can surround A celebration that belongs to two people. Weddings don't need trends, she says. They need meaning. They need room for a couple to celebrate in a way that feels like them. And that belief also guides her editorial work. In her article for St. Louis Bride magazine, inside the St. Louis Bride fashion editorial, Discover What Speaks to You, Marianne encourages couples to let their own stories and priorities shape the celebration. The photographs aimed to convey the feeling of the day with a room for movement and unscripted moments. Her youngest son gave her an opportunity to live that belief. He and his partner went away, hiked to the spot they had chosen, changed their clothes, and got married. Marianne and her husband received a photograph of them with their marriage certificate. When people asked whether she was sad, she wondered why she should be. Her son had done exactly what she encouraged couples to do. She had even helped plan celebrations of vastly different sizes and budgets. She knew that at the end of the day one couple was no more married than the other because of what they had spent. Her move into editing brought years of experience together in an unexpected way. Marianne had been vice president of sales and marketing for a company with venues and off-premise catering when the owners decided to sell. She stayed on to consult during the transition, but another change was approaching. An earlier position elimination had brought the familiar panic. What am I going to do? This time her response was different. I don't know. I'll figure it out, she says. She had known her future publisher for nearly three decades. Through her hospitality work, she had advertised in St. Louis Bride, submitted to it, and contribute to it. The magazine had been part of her professional life long before she became its editor. When news of the sale became public, he reached out. What was she going to do? Would she consider becoming the editor? Months earlier, after learning the previous editor planned to retire, Mary Ann had quietly checked the parent company's website for the job posting. She had already begun wondering whether this could be her next step. Now the invitation had arrived through a relationship built over years. they met the next day. She saw the connection between what she had done and what she could do next. There had been uncertainty, but there also was experience she could trust. Another part of Marianne's life needed attention. During her hospitality career, she sometimes worked 80 hours a week. Her longtime doctor warned her about the toll. She remembers him being direct. She could not keep living the way she was without consequences. People might assume a chef would eat well. Marianne described a different reality. She was cooking for everyone else. For herself, there might be something eaten quickly in the back of the house, followed by a late night stop for whatever food was available. Eventually, concerning lab results and the prospect of blood pressure and cholesterol medications made the question harder to postpone. Was this how she wanted to continue living? She asked her doctor about the injectable medications she had been reading about. She was clear that she wanted to understand them and that she did not expect a prescription. To fix everything. She began treatment, worked with a dietitian, and met with a personal trainer three times a week. The dietitian became someone with whom she could explore her habits as well as her food choices. Understanding the reasons behind those habits mattered to Mary Ann. She wanted to know why. Over roughly three years, she lost 110 pounds. She is transparent about medication being part of that process. Alongside nutrition support, movement, and regular medical follow-up, she described improvements in her lab results and a change in how she cared for herself. It was never about size, she says. Her work had required her to anticipate other people's needs for years. Now she was giving sustained attention to her own health and to the life she wanted that health to support. Yoga deepened that attention in ways she had not expected. She had practiced before, and teacher training had long interested her. When she finally enrolled, she anticipated learning how to teach, developing another skill, becoming capable in another area. She knew how to do that. She had built a career around competence. What surprised her was how much the training asked her to look inward. It cracked open so much for me, she says. She had to answer questions she had not needed to answer in the professional world. Being good at her work did not automatically give her those answers. The process asked for a different kind of attention, and she found it challenging. That experience also connected to what she believed about leadership. A good leader pays attention to the individual, she explained, how that person works, what helps them thrive, and where they need support. Teaching yoga called on that same willingness to see beyond a set of skills. She continues in advanced training, teaches, and writes for Moonberg Yoga through its blog, The Practice. Its exploration of beginning again resonates with someone who had done so so many times. In her essay Live Your Damn Life, published on Moonberg's Yoga, the practice blog, she begins that reflection back to everyday living. Asking questions and understanding ourselves matter, she writes, but so does participating in the life in front of us. Enjoyment does not always need to produce a result or become another measure of success. It is a useful reminder for women searching for their why. There is room to keep asking meaningful questions and still enjoy an ordinary day. But while you're figuring all of that out, please don't miss your life, she says. Through her own writing, workshops and retreats, she also wants to help women find the threads in their lives. She knows how difficult those connections can be to see why. While you're still living them. Mary Ann and her husband have returned to the British Virgin Islands for about twenty three years. Their boat is a second home, a place they travel back and forth to as their schedule allows. When they were considering what the next part of their life might look like, a boat listing caught her attention. Then she saw its name, No Regrets. It felt right. Mary Ann is so candid about having made mistakes. She has done things she would handle differently now, but she wants the wisdom those experiences can offer, rather than a life spent circling the same wish to undo them. Looking back, she can see what some of the hardest moments taught her. She can also better understand certain relationships remained and others ended. When asked what she would tell her younger self, the young mother, who could not yet know the shape of this life, she spoke about the expectation that we should have everything figured out. There would be twists and turns, she would tell her, steps forward and back, and those changes would become places where she learned to grow. Look at the journey as a gift, she says. There are still places Marianne wants to visit. She writes about them in her journal. There are still things she wants to make and questions she wants to follow. She has a career she loves and creative work that belongs to her. At sixty-three, she is making room for all of it with a clear sense of herself. Our unexpected reunion stayed with me after the reunion. Years earlier, I had helped her family through a practical part of grief. Later, my mother and I listened to her tell stories in a cooking class, and we each remembered something the other could not have known would matter. Marianne has spent years looking for those details in other people's lives. In our conversation we found one in our own. It was a small reminder of what she kept returning to. Pay attention, listen. There's more to a person than the information you first set out to gather. And there is more of Marianne's story still to come. Read more of Marianne's personal writing and her Substack publication by Marianne Moore, including her essay The Thread Remains, about revisiting old journals and recognizing the connections across different seasons of life. After talking with Mary Ann, I kept thinking about how often we expect a new beginning to come with an explanation. We want to know how it fits with everything we've already done, whether we'll be good at it, whether it will lead somewhere. Those are understandable questions, especially when your time and energy already feel spoken for. But I wonder how many things we've talked ourselves out of because we couldn't justify them yet. Through these interviews I'm learning to pay attention to what a woman wants to make room for. Sometimes it's work she feels ready to pursue. Sometimes it's better health, a quieter day, or something she wants to learn simply because it interests her. Looking back can help us recognize the threads connecting our experiences. Looking ahead asks something different of us, a willingness to follow an interest before we know where it begins. I'm building glow into while I'm still figuring out parts of my own next chapter. So I don't leave these conversations with everything settled. I leave with better questions. The one I'm taking from Mary Ann is this. What would I like to experience if I stopped requiring myself to already be good at it? Maybe there's something that comes to mind for you. Something you've been curious about, but been putting off. You can give a little room before you know what it will become. Thank you, Mary Ann, for sharing your story and thank you for spending this time with us. You can read Marianne Moore The Life Between the Lines at glowinto.com along with more stories of women exploring what comes next. I'm Jennifer Joyner and remember keep glowing into who you were always meant to be.