Marnie
designs
launches
strengthens
scales
transforms
turns around
childcare brands.
For education entrepreneurs, school owners, churches, developers, and community organizations ready to build sustainable, mission-driven early learning businesses.
Marnie.
Founder of three Orlando-area early childhood campuses. Author of fourteen books across STEAM education, childcare business operations, and literary fiction. TEDx speaker. Born in Santo Domingo, schooled in Tokyo, building in Florida — translating eighteen years of operational reality into a consulting practice for the next generation of childcare founders.
Most childcare programs are under-designed for the families they serve and the operators running them.
Five lanes.
One playbook.
Each engagement is shaped to the operator, the community, and the stage of the business. Below: where Marnie works.
Childcare Brand Development & Start-Up Consulting
Business model. Licensing readiness. Location planning. Staffing model. Launch strategy. Parent enrollment from week one.
Operational Efficiency
Enrollment systems, leadership structure, staffing, parent communication, curriculum, compliance, financials.
Faith-Based Childcare Program Consulting
For churches and faith-based organizations launching or improving preschool and early learning ministries.
Feasibility Studies
Market demand. Competition. Tuition analysis. Demographics. Site evaluation. Enrollment projections.
Community Development & Early Childhood Initiatives
For municipalities, developers, nonprofits, employers, and community partners seeking childcare solutions.
The platform real operators run on.
Built from eighteen years of running campuses — the Young Innovators hub is the parent-and-teacher app that powers daily operations across three schools. Real parent comms. Real attendance. Real curriculum delivery. Real enrollment funnel.
Available to consulting clients as a deployed implementation layer.
Tour the hub ↗The room where work gets done.
Marnie doesn't just give you a strategy — she gives you the operating system. Within ninety days our enrollment pipeline looked nothing like it did before.
Our church wanted to launch a preschool but every consultant we met was either ministry-fluent or operations-fluent. Marnie was both. The program is now in year two and full.
The feasibility study saved us from a half-million-dollar mistake on the wrong site. Then it gave us the playbook to find the right one. Best money we ever spent.
Marnie's command of early childhood operations is matched only by her ability to translate it into a business case any board will fund. She is in a category of one.
She rebuilt our entire enrollment funnel from inquiry to first-day. We went from a four-month sales cycle to under thirty days and a wait list at two of three sites.
Marnie is the rare operator who can build a beautiful program and a beautiful P&L. The kids notice. The parents notice. The bank notices.
Fourteen books.
Four series. One author.
From the TEDx stage, a thesis for the field.
Marnie's flagship talk — How to Awaken the Genius Out of Your Kids — became one of the most-loved on early childhood innovation, reaching nearly a million viewers. The philosophy that now drives every consulting engagement she takes on.
An operator first.
From classroom innovation to multi-site operations, Marnie helps childcare leaders turn vision into sustainable, mission-driven businesses. Operator. Author. Speaker. Strategist. Built, led, and scaled childcare brands across eighteen years of practical work.
There's what many consider a national childcare crisis. This industry demands some disruption — and that is what we're going to do.
Eighteen years.
Three industries. One mission.
Huron University Japan — B.S. Summa Cum Laude
Graduated top of class, bilingual EN/ES with working Japanese. The foundation for a career that would cross three continents and three industries.
CNN en Español · Tokyo Correspondent
Reported on the Yakuza, earthquakes, terrorist attacks, and the trafficking of Latin American victims in Japan. Learned how to find a story inside a crisis — and how to ask the question that opens a closed door.
El Yakusa de mi Corazón — Juan Rulfo Finalist
Debut literary novel drawing on her Tokyo years. Finalist for the Juan Rulfo Latin American literary prize. Published by iUniverse.
Ladybird Academy · Wyndham Lakes
First U.S. operating venture in early childhood. Six years of daily classroom and operating leadership — the apprenticeship behind every page of the books that would come later.
Amazing Explorers Academy · Co-founded
Co-founded and scaled. Eventually sold and reinvested every dollar into the next venture.
Young Innovators Academy · Founded
Built around the CAPE framework and Harvard Project Zero. Today: three Orlando-area campuses (Winter Garden, Winter Park, Oviedo). Franchise launched 2019.
GrowFL Florida Companies to Watch
First of two GrowFL honors. PBS American Graduate spotlight. The press cycle that put Marnie's operator playbook in front of a national audience.
14 Books · Stanford LBI Mentor · 501(c)(3) Founder
Four series with Gryphon House, Kaplan, and iUniverse. Senior Fellow, Stockworth Institute. Founder/ED of the Young Innovators Foundation for Early Childhood — 501(c)(3), EIN 851204031.
TEDxMidvale · How to Awaken the Genius
Flagship talk released April 2024. The condensed argument behind the books, the campuses, and the consulting practice.
Consulting Platform Launch
The next chapter: full-time consulting for childcare entrepreneurs, school owners, churches, developers, and community organizations. The operating playbook, packaged.
In the work.
Marnie's Awards.
The operating playbook,
customized.
Five practice areas. One mission: launch, improve, and scale high-quality early education programs that work for families, operators, and the communities they serve.
Where Marnie works.
Each lane is a complete engagement model with its own scope, cadence, and pricing. Tap a lane to see the full operating detail.
Childcare Brand Development & Start-Up Consulting
Vision to operating business — brand, model, licensing, real estate, staffing, enrollment.
Operational Efficiency
For operating businesses underperforming on enrollment, margin, retention, or compliance.
Faith-Based Childcare Program Consulting
For churches and ministries — programs that are spiritually grounded and operationally excellent.
Feasibility Studies
Board-ready analysis before you sign a lease, raise capital, or commit to a build.
Community Development & Early Childhood Initiatives
For municipalities, developers, and employer coalitions closing the childcare gap.
Childcare Brand Development & Start-Up Consulting
Whether you are launching a single center or building a multi-site brand from a blank sheet of paper, this is the engagement that takes a vision and turns it into an operating business. Marnie has done this herself — three times — and brings the unsexy operational detail that decides whether a school opens on time, fills classrooms in month one, and survives year three.
Engagements typically run 12–16 weeks. Output is a complete operating package: brand, business model, licensing path, real-estate criteria, staffing plan, curriculum framework, parent enrollment funnel, and the financial model that ties it all together.
What's included
- Business model architecture
- Licensing readiness audit
- Location planning & criteria
- Staffing model & org chart
- Launch strategy & timeline
- Parent enrollment playbook
- Brand & positioning system
- Curriculum framework
Operational Efficiency
For operating childcare businesses that are running — but underperforming. This engagement diagnoses the operational bottlenecks costing you enrollment, margin, and team morale. Then we rebuild the systems: enrollment, leadership, staffing, parent communication, curriculum delivery, compliance, and financials.
Typical outcomes: shorter sales cycles, higher conversion, lower staff turnover, cleaner compliance, stronger margins. Usually completed in 8–12 weeks with quarterly check-ins built into the relationship.
What we fix
- Enrollment systems & sales cycle
- Leadership & org structure
- Staffing & retention
- Parent communication
- Curriculum implementation
- Compliance workflows
- Financial performance
Faith-Based Childcare Program Consulting
Churches and faith-based organizations sit on a unique combination of real estate, community trust, and mission — and chronically struggle to translate it into a sustainable early learning ministry. Marnie has worked alongside ministry leaders to launch preschools that are both spiritually grounded and operationally excellent.
The engagement respects the ministry layer first, then layers in licensing, business model, staffing model, and enrollment strategy specific to faith-based programs.
Designed for
- Churches launching preschools
- Faith-based early learning ministries
- Mission-aligned operators
- Denomination-level rollouts
- Diocesan and conference offices
Feasibility Studies
Before you sign a lease, raise capital, or commit a board to a build — get the numbers right. Marnie's feasibility study answers the question every early-childhood project really needs: should we do this, here, now, at this size?
Output is a board-ready document covering market demand, competition, tuition analysis, demographics, site evaluation, and three-year enrollment projections with launch recommendations.
The study covers
- Market demand analysis
- Competitive landscape
- Tuition & revenue modeling
- Demographic review
- 3-yr enrollment projections
- Site evaluation
- Launch recommendation
Community Development & Early Childhood Initiatives
For municipalities, master-planned developments, employer coalitions, nonprofits, and county-level economic development offices. When the childcare gap is the gating constraint on workforce participation, economic development, or community growth — this is the engagement that closes it.
Marnie has consulted with developers, employer groups, and community partners on the structures that actually work: employer-sponsored slots, mixed-use childcare in master-planned communities, nonprofit-operator partnerships, and public-private financing models.
For
- Municipalities
- Master-planned developers
- Employer coalitions
- Workforce boards
- Community nonprofits
- Economic development offices
How an engagement actually runs.
Discovery Call
30-minute scoping call. Mutual fit. Whether Marnie is the right consultant for the work in front of you.
Proposal & Scope
Written proposal with milestones, deliverables, timeline, and pricing. No surprises. No hourly games.
Diagnostic Phase
Deep audit of the current state. Interviews with leadership, staff, and (where appropriate) parents.
Build & Implement
The work itself. Documents, frameworks, hands-on implementation alongside the operating team.
Handoff & Follow-On
Final handoff with a 90-day implementation guarantee. Quarterly check-ins available as a retainer.
Three ways to start.
- Operations audit OR feasibility scope
- 14-day turnaround
- Board-ready deliverable
- One follow-on review call
- Implementation roadmap
- Full start-up OR efficiency build
- Weekly working sessions
- All deliverables & frameworks
- Direct implementation support
- 90-day implementation guarantee
- Speaking credit on case study
- For multi-site & community work
- Embedded advisory role
- Quarterly board appearances
- Unlimited working sessions
- First access to new frameworks
- Co-author rights on case studies
Operators we work with.
- Independent Preschools
- Faith-Based Programs
- Master-Planned Communities
- Workforce Boards
- Multi-Site Childcare Groups
- Education Nonprofits
- Stanford LBI Cohort
- Family Offices
- Developer Partnerships
- Employer Coalitions
Fourteen books.
Four series.
From classroom STEAM activities to childcare business operations to a literary novel that placed Juan Rulfo finalist. Distributed through Gryphon House, Kaplan, and Amazon worldwide.
Simple STEAM · 50+ Activities for Ages 3–6
The Gryphon House professional title that turned classroom STEAM from buzzword into operating system. Used in early childhood programs across all fifty states.
Order on Amazon ↗The Basics · Childcare Business Operations
Grow with STEAM · Board Books · Ages 0–3
I Am So Curious · Body Wonder for Young Minds
Professional & Literary · Specialty
Two flagship courses.
Ready now.
The same frameworks Marnie uses in consulting engagements — productized for operators who want to do the work themselves, on their own timeline. Lifetime access, community included.
Childcare Start-Up Roadmap
A step-by-step pathway for launching a childcare center, preschool, faith-based program, or early education brand. The same operating playbook Marnie uses in consulting engagements — adapted for self-paced learners.
- 12 modules · 40+ video lessons
- Business model & financial templates
- Licensing readiness checklist
- Parent enrollment playbook
- Lifetime access & future updates
- Private community of operators
The Turnaround Accelerator
For owners of operating childcare businesses that are underperforming. A focused 6-week program to diagnose what's broken, prioritize the fixes, and execute them — without burning out your team.
- 6 weeks · self-paced + live calls
- Operational diagnostic toolkit
- Enrollment funnel rebuild
- Staff retention playbook
- Margin recovery framework
The frameworks I use with consulting clients — productized for you.
Eighteen years operating childcare businesses across three campuses. Every template, checklist, and decision tree inside these courses has been used to actually run a school, fill enrollments, and retain teachers. Nothing is theoretical. Everything has been pressure-tested.
Talk to Marnie →Same operator. Different format.
Operator-tested frameworks
Every template, checklist, and decision tree inside these courses has been used by Marnie to operate three childcare campuses. Nothing is theory-only.
Self-paced, lifetime access
Work on your timeline. Modules unlock immediately. You keep the course, the templates, the community, and all future updates — forever.
Operator community access
Private community of childcare founders, multi-site operators, and faith-based program leaders. Monthly office hours with Marnie included.
30-day satisfaction guarantee
If the course isn't the right fit within the first 30 days, contact Marnie's office for a full refund. No questions, no friction.
Course feeling like the floor,
not the ceiling?
Every course graduate gets a free 30-minute consulting call with Marnie. If the work calls for direct engagement — Diagnostic ($5,500), Build ($24,000+), or Partner retainer — your course investment credits toward the engagement.
See consulting tiers →Book Marnie
to speak.
Keynotes, workshops, and panels on childcare entrepreneurship, innovation in early education, faith-based leadership, women in business, community childcare solutions, and early learning workforce development.
How to awaken the genius out of your kids.
Marnie's TEDx talk has reached nearly a million viewers — one of the most-loved talks on early childhood innovation. The condensed argument behind eighteen years of operating, fourteen books, and three campuses.
RUNTIME · 14:42 · 2024 · ENGLISH
What Marnie talks about.
Childcare Entrepreneurship
The operating playbook behind launching, growing, and leading a profitable early education business.
Innovation in Early Education
How project-based, STEAM-driven early learning works in practice — not just in theory.
Faith-Based Leadership
Building ministry programs that are operationally excellent and mission-aligned.
Women in Business
From CNN correspondent to multi-site operator — the cross-industry playbook for women founders.
Community Childcare Solutions
Public-private models that close the childcare gap at the municipality, developer, and employer level.
Early Learning Workforce Development
The teacher pipeline problem — what's broken, what's working, and what operators can build now.
Where Marnie has spoken.
Five ways to book Marnie.
From a single keynote to a multi-day intensive — every engagement is custom-scoped against the audience, the room, and the outcome you need.
Keynote
- Pre-call with conference team
- Custom audience tailoring
- HD recording rights for org
- Post-event Q&A (15 min)
- Social asset pack
Conference Workshop
- Pre-event scoping (2 calls)
- Custom workbook for attendees
- Live exercises & coaching
- Recording & transcript
- 30-day follow-up email pack
Half-Day Intensive
- Pre-engagement diagnostic
- Custom curriculum design
- Three live modules
- Cohort workbook (per attendee)
- Recording rights · org-wide
- 60-day implementation calls (×2)
Full-Day Masterclass
- Two-day on-site engagement
- Six custom modules
- Leadership coaching block
- Operator playbook (printed)
- 90-day quarterly check-in
- First-look at new frameworks
Custom Series
- 4–8 events per calendar year
- Embedded thought leadership
- Co-developed content arc
- Podcast / video co-production
- Annual keynote slot
- Exclusive in territory
Everything you need.
One download.
Bios in three lengths. High-resolution headshots. Topic menu. Technical rider. Awards list. Ready for journalists, conference programmers, and partners.
Request the kit ↗Marnie Forestieri
One-Page Brief
- Short, medium, long bios
- 4 high-res headshots
- 6 topic packages
- Tech & A/V rider
- Awards & press list
- Sample questions
Guides & Free Downloads.
Templates, checklists, frameworks. Take what works, leave the rest. Built for the operator who reads at 6am with coffee.
to Genius.
From Playtime to Genius.
The companion guide to Marnie's TEDx talk — expanded into a practical playbook for parents and operators. The small choices that build innovators, the daily rituals that protect curiosity, and the operating principles behind one of the most-loved talks on early childhood innovation.
- The five daily rituals that protect curiosity
- How to spot — and stop — the genius-killers
- A parent's pocket guide to the TEDx framework
- What operators should put in every classroom
Frameworks & free downloads.
The 90-Day Childcare Start-Up Checklist
Every box you need to check before opening day — from licensing to first parent tour. Used by Stanford LBI cohort.
Enrollment Funnel Audit Worksheet
Diagnose your current enrollment process in 20 minutes. Identify where leads are leaking out of your funnel.
What Most Operators Get Wrong About Tuition
The pricing mistakes that quietly destroy margin — and the operator math behind sustainable tuition decisions.
The Operating Architecture Behind YIA
A 22-minute walkthrough of how three campuses share systems, branding, and a single operating playbook.
Faith-Based Preschool Launch Framework
The eight-stage launch model for churches and faith-based organizations starting an early learning ministry.
Why The Childcare Industry Is Ready For Disruption
Marnie's strategic thesis on the next decade of early childhood — built from the TEDx talk and expanded.
Raising Innovators.
The podcast for parents, operators, and educators raising the next generation of innovators. Hosted by Marnie Forestieri, produced by Jay Zettler. New episodes monthly.
Recent episodes.
A year-end debrief from inside three campuses. Enrollment trends, staffing realities, and the framework for 2026.
A pastor and an operator on what it actually takes to launch a sustainable church-based preschool.
Why most centers operate at the wrong tuition, the wrong ratios, and the wrong staffing model — and how to fix all three.
Marnie on the difference between novelty and innovation in early childhood — drawn from Simple STEAM.
How one master-planned community made childcare a core amenity instead of an afterthought — and what it took.
A practical, step-by-step breakdown of the enrollment system used at three operating campuses.
The deeper structural problems in early childhood staffing — and the operator moves that actually work.
A walk-through of the feasibility framework Marnie uses with developer and municipality clients.
Brand-as-operating-system for early education businesses. How brand actually drives enrollment.
From the founder of a launched franchise system. The honest conversation about when franchising is the right move.
The numbers behind the work.
Eighteen years of operating a high-performing childcare brand has produced a set of outcomes — for kids, for families, for the operating team. Below: what we measure.
Young Innovators Academy
From a single classroom in 2015 to three campuses in ten years.
Founded with a single Winter Garden campus and the CAPE framework, Young Innovators Academy now operates three Orlando-area schools (Winter Garden, Winter Park, Oviedo) under a franchise model launched in 2019. Built around Harvard Project Zero–informed pedagogy and a parent-facing operating tech stack.
Inside Young Innovators Academy.
A walk-through of the schools, the pedagogy, and the operating model behind a decade of building early childhood education that parents return to — and educators stay at.
Independent Preschool
A 90-day enrollment turnaround for a Florida-based independent preschool.
The operator had run the program for over a decade but lost 30% of enrollment in two years. We diagnosed the parent enrollment funnel, rebuilt the tour-to-deposit pipeline, restructured tuition, and brought a clear operating cadence to the leadership team. Names withheld for client confidentiality.
Master-Planned Community
A feasibility study that re-routed a half-million-dollar investment.
A regional developer was about to sign a long-term lease for a childcare center on the wrong site. The feasibility study diagnosed the demographic mismatch, identified a stronger alternative location two miles north, and laid out a three-year enrollment projection that ultimately secured board approval and partnership financing.
Young Innovators
Foundation.
A 501(c)(3) public charity (EIN 851204031) founded to expand access to high-quality early learning for families historically underserved by the existing system. Marnie serves as Founder and Executive Director.
The Foundation is mentioned here for context — it is not the focus of this consulting practice. For Foundation partnership inquiries, please use the General Inquiry form on the contact page.
Young Innovators Foundation for Early Childhood Inc.
Public charity. Tax-deductible donations. Programs include scholarship access, teacher training partnerships, and community-based early learning initiatives.
Foundation inquiries →Press & recognition.
Selected coverage, awards, interviews, and features. Filed by year. New entries added as they happen.
Work with
Marnie.
Tell us about your childcare project, school, church, or community initiative. Marnie reviews every inquiry personally and responds within two business days.
I'm here for:
Launch a childcare
business.
For founders, investors, and operators launching a new childcare center, preschool, or early education brand. Tell Marnie about the project — the more detail, the better the first conversation.
Request a
feasibility study.
For developers, municipalities, employer coalitions, and operators who need a board-ready analysis before committing to a site, build, or financing structure.
Improve an
operating business.
For owners and operators of existing childcare businesses ready to diagnose what's broken and rebuild the operational systems that drive enrollment, margin, and team retention.
Launch a faith-based
early learning ministry.
For churches, denomination offices, and faith-based organizations launching or improving an early learning ministry. Programs that are both spiritually grounded and operationally excellent.
Book Marnie
to speak.
For conference programmers, podcast hosts, university programs, and corporate event planners booking Marnie for a keynote, workshop, or panel.
Get in
touch.
For everything else — press, partnerships, foundation inquiries, mentorship, or just to introduce yourself.
Other ways to reach Marnie.
Consulting Inquiries
hello@marnieforestieri.com
Speaking & Press
booking@marnieforestieri.com
Foundation
foundation@younginnovators.org
Reach Marnie directly
For private inquiries, partnership conversations, and press. Marnie reviews and responds personally within two business days.
marnie@marnieforestieri.com →30-minute scoping call
Bring the project. We'll determine fit, scope a path forward, and confirm whether Marnie is the right consultant for what's in front of you.
Open calendar ↗Two business days. Always.
Every inquiry gets a personal response within 48 business hours. Active engagements get same-day. No automated routing, no inbox triage.
Mon–Fri · 9a–5p ETBefore you send the form.
Most engagements run 8–16 weeks for build work and 12–14 days for diagnostic/feasibility work. Partner-tier retainers are 6 or 12 months. Marnie typically holds 4–6 active engagements at a time to ensure direct attention to each.
Every engagement runs through Marnie personally. Specialist contractors (legal, real estate, finance, marketing) come in for execution support — but the strategy, scoping, deliverables, and primary working relationship are all Marnie's direct work.
Yes — Marnie works nationally. Most engagements run hybrid: monthly on-site visits anchor the relationship, with weekly working sessions over video. Speaking engagements happen everywhere; travel costs are scoped per booking.
Childcare entrepreneurs (single-center and multi-site), school owners, faith-based programs, municipalities, master-planned community developers, employer coalitions, education-focused nonprofits, and family offices investing in early childhood. Mission-aligned work only.
No hourly billing. Diagnostic engagements ($5,500) and feasibility studies are the smallest entry points — both deliver a board-ready written output, not a meeting transcript. If even the Diagnostic feels too heavy, start with the free 30-minute discovery call.
Submit the Speaking form above. Marnie's office responds within two business days with available dates, a tailored proposal against your audience, and the speaker kit. Most events are booked 3–6 months in advance; rush bookings are possible against availability.
Yes — for outlets aligned with early childhood, education entrepreneurship, women in business, faith-based leadership, or Latino business voices. Use the General Inquiry form and include your audience size, format, and target air date.