Paris has shown up in nearly every major chapter of my life, my adolescence, my engagement, my biggest business milestones, and now, the retreats that have become one of my favorite parts of what I do. Here’s the story of how this city became so woven into who I am.
My First Trip to Paris
I was 15 the first time my parents took us outside of North America, and Paris was beyond anything I could have dreamed. Every street was more beautiful than the last. I was completely won over by that city, and I felt so surely, so clearly, like I was meant to be there.
My parents had rented us an apartment near the Luxembourg Gardens (yes, the same gardens where my husband would propose ten years later). It was a two bedroom, but being one of three kids, it was my turn to crash on the couch. I couldn’t have minded less. You could see the Eiffel Tower from our living room window, and I fell asleep every night staring out at it.
After my parents went to bed, I’d secretly borrow my dad’s Stone Age laptop and research moving to Paris. I was convinced.
By the time we finished that trip, I had built my parents a full PowerPoint on how and why our family should move there. I found American school options. I explained the benefits.
My parents were flabbergasted, not just by the pitch, but by the fact that I’d been sneaking onto their computer at night to draft what basically amounted to a high school dissertation on relocating to another country.
They entertained me. They encouraged me to look into a study abroad program in college, or maybe becoming an au pair in my 20s. I appreciated the support, but I felt frustrated, because they weren’t hearing me. I wasn’t interested in moving to Paris at 19 in college, or at 22 as a grad. I knew I needed to be there now.
Moving to France at 16
So I took matters into my own hands. Back home, I went to a local Rotary meeting to see if they sponsored youth exchange trips, and I already knew exactly where I wanted to go. They handed me a 40 page application. Letters of recommendation from my teachers. Personal essays. My parents’ approval. Multiple rounds of interviews. Every precaution to make sure a girl who wasn’t even 18 yet could actually handle a year away from home.
I completed all 40 pages and brought it to my parents, who were stunned I’d done this almost entirely on my own. I think, underneath the surprise, they were proud. They had watched me commit to something the way I never had before, and I’m so grateful they supported me at such a young age.
Less than a year later, I packed my life into two suitcases and boarded a one way flight to Charles de Gaulle Airport. I was 16. I spent my junior year of high school living with a French host family about an hour north of Paris.
That year taught me a lot, but that’s not really the point of this story. The getting there is what actually made me an entrepreneur. It taught me something far more valuable than any funnel tweak or sales skill I’ve picked up since: it taught me not to take no for an answer. When I’m clear on what I want, there is always a way to get it.
And if that way doesn’t work, find another way.
If that way doesn’t work, find another way.
If that way still doesn’t work, find another way.
There is always a way. Even when doors close in your face, even when other people see an obstacle, if you can see an opportunity where they see a wall, you will never run out of ways to grow your business and build the life you want. That’s what entrepreneurship is, at its core.
Engagement!
My love affair with Paris didn’t stop there.
About ten years after that first trip, my now husband and I went together for the first time. One quiet Sunday morning, he proposed near the Medici Fountain in the Luxembourg Gardens. I wasn’t necessarily surprised that he proposed, we’d been together for years. But I truly did not expect to turn at that fountain and find him on one knee.
That moment had layers of meaning.
It happened in the exact gardens where I’d stayed with my family all those years before.
My husband, who knows how much I love Les Misérables, chose the spot near the Medici Fountain on purpose, because that’s where Marius first sees Cosette in the story.
And, he probably enjoyed sneaking in a nod to his Italian heritage with the Medici name too. 🙂
My Seven-Figure Celebration
A few years after that, we were back in Paris celebrating my business’s first seven figure sales year. I was six months pregnant, and I splurged on a dream stay at the Shangri-La Paris. I will never forget that trip.
Afternoon tea at the Plaza Athénée felt like a pregnancy fantasy come to life, and waking up at the feet of the Eiffel Tower, journaling about everything that had gotten me to seven figures, felt straight out of a movie.
But that trip had a bittersweet end to it too.
Part of me didn’t know when I’d make it back to a city I loved so much. With a baby coming, I couldn’t picture how it would work, what our finances would look like, or how I’d ever find the time to travel again.
It felt like I might be saying goodbye to Paris for a long while.
My First VIP Day
The joke was on me. Not even two years later, I sold my first VIP intensive in Paris. When my baby was just eight months old, I flew back to Paris by myself, leaving him for the first time, and that trip became the start of what is now my annual Paris intensives.
Three VIP Intensives in One Year
The year after that, I hosted three VIP intensives in Paris in a single year. This city I loved so much, the one that had taught me so much about being a businesswoman, was now woven into the business itself. I still can’t quite believe that people are willing to fly across the world to work with me, but every single time, the experience gets better than the last.
My First Mastermind Retreat
In 2025, we hit a new milestone: my first Paris retreat. Five women left their businesses, their lives, and their families behind for a few days to spend that time together.
We had a photoshoot.
We rode a boat under a twinkling Eiffel Tower.
We hatched six (and seven!) figure ideas on our walks to dinner, arms linked as we wandered the streets.
Champagne, shopping, workshopping in my hotel room. It was an absolute dream.
Paris, Je T’Aime
This year, in 2026, we’re our first retreat open to the public, not just my Mastermind members.
Another new level, both for my business and for my relationship with this city.
Paris keeps pouring into me in new ways every single time I return, and I’m endlessly grateful it’s become such a real part of my life and my work.
For a long time, I struggled to leave Paris because, as much as I loved it, it felt like a separate life. Something that could never quite fit alongside New York and being a mom. I couldn’t have been more wrong, and I’m so glad I was.
Paris taught me that you get to design the life of your dreams, and there’s no ceiling on what that can look like when you have the conviction and the vision to build it.
But you have to do the building. It won’t be handed to you. Paris has always been proof of what it means to receive what you’ve actually worked for.
That’s the energy I try to channel every time I’m there, and it up-levels my life and my business every single time, just as it does for my clients.
I hope you’ll consider joining me on one of my Paris retreats.
