From Adversity to a Life of Fulfillment

Marta's inspiring story unfolds from adversity to a life of profound fulfilment.

Raised in a politically restrictive environment and immigrating to the U.S. at 12, she faced bullying and challenges but worked hard to achieve success at NBC TV in New York City. Co-founding CheapCaribbean.com allowed for early retirement to Paris at 39.

While the external seemed perfect, internal struggles emerged—anxiety, panic attacks, and a heart condition. Marta's soul beckoned her inward, leading to a transformative spiritual journey over nine years.

Now, her business reflects her belief that external lives mirror internal states. Through bestselling books, SoulCare meditations, workshops, and mentorship, Marta guides others to discover their true essence.

Join Marta as she shares her profound transformation—a journey from facing political restrictions to immigrant challenges, culminating in rediscovering freedom within. Marta's story is an invitation to embark on a path of selfdiscovery and fulfillment.

you are and not what you do?

There was one key pivotal moment for me, but it was almost as if it had several aspects woven into it.

It was nearly a decade ago now, when I had just sold the company I started with my husband, after 15 years of running, growing and building it. At the same time, we moved to Paris, France and I was taken out of the familiar way of living –racing through life on autopilot by following the agenda carefully laid out on my planner.

My children started new schools and the way of life in Paris allowed for more independence on their part versus relying on me. I was further away from my parents, who normally lived just a few minutes from us back in the United States. As my husband and I stopped working together – there was also an end to the usual way we had been relating to one another up until then (we had met at work so from the start we always worked together, even before our company).

Lastly, there was suddenly more free time in my schedule as the roles I used to define myself slowly started to fall away.

Change was in the air – but at the time I didn’t see it at all. I was just focused on the next thing – tackling the move of our family to a foreign, unfamiliar country. At first, when I found myself with more open slots in my calendar – I habitually tried to fill them up with things. Volunteering at church, homeroom parenting at school, hosting book clubs, throwing dinner parties, creating a new social life for us and setting up our home – I simply did not know how to be still. I needed to stay busy – it was the only way I knew myself to be. It felt “comfortable” and “normal”.

The next year, when we travelled on a Caribbean vacation to celebrate the sale of the company (which meant retirement for me at 39) I suffered what I thought was a heart attack at the end of this epic trip. It came out of nowhere, after our last dinner, while getting ready and packing for our flight home the next day – being rushed to the hospital and spending the night, there which delayed our return home. It sure was a memorable trip – just not in the way I had anticipated. Similar to my early retirement being epic – but not how I thought it would go either. While I was ready to start enjoying all the things I had been working so hard to achieve, to finally sit back and savour life

– the Caribbean heart scare episode was just the beginning of everything falling apart for me.

It turned out to be my first panic attack, which made way for depression, paralyzing anxiety and daily episodes of panic. It was a crack in the outer shell of me – prompted by the immense pressure from within. I was suddenly stricken with fear and terror – which made absolutely no sense to me! I was strong, tough, resilient. I was the glue that held everything together – in business and family. I was the one who could do anything, get anything done, juggling many things at once to the amazement and awe of friends and colleagues. This was who I was, after all? This warrior woman knew no fear!

But when I was faced with the inability to do ANY of what normally came so easily –I started to wonder. If I am not an entrepreneur and COO when I am not a mother, a wife, or a daughter… who am I then?

Am I less valuable and worthy when I am sick, messy, exhausted, confused and depressed in my bed then when I am productive and successful? If the only change was my inability to do for others what I was used to doing – was I worth less? And if those roles did not define who I was – because I stopped doing them all and there I still was – then who was I really? There must be more to my identity than my jobs, the masks I wear, the roles I play, the things I learned so well to perform…

There had to be something underneath all that “stuff” which was the essence of me. And the journey began simple as that – the way I had been functioning and living just stopped working. I had no choice but to set out on a quest to find the answer to this question that begun haunting me – “who am I?” This changed everything to me. I started to understand that there is so much more to life then I knew. There was so much more to me.

occurred during your spiritual awakening?

It was a complete change of direction of my life. Since everything changed – the focus of my life for the next decade, for example – it deeply affected my family and everyone around me. This challenge presented an opportunity – to start talking about what I was experiencing. I found this difficult because I wanted to shield my children from worry, fear and pain. I wanted to provide them with stability and security and here I was completely falling apart. I did not want this to be hard on them too.

At the same time, the dynamic between my husband and myself changed completely as well. While I was used to him leaning on me for certain things – this became no longer possible.

I needed help from him instead – and not only did I not know how to ask for it, I also did not know how to receive it. We had to navigate a lot of discomfort as a family. I also had to learn not to feel the tremendous guilt and shame that came with this – this idea that I was to blame for all the pain I was suddenly causing my loved ones. The internal dialogue and battle within me was so painful – and that wasn’t helping anything, least of all myself and my healing.

The only way to deal with it was something I had never done before –instead of managing, controlling and fixing – I had to allow myself to completely surrender, come undone and fall to pieces. I had to do the one thing I had been trying so hard to prevent. It was unnatural and counterintuitive. And the only reason I finally gave in was because I was just too exhausted and too weak to function the old way. This made way for a completely different way of seeing everything in life – especially the purpose of why I was here, to begin with, and what was the true definition of love.

How do you help others discover the truth that answers can be found within our hearts, from your bestselling book to your workshops and mentorship offerings?

I help others by first and foremost sharing my own experience, sharing how I came to believe this truth and what this journey looked like for me. I wrote my memoir “Unraveling” with this very purpose in mind – to be a guiding light for others on their journeys of searching for answers. While I also searched for answers outside of myself – believing that things, people, places, achievements and relationships would make me feel fulfilled – ultimately, I have learned that the only lasting way to accomplish this was to find that feeling within my own heart.

If I can find true love, happiness, inner peace, meaning and purpose within me; if I show up wherever I go “already full” everything else is just a bonus; an overflow of the thing itself already within me. The external world is my mirror – it only reflects to me what is already in me internally.

I describe this in detail in my book I talk about this very openly in the workshops and talks I give around the USA and in Europe. I help others get to this place within themselves by teaching a spiritual self-care practice I have developed called SoulCare. SoulCare is a guided meditation into the sacred space of your own internal castle – the sanctuary of your soul – to help you encounter the truth of who you are, your own essence – the silence, stillness and solitude within.

And from that calm, centered, grounded place filled with love and abundance one can recreate herself and build a life she absolutely loves living. I call this living soul-led and that is at the heart of everything I do - my mentorship spaces as well as my one-to-one private retreats in Paris.