Episode 6: Emmelin Boixareu - Full Transcript
Casey Berglund:
Today's guest is Emmelin Boixareu, and one of the things that makes her unique is that unlike many of the women in this series, she's actually from here. Born and raised in Barcelona, she carries both the depth of local roots and the breadth of global experience, and that combination has shaped not only her perspective but the businesses she's built. But her path wasn't linear. Like so many of us, Emmelin pushed herself past her limits, experienced burnout, and had to face the hard truth of how much her worth was tied to her work. That journey cracked her open to create not just one but two thriving businesses, each of them filling real gaps in their industries. And it's so clear to me that Emmelin really is a true bridge builder, between people, ideas, and systems. In this conversation, we talk about the cultural gifts she grew up with, what burnout taught her, and how she now channels her purpose into work that feels both expansive and aligned.
What does it really take to create calm, purposeful success that feels good in your body? I'm Casey Berglund, TEDx speaker, author, coach, and your host of the Purpose Map podcast, brought to you by Worthy and Well. Before I invite you into this conversation with Emmelin, I have a really special request. It won't take too much of your time at all. If you're loving what you're hearing here in this series and beyond, it means so much when you leave a five-star rating and review. That helps these podcast episodes be heard by more people. And we're here for that impact, that ripple. Okay, can you do that for me? Hit follow, rate, review. It would mean so much. Let's get on with the show. Here's my conversation with Emmelin.
So Emmelin, one of the things that is unique about you in this series of women who are part of this is that you grew up here. There's a couple other women who grew up in Spain and are familiar with Spain as a culture from their upbringing, but you're someone who was born in Barcelona. And I actually want to start by asking you what it was like to grow up here, because for me, obviously I grew up on a farm in the middle of the prairies in Canada. So I grew up riding horses and having nature all around and having space and going to a school that had like a hundred kids from kindergarten to grade 12. And one of the things that I love about traveling is when I connect soulfully with other women like you who grew up totally differently. And so I'm curious what it was like to grow up here in Barcelona.
Emmelin Boixareu:
I mean, it was great, I have to say. I mean, it's the only thing that I know of, obviously. So yeah, but it's true that I had the opportunity when I was a kid to go outside of Barcelona quite a lot, you know, to go to the Pyrenees and go to Galicia and go to the beach even, and like spending long periods of time there. So yeah, I grew up in Barcelona, but it's true that I have not been like a super urban child. You know, I always have lived on the outside of the city as well. So I always had the good thing about living in Barcelona and being connected and having everything you need in the palm of your hand. But at the same time, I could get away, you know, so it was quite nice. But recently I have realized, traveling a lot and living abroad, that I have taken a lot of things for granted that other cultures don't have so inside of them. Like, for example, food, like the relationship with food that we have here is something that is very important for me, you know? And I was not aware of how important it was, not only the type of food that you're eating, but the ritual of being around a table and sharing food and having a sobremesa, for example, that can last for three, four hours or something like that. You know, it's—when we—just in case somebody doesn't know.
Casey Berglund:
They definitely don't know. Explain it.
Emmelin Boixareu:
So sobremesa is—I don't know if you have a word in English, but it's when we finish having lunch or dinner or whatever, we can stay at the same table maybe for three or four hours, having some drinks or only having a little bit, some biscuits or something like that, and talking and talking and talking. That is something very, very nice. And I think I have taken it for granted sometimes. And now I see that I am so lucky to have had this because it's a different way of having relationships, you know, with people.
Casey Berglund:
You know, this is interesting because when we first met, one of the things that we connected over was being foodies. And this is where I think our upbringings, though totally different in a way, actually have some intersections. Because I grew up, you know, planting a garden with my mom and cooking and sitting at a table for dinner. And I didn't realize until I actually went to university to study nutrition, which, you know, obviously being a dietician was my first career, that even the people who I was studying with, you know, studying nutritional science, didn't necessarily have a connection with food. And it kind of blew my mind. And they also had this sort of urban way of being. And I think that this is actually so important. And I'm glad that you brought that up. The piece that I think it's common for everyone to take for granted—the gifts of where they come from—until you leave. And one of the things that I've noticed about the local women who I've connected with here through Juno House, they all have actually traveled a lot. They've all left and returned. And it's, I think, that international nature about them that creates a solid connection. And this is one of my favorite things about Barcelona and Spanish culture is the way in which connection around food happens. And you have no idea how many women I worked with when I was a dietician, where the focus was relationship with food and how abnormal it was for so many people and how abnormal it is for so many people in North America to actually sit and eat or to commune around food. So I'm glad that you brought that forth.
Emmelin Boixareu:
To be honest, I think there are a couple of things that are quite important here, and is that I'm the third generation after war here in Spain, you know? So I remember for my grandma, having food was like—it was essential. Like it was key that there was three times the food that was needed on the table because she had had hunger when she was a child, you know. And I think my parents and now me, we are kind of changing that relationship that we have seen in her, in the way she understood food, you know? It was kind of a privilege. And now for us it's something that is inside of us. Like it's a part of us, you know. And the second thing is that we are very lucky here in Spain, in the Mediterranean basically, that we can reach natural food at a regular price. I mean, yeah, an apple here can cost you, I don't know, 50, 60 cents or something like that. So in the U.S., how much, or in Canada, how much can that cost? But I mean, we have the economic possibility in most cases to have good food and a good meal. And that also helps, obviously, to have this better relationship with food. So yeah.
Casey Berglund:
Yeah, it's so true. I'm just thinking about how I eat olives every day. And they're so good. And actually, when I'm eating like a whole dish of olives, I sometimes have these flashes to when I was a dietician. And when I taught people about portion sizes and whatever, and it's like, I'm such an intuitive eater now. But my intuition guides me to the whole dish of olives because they're just amazing. And something that's really interesting is, like, I think we're always being prepared in a way for what comes next. And something that's interesting is three months before I moved here to Barcelona, I started craving olives. And I started craving like Mediterranean food, and I started seeking it out. And it felt like—it did. It felt like one of those synchronicities that's like, "Wow, my body is already in Spain," you know? And I'd only had one visit here. So I wasn't super familiar with all the local food, but you know, the patatas bravas and the olives are basically gonna be a staple in my home no matter where I am.
Emmelin Boixareu:
Olives are the best. They are nice. They're so good. But they're very—they're so great.
Casey Berglund:
Yeah, I love it. Okay, I love that we started on a food front. That feels so perfect. Yeah, because if you recall, we met and then I think it was the next time we connected, you and Jaume, your partner, were here at Juno. And I must have said something about how much I like ice cream and I'm trying to find the best ice cream. And you're like, "Oh, come with us." And I was like, "Yes, I needed a local friend to show me the food scene." So anyway, it makes perfect sense that that's where we're kicking off. Absolutely. Yeah, even though when I primed you for this conversation, I was like, "Okay, we're going to talk about your two businesses and like professionalism and all of that." And like, we'll get there. We're getting there. Okay, one of the best parts about this series that isn't always the case—it's often the case, but it's not always the case—for the people that I invite in for conversations is every single woman in the series, I have developed a meaningful relationship with. We're not strangers. I'm not just, you know, finding you on the internet and asking you if you want to share your wisdom online. So it makes perfect sense that some of that personal connection comes through as we talk.
Emmelin Boixareu:
I think so too. Yeah.
Casey Berglund:
So there are a few things that I want to dig into today. You shared with me prior to us hitting record about a burnout experience that you had. And I'm unfortunately seeing that being more and more common, especially among women. And I think that's actually meaningful because our biology is different from men. And I think in some ways, as an effort to keep up in the workforce, we're pushing our bodies beyond their limits. And I don't think it's our fault. I don't think it's—I think it's sort of like a system that kind of promotes the overworking and neglecting the body, etc. And so I think that there needs to be more conversation about those symptoms. And also, maybe even the gifts that going through an experience like that offer. So what's it like for you? How did that experience happen?
Emmelin Boixareu:
You know, yesterday I was thinking about these things that we talked, and I was kind of practicing a little bit what I wanted to talk about. And I kind of realized that the burnout that I had had a lot to do with ego.
Casey Berglund:
Oh, tell me about this. I knew you were going to—I just got the wave of truth tingles, which come through, and there's something to double-click on.
Emmelin Boixareu:
I mean, yeah, it's true. Because things, you know, I was trying to do the timeline on how my burnout happened, you know. And I mean, it was kind of the typical thing. I was going to do a little bit of a short, long story short. I am an interior designer, and I have been working since third grade, like third course in my career, like in college. And I loved it. I had the chance to be working from the beginning in a very small company, and they trusted in me and they saw potential in me, basically. And I took every opportunity they gave me. So I mean, it was something great. I started to learn in the field, from very early age, and I was starting to get a lot of responsibility. So I come from a family where work is kind of like the basis of everything, you know? Like if you're good at work and you're respectable at work, it means that you have succeeded somehow. It's a little bit more complex, obviously, but this is kind of the idea that is rooted in you.
Casey Berglund:
Exactly. It's so funny, Emmelin. I'm reading between the lines and I'm like, "She's dealt with that piece of things in therapy more than a few times." I can sense your self-awareness around how work is connected to worth for you and, you know, for most of us. But you would have your own sort of unique experience of that through your family system.
Emmelin Boixareu:
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And the thing is that I don't know, everything went very easy, like everything went well, you know, from the beginning in my career. And I think it was—kind of I didn't realize that I was going through a burnout, you know, until it was kind of a little bit late, you know. And at the end, I got into that situation because I was working for a company. And at the same time, I accepted some works directly to me, like there were some clients that asked me directly to do some projects, you know. And although I had a 30-hour job in another company...
Casey Berglund:
You did contracts on the side.
Emmelin Boixareu:
Yeah, I said, "Why not?" So that's why I was saying that my ego was kind of the perfect accessory that I needed to go into that terrible loop, you know? Because at the end, it's kind of—yeah, it's kind of a loop. I felt validated when I was doing a good job. And when people were—when my clients were happy with me and the work that I've done, or my bosses, basically. But at the same time, every time I was getting more responsibilities, I didn't know how to manage all that responsibility and the amount of time and work that that involved, you know. But I was not capable of saying no, because it's a hard lesson to learn. Yeah. "No, it's work and I can do it because I've been working 10 years in this industry, and I'm the best and I can do it." And this is obviously everything that was going on. You know, I could not question like, "Okay, are you certain that you can do that while maintaining a work-life balance or something like that?" Obviously, these questions came afterwards. Yeah, yeah, yeah. At that point, I was not aware of all of this, you know. And I was not listening to my body. I was not listening to my mind. I was not listening to anything. The only red flags that I was having at that point were fights with my partner because he didn't see me. Like I was like a roommate. I was not a partner. My house was a warehouse, basically, you know?
Casey Berglund:
The freaking reality.
Emmelin Boixareu:
I mean, it was—it was horrible. Now I see it was horrible. At the time I thought it was what it was.
Casey Berglund:
Yeah, it's what it was. It's what you had to do. Like, "Can't you see that I'm working 30 hours a week and taking on all these contracts?"
Emmelin Boixareu:
"And I have to do it and I'm tired. Obviously, I'm tired because I'm working, I don't know, maybe 100 hours a week."
Casey Berglund:
Yeah, that's a lot.
Emmelin Boixareu:
I mean, it's—yeah, it was crazy. Honestly, it was crazy. I missed a lot of things in my personal life at that point. And I think some relationships started to become a little bit more fragile because of that situation. Yeah. And basically, that was the whole environment. I think the moment—I don't know if...
Casey Berglund:
Yeah, tell me the moment. Tell me about the moment. Tell me about the moment where everything shifted or when you realized—yeah, this is the moment we've all been waiting for.
Emmelin Boixareu:
I mean, there were two moments actually, I have to say. The first one is—I had a bike accident actually in Barcelona, and it was nothing serious, nothing like—bicycle or motorbike?
Casey Berglund:
Bicycle.
Emmelin Boixareu:
Bicycle. With a car. I was on bicycle and there was a car, and I was with my partner as well. And he—at the first moment, it seemed like he had a big injury. I was in this mood like I had been like this for a year maybe. So my levels of cortisol and everything in my body was in anxiety mode, like in the alert mode, like there's a lion coming for me. Like I was like this 24/7. So when this happened, like I saw somebody that I love in risk, I kind of felt that my body in that moment kind of broke. Like it could not process what was going on because it was like the final drop for it to break. So at that moment I started therapy, and it worked. But it's true that I—there was a part of me, well, that was kind of—they didn't want to change somehow, you know. I think there was a fear of, "Okay, if I stop taking work as seriously as I'm taking it right now, maybe I'm going to be less worthy."
Casey Berglund:
Hmm. Yeah. You know, well, and you started this by saying it was because of ego that the burnout happened. And so this makes perfect sense. Like of course you would take every opportunity you can get as a young interior designer originally. And then especially if you're primed to want to receive the validation from people wanting your support on the side, you take one of those contracts and you work extra hard to get it done. Like it makes so much sense. And then you go to therapy and it's like, "What do you mean I need to let go?" And it's like, of course your ego, which is here to protect you, you know, would have a little resistance to the idea.
Emmelin Boixareu:
Absolutely. Or a lot. The thing is that I went to therapy because I wanted to—laugh at me because you're going to laugh, but I wanted to get rid of anxiety. That's the real truth. I wanted—that makes sense. I just wanted that. I just wanted to stop having panic attacks. That's the only thing I wanted.
Casey Berglund:
Nobody wants to do the deeper work. Of course. I'm not going to laugh at you. I'm just going to validate you. Like it's a surface-level symptom that bothers us, that creates tension, that is stealing our life force away that we want to get rid of. And that's why we—that's why we invest in something is usually a pain point. And then we come to realize like, "Shit, what I have to do to get there might be a little bit more than I thought." Yeah. "Couldn't the therapist just take my anxiety away?"
Emmelin Boixareu:
The day that my therapist told me, "Okay, I'm going to tell you a hard truth, but anxiety is never going away. Anxiety is a part of you. And what you're going to change is the way that you relate to it. And we are going to create these dynamics and these ways of doing that anxiety is not going to be the only thing that you can feel in your body," because that was what was happening in the moment. I could only feel anxiety. "But it's not going away." And you know, it was in that moment that what I needed—was a pill, like what I wanted, not what I needed, but what I wanted and was expecting was a "bye-bye anxiety" pill.
Casey Berglund:
Yeah.
Emmelin Boixareu:
That's very human. Yeah, obviously. Yeah. So the thing is that six months after that, I went on holiday to the best place on earth for me until the moment, and it's the Aeolian Islands. And these are like five—I think it's five—volcanic islands that are in the north of Sicily.
Casey Berglund:
Oh, thanks for just planting that.
Emmelin Boixareu:
Yeah. Anyway, that was amazing.
Casey Berglund:
We can do another whole conversation about those islands.
Emmelin Boixareu:
It's the best. I mean, there are no cars. There are only like, do you know these vehicles for golf, like golf carts?
Casey Berglund:
Like side-by-side.
Emmelin Boixareu:
Yeah. I mean, that was the best. So the thing is that I remember that the third or fourth day I had been working, you know, during these days in paradise. And I already had had some arguments with my partner. And even for me, it was starting to be a little bit—I don't know, it was very heavy on me to be needed. Yeah. Like I was needed there, you know. I remember that we were climbing a volcano that was on fire.
Casey Berglund:
That was eruptive?
Emmelin Boixareu:
Yeah, because it's always active, you know, so you can see a little bit of lava. And we were going up and the sun was going down, and you could see—it's a very tiny island. So you could see the whole sea. Like it was—I don't know, I kind of had an epiphany of, "I mean, I'm so small in this freaking enormous world. And I'm worried because the accountant of the company that I'm working for is asking me for these bills of what my expenses were last month."
Casey Berglund:
Like, "Where are your receipts, Emmelin?"
Emmelin Boixareu:
Yeah. "What the fuck?" Yeah. I'm sorry. I don't know.
Casey Berglund:
That's okay.
Emmelin Boixareu:
You know, I was there and I said, "I mean, this is not worth it."
Casey Berglund:
Yeah.
Emmelin Boixareu:
"I mean, I'm living a once-in-a-lifetime experience with a person that I love, with me and with this environment. And I'm thinking about a ticket. What's wrong with me?" You know? Wow. Yeah. And from that moment, like in that moment, I stopped the climbing for five minutes. I blocked everyone on my WhatsApp.
Casey Berglund:
Your work chat. Yeah.
Emmelin Boixareu:
I blocked everyone. And I just gave one person the information that, "Okay, I need to rest. I need to disconnect. If there is something really, like really urgent that you need from me, you are the only one that can contact me."
Casey Berglund:
Wow. Great job.
Emmelin Boixareu:
Because I knew that that person was going to be able to differentiate between urgent and non-urgent matters. You know? So yeah, I turned off my phone and I spent an amazing 10 days there. And when I finalized that, when the day that I was coming back, I said, "I'm quitting my job."
Casey Berglund:
Wow. Yeah. Okay. I just want to reflect back the journey I'm hearing. So for you, it was taking on a lot and having your worth identified with your work, which I know so many people listening can relate with. And then what we're using—the term "burnout"—and people have kind of different perceptions of what that means. And it sounds like for you, you were experiencing things outside of yourself, like fights with your partner and just internally, I guess it was anxiety and panic attacks and always being on high alert. And then the bike accident was the first little awakening. And then this trip to the most beautiful place on earth and realizing you were stewing about your accountant's requests instead of enjoying the sunrise while climbing up a volcano, you know, basically was another moment of making you pause. And it is funny, I noticed this to be true, that for some people—it's like, well, for most people—there's a "gradually and then suddenly" type of experience where the patterns that create the burnout build over time. And then it seems that the moments that awaken people to change happen kind of intensely or suddenly. And it sounds like that was true for you. And then so you're like, "I'm quitting my job." Okay. So obviously I know you and you now run two different businesses with your partner and with other contractors and employees. So bridge the gap a little bit. What happens between you realizing you need to quit your job and that you need to take care of yourself and maybe recover from some of these symptoms that you're having and probably continue therapy for the rest of your life? Between that moment on the volcano and starting two businesses, what happened in there?
Emmelin Boixareu:
The thing is that I'm very drastic, you know, as a person. Like it's this or the other. Like all or nothing. Yeah. And it's something that I'm trying to work with because I know that those types of decisions normally are not the best for me. You know, it's better to go to a gray area instead of only black or only white. But it's something that it's difficult. And it's what you were saying that at the end, it's a lifetime living like that. And I think for me, I wish I would have been able to realize this without needing to have these episodes. You know, I wish that would be true. But reality is that I think if I wouldn't have lived it the way I lived it right now, I would be repeating patterns, like previous patterns, you know. But as I was in such a traumatic and so bad position in that moment, my body physically has—my body remembers that pain, you know?
Casey Berglund:
Of course. It's very—I mean, honestly, I'm not sure. Honestly, it's surprising to me.
Emmelin Boixareu:
When you say that, what do you mean?
Casey Berglund:
Like when you say "my body remembers," from my perspective as an embodiment guide, it's like, "Yeah, no shit." Like we don't know this, but then we experience it. And it's like, "This feels weird how my body just knows." But it's kind of like how the body and nervous system and trauma works. Yeah. So when you say "my body remembers," like what happens even in your present day that might remind you of that moment in time and your body—what's your body do?
Emmelin Boixareu:
Like there are moments that if I don't plan or I don't organize myself with a little bit of time, or I mean, the type of work that I had and that I have now is true that has a lot of red phone calls, you know, like complexity, stress.
Casey Berglund:
Yeah. Something that you have to fix in the moment.
Emmelin Boixareu:
And it's something that I'm pretty good at, but it's true that if I have made 10 of those in one day and the next day I have 10 of those and the next day I have 10 of those, I start to feel in my body physically, not anxiety as I felt it before, but I have some kind of alerts. I don't know how to say it, but I feel my body—it's not my body.
Casey Berglund:
You know what I mean? Yeah. Like it sounds like maybe there's a bit of dissociation that almost happens where you're sort of separate from your body. Yeah. And I imagine that there would be some holding or some contraction from that stress.
Emmelin Boixareu:
I start to realize that I cannot hear myself in the clearer way that I'm hearing myself right now, for example. Exactly. You know? And that is a red flag for me. Like, "Okay, this is happening and I don't want this to happen. So yeah, let's see what actions can I take to shift things around a little bit," you know?
Casey Berglund:
Yeah. I think I—can I get a little bit nerdy on this for just a moment?
Emmelin Boixareu:
Please go ahead.
Casey Berglund:
Like when your body is in high alert or in that hyperaroused, activated, fight, flight, or freeze, fawn mode, anytime that it's in a survival mode symptom, it's kind of like there is static around your intuitive antenna. Like it's hard to access self and truth and intuition and creativity when the body is physically having a survival mode, high alert experience. And so when you say that it's hard to access myself, like I can right now—like right now, we're breathing, we're co-regulated, we're friends, this is a safe environment. It's familiar. We know this place. We can just talk from a place of truth. But when it's like you're putting out fires at work day after day after day, it makes sense that anyone—so anyone in your shoes—would be like, "Whoa, where am I? I need a moment to kind of reconnect and reset."
Emmelin Boixareu:
But you always have these—I mean, I don't know, maybe it's not the point of the talk, okay?
Casey Berglund:
So.
Emmelin Boixareu:
But you always have these other voices and these old, past versions of you saying, "That's not that bad. You can do it. Yes. You did a lot more previously and you didn't die. So you can do it." And then you have to fight back those voices a little bit and say, "Yeah, I know I could do it and I know my body is able to maintain that level of stress, but this is not the way that I want to live."
Casey Berglund:
Yeah.
Emmelin Boixareu:
So it's a decision that you make. Like, well, in my case that I make, you know.
Casey Berglund:
Thank you for naming that because that's so relatable. Naming that there are these voices that are like, "But yeah, it's"—honestly, it makes me think of when I had an eating disorder when I was younger. There was the part of me that was like, "You need to eat." And then a voice that was like, "Ignore it, go to sleep." Like kind of the devil on the shoulder. Absolutely. And yet, and yet what's interesting is these are all parts of us that do also require some space. Otherwise their voices get loud. I know you and I both have done a little bit of parts work. Yeah. IFS in our therapy. How do we sort of handle—it's not about pushing your anxiety away. It's about sort of learning how to be with it and learn what it's trying to tell you and then connect with the voice that you want to sort of lead the show. So I think it's really wise that you brought that forth. And I think our conversation is going exactly where it's meant to go. So don't you worry about that. Yeah.
Emmelin Boixareu:
The thing is that when I decided—going back, when I decided to quit my job, at first, what I wanted to do is to work in a supermarket.
Casey Berglund:
Yeah, of course. For me, it was like moving out to a cabin and baking bread. Actually during COVID I applied—without a resume because I've been an entrepreneur too long, I didn't have a resume. I wrote the owner of a bakery and I was like, "I don't have a resume, but here's why you should hire me. I want to bake bread. I don't want to talk to people at the front. I want to bake the bread in the back." Yeah. Okay. For the listener, this is one of the clearest signs of burnout. Yeah. Or if you don't like the word "burnout," that you need some rest and recovery. Because I see time and time again, brilliant, visionary women who have gifts to bring to the world who are like, "I just—a man, come save me," or "Take me out to the woods and help me bake bread. I just want to work in a supermarket." These are signs that you've pushed past your edge in case you're disembodied and you need another reminder. That's a sign.
Emmelin Boixareu:
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, and I know that at that point I was not—yeah, I mean, it was a reflex idea because what I wanted was to stop feeling how I was feeling. You know, I wanted to work. I said, "Okay, I don't want to have a purpose job. I just want to have a money job." Yes.
Casey Berglund:
"I just want something safe and calm that is super easy." And you know what? I just want to say there's a time and place for that. Absolutely. There's a time and place. And sometimes you actually do need to have easy money come in to let your nervous system recover. Because it is—it is actually hard to build a purposeful career, business, on top of a nervous system that's in survival mode. It's impossible. And so we need to work the nervous system first and create some calm from the chaos. And that might take a long time. It might be months, it might be years. It's not easy. It's not easy, but I think it's important to normalize that and that it's okay.
Emmelin Boixareu:
Or even if you decide at some point—it's not something that I did. But if you come to that point and you say, "Okay, I have realized that the aim in my life is not to work, is to live in a different way. And I prefer to have a job that is not fancy or interesting for others or whatever. But I want to invest all the energy I have in my life, in my personal everything." And I think that is also an option. Of course, there's no judgment.
Casey Berglund:
The judgment would be—I've recognized—and sometimes I've heard people saying, "This is the way, like the easy way out is to do that." And to be honest, I don't think that's true. I think it's kind of brave to be honest, to be honest with yourself and have this connection and awareness. Yeah. And say, "Okay, I'm taking action to give myself what I need and what I want." Wow. "Good for you."
Emmelin Boixareu:
We celebrate you. Yeah. If you're in that position, listener, and you're like, "I actually don't want to work. I actually want a purpose that is different than that." Or actually that purpose...
Casey Berglund:
"I just want to live."
Emmelin Boixareu:
"Like can I live in the moment?"
Casey Berglund:
"Can I simplify my life?" We celebrate you.
Emmelin Boixareu:
You have our applause. I want to do it. I was not, to be honest, at that point I was not capable of making that choice. I don't regret it because without wanting it, a very good job opportunity came to me. And when I started that job, the first thing that I said was that I had some limits because I was coming from a place of working extra hours everywhere. Also, you know, I come from the construction industry. Construction industry is a place—it's quite a rough place. There are a lot of—I mean, it's not because there are a lot of males, of men. It's because at least in Spain, the people who are in the workplace, let's say like that, not in the studios, like doing the plans, but people who are in the workplace normally are middle-aged men who have not done any kind of self-reflection. Yeah. And they basically have some patterns that are a little bit difficult to manage sometimes.
Casey Berglund:
I was going to say a little toxic.
Emmelin Boixareu:
Yeah. I don't know. I mean, there's everything, as always, you know. There's very nice people that are always going to welcome you and make you feel part of the group from the very first moment. But there are a lot of people that you have to demonstrate before you get respect.
Casey Berglund:
Yeah.
Emmelin Boixareu:
And that is very tough. And when you add it to the long hours, to the not very good compensation that you're having in this industry, and the poor management that we normally have, it becomes quite a rough work to do because there are a lot of things that go against you, you know? Yeah. So I kind of set some boundaries, and the company accepted them and embraced them. It was a great challenge, like a great professional challenge. We started three people in that company and ended up being 15 in six months.
Casey Berglund:
Wow. So it was like, was it a startup? Yeah. Yeah, just a small company.
Emmelin Boixareu:
Yeah. It was a small company that suddenly—we needed a lot of things to be done in a very short period of time. It was also in the luxury industry, and it's something that I discovered. I already knew it, but I had never worked so much and only in luxury before, in architectural luxury. I really liked the options and the opportunities that we had, working obviously with higher budgets. We could have a relationship with a client that was much closer. It was not so tight in the way that we could invest time, not only getting to know the client, but also creating the project. We had a lot of creative liberty, freedom. And yeah, it was a great moment in my career. I also had a position—I was the managing director of the studio. So I started to learn a lot about business, more the business side than the architectural or construction side that I already had had the experience there. It was great, but the problem was that I wanted to go live abroad. It's funny how the body and mind work, because when I was experiencing my burnout and the year prior to that, I didn't let my body show me some of the needs that it had. In the moment that I kind of regulated the work, the workplace and the work relation that I had, some of the things started to grow in me. I wanted to do other things. I wanted to learn other cultures, to live other cultures. And I wanted to leave Barcelona, basically. And that was not possible with the job that I was having, because it was a very physical thing.
Casey Berglund:
You had to be there. Yeah, you had to be there. Okay, so I love this. You attracted in a job that was very expansive for you, it sounds like. The thing that really stood out to me in that part of the story that I think is important for people who have experienced some sort of burnout is returning to work with limits and with boundaries. I'm glad that you had the strength, power, courage, and necessity to say, "Here's what I'm not willing to do." And it sounds like you just had a better, more expansive experience. And then by the time it was time to move on, it was because you had other desires. You wanted to be able to travel. And it's so clear to me when you talk about you learning business skills through that company, in addition to what you already knew in the interior design, architecture, construction industry. So let's fast forward to starting a business in that industry. And just tell me about this—I guess I would call that maybe this chapter. We're getting closer to this chapter where you do have not just one, but two businesses.
Emmelin Boixareu:
I started traveling. I quit that job and I started traveling around Europe. I was staying kind of a month in each city, something like that. And it was very inspiring to see other—yeah, I mean, obviously traveling and living abroad is so inspiring, you know, for sure. It's a challenge, of course, but it's great. But the thing is that at first I wanted to find a job that was remote, but then I realized that I was just trying to find something easy, but it was not really what I wanted. It took a little bit of time just to figure that out. Yeah, it was not that easy. But now I can say it easily. And I don't know, I kind of—firstly it started La Troupe. La Troupe was the first one. And it was the first one because I started thinking about everything that went wrong in my career and in my industry. How was the best way or one way to support my industry and my colleagues and other professionals, you know? I created La Troupe, I don't know, three years ago or four years ago, I don't know now. And it's a company where we do the externalization of some services for architects, construction companies and this. We do the plans, the renderings, everything they need. So this is an industry where it's very difficult to plan ahead when you're going to have lower, less clients or more clients or more projects or less projects. It's difficult to really plan this beforehand. And that makes it very difficult for business owners to really be able to manage resources and to know when they have to hire more people and if they are going to be able to maintain those people that they have hired for three years or only six months.
Casey Berglund:
Right, because it'd be very project-based. So some projects would require a lot of human resources and other projects would require less, and so there'd be ups and downs in their revenue and their needs. And so you fill that gap by?
Emmelin Boixareu:
By being us, the team that can go in and out of your team to help, basically.
Casey Berglund:
Got it. Like you curate the contractors to come together for this specific project.
Emmelin Boixareu:
Because you know what happens in these kind of situations is that the employee at the end is the person that has to pay the price of this misorganization. Because at the end you need to do 12 hours instead of 8. Because there are no more hands. Because you cannot hire another person because economically you cannot maintain that person for the following months. But at the same time, in this particular moment, you need more hands. So what do you do? And normally when you work with outside contractors, quality goes down. Because they don't know what you're doing, what's your goal, and what's your philosophy in the company. And in our case, what we try to do is to have this long-term relationship with our clients where we are a part of their team, nearly. We try to be the easiest to handle because I've been there. And I know that if you hire somebody outside of your company, it's because you need it to be done fast and perfect. So that's what we try to do.
Casey Berglund:
I love this. And I love that just like it's the contraction of burnout that led to needing something different, it was seeing the problems or the struggles in the industry that led to this business idea, which I think is so brilliant. That's what we need to do as business owners is look for the problems that we can solve with the resources and the gifts that we have. I'm starting to feel like we might have to have another episode because I'm so proud—
Emmelin Boixareu:
No, it's amazing. I love it. I love it.
Casey Berglund:
What was the Spanish word that you taught me before? Remind me what it was? Boca chancla.
Emmelin Boixareu:
Boca chancla. Boca chancla. Boca means mouth and chancla means flip-flop. So in English would be like having a big mouth.
Casey Berglund:
So Emmelin and I are both talkers. And this is a moment where it's like, okay, we're going to wrap it up in the next five minutes or so. And so this is what I want. What I would love for you to share in the same vein—so La Trobe started by seeing the issues in the industry that you were working in and solving for those issues by creating a business that has a long-term relationship with your clients but also provides agile support through the people that you curate to bring in and out of these projects. It was pretty good, right?
Emmelin Boixareu:
I get it. I get it. I'm going to hire you as my copywriter.
Casey Berglund:
I love it. Sometimes I'm surprised by it. I'm like, "Wow, I think I really articulated that well."
Emmelin Boixareu:
You did, to be honest. You did.
Casey Berglund:
So then just briefly share a little bit more about your other company and how this fits in, or if it fits in, to the ecosystem.
Emmelin Boixareu:
It does, to be honest, it does. More than people think. The other company that I have, that I'm a partner of, is Gigsno Solutions. We are a tech partner for small and medium companies. We are an engineering company, basically. We do software to help organize better the businesses. The thing is that nowadays everything has technology. Absolutely everything. Technology is everywhere. In one way or another. Reality is that small companies and medium companies need technology to boost their business and not to fall behind, basically. It's imperative nowadays. You cannot leave that behind. Even an artisan needs technology, even them. The problem that we detected was that the communication that these tech companies have with the client is very bad.
Casey Berglund:
Right, because I don't want to be stereotypical around tech nerds or engineers. I imagine that in that industry, some of the people-oriented communication would be a little bit hard.
Emmelin Boixareu:
Yeah, it is. It is. Also, the demand of tech companies is so high, but there are not so many. It's something that is not required normally. Sometimes our customers are mistreated by tech companies. Sometimes they are not aware that they are being mistreated. That is because of a lack of knowledge. Because there is a knowledge gap very, very, very big. One of the things that I most loved about luxury was the communication, the attention to detail. The way of working is completely different, and the priorities there are another thing. What we're trying to do, basically, is to bring all of those to a company that has an amazing tech base. We have a very technical knowledge, not me, of course. But the rest of the team has, and my partner has as well. But always with this approach that we can have a conversation with our customer and he understands or she understands what we are doing. Because sometimes they do not know what you're doing. That is very challenging and worrying, to be honest.
Casey Berglund:
I don't know. It's so clear to me, Emmelin, that you are a bridge. You're a bridge between the tech world and the people, the tech side of things and the people side of things. And you're a bridge—this is part of your unique gift and genius is to be a bridge to support efficiencies. Because if there's communication gaps or there's tech gaps or in the architectural or design industry or construction industry, if there's gaps in finding the right people at the right time for the right project, all of that creates cost, like a loss of energy, time, resources, etc. And so you seem to fill this space of using—and I know this about you—using your people skills and your intuition and what you see and your capacity to intellectually show up where the knowledge is and also emotionally show up for the people to create that bridge, which I think is so beautiful. What an amazing journey.
Emmelin Boixareu:
I'm going to highlight this part. I really like it. Yeah. I'll share the transcription with you and you can just—you're always the reference, to be honest. So I really appreciate those words, to be honest, because I really feel that that is my actual—nowadays, this is my purpose. I don't know if in some time that will change. But in this moment, that is the purpose and I like it to be that. I don't need it to be more or less. I think it's very important and I see it every day that my qualities are needed there. I'm happy to have found a place where these abilities are a resource for the clients and also for me for making money, basically, obviously. But yeah.
Casey Berglund:
Thank you so much for sharing this story and this journey. And I love that I learned some new things about you today through this conversation. And for the listener, we'll make sure in the show notes that all of the details about Emmelin's businesses and her—that you can find out more there. But thank you for joining.
Emmelin Boixareu:
Thank you very much for inviting me. You know, I was a little bit nervous, but I really appreciate the climate that you always create. It is—I don't know if that is a gift that you have, but I feel like it's a gift to be around somebody that can create these atmospheres of calmness. And yeah, you make it very easy to open, you know, so it's nice. Yeah, thank you. I appreciate you.
Casey Berglund:
It's a pleasure.
I love Emmelin's story, especially how she turned the pain of burnout into clarity and courage, creating businesses that not only support her, but like I said at the beginning, also really fill real gaps in her industry. If you'd like to learn more or connect with her, you'll find links to both of her companies, La Trobe and Geeks and Solutions, in the show notes. And if you're listening to this and realizing you're so ready for your own next chapter, I'd love for you to check out my free training: Your Pathway to a Calm, Purposeful Career or Business That Fuels a Life You Love. I share a very clear, streamlined system to help you do the inner work to really create something that's aligned. The link is also in the show notes. Until next time, please keep trusting your path. It's guiding you exactly where you need to go. Take good care.
