Sometimes, what's needed is something beyond the ordinary.
Something that defies convention and taps into a deeper level of transformation.
That's where I come in.
What makes me qualified to be a coach ?
Over two decades of creating expansion for businesses and people. And I've managed to build a pretty good life for myself along the way. A life that's been tailored to suit me and keeps on expanding.
But this wasn't all planned out from the start.
At age 20, as I was the eldest of a blended family of 7 children, although gifted and admitted to some of the best art schools, I had to let go of the idea of becoming an interior designer.
After 2 years of slacking and bartending, I realised I could still live like this in ten years time if I did not change anything.
I wanted more.
And so, I moved to Paris to become a chef. For the first 3 years straight, we shared the same room with my flat mates, 3 mattresses on the floor, 3 computers on a tray and way too many cigarettes in our ashtrays.
I was amongst the best chefs of my generation, graduating at the top of The Academy of Paris, cooking in Corsica for guests such as Vincent Cassel and Monica Bellucci and winning cooking competitions in Paris and London.
But I wanted to keep expanding academically and live a life that went beyond the kitchen walls.
I wanted more.
I went on from cooking at Ladurée, Champs Élysées, to being a MBA student at one of the leading business schools in France and working a corporate job in business and project development crafting proposals for some of the biggest french companies and institutions.
As much as I loved cufflinks, I also craved freedom.
I wanted to be my own boss.
I wanted a creative life.
I wanted more.
An upcoming entrepreneur of my network asked me to build a website for his new consultancy agency. And so I started designing websites and apps for a living.
This is how I found myself helping developing, designing, and scaling companies of all sizes and shapes. It was a very exciting periode of my life, building things for the web and creating a fulfilling existence on my own terms at the same time.
By the time I hit 30, life seemed to be on a high note. A nice apartment in Paris, my own office space, fancy shoes, a smart and amazing girlfriend, great friends , a great family, surf, and snowboarding trips...
But then, things took a turn.
My mother was undergoing her second divorce, and the family was facing challenging circumstances. It did not take long for my own relationship of 10 years to fall apart.
Long story short, after a decade in Paris, I went on a journey of traveling, adversity, healing and self-discovery. My journey took me (and my broken heart) from living the "digital nomad" dream in Bali, pre-covid, to a year in monk mode in Ukraine, to couch surfing at my friends' and family's homes when I was broke.
I could have come back after 3 months of traveling to settle down.
But yes, you guessed it..., I wanted more.
And I paid a heavy price for it.
I went form running my design studio remotely from Bali, visiting Paris 3 times a year, travelling around and living the high life in stunning villas, jumping into my pool upon waking up and making more money than I’ve ever thought possible... to finding myself burnt and broke the following year.
I had lost over 100k € and all my drive and energy.
I was in debt and heartbroken.
On the outside, I was living an instagram life amongst entrepreneurs from all around the world.
On the inside, I was a mess.
The best I knew then was to surf and party to numb the pain. This pain was deeply rooted. I was full of shame and insecurities.
The question was "Dad, how do you become a good man in this day and age ?".
As for most men of my generation, no man in my family could serve as a valid reference point.
And there was no manual.
Between an 11 years relationship and my parent divorce, I had learnt to be a nice guy. I had domesticated myself. As you know nice guys finish last. It was time to fix this. And so my journey was also a journey about discovering a new kind of manhood.
It was also a journey about reinventing my body and my relationship to my body, pushing for physical performances and nurturing self-acceptance.
The small-town boy from Normandy had been bullied and was once overweight with an asthma condition, for him Physical Eduction classes were a nightmare, especially running.
I remember the little boy crying looking at his thighs and his belly.
I remember early high school, my friends passing me by while running on the track.
I remember spending too much time in the shower to wash the fat and the shame out.
Fast forward a decade or two, I’ve been surfing big waves in Rote Island, holding headstands and wheels on a yoga mat in Ubud, bodybuilding in Ukraine, throwing backflips at the bow of the boat in Uluwatu and breaking new personal records on the snowboard in the Alps and I stopped smoking.
Now I do what I love with the people I love. I live and work near Biarritz, walking distance from one of the most beautiful beaches around. There is a surf break in my backyard and mountains on the horizon. I snowboard 20 to 30 days a year and I'm in the best shape ever.
I am also a musician and a singer. From being shy in a karaoke setting to owning the stage in front of a cheering crowd, it's been quite a transformation.
Health, wealth, relationship, artistic and athletic self-realisation…you can have it all and it might be just around the corner ! Are you willing to go after what you desire ?
This is not just a fancy idea. This is the philosophy I live by.
I am constantly leveraging who I am to go where I want in life. This made me financially and emotionally unsinkable, providing me with unparalleled resilience and giving way to limitless possibilities.
Starting in 2011, I’ve spent over 15,000 hours working with over 500 people. I’ve also spoken at over a dozen events on a wide variety of personal development and business topics and taught Computer Sciences at ESSEC Business School for several consecutive years.
I have invested over 50k € in my own growth through coaching and training.
I have written over 100 posts and articles and recorded countless hours of video.
I have a strong and unwavering belief in the power of coaching. Throughout my journey, I've witnessed the profound impact it's had on my clients (you can hear from 23 of them here), the clients of fellow coaches, and I've personally experienced its deep transformative effects.