The Château I Wasn’t Looking For
On alignment, abundance, and finding exactly what you need
When I saw a retreat space called Root & Rise, I stopped scrolling.
It had been a long day. I was tired, doing my best to not think about work, a boat repair, or anything at all — just mindlessly scrolling TikTok in a rare moment of surrender. And then there it was.
How could I not stop? The program I’d just poured my heart, soul, and decades of experience into is called Rooted & Rising Leadership.
Some things just feel meant to be.
Root & Rise is a restored château in the countryside of southern France — a space brought back to life to offer rest, reflection, and creative expansion in a natural setting. It was founded and run by women, built for women and non-binary people, and rooted in something that stopped me in my tracks when I read it:
“More than 40 women stepped forward to invest. Their trust and generosity transformed a vulnerable career moment into a collective uprising of joy and possibility.”
A collective uprising of joy and possibility. I read that and felt it in my chest.
This is a place built not on infrastructure but on belief — on the idea that women and queer people deserve spaces of rest, play, and creative expansion. That community care is a powerful form of resistance. That you can arrive exactly as you are.
That’s not a venue description. That’s a values statement. And it mirrors what I’m working to create with Rooted & Rising so precisely that I had to sit with it for a moment before I reached out.
The creation of this retreat space is a prime example of something I come back to again and again in my work: alignment isn’t a self-care buzzword. It’s a condition for doing the work — and doing it well.
When your space holds the same values as your work, something shifts. The environment stops being a backdrop and becomes a co-conspirator. Even the walls are on your side.
A restored château is itself an act of regeneration — someone saw something worn and vulnerable and chose to bring it back, more beautiful and more purposeful than before. That is, almost word for word, what I mean when I talk about moving from compliance to regenerative leadership. Not doing less harm. Building something beautiful.
Working in alignment means more than choosing the right tools or the right team. It means that when you open up and share your vision — really share it — you start to find the people, places, and communities that were already living it. Root & Rise exists because over 40 women believed in it before it existed. Rooted & Rising Leadership exists for the same reason.
I wasn’t looking for a Château in southern France. But I’d spent months thinking deeply about what kind of space could hold the experience I wanted to create: intimate, intentional, beautiful, values-aligned, and somewhere that would signal to participants from the moment they arrived that this is different. That they are allowed to go deeper here.
Abundance thinking isn’t a naive endeavour. It’s a practised orientation toward possibility — and when you cultivate it, you start seeing connections everywhere. Even on TikTok at the end of a long day.
Rooted & Rising begins 24 August 2026 — a 5-week program for women leaders ready to move from sustainability as compliance to something regenerative, inclusive, and alive. Week 3 is in person at Root & Rise.
If you’re curious about whether this is for you, the summer series of free monthly workshops offers a real taste — each gathering explores the themes at the heart of the program. You can also explore further through Intro to Rooted & Rising, a self-paced course that walks through all three pillars of my coaching model: Reflect, Integrate, Implement.
Rooted & Rising Leadership Inquiry Form
Rooted Leadership Free Summer Series Details & Registration
Root & Rise Château, La Petite March, France
