Hey there, Mama Work It tribe. I'm Marissa Lonick, working mom of four, lover of all things flow, family, and fulfillment. You're tuning in to the Mama Work It podcast where we take aim at overwhelm, mom guilt, and exhaustion and swap them out for big dreams, belly laughs, and productivity that actually fits into your life. Every week, we dive into tips, motivation, and a healthy dose of fun so you can slay your day even when you're busy AF. Ready to feel seen, energized, and totally unstoppable? Let's get to work, mama. Hey, hey, mamas. Welcome back to another awesome episode of the Mama Work It podcast. So glad you're here as always. My name is Marissa Lonick. I am your host, Working Mama for Kids and the founder of Mama Work It, where we support women in the juggle, the juggle of mom life, work life, wife life, fill in the blank life. Excited today to introduce you to our guest. Her name is Elodie Fairchew. She is a mom of four, a global explorer, and the co-founder and chief revenue officer of Boundless Life, a company she built to design the kind of life she dreamed of living with her family. After years leading global brands at P&G and L'Oreal, Elodie traded boardrooms for boarding passes, determined to create a lifestyle that enabled balance, adventure, and meaningful growth, both for her children and for herself. With Boundless Life, she's helping families reimagine how we live, learn, and work by taking life on the road and building a community that supports personal and professional dreams without compromise. Elodie, I am so excited for this conversation. I, pre-kids, was an avid traveler. since then have not traveled as much. So I can't wait to hear your tips and tricks and ways to make this happen. Thank you for being here. My pleasure. Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited about this conversation today. Yeah, me too. Well, good. Let's get started just with learning a little bit more about your journey, how the Boundless Life idea came up, how this all sort of came to be. yeah with pleasure it's um it's it's been a very interesting journey for the least it feels like i've had different lives and i love to think about my life as having so many different chapters because i feel like suddenly time expands and that's one of my big motos in life um in any case like you mentioned i'm a mama of four like you i think um currently recording this from tokyo we're in Japan. I'm originally from France and my kids were born in between Japan and the UK. Their dad is Swedish so we're really from the world like the girls would say. I founded Boundless Life with Mauro and Rekha but before building Boundless we had more of a traditional expat life, I would say. So we were basically living for about three years in different places, different countries, working for Big Corp, especially between Europe and Asia. I've always had a lot of love for Asia and for its culture. And in the last year in Big Corp, what happened was COVID. And I think for many of us, that had obviously a big impact on our lives. And for me, there was a point where I really needed a break. So back then we were in London, big commuting time. And when COVID suddenly started, all the schools closed in London. So not only I remember, I remember that. It was intense. It was really intense. But I also had to homeschool the girls for like a good like six months. And for me, it was really a wake up call. I realized that life could be really short. And also I realized that the education hadn't changed so much because I was doing actually the schooling for the girls. And at least for me, it hadn't changed enough. And that's how this crazy idea came up to enable families to live and learn around the world. And so we created this ecosystem where families can travel and live across different locations while having the stability of a home. of a community and of a consistent education program. It was four years ago almost because we'll celebrate our birthday in February. And now we're in eight locations and three continents, which is pretty exciting. With really the vision that families can live wherever they want. There is a big notion of freedom for us and basically giving this back to the families. So they're not like stuck to one place or one school, but they can really design the life they want. And that was really the intention so that just simply you have more fulfilling lives. At the end of the day, that's what it is all about. Better connection for the families and an uprising that is also more conducive of being global citizens for the children. Because we believe that's what the world needs most at the moment. Yeah. Oh, I love this so much. Okay. I want to better understand. So you're a mom of four. Are all four of your kiddos in school these days? So I have three in schools. I have an 11, a nine and a seven year old who are all in school. And then my little baby is nine months old. So he's with our au pair at the moment. Very different life stage. I'm sure we'll talk about it later. But yeah, I've really set it up in a way that I believe the kids need to be with other kids at school. And then I'm able also to do what I'm passionate about, which is building boundless. So we all have our balance. Okay. Okay. So they're not being homeschooled. They're actually at a school where you're living overseas. And then for families who are interested in this type of lifestyle, How does that work with jobs? Yeah, there is a very important element, which is definitely to set up your life work-wise so you're able to do this. Most of the families who are joining Boundless are either working for remote companies or have their own. So there might be freelancers. We have a lot of consultants who are able to move around and have that flexibility. Now, the beauty of the program is also that you don't have to commit for a year, right? So you can join for like four weeks or three months. You're basically the one deciding for how long you want to join or can join. So there is many families also have the opportunity to ask for a sabbatical or ask for the option to work remotely for some time. and that's what they basically ask for when they're when they're joining boundless so usually the main challenge is education when we have when we have that idea like many families want to live abroad but then it's like what's going to happen with my kids education and that's the number one challenge so that's the one we we focused on and the second one is community like my support network. And I think as working mom, we know it, right? This is critical. You need to have your peers around to help. And that's what we're building. So whenever you come on location, you'll have another 30, 35 families who are there starting at the same time and here to support. It like a little village basically We going back to this village notion Oh that amazing Yeah because those are the scary kind of big question marks that sort of stop people from maybe going on these adventures and you're solving that problem. So I love that. All right. What are a few concrete ways that being a mom of four has helped you in your role at Boundless? Hmm. that's a great question i've been actually thinking quite a lot about it during um during my um my mat leave with my fourth one you know when suddenly you have a little bit more time and to pause um i think the first one is and i'm sure many moms can relate to this um is multitasking um so i i've i figure out quickly like what matters but also uh and i think more importantly what matters less. And then I'm able to like, just put my attention to this, whether it's with the kids or whether it's at work. I think the second one is that as a mom, you're just doers by essence. And I think this is a key one to lead businesses nowadays. It's not about the strategy. I mean, yes, there is a little bit about the strategy, but like most of it is about the action in successful businesses it's trying things it's testing it's fixing and I think as a mom this is what you do intuitively every day right there is a there is a tantrum you try something else like it's the same thing as when there is a business crisis I think the third one is being super flexible so I used to be like mom of a type a person and super controlling. I think I was a very different mother with my first one versus now with my fourth. I've learned to go with the flow, to pick my battles, to accept also that I don't always have the best idea immediately and that life and others can lead me to a better place. And I think that's super powerful as a business leader as well. And that I learned it from my kids. and I think I would just like to close with one last one which is about being empathetic I think as the family gets like bigger I still try to make time with or special time with every single child and I and I realized the power of doing the same also with my with my team um so making sure that i make space for each person each personality um that i ask questions that i listen that i'm present it's obviously not possible as often but i think what matters is this quality time even if it's not all the time um yes there's so much we can learn like i do strongly believe that motherhood is a superpower as leaders. Yeah, yeah. And it's kind of like you were saying how you were a totally different mom now than you were with your firstborn. I mean, I can totally relate to that as well. I mean, you're always growing in your career too. Like when you first entered in the corporate world with what you were doing, you were probably really different than how you are now as the leader of this organization. So even just like we're always on this growth journey, no matter if that's related to being a mom or related to being an executive or a career person or whatever that is. Yeah. And I think motherhood teaches you that it's okay also not to know. It's okay to be uncomfortable. And again, those are so powerful, especially when you like with boundless, it's a whole new world no one has ever done it before so we're kind of figuring things out with our crew and with our families um and you just need to be comfortable with the unknown and that's something that like being a parent being a mom really prepares you you learn it on the go it's not always an easy journey but I think that's you learn on the job absolutely yeah I know I know Sometimes I do wish there was a manual, but then it probably wouldn't work for like, there's no one size fits all, right? So this is so right, because the same rules don't apply the same to all the kids. Same thing as with your employees. So you have some kind of frameworks that you can use and that you can reapply. But a lot of the final perfect execution comes down to trying, testing, making mistakes and recognizing when you make mistakes. And I think, again, that's something that works well with the children and with your teams. Yeah. And since this is, you know, such a global enterprise where you're in several different locations worldwide, I imagine just like parenting, like there are some things you can rinse and repeat, and then there are other things you just can't, right? Like different personalities, different kids, but also like different cultures, different ways of living, different, I don't know, fill in the blank, right? I mean, it's probably very different. You've lived, I'm sure, in many different places. It's probably very different living in the UK versus living in Tokyo versus living in France. yeah i yeah and that builds resilience i think that builds um grit and which which is also one of the reasons why we decided to to do and start boundless because with a strong belief that the kids will need that even more in the future um in this future that is unknown like that will be resilience and grit will be one of the key skills needed um but you're you're so right like the first time I came to Japan, which was 13 years ago, I had no clue what was waiting for me. And it transformed me in the most beautiful ways. But it was, it was a ride. Like we talk often about rides with boundless, like a lot of up and downs. That's how I love to enjoy my life. It's big emotions, big learnings, big up and downs. But going through different cultures, I think it's it's part of it um but you also discover who you are because at the end of the day like traveling is not only about seeing nice pretty new places it's about learning who you are who you want to be along the journey um and it's only by having like some frictions that i think this happens even more friction really helps you to discover what works what doesn't who you are yeah agree Okay, so for the mama listening who is really intrigued by this idea, she wants more freedom, she wants more meaning, she wants more possibility for her kids. Where could she start today? And maybe this means, you know, looking into a program and moving across the world, but maybe it doesn't. What could she do? Yeah, I agree. It doesn't need to mean like moving across the world. I think it all starts with intentionality. Intentionality, meaning asking yourself, what matters to you as a mother? Which values and skills do you want to teach your kids? And really letting go of a lot of the social obligations and instead focusing on what you really think matters will be liberating. Because I think that when you do less of what feels unnecessary and more of what really matters, that's when you find freedom and you figure out also who you are. And you don't need to go to the other side of the world, but I do think that travel sometimes helps to make that space. Yes agree agree It opens you up in ways that sometimes getting out of your normal environment just it harder to do right It harder to get there All right What would you say is like a simple practical shift you could make to expand your intentionality, your thought process on this, like just this week alone? i love that i i think like one one simple advice i would i would have it's just like this week like plan one one micro adventure and plan one micro community moment um and a micro adventure can be like as simple as i don't know taking your kids somewhere you've never been in your own city or going to a new neighborhood a new park a new museum um a hike and and putting it in the calendar like an appointment i think is important so it really happens um and i said also micro community because like we've seen the power with boundless of getting people together again um and sharing so it's it's about talking to one new person there I don't know, it might be a new parent you have never talked to at school or the barista you see every day and you know no one, nothing about or the local shop owner. But like asking like one real question and trying to connect with people. Because I think as soon as you try to change one little thing in your everyday, suddenly your world will start expanding, even if you're not changing your country. But I think there is a lot of power in creating this newness and this change in your everyday. So time slows down and you get new connections, new experiences. Love that. And I also love the idea of talking to someone maybe that you have either a minimal interaction with every day, like you said, or someone who you just, you know, happen to start a conversation with when you're out and about. Something that I like to do when I'm meeting new people, if they have an accent, I like to ask, where's your accent from? Where are you from? And that always strikes up such a great conversation because maybe I'll learn they're from another country and then we have a conversation about that. Maybe I'll learn they're from another state and we talk about that or whatever. And if they don't have an accent, that's fine too. I'm sure we can find another thing to talk about, but it's a great way to really open up that conversation, not just geared maybe on like, oh, the weather today, or like, you know, the coffee I'm drinking or whatever it is. Yeah, definitely. And I think that brings, we have a tendency to be in a wheel, right? And everything is so planned and we just, we keep on running in that wheel. Adding those micro moments and suddenly a little bit of disruption brings back some of the spontaneity I think that we've lost in our lives. And spontaneity means moments that are really full of life. Suddenly you stop, you enjoy the moment, you realize you are. It is now. It is about the now and not about, okay, what's next in my calendar? Next, I have to go and pick up the kids. Next, I have this appointment. Working moms are so busy. But if you're able to add, like what I've realized is every time I do that, every time I add something a little unexpected or something a little bit different to my day, this is going to be my highlight most of the time of that day. It's so special, so unique, so different. It really makes my day. Yeah. Tell me some examples. Tell me some examples of how you have more spontaneity into your day. Because I feel like I could use some tips here when it comes to that. So I think the first tip that I would have, so it's calculated spontaneity. But we have those family... Low risk spontaneity. Love it. I'll start with those. We have those family meetings on Sundays where we're just, it's short because my kids are still young. But, you know, in five, ten minutes, you can cover a lot. And we discuss what happened during the week. But we'll also talk about things that we want to do the week after. And the girls always come up with like really ideas that I hadn't expected. So this is something that then we put in into the weekend plans for the week after. and that really spices it up a bit but when it comes to my own day I think the asking a question to the person you see day in day out and you haven't really talked to like this morning I was talking to the barista it's new year so it's pretty easy also to have those conversations was really, really powerful. Like often you don't, you almost just, you don't realize that people are around you. You're kind of on this automatic mode and it's just like robots all around you. You actually, you are surrounded by beautiful human beings. So taking that time to stop and talk to them and understand them a lot better goes a long way. I agree. I agree. You just made me think of something else I love doing that is actually spontaneous too. Maybe I am more spontaneous than I thought. I love to give a genuine compliment when I like notice something, whether it's like something someone's wearing or just, I don't know, usually it's something someone's wearing, honestly. But I love giving a genuine compliment because I know that when I receive compliments like that, it like makes my whole day, like you said, right? It's just like the highlight of the day. And so, yeah. Okay. Love those tips. Thank you. All right. We've talked about a lot of like the amazing parts of living abroad or just kind of going outside your comfort zone and having these spontaneous moments and things like that. But I want to get real for a minute. I want to ask, can you share a moment where living this boundless life maybe felt like too much? And what tools or mindset shifts helped you keep going without abandoning this passion and this vision that you had for this very free life for your family yeah i think one of the hardest um moment in the past year in 2025 and one of the most beautiful at the same time but um has been when we welcomed our fourth one so when we learned that victor was coming uh we were super excited obviously we had been hoping for those news for some time but I was also super scared because it was already intense to lead the business with the with the girls with three and it was really really hard for me to imagine how it would be to keep up with the same pace and have a baby back home restless nights waking up and just suddenly no logic to anything like now with the girls I I can understand like I can plan I know that if I do this they will behave like this and I plan my day but with the baby it suddenly became like really really hard so I I was really really scared I also wanted my mat leave but at the same time it's a startup so um I knew the team could hold the fort but I didn't know how it would be with four kids. And that was really, really scary. I think like in anything the key has been to have the right support system and just accepting that I couldn figure it all by myself So my partner was really instrumental in the journey He like my best friend my coach. And for him, everything is possible. He has this like, everything will work out as long as you give yourself the right tools. And for me, the right tools was really about support. I have a tendency to be this, I can do it all. Like I just give it to me, I can do it and it adds on, adds on. Like I'm learning now on how to say no. I'm learning on how to say, please help me and accept that it's easier when more people are there to support. So for me, it's been about figuring out this network system, having the au pair in place so I have the flexibility. She's around when I need her. Offloading the less important as well. Because again, I had a tendency to just do it all. and that doesn't serve anyone but also make sure that I keep time for fundamental moments with the kids because at the end of the day like if I had lost some of those important moments I think my happiness level and therefore my motivation and drive to bring all this back into the business would have been gone so identifying okay what are those moments that I don't want to miss out on so it's wake up time, it's breakfast, and it's pick up at school. Like for me, those are the three key ones. That's when the girls are receptive, keen to connect, and we have an incredible time. That's when we can make memories. Those ones, I will never touch them. So I have this kind of routine now in my day where I know like what is 100% dedicated to family. It's blocked. I have a solid support system for the baby. And then that gives me space to basically grow the business. But it has been a journey, an interesting one to move from three to four while running a startup. Yeah, I bet. All right. Million dollar question before we move into the lightning round. Where's your next home base after Tokyo? so we've been in Tokyo for a little bit of time because I obviously I was pregnant um so Victor was born here and I couldn't travel as much but also because we just launched Japan so Japan is our eighth location and it just opened last Friday so I'm super excited about this we'll be here until mid of June and then we'll go back on the road um so next year we'll be doing Greece um and then to head to Spain and then eventually come back to Japan. So we'll be on the road now with four kids and I will be taking a whole line in the airplane, which is super exciting. Everyone is looking forward to it. Yeah. Awesome. Okay. All right, Elodie, we're going to move into our lightning round now where we just like to ask some random fun personal questions so our listeners can get to know you a little bit better. Are you ready? Ready. Okay. What is one app you cannot live without? Oh, so living in Japan, my go-to app is Google Translate. Otherwise, I could not survive in this country. So that's my lifesaver. And that's my best friend at the moment, Google Translate. That makes perfect sense. Yes. What book are you reading right now? I'm reading Let Them by Mel Robbins. Yes, I read that. Yeah. Which was published already a few years back and I just wanted to go back to it. For me, it's a great reminder to reclaim your personal power by letting go of controlling others. And I think it's, again, super relevant with your kids and with your colleagues. But I have loved like plunging into her podcast and her book. So yeah. Same. Yeah. Yeah. That was a really good book. All right. If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be? Calories don't count. Calories don't count. Then I'm definitely a ramen person. Okay. Especially now it's winter. There are so many different variations of it. Being French, I should talk about a French dish, but I feel like I'm more Japanese now than French, and it's really my homie food. It makes me feel good. Do you cook it often, or do you usually get it from a restaurant? I do cook it sometimes, but the restaurants ones are definitely much better. But I can do both. My cooking skills have gone better kid after kid. So it's getting there. Yes. Same here. More practice. That's right. Practice makes perfect. All right. Last question. If they made a movie about your life, who would you want to play you? Oh. Oh, dear. Can I choose Natalie Portman? I see it. I totally see it. Come on. Yeah. She's like, like, she's this, she's this lady who can sell you the idea of a woman something and building something really bold. But at the same time, you can imagine she's the one packing lunches at 6am. You know, like she has that reality that is basically my daily life. So I would pick that as a appointment. Yeah. And she looks like you. and she probably could pull off a killer French accent. Yes, I agree. For sure. Yeah. I think she has a French husband. Well, she used to actually, in any case. Oh, I don't know. We'll have to Google that after. Okay. Well, Elodie, please tell our listeners where they can connect with you, find out more about Boundless Life Adventures, and we will officially wrap up. Thank you. Yeah. So if you're interested in hearing and learning more, then definitely go to our website boundless.life and then you'll be able to get some more information but also book a call with our reps. They've all done the Boundless Life or are living it so they know really well and can support. And I would also encourage you to check out our Instagram Boundless Life where you can follow all the adventures of the families. Currently we have I think 209 families on cohort who started across all the eight locations. So that can give you a good idea of how the boundless life can be and whether it could be a good fit for your family. Beautiful. Thank you so much, Elodie, for being here and sharing about all your fun adventures and how we can participate in that too. Thank you, Marisa, for having me. That's a wrap for this episode of the Mama Work It podcast. I hope you feel empowered, inspired, and ready to take your next step. If this episode spoke to you, share it with another amazing mama and don't forget to subscribe and leave a review. It helps us show up wherever you get your podcasts. Be sure to head over to mamaworkit.com for free resources, coaching support, and new ways to momage your days as a busy mom. Until next time, keep on working it, mama.
