We recently had the chance to connect with Paula Burt Gardner and have shared our conversation below.
Paula , really appreciate you sharing your stories and insights with us. The world would have so much more understanding and empathy if we all were a bit more open about our stories and how they have helped shaped our journey and worldview. Let’s jump in with a fun one: What are you being called to do now, that you may have been afraid of before?
I’m being called to blend two worlds I once kept separate. financial planning and soul work. For years, I was afraid that my background in wealth management and my love for retreats, healing, and women’s leadership couldn’t coexist. Now, I see they’re two sides of the same coin: both are about creating freedom, security, and legacy. Stepping fully into that integration is the edge I once resisted, and the place I’m most alive today.
I’m also being called to use my voice again. When I first began traveling, my plan was to share as I went, but once I was in it, I wanted to simply live it. I needed the quiet. I wanted to absorb everything life was showing me. Now, after that season of deep listening, I’m ready to share from a place of embodiment and to tell the stories that shaped me and to use my voice in service of connection, courage, and remembrance.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
At my core, I help people create lives that feel as good on the inside as they look on the outside.
My work lives where wealth meets wisdom, where numbers and soul, structure and intuition, come together to create a life that actually feels free. With over two decades in financial planning, I’ve seen how clarity around money can bring profound peace of mind. Through Foundation Financial, I help find that sense of calm, not just through spreadsheets but through understanding what they truly value and how they want to live.
In 2017, I co-founded Sailing Activations, a series of retreats at sea created to awaken creativity, courage, and connection. There’s something about the ocean… it strips away the noise and calls people back to themselves. I’ve watched women arrive carrying the weight of expectation, only to leave lighter, laughing, and lit up with new possibility. Those moments reminded me that leadership isn’t about perfection or performance. It’s about presence.
That same current runs through my newest venture, Inspire Retreats, intimate experiences on land and sea for the women who are being called to slow down, realign, and reignite their inner fire. We gather in sacred circles where truth replaces small talk and where the next chapter begins not from strategy but from soul.
Because success without soul is just survival. My mission, in every retreat, every coaching conversation, every act of service, is to help people remember that real wealth is not measured by what we accumulate but by how deeply we live, love, and lead.
Okay, so here’s a deep one: What’s a moment that really shaped how you see the world?
There was a morning when I woke up and couldn’t move the right side of my face. Years of stress, toxic environments, striving, and doing all the “right” things had caught up with me. In that stillness, I realized that success had cost me something I couldn’t afford to lose……my peace. I got to be still enough to really examine my life and how I wanted to demonstrate to my children how to live also.
That moment changed everything. I began rebuilding from the inside out. Studied holistic practices, became a yoga teacher, and learned how to listen to my body and intuition again. Eventually, I sold almost everything I owned and set off to travel the world with my teenage son.
Over the next two years, we explored more than twenty countries. We scuba dived with manta rays in Nusa Lembogan, hiked a mountain in Bali, and shared stories with strangers who became family. That journey didn’t just show me the world; it showed me myself. It taught me that freedom isn’t about escaping life; it’s about being fully present for it.
Now, everything I create carries that same truth: that real wealth is aliveness. It’s joy, purpose, connection… and the courage to begin again.
If you could say one kind thing to your younger self, what would it be?
I’d tell her she doesn’t have to hold everything together to be loved.
That softness isn’t weakness,,, it’s her superpower.
I’d remind her that rest doesn’t mean she’s falling behind… it means she’s finally catching up to her soul.
I’d tell her that all the parts she tried to fix were never broken… they were just waiting for her to see their beauty.
And one day, she’ll understand that the things that once made her feel “too much” were actually the keys to her magic.
Most of all, I’d whisper…
You make it. You become her. And she’s even more peaceful, powerful, and free than you ever imagined.
Sure, so let’s go deeper into your values and how you think. What would your closest friends say really matters to you?
My closest friends would say what really matters to me is connection. Whether it’s with my sons, with women in my mastermind, or with strangers I meet while traveling, I care deeply about presence, about really seeing and being seen. I had these sticky notes in my room for years about what my true and real desires were. Deep connection with my boys was the first and then hosting at least 6 retreats around the world from people to re-remember their own beauty. That kind of connection is the currency I value most. Alongside that is that healing doesn’t have to be heavy. I’ve learned that the deepest transformations often come through lightness, play, and joy. When we feel connected and safe, healing becomes less about fixing and more about remembering who we truly are.
Before we go, we’d love to hear your thoughts on some longer-run, legacy type questions. What is the story you hope people tell about you when you’re gone?
I hope they say I lived with an open heart.
That I made people feel seen…. not just for what they did, but for who they are.
I hope they tell stories about laughter on sailboats, about circles where women remembered their light, about a mother and son who chased sunsets and found home wherever they landed. I hope my older boys speak about dancing in the kitchen with their children, our daily trampoline time, hide-n-go-seek with, so many times fishing at the lake, and the love and pride I have for them.
I hope they say I led with love and that I built businesses and communities not just to succeed, but to serve. That I showed others it’s possible to be both grounded and free, strategic and soulful, confident and kind.
Mostly, I hope they remember how I made them feel…
safe, inspired, and alive.
Because that, to me, is the truest form of legacy.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://paulaburt-international.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iam_paulaburt?igsh=MTV4ZmE0bTFmcDg1MQ%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1Nkmrm6gix/
Image Credits
Abby Wilks https://www.instagram.com/abbywilkesphotography/
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