Embracing French Lifestyle: Unlocking the Secrets to a Balanced and Fulfilling Life - Beeta Hashempour

Do you yearn for a more balanced and fulfilling lifestyle? Are you searching for a way to experience joy and fulfillment in your daily life? Join me as I sit down with Beeta Hashempour to reveal the secret to embracing the French way of living, so that you can discover a life filled with happiness and contentment. Beeta shares the solution to achieving a lifestyle that brings you true fulfillment, allowing you to experience the joy that comes with embracing the French culture and lifestyle.

My special guest, Beeta Hashempour is an ardent admirer and connoisseur of French culture who effectively communicates to her audience the secrets of embracing and living the Parisian lifestyle. Beeta shares her love for French cuisine through her blog, 'Mon Petit Four', simplifying classic recipes for everyone to try. But her journey doesn't stop at just food and her larger mission lies in introducing her audience to a fuller, more balanced lifestyle, underpinned by the calming ethos of French living.

Change your habits and embrace a more balanced way of living. It takes time and patience, but the results are so worth it. - Beeta Hashempour

In this episode, you will be able to:

• Marvel at the enchanting aspects of French culture that can heighten joy and fulfillment in your life.
• Experience the tranquillity of slower living and purpose-driven self care, influenced by French culture.
• Dissect perceptions of busy schedules and productivity, gaining insights from a different cultural perspective.

AND

• Discover avenues for income diversification, such as coaching and membership programs.
• Unlock techniques to turn your blog from passion project to profitable business.

Master the art of slowing down: Beeta Hashempour uses her platform to encourage her followers to adopt a slower pace of life, a concept inspired by the French. She emphasizes the need to move away from the hustle of modern life. Mastering the art of pausing in the present moment results in a balanced and fulfilling life, highlighting the broader philosophy of the French way of living.

To find out more, follow along and embrace the French Lifestyle:

Do you love all things French, join like minded women in her membership  - https://everydayfrance.com/membership/

A magical, French holiday awai

Transcript

00:00:00
Welcome, everybody, to the Wonder Boldly Podcast. I'm Christine Santos, bringing to you all of the action, steps and knowledge I've learned on my journey to becoming an online business owner, quit my corporate job, and now live the life that I desire on my own terms. This podcast is jam packed with all the knowledge I've gained over the past few years growing my online business. I am so passionate about you going after what it is that you want. I want to encourage and motivate you to know that you, too, can live the life that you desire.

00:00:42
Thank you so much for listening. Let's go. Hello. Hello, everybody. Welcome to another episode of the Wonder Boldly podcast.

00:00:51
And I'm so happy to have with me here today Beeta Hashempour. And we have a mutual friend, my client, as you all know, Wendy Harrop. And I edit her podcast and I'm in a lot of the same circles as Wendy, but I haven't really met Beeta before, so I follow along with Beeta. I love her whole I'm going to call it branding, where I just think it's so elegant and it really speaks to me. So I follow along with Vida.

00:01:25
I watch her lives and she shows how to get dressed and how to look chic. As you guys know, that's not me, but I want that to be me. So she's just the sweetest. I just love, love, love following her story, watching her, and I thought, hey, I bet my audience would like this, too. So I reached out to her and said, would you like to be on the podcast?

00:01:47
And she graciously accepted. So I'm here today with Vida. Beeta, thank you so much for joining me. Oh, my gosh, thank you for having me. I feel like, Christine, you should be my PR now with that beautiful introduction.

00:02:02
But, no, I really appreciate you following and it's true we are in the same circles. I love Wendy, too, and I'm just really excited and honored that you asked me to be here today. Oh, thank you so much. So where I'd like to start is I want to get into what your business is, so all of that. So sharing that with the audience.

00:02:23
But before we go there, I like to know a little bit of the backstory, like how did you get into really loving France? And if you follow beta or if you don't, you definitely need to follow beta and all the things will be in the show notes. But in her story, there's her story of going to France in 2010, I'm going to say and you correct me and just falling in love with France. So I even want to know a little bit before that, how did you decide to go to France? What was the draw in the first place?

00:02:54
Yeah, so it's really funny. First of all, a lot of people ask me, are you French? Because I'm in this space and I'm like, no, I'm not, but I actually growing up, my sister was always the Francophile in the family. I really didn't care one way or another. It wasn't until 6th grade we had a little elective course, and I call it Little because it was only for a quarter.

00:03:22
Each quarter we'd switch into a new class, and so one of those quarters was focused on French. And so we learned basics like jamapel pita and counting one to ten and all these. But just that little bit was really exciting, and I instantly fell in love. Unfortunately, though, in school, in the rest of middle school and high school, we didn't have any more French available in my area, and it was just Spanish. So I enrolled in Spanish classes, and that was that until college.

00:03:59
When it came time to choosing an elective course, I decided to enroll in French class. I thought, why not? I took Spanish, and now I can finally build upon the French. So I enrolled in French, and simultaneously, my best friend at that time in college was applying for a study abroad program in Paris, and she ended up getting approved. It was, for a year, a little bit more unique than some of the typical exchange programs.

00:04:31
This was a little different. She was studying at the Seance PO, which is like a very prestigious school in Paris. So I was really excited for her. But she was there for a year, and she invited me in 2010 to come visit her over our winter break. And I thought, Well, I miss her so much, and why the heck not?

00:04:54
I mean, Paris is definitely somewhere I've always wanted to see, and I was really lucky that my parents were able to help me out with buying a ticket. And it was all very last minute and fast, but I flew in in December and stayed with her for about ten days. And it was in those ten days that I became a true Francophile and pretty much obsessed with all things French. So that's kind of where that love was born. And does that friend still live?

00:05:26
Well, she was studying. So did she go back to France? Does she live in the States? So she kind of had a typical American story in France in the sense that she did meet a guy, funny enough, at the end of the year, but she did have to come back for a year to finish up school. And then she basically made it her mission to find a job in France after school, and she did, and she moved to France, and she's been there ever since.

00:05:57
She's married now and has a little baby boy and doing very well there. Oh, wow. So when you were there, did you see? Oh, yeah, yeah, we hung out a lot. And it's funny, we have one of those friendships too, where every time we see each other, we pick up right where we left off and it feels like no time has passed.

00:06:17
Oh, that's such a great story. Oh my gosh. Okay, so thank you for that. So that helps and sort of understanding. Like there are these different, I call them seasons.

00:06:29
You're a lot younger than I am, but there are these important moments in time that happen in our lives, right? So that was one. So your friend was there studying, invites you and you go out, right? So you didn't realize at the time how this would all turn. So tell us a little bit about living in Paris and what your brand is all about and what your mission is.

00:06:55
Yeah, of course. So when I first started, it was mostly about the food. I mean, I came back and had such a great experience eating out with my friend that I basically dove right into French food and French recipes and taught myself how to make all the classics. And more than that, really tried to simplify the recipes because a lot of what I was using were either recipes that were written in French from French food sites, almost like the Frenchallreciipes.com and then Julia Child's book, of course. And Julia Child.

00:07:34
I love her. She's amazing. She created a masterpiece, but it know, some dense material to go through. It's not like the modern day cookbook with pretty pictures and everything. So I was using that and I thought there's got to be a more simplified way to do this and write this.

00:07:53
And so that's what I started doing with my French food blog, Monte Four. And once I did that, at first it was just sort of like a hobby thing. And then I saw strangers started commenting on the blog and using the recipes and it sort of clicked in place because at the same time, in my day job, I was working in basically ecommerce in the fashion industry and I was in charge of their social media content and blog. And so I knew that you could turn a blog into a business. It's just that I hadn't approached my food blog that way until, like I said, I started getting traffic to it and I realized, hey, this could be something.

00:08:44
So then I changed my intention with it to monetize it and started posting much more consistently. And over time, that's evolved with my trips to France to also include other parts of the French lifestyle other than just food. And I think particularly after that year of living in France, the idea of really slowing down, putting ourselves first, taking care of ourselves. I know self care, that word gets thrown around a lot, but truly the real meaning of it and how you can apply it in modern day has become more and more part of my mission. So right now I really focus on creating a holistic French experience for my subscribers and sharing how you can have a joyful, fulfilling, pleasurable life, but still also meet all the other responsibilities and demands that we tend to have in modern day society.

00:09:51
I love that. And one of the things that you talk a lot about and it's such a good reminder for all of us, is slowing down. So you talk a lot about the different French lifestyle and you were saying when they eat out, they'll put down their fork and knife and they'll chat and then when they're eating, they'll be eating. So it's much more intentional. And I hear you saying those things and I think about that in my daily life.

00:10:23
Like we're running around doing whatever, we do appointments and work and whatever, all the things. It's like, why do we have to feel so rushed all the time? Like that feeling of being rushed, I think we put it on ourselves a lot. And sure, of course, sometimes we have to get to places and all the things, but generally speaking, I think it's just something that we have grown up that way and we just rush because it's sort of inherent. But if you stop and think about it for a second, you're like, I don't really need to feel rushed to be rushed.

00:10:58
And I love that aspect. Can you talk a little bit about that? Oh yeah, it's exactly what you said. I think we grow up with the culture of if you think about it from your first day of probably I wouldn't say kindergarten, but first grade, you get a little agenda book in class and you're encouraged to fill this thing out and be really diligent. And that eventually evolved to sort of a hustle culture in the States, as well as this culture of always planning out things and having these really tight schedules and it's just these packed schedules and we've learned to normalize that.

00:11:39
And I think that it's like you said, when you take a moment to just stop and reflect about your day even and you think about, where did I stop to take a moment for myself, to really just sit down with my cup of coffee and enjoy that versus drinking it as I'm standing at the counter prepping breakfast and making my to do list. And I think that in France, obviously, they don't have that culture in the same way. They grow up with a very slow take your time. I mean, even the time they start the day for work is a little bit later. So because of that, it's very effortless for them and it doesn't seem like they are being slow.

00:12:23
Like if you ask them, they'd be like, this is the normal way, you're being rushed, you're going too fast. And I think, like you said, just the example of putting your fork and knife down, it's such a small thing, but it requires such effort as an American to stop and think. To do this, I have to consciously remind myself that just because that speed, it's built into our routines. But you know what the great thing about a habit is? Even though a negative habit can be formed, it can also be changed.

00:12:58
And you just have to be patient with yourself and like you said, set that intention each day. Remind yourself to try and do a little better each day. Yeah, I love that. You also have a membership, so you have the blog. Tell us a little bit about the membership.

00:13:16
Yeah, so like I said, the blog started out mostly around food and the membership came to me because I basically saw people were actually responding to my welcome emails. Anytime someone subscribes to my email list, they get a welcome email. And in that welcome email I talk a little bit about my backstory and how I got into the French niche and fell in love with France. And I started getting replies back all the time of people who were sharing just how much they loved France and how they were so excited to find my blog. And it made me realize that this space is actually a lot bigger than I thought it was.

00:13:59
I was pretty much like the only one other than my sister among our family and friends who was such a know, people would always be like, you're going to know, like you don't want to go somewhere different. And they didn't really get it. And I had all these people emailing me who got it. And so I realized there was this need for a community where I could gather these like minded people over this shared interest and offer that space for them to feel safe and share with each other, but also use it as a platform for me to promote more of what I think and feel is the most ideal way to live your life, which is very aligned with the French lifestyle. So right now the membership exists.

00:14:48
It's actually going to reopen doors next month so that will be available. And then for individuals who want to work with me more, one on one for their goals that they have, then they can do that through a coaching container with me. Oh, nice, excellent. And also tell us a little bit about the trips. Yeah, so those are really fun.

00:15:11
They started out as something that I only offered to my members in everyday France. Basically they are trips, curated trips that I plan out in France where you just show up to Paris with your suitcase and I plan out the hotel, the restaurants, the activities, the transportation, all of that so you don't have to think about any of that. And I use the connections and basically knowledge that I've gained from living there and traveling there so much to make sure it's a really special and over the top, like the most magical version of Paris that you could experience. That's what you'll get. And more recently I opened it up to other people outside of the membership.

00:16:01
So my members still get a really nice discount, but it's open now to others as well, too. And I have one coming up this December that's going to be in Paris and Strasbourg and it's supposed to be just the hallmark version of a French holiday, so I'm really excited for that. Fun. And how many people typically are on the trips? Yeah, so I keep them really small.

00:16:27
They're usually six to seven, including me. And if anyone's been to Paris, you know that it can be tight in restaurants and even in hotels too, especially if you're going to boutique hotels. So I like to keep it an intimate group and just make it easier for us to get around and be in places. Yeah, wonderful. So tell us a little bit about because a lot of my audience are entrepreneurs, new entrepreneurs, and I'm hearing them wondering, and I wouldn't be able to answer it.

00:17:00
How did you monetize the blog? How does one do that? Yeah, so basically with the blog, you have a few different ways, honestly, to monetize it. So, first of all, I would say even if you have an off site service, let's say you're a photographer and you do in person photography, a blog, when you optimize your content for search engines, which is called SEO, you can draw in traffic and customers into your site to just even learn about your brand and what you offer. So I always recommend to people to have a blog on their website, even if their intent isn't necessarily to blog in the way of making money just from that.

00:17:46
But if you did, let's say you do have some knowledge on a certain topic and you want to monetize your blog, there are ad networks that you can participate with. Usually they have a minimum traffic threshold. So I think the one I'm with has a month minimum. But once you meet that, they accept you into the network and they strategically place ads on your site so that every time someone's visiting your site, you make a little bit of income from that. That can be incredibly profitable in itself if you have a lot of traffic.

00:18:22
Otherwise you can also use that traffic, whether know a little or a lot, it just depends on your niche and what you're blogging about to work with brands. So, for instance, as a food blogger, I've worked with Le Crusade and partnered up with them to have their pots used in a blog post where I maybe made a recipe with their pan and I showcase the benefits and features of their line. And so that's called the sponsored post or sponsored campaign. You see a lot of influencers do that on Instagram too, but it can be done in any kind of niche, not just food. And that's also a very profitable way to monetize your blog.

00:19:10
But I really do encourage anyone who wants to make a start online, whether it's working online or promoting their off site. Like I said, offline business to start out with a blog, because Instagram, Facebook, all of these, they can go away one day. It's not yours to own versus a blog you own and more importantly, your email list you own. So I would definitely focus my attention there. Thank you.

00:19:39
Yep. That's great. And okay, so you've got the blog, you have the membership. You know what, we didn't talk about the TV show. Oh, yeah.

00:19:47
JOA David. Yes. Tell us a little bit about that. Yeah, so I am really good friends with Mimi, the owner and creator of the Joais David TV network. It's a streaming network right now.

00:20:02
It's available online soon. It's in the works that it'll be available through an app, so you can access it, hopefully through your smart TV. Otherwise you can just do what I do, which is mirror the content from my phone. But yeah, so the network, it's similar concept actually, to my membership in sort of promoting the French lifestyle, connecting people to France even if they're not there. But it's all in video format, and basically there are a variety of hosts on that network, myself included, who have our own shows.

00:20:43
Mine is called Everyday French Living, and basically I share all things French lifestyle on my show. There are some hosts that only do cooking or only do fashion, beauty there's, even if you don't know her already. Chrissy Console, one of my favorites. She reads books in a sort of book club show, and she just has the most soothing voice. I love watching that and listening to her, but it's really made for the person who loves all things French and wants to feel like they're in France all the time, even if they physically can't be there.

00:21:24
Right. So I've watched yours. So I subscribed when it first started. And anyway, so I watched yours and I watched another woman. I can't remember her name.

00:21:34
She did makeup or skincare. Oh, yeah. Jolene. Oh, okay. Yeah, she does makeup there, so I.

00:21:42
Haven'T watched them all. I'll have to check out the book club. What was the woman's name? Christine Santos. Yeah.

00:21:48
So that's so fun, too, right now, are you going to continue to do episodes? How does that yeah, I mean, I have such a crazy schedule right now of content that I have to make, but I try to add a new episode every now and then so that there's some new content there. My situation is a little different because I'm not in Paris full time like some of the other hosts. So I actually film all my own content and edit it and put it up. So it's a lot easier if you have someone else filming you.

00:22:22
But it's still fine. I love doing that stuff, so it's fun for me. Right, okay. So we got a lot to put in the show notes. I'm going to summarize again.

00:22:31
So we got the blog, you got the membership, you got the TV network. What did I miss? The coaching, the one on one coaching and then the trip. Yeah, exactly. Wow, you are busy.

00:22:44
I know. And you know what, that's another tip maybe I would give for any entrepreneurs out there, is start off with one thing, it's important to do that and do it well. But also don't be afraid to as you go on, diversify your income streams because just like an investment portfolio where you like to have that diversification, you want the same thing in your business too. So it sounds like a lot and it is. But I have all these automated systems in place right now because I slowly worked my way up to this model.

00:23:22
So it's not as crazy as it seems. Right. And do you have any systems that you and the reason I ask this, as I'm sure you know, so as new you, you join classes. So I've been doing this for, I'm going to say five years and I think I might have started finding Marie forleo I'm kind of making this up, but you find the people. And then for me, I was like, oh, this is really interesting.

00:23:49
Anyway, so you start going and taking all the classes and when you do that, they always have recommendations. So what I find with so many of the people that either I talk with or a client is you've maybe bought the Kajabi, which raise my hand. I bought Kajabi and I used it for a long time I really liked. But you know, you buy all these different things because maybe you get a discount code because you're in the CLAT, right? And then you're left with like this hodgepodge of, well, I've got ConvertKit over here, I got Punjabi.

00:24:19
And it's like that new entrepreneur, what have I done? I've got monthly fees and what am I really using? So, because you're more advanced, are there tools that you like or any comments about that at all that you want to share? Yeah, so I recommend first of all, if you want to make a website, I highly recommend WordPress and I can't comment for sure, Fact or Myth, but they say I've heard this over and over that it's more SEO friendly than some of the other platforms, like Squarespace and I think there's Wix and all these other ones. But I just find WordPress really good for the person like me, who wants to be hands on, wants to be able to customize anything that I want.

00:25:09
I actually host my membership site on a WordPress site too, and just use a it's like a plugin, a software that works with it called Wishlist to manage my membership and create that sort of paywall that you need with a membership. But yeah, it can be really tempting to get all of the things and I always try to think really smart of what can I keep low cost and is going to do the job? And then those things that really do provide the convenience, like canva, for instance. It's not a big cost item, but if you're on a Pro program, I think it's like 1299 or something a month, which is not much, but it makes all the difference to be in that versus not because the access to those professional images that you can use for your graphics makes all the difference. So some places where it's a matter of convenience, you just got to splurge and do it.

00:26:11
I would also say one thing that I've learned over time and it's often hard for entrepreneurs to do is to delegate and hand off work. And it's really easy, especially in the beginning. You may be strapped for cash or maybe you're sort of just wanting to be able to do everything yourself and you become like a jack of all trades and you may even be able to do everything yourself, but it doesn't mean you should be. And I think it's really important from the beginning, if you can hire, like, a virtual assistant to help manage some of that workload and get them used to your system, your way of operating so that you can focus. On the tasks that really move the needle in your business and earn you money versus sitting there creating a reel for like 2 hours.

00:27:04
Reels are good, instagram is good, but that's usually not what brings in the sales in your business. You have to do the things only you can do and then hand off. Exactly right. And it's so funny that you said that because I started with Kajabi and again, I loved Kajabi, but I am now WordPress all the way and a friend of mine, we call each other our biz besties somehow I think we met in Amy Porterfield's class, I don't even remember. Anyways, and she was on me for years to do WordPress and I finally said okay.

00:27:41
And so, yeah, so WordPress definitely. And it really isn't I don't think that like once you get into the groove of like it can look that's one of the cons of it. They can look like overwhelming you're like, oh my gosh. But once you get into the groove, it's really not that difficult. So you've given a lot of action and advice already, but I'm going to ask the question, what would you say?

00:28:06
So if somebody's listening to this episode, what could they do immediately? Something they're going to see a difference. What would you recommend somebody do from your perspective? And I'm not talking about now the tools, I'm talking about from your perspective, a French lifestyle, what would you recommend? So one of the things I give all of my coaching clients that I work with, the first week that I work with them is a list of basically a bunch of ideas for something that is only for them and enjoyable for them and self pampering.

00:28:38
So it could be as simple as finding a space to curl up in for 30 minutes to read, sitting down for ten minutes to have your coffee, getting a manicure, getting a blowout, or maybe as full blown as like, a spa day. So it can be the little things. Buying yourself a bouquet of flowers, a nice bottle of wine, whatever that is. Make a little list of choices and then set the intention that each week you're going to make sure you do one of these and you can just check it off or write it down for yourself. But if it's let's say you made this list on Sunday night and it's Friday and you still haven't done any of that, it sort of brings in that intention.

00:29:25
Top of mind that, hey, the week is almost over and I still haven't done one thing that was just for me and my enjoyment. And I think that really helps people, especially in our culture of enjoying these to do lists. It can get you in the habit of thinking that way because it's easy to say be intentional. It's a lot harder sometimes to put it into practice. And so just start out slow and steady.

00:29:52
You don't need to be like doing a full skincare routine every day and doing a mask every night and blowing out your hair every other day. Be realistic. Start out like I said, small, doing something you can manage and handle, and then you can always add on another thing that you like to do each week. Yeah, that's great advice. Thank you so much for that.

00:30:15
Thank you so much for your time. Thank you for being here. We will put all of your information in the show notes. If somebody's listening and they're like, okay, I need more Beeta like I was a while ago. I just started following you.

00:30:30
Where do you recommend that people go to? Where would you say go here first? I would say go to my website first. Sign up to my email list. You'll get a free French lifestyle guide in there, in your email inbox as soon as you sign up.

00:30:45
And then that way you'll get three emails from me each week. One is about my latest podcast episode. One is regarding the French lifestyle, and one is a French recipe. And if there's any retreats or special things you need to know about, you're always the first to know by being a subscriber, so you won't lose track of anything. Sometimes with social media, it's really easy to miss a post or something, but with email, you'll be fully in the loop.

00:31:14
Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Beeta, for being here. I so appreciate it. Oh, thank you so much for having me.